This is a good article. Click here for more information.

Fajsz

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>

Fajsz
File:Fajsz Fajsz.jpg
A relief showing him in Fajsz (Hungary)
Grand Prince of the Hungarians
Reign c. 950–c. 955
Predecessor Zoltán (debated)
Successor Taksony
Dynasty Árpád dynasty
Father Jutotzas
Religion Hungarian Paganism

Fajsz (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈfɒjs]), also Falicsi (pronounced [ˈfɒlitʃi]), was Grand Prince of the Hungarians from about 950 to around 955. All information on him comes from De administrando imperio, a book written by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. No other contemporary source or later Hungarian chronicle preserved his name, suggesting that he did not take an active role in the politics of the Hungarian tribes' confederation.

Life

Fajsz was the only known son of Jutotzas, the third son of Árpád who led the Hungarian tribes' confederation at the time of their conquest of the Carpathian Basin between around 895 and 907.[1] After Árpád's death,[2] fundamental changes happened in the government of the tribal confederation.[3] Although the various tribes could even thereafter act in concert for raids, they did not obey a strong central authority any more.[4]

Even so, as the historian Miklós Molnár emphasizes, "the supremacy of the House of Árpád seems to have remained unshaken."[2] For instance, Hungarian visitors to Constantinople – including Termatzus, a great-grandson[5] of Árpád – informed Emperor Constantine VII around 948 that the "first chief" of the Hungarians "comes by succession of Árpád's family".[6][4] Constantine VII also mentions that Fajsz was the head of the confederation of the Hungarian tribes around 950. The historian Gyula Kristó proposes that Fajsz abdicated after the Hungarians' catastrophic defeat by the Germans in the battle of Lechfeld in 955.[7][4]

Name and legacy

Fajsz's name, which was preserved in two forms – "Phalitzi" and "Phalis" – [8] may be connected either to the Hungarian word for "half" (fél) or to the verb fal ("to gobble up").[9] Historian György Györffy proposes that the villages named Fajsz in the Carpathian Basin – for instance, the one in Bács-Kiskun County (Hungary) – were named after him.[8] Based on the recorded Phalitzi form of Fajsz's name, Gyula Kristó rejects this hypothesis.[8]

See also

References

  1. Kristó & Makk 1996, pp. 18–22.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Molnár 2001, p. 17.
  3. Curta 2006, p. 189.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Engel 2001, p. 20.
  5. Kristó & Makk 1996, Appendix 1.
  6. Constantine Porphyrogenitus: De Administrando Imperio (ch. 40), p. 179.
  7. Kristó & Makk 1996, p. 23.
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Kordé 1994, p. 207.
  9. Kristó & Makk 1996, p. 22.

Sources

  • Constantine Porphyrogenitus: De Administrando Imperio (Greek text edited by Gyula Moravcsik, English translation by Romillyi J. H. Jenkins) (1967). Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies. ISBN 0-88402-021-5.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Further reading

  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Fajsz
Born:  ? Died:  ?
Regnal titles
Preceded by Grand Prince of the Hungarians
c. 950–c. 955
Succeeded by
Taksony