Kubars - Origin of Hungarians

The early tenth century Arab geographer Ibn Rusta writes ‘The Magyars are a race of Turks”.¹ Another Arab, Mahmud Gardezi, writing about 1050 but quoting from a source dating from around 913, repeats this and adds, ‘These Magyars are a handsome people and of good appearance and their clothes are of silk brocade and their weapons are of silver and are encrusted with gold’.² When the Magyars are first clearly identified in Byzantine literature, they are repeatedly referred to as Turks. The ninth and tenth century Byzantine writers described the Türkic general appearance, customs, social, political, and martial organization of the Magyars of that period.³ The early Hungarians appear as Türkic-Ugrian mixture, with the dominant Türks.⁶A Hungarian orientalist Annin Vambery demonstrated cultural, ethnic, and linguistic relationship between Türks and Magyars (Vambery A., 1882, Der Ursprung cler Magyaren, Leipzig, and others). Vambery cited the Türkic etymologies of Hungarian personal, tribal and clan names recorded in Byzantine and mediaeval Hungarian sources, the Türkic aspects of ancient Hungarian culture, customs, military tactics, social, political organization, and produced an analysis of the Türkic features in the Hungarian language. He studied phonetics, grammatical relationships, and vocabulary of Hungarian in relation to the Türkic languages, and stated that almost two-thirds of the Hungarian vocabulary was connected with Türkic. He asserted that Hungarian words of Türkic origin were amalgamation equally suitable for classification as a Finno-Ugrian or a Türkic language. He emphasized that the Türkic elements in Hungarian were so deep and basic not feasibly acquired by cultural influence, but attest to amalgamation of the Türkic and a Finno-Ugrian people at an early stage of Hungarian prehistory. The result was a basically Türkic people in contact with Finno-Ugrians, an ethnic amalgam with cultural, social, and political dominant Türkic component. He provided numerous non-linguistic arguments supporting the Türkic ethnic origin of the Magyars. Zoltan Gombocz (1877-1935) listed approximately two hundred and thirty basic words relating to domestic animals and animal husbandry, agriculture, buildings and household equipment, trade utensils and handicrafts, clothing and wearing apparel, social and political institutions and relations, parts of the human body, illnesses, religion, writing, numerals, time, nature, hunting and fishing, plants and the animal world and also a number of verbs of everyday use of Türkic provenance closely akin to the Itil Bulgar, the present-day Chuvash, preserved only in Hungarian.8 The bilingualism of the ancient Magyars, noted by Constantinus Porphyrogenetus, caused a natural acceptance of the Türkic verbs in Hungarian,11 attesting to the Türkic ethnic affiliations of the Magyars. Gyula Nemeth provided a detailed analysis of the tribal system and tribe names of the Magyars of the Conquest period (Gyula Nemeth, 1930, A honfoglalo magyarsdg kialakiddsa, Budapest, 1930). He concluded that the Hungarian people resulted from an amalgamation between one large Finno-Ugrian and six to eight smaller Türkic tribes which came about prior to the sixth century AD. Namely, the Ugric tribes are: Gyarmat, Jeno, Keszi, Ker, Kürt, Megyer, Nyek, Tarjan; the Türkic tribes in Hungarian spelling are: Bereny, Eszlar-Oszlar, Örs, Tarkany, Varsany, Szabar, Kaliz-Kalaz, Kazar, Szekely, or in English spelling Baryn, As, Örs, Tarkhan, Varsan, Sabir, Kaliz-Kalaz, Khazar, Sekler.

Of the Türkic tribes, collectively called Kubars, Baryn is a paternal dynastic tribe of Suvars (Sabirs, Savirs), Baryns in Slavic were called Berendeys, they were choosing their Rus leaders, they gave Russians the word barin “lord”, and unsung, they left a deep furrow in the Russian history, Baryn is definitely qualifying for the umbrella term Kubar of the migrants. See Berendeys, Baryn dateline, Sabir Dateline.

