The connection between the ethnic histories of Kipchak-Turkic (Kuman) speaking peoples and Hungarians

This chapter examines the connection between the ethnic history of the Kipchak-Turkic (Kuman) speaking peoples of Eastern Europe and the early ethnic history of the Hungarians, which written sources leave unclear. Leaving aside the ethnic history of the nomadic Kipchak (Kuman) tribes, the author argues that groups which took part in the formation of the Magyar tribes in Etelköz in the 9th century (Onogur, Bulgar, Khazar, Alan) were later assimilated into today's Kipchak-speaking peoples (Nogai, Kumuk, Tawlu, Bashkir, Volga Tatar). Taking Emperor Constantine's account of the Khazar Empire and the Hungarian–Kabar alliance and the reports of Friars Otto and Julian (1231–1237) on pagan Hungarians in Alania and Bashkiria as fixed points, the chapter places the formation of the Magyars in the steppe between the Caucasus and the Urals. Drawing on historical literature, the Secret History of the Mongols and the author's field data among the Nogais of Dagestan, it follows the period from the Bulgar and Khazar states through the Kuman-Kipchak expansion and the Mongol conquest to the Jochi Ulus, whose official language and lingua franca became Kuman (Tatar). It argues that Khazar and Onogur were names of ruling clans rather than ethnic names, that the Eastern Magyars of Alania and Bashkiria assimilated to Kipchak-speaking groups, and that the later migrations of the Nogais followed the earlier patterns of the Bulgars and Hungarians. The chapter concludes that ethnological and ethnomusicological research among modern Kipchak-speaking peoples can help clarify the ethnic history of the ancient Hungarians.