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Székelys

The Székelys (pronounced [ˈseːkɛj], Székely runes: 𐳥𐳋𐳓𐳉𐳗‎), also referred to as Szeklers,[b] are a Hungarian subgroup[5][6] living mostly in the Székely Land in Romania. In addition to their native villages in Suceava County in Bukovina, a significant population descending from the Székelys of Bukovina currently lives in Tolna and Baranya counties in Hungary and certain districts of Vojvodina, Serbia.

Székelys
Total population
est. 500,000–700,000[a][2][3][4]
Regions with significant populations
Romania (Harghita, Covasna, parts of Mureș as well as some villages in Suceava County, Bukovina), Hungary (Tolna and Baranya), Serbia (Vojvodina)
Languages
Hungarian
Religion
Roman Catholic (majority)
Hungarian Reformed, Unitarian
Related ethnic groups
Hungarians, Csángós, Jasz

In the Middle Ages, the Székelys played a role in the defense of the Kingdom of Hungary against the Ottomans[7][8] in their posture as guards of the eastern border. With the Treaty of Trianon of 1920, Transylvania (including the Székely Land) became part of Romania, and the Székely population was a target of Romanianization efforts.[9] In 1952, during the communist rule of Romania, the former counties with the highest concentration of Székely population – Mureș, Odorhei, Ciuc, and Trei Scaune – were legally designated as the Magyar Autonomous Region. It was superseded in 1960 by the Mureș-Magyar Autonomous Region, itself divided in 1968 into two non-autonomous counties, Harghita and Mureș.[10] In post-Cold War Romania, where the Székelys form roughly half of the ethnic Hungarian population, members of the group have been among the most vocal of Hungarians seeking an autonomous Székely region in Transylvania.[11] They were estimated to number about 860,000 in the 1970s and are officially recognized as a distinct minority group by the Romanian government.[10]

Today's Székely Land roughly corresponds to the Romanian counties of Harghita, Covasna, and central and eastern Mureș where they currently make up roughly 80% of the population. Based on the official 2011 Romanian census, 1,227,623[12] ethnic Hungarians live in Romania, mostly in the region of Transylvania, making up 19.6% of the population of this region. Of these, 609,033 live in the counties of Harghita, Covasna, and Mureș, which taken together have a Hungarian majority (58%).[13] The Hungarians in Székely Land, therefore, account for half (49.41%) of the Hungarians in Romania. When given the choice on the 2011 Romanian census between ethnically identifying as Székely or as Hungarian, the overwhelming majority of the Székelys chose the latter – only 532 persons declared themselves as ethnic Székely.[1]

History edit

The Székely territories came under the leadership of the Count of the Székelys (Latin: Comes Siculorum), initially a royal appointee from the non-Székely Hungarian nobility who was de facto a margrave; from the 15th century onward, the voivodes of Transylvania held the office themselves. The Székelys were considered a distinct ethnic group (natio Siculica)[14] and formed part of the Unio Trium Nationum ("Union of Three Nations"), a coalition of three Transylvanian estates, the other two "nations" being the (also predominantly Hungarian) nobility and the Saxons (that is, ethnic German burghers). These three groups ruled Transylvania from 1438 onward, usually in harmony though sometimes in conflict with one another. During the Long Turkish War, the Székelys formed an alliance with Prince Michael the Brave of Wallachia against the army of Andrew Báthory, recently appointed Prince of Transylvania.

In the Middle Ages, the Székelys played a role in the defense of the Kingdom of Hungary against the Ottomans in their posture as guards of the eastern border.[15] Nicolaus Olahus stated in the book Hungaria et Athila in 1536 that "Hungarians and Székelys share the same language, with the difference that the Székelys have their own words specific to their nation." [16][17][18] The people of Székelys were in general regarded as the most Hungarian of Hungarians. In 1558, a Hungarian poet, Mihály Vilmányi Libécz voiced this opinion, instructing the reader in his poem that if they had doubts about the correctness of the Hungarian language: "Consult without fail the language of the ancient Székelys, for they are the guardians of the purest Hungarian tongue".[19]

Origins edit

The origin of the Székelys has been much debated. It is now generally accepted that they are descendants of Hungarians. The Székelys have historically claimed descent from Attila's Huns[10] and believed they played a special role in shaping Hungary. Ancient legends recount that a contingent of Huns remained in Transylvania, later allying with the main Hungarian army that conquered the Carpathian Basin in the 9th century. The thirteenth-century chronicler Simon of Kéza also claimed that the Székely people descended from Huns who lived in mountainous lands prior to the Hungarian conquest.[20]

They, having set forth from the island, riding through the sand and flow of the Tisza, crossed at the harbour of Beuldu, and, riding on, they encamped beside the Kórógy river, and all the Székelys, who were previously the peoples of King Attila, having heard of Usubuu’s fame, came to make peace and of their own will gave their sons as hostages along with divers gifts and they undertook to fight in the vanguard of Usubuu’s army, and they forthwith sent the sons of the Székelys to Duke Árpád, and, together with the Székelys before them, began to ride against Menumorout.

These Székelys were the remains of the Huns, who when they learned that the Hungarians had returned to Pannonia for the second time, went to the returnees on the border of Ruthenia and conquered Pannonia together.

They were afraid of the western nations that they would suddenly attack them, so they went to Transylvania and did not call themselves Hungarians, but Székelys. The western clan hated the Huns in Attila's life. The Székelys are thus the remnants of the Huns, who remained in the mentioned field until the return of the other Hungarians. So when they knew that the Hungarians would return to Pannonia again, they hurried to Ruthenia to them, conquering the land of Pannonia together.