The ethnonym Kabar means “to be great, be much, be many”, cp. Hebrew רבכ kābar and Syriac רבכ kĕbar of s.m., Arabic كبر kabbara ‘to be great, increased’, Akkadic kabāru ‘to be great, huge, mighty’. Akkadian version being the oldest, it is a best candidate for the origin, unless Akkadian recorded the Turkic generic word.

As was a paternal dynastic line of the As-Tokhars, best known for the conquest of Bactria in 140s BC. In palatalized vernaculars they were called Yasses. Their initial and recurring location was in the Aral basin. A maternal dynastic line of the Ases was Tokhars (Tochars), aka Tuhsi, Digors, Döğers, Dügers, Dahae, and few more. The Tokhars are never away from the Ases, they may hide under some of the unknown non-Magyar appellations. The As was one of the Scythian tribes, known from the Middle Eastern appellation Ishkuza ~ As guzes or As kiji for the Scythians. Quite possibly, Ases lived in Pannonia before the arrival of the Avars and long before the arrival of the Hungarians, we know that Ases were dominating constituents in the Alan confederation to a such degree that some contemporaries used the names Alan and As interchangeably. In this case, Alan is an umbrella term “Field (people)”, “Steppe (people)”, and As, Yas is a tribal name originated from the same synonymous concept “Flats (people)”, “Plains (people)”. In Türkic, both words are still used in their generic sense, “field” and “flat” respectively.

Örs likely stands for Ars, the Türkic umbrella term for the Finno-Ugrian people; originally of the Finno-Ugrian extraction, they must have fused and Turkified centuries ago to be indistinguishable from the other Türkic tribes.

Tarkhan is a Türkic title that ascends to the title called Shanyu in Chinese annals; all we know that it was a distinct group and was named after the title of its chief, dead or alive. Ethnically, they may not even be a distinct group, they could be a clique surrounding some Tarkhan. Tarkhan was a very privileged title, very few Tarkhans were around. Rather than being Kubar migrants, the title Tarkhan may cover some of the Bulgar population in Pannonia the Hungarians found upon their arrival.

Varsan appear to be a form of Uar, also listed on the map as Varchonites, Warhuns, Uarhuns. We know that the newly baked Türkic Kaganate was especially set on destroying the Ephthalite leftovers Varchonites, Warhuns, Uarhuns in the ancestral Aral area populated by the Huns ever since the 2nd c. BC. The part hun in their name does not necessarily attest that they are Huns per se, hun in Türkic is kin, it just attests that these are the kindred tribes. The Pannonia's Varchonites, Warhuns, Uarhuns are Avars in our lingo, these are Avars of the Avar Kaganate. They have nothing to do with Kubars.

Sabir (aka Suvars, Savirs) is one of the most prominent Türkic tribes, after the demise of the Huns they contended with Bulgars for the leadership of the Hunnic state. Their numerosity is attested by the area of their settlement, from Derbent to the confluence of the Dnieper and Pripyat. They constituted a major force and population in the Rus, Slavic annals call them Severyans, the river Seversky Donets is named after them, their center Chernigiv/Karajar fought for centuries with Kyiv for supremacy. Sabirs were the major force that fought the Arab onslaughts for 150 years, and effectively stopped the Arab expansion into the N. Pontic. That Sabirs/Suvars/Savirs are mentioned separately from the Baryns attests that there were ordinary Sabirs and the elite Baryn Sabirs. Most likely, the Pannonian Sabirs were the original male marital partners of the Ugric female marital partners, they were the Kubars under the Master People, Rulers or Cuver etymology. Some Sabirs, like the Bulgars, could have stayed in Pannonia from the time of Shambat (Samo) state, 630s-650s. They also could have had their own Tarkhan there, hiding Tarkhan Sabirs under the appellation Tarkhan.

Kaliz-Kalaz appear to be a distortion of the name Khalaj, an Ogur form for the Alat tribe. Without any corroborating attributes, this is only a phonetical speculation.

Khazar was a minor tribe, and it is difficult to accept that it split and a part of the authentic Khazars undertook a perilous migration to Pannonia, or lived there in the pre-conquest period. Likelier, Khazar is an umbrella term covering some non-Khazar nomadic tribe from Khazaria, probably displaced from a different area and joined to the Lebdia's refugees.

