Lajos Kazar: Facts against fiction

DENMARK

Transylvania (Transsylvanien; Hungarian Erdély; German Siebenbürgen), once a grand duchy, until 1919 fully integrated in Hungary. Its area is 57,819km² with 2,598,367 inhabitants in 1920.

The name Ardelion, frequently used by Byzantine authors, has stuck to Transylvania as its Rumanian name in the form of Ardealu. - In Roman times the area of later Transylvania formed a part of the Dacian realm which Emperor Trajan conquered in 107 A.D. Around 274 Emperor Aurelian ordered its abandonment. During the time of the great migration of peoples it was possessed by the Ostrogoths, Huns, Gepids, Avars; finally in the 9th century the Pechenegs, a Tatar tribe, became its masters. In 1004 and subsequent years it was conquered by King Saint Stephen of Hungary who spread Christianity there. He gave the area in question its own voivode.

For the settlement and defence of the southern parts Géza II (1141-61) called in colonists from Flanders, later also from areas of the Middle and Lower Rhine as well as the Harz and Thuringia. The number of German colonists grew to such a degree that at one stage the area was called ,,Saxony,,. - The Székelys in eastern Transylvania were probably of true Magyar/Hungarian origin.

N.B. The area of Transylvania as fixed by the Treaty of Trianon (1920) is 102,787km², and its population, on the basis of the 1910 Hungarian census, was 5,265,444. Salmonsens Konversations Leksikon must have used outdated sources. - The common Rumanian name for the area in question is Ardeal(u) which is a slightly distorted version of Old Hungarian Erdel 'the land beyond the forest-(line) (as seen from the Great Hungarian Plain). Erdel's 12th century Latin translation is Transylvania. Rumanian Ardeal(u) has nothing to do with Ardelion allegedly used by Byzantine authors in relation to the area in question.

If this naming by Byzantines had had any validity, say, after the abandonment of Dacia by the Romans, then one could reasonably expect that the Greeks and other peoples on the Balkan Peninsula would have applied the name Ardelion to the area in question at least for a few centuries, and historical works generally would have referred to former Dacia as Ardelion. But they never did! Nor is Ardeal(u) identical with Ardelion, except perhaps by mistake.

The whole tortuous exercise is attributable to Daco-Roman propagandists who have been embarrassed by the fact that both Wallachian/Rumanian names for the area in question, i.e., Ardeal(u) and Transylvania are borrowings from Hungarian, which indicated, among other things, the late arrival of the Wallachians in Transylvania.

The Pechenegs were not masters of later Transylvania at any time. They followed on the heels of the Magyars/Hungarians when the latter moved in from areas just east and southeast of the Carpathians (the later areas of Moldavia and Wallachia) into the Carpathian Basin. - In 1004 King Saint Stephen of Hungary wrested eastern Hungary, including the area of Erdély, from his own uncle. - That Transylvania was at one stage referred to as ,,Saxony,, (likely in German documents) is interesting. However, the number of the German colonists in Transylvania was at all times much lower than that of the magyars/Hungarians.

Transylvania (in German Siebenbürgen) is a part of Rumania. In Roman times the area formed a part of Dacia. Around 1000 it was conquered by Hungary. Around 1100 masses of German colonists (Saxons) migrated in and the area came under their influence. Under Hungarian supremacy Transylvania was ruled by its own voivodes (royal governors). In 1527 it became independent, but joined the Habsburg Empire in 1687 and was reunited with Hungary in 1699. In 1765 it became a grand duchy. In 1849 it was declared an Austrian crown land, but in 1867 its diet declared union with Hungary. Transylvania was ceded to Rumania as a result of WW I, was divided by the Vienna Arbitration decision between Hungary and Rumania in August 1940; in 1945 the whole of Transylvania was returned to Rumania.

N.B. It is surprising that the German name, Siebenbürgen, is indicated, but the much earlier and still used Hungarian name, Erdély and its borrowed Rumanian version, Ardeal, are not. The term ,,own voivodes" could be misunderstood as meaning that Transylvania's voivodes, i.e. royal governors, were not appointed by the kings of Hungary and were not answerable to him and the Hungarian national assembly. They were appointed and, if necessary, deposed by the kings of Hungary. The idea that throughout Hungarian history Transylvania retained vestiges of ,,its former independence" was hatched by Bucharest propagandists in the spirit of the Daco-Roman continuity theory. - After WW II Transylvania was not legally returned to Rumania until the signing of the Paris Peace Treaty on 10. 2. 1947.

Transylvania (Transsilvanien; Rumanian Transilvania; German Siebenbürgen) lies in the northwest of Rumania. In ancient times it was a part of Dacia. For a while it was loosely tied to Hungary. At a later stage German and Rumanian colonists entered. In the 17th century the area in question was Turkish, from 1686 Habsburg, possession. Following WW I it was ceded to Rumania. In 1940 Hungary received a large part of it. In the 1947 Treaty of Paris Transylvania again became a part of Rumania.