It is said that in addition to the Huns who escorted Csaba, from the same nation, three thousand more people retreating, cut themselves out of the said battle, remained in Pannonia, and first established themself in a camp called Csigla's Field. They were afraid of the Western nations which they harassed in Attila's life, and they marched to Transylvania, the frontier of the Pannonian landscape, and they did not call themselves Huns or Hungarians, but Siculus, in their own word Székelys, so that they would not know that they are the remnants of the Huns or Hungarians. In our time, no one doubts, that the Székelys are the remnants of the Huns who first came to Pannonia, and because their people do not seem to have been mixed with foreign blood since then, they are also more strict in their morals, they also differ from other Hungarians in the division of lands. They have not yet forgotten the Scythian letters, and these are not inked on paper, but engraved on sticks skillfully, in the way of the carving. They later grew into not insignificant people, and when the Hungarians came to Pannonia again from Scythia, they went to Ruthenia in front of them with great joy, as soon as the news of their coming came to them. When the Hungarians took possession of Pannonia again, at the division of the country, with the consent of the Hungarians, these Székelys were given the part of the country that they had already chosen as their place of residence.

 
Székely people in the Kingdom of Hungary

After the theory of Hunnic descent lost scholarly currency in the 20th century, two substantial ideas emerged about Székely ancestry:[25]

  • Some scholars suggested that the Székelys were simply Magyars,[25] like other Hungarians, transplanted in the Middle Ages to guard the frontiers. Researchers could not prove that Székelys spoke a different language.[25] In this case, their strong cultural differences from other Hungarians stem from centuries of relative isolation in the mountains.
  • Others suggested Turkic origin as Avar, Kabar or Esegel-Bulgar ancestries,[25] or even Tiele ancestry [26]
  • According to a new model,[27] the Székelys are the descendants of those "wanderers" who ran away from the feudal state and the landlord system mostly during the 11th and 12th centuries. These parasocial groups settled in border regions and hard-to-reach places (forests, swamps) down where the institutional vacuum allowed them to found independent communities. The Hungarian kings reintegrated these groups into the kingdom's society from the beginning of the 12th century. The ʿApiru, Cossacks, Maroons and Hungarian Hajdúk offer an analogy for the process.

Some historians have dated the Székely presence in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains as early as the fifth century,[25] and found historical evidence that the Székelys were part of the Avar[11] confederation during the so-called Dark Ages, but this does not mean that they were ethnically Avar.

Research indicates that Székelys spoke Hungarian.[28] Toponyms at the Székely settlement area also give proof of their Hungarian mother tongue.[28] The Székely dialect does not have more Bulgaro-Turkish loan-words derived from before the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin than standard Hungarian does.[28] Even if the Székelys had been a Turkic stock they had to have lost their original vernacular at a very early date.[28]

Genetics edit

An autosomal analysis,[29] studying non-European admixture in Europeans, found 4.4% of admixture of East Asian/Central Asian among Hungarians, which was the strongest among sampled populations. It was found at 3.6% in Belarusians, 2.5% in Romanians, 2.3% in Bulgarians and Lithuanians, 1.9% in Poles and 0% in Greeks. The authors stated "This signal might correspond to a small genetic legacy from invasions of peoples from the Asian steppes (e.g., the Huns, Magyars, and Bulgars) during the first millennium."

Among 100 Hungarian men (90 of them from the Great Hungarian Plain), the following haplogroups and frequencies are obtained:[30]

Haplogroup R1a R1b I2a1 J2 E1b1b1a I1 G2 J1 I* E* F* K*
Frequency 30% 15% 13% 13% 9% 8% 3% 3% 3% 1% 1% 1%

The 97 Székelys belong to the following haplogroups:[30]

Haplogroup R1b R1a I1 J2 J1 E1b1b1a I2a1 G2 P* E* N
Frequency 20% 19% 17% 11% 10% 8% 5% 5% 3% 1% 1%

It can be inferred that Szekelys have more significant German admixture.[why?] A study sampling 45 Palóc from Budapest and northern Hungary, found[31]

Haplogroup R1a R1b I E G J2
Frequency 60% 13% 11% 9% 2% 2%

A study estimating possible Inner Asian admixture among nearly 500 Hungarians based on paternal lineages only, estimated it at 5.1% in Hungary, at 7.4% in Székelys and at 6.3% at Csangos.[32] It has boldly been noted that this is an upper limit by deep SNPs and that the main haplogroups responsible for that contribution are J2-M172 (negative M47, M67, L24, M12), J2-L24, R1a-Z93, Q-M242 and E-M78, the last of which is typically European, while N is still negligible (1.7%). In an attempt to divide N into subgroups L1034 and L708, some Hungarian, Sekler, and Uzbek samples were found to be L1034 SNP positive, while all Mongolians, Buryats, Khanty, Finnish, and Roma samples showed a negative result for this marker. The 2,500-year-old SNP L1034 was found typical for Mansi and Hungarians, the closest linguistic relatives.[33]

Demographics edit

The Székely live mainly in Harghita, Covasna and Mureș counties. They identify themselves as Hungarians, but they maintain a somewhat distinct ethnic identity from other Hungarians.[34] Hungarians form a majority of the population in the counties of Covasna and Harghita. They were estimated to number about 860,000 in the 1970s and are officially recognized as a distinct minority group by the Romanian government.[10]

County Hungarians % of county population
Harghita 257,707 84.62%
Covasna 150,468 73.74%
Mureș 200,858 38.09%

The Székelys of Bukovina, today settled mostly in Vojvodina and southern Hungary, form a culturally separate group with its own history.[citation needed]

Autonomy edit

 
Székely pottery (stove tile)

An autonomous Székely region existed between 1952 and 1968. First created as the Magyar Autonomous Region in 1952, it was renamed the Mureș-Magyar Autonomous Region in 1960. Ever since the abolition of the Mureș-Magyar Autonomous Region by the Ceaușescu regime in 1968, some of the Székely have pressed for their autonomy to be restored. Several proposals have been discussed within the Székely Hungarian community and by the Romanian majority. One of the Székely autonomy initiatives is based on the model of the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia.[35] A major peaceful demonstration was held in 2006 in favor of autonomy.[36]