Sekler is all over the onomasticon, their appellations come from all corners of the Eurasia: Seklers, Szeklers, Izgils, Esgels, Esegels, Esegs, Esgils, Ezgels, EsegilsIshkil, Ichgil, Äsägel, Askel, Askil, Ch. Asitsze, Pin. Asijie, Sijie, Hermihions. According to the Chinese annals they were a strongest tribe of the Huns, they were a dynastic tribe of the N. Pontic Scythians and their late (and leftover) state in Dobruja, they were a maternal dynastic tribe Asitsze/Asijie of the First Türkic Kaganate and a marital partner of the Ashina tribe, in their name Sekler is visible the stem Sek, the name of the Saka Scythians, with the Türkic pl. suffix -ler/-lar. The Transylvania Seklers most likely are the original Seklers of Dobruja, and the Scythians of the Scythian kingdom in Dobruja. The uniquely Sekler script was used in early inscriptions read in Türkic.

The rundown of the Türkic tribes in Pannonia flags out a constellation of real stars from the Türkic world.

Anthropological studies of the Conquest period in Hungary by Bartucz, Nemeskeri, and Liptak attested that numerically strongest element among the Magyar conquerors was a type characteristic of the Türkic peoples (L. Bartucz, ‘A magyarsag faji osszetetele’, Magyar Statisztikiai Szemle, Budapest, Vol. 17 (1939), pp. 337-49; same author, ‘Die Geschichte der Rassen in Ungarn und das Werden des heutigen ungarischen Volkskorpers’, Ungarische Jahrhiicher, Vol. 19 (1939), pp. 281-320; J. Nemeskeri, ‘Anthropologic des conquerants hongrois’, Revue d'histoire comparee, 1947, pp. 174-80; P. Liptak, ‘Anthropologische Beitriige zum Problem der Ethnogenesis der Altungarn’, Acta Archaelogica Acad. Scient. Hung., Vol .1 (1951), pp. 231-46; same author, ‘Die Entstehung des ungarischen Volkes auf Grund anthropologischer Funde’, Homo, Zeitschrift fiir die vergleichende Forschung am Menschen, Gottingen, Vol. 21 (1970), pp. 197-209.).²¹ This type comprised at least 35 to 40 per cent of the early Hungarians, it formed the leading social stratum of the Hungarian conquerors, and was anthropologically related to the leading classes of the Itil Bulgars in the tenth century.²² That racial type is still fairly dominant among the present-day Hungarians and is generally regarded as the true Hungarian type.²³ We have already referred to the conclusion long accepted by historians that the social and political organization and military tactics of the early Hungarians were characteristic of the Türkic people. The old Hungarian legal customs and institutions, some of which survived to the present, were typical of the Türkic peoples' culture in the second half of the first millenium.²⁴ Hungarian folklore and ethnography show predominantly old Türkic elements,²⁵ including the present-day Hungarian folklore. Archaeological finds attest to a remarkable similarity between the funerary customs, weapons and ornaments of the Conquest period Magyars and the Itil Bulgars. Several characters of the old Sekler (Szekely) script in Transylvania are identical with the Türkic inscriptions dating from the sixth and seventh centuries AD.²⁸ The most ancient stratum of Hungarian folk music is, in its construction, methods and types of melodies, intimately connected with the musical traditions of Türkic peoples.²⁹ It may be safely stated that the musical idiom of the Hungarians is basically Türkic.³⁰ The Hungarian Nimrod legend relays a story of a mythical rape by mythical Belar, the sons of Belar, their wives. In the Türkic history, Bilyar is a people, a country, and a city. The people are the people taken over by the Hunnic or Kangar people (Jetiasar Culture) at about 150 BC, the so called Early Sarmatians. After the takeover, they become Late Sarmatians, with Bilyar women but without Bilyar men. The Bilyar men under a name Sarmatians rolled into the Western Europe, becoming the tribes of the Vandal Wonderers, the progenitors of the Burgunds, Turingians, and XXX. The Bilyar country survived under a new management well into the second millennium AD, it became a domain of the Huns, a country Biarmia, and then of Bulgars, a part of the Itil Bulgaria. The Bilyar city (aka Bulyar) was a first capital of the Itil Bulgaria, it was finally destroyed by the Mongol invasion in 1240s. The Finno-Ugrian people maintained their local autonomy and chieftains, and at the same time they amalgamated with the ruling Türkic tribes. By the time of the Lebedia period, the parallel coexistence and fusion went on for 7-8 centuries. The story of the eastern conquest survived in the Hungarian and Türkic mythology, in the archeological and anthropological records, and in the historical sources.

