Álmos
Álmos (IPA: [aːlmoʃ]) (c. 820 – 895, High Prince (nagyfejedelem) of the Magyars (c. 855-895).
According to the mediaeval chronicles his father was Ügyek or Előd and his mother was Emese. The legends say that "his mother Emese had seen a divine dream of a Turul bird that flew over her and got her with child; she saw her womb as the source of many great kings, but they would multiply in foreign lands". This is given as the explanation for the name Álmos (ie, "The Dreamt One").
He either was proclaimed High Prince of the Magyars by the leaders of the Magyar tribes[1] or was appointed to the office by the Khagan of the Khazars[2] around 855. At that time the seven Magyar tribes ("Hétmagyar") were living under Khazar supremacy. Álmos probably became the spiritual ruler (kende) of the confederation Hétmagyar[3], but other authors claim that his was the military leader (gyula) of the Magyar tribes[4].
Before 862 the seven Magyar tribes, living in the area they called Etelköz, separeted from the Khazars, and they were exacting tribute from the neighbouring Slavic tribes and they fought occasionaly as mercenaries on behalf of King Carloman of Bavaria, King Arnulf I. of Germany and Svatopluk I, King of Great Moravia. The confederation Hétmagyar was strengthened when three tribes of the Kabars, who had rebelled against the Khazar, joined them before 881.
In the spring of 895, the Magyar tribes attacked the Bulgarian Empire allied with the Byzantine emperor, Leo VI the Wise and defeated Emperor Simeon I of Bulgaria obliging him to conclude peace with the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Simeon, however, entered into an alliance with the Pechenegs, who were the eastern neighbours of the Hétmagyar, and made an attack against the Magyar troops. In the Battle of Southern Buh the emperor defeated their army; shortly afterwards, the Pechenegs attacked and pillaged their territories. The Magyar tribes were obliged to leave Etelköz and move to the Carpathian Basin where they settled down (Honfoglalás).
Álmos' death, having prophesied, according to legends, by a warning that "he is going to found a great line of emperors, but he must not enter the land of Pannonia," was probably caused by either assassination or human sacrifice because of the catastrophic defeats during the wars with the Bulgarian Empire and the Pechenegs[5].
Sources
- Kristó, Gyula - Makk, Ferenc: Az Árpád-ház uralkodói (IPC Könyvek, 1996)
- Korai Magyar Történeti Lexikon (9-14. század), főszerkesztő: Kristó, Gyula, szerkesztők: Engel, Pál és Makk, Ferenc (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1994)
- Kristó, Gyula: A Kárpát-medence és a magyarság régmúltja (1301-ig) (Szegedi Középkortörténeti Könyvtár, Szeged, 1993)
- Magyarország Történeti Kronológiája I. – A kezdetektől 1526-ig, főszerkesztő: Benda Kálmán (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1981)
- ^ ''Gesta Hungarorum'' by Anonymus
- ^ ''De Administrando Imperio'' by Kōnstantinos Porhyrogennētos
- ^ E.g., Gyula Kristó
- ^ E.g., György Győrffy
- ^ Note that the two legends concerning Álmos' conception and death are reported to us by 13th century (already Christian) scholars in medieval codices, who lived 400 years after the actual life of Álmos, and that both legends show very strong parallels to Christian stories from the Bible. It is possible that, for Álmos' birth, the authors borrowed elements of Mary's conception by the Holy Spirit; and for his death, of Moses' not being allowed to enter Canaan after leading Israel to the Holy Land (actually referenced in at least one codex describing his death).