In 2013 and 2014, thousands of ethnic Hungarians marched for autonomy on 10 March (on the Székely Freedom Day) in Târgu Mureș, Romania.[37] 10 March is the anniversary of the execution in Târgu Mureș in 1854, by the Austrian authorities, of three Székelys who tried to achieve national self-determination.[38] Since 2015, the Székelys also have the Székely Autonomy Day, celebrated every last Sunday of October.[39]

Literature edit

 
Demonstration for the Autonomy of Székely Land – 2013, Budapest

Áron Tamási, a 20th-century Székely writer from Lupeni, Harghita, wrote many novels about the Székely which set universal stories of love and self-individuation against the backdrop of Székely village culture. Other Székely writers include the folklorist Elek Benedek, the novelist József Nyírő and the poet Sándor Kányádi.[citation needed]

In popular culture edit

In Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, Count Dracula is a Székely. In the beginning of the novel, Dracula asserts:

“We Szekelys have a right to be proud, for in our veins flows the blood of many brave races who fought as the lion fights, for lordship. Here, in the whirlpool of European races, the Ugric tribe bore down from Iceland the fighting spirit which Thor and Wodin gave them, which their Berserkers displayed to such fell intent on the seaboards of Europe, ay, and of Asia and Africa too, till the peoples thought that the were-wolves themselves had come. [...] Is it a wonder that we were a conquering race; that we were proud; that when the Magyar, the Lombard, the Avar, the Bulgar, or the Turk poured his thousands on our frontiers, we drove them back? Is it strange that when Arpad and his legions swept through the Hungarian fatherland he found us here when he reached the frontier; that the Honfoglalas was completed there? And when the Hungarian flood swept eastward, the Szekelys were claimed as kindred by the victorious Magyars, and to us for centuries was trusted the guarding of the frontier of Turkey-land; ay, and more than that, endless duty of the frontier guard, for, as the Turks say, ‘water sleeps, and enemy is sleepless.’ [...] The Szekelys—and the Dracula as their heart’s blood, their brains, and their swords—can boast a record that mushroom growths like the Hapsburgs and the Romanoffs can never reach.”


Symbols edit

The flag and coat of arms of the Székelys as approved by the Szekler National Council, one of the main political organizations of the Székelys.[40]

The Sun and Moon are the symbols of the Székelys, and are used in the coat of arms of Transylvania and on the Romanian national coat of arms. The Sun and the Moon, the symbols of the cosmic world, are known from Hungarian grave findings from the period of the Hungarian conquest.[41] After the Hungarians became Christians in the 11th century, the importance of these icons became purely visual and symbolic. The Székelys have succeeded in preserving traditions to an extent unusual even in Central and Eastern Europe. A description of the Székely Land and its traditions was written between 1859 and 1868 by Balázs Orbán in his Description of the Székely Land.

Image gallery edit

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ 532 of them declared themselves as Székely rather than Hungarian at the 2011 Romanian census.[1]
  2. ^ Hungarian: székelyek; Romanian: secui; German: Szekler; Latin: Siculi; Serbian: Секељи, romanizedSekelji; Slovak: Sikuli

