Magyars-Hungarians

The name "Magyar" possibly came from the name of Prince Muagyer, who saved their ancient religion for half a century. A great nomad migration on the steppes in the 5th century moved the old-Magyars out of their home in western Siberia, forcing them to migrate to the west. Magyars settled between the Volga river and the Urals, and later on, in Onogoria between the rivers Don and Dnyeper. There were a 7 tribes, led by chief Lebedias, so they named the place Lebedia, later Levedia. In those times the Magyars' "neighbors" were the Kazars, a nation part Jewish and part Muslim. The Magyars and Kayars formed an alliance for three years against the Petchenegs. Also, Lebedias married a Kazar woman, but had no children by her. The continuous attacks of the Petchenegs forced the Magyars to move again. Some of them moved to the east, to Persia, and some of them went to the west, in Atelkuzu or "Etelkġz" as it is called in Hungarian. The khagan of the Kazars summoned Lebedias to offer him the throne, but he refused it and proposed Álmos, and his son Árpád for the honor. The chiefs chose Árpád to be their ruler. On account of the ongoing Bulgarian and Petcheneg attacks, the Magyars could not stay in their home and moved further, to Transylvania. Due to lack of time, they could not bring their slow-moving livestock with them through the river-crossed steppes, so most of them died. In 895 A.D. they conquered part of the Carpathian basin, east of the Danube, and after some smaller battles, Pannonia was theirs by 900 A.D. The Fuldai Yearbooks wrote: "They have returned to their home, Pannonia" for the fourth, and last time. After settling, most of them led a raiding-looting lifestyle. Magyars instilled fear with their arrows. They were excellent marksmen. Chronicles tell: "They kill a few with the sword, but many thousands with arrows. They shoot them from their horn bows so skillfully, that there is hardly any protection against them. "In those years, in Christian churches all across Europe, people prayed: "Lord, save us from the arrows of the Magyars!" Excavating tombs from that era, archeologists found not only the deceased, but also bones of their horses, pieces of horn-covering from their bows, sabres, and ornate pieces of their horse-equipment which tell about an exquisite and individual goldsmithwork. Common figures on these are "tree of life", "life-giving sun", deer and the eagle. Men shaved their heads, only leaving a braid of hair on the back of the head. It wasn't uncommon for men to wear earrings. They wore thin golden or silver bracelets on their wrists and arms, to hold down the loose sleeves of their shirts. Contemporary literature of those days says: "Magyars are good-looking people, they're large, wealthy, and obviously rich, on account of their trading. Their clothes are made of brocade, their weapons are ornate, with silver and pearl." They didn't wear jewelry on their chests, but on their belts and below. On their belts, they wore their knife, sabre, bow, quiver, and basically everything to fight with, so they didn't get in the way when they had to shoot their arrows from horseback. After several defeats, the Magyars quit their raiding lifestyle, they became Christians about 1000 A.D., and tried to totally eradicate the old pagan religion (shamanism), which wasn't a complete success. Magyars still have some of the ancient "eastern-way" in their folk-songs, folk art, and way of thinking. They intermixed with other nations in the last few centuries of course, so their language is also very complicated, for example, many things in Hungarian can be said four or five ways. Possibly this linguistic wealth is also one of the reasons for the world-wide known and recognized Hungarian creativity.