Hungarian prehistory

Magyar history (c. 800 BC–c. 895 AD)

For the pre-conquest history and prehistory of Hungary, see

History of Hungary before the Hungarian Conquest

.

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Hungarian prehistory (

Magyars, which started with the separation of the Hungarian language from other Finno-Ugric or Ugric languages around 800 BC, and ended with the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin around 895 AD. Based on the earliest records of the Magyars in Byzantine, Western European, and Hungarian chronicles, scholars considered them for centuries to have been the descendants of the ancient Scythians and Huns. This historiographical tradition disappeared from mainstream history after the realization of similarities between the Hungarian language and the Uralic languages in the late 18th century. Thereafter, linguistics became the principal source of the study of the Hungarians' ethnogenesis. In addition, chronicles written between the 9th and 15th centuries, the results of archaeological research and folklore

analogies provide information on the Magyars' early history.

steppes

.

The development of the Hungarian language started around 800 BC with the withdrawal of the grasslands and the parallel southward migration of the nomadic Ugric groups. The history of the ancient Magyars during the next thousand years is uncertain; they lived in the steppes but the location of their Urheimat is subject to scholarly debates. According to one theory, they initially lived east of the Urals and migrated west to "

Oghuric Turkic languages prove the Magyars were closely connected to Turkic peoples

. Byzantine and Muslim authors regarded them as a Turkic people in the 9th and 10th centuries.

An alliance between the Magyars and the

Carpathian Basin

around 895.

Ethnonyms

Main article:

Name of the Hungarians

The Hungarians were mentioned under various ethnic names in Arabic, Byzantine, Slavic, and Western European sources in the 9th and 10th centuries.

Bashkirs

likely comes from proximity to the Turkic-speaking Bashkirs, a group which still today remains in the southern Urals.

Ibn Rusta was the first to record a variant of the Hungarians' self-designation; (al-Madjghariyya).^[1] According to a scholarly theory, the ethnonym "Magyar" is a composite word.^[4] The first part of the word (magy-) is said to have been connected to several recorded or hypothetical words, including the Mansi's self-designation (māńśi) and a reconstructed Ugric word for man (*mańća).^[5][6] The second part (-er or -ar) may have developed from a reconstructed Finno-Ugrian word for man or boy (*irkä) or from a Turkic word with a similar meaning (eri or iri).^[2] Alan W. Ertl writes that the ethnonym was initially the name of a smaller group, the Megyer tribe; it developed into an ethnonym because Megyer was the most powerful tribe within the people.^[7] Most scholars agree that the Hungarian exonym and its variants were derived from the Onogurs' name.^[1] This form started spreading in Europe with Slavic mediation.^[8]

Formation of the Magyar people

Before the separation of the Hungarian language (before c. 800 BC)

Further information:

Proto-Uralic homeland hypotheses and Shamanistic remnants in Hungarian folklore

Ignateva Cave in the Ural Mountains

Hungarian has traditionally been classified as an Ugric language within the family of Uralic languages, but alternative views exist.

Kama in the 4th millennium BC.^[15][16] The land between the Urals and the Kama was sparsely inhabited during this period.^[17] From around 3600 BC, the Neolithic material culture of the wider region of the Urals spread over vast territories to the west and east.^[18] Regional variants emerged, showing the appearance of groups of people who had no close contact with each other.^[18]

About 1000 basic words of the Hungarian language – including the names of the seasons and natural phenomena, and the most frequently used verbs – had cognates in other Finno-Ugric languages, suggesting the temporary existence of a

climatic changes caused the spread of swamps on both sides of the Urals, forcing groups of inhabitants to leave their homelands.^[20] The Finno-Ugric linguistic unity disappeared and new languages emerged around 2000 BC.^[21][22] Whether the groups speaking the language from which Hungarian emerged lived to the east or to the west of the Urals in this period is debated by historians.^[19]

Further climate changes occurring between 1300 and 1000 BC caused the northward expansion of the steppes by about 200–300 kilometres (120–190 mi), compelling the southernmost Ugric groups to adopt a nomadic lifestyle.

