The Hungarians, or Magyars, appeared in Europe as suddenly as the Huns. Medieval writers who happened to meet them were quite surprised that the Romans did not mention them in their sources.
Magyar horseman
Unfortunately, the ancient history of the Hungarians remains even more mysterious to us than that of the Huns. The Chinese sources, which predate the Western sources in telling of the «huun-nu», as they called the Huns, contain no mention of the Hungarians.
However, it is clear that the new conquerors were typical nomads of the Asian steppes. Although the nomadic peoples may have differed in language, their way of life was remarkably similar because it was dictated by a common habitat. They were all herders and warriors, drank the milk of mares, hunted and fished, and were natural opponents of agriculture.
By the type of language Magyars belong to the Finno-Ugric group, and at present the Hungarian language is the closest to the colloquialisms of some nationalities of Siberia. However, numerous migrations led to the fact that both the Hungarians themselves and their language were influenced by Turkic peoples and significantly changed under their influence.
Hungarians first appear in the Sea of Azov region around 833 and begin to disturb settled peoples such as Byzantine colonies and the Khazar Kaganate. Soon they are already threatening to cut off the way to the Dnieper, which was a busy trade artery in those days. Furs from the North, honey and wax from Russian forests, as well as slaves from all over the world, who were exchanged for goods or gold delivered from Constantinople or Asia.
Prince Arpad’s passage across the Carpathian Mountains
However, the Hungarians could not cut off the way to the Dnieper, as new hordes, the Pechenegs, appeared on their way and began to crowd them. The way to the south was blocked by the militant Bulgar kingdom, and then the Hungarians were divided: one part of them went further east and went deeper into the steppes, and most of them around 896 crossed the Carpathians and settled on the plains of the Tisza and the middle Danube.
These vast areas, which had been repeatedly ravaged and plundered since the fourth century, were a white spot in terms of population. The chronicler Reginon of Prüm writes of them: «A desert». However, this definition should not be taken too literally. In the past there were solid settlements of various nationalities, and those who passed through this territory left small groups of stragglers or laggards. Quite a few Slavic tribes also penetrated here.
Still, the population here was quite small, which is confirmed by the place names: with the arrival of the Hungarians, all of them, down to the names of the rivers, became Hungarian.
Charlemagne defeated the Avar invaders, but after him none of the newly formed states were strong enough to withstand the new threats. These states were in dire straits.
Only in the northwest, in Moravia, were the Slavs able to create a powerful Christian principality, which became the first example of purely Slavic statehood. However, the Hungarians in the course of constant attacks on this principality finally destroyed it in 906.
Hungarians in Kiev
From this time the history of the Hungarians takes a new turn. The Hungarians were no longer nomads in the classical sense of the word, as they had permanent settlements on the plain, which now bears the Hungarian name Pusztá. From these settlements, gathered in bands, they attacked neighboring countries. But their aim was not to annex new lands, but to plunder. Loaded with booty, they returned to their settlements.
The fall of the Bulgarian kingdom after the death of King Simeon in 927 opened the way for the Hungarians to Byzantine Thrace, which they repeatedly plundered. However, no less attractive to them was the West, which was much less protected than the East.