The Magyars in the Ninth Century by C.A. Macartney

The Magyars in the Ninth Century Reviews

• 
  Christopher

  C. A. Macartney's THE MAGYARS IN THE NINTH CENTURY is an examination of documents attesting to the wanderings of the Hungarians before they settled down in the Carpathian basin in 896. These documents are mainly Byzantine chronicles and Arab geographies. Macartney's synthesis was first published in 1930, but a second edition appeared in 1968 to reflect a handful of more recent discoveries.
  
  As an introduction to the subject, it's rather frustrated and antiquated. Macartney often refutes his contemporaries who held often downright absurd views, but readers in the 21st century would probably prefer that these cranks be forgotten already except to specialist historical research, while the book focused on purely mainstream views. Macartney also seems to hold to oversimplified notions of ethnogenesis. He believes, for example, that once the Hungarians settled into the Carpathian basin, the "pure Finno-Ugrians" all crossed the Danube and settled down there, while "pure Turks" stayed in the puszta, and never the twain met. Surely intermingling among the early settlers was more complex than this dichotomy.
  
  Though I haven't yet read it as I write this review, I suspect Andras Rona-Tas' HUNGARIANS AND EUROPE IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES would be a more enjoyable introduction to early Hungarian history.