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Nota metodologica" (PDF). Insse.ro. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. ^ Archivum Ottomanicum, Volume 20, Mouton, 2002, original from: the University of Michigan, p. 66, Cited: "A few tens of years ago the Szekler population was estimated at more than 800.000, but now they are probably ca. 500.000 in number."
  3. ^ Piotr Eberhardt. Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-century Central-Eastern ... Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  4. ^ Judit Tóth and Endre Sík, "Joining and EU: integration of Hungary or the Hungarians?" In: Willfried Spohn, Anna Triandafyllidou, Europeanisation, National Identities and Migration: Changes in Boundary Constructions between Western and Eastern Europe, Psychology Press, 2012, p. 228
  5. ^ Ramet, Sabrina P. (1992). Protestantism and politics in eastern Europe and Russia: the communist and postcommunist eras. Vol. 3. Duke University Press. p. 160. ISBN 9780822312413. ...the Szekler community, now regarded as a subgroup of the Hungarian people.
  6. ^ Sherrill Stroschein, Ethnic Struggle, Coexistence, and Democratization in Eastern Europe, Cambridge University Press, 2012, p. 210 Cited: "Székely, a Hungarian sub-group that is concentrated in the mountainous Hungarian enclave"
  7. ^ "székely határőrvidék – Magyar Katolikus Lexikon".
  8. ^ Piotr Eberhardt (January 2003). Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-century Central-Eastern Europe. M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, N.Y. and London, England, 2003. ISBN 978-0-7656-0665-5.
  9. ^ Ramet, Sabrina P. (1997). "The Hungarians of Transylvania". Whose Democracy?: Nationalism, Religion, and the Doctrine of Collective Rights in Post-1989 Eastern Europe. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 67–69. ISBN 978-0-8476-8324-6.
  10. ^ a b c d "Szekler people". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  11. ^ a b "Székely". Columbia Encyclopedia. 2008. Retrieved 25 January 2009.
  12. ^ Romanian Population census of 2011 17 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine (in Romanian)  – recensamant 2002 --> rezultate --> 4. Populatia Dupa Etnie
  13. ^ "CESCH- Recensamant Populatie 2011 CV Hr". Scribd.com. 27 March 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  14. ^ "The Székelys in Transylvania". Mek.niif.hu. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  15. ^ Piotr Eberhardt (January 2003). Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-century Central-Eastern Europe. M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY and London, England, 2003. ISBN 978-0-7656-0665-5.
  16. ^ Csukovits, Enikő (2005). Késő középkori leírások Erdély-képe [Image of Transylvania in late medieval descriptions] (PDF) (in Hungarian). Hungari et Siculi eadem lingua utuntur, nisi quod Siculi quaendam peculiaria gentis suae habeant vocabula
  17. ^ Olahus, Nicolaus. Hungaria et Athila (PDF) (in Latin).
  18. ^ Szigethy, Gábor (2003). Oláh Miklós: Hungária (in Hungarian).
  19. ^ Makkai, László (2001). "The Three Feudal 'Nations' and the Ottoman Threat". History of Transylvania Volume I. From the Beginnings to 1606 - III. Transylvania in the Medieval Hungarian Kingdom (896–1526) - 3. From the Mongol Invasion to the Battle of Mohács. Columbia University Press, (The Hungarian original by Institute of History Of The Hungarian Academy of Sciences). ISBN 0-88033-479-7.
  20. ^ Kevin Brook: Jews of Khazaria, Rowman & Littlefield Publisher, UK, 2006, p. 170 [1]
  21. ^ "Anonymus, Notary of King Béla: The Deeds of the Hungarians" (PDF).
  22. ^ Simon of Kéza: Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum
  23. ^ Mark of Kalt: Chronicon Pictum
  24. ^ "Thuróczy János: Magyarok krónikája (1488)" (PDF). thuroczykronika.atw.hu.
  25. ^ a b c d e Cathy O'Grady, Zoltán Kántor and Daniela Tarnovschi, Hungarians of Romania, In: Panayote Dimitras (editor), Center for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe — Southeast Europe (CEDIME-SE) Minorities in Southeast Europe, Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center, 2001, p. 5
  26. ^ Aydemir, Hakan (15–16 November 2019). "A székely eredetkérdés megoldása (Solution of the szekely origin question)". A népvándorláskor kutatóinak XXIX. Konferenciája (29th Conference of scholars on the Migration Period) (in Hungarian). Budapest.
  27. ^ Keszi, Tamás (2023). "Alternatív javaslat a székely név és társadalmi csoport eredetének magyarázatára (An alternative proposal to explain the origin of the Székely name and social group)". Ephemeris Hungarologica. 2023 (1): 44–67. doi:10.53644/EH.2023.1.44 – via Academia.edu.
  28. ^ a b c d Makkai 2001, pp. 415–416.
  29. ^ Science, 14 February 2014, Vol. 343 no. 6172, p. 751, "A Genetic Atlas of Human Admixture History", Garrett Hellenthal et al.: "CIs. for the admixture time(s) overlap but predate the Mongol empire, with estimates from 440 to 1080 CE (Fig.3.) In each population, one source group has at least some ancestry related to Northeast Asians, with ~2 to 4% of these groups total ancestry linking directly to East Asia. This signal might correspond to a small genetic legacy from invasions of peoples from the Asian steppes (e.g., the Huns, Avesta, Magyars, and Bulgars) during the first millennium CE."
  30. ^ a b Csányi, B.; Bogácsi-Szabó, E.; Tömöry, Gy.; Czibula, Á.; Priskin, K.; Csõsz, A.; Mende, B.; Langó, P.; Csete, K.; Zsolnai, A.; Conant, E. K.; Downes, C. S.; Raskó, I. (1 July 2008). "Y-Chromosome Analysis of Ancient Hungarian and Two Modern Hungarian-Speaking Populations from the Carpathian Basin". Annals of Human Genetics. 72 (4): 519–534. doi:10.1111/j.1469-1809.2008.00440.x. PMID 18373723. S2CID 13217908.
  31. ^ Semino 2000 et al
  32. ^ András Bíró; Tibor Fehér; Gusztáv Bárány; Horolma Pamjav (November 2014). "Testing Central and Inner Asian admixture among contemporary Hungarians". Forensic Science International: Genetics. 15: 121–126. doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2014.11.007. PMID 25468443. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  33. ^ Fehér, T.; Németh, E.; Vándor, A.; Kornienko, I. V.; Csáji, L. K.; Pamjav, H. (1 February 2015). "Y-SNP L1034: limited genetic link between Mansi and Hungarian-speaking populations". Molecular Genetics and Genomics. 290 (1): 377–386. doi:10.1007/s00438-014-0925-2. ISSN 1617-4623.
  34. ^ Stroschein, Sherrill (2012). The Realm of St Stephen. London: Cambridge University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-107-00524-2.
  35. ^ (in Romanian) României îi este aplicabil modelul de autonomie al Cataloniei 28 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine (The Catalan autonomy model is applicable in Romania), Gândul, 27 May 2006
  36. ^ "HUNSOR ~ Hungarian Swedish Online Resources". Hunsor.se. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  37. ^ "Global post". MTI. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  38. ^ . Hunsor.se. Archived from the original on 14 March 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  39. ^ Szoó, Attila (26 October 2020). ""Brussels should pay attention to the Szeklers" – Day of Szekler Autonomy". Transylvania Now.
  40. ^ . Sznt.ro. Archived from the original on 28 December 2008. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  41. ^ András Róna-Tas, Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: An Introduction to Early Hungarian History, Central European University Press, 1999, p. 366

Further reading edit

  • Makkai, László (2001). "Transylvania in the medieval Hungarian kingdom (896–1526)", In: Béla Köpeczi, History of Transylvania Volume I. From the Beginnings to 1606, Columbia University Press, New York, 2001, ISBN 0880334797

External links edit

  • "Szeklers" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 320.
  • Ioan Aurel Pop, "The Ethno-Confessional Structure of Medieval Transylvania and Hungary". Cluj Napoca, 1994 (Bulletin of the Center for Transylvanian Studies, vol. III, number 4, July 1994)

