Cabars

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The Kabars , also Kavaren or Kawaren (Greek Κάβαροι, Kabaroi ), were a Turkish tribal association, which settled in the 9th century in the center of today's Ukraine in the wider area of ​​the city Poltava .

origin

The Kabars were part of the Turkish Khazars who established an independent khaganate under their princes in the northern Caucasus in the seventh century AD . At the height of its power in the 9th century , the Khazarian Khaganate extended over the entire southern Russian steppe between the Volga and Dnepr to the Caucasus and in the north to beyond what was later to be Moscow.

The Kabars emerged from three Khazarian tribes who had rebelled against the Khaganate of the Khazars in the ninth century. An uprising that was important enough to be mentioned in De Administrando Imperio by the emperor and historian Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (913–959).

Connection with the Magyar tribes

The Kabars were subsequently expelled from the Khaganate of the Khazars and found protection with the Magyar tribal association of the Hét-Magyar (i.e. the seven Magyar tribes). The three Kabar tribes joined them when they migrated from the Ukrainian steppe to the Carpathian Basin and supported them in the conquest of what would later become Hungary. Hence the assumption that the word “Hungarian” could be derived from the Turkish On Ogur (“ten arrows”) if this expression referred to the seven Finno-Ugric and the three Kabar tribes.

Around 833 the Magyar tribal association lived loosely dependent on the Khazar empire in the Levédia region between the Don and Dnepr rivers . Around 850 or 860 they were driven from their seats by the Pechenegs and settled in the area, which Emperor Constantine VII called "Etelküzu" ( Etelköz ), between the rivers Dnepr, the southern Bug , the Dniester , the Prut and the Sereth down. The Byzantine Emperor Leo VI. called the Hungarians to help in 894, as he was waging war against Simeon I the Great, the Tsar of the Bulgarians . Under the leadership of Grand Duke Álmos , the Hungarians then crossed the Danube in 895 and devastated Bulgaria with fire and sword. The Bulgarians then called the Pechenegs for help, who were now masters of the steppe, who attacked the Hungarians from behind and forced them to retreat to the mountains of Transylvania . However, they soon penetrated west, defeated Swentopluk I, the ruler of the Great Moravian Empire , and used the power vacuum after his death (895) to occupy the Carpathian Basin. They also fought as an ally of the Roman-German King Arnulf of Carinthia in 898/99 in Italy. After the Hungarian victory over Svatopluk II (906), who lost his life in the fighting, the Great Moravian Empire collapsed. Since the Bavarian army under Duke Luitpold of Bavaria was also destroyed in the Battle of Pressburg in the summer of 907, the Magyars were able to settle in Hungary undisturbed.

Settlement in Hungary

The Kabars settled in Bihar County in what later became the Kingdom of Hungary (today in Hajdú-Bihar and Békés counties , but mostly in Bihor County in Romania ) and in Transylvania. Some historians suspect that Prince Marot mentioned in the Gesta Hungarorum and his grandson Menumorut, the Duke of Bihar, were of Kabar origin. There is evidence that cabars also settled in the Principality of Kiev. At least parts of the cabarets had adopted the Jewish religion, but others were Christians, Muslims or shamanists . The presence of a Turkish aristocracy among the Hungarians could explain the Byzantine protocol under Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenetus, according to which Hungarian rulers were always referred to as "princes of the Turks" when ambassadors were exchanged. The Kabars eventually assimilated with the Hungarian population.

Remaining traces

Various theses are put forward about the origins of the Szeklers , who served as border guards in the Hungarian Gyepü system and in the late Middle Ages, alongside the Magyar nobility and the Transylvanian Saxons, formed one of the three constituent nations of Transylvania, including the fact that they are among the descendants of the Cabars . Some of their cultural and linguistic peculiarities could therefore be traced back to these origins.

Historians have also found a trace in the person of Sámuel Aba , King of Hungary from 1041 to 1044, (* approx. 990, † murdered at Füzesabony July 5, 1044 , buried in the Abbey of Sáros). This is because he is considered the son of Shaba, who was the Palatine of Hungary in 1001 and at the same time the tribal prince of the Kabars. Only on the occasion of the marriage of his father to Sarolta, the youngest sister of King Stephen I the Saint of Hungary (1000-1038) - the first Christian king of Hungary - did the Cabarians also begin to convert to Christianity. King Samuel Aba, who was thus a nephew of King Stephen I of Hungary, followed in 1041 as the third king of Hungary after he had his cousin and predecessor, the Venetian Peter Orseolo , who was a son of Maria, an older sister of King Stephen I. had driven away. However, his rule lasted only for a short time: He turned the nobility and clergy against him and after incursions into the margraviate of Austria - where Margrave Adalbert the Victorious defeated him in 1042 - internal revolts and the defeat against King Heinrich III. captured at the Battle of Menfö and executed as a usurper on July 5, 1044.

This does not end the chapter, however, as there are a not inconsiderable number of descendants from him. These include in particular the Hungarian aristocratic families, known as "de genere Aba" (from the Aba family). Perhaps these retain a genetic memory of the Kabar heritage to this day.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter F. Sugar, Péter Hanák, Tibor Frank, A History of Hungary, Indiana University Press, 1994, page 11 ( online in the Google book search)
  2. ↑ Golden, Peter B. "The Conversion of the Khazars to Judaism." The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives. Brill, 2007. p. 150.
  3. ^ René Grousset , The Empire of the Steppes , p.178. Rutgers University Press, 1988. ISBN 0813513049
  4. ↑ Detlev Schwennicke : European Family Tables New Series Volume II, Verlag JA Stargardt, Marburg, 1984, Plate 153

literature

Web links

See also