N.B. As in the 1948 edition of Gyldendals ETBINDS LEKSIKON, no mention is made of the Hungarian name of the area in question, as if it had no relevance. Also, contrary to well documented historical facts, Transylvania's role as an essential part of Hungary for centuries is disposed of with such words as ,,loosely tied to Hungary,,. In 1940 Hungary received back only 2/5th of Transylvania. The writer of the above article did not do his/her homework properly. At least he/she stated correctly that the German and Wallachian/Rumanian colonists entered at a later stage.

Ardeal (German Siebenbürgen, Latin Transsilvania, Hungarian Erdeli; 61,622km², 3,316,000 inhabitants in 1934) has been a part of Rumania since 1919. It was the Roman Ardelion, a part of Dacia. The area in question came under Hungarian rule in the 11th century. In the 12th century a large number of German immigrants settled there, believed to have come from the Rhine area. When in 1526 Transylvania came under Austrian rule it was governed by voivodes; later it became a principality under the rule of the families Báthori, Rákoczi etc. who fought against Austria and Turkey. Transylvania came under Austrian rule in 1690, rejoined Hungary in 1867 and finally it was conquered by Rumania in 1918.

N.B. It is strange that the writer of this article uses the Rumanian name Ardeal without indicating that it is a corrupt pronunciation of Old Hungarian Erdel, whose 12th century Latin translation is Transylvania. He/she asserts that Rumanian Ardeal is identical with Roman Ardelion, a part of the roman province Dacia. This claim is not borne out by any evidence, but seems to have been the inspiration of Bucharest propagandists who have been embarrassed by the fact that the self-styled descendants of the roman masters of Dacia have never had a name for the area in question rooted in the Wallachian/Rumanian language. - The area of today's Transylvania is not 61,622 km², but 102,787, and it had a population of 5,265,444 back in 1910. - Eastern Hungary, including the later Erdel/Transylvania, was not conquered by Hungary in the 11th century, but around 895. - Transylvania did not come under Austrian rule in 1526, but was held by the Hungarian nobleman and voivode of Transylvania, János Zápolya (Szapolyai) until his death in 1541 when his widow and infant son received it from Sultan Soliman. Under Turkish suzerainty Transylvania was governed by Hungarian nobles until roughly 1690. In 1919 (not 1918) Rumania occupied Transylvania, and even Budapest, at the behest of the Great Entente Powers in contravention of the armistice agreement signed in Padua on November 3rd 1918. The use of the word ,,conquered" in this context is quite wrong.

Rumania - History. Around the beginning of our era the area of present-day Rumania was inhabited by the Dacians, who were conquered (101-107) by Emperor Trajan. He planted Roman colonists in the newly established Provincia Dacia. Emperor Aurelian gave up Dacia in the 3rd century. The area in question was subsequently invaded by barbarian nations: Gepids (until 567), Avars (6th- 8th century). In the 9th century the area in question came under Magyar/Hungarian rule, while Moldavia and Wallachia were under the Pechenegs, later under the Cumans (12th century). - Some historians claim that the roman inhabitants were totally expelled by these migrations from the area of present-day Rumania, and that modern Rumanians are immigrants from the lands south of the Danube. Others, especially Rumanian historians, claim that the Roman population stayed on through all these changes. It is likely that a part of the Rumanian people stayed on in the valleys of Transylvania. - Greek Catholicism was adopted in the 11th century and the Rumanian language spread. - A Rumanian principality emerged in Wallachia in the 13th century, and another in Moldavia in the 14th.

N.B. The writer of the above article adheres to the name Transylvania and states correctly that the area in question came under Hungarian rule in the 9th century. He/she errs in placing Moldavia and Wallachia under Pecheneg rule, for these people had disappeared from the plains outside the Eastern and Southern Carpathians by the 12th century when their place was taken by the Cumans. Wallachia and Moldavia came into being in the 14th century (the nucleus of Wallachia was likely formed at the end of the 13th century). The article correctly states that according to some historians the Roman colonists of Dacia were totally swept away by the great migration of peoples and the Wallachians migrated into the area in question from lands south of the Lower Danube. However, it is a mere opinion to say ,,it is likely that a part of the Rumanian people stayed on in the valleys of Transylvania,,. At any rate, one cannot speak of a staying Rumanian people, instead of a staying roman people, for Rumanians and Romans are not identical; the forebears of the Rumanians of today called themselves Wallachians or Moldavians well into the second half of the 19th century. - Greek Catholicism was not adopted in Rumania in the 11th century. It began to spread among Orthodox Rumanians in 1698, but only in Transylvania.

All in all the article is in need of revision.

Lajos Kazar: Facts against fiction