Hungarian:

székelys, confused, with, sicels, also, called, siculi, latin, secui, redirects, here, village, dolj, county, romania, teasc, other, uses, székely, disambiguation, pronounced, ˈseːkɛj, székely, runes, 𐳥𐳋𐳓𐳉𐳗, also, referred, szeklers, hungarian, subgroup, livin. Not to be confused with Sicels also called Siculi in Latin Secui redirects here For the village in Dolj County Romania see Teasc For other uses see Szekely disambiguation The Szekelys pronounced ˈseːkɛj Szekely runes 𐳥𐳋𐳓𐳉𐳗 also referred to as Szeklers b are a Hungarian subgroup 5 6 living mostly in the Szekely Land in Romania In addition to their native villages in Suceava County in Bukovina a significant population descending from the Szekelys of Bukovina currently lives in Tolna and Baranya counties in Hungary and certain districts of Vojvodina Serbia SzekelysFlag of the SzekelysTotal populationest 500 000 700 000 a 2 3 4 Regions with significant populationsRomania Harghita Covasna parts of Mureș as well as some villages in Suceava County Bukovina Hungary Tolna and Baranya Serbia Vojvodina LanguagesHungarianReligionRoman Catholic majority Hungarian Reformed UnitarianRelated ethnic groupsHungarians Csangos Jasz In the Middle Ages the Szekelys played a role in the defense of the Kingdom of Hungary against the Ottomans 7 8 in their posture as guards of the eastern border With the Treaty of Trianon of 1920 Transylvania including the Szekely Land became part of Romania and the Szekely population was a target of Romanianization efforts 9 In 1952 during the communist rule of Romania the former counties with the highest concentration of Szekely population Mureș Odorhei Ciuc and Trei Scaune were legally designated as the Magyar Autonomous Region It was superseded in 1960 by the Mureș Magyar Autonomous Region itself divided in 1968 into two non autonomous counties Harghita and Mureș 10 In post Cold War Romania where the Szekelys form roughly half of the ethnic Hungarian population members of the group have been among the most vocal of Hungarians seeking an autonomous Szekely region in Transylvania 11 They were estimated to number about 860 000 in the 1970s and are officially recognized as a distinct minority group by the Romanian government 10 Today s Szekely Land roughly corresponds to the Romanian counties of Harghita Covasna and central and eastern Mureș where they currently make up roughly 80 of the population Based on the official 2011 Romanian census 1 227 623 12 ethnic Hungarians live in Romania mostly in the region of Transylvania making up 19 6 of the population of this region Of these 609 033 live in the counties of Harghita Covasna and Mureș which taken together have a Hungarian majority 58 13 The Hungarians in Szekely Land therefore account for half 49 41 of the Hungarians in Romania When given the choice on the 2011 Romanian census between ethnically identifying as Szekely or as Hungarian the overwhelming majority of the Szekelys chose the latter only 532 persons declared themselves as ethnic Szekely 1 Contents 1 History 1 1 Origins 2 Genetics 3 Demographics 4 Autonomy 5 Literature 6 In popular culture 7 Symbols 8 Image gallery 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External linksHistory editMain article History of the Szekely people The Szekely territories came under the leadership of the Count of the Szekelys Latin Comes Siculorum initially a royal appointee from the non Szekely Hungarian nobility who was de facto a margrave from the 15th century onward the voivodes of Transylvania held the office themselves The Szekelys were considered a distinct ethnic group natio Siculica 14 and formed part of the Unio Trium Nationum Union of Three Nations a coalition of three Transylvanian estates the other two nations being the also predominantly Hungarian nobility and the Saxons that is ethnic German burghers These three groups ruled Transylvania from 1438 onward usually in harmony though sometimes in conflict with one another During the Long Turkish War the Szekelys formed an alliance with Prince Michael the Brave of Wallachia against the army of Andrew Bathory recently appointed Prince of Transylvania In the Middle Ages the Szekelys played a role in the defense of the Kingdom of Hungary against the Ottomans in their posture as guards of the eastern border 15 Nicolaus Olahus stated in the book Hungaria et Athila in 1536 that Hungarians and Szekelys share the same language with the difference that the Szekelys have their own words specific to their nation 16 17 18 The people of Szekelys were in general regarded as the most Hungarian of Hungarians In 1558 a Hungarian poet Mihaly Vilmanyi Libecz voiced this opinion instructing the reader in his poem that if they had doubts about the correctness of the Hungarian language Consult without fail the language of the ancient Szekelys for they are the guardians of the purest Hungarian tongue 19 Origins edit Main article Origin of the Szekelys The origin of the Szekelys has been much debated It is now generally accepted that they are descendants of Hungarians The Szekelys have historically claimed descent from Attila s Huns 10 and believed they played a special role in shaping Hungary Ancient legends recount that a contingent of Huns remained in Transylvania later allying with the main Hungarian army that conquered the Carpathian Basin in the 9th century The thirteenth century chronicler Simon of Keza also claimed that the Szekely people descended from Huns who lived in mountainous lands prior to the Hungarian conquest 20 They having set forth from the island riding through the sand and flow of the Tisza crossed at the harbour of Beuldu and riding on they encamped beside the Korogy river and all the Szekelys who were previously the peoples of King Attila having heard of Usubuu s fame came to make peace and of their own will gave their sons as hostages along with divers gifts and they undertook to fight in the vanguard of Usubuu s army and they forthwith sent the sons of the Szekelys to Duke Arpad and together with the Szekelys before them began to ride against Menumorout Anonymus Gesta Hungarorum 21 These Szekelys were the remains of the Huns who when they learned that the Hungarians had returned to Pannonia for the second time went to the returnees on the