Székelys and Turks

This chapter addresses the question of whether the Székelys are of Turkic origin. It groups the theories on Székely origins into four categories: Hungarian origin, military auxiliary origin, double conquest and Hun origin. Drawing on narrative and documentary sources of the Árpád period, it argues that the derivation of the name Székely from an assumed Old Hungarian occupational name meaning ‘border guard’ or ‘archer’ (Hunfalvy, Benkő, Bóna) is supported neither by linguistics nor by the sources: border guards were called ewr, eur or speculatores and never Székely, and their legal and social status differed sharply from that of the privileged Székelys. The author identifies the ancestors of the Székelys with the Bulgaro-Turkic Eskel tribe, explains the sound development from (e)skel to Székely, and considers it highly probable that they joined the Hungarians within the Kabar alliance around 850, possibly as its leading tribe, with the Aba clan holding the office of the Kabar prince. The chapter summarises Hakan Aydemir’s reconstruction, which traces the Székelys from Inner Asia to the Carpathian Basin together with the Huns and rejects the Eskel and Kabar connections, and observes that both views agree on a Turkic ancestry. Analysing the accounts of Anonymus (c. 1210) and Simon Kézai (c. 1283), it argues that the Székelys had no original Attila tradition but a later Csaba tradition connected with the Aba clan, Csaba being a figure of Hungarian history rather than a Hun. It concludes that the Székelys were most likely originally Turks who later became Magyarized.