Anonymus a 9. századi Kárpát-medence bolgár fejedelmeiről

Abstract

While Romanian historiography has almost expropriated and used the work of the Hungarian Anonymus written around 1210 as a quasi 'national' source concerning the ethnic conditions in the Carpathian Basin at the end of the 9th century, Bulgarian historiography has just discovered Anonymus recently, and on the basis of his information it supposes the presence of Slav and Bulgarian population on large territories of the Carpathian Basin before 895 (the Hungarian conquest) under the power of princes Salanus, Glad and /Menumorout, who had been the subjects of the Bulgarian ruler, and therefore they had been appointed by him. This study refutes this contention. It generally gives judgement against Romanian and Bulgarian scholars for not taking into consideration the work of Anonymus as a whole, and ignoring the results of Hungarian scholars concerning the credibility of Anonymus, but without methodical examination they accept certain contentions of Anonymus, which are favourable for their hypothesis, taking them out of the context of the Gesta. Both general considerations and specific ascertainments suggest that the Bulgarian princes mentioned by Anonymus at the end of the 9th century, among whom Glad and Menumorout are also expropriated by the Romanians, are not real historical figures, but are the products of the imagination of the gesta writer. The name of prince Salanus has evolved from the first part of the toponym 'Szalankemen' (now Slankamen in Yugoslavia), which is mentioned in the gesta as 'Zoloncaman', and is provided with a Latin -us ending. Prince Glad is resurrected by Anonymus from the medieval toponym 'Galad' (now Ghilad in Romania). In the second part of the name of prince Menumorout (-morout) the ethnic name 'Moravian' can be found, in Bihar county two medieval settlements had this name, the first part (Menu-) corresponds with the Hungarian word 'men' meaning male horse, stallion, and refers to the manliness of the bearer. Anonymus himself mentioned that Menumorout had several concubines. The study finally concludes to the fact that Romanian and Bulgarian historiography cannot establish any reliable contentions on the 9th century history of the Romanians" and" Bulgarians on the basis of the information provided by Anonymus.