The Settlement

The official foundation of modern Hungary took place with the Settlement of the Seven Magyar tribes and their Khazar allies after the conquest of the Hungarian "Promised Land", a country that stretches from the Carpathian Mounts along the Danube up to the gates of Germanic Europe over a territory far much greater than present-day Hungary. However, the conquest of the land did not occur at once, but was the result of successive migrations and progressive population of the region, chronologically as follows:

• The Alan/Jász/Yazyg - , one of the components of the Hungarian ancestry, dwelled in the Danube Basin since the dawn of European history. The Yazyg, that may be rightly considered the autochthonous people of the land, were the western branch of the Sarmatians and were already present in the Balkan region in Roman times, dwelling in a vast area between the Black Sea and the Lajta/Leitha river, as it is attested by historic records. Indeed, the Yazyg were allied with Mithridates Eupator of Pontus in his war against Rome in 88 b.c.e., event which places them in south-eastern Thracia. Only ten years later the Romans carried on a punitive expedition against the Yazyg in western Pannonia in 78-76 b.c.e., after their repeated incursions into Roman territory. These facts prove the presence of the Yazyg people over the whole Balkan region. Also the Greek geographer Ptolemy mentions the Jassii dwelling in the area of present-day Szombathely. All evidences show that the Yazyg were in the Carpathian Basin at least two centuries before the Roman conquest of Dacia, and on this basis Hungarians can certainly claim those territories (now occupied by other state). Yet, a pseudo-scientific theory was framed for political reasons: the alleged "Daco-Roman continuity", in order to undermine the right of Hungarian peoples to their ownership of the south-eastern part of the Carpathian Basin, commonly known as Transylvania (a translation of the Hungarian name Erdély, as there is not any original Romanian term for that region the designation Ardeal has no meaning in Romanian but is simply an adaptation of the Magyar name). Erdély/Transylvania is a word that reflects the geographic position of that region with regards to Hungary; actually, from a Romanian viewpoint, that area would be called "Transcarpathia" and not "Transylvania"! The Daco-Roman theory aims at denying the Hungarians' ancestry and heritage. However, it is not the subject of this essay to deal with the true origin of the Vlach or Walachians (now known as Romanians), which would lead us off-topic. For further details on this subject see: Vlach. Documentary evidences show that when the Seven Magyar hosts entered the Carpathian Basin they found there remnants of the Goths, Gepids and Slavic peoples besides their kin-forerunners, Sarmatians, Huns, OnOgurs and Avars, but no trace of any Vlach people established in that area.
  
• The arrival of the Huns by the end of the 4th century c.e. was the first immigration wave from the east. They established the first Hungarian kingdom in Europe and after their withdrawal they left a permanent presence by the Carpathian Mounts: the Székely. The Huns subdued the Gepids, a Germanic people that obliterated the Getæ (Dacians) after the Romans' retreat. They were faithful allies of Attila and played an important role in the battle of Catalaunian Fields, though after his death the Gepids turned against the Huns.
• The Avars settled in Danubian plains since 567 c.e., after having wiped out the Gepids. They were a permanent threat for Byzantium and conquered most of the Balkans until 626 c.e. Another immigration wave came from the east in 680 c.e., the Hunogurs and Kabars, that associated with them in a confederation known as the "Avar Ring", which endured for more than one century although progressively decaying after continuous pressure of Slavs and Bulgars. The Avar Ring came to an end in 791 c.e.
• All these groups - Sarmatians, Huns, Avars, Hunogurs, Kabars and the peoples that they assimilated - were those found in the Carpathian Basin by Árpád's hosts when they conquered the land in 896 c.e., beginning the definitive Settlement and the consolidation of the different tribes in one nation. All these successive migratory waves were connected by a line of ethno-cultural continuity that resulted in the formation of the Hungarian people.

Constantine Porphyrogenitus (913-959) said that "after the Kabars, tribes who had split off from the Khazars and were placed at the head of the Magyar battle order, was the tribe of Neke (Nyék), second that of Megere (Magyar), third Kourtugermatos (Kürt-Gyarmat), fourth Tarianos (Tarján), fifth Genach (Jenő), sixth Kare (Kér) and last that of Kase (Keszi)". Notice the name of this last one, which we have already mentioned in relationship with Kasu/Kasdim.
Since the arrival of Attila's Huns until Árpád's Magyars and allied tribes, there has been a cultural and linguistic continuity in the Carpathian Basin that prevailed over any other influence from the different migration waves of non-related peoples, namely the Slavs (that, coming from the north, consolidated their culture in the south of the Danube-Drava line, but not in the Carpathian Basin), the Germanic tribes and the Roman-Byzantine expansion. The Settlement was the definitive establishment of a people that was longing for the possession of that land since centuries before. The previous kingdoms and realms established by the Huns and the Avars should be considered as stages in the same way as there were Old, Middle and New Kingdoms in ancient Egypt, with intermediate periods, rather than a sequence of separate dominations. Árpád's Magyar-Kabar confederation had not a great trouble in assimilating the remnants of Huns and Avars previously settled, because they shared the same culture, spoke languages intelligible to each other, had the same alphabet (Hun-Magyar-Székely rovásírás), and had the same religion. Otherwise, being the inhabitants of the Carpathian Basin quite more numerous than the newcomers, the Magyar language would have not prevailed long time after the Settlement took place - it is unthinkable that a large majority would have learnt and adopted for themselves a tongue like Hungarian, spoken by invaders, leaving no traces of their presumed former tongue (mainly after the strong Germanization that began only one century after Árpád's conquest; if the mass of the already settled inhabitants did not speak a language closely related to the Magyars' tongue, today Hungary would be a German-speaking country). There are no traces of any cultural contrast either, since the Hun period and throughout the Avar period.

The Shift

During the Settlement and soon after it was completed, Hungarians were considered the dread of Europe and a threat to Christendom (as Vikings later), hence the famous mediaeval prayer "De sagittis hungarorum libera nos, Domine". However, only half a century after Árpád's rule, Prince Taksony sought for peaceful relationships with the European states to meet with their acceptance ‒ after all, the Hungarians did not take the lands from any sovereign nation but settled in a territory that had been rather considered "no man's land", and the establishment of an organized state in the region would have also granted more safety from further invasions from the east. Taksony as well allowed the diffusion of Christianity in his kingdom, without conflict with the ancient culture and traditions, and within the respect of the Blood Covenant. His son and successor, Géza, became a Christian himself, as well as the Gyula of Erdély. These conversions did not affect the Hungarian culture at all - the Hungarian "pagan" religion was not so different from the "monotheistic" Roman Christianity, which as a matter of fact, had and has more idolatrous practices than the old heathen belief, having adopted the Greco-Roman deities and having turned them into patrons under the cover of disciples and saints.
It was Vajk, renamed István, that became a fanatic servant of the Roman church and openly violated the blood covenant of his ancestors. He married a German princess and aimed at making of Hungarians a Germanic people. His reign began with his first bloody action, murdering the legitimate heir to the throne according to the law established by the Blood covenant, by which it was the eldest male within the ruling house the one having the right to succeed the sovereign. We cannot know with certainty who Koppány was, apparently he was not Géza's brother, maybe he was Taksony's grandson through another line (namely, Géza's nephew and Vajk's cousin). In any case, as the accounts were written by Vajk's chroniclers, they contain purposely falsified information and genealogies, omissions and distortions in order to legalize István as the king of Hungary. Many documents were destroyed, as the rovás runic writing was banned and replaced by Latin characters (which are not suitable for Hungarian language; many diacritics and composed letters had to be added in order to represent the phonemes, while rovás had one character for each sound). Even the Bibles already written in rovás were burnt! King István ("the saint") had done away with Hungarian culture and history in the name of Germanization, and for this bravery he has been sanctified by Rome. He devoted himself to obliterate the ancient Hungarian religion in the same way as the "fathers of the church" erased any trace of Judaism from the original Christian belief. We cannot know even if Koppány was a supporter of the old religion or if he opposed Christianity, as Vajk did not only fight against him, but also moved war against Catholic princes: Ajtony of Marosvár and Gyula of Transylvania, his uncle. However, István claimed his wars to be in defence of Christianity, and he soon learnt to apply the methods of annihilation of any religious idea different from the Roman church that were practised in Catholic Europe. His rule does not seem to have been peaceful: by the end of his reign, Vászoly, who was another of his relatives, rebelled against him. Vajk the murderer (István "the saint") made him to be blinded and tortured, and then executed. There is no record of atrocities similar to those committed by István "the saint" in the previous history of Hungarians - surely not by Attila "the Scourge". István had not any living son to succeed him to the throne of Hungary, as they died before him. After a brief period of disputed succession, the house of Árpád was restored when András, the elder son of Vászoly that was exiled in the Kievan Rus', became the king of Hungary. Nevertheless, since that time onwards the ancient cultural heritage had been undergoing an irreversible process of Germanization and the secret of the origins had been perhaps lost forever with the destruction of the documents written in rovás alphabet.

Conclusion

There is still much more to study in depth concerning this topic. As it was said in the preliminary remarks to this essay, here we have presented some hints that may be either confirmed or not by further research and discussion. We are aware that the hypotheses proposed here are not conventional, however, they are founded on historical facts and taking account of research already done by many scholars, most of them Hungarian (Baráth Tibor, Bíró Lajos, Dümmerth Dezső, Gyárfás István, Györffy György, Hámori Alfred, Kiszely István, Lépő Zoltán, Magyar Adorján, Mészáros Gyula, to mention some of them). The purpose of this essay is to contribute with the study of the origins by suggesting that among the ancient documents the key to solve the mystery of the origins may be hidden and waiting to be discovered.