Western Influence Of The Magyars

Although the historical record is scarce, there is no doubt the Magyars who inhabited the Carpathian basin in the 10th century bore little resemblance to Christians living in Western Europe. Rather, as Muslim, Byzantine, and Western chroniclers noted, they resembled some of the nomadic tribes who had previously pillaged Europe such as the Huns and Avars. Regino, Abbot of Prüm, wrote of the Magyars that, “They spend all their time on horseback; they travel, rest, think and talk on their horses; they are extremely careful in teaching their children and servants the art of riding and using the bow.” Although some archaeological evidence suggests that the Magyars’ contemporaries might have overstated their nomadic habits, such as the existence …show more content…
With Western European soldiers unaccustomed to the primarily horse based tactics the Magyars employed, as Hungarian historian Pál Engel notes, “[the Magyars] were free to pillage the whole of Germany, from Bremen to Aargau, virtually without resistance.” Pillage they did, reaching lands as far as the Atlantic Ocean, Spain, and Apulia in southern Italy. Western contemporary sources give accounts of at least fifty raids between the 900 and 970 AD, although, as Engel notes, this number might be overstated since “many entries from different years seem to refer to the same event.” Still, due to the preponderance of Western sources, it can be known for certain that the arrival of the Magyars was indeed met with fear in the …show more content…
From the very beginning of their raids, the Magyars had a proud tradition of taking captives. 9th-century Muslim chroniclers such as Ibn Rustah and Muhammad Kātib noted that after their victories the Magyars would take captives and would then typically sell them. Kātib writes, "They defeat the Sāqaliba and Rūs constantly in their battles and wars. They take captives from them and bring them to the land of Rūm and they sell [them]." This habit of taking captives continued as the Magyars launched Westward campaigns and inevitably led the Magyars to come into contact with many Christian clergymen. In the oldest extant chronicle written by the Hungarians, Anonymus (as he is referred to in Hungarian historiography) writes in the Gesta Hungarorum, “Then, with victory won, Lelu, Bolsuu and Botond encamped a little lower beside the Danube, and all the captured Bulgarians and Greeks were led before them, whom they sent bound with iron to Duke Árpád in Hungary.” It is important to note, however, that Anonymus’ work is filled with numerous errors, and clearly takes on a pro-Hungarian bias, which is unsurprising, given that the author was a notary of King Béla III. Thus, while Anonymus’ work remains one of the most well-known sources about the early Magyars, its many