Biarmia on the map published by Karamzin
Spelled Бiармiя

So, who were those Türkic Hungarians of the conquest? They reached us a Kubars, Kuvars, Kovars, and a few more forms. On them, there are two theories, a generic and a historical.

The generic origin is simple, in Azeri, kübar means noble, magnate, aristocrat, grandee, elite, in our case Kubar is a princely tribe, or a tribe headed by a prince. In such scenario, Kubar is synonymous with Magyar (Madyar, in English spelling), which is also generic and not ethnic. The stem Mag is a cognate of English might, magician, and magnate, with a notion of mighty, great, prominent; and a cognate of Türkic maɣ with a notion of glory, fame, prominence; many other languages can suggest similar cognates. The stem ar in English (teacher, dancer, engineer) and Türkic means man, in that meaning it is synonymous with English people, masses, and Türkic budun, id. In English, Hungarian, and Türkic the compound Magyar means Master People, Rulers. The rulers were Magyars, and the ruled became Magyars, as is the case with French, Russians, Bulgars, English, and many others. The name Biarmia is a calque of the names Magyar and Kübar, Bi is a form of Biy (pronounced Bee-y) and stands for master, prince, ruler, and ar means man, i.e. Master People, Rulers. In Türkic, the Finno-Ugrian people were and still are called with an umbrella term Ars, a non-derogatory synonym of the Scythian Budun (Herodotus' Budini).

The historical theory origin is quite involved and much more poetic. It all started with reconquista by the crumbling Western Türkic Kaganate. In 630, during an internecine conflict in the Western Türkic Kaganate, and misfortunes in the Avar Kaganate, the western-most Bulgarian province of the Türkic, and eastern-most Bulgarian province of the Avar Kaganate used the moment and became an independent state. Prior to that, Bulgaria was split between the Türks and Avars, the division continued for 3 generations with the border running along the Don river. Some other Bulgarian fragments maintained their independence in the spheres of influence along the dividing lines between the two Kaganates and Byzantium. Kurbat of the Dulo dynasty united most of the fragments into a single state called by Constantinus Porphyrogenetus a Great Bulgaria. That state lasted till another family strife in the Western Türkic Kaganate in 660s, when it split, and a looser of the Ashina dynasty went on to organize an independent state in the western territories. In the process, Bulgaria was split again, and its eastern part was subjugated by the unnamed fractional Türkic state. That happened shortly after Kurbat has died, his five sons have divided the inheritance, and Bat-Boyan was raised to the Kagan throne instead of his aged uncle Shambat. Or the aged uncle Shambat was raised to the Kagan throne, and Bat-Boyan became a Shad, a designated successor Prince. Each of the five brothers had a domain to rule, and they united in a disunited union. The other four Bulgarian princes were Kotrag, Asparukh, Cuver, and Altsek. According to the succession hierarchy, Kotrag received Suvar lands west of Don, Asparukh joined Shambat to rule the area from Crimea to Bashtu (Kyiv), Cuver apparently was ruling Levedia populated with his Ugrain subjects, and Altsek apparently was given the western-most area bordering on Avaria. Organizationally, nothing much has changed with the death of Kurbat, except that the nominal head of the state was either Bat-Boyan or Shambat, all princes continued heading their domains in a proper hierarchical order. The first Türkic attack fell on Bat-Boyan, he did not get support from his brothers, his forces were crushed before he could receive any help, and with Cuver he submitted to the Türks. After that, Asparukh fought the Türkic forces for some time running a rearguard war, and finally abandoned Crimea, the adjacent Kara Bulgar province, and the Bashtu area, and rose his subjects to retreat to the west. Separately, the second in the hierarchy Kotrag and the fourth Altsek also started a retreat to the west. The fourth prince and the third in the hierarchy Cuver remained in Levedia, a nominal vassal of Bat-Boyan who in turn was a vassal of newly proclaimed Türkic Kagan from the Ashina dynasty. The Dulo dynasty was in disarray, by 670's partly subjugated and partly dispersed. With the older brothers gone, Cuver stood to inherit the rule upon the Bat-Boyan's death. If the second theory is right, the name Kubars describes the Cuver's tribes, the one large Finno-Ugrian and six to eight smaller Türkic tribes. Probably, most of the Finno-Ugrian people fled from the Levedia with Arpad (Arbat), while the Türkic tribes split and many remained behind. In Levedia, the ethnic proportion could be the opposite, 60/40% with the Türkic majority. That would be consistent with the historical trend of migrants vs. people remaining behind, and reflects that ethnical Türks could hope on the help of their tribesmen neighbors, while the Finno-Ugrian people were surrounded by alien tribes and could not count on much kindness.