Khanty epic songs.^[28]

Original homeland (c. 800 BC – before 600 AD)

Urheimats

and their migrations

The stag and the eagle, which are popular motifs of 10th-century Magyar art, have close analogies in

tumuli erected at Chelyabinsk in the 4th century BC, including the northward orientation of the heads of the deceased and the geometric motifs on the clay vessels put in the graves, are similar to older burials that he attributes to Ugric peoples.^[35]

Migrations

Early westward migrations (before 600 AD – c. 750 or 830 AD)

See also: Eastern Hungarians and Magna Hungaria

Volga Bulgars, in or in the wider region of present-day Bashkortostan in Eastern Europe.^[38][39] Whether Magna Hungaria was the original homeland of the Magyars, or whether the Magyars' ancestors settled in Magna Hungaria after their migration to Europe from their Western Siberian original homeland is still subject to scholarly debates.^[40][34][41] According to a third scholarly theory, Magna Hungaria was neither the Magyars' original homeland nor their first homeland in Europe. Instead, the ancestors of the Eastern Magyars whom Friar Julian met had moved to Magna Hungaria from the south.^[42]

According to a scholarly theory, the name of at least one Magyar tribe, Gyarmat, is connected to the name of a Bashkir group, Yurmatï.^[43] Specific burial rites – the use of death masks and the placing of parts of horses into the graves – featuring a 9th- or 10th-century cemetery at the confluence of the Volga and Kama near present-day Bolshie Tigany in Bashkortostan are also evidenced among the Magyars who lived in the Carpathian Basin in the 10th century.^[44][45] Most specialists say that the cemetery at Bolshie Tigany was used by Magyars who either remained in Magna Hungaria when other Magyar groups left the territory, or who moved there from other regions which were inhabited by the Magyars during their migrations.^[44][45]

If the Magyars' original homeland was situated in Western Siberia, instead of being identical with Magna Hungaria, their ancestors moved from Western Siberia to Eastern Europe.

Prohorovo culture" spread towards modern-day Bashkortostan around 400 BC.^[46] The westward migration of the Huns forced many groups of people of Western Siberia to depart for Europe between about 350 and 400 AD.^[46] The Avars' attack against the Sabirs in Siberia set in motion a number of migrations in the 460s.^[32] Between around 550 and 600, the migration of the Avars towards Europe compelled many nomadic groups to move.^[47]

The arrival of the Huns ended the dominance of Iranian peoples in the Eurasian steppes.[48] Thereafter the Sabirs, Avars, Onoghurs, Khazars, and other Turkic peoples controlled the grasslands of Eastern Europe for centuries.^[49] Gardizi described the Magyars as "a branch of the Turks"; Leo the Wise and Constantine Porphyrogenitus called them Turks.^[50] About 450 Hungarian words were borrowed from Turkic languages before around 900.^[51] The oldest layer of Hungarian folk songs show similarities to Chuvash songs.^[28] These facts show the Magyars were closely connected to the Turks while they stayed in the Pontic steppes.^[52]

Gyula Németh, András Róna-Tas and other scholars write that for centuries, the Magyars lived around the

Alanic origin – including asszony ("lady", originally "noble or royal lady") – were also borrowed in the same region.^[57]

Levedia (c. 750 or 830 – c. 850)

Levedia Levédia (Hungarian)
c. 750–c. 850
Attributed arms from the Chronicon Pictum (c. 1370)
Khazar Khaganate and Magyars around 830
Status	Principality
Religion	Hungarian paganism Hungarian shamanism Tengrism
Demonym(s)	Hungarian
Government	Gyula-Kende sacred diarchy Tribal confederation
Grand Prince
• c. 818–c. 850	Levedi
Historical era	Etelköz	c. 850
Preceded by Succeeded by Old Great Bulgaria Khazar Khaganate Etelköz Pechenegs Khazar Khaganate

The Khazar Khaganate was the dominant power in the steppes between the rivers Dnieper and Volga after around 650.^[58][59] Archaeological finds show that the Khagans controlled a multi-ethnic empire.^[60][61] The "Saltovo-Mayaki culture", which flourished in the same region around 750 and 900, had at least seven variants.^[62] In the Hungarian chronicles, the legend of the wondrous hind seems to have preserved the memory of the Magyars' "close symbiosis, intermarriages, and incipient fusion" with various ethnic groups – Alans, Bulgars, and Onogurs – of this large region.^[60]

