Mythical Hun King

In other languages usually both names are used to identify the nation, though it seems that in the Middle Ages they were not exactly equivalent, and that Magyar-related terms referred to the language most widely spoken by the inhabitants of the Hun-related lands. It is a commonplace that the name Hungaria is connected with the Hun peoples. When in the year 4656 (896 c.e.) the Magyars, coming from the east, started multitude of raiding parties that recalled to Western Europeans’ mind the invasions of Attila, they were called “Hungars”, not Magyars. Of course, Hungarus is not exactly Hun; and even though the two names resemble each other, there is a “g” added to “Hun” that has not any apparent linguistic explanation. Where this “g” might have come from will be explained furtherly.
In 5248 (1488 c.e.) it was published a printed chronicle, Chronica Hungarorum (Thuroczy, 1488). All the four authors were high members of the royal administration; so the texts must reflect the official opinion about Hungarian history. All of them suggest a direct connection between Attila the Hun and the Hungarian kings. The chronicle was written in Latin. It is recurrent in the text the “Hunni, sive Hungari” expression, that does not need any explanation because of the similarity of the names. However the usual Magyar translation is “hunok, azaz magyarok”, “Huns, namely Magyars”, which means a nontrivial identification. Still, this equation is also explicit in the chronicle, that refers to the two forefathers of the nation, two Biblical patriarchs, Nimrod the “great hunter before Elohim” (and king of the Sumerians) and Magog, son of Yephet (ancestor of the Scythians). Nimrod’s wife was Eneh, and their two sons were Hunor & Magor. Once they went to hunt a white female deer, who led them to new lands in the marshes of Maiotis. Thence came the Hungarian nation, according to the legend.
Nevertheless, the term “Hungarus” may have another origin: Attila’s son Irnak re-organized the Hun hordes in the Volga-Don area. According to Bulgarian history, Asparuch, the founder of present Balkan Bulgaria in 4441 (681 c.e.) belonged to the lineage of Irnak, who was the head of the Bulgarian dynasty. Therefore, it is certain the fact that Irnak organized a new tribal alliance in the Maiotis region. The tribes associated in this “Bulgarian” alliance are called Onogur. “On Ogur” means Ten Tribe[s] or Ten Arrow[s], tribes symbolised by arrows. Even though in modern Turkish the expression would be On Oguz, the form “ogur” is characteristic for a well defined minority group of Turkic languages, of which a surviving one is the Chuvash, spoken by the direct descendants of the Volga Bulgars. Being these ten tribes an alliance of Hun peoples (or predominantly composed by Huns), they are as well called “Hun Ogur”, meaning Hun Tribe[s]. Therefore, the name “Hungaria” may come from Hunogur, and the “g” missing in the word Hun is now explained. Notwithstanding, some Magyar historians that are overcautious about Hun-Magyar connections, suggest that the name of Hungary comes from Onogur, being the “h” a later addition. Indeed, in some languages the initial “h” is missing, like in German (Ungarn) or Romanian (Ungur), and the initial “u” became “v” in Slavic languages.
Some historians suggested a possible identification of the Huns with the Xiung-nu (or Hsiung-nu) of the Chinese chronicles, but it has still not been proven. Nevertheless, there is another people in China closely related to the Huns, and recent discoveries show amazing resemblances with Hungarians: the Uyghurs, whose land is historically called “Dzhungharia”. Uyghurs played important roles in the Asiatic Hun empire during about six centuries, and then in the Kök Turk kingdom, from which Khazars arose. Even being so far away, their relationship with Huns and Khazars are significant so much that they seem to be the eastern counterpart of the Magyars. The Uyghur archaeological evidence is important to confirm the Hun-Magyar connection as well, crediting the historicity of the original account from which the Hungarian legends came.

