Gyökerek • A Dráva Múzeum tanulmánykötete, 2007
Dr. Kéri Nagy Béla: A cigányok évezredes vándorútja a távoli keletről a Kárpát-medencébe
Dr. Kéri Nagy Béla: A cigányok évezredes vándorútja a távoli keletről a Kárpát-medencébe BÉLA KÉM NAGY, DR. MILLENIAL WANDERINGS OF GYPSIES FROM THE FAR EAST TO CARPATHIAN BASIN SUMMARY Many ideas have already developed about the Gypsies in Medieval Times. For a long time it was believed that their origin and original homeland should be looked for in Egypt. From this belief comes their English name „gypsy" which we use even today. The article follows the history and wanderings of them all through the different periods of time. Without written documents first their wandering route was reconstructed with the help of linguistic studies. The route was confirmed by historical research as well. The Gypsies started their journey from 6 th century to the 14 n century in more waves from India through Persia, Armenia and Asia Minor - to the European countries. Most of the Gypsy caravans considered the Carpathian basin as a passing through area from where they could move on to Western Europe. The appearance and lifestyle of the wandering caravans increased the tension in western societies. In this way in Western-Europe the difference between the two ways of life quite early developed into conflicts between them which appeared even in legislation as well. From many cities gypsies were chased out or they could be killed and hound out from cities because of heresy, witchcraft, cannibalism, poisoning of wells or with the suspicion of spreading diseases. Due to the pogroms and chasing against gypsies mass migration started from the Western part to the Eastern part of Europe. In the 19 th century new crowds of gypsies arrived to Hungary from Rumanian principalities. These gypsy communities were named after their previous home Vlach gypsies. Not only the communities escaping from the West but also the gypsy people arriving from the East settled in Hungary, they found the most favourable circumstances here. For the problems of the gypsies in the period of the feudalism, the dualism, the Horthy era and not even in the socialism a possible answer could be found. Moreover the discriminative measures of 1930 years led to mass genocide during the World War II. In everyday life gypsies were despised or chased because of their lifestyle, acts and outlook and unfortunately this did not change during the last half of the century. All the negative generalizations about gypsies are still strong nowadays. 38