border of Ruthenia and conquered Pannonia together Simon of Keza Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum 22 They were afraid of the western nations that they would suddenly attack them so they went to Transylvania and did not call themselves Hungarians but Szekelys The western clan hated the Huns in Attila s life The Szekelys are thus the remnants of the Huns who remained in the mentioned field until the return of the other Hungarians So when they knew that the Hungarians would return to Pannonia again they hurried to Ruthenia to them conquering the land of Pannonia together Mark of Kalt Chronicon Pictum 23 It is said that in addition to the Huns who escorted Csaba from the same nation three thousand more people retreating cut themselves out of the said battle remained in Pannonia and first established themself in a camp called Csigla s Field They were afraid of the Western nations which they harassed in Attila s life and they marched to Transylvania the frontier of the Pannonian landscape and they did not call themselves Huns or Hungarians but Siculus in their own word Szekelys so that they would not know that they are the remnants of the Huns or Hungarians In our time no one doubts that the Szekelys are the remnants of the Huns who first came to Pannonia and because their people do not seem to have been mixed with foreign blood since then they are also more strict in their morals they also differ from other Hungarians in the division of lands They have not yet forgotten the Scythian letters and these are not inked on paper but engraved on sticks skillfully in the way of the carving They later grew into not insignificant people and when the Hungarians came to Pannonia again from Scythia they went to Ruthenia in front of them with great joy as soon as the news of their coming came to them When the Hungarians took possession of Pannonia again at the division of the country with the consent of the Hungarians these Szekelys were given the part of the country that they had already chosen as their place of residence Johannes Thuroczy Chronica Hungarorum 24 nbsp Szekely people in the Kingdom of Hungary After the theory of Hunnic descent lost scholarly currency in the 20th century two substantial ideas emerged about Szekely ancestry 25 Some scholars suggested that the Szekelys were simply Magyars 25 like other Hungarians transplanted in the Middle Ages to guard the frontiers Researchers could not prove that Szekelys spoke a different language 25 In this case their strong cultural differences from other Hungarians stem from centuries of relative isolation in the mountains Others suggested Turkic origin as Avar Kabar or Esegel Bulgar ancestries 25 or even Tiele ancestry 26 According to a new model 27 the Szekelys are the descendants of those wanderers who ran away from the feudal state and the landlord system mostly during the 11th and 12th centuries These parasocial groups settled in border regions and hard to reach places forests swamps down where the institutional vacuum allowed them to found independent communities The Hungarian kings reintegrated these groups into the kingdom s society from the beginning of the 12th century The ʿApiru Cossacks Maroons and Hungarian Hajduk offer an analogy for the process Some historians have dated the Szekely presence in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains as early as the fifth century 25 and found historical evidence that the Szekelys were part of the Avar 11 confederation during the so called Dark Ages but this does not mean that they were ethnically Avar Research indicates that Szekelys spoke Hungarian 28 Toponyms at the Szekely settlement area also give proof of their Hungarian mother tongue 28 The Szekely dialect does not have more Bulgaro Turkish loan words derived from before the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin than standard Hungarian does 28 Even if the Szekelys had been a Turkic stock they had to have lost their original vernacular at a very early date 28 Genetics editAn autosomal analysis 29 studying non European admixture in Europeans found 4 4 of admixture of East Asian Central Asian among Hungarians which was the strongest among sampled populations It was found at 3 6 in Belarusians 2 5 in Romanians 2 3 in Bulgarians and Lithuanians 1 9 in Poles and 0 in Greeks The authors stated This signal might correspond to a small genetic legacy from invasions of peoples from the Asian steppes e g the Huns Magyars and Bulgars during the first millennium Among 100 Hungarian men 90 of them from the Great Hungarian Plain the following haplogroups and frequencies are obtained 30 Haplogroup R1a R1b I2a1 J2 E1b1b1a I1 G2 J1 I E F K Frequency 30 15 13 13 9 8 3 3 3 1 1 1 The 97 Szekelys belong to the following haplogroups 30 Haplogroup R1b R1a I1 J2 J1 E1b1b1a I2a1 G2 P E N Frequency 20 19 17 11 10 8 5 5 3 1 1 It can be inferred that Szekelys have more significant German admixture why A study sampling 45 Paloc from Budapest and northern Hungary found 31 Haplogroup R1a R1b I E G J2 Frequency 60 13 11 9 2 2 A study estimating possible Inner Asian admixture among nearly 500 Hungarians based on paternal lineages only estimated it at 5 1 in Hungary at 7 4 in Szekelys and at 6 3 at Csangos 32 It has boldly been noted that this is an upper limit by deep SNPs and that the main haplogroups responsible for that contribution are J2 M172 negative M47 M67 L24 M12 J2 L24 R1a Z93 Q M242 and E M78 the last of which is typically European while N is still negligible 1 7 In an attempt to divide N into subgroups L1034 and L708 some Hungarian Sekler and Uzbek samples were found to be L1034 SNP positive while all Mongolians Buryats Khanty Finnish and Roma samples showed a negative result for this marker The 2 500 year old SNP L1034 was found typical for Mansi and Hungarians the closest linguistic relatives 33 Demographics editThe Szekely live mainly in Harghita Covasna and Mureș counties They identify themselves as Hungarians but they maintain a somewhat distinct ethnic identity from other Hungarians 34 Hungarians form a majority of the population in the counties of Covasna and Harghita They were estimated to number about 860 000 in the 1970s and are officially recognized as a distinct minority group by the Romanian