Landtaking of the Hungarians and their raids to the Balkans

Introduction. This paper considers landtaking of the Hungarians and their participation in Balkan politics. The objectives of this study are: 1) an analysis of the foreign policy activity of the Hungarians in the Balkans in the IX-X centuries; 2) an analysis of the written sources of information about Hungarian raids. Materials and Methods. We used comparative-historical and problem-chronological methods in preparing this article. Results and Discussion. Details of campaigns against Byzantium in Hungarian sources back to Simon Kezai, although some sources differ in minor details. For the Hungarian conquest of Pannonia the major source is “Deeds of Hungarians”, which is different from other Hungarian sources. Details of the Arab-Persian source are uniform in covering the events of history of Hungarians and go to reconstructed arabian source “Anonymous note” of end of IX century. Data of Ibn al-Athir and al-Masoudi stands out of the other Arabian-Persian sources. Byzantine sources are not uniform and generally describ various events associated with the invasions of the Hungarians. Conclusion. Until the end of the IX century Hungarians attacked almost all of their neighbors. Alliance of Hungarians with Byzantium was short and dated the end of IX. The war on the side of the Hungarians against the Bulgarian king Simeon had far-reaching consequences. To confront the Hungarians effectively Bulgarians had to get the alliance with Pechenegs. Expelled from Etelkёz Hungarians migrated and settled in Pannonia and crushed the state of Great Moravia during wars in the end of IX - beginning of X century. To campaign against the Romans in 934, Hungarians formed an alliance with the Pechenegs. The raids of Hungarians to Byzantium are comsidered as a chance to increase the coffers, which was the purpose of the camping dated 943 and 959. Hungarian campaigns were stopped of the Byzantinians in 961 and 970 years.