Emperor

Don River.^[67] The period when the Magyars settled in Levedia is also uncertain; this happened either before 750 (István Fodor) or around 830 (Gyula Kristó).^[68][69] Porphyrogenitus said that the Magyars had been named "Sabartoi asphaloi",^[63] or "steadfast Savarts", while staying in Levedia.^[65][70] Róna-Tas says the ethnonym is an invented term with no historical credibility.^[70] Based on the same denomination, Károly Czeglédy, Dezső Dümmerth, Victor Spinei, and other historians associated the Magyars either with the late 6th-century Sabirs or with the Suvar tribe of the Volga Bulgars.^[70][71][72]

Porphyrogenitus wrote that the Magyars "lived together with the Chazars for three years, and fought in alliance with the Chazars in all their wars",[63] which suggests that the Magyars were subjugated to the Khazar Khagan, according to a scholarly view.^[73][74] On the other hand, historian György Szabados says, the emperor's words prove the equal position of the Magyars and the Khazars, instead of the Magyars' subjugation to the Khagan.^[75] Although the emperor said that the Magyars' cohabitation with the Khazars lasted only for three years, modern historians tend to propose a longer period (20, 30, 100, 150, 200 or even 300 years).^[73][76]

According to a memorial stone erected in or before 831, a Bulgarian military commander named Okorsis drowned in the Dnieper during a military campaign.^[77] Florin Curta says this inscription may be the "'first clue' to the upheaval on the steppes created by the migration of the Magyars into the lands between the Dnieper and the Danube".^[78] The earliest certainly identifiable events of the Magyars' history occurred in the 830s.^[79] The Bulgarians hired them to fight against their Byzantine prisoners, who rebelled and tried to return to Macedonia in the late 830s, but the Byzantines routed them on the banks on the Lower Danube.^[80] According to the Annals of St. Bertin, Rus' envoys who visited Constantinople in 839 could only return to their homeland through the Carolingian Empire because "the route by which they had reached Constantinople had taken them through primitive tribes that were very fierce and savage";^[81] Curta and Kristó identify those tribes with the Magyars.^[82][83] Ibn Rusta wrote that the Khazars "used to be protected from attack by the Magyars and other neighboring peoples" by a ditch.^[84][85] According to a scholarly theory, Ibn Rusta's report shows that the Khazar fort at Sarkel, which was built in the 830s, was one of the forts protecting the Khazars against the Magyars.^[86][85]

Illuminated Chronicle

According to Porphyrogenitus, In Levedia, the Magyars "were seven clans, but they had never had over them a prince either native or foreign, but there were among them 'voivodes'",^[63] or chiefs.^[87][88] Although the exact meaning of the term the emperor used (genea) cannot be exactly determined, scholars have traditionally considered the Magyar "clans" or "tribes" as ethnic and territorial units.^[89] In the Hungarian chronicles, references to "seven leading persons"^[90] or "seven captains"^[91] denote the existence of seven Magyar tribes.^[92]

Porphyrogenitus said the tribes did not "obey their own particular [voivodes], but [had] a joint agreement to fight together with all earnestness and zeal ... wheresoever war breaks out",

Etelköz.^[72] Most historians agree the Magyars' forced exodus from Levedia occurred around 850.^[102]

[T]he Pechenegs who were previously called "Kangar" (for this "Kangar" was a name signifiying nobility and valour among them), these, then, stirred up war against the [Khazars] and, being defeated, were forced to quit their own land and to settle in that of the [Magyars]. And when battle was joined between the [Magyars] and the Pechenegs who were at that time called "Kangar", the army of the [Magyars] was defeated and split into two parts. One part went eastwards and settled in the region of Persia, and they to this day are called by the ancient denomination of the [Magyars] "Sabartoi asphaloi"; but the other part, together with their voivode and chief [Levedi], settled in the western regions, in places called [Etelköz] ... .

— 

Constantine Porphyrogenitus: De Administrando Imperio^[103]

Etelköz (c. 850 – c. 895)

See also: Magyar tribes and Blood oath (Hungarians)

Atelkouzou Etelköz (Hungarian)
c. 850–c. 895 Árpád dynasty
Magyar banner of the Conquest Era Attributed arms from the Chronicon Pictum (c. 1370)
Territory inhabited by the Hungarians c. 814
Status	Principality
Religion	Hungarian paganism Hungarian shamanism Tengrism Hungarian Christianity
Demonym(s)	Hungarian
Government	Gyula-Kende sacred diarchy (early) Tribal confederation
Grand Prince
• c. 818–c. 850	Levedi
• c. 850–c. 895	Álmos
Historical era	Middle Ages
• Established	c. 850
• Hungarian invasions of Europe	839-970
• Hungarian conquest	c. 895
Preceded by Succeeded by Levédia Old Great Bulgaria Khazar Khaganate Pechenegs Principality of Hungary