There are two main mythical accounts regarding the origin of Hungarians: one is the legend of the ” White Stag”, frequently mentioned before, that describes the story of Nimrod’s sons, Hunor and Magor. They were pursuing a female stag that led them into a foreign land and there she vanished without leaving any trace. The disappointed hunters met there two sisters, princesses of the Alans, kidnapped and married them. Thus they became the forefathers of Huns and Magyars. There is another version of this legend (in Simon Kézai’s “Gesta Hungarorum”), according to which the two brothers arrived in the marshes of Maiotis while pursuing a hind that they did not find any more. Anyway, they found the land suitable for raising livestock, and settled there. After some years, they married the two daughters of the prince of the Alans, and became the forefathers of all the Huns (Magyars are not mentioned in this version).
This legend in both versions acknowledges a third party, the Alans, who actually contributed to the ethnogenesis of modern Hungarians. The stag is relevant in Scythian mythology, and this legend remarks the Scythian origin of Hungarians.
The second account is the legend of the Turul Hawk, mentioned before, that belongs to the Sumerian ancestry. The Turul is the symbol of both the house of Attila the Hun and the Magyar dynasty of Árpád. The mythical story explains that Ãœgyek, a descendant of Magog, was the king of Scythians and married Emeshe, a Sumerian princess, from whom Álmos was born after a Turul hawk came from heaven and made her fertile. In the same vision, she saw her descendants to be kings in a far away land in the west. The characteristic aspect of this legend, that credits the actual Sumerian origin of Magyars, is that Álmos is described as dark complexioned and black-eyed (indeed, it would seem rather unexplainable that Hungarians and Ethiopians share a common ancestor, Kush, but the original nations should have been very few in the dawn of history, becoming many diversified peoples by migration and mixture). It is also remarkable the fact that in modern Hungarian the name Álmos means sleepy/dreamer, but the ancient Ugrian form of the word dream was Adom, Adam, similar to the Hebrew for “man”. Álmos was the father of Árpád, the founder of modern Hungary.
Hungarians today call themselves “Magyar”. This name, as it was said before, is likely related to the ancient land of Magar or Matiene and the Mitanni people in Northern Mesopotamia. However, since their myth of origins is more explicitly referred to the ancient Sumerians, it is interesting to notice that Sumerians called themselves and their language “Emegir” (a word with apparent resemblance with Magyar), and their country was called Kiengi.
With certainty, Hungarians had multiple origins. The Magyars were the leading tribe of the alliance that conquered the Danubian Basin in 4656 (896 c.e.). They found there the remnants of the Avars, from 4328 (568 c.e.), and also the Hunogurs dwelling there from 4440 (680 c.e.). Hunogurs and Magyars indeed shared a long-lasting relationship in Khazaria, either alliance or rivalry. Magyars were first allied with the Khazars against the Hunogur/Bulgar tribes, in a subsequent period the rebel Khazars (Kabars) and Hunogur clans joined the Magyars. -The term Hunogur is often used as equivalent to Bulgar, what is not thoroughly exact. Bulgars had for a long time a prevailing position in the Hunogur complex, but in later times the Hunogurs sealed alliance with the Magyars.-
Magyars were organized in a confederacy of seven tribes. The Alliance of Hetmagyar [Seven Magyars] was a border defender ally of Khazaria mainly during the reign of Kings Bulan and Ovadyah. The Alliance of Seven Magyar consisted of the following tribes: Jenô, Kér, Keszi, Kürt-Gyarmat, Megyer, Nyék, Tarján. The Kabars joined them later, when they turned against the Khazars. Some of these seven tribes were probably part of the On-Ogur [ten tribes], consequently, Magyars took the leadership of part of the Hunogurs dwelling in Khazaria and started their move to the west. When they reached the Carpathian-Danubian Basin, they came across other Hunogur tribes dwelling there since about two centuries before, and those settled there with the Avars. The migration from Khazaria and Levedia to the present-day Hungary was completed after the collapse of the Khazar Empire, with many Khazars taking refuge in the realm of their old allies and rivals. Other groups like Kiptchaks (Kumans), Yazygs (Sarmatians), etc. added their contribution in composing the modern Hungarian nation.
