Wislanen

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Area of ​​the Wislanen in the Moravian Empire (No. 11)

The Vistulans ( Latin Wislane , Polish Wislanie ) were a westslawischer strain on the upper Vistula in the 9th century.

history

Life of St. Methodius with mention of the prince on the Vistula

According to Tadeusz Lewicki , the Wislanen or the Weichselland were mentioned as Wistlawudu (English Vistula-wood) in the poetry Widsith from the late 6th century .

Constantine VII , the Byzantine emperor from 913 to 959, located in De Administrando Imperio in the area north of the Carpathians the homeland of the Croats in the 7th century, whom he called White Croatia (Βελοχρωβάτοι, in the reading Chrovát-oi). In the description of the Germania by Alfred the Great around the year 890, the Horithi ( Horoti , Horigti or Croaten) were north of the Moravian Empire , at the same time as the report of the trip of Wulfstan from Haithabu , where a "Wisleland" was named. After the Primary Chronicle (1113-1118) the White Croats (Хровате Бѣлии) were the ancestors of the laughter and all Poland (Лѧхове Лѧхове. А ѿ тѣхъ Лѧховъ прозвашасѧ Полѧне.. Друзии Лутичи. Ини Мазовшане ини Поморѧне). The exact location of White Croatia is controversial, but many researchers linked it to the later Wislanes (e.g. Tadeusz Lewicki) and Lendizen .

In the 7th century, the local Slavs did not yet form castle walls , which were probably only founded in the late 8th century because of the increasing threat from the Avars . Archaeologists recognize a large number of settlement chambers with common characteristics from the following period around Kraków and in the Pogórze Wielickie and along the right tributaries of the Vistula: on the Dunajec , on the Raba , Ropa , Jasiołka and Wisłoka , more rarely on the Vistula itself, as well north of the river. These settlement chambers are often more or less carefully associated with the Wislanes, but there are also hypotheses that see the Lendizen tribe east of the Biała , or consider the Wislan and Lendizen to be the same tribe.

Wislanen were mentioned historically only once. In the 9th century, the so-called Bavarian geographer named the regio der Uuislane ( Wislane ). At that time the Krakow - Wawel already existed , but it was not in the center of the main area (as indicated on the map above), but on the western edge of the above-mentioned realms of settlement chambers. The area in the west was called a "no man's land", which separated the Wislanen from the Opolanen and the Golensizen . But this area is also less archaeologically explored.

During this time, a powerful prince on the Vistula or in the Weichselland was mentioned in a few sentences in the "Life of Saint Methodius" from the 12th century. Method von Saloniki († 885) had tried to convert this prince. The result is not known. The prince is said to have been in conflict with the Christians [in Moravia], who many scholars regard as a confirmation or at least an echo of the conflict in which Svatopluk I of Moravia attacked ramparts behind the Moravian Gate , the destruction of which is well documented archaeologically. however, it is not entirely certain. The event suggests that the area on the Vistula was to a certain extent subject to the Moravian Empire at that time , which is often controversial e.g. B. by Gerard Labuda and Idzi Panic , who interpret it as a verbal threat about potential military intervention [in the future]. The interpretation of these unclear mentions also influences to a large extent the considerations about Upper Silesia affiliation. Certainly, however, Moravian influences increased in the second half of the 9th century and from the archaeological point of view one can speak of a kind of common cultural region, Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Lesser Poland, the greater part of Silesia and the southeastern Elbeland at that time included.

Further historical mentions of the Wislanen or a Weichselland are not known.

After 907 the Moravian Empire fell apart due to the attacks of the Magyars, which is why the supposed territory around Kraków was able to become independent. The Moravian influences were replaced by Bohemian ones around the middle of the 10th century. The Chronica Boemorum (Chronicle of Bohemia) from the years 1119–1125 indicates the presence of Bohemian troops in Krakow when it was conquered by Piasts around 990, so it may have belonged to the Duchy of Bohemia so far . The rotunda of Saints Felix and Adauctus , built around 970, could be built under Bohemian rule because, according to a source from the late 11th century, Krakow belonged to the newly founded diocese of Prague in 973 . There are also indications in or interpretations of the contemporary sources by al-Masʿūdī († 957) and Ibrahim ibn Yaqub in connection with the important trade routes that connected Central and Western Europe with the Kiev state , which refer to the belonging of the area Indicate bohemia. In general, compared to the hypothetical rule of the Moravians over the Wislanen (and the Upper Silesian tribes, which were separated from Lower Silesia by the Preseka ), the documentary evidence of Bohemian affiliation is more certain, and one can talk about a factual status.

After 990 the Lesser Poland region developed from this rule became a core region of the young Polish state.

literature

  • Gerard Labuda : Lesser Poland . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 5, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-7608-8905-0 , column 1204 f.
  • Jacek Poleski: Wczesnośredniowieczne grody plemienne i państwowe w polskiej części Karpat Zachodnich [ Early Mediaeval Tribal and Statehood Strongholds in the Polish Part of the Western Carpathians ] In: Wczesne średniowiecze w Karpatach polskich. red. Jan Gancarski. Krosno 2006, ISBN 83-86588-83-7 , pp. 191-233 (Polish)

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Henryk Łowmiański, Początki Polski , Vol. 3, Warsaw 1967, p. 118: "Поганьскъ князь сильнъ вельми сѣдя въ Вислѣ" , "a very strong pagan prince on the Vistula"
  2. ↑ a b Tadeusz Lewicki, Najdawniejsza wzmianka źródłowa o Wiślanach [The oldest mention of Wislanen], 1951 (Polish)
  3. ^ Jerzy Rajman: Pogranicze śląsko-małopolskie w średniowieczu [Silesian-Lesser Poland border region in the Middle Ages] . Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wyższej Szkoły Pedagogicznej, 1998, ISBN 83-8751333-4 , ISSN  0239-6025 , p. 26–39 (Polish, online [PDF]).
  4. ↑ twice in the text: въ вислě and въ вислěхъ - in the reading w Wisle [ch] or vo Vislech ; it was also identified as Wiślica
  5. ↑ a b J. Poleski, 2006, p. 208.
  6. ^ A b Idzi Panic (editor): Śląsk Cieszyński w czasach prehistorycznych [Cieszyn Silesia in the prehistoric era] . Starostwo Powiatowe w Cieszynie, Cieszyn 2012, ISBN 978-83-926929-6-6 , p. 228 (Polish).
  7. ↑ Piotr Bogoń: Na przedpolu Bramy Morawskiej - obecność wpływów południowych na Górnym Śląsku i zachodnich krańcach Małopolski we wczesnym średniowieczu , Katowice, 2012, p. 41
  8. ↑ Aleksander Gieysztor : Poland . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 7, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7608-8907-7 , Sp. 52-58.
  9. ^ Regensburg, document dated April 29, 1086 ( border description of the diocese of Prague ). In: Regesta Imperii RIplus Regg. EB Mainz 1 [after 1263] (online ; accessed on March 4, 2017): “ Wezilo ([Archbishop of Mainz] 1084-1088) ... intervener at k. Henry IV, who confirmed the unification of the Olomouc bishopric with the Prague bishopric and exactly confirmed the boundaries of the thus expanded Prague bishopric. "
  10. ↑ P. Bogoń, 2012, p. 37
  11. ↑ Around 990 Krakow was conquered by Mieszko I.
  12. ↑ The Slavs in Europe. ( Memento from August 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive )