A new Muslim source on the Hungarians in the second half of tenth century (original) (raw)

The tenth century was the golden age of the Muslim culture. The political centers of the Islamic civilizations such as Buchara in the East, Baghdad and Cairo in the central regions, and Cordova in the West had developed high scientific and literary levels. The neighboring and even remote non-Muslim lands were also well known if they were parts of the worldwide commercial system. Europe was in close contact with Muslim Spain, while Eastern Europe stood in the middle of the area of interest of the Samanids and Baghdad. The Hungarians living in the Carpathian Basin attracted attention from both ends of the Muslim world. The Samanid wazir, al-Űayhání, preserved a discourse on the Hungarians before they conquered the Carpathian Basin. 1 In the tenth century the cartographer al-Balhi and his followers al-Istahri and Ibn Hauqal 2 and the traveler al-Mas'üdl 3 gave accounts of the Hungarians. Most of this information reached Andalusia, as is attested in the Andalusian author al-Bakri's geographical chapters on the Hungarians based on the books of al-Gayhani and al-Mas'üdl. The work of al-Bakri, entitled The Book of Routes and Kingdoms, was published in parts until recently. In the 1970s Károly Czeglédy discovered a new Andalusian Muslim source concerning 1 T. Lewicki, trôdla arabskie do dziejôw slowianszczyzny. [Arabic sources on the history of the Slavs] T. 2/2. Wroclaw-Warszawa-Kraköw 1977, 32-35, 94-107; H. Göckenjan-I. Zimonyi, Orientalische Berichte über die Völker Osteuropas und Zentralasiens im Mittelalter.

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