Even though the largest number of the Magyars migrated westwards, many remained in the Caucasus and others moved north between the Volga Bulgarian land and the Ural Mountains, present-day Bashkiria. Indeed, four of the seven Hungarian tribal names (Yeney/Jenô, Djurmati/Gyarmat, Tamyan/Tarján, Girei/Kér) are still found in Bashkiria. The very term “Bashkir” is a Turkic misspelling of Magyar, and neighbouring peoples call the Bashkirs in a similar way as Hungarians call themselves (Mozerjan/Magyar). When the Mongols invaded Hungary they had previously run over the Bashkirs’ land, and applied the same name to both Hungarians and the Bashkirs of the Urals. Early Persian and Arab references relate both peoples as the eastern and western branches of the Hungarians. However, modern Bashkirs are quite different from their original stock, largely decimated during the Mongol invasion, and assimilated into Turkic peoples.
The definitive establishment of the Hungarian nation in the Danubian area was completed with the “Hungarian Resettlement”; nevertheless, in the Carpathian Basin, usually defined as Transylvania (Erdély, Ardeal), there is a consistent Hungarian population that is historically not related to the Seven Magyars alliance: they are the Székely, the main ethnic component of the Hungarian minority in Romania. They are fully acknowledged as Magyars, and according to their own tradition, they are Huns - thus explicitly confirming the identity of Magyars as a Hun tribe.
The legend of their origins identifies in a mythical way Irnak (Attila’s son) with an ancient legendary hero, Csaba, thus tracing their own ancestry back to a much earlier age, relating themselves not only with the Huns, but with Hurrians and Sumerians as well. Indeed, the legend of Csaba the shepherd and guardian of the people was originally written in Sumerian. He married a Khwarezmian woman, and Khwarezm was founded by the Hurrians. There are also Indian accounts that credit historicity to the origin of this legend, regarding the Scythians of the Csaba tribe from Khwarezm, part of which migrated and settled in India.
The Székely people’s tradition states that after Attila’s empire collapsed, his youngest and favourite son Ernák (Prince Csaba), led them to settle in Transylvania, and they consider themselves to be the descendants of the army of Csaba. He left Örmedzur as their chief. The Hungarian term “ör” means guard, “medzur” actually sounds like an archaic form of Madzar (Magyar), the ruling tribe found amongst eastern Scythians . Therefore, Ör-medzur is likely a title meaning “Magyar guard”.
The Székely people’s origin is a matter of historical controversy. It is certain that they were settled in the Carpathian Basin in early times, not only long before the Seven Magyar tribes left their homeland in Khazaria and Levedia, but also before the Bulgarians reached the Balkans. Scholarly accounts of Székely sources state that they were Huns, disclaiming any other possible ethnicity. When the Seven Magyars met them, they found a people speaking the very same language, and having the same Runic writing system, called Rovás (Hun/Magyar/Székely Rovásírás). Also the ” Tarihi Ãœngürüs” confirms the great affinity between both peoples and their common language, a remarkable fact considering that they were geographically separated from each other for at least three or four centuries.

To conclude, we can say with certainty that the Magyars were originally Huns, and probably one of the Hunogur tribes, consequently, very closely related to the Bulgars. Their ancestry concerning Biblical patriarchs can be traced to Kush, forefather of the Sumerians, and Magog, the Scythians. Since the Alans have also contributed, their third ancestor is Meshekh.
As it was stated in the beginning of this chapter, they have been in some way related with the Israelites in different times along history. In fact, Avraham was an inhabitant of Ur and had Sumerian neighbours; then he settled in Charan, that is Subartu and Magor, the land of the Hurrites and Mitanni. Centuries later, the Northern Israelites were exiled in Assyria and Media, and from those lands most of them migrated eastwards, as many of them have been living in China until recent times. It is even possible that intermarriage occurred with Huns, as well as with Khazars. Since the fifth century b.c.e., Jews settled in Central Asia and around the Caspian Sea established peaceful exchange with the Huns and the other peoples of the region. Then, the Khazar leadership adopted Judaism. After the Khazar Empire collapsed, many Khazarian Jews took refuge in Hungary. The Hungarian Jewry enjoys a rich cultural heritage from both east and west, and has actively contributed in the development of modern Hungary.
[ Original Source: http://www.imninalu.net/Huns.htm]