government 10 County Hungarians of county population Harghita 257 707 84 62 Covasna 150 468 73 74 Mureș 200 858 38 09 The Szekelys of Bukovina today settled mostly in Vojvodina and southern Hungary form a culturally separate group with its own history citation needed Ethnic map of Harghita Covasna and Mureș showing areas with Hungarian majority nbsp based on the 1992 data nbsp based on the 2002 data nbsp based on the 2011 dataAutonomy edit nbsp Szekely pottery stove tile An autonomous Szekely region existed between 1952 and 1968 First created as the Magyar Autonomous Region in 1952 it was renamed the Mureș Magyar Autonomous Region in 1960 Ever since the abolition of the Mureș Magyar Autonomous Region by the Ceaușescu regime in 1968 some of the Szekely have pressed for their autonomy to be restored Several proposals have been discussed within the Szekely Hungarian community and by the Romanian majority One of the Szekely autonomy initiatives is based on the model of the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia 35 A major peaceful demonstration was held in 2006 in favor of autonomy 36 In 2013 and 2014 thousands of ethnic Hungarians marched for autonomy on 10 March on the Szekely Freedom Day in Targu Mureș Romania 37 10 March is the anniversary of the execution in Targu Mureș in 1854 by the Austrian authorities of three Szekelys who tried to achieve national self determination 38 Since 2015 the Szekelys also have the Szekely Autonomy Day celebrated every last Sunday of October 39 Literature edit nbsp Demonstration for the Autonomy of Szekely Land 2013 Budapest Aron Tamasi a 20th century Szekely writer from Lupeni Harghita wrote many novels about the Szekely which set universal stories of love and self individuation against the backdrop of Szekely village culture Other Szekely writers include the folklorist Elek Benedek the novelist Jozsef Nyiro and the poet Sandor Kanyadi citation needed In popular culture editIn Bram Stoker s novel Dracula Count Dracula is a Szekely In the beginning of the novel Dracula asserts We Szekelys have a right to be proud for in our veins flows the blood of many brave races who fought as the lion fights for lordship Here in the whirlpool of European races the Ugric tribe bore down from Iceland the fighting spirit which Thor and Wodin gave them which their Berserkers displayed to such fell intent on the seaboards of Europe ay and of Asia and Africa too till the peoples thought that the were wolves themselves had come Is it a wonder that we were a conquering race that we were proud that when the Magyar the Lombard the Avar the Bulgar or the Turk poured his thousands on our frontiers we drove them back Is it strange that when Arpad and his legions swept through the Hungarian fatherland he found us here when he reached the frontier that the Honfoglalas was completed there And when the Hungarian flood swept eastward the Szekelys were claimed as kindred by the victorious Magyars and to us for centuries was trusted the guarding of the frontier of Turkey land ay and more than that endless duty of the frontier guard for as the Turks say water sleeps and enemy is sleepless The Szekelys and the Dracula as their heart s blood their brains and their swords can boast a record that mushroom growths like the Hapsburgs and the Romanoffs can never reach Symbols edit nbsp nbsp The flag and coat of arms of the Szekelys as approved by the Szekler National Council one of the main political organizations of the Szekelys 40 The Sun and Moon are the symbols of the Szekelys and are used in the coat of arms of Transylvania and on the Romanian national coat of arms The Sun and the Moon the symbols of the cosmic world are known from Hungarian grave findings from the period of the Hungarian conquest 41 After the Hungarians became Christians in the 11th century the importance of these icons became purely visual and symbolic The Szekelys have succeeded in preserving traditions to an extent unusual even in Central and Eastern Europe A description of the Szekely Land and its traditions was written between 1859 and 1868 by Balazs Orban in his Description of the Szekely Land Image gallery edit nbsp Turul statue with a Szekely flag near at the peak of the Madarasi Hargita Harghita Mădăraș the holy mountain of the Szekelys 1801 m in Transylvania Romania nbsp Turul statue with a Szekely flag near at the peak of the Madarasi Hargita Harghita Mădăraș the holy mountain of the Szekelys 1801 m in Transylvania Romania nbsp A Szekely gate nbsp Another Szekely gate nbsp Darjiu fortified church is part of the UNESCO World Heritage nbsp Szekely flag on the Hungarian Parliament Building Budapest Hungary nbsp Szekely monument and gates in Verto Park SzegedSee also editHistory of the Szekely people Hungarian people Ugrians Szekely Land List of Szekelys List of Szekely settlements Szekler National Council Count of the Szekelys Szekelys of Bukovina Ugron de AbranfalvaNotes edit 532 of them declared themselves as Szekely rather than Hungarian at the 2011 Romanian census 1 Hungarian szekelyek Romanian secui German Szekler Latin Siculi Serbian Sekeљi romanized Sekelji Slovak SikuliReferences edit a b Nota metodologica PDF Insse ro Retrieved 26 November 2013 Archivum Ottomanicum Volume 20 Mouton 2002 original from the University of Michigan p 66 Cited A few tens of years ago the Szekler population was estimated at more than 800 000 but now they are probably ca 500 000 in number Piotr Eberhardt Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth century Central Eastern Retrieved 26 November 2013 Judit Toth and Endre Sik Joining and EU integration of Hungary or the Hungarians In Willfried Spohn Anna Triandafyllidou Europeanisation National Identities and Migration Changes in Boundary Constructions between Western and Eastern Europe Psychology Press 2012 p 228 Ramet Sabrina P 1992 Protestantism and politics in eastern Europe and Russia the communist and postcommunist eras Vol 3 Duke University Press p 160 ISBN 9780822312413 the Szekler community now regarded as a subgroup of the Hungarian people Sherrill Stroschein Ethnic Struggle Coexistence and Democratization in Eastern Europe Cambridge University Press 2012 p 210 Cited Szekely a Hungarian sub group that is concentrated in the mountainous