Constantine Porphyrogenitus identified Etelköz (actually Ἀτελκούζου from Ἐτὲλ and Κουζοῦ) with the lands where the rivers "Barouch", "Koubou", "Troullos", "Broutos", and "Seretos"

Illuminated Chronicle: he was the first head of the federation of the Magyar tribes

, according to the Hungarian chronicles

The Khazar Khagan sent his envoys to the Magyars shortly after they fled from Levedia and settled in Etelköz, according to Porphyrogenitus. The Khagan invited Levedi to a meeting, proposing to make Levedi the supreme head of the confederation of the Magyar tribes in exchange for the acceptance of his suzerainty.[112]^[113] Instead of accepting the offer, Levedi suggested the new rank should be offered to another voivode, Álmos, or the latter's son, Árpád.^[113] The Khagan accepted Levedi's proposal and upon his demand the Magyar chiefs proclaimed Árpád their head.^[113][114] According to Kristó and Spinei, Porphyrogenitus' report preserved the memory of the creation of a central office within the federation of the Magyar tribes.^[114][115] Róna-Tas says the story relates only a "change of dynasty"; the fall of Levedi's family and the emergence of the Árpád dynasty.^[116] In contrast with Porphyrogenitus's story, the Gesta Hungarorum says it was not Árpád, but his father who was elected the first supreme prince of the Magyars.^[117]

According to Muslim scholars, the Magyars had two supreme leaders, the

Ibn Fadlan recorded that the third Khazar dignitary was styled kündür in the 920s.^[119] The Muslim scholar's report also implies the Magyars adopted the Khazar system of "dual kingship", whereby supreme power was divided between a sacred ruler (the kende) and a military leader (the gyula).^{[114][120][121]}

Between the country of the [Pechenegs] and the country of the

Ibn Rusta: On the Magyars^[84]

Porphyrogenitus wrote that the

Kabars – a group of Khazars who rebelled against the Khagan – joined the Magyars in Etelköz at an unspecified time,^[122][123] suggesting that the Magyars had got rid of the Khagan's suzerainty.^[124] The Kabars were organized into three tribes, but a single chieftain commanded them.^[125][124] Porphyrogenitus also wrote that the Kabars "were promoted to be first" tribe, because they showed themselves "the strongest and most valorous"^[126] of the tribes.^[127] Accordingly, the Kabars formed the Magyars' vanguard, because nomadic peoples always placed the associated tribes in the most vulnerable position.^[127][124]

Ibn Rusta wrote that the Magyars subjected the neighboring

Saint Cyril the Philosopher "howling like wolves and wishing to kill him"^[129] in the steppes near the Crimea, according to the saint's legend.^[82] However, Cyril convinced them to "release him and his entire retinue in peace".^[129][82] The inhabitants of the regions along the left bank of the Dniester – whom the Russian Primary Chronicle identified as Tivertsi – fortified their settlements in the second half of the 9th century, which seems to be connected to the Magyars' presence.^[130]

A plundering raid in East Francia in 862 was the Magyars' first recorded military expedition in Central Europe.

Methodius, Archbishop of Moravia, who was returning from Constantinople to Moravia, according to Methodius' legend.^{[82][136][137][138][139]}

When the King of Hungary came to the lands of the Danube, Methodius wished to see him. And though some were assuming and saying: "He will not escape torment," Methodius went to [the king]. And as befits a sovereign, [the king] received [Methodius] with honor, solemnity, and joy. Having conversed with [Methodius] as befits such men to converse, [the king] dismissed [Methodius] with an embrace and many gifts. Kissing him, [the king] said: "O venerable Father, remember me always in your holy prayers."

