The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1983 (10. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1983-05-01 / 5. szám

May, 1983

THE EIGHTH HUNGARIAN TRIBE

Page 11

have borrowed words from them, when they were not yet in existence? Considering that the Hungarian and Indo-European common words are embedded in the oldest layer of the latters’ vocabulary, the presumption is strong that these common words were borrowed by the Indo-Europeans from the Old Hungarian. And again, since the emergence of the Hungarians took place in the Ancient Near-East, it seems impossible that the people would have originated in Uralo-Siberia. The tiny Vogul (Manvsi) and Ostiak (Hanti) peoples — 9,000 and 21,000 souls respectively — who are now living in Siberia, cannot vouch for the Northern origin of Hungarians, because anthropologically they are the farthest removed from them. These fragments of an original Uralian population were, in all probability, overrun by a breake-away branch of Hungarians (cf. P 059 pp. 173-179), who taught them a few hundred words before being assimilated. This view is supported by the Vogul name, which is probably an old form of the present Hungarian Fogoly, meaning ‘Captive’. In any case, the Finno-Ugrian theory of history never succeeded in proving its point to the general satisfaction. Large segments of the academic world — linguists, historians archaeologists in particular — remained skeptical and discussed it with great reservations. For all these reasons, those of the opposite conception openly rejected it as an obsolete theory.

The pressure against the Uralian conception increased so heavily in the last ten to fifteen years, that the holders of this antiquated belief felt themselves cornered, and began a desperate fight for survival. But, instead of discussing and refuting the pretensions of the orientalists, they simply declared that the theses of their adversaries are unacceptable, ‘because’ they are contrary to the official doctrine. They soon lost their tempers and started a vilipending campaign. They everywhere proclaimed that the exiled historians “have been infected with a Western virus”, and that they suffer from “spiritual inebriety”, for whom the “Oriental mirage” (sumerology and egyptology) is but a “therapeutic gymnastic”. They also labeled the orientalists “fanatics, lunatics, chauvinists, and fascists” (P 008). The Finno-Ugrists also used administrative measures to silence their opponents, especially the so-called press-closure, which means that the scientific promotion of the orientalist conception is banned from the media in Hungary. Since then in that country, the periodicals, newspapers, publishing houses, television and

radio stations were exclusively reserved for scholars with Finno-Ugrian mentality. Along with the press-closure, writers in line with the official dogma were encouraged to prepare fresh publications in the obsolete spirit, saying nothing about the existence of the other way of thinking.

It would nevertheless be a mistake to think that the front of Finno-Ugrists is a solidly united one. As a matter of fact, there are, in Hungary itself, many scholars who already have assimilated several important elements of the Hungarian researches abroad. Antal Bartha, for example, has discarded the wrong belief that the early Hungarians had been forest dweller nomads. Instead, he teaches today that they were living in river valleys, engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, and stood, in every respect, upon the level of contemporary Higher Civilization. He also maintains that the early Hungarians had come to the Kama- Volga “meeting place” (no longer “cradle land”), in successive waves, from a southerly direction, at the beginning of the first millenium B.C., starting from the area “where the food-production first had taken place,” i.e. from the Near-East (Magyar Hírlap, December 15, 1972). Furthermore, anthropologist Tibor Tóth has conceded that the skeletons do not support the existence of any early Hungarian settlement in the Ural- Siberian region. On the contrary, they clearly prove that it actually was in the Aral Sea region (Kisalföld, June 16, 1972).

This will suffice to mark out the place of the orientalist conception in the general Hungarian historical researches during the last hundred and fifty years or so. After a difficult start, it seems now to be closer to victory. In the following chapters, the author lets the reader become acquainted, in detail, with the orientalist conception only, avoiding all controversies.

(To be continued)

TILTING SAIL

The tall canvas tilts the mast and the sail spreads to reap the foam when the boat plunges ahead.

Look—when is it mast and sail fly forward most victoriously? When bent at their lowest.

Gyula Illyés