Benedek Gyula - Kürti László: Bene, Lajos és Mizse oklevelei, történeti dokumentumai 1385-1877 - Cumania könyvek 2. (Kecskemét, 2004)
Gyula Benedek and László Kürti DOCUMENTS AND SOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF BENE, LAJOS AND MIZSE 1385-1877- Summary In this historical resource book we have gathered material for two neighbouring settlements in Bács-Kiskun county: Lajosmizse and Ladánybene. Both of them suffer from the lack of history. Up to now, they did not have a written history. With this collection of historical documents our aim is to rectify this hiatus. Our primary aim is to show that not possessing written history does not entail not having a history. In addition, the material gathered here adds light to several key issues and less understood aspects concerning the history of the region known as Kiskunság, and especially its northern part, called Felső-Kiskunság (Upper Kiskunság). This book is a collection of important documents and archival materials concerning four late medieval settlements: Bene, Földeák, Lajos and Mizse. These four villages all disappeared during the height of the Ottoman military occupation, in particular at the beginning of the fifteen year war starting in 1592. Among these villages Földeák (also written as Füldeák, or Feldeák) is the only one whose early history remains a mystery (No. 2). Only one fifteenth century mention is available but the bulk of the sources are mostly from the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries. Despite all attempts we could not find any documentation in the available archives before the fourteenth century to reconstruct some sort of historical continuities for these settlements between the sixteenth century and earlier. This selection of documents bespeak of these villages, their population and economy as they appear in these early chronicles. The first written document from the fourteenth century concerns Bene (No. 1), followed by several fifteen century sources about Lajos and Mizse. During the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries several court documents and trial descriptions are available that record border disputes among the neighbouring settlements. From these we are certain that the two settlements of Lajos and Mizse were populated by the Cumanians in the mid-to-late fiteenth century. In fact, it is only Bene that shows a continuous settlement after the Mongol invasion, a fact that we could ascertain from the available archeological but not the written data. After the Ottoman occupation records are available from the Turkish tax-records, the defters (Nos. 11, 18-21). These are extremely useful for they allow a closer look into the everyday economy and population structure of the three neighbouring settlements. In addition, we have been able to gather important documents from the archives of the Eger bishopry as well as the Hungarian court (Nos. 12-17, 23-25). These two tax collectors’ archives are extremely useful in complementing each other 237