Hungarian enclave szekely hatarorvidek Magyar Katolikus Lexikon Piotr Eberhardt January 2003 Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth century Central Eastern Europe M E Sharpe Armonk N Y and London England 2003 ISBN 978 0 7656 0665 5 Ramet Sabrina P 1997 The Hungarians of Transylvania Whose Democracy Nationalism Religion and the Doctrine of Collective Rights in Post 1989 Eastern Europe Rowman amp Littlefield pp 67 69 ISBN 978 0 8476 8324 6 a b c d Szekler people Encyclopaedia Britannica a b Szekely Columbia Encyclopedia 2008 Retrieved 25 January 2009 Romanian Population census of 2011 Archived 17 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine in Romanian recensamant 2002 gt rezultate gt 4 Populatia Dupa Etnie CESCH Recensamant Populatie 2011 CV Hr Scribd com 27 March 2012 Retrieved 26 November 2013 The Szekelys in Transylvania Mek niif hu Retrieved 26 November 2013 Piotr Eberhardt January 2003 Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth century Central Eastern Europe M E Sharpe Armonk NY and London England 2003 ISBN 978 0 7656 0665 5 Csukovits Eniko 2005 Keso kozepkori leirasok Erdely kepe Image of Transylvania in late medieval descriptions PDF in Hungarian Hungari et Siculi eadem lingua utuntur nisi quod Siculi quaendam peculiaria gentis suae habeant vocabula Olahus Nicolaus Hungaria et Athila PDF in Latin Szigethy Gabor 2003 Olah Miklos Hungaria in Hungarian Makkai Laszlo 2001 The Three Feudal Nations and the Ottoman Threat History of Transylvania Volume I From the Beginnings to 1606 III Transylvania in the Medieval Hungarian Kingdom 896 1526 3 From the Mongol Invasion to the Battle of Mohacs Columbia University Press The Hungarian original by Institute of History Of The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ISBN 0 88033 479 7 Kevin Brook Jews of Khazaria Rowman amp Littlefield Publisher UK 2006 p 170 1 Anonymus Notary of King Bela The Deeds of the Hungarians PDF Simon of Keza Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum Mark of Kalt Chronicon Pictum Thuroczy Janos Magyarok kronikaja 1488 PDF thuroczykronika atw hu a b c d e Cathy O Grady Zoltan Kantor and Daniela Tarnovschi Hungarians of Romania In Panayote Dimitras editor Center for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe Southeast Europe CEDIME SE Minorities in Southeast Europe Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center 2001 p 5 Aydemir Hakan 15 16 November 2019 A szekely eredetkerdes megoldasa Solution of the szekely origin question A nepvandorlaskor kutatoinak XXIX Konferenciaja 29th Conference of scholars on the Migration Period in Hungarian Budapest Keszi Tamas 2023 Alternativ javaslat a szekely nev es tarsadalmi csoport eredetenek magyarazatara An alternative proposal to explain the origin of the Szekely name and social group Ephemeris Hungarologica 2023 1 44 67 doi 10 53644 EH 2023 1 44 via Academia edu a b c d Makkai 2001 pp 415 416 Science 14 February 2014 Vol 343 no 6172 p 751 A Genetic Atlas of Human Admixture History Garrett Hellenthal et al CIs for the admixture time s overlap but predate the Mongol empire with estimates from 440 to 1080 CE Fig 3 In each population one source group has at least some ancestry related to Northeast Asians with 2 to 4 of these groups total ancestry linking directly to East Asia This signal might correspond to a small genetic legacy from invasions of peoples from the Asian steppes e g the Huns Avesta Magyars and Bulgars during the first millennium CE a b Csanyi B Bogacsi Szabo E Tomory Gy Czibula A Priskin K Csosz A Mende B Lango P Csete K Zsolnai A Conant E K Downes C S Rasko I 1 July 2008 Y Chromosome Analysis of Ancient Hungarian and Two Modern Hungarian Speaking Populations from the Carpathian Basin Annals of Human Genetics 72 4 519 534 doi 10 1111 j 1469 1809 2008 00440 x PMID 18373723 S2CID 13217908 Semino 2000 et al Andras Biro Tibor Feher Gusztav Barany Horolma Pamjav November 2014 Testing Central and Inner Asian admixture among contemporary Hungarians Forensic Science International Genetics 15 121 126 doi 10 1016 j fsigen 2014 11 007 PMID 25468443 Retrieved 18 August 2017 Feher T Nemeth E Vandor A Kornienko I V Csaji L K Pamjav H 1 February 2015 Y SNP L1034 limited genetic link between Mansi and Hungarian speaking populations Molecular Genetics and Genomics 290 1 377 386 doi 10 1007 s00438 014 0925 2 ISSN 1617 4623 Stroschein Sherrill 2012 The Realm of St Stephen London Cambridge University Press p 77 ISBN 978 1 107 00524 2 in Romanian Romaniei ii este aplicabil modelul de autonomie al Cataloniei Archived 28 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine The Catalan autonomy model is applicable in Romania Gandul 27 May 2006 HUNSOR Hungarian Swedish Online Resources Hunsor se Retrieved 26 November 2013 Global post MTI Retrieved 13 March 2014 All Hungary Media Group Hunsor se Archived from the original on 14 March 2014 Retrieved 13 March 2014 Szoo Attila 26 October 2020 Brussels should pay attention to the Szeklers Day of Szekler Autonomy Transylvania Now The symbols of Szekler National Council SZNC Szekler National Council Sznt ro Archived from the original on 28 December 2008 Retrieved 26 November 2013 Andras Rona Tas Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages An Introduction to Early Hungarian History Central European University Press 1999 p 366Further reading editMakkai Laszlo 2001 Transylvania in the medieval Hungarian kingdom 896 1526 In Bela Kopeczi History of Transylvania Volume I From the Beginnings to 1606 Columbia University Press New York 2001 ISBN 0880334797External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Szekelys Szeklers Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 26 11th ed 1911 p 320 Minority Cultures The Szeklers Tortured History Ioan Aurel Pop The Ethno Confessional Structure of Medieval Transylvania and Hungary Cluj Napoca 1994 Bulletin of the Center for Transylvanian Studies vol III number 4 July 1994 Hungarian Szekely history until 1848 2 http www2 sci u szeged hu fokozatok PDF Kovacsne Csanyi Bernadett PhDertekezes CsanyiB pdf Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Szekelys amp oldid 1222043946, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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