The earliest evidence of a Magyar presence in the steppes north of the Black Sea may be dated to the early 860s. Just before his departure from Crimea for his mission to the Khazars, Constantine-Cyril is said to have encountered Magyars who fell upon him "howling like wolves and wishing to kill him." Constantine's "edifying words" miraculously persuaded them "to release him and his entire retinue in peace." If, as has been recently suggested, the source for Al-Jayhani's account of the Magyars nomadizing in the steppe lands north of the Black Sea may be dated to ca. 870, we have an independent confirmation of the evidence of the Old Church Slavonic Life of Constantine, which survives only in late manuscripts. At any rate, both sources substantiate what it is otherwise known from a tenth-century Byzantine chronicle, namely that in 836 or 837, the Magyars raided the Lower Danube region as Bulgar allies in an attempt to prevent the intervention of the Byzantine fleet on behalf of the Byzantine prisoners that had been moved north of the Danube after the Bulgar ruler Krum had taken Adrianople in 813. But in the late 830s, when they controlled the steppe to the north and northwest of the Black Sea, the Magyars seem to have been newcomers in that region. They quickly established a firm control over the entire steppe corridor between the Don and the Lower Danube. As a consequence, Rus envoys to Constantinople found themselves in the embarassing position of not being able to return home through the steppes north of the Black Sea. They had to take a detour through Ingelheim on the Rhine, where they appeared on 18 May 839 together with an embassy from the Byzantine emperor Theophilus. About the same time, the Khazars apparently grew worried about raids from the western steppes and demanded assistance from the Byzantine emperor for the building of a fortress to control access across the Don from the steppe lands to the west of that river. In the region between the Dnieper and the Lower Danube rivers, the presence of the Magyars is signaled by the sudden appearance of fortified settlements, such as those erected at the border between the steppe and the steppe-forest belt, on the left bank of the Dniester River,at Alcedar and Echimăuţi (present-day Republic of Moldova). However, there is so far very little archaeological evidence pertaining to the momentous political changes taking place in the steppe corridor north and northwest of the Black Sea in the aftermath of the Magyar migration into the region. All burial assemblages traditionally associated with Magyars that were found in that region (Probota, in eastern Romania; Sadovaia Vishniia and Subbotica, in southwestern Ukraine) cannot be dated earlier than ca. 900 and thus have nothing to do with the Magyars whom Constantine and Methodius have met in the 800s. However, more recent research has revealed the presence of new styles (palmette decoration) and practices (hoards of silverware and jewels) that may have been associated with the rise of a new elite among the Magyars on the eve of their migration to the Carpathian basin in the 890s.
It is from this region north of the Black Sea that the Magyars made their first appearance in Central Europe. They appear in 863 as allies of the Moravian prince Rastislav against Louis the German. Under Sviatopolk, Arnulf of Carinthia's enemy of 892, another Magyar incursion reached Vienna in 881. In both cases, the Franks called for the military assistance of the (Danube) Bulgars, an indication that the bases from which the Magyar warriors launched their attacks into Central Europe were not far from the northern borders of Bulgaria. However, the Magyars eventually switched sides and appear in the subsequent years as Arnulf's allies against the Moravians. In the Lower Danube region, they appear as Byzantine clients. Emperor Leo VI relied on them during the Byzantine-Bulgar war of 893. A Byzantine embassy crossed the Danube to the Hungarian chieftains Arpad and Kusan and bribed them to attacking Symeon, the new ruler of Bulgaria. The Magyar campaign across the Danube forced Symeon to withdraw to Silistra, but the Bulgars called for assistance the Pechenegs, who destroyed the settlements of the Magyars in the steppe and forced them to migrate to the Carpathian Basin, an event dated to 896.
Florin CurtaSource:
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