Osman Karatay [In Search of the Lost Tribe, 2003, p. 146] expounds on the name Kuver/Kuber (Κουβερ) (ca. 617) from a historical example. The name can be explained in many ways: kuw - er “blessed man”, kû - er “yellow man”, Com. Turk. küwez (Kashgarlı, I, p. 252; II, p. 140) < Oğuro-Bulgar küwer ’’pride, prideful”, with parallel in contemporary Turkic names and surnames like Üriver, Ünal, Sanal, etc. kü - ver “give fame” or kuw - ver “give luck, give consecration”. According to the Jagfar Tarihi, the Burdjans used to call the God as Kubar or Subar (Bahshi Iman, p. 28. The consonants к and s are alternates of each other in Turkic). In the Legend of the Khan's Daughter by Mikail Bashtu, Kubar is the Alp (God) (rather, Archangel) of goodness, killing bandits by sending thunderbolt. Jagfar Tarihi tells about the Kubar people, rising up against the Khazars (pp. 30-31) (ca. 850). They should be called also Subar. Interestingly, Constantine tells that one-part of the Turks (Hungarians) settled in the region of Persia and were called by the ancient denomination of the Turks “Sabartoi Asphaloi” (DAI, pp. 171, 173). These are certainly Sabirs of Azerbaijan and Dagestan (Pritsak wrote an article connecting the Sabirs to the Hungarians, but from another perspective. See From the Sabirs to the Hungarians). The Kabar people (ca. 850) were from the Kurbat line, subjects of the Khazars, but later split off from the Kaganate, and became the leading clan of the Hungarian tribal union (DAI, pp. 175, 177). Name of the forth (Kurbat's) son should be related to this “more Bulgaric” word. Cf. also the eastern Bajanak region/tribal group Κουαρζιτζουρ “Küverchi Chur” (DAI, p. 168). According to Miracula Sancti Demetrii, a Byzantine script telling mostly on the siege of Thessaloniki (ca. 617) by the barbarians, a Bulgar chief called Kuver/Kuber (Κουβερ) was appointed by the Avar Kagan to the leadership of the Byzantine community in the region of Sirmium (Macedonia). But things did not go well and that Kuber broke with the Avar Kagan. Kurbat was in the north of the Caucasus during the Herakleios’ days, while Kuber was acting in Pannonia and Macedonia in the time of Constantine IV (668-685).