— The Life of Methodius^[140]

The Hungarian Conquest (c. 895 – 907)

Main article: Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin

Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus

The Magyars returned to Central Europe in July 892, when they invaded Moravia in alliance with

king of East Francia.^{[141][142][143]} Two years later, they stormed into the March of Pannonia.^[141][124] According to the Annals of Fulda, they "killed men and old women outright, and carried out the young women along with them like cattle to satisfy their lusts".^[144][145] Although this source does not refer to an alliance between the Magyars and Svatopluk I of Moravia, most historians agree the Moravian ruler persuaded them to invade East Francia.^{[141][124][145]} During their raids in the Carpathian Basin, the Magyars had several opportunities to collect information on their future homeland.^[124]

The Samanid emir,

Battle of Brezalauspurc in 907.^[154]

Sources

Archaeology

Since the 1830s, archaeology has played an important role in the study of the Magyar prehistory.

Eurasian steppes.^[156][157] However, only twelve cemeteries in the steppes have yielded finds that show similarities to assemblages unearthed in the Carpathian Basin.^[158] The dating of those cemeteries is also controversial.^[158][159]

Both the scarcity of published archaeological material and the misdating of some sites may have contributed to the low number of archaeological sites that can be attributed to the Hungarians in the steppes, according to archaeologist László Kovács.[160] Kovács also says that the Hungarians' migration from the steppes and their settlement in the Carpathian Basin may have caused the development of a new material culture, rendering the identification of pre-conquest Hungarians difficult.^[160] Archaeological research has demonstrated that the material culture of the Avars and other steppe peoples who settled in the Carpathian Basin before the Hungarians experienced a similarly significant change after they left the steppes and settled in their new homeland.^[161]

Buckles, belt mounts, and other objects of the so-called "Subotcy horizon", which were unearthed at

carbon dated to the late 9th century.^[162] The same archaeological sites also yielded vessels similar to the pottery of the neighboring Slavic territories.^[162]

Linguistics

Main article: History of the Hungarian language

The study of the Hungarian language is one of the main sources of the research on the ethnogenesis of the Hungarian people because a language shows the circumstances of its own development and its contacts with other idioms.^[163][164] According to a scholarly theory, the oldest layers of Hungarian vocabulary show features of the territory in which the language emerged.^[165] The study of loan words from other languages is instrumental in determining direct contacts between the ancient speakers of the Hungarian language and other peoples.^[166][167] Loan words also reflect changes in the way of life of the Magyars.^[168]

Written sources

Written sources on the prehistoric Hungarians may begin with

endonym (Magyar); they say Malalas's report proves the presence of Magyar tribes in the region of the Sea of Azov in the early 6th century AD. This identification is rejected by most scholars.^{[173][175][176]}

The first Hungarian chronicles were written in the late 11th or early 12th centuries but their texts were preserved in manuscripts compiled in the 13th to 15th centuries.^[188][189] Most extant chronicles show that the earliest works contained no information on the history of the Hungarians before their conversion to Christianity in the 11th century.^[188] The only exception is the Gesta Hungarorum, which is the earliest extant Hungarian chronicle, whose principal subject is the Magyars' pagan past.^[190] However, the reliability of this work, which was written by a former royal notary now known as Anonymus, is suspect.^[191] In his monograph of medieval Hungarian historians, Carlile Aylmer Macartney describes it as "the most famous, the most obscure, the most exasperating and most misleading of all the early Hungarian texts".^[192]

Historiography

Medieval theories

According to the

In the 401st year of Our Lord’s birth, in the 28th year since the arrival of the Hungarians in Pannonia, according to the custom of the Romans, the Huns, namely the Hungarians exalted Attila as king above themselves, the son of Bendegúz, who was before among the captains. And he made his brother Buda a prince and a judge from the River Tisza to the River Don. Calling himself the King of the Hungarians, the Fear of the World, the Scourge of God: Attila, King of the Huns, Medes, Goths and Danes…

— Mark of Kalt: Chronicon Pictum^[205]

Legend of the Wondrous Hind

Most historians agree that the legend of the wondrous hind preserved the Hungarians' own myth of their origins.^[206] The late 13th-century chronicler Simon of Kéza was the first to record it.^[206] The legend says two brothers, Hunor and Magor, were the forefathers of the Huns and Hungarians.^[206] They were the sons of Ménrót and his wife, Eneth.^[206] While chasing a hind, they reached as far as the marches of the Sea of Azov, where they abducted the wives of Belar's sons and two daughters of Dula, the prince of the Alans.^[206][57] According to historian Gyula Kristó, Eneth's name derived from the Hungarian word for hind (ünő), showing that the Magyars regarded this animal as their totemistic ancestor.^[207] Kristó also says the four personal names mentioned in the legend personify four peoples: the Hungarians (Magor), the Onogurs (Hunor), the Bulgars (Belar) and the Dula – kindred of the Alans or Bulgars (Dulo).^[208] The hunt for a beast, ending with the arrival in a new homeland, was a popular legend among the peoples of the Eurasian steppes, including the Huns and the Mansi.^[208] The myth that a people were descended from two brothers was also widespread.^[209] Consequently, it is possible that Simon of Kéza did not record a genuine Hungarian legend, but borrowed it from foreign sources.^[210]

