Kurszán

Kurszán (died 904),[1] was a kende of the Magyars in the dual leadership with Árpád serving as a gyula - according to a mainstream theory. While kende probably corresponded roughly to the Khazar title khagan, Kurszán's role equated to the Khazar military title bek.[2] In Latin sources he was referred to as rex[3] and some scholars say he had a political status as a sacred king until he was massacred in a political plot of Western rulers and was temporarily succeeded by Árpád.[4]

Kurszán
Kende of Hungary
Reign?–c.904
Died904
SpouseUnknown
HouseOne of the Major Tribes of Magyars

Hungarian conquest

He had a crucial role in the Hungarian Conquest (Honfoglalás).[5] In 892/893 together with Arnulf of Carinthia he attacked Great Moravia to secure the eastern borders of the Frankish Empire. Arnulf gave him all the captured lands in Moravia. Kurszán also occupied the southern part of Hungary that had belonged to the Bulgarian Kingdom. He entered into an alliance with the Byzantine emperor Leo VI after realizing the country's vulnerability from the south. Together they surprisingly defeated the army of Simeon I of Bulgaria.

In the summer of 904 Louis the Child invited Kurszán and his entourage to negotiate at the river Fischa. All were murdered[6][7] there. From this point Árpád became the only ruler[8] and occupied some of the territory of his former partner. The Kurszán family settled near Óbuda where they built Kurszánvára (meaning Castle of Kurszán). After Kurszán's death, they lived under the name Kartal.

There are toponymic traces of Kurszán on the right side of the Danube.[9]

See also
  • Harka, a judicial role in Hungarian federation
  • List of Hungarian rulers

References
  1. Acta historica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Volume 9, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1963, p. 353
  2. Andrew Ayton; Pal Engel (2005). The Realm of St Stephen: History of Medieval Hungary, 895-1526. Cambridge University Press. p. 18. ISBN 0-521-36447-7.
  3. SZABÓ, Christopher "The Magyar Raids: Fact and Fable" October–December 2012
  4. Mária Steiner, Museums in Budapest: Hungarian National Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Hungarian National Gallery, Museum of Applied Arts, Ethnographical Museum, Budapest Historical Museum, Corvina Kiadó, 1985, p. 64
  5. Györffy, György (1959). "Tanulmányok a magyar állam eredetéről". Budapest: Akadémiai Publishing Company.
  6. Timothy Reuter; Rosamond McKitterick (2005). The New Cambridge Medieval History. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36447-7.
  7. Andrew L. Simon, Istvan Lazar (2001). Transylvania: A Short History. ISBN 1-931313-21-0.
  8. "Conquest, Settlement, and Raids (History of Transylvania)". Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, joint publication with the Hungarian Research Institute of Canada, a research ancillary of the University of Toronto. 2001.
  9. "Gyula and the Gyulas (History of Transylvania)". Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, joint publication with the Hungarian Research Institute of Canada, a research ancillary of the University of Toronto. 2001.

Sources
  • Sándor Katona: Árpád (Koronás Kerecsen Publishing Co., 2007)
Kurszán
Born: c.  Died: c. 904
Regnal titles
Preceded by
(?)		 Kende
c. ? – c. 904		 Succeeded by
(?)
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