The Levedia events between 670s and 830s are unknown, but during that period the subjugated Bulgaria went through a series of 10 rulers, which gives an average 20 years reigning period. Each succession brings a complete shake-up of the ruling hierarchy, with each member climbing to the next higher position in accordance with the Lateral Succession order. The local events also affect the hierarchy, such as death or incapacitation, politics, and rivalry. Probably, Hungarians have changed a sequence of 10-15 Bulgarian rulers over the same period. By 860s, they were ruled by the aged Almysh (Almas) Dulo, who assigned his son Arbat (Arpad) Dulo to lead their evacuation from the Levedia. Arbat (Arpad) headed a force of migrants consisting of, and here start partial radical and conservative speculations:

three tribes of Türkic Kubars: Baryn (Bereny), Savirs (Sabar ~ Szabar), Ases (Eslar-Oslar ~ Eszlar-Oszlar), Khazar (Kazar), Esgels (Seklers ~ Szekely), Alat (Khalaj ~ Kaliz-Kalaz). Six ethnic names are listed as three tribes, so some tribes had ethnically different tribes under a single tribal head. The three Türkic tribes constituted the armed forces of the alliance, they were to rule and to perish in battles.

seven-tribe Magyar confederation, apparently headed by a single head and their tribal heads: Yurmatt (Kürt-Gyarmat), Jeno, Kesi (Keszi), Chir (Ker), Megyer, Nyek, Tarkhan (Tarjan). Eight ethnic names are listed as three tribes, so some tribes had ethnically different tribes under a single tribal head. On top of that Kesi, Ker, Kürt, and Tarkhan carry Türkic appellations. These eight ethnic names cover a the old ruling strata of Türkic Ogurs, presiding over a strata of the Fennic majority. The Türkic Kesi means generic “people”, that leaves Chir (“Prince”), Yurmatt (Bashkort tribe), and Tarkhan to be the Ogur tribes. In the Onogur confederation, the dependent tribes were counted as part of the ruling tribe, they are transparent in the Onogur (Ten Ogur) name, and appear only after the split of the confederation. Unless a better proposal comes, the Fennic tribes were Jeno, Kesi, Megyer, and Nyek. The ruling Fennic tribe was Megyer, as its name attests, possibly also originally Ogur.

Seklers (Esegs of Eastern Europe) are listed with the Türkic Kubar tribes, the Hungarian Seklers are a part of a spread-out population, distributed between upper Itil and Transylvania. Some Seklers may have been living in the areas taken over by the Bajinaks, and fled to Atil-kuzu with the other refugees, joining their tribesmen in Transylvania. As a coherent, but not too large group, at about the same time Esegs established their own principality within inner Itil Bulgaria.

Major population components not sung in the Hungarian conquest legends are the local populations. Before the Hungarian advent, on the cusp of 900s, the prospective territory was populated by nomadic Longobards, ,

These ethnic-linguistic attributions rely on indirect indicators suggested by ethnological, societal, and economical traits. The most reliable indicators are societal: organization of the early Hungary was confederate, paralleling that of the early England, early Rome, early Rus, Khazaria, Poland, and all known Türkic states of antiquity and Early Middle Ages. They all were compacts of pastoral and agricultural populations, with rigid division between the militant pastoralists and dependent sedentary agriculturists. The ethnological indicators are deduced from the known traits of the main Bulgar, Suvar, Scythian, As, Khazar, etc. bodies, versus their farming and hunting dependents. Both the ethnological and societal traits are a product of distinct ranching economy versus the economies of grain production and hunting. Such anecdotal evidence as the record on the Byzantine protocol where the Hungarian rulers were always referred to as the “Princes of the Turks” serve to illustrate the picture of the early Hungarian society.

Being a demographic minority, it was inevitable for the Kubars to switch to the language of the majority. Their religion of Tengriism, which served well for millennia in the societies with the Türkic majority, could not survive intact as a religion of minority. A new, syncretic version of Tengriism had to be adopted as an ideological base of the state that was to unify population and support the reigning model of the society. Within the life of four generations, a Christian model of the Tengriism was superficially adopted by the ruling elite, emphasizing unity instead of division, and using persuasion instead of force. It took 530 years, or 20+ generations, to formally introduce a Hungarian Bible, and get on with persecution of non-compliant Hudoyar (aka Bogomil) monotheism. By that time, the entire power of the state was concentrated in the hands of a small reigning clique, the linguistic and cultural differences leveled off, and the republican form of rule could be dispensed with.

Convergence - Türkic folks and Hungarians
	Kubars