Eastern and Western Hungarians in the Uluses of Chagatai and Jochi

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to identify the links between the groups referred to in the sources of the XIII—XV centuries as “Magyars” or “Hungarians” with nomadic Hungarians or subjects of the Hungarian king who were taken to the east after the Mongol invasion. Traditionally, the first recorded contact between Catholic missionaries and Eastern Hungarians dates back to 1235. However, there is a reason to date the first journey of Julian not to 1234—1235, but to 1221—1222. Julian described two groups of Eastern Hungarians. The first on was located on the territory of the Volga Bulgaria. Those people have already moved to a settled way of life, but have retained the language. The second group — nomadic Hungarians, bordered on the Bulgars from the east. At the time of Julian’s visit to them, they entered into a military alliance with the Jochi Mongols. A year after Julian’s departure in the second half of 1223, the Mongols began a war with the Hungarians and the Eastern Kypchaks. Apparently, it began on the orders of Chagatai, whom Genghis Khan sent to the west along with Jochi. The confrontation between the Eastern Hungarians and the Mongols ended with the subjugation of Greater Hungary in 1236. Part of the Eastern Hungarians moved west to the borders of Rus’, where they lived in the second half of the 15th century. Another group of Hungarians is recorded in the 14th century in the Chagatai ulus. This was an aristocratic group that included someone from the Arpad dynasty, while circumstantial evidence suggests their stable relationship with the Jochids.