Megjegyzések a magyarokra alkalmazott türk népnév kérdéséhez

Absztrakt

Byzantine authors of the 9th–10th centuries called the Hungarians Turks. Some Muslim and Latin sources also adopted the practice observable in Byzantine sources. The question why the ethnonym Turk was used in connection with Hungarians was the subject of many scholarly works. As the Hungarians lived under Khazar rule for a long period, some scholars thought that the Hungarians received the name from the Khazars. Others assumed that the name Turk in Byzantine sources simply meant 'nomad'. As the Hungarians lived a nomadic life in the 9th century, the Byzantine authors called them by the name Turk legitimately. According to other scholars, this was the consequence of a misunderstanding. Emperor Leo the Wise (886–912) thought that the so-called Maurikios' tactics was mentioning the Hungarians when talking about the tactics and weapons of the Turks ('Inner Asian Turks'). From this time the Byzantine authors called the Hungarians Turks. However, these theories seem to be erroneous. In fact, the Byzantine authors believed that the Hungarians had a common origin with the Central Asian Turk warriors in the army of the Caliphate of Bagdad in the 9th–10th centuries. These warriors were called Turks by the Muslims. Accordingly, the Byzantine authors began to use the name Turk for the Hungarians too.