After the

giant [Ménrót] entered the land of Havilah, which is now called Persia, and there he begot two sons, Hunor and Mogor, by his wife Eneth. It was from them that the Huns, or Hungarians, took their origins. ... [A]s Hunor and Mogor were Ménrót's first born, they journeyed separately from their father in tents. Now it happened one day when they had gone out hunting in the Meotis marshes that they encountered a hind in the wilderness. As they went in pursuit of it, it fled before them. Then it disappeared from their sight altogether, and they could not find it no matter how long they searched. But as they were wandering through these marshes, they saw that the land was well suited for grazing cattle. They then returned to their father, and after obtaining his permission they took all their possessions and went to live in the Meotis marshes. ... So they entered the Meotis marshes and remained there for five years without leaving. Then in the sixth year they went out, and when by chance they discovered that the wives and children of the sons of Belar were camped in tents in a lonely place without their menfolk, they carried them off with all their belongings as fast as they could into the Meotis marshes. Two daughters of Dula, prince of the Alans, happened to be among the children who were seized. Hunor took one of them in marriage and Mogor the other, and to these women all the Huns owe their origin.

— Simon of Kéza: Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum^[211]

The Magyars' ancestors gave up their settled way of life because of the northward expansion of the steppes during the last centuries of the 2nd millennium BC.

According to Ibn Rusta, the late 9th-century Magyars "dwell in tents and move from place to place in search of pasturage",[84] but during the winters they settled along the nearest river, where they lived by fishing.^[242][243] He also said their "land is well watered and harvests abundant",^[84] showing they had arable lands, although it is unclear whether those lands were cultivated by the Magyars themselves or by their prisoners.^[241] Taxes collected from the neighboring peoples, a slave trade, and plundering raids made the Magyars a wealthy people.^[244] Gardezi wrote that they were "a handsome people and of good appearance and their clothes are of silk brocade and their weapons are of silver and are encrusted with pearls",^[245] proving their growing wealth.^[139] However, 9th-century Byzantine and Muslim coins have rarely been found in the Pontic steppes.^[246]

Archaeological finds from the Carpathian Basin provide evidence of the crafts practiced by the Magyars.^[247] 10th-century warriors' graves yielding sabres, arrow-heads, spear-heads, stirrups, and snaffle bits made of iron show that blacksmiths had a pre-eminent role in the militarized Magyar society.^[248][247] Engraved or gilded sabres and sabretache plates – often decorated with precious stones – and golden or silver pectoral disks evidence the high levels of skills of Magyar gold- and silversmiths.^[249][250] Cemeteries in the Carpathian Basin also yielded scraps of canvas made of flax or hemp.^[251] The positioning of metal buttons in the graves shows the Magyars wore clothes that either opened down the front or were fastened at the neck.^[252] Ear-rings were the only accessories worn above the belt by Magyar warriors; jewelry on their upper bodies would have hindered them from firing arrows.^[253] In contrast, Magyar women wore head jewelry decorated with leaf-like pendants, ear-rings, decorated pectoral disks, and rings with gemstones.^[254]

A man seeking a bride was expected to pay a bride price to her father before the marriage took place, according to Gardizi's description of the late 9th-century Magyars.^[255] The Hungarian word for bridegroom – vőlegény from vevő legény ("purchasing lad") – and the expression eladó lány (verbatim, "bride for sale") confirm the reliability of the Muslim author's report.^[256][257] A decree of Stephen I of Hungary prohibiting the abduction of a girl without her parents' consent implies that pretended abduction of the bride by her future husband was an integral part of ancient Magyar matrimonial ceremonies.^[256][257]

Military

The Magyars' military tactics were similar to those of the Huns,

In battle [the Magyars] do not line up as do the [Byzantines] in three divisions, but in several units of irregular size, linking the divisions close to one another although separated by short distances, so that they give the impression of one

Leo the Wise: Tactics^[267]