Selmeczi László szerk.: Szolnok Megyei Múzeumi Évkönyv (1981)

L. Szabó: Changes of the Forms of Jazigian Self-Consciousness

e had been completed. By the first half of the 16th century they had cast aside their original language, only a few proper names referred to the one separate language. An increasing number of intermarriages with the inhabitants of the neighbouring Hungarian settlements can also be traced, and it lessened the anthropological differences as well. They became assimilated to the Hungarians. The process of Magyarization was accompanied by substancial modification of the Jazygian consciousness of identity. The ethnic (genetic) element gradually disappeared, and the contents of the Jazygian privileged order increased. It was underlined in the feudal society since it was the source of rights and privileges. Being Jazygian meant enjoying certain rights within Hungarian society, that is autonomous administration, exemption from the thirties (the third tenths), and the public right of presentation. As far as the middle of the 16th century the services in return for the privileges had been military. After 1541 the Turks occupied Jazygia, and a seat of Kadi was astablished at Jászberény, the centre of Jazygia. From that time the taxes from Jazygia, having strengthened economically, became important for the Hungarian Kingdom. During the 16th, 17th centuries Jazygia secured its privileges on both sides of Turks and Hungarians by strict taxation, agriculture and craftsmanship. The "service in blood" had become purely nominal. Not merely the content of the Jazygian self-consciousness, but the assurance of Jazygian identity also changed. From that time Jazygian ambitions concentrated on the renewal of the former royal diplomáé adjusted to the new circumstances, style of life and obligations. The ethnic and historical consciousness of identity having defined the former period, became of complimentary, secondary significance, even though it had not entirely vanished. f

> 3. THE AGE OF THE CHANGE OF ETHNIC AND HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS, AND THE BLENDING OF JAZYGIAN AND CUM AN IAN IDENTITY From the 13th and 14th centuries the Jazygian ethnic consciousness first of all served the purpose of separation from the Cumanian authority. The fading ethnic consciousness and the gaining of actual autonomy could no longer support the very ambitions, moreover, after some time that of separation became senseless. On the former territory of the Cumanian authority from the 14th century there developed three approximately equal, yet distinctly privileged districts: Jazygia, Cumania Maior and Cumania Minor. The Hungarian as well as the Cumanian and Jazygian commom memory bore in mind that the population of the three districts had arrived at the same time under Béla IV, so when the differences had gradually vanished more emphasize was laid on the common history, the former administrative and legal unity. Beside the fading ethnic consciousness, the insistence on the common lot of Cumanian and Jazygian peoples was improved by that the Hungarian rulers began to cut Cumanian and Jazygian privileges, first at the beginning of the 16th century (due to the support of the Dózsa uprising of 1514), later, at the end of the 18th century, in order to increase the treasury of the Hapsburgs. At the end of the 17th century ignoring the formerly distinct Cumanian and Jazygian rights, the Hapsburg rulers mentioned the Cumanians and Jazygians and their rights in union, and tried to contract them in the diplomas (Ferdinand III, Leopold I). The Cumanians and Jazygians realised their common representation and gathering in safeguarding front could make their fight more effective. The insistence on the economic services of the Jazygians and the military ones of the Cumanians and the great amount of diplomas of privileges distinctly issued made the effectiveness of this ideology possible. During this fight there developed and took shape a Jazygio-Cumanian identity having never existed before, whose substance was mainly constitutional, though, accompained by some Active ethnic and historical consciousness. Although Leopold I mortgaged all the three districts pushing their population back to serfdom, thanks to the common fight and the supporting ideology there took place the so-called redemption (self-redemption) in 1745. In that year the Jazygians and the Cumanians paid the mortgage loan, and their rights were returned by Queen Marie Therese. Jazygio-Cumania, which had never existed before, was established after the redemption. It functioned till 1876 as a separate administrative unit, and served as the basis of the Jazygio-Cumanian consciousness, that had developed during the 16th and 17th centuries. 4. THE AGE OF THE SCHISM OF THE UNITED JAZYGIAN CONSCIOUSNESS (The consciousness of being redeemed or irredeemed) During the constitutional era the inhabitants of Jazygia, independent of their properties and ranks in the community, enjoyed equal rights, represented by the university of Jazygia before the country. The so-called constitutional consciousness was united and undivided. In 1745 Marie Therese's new diploma confirmed the former Jazygian and Cumanian privileges, and, at the same time underlined their being united and undivided. The act of redemption (self-redemption) however, was individual or of family. Each contributed different amounts to the common, according to his possessions. Though underlining the unity and undividedness of the privileges, the elders of the subdistricts distributed the population's right to the land in accordance with the quantity of the redeem. Who paid more, got the bigger portion of land having been cultivated up to that time, while those paying nothing had the right to claim only certain common lands as the former inhabitants of the subdistricts. After 1745 Three strata developed within the subdistricts oficially, too. Those were the stratum of redemptii (those who paid a sum of redemption over a certain quota), that of the irredemptii (who had had paid under the quota or nothing but at the time of the redemption had been inhabitants of Jazygia), and that of the inquilinii arriving after the redemption, having contributed nothing to it at all. The redemptii had landed properties according to the quantity of the share they got of the common lands. The irredemptii had ground-plots and the right to use the common lands, furthermore enjoyed the Jazygian privileges (jurisdiction, taxation and duty concessions). The inquilinii had no rights, were only allowed to live in the district as servants. They had no share either of the common lands or the Jazygian rights. By the end of the 18th century the antagonism of the three strata became strong. The content of the consciousness of the redemptii had been becoming the pure fact of the contribution to the redemption. For them Jazygian meant only redeemed holder. The irredeemed (irredemptii) on the other hand had been reviving the Jazygian ethnic and constitutional consciousness, rather slight by that time. They referred to their being Jazygian, and that the Jazygian origins were the safeguard of the rights; the very first privileges had been obtained on the same ground, and those had always been reinforced by the common bearing of burdens (military, ecomonic). The stratum of the inquilinii was excluded even from this identity revival, for being new-comers and not Jazygians at all. The redeemed and the Jazygian ethnic consciousness have both been surviving and giving ideological support in the fight of the two strata almost very recently. The redeemed consciousness is a new feature within the Jazygian identity of the 18th century, while the Jazygian ethnic and historical identity is the 147