Battle of W.l.n.d.r
The Battle of Wlndr was fought in 934 between the allied Hungarian-Pecheneg army and an army composing of the forces of the Byzantine Empire and First Bulgarian Empire, somewhere in the territory which belonged to the Bulgarian empire, near a big city called W.l.n.d.r (maybe Belgrade), by the Arab historian and geographer Al-Masudi, and resulted in a great victory of the firsts, followed by a devastating raid of the victors until the walls of Constantinople, forcing the Byzantine empire to pay them tribute for a long time (until 957). Al-Masudi's account of the battle is "one of the greatest descriptions of the nomadic war tactics."
Sources[edit]
The account of the battle and its causes are narrated by the 17th chapter of Vol. 2. of the work Al-Masudi's The Meadows of Gold, about the Caucasus and the countries and tribes which lived in it or north from it.[1] In addition the Byzantine chronicler Symeon the Metaphrast provides detailed information about the end of this campaign and the peace concluded between the Hungarian–Pecheneg alliance and the Byzantines.[2]
German historian Josef Marquart was the first scholar, who considered the two narratives that appeared in The Meadows of Gold and in the continuation of George Hamartolos' chronicle (Georgius Monachus Continuatus) to be the same in his academic work published in 1903.[3]
Background[edit]
After 927, the death of tsar Symeon I, the First Bulgarian Empire started its period of slow decline under the tsar Peter I. After the peace treaty between Peter I and the Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lekapenos, and the marriage between the Bulgarian ruler and Maria, the granddaughter of the Byzantine emperor, peace was installed between these two empires, which stood mostly in war during the reign of Simeon I,[46] and this signified also alliance between the two empires.
In 933 a Magyar army was defeated in Battle of Riade by the Kingdom of Germany/Eastern Francia, with this the Principality of Hungary losing a substantial income: the German tribute, received with interruptions from 910.[47] This is why, they had to look on other direction for achieving the tribute.[48]
About the other reason we learn from al-Masudi, who writes in his account about the Battle of W.l.n.d.r, that during a Hungarian-Pecheneg war, which erupted because the people from one of the nomadic states had mistreated a Muslim merchant from the Persian city of Ardabil, who was in very good relations with the other, the people from W.l.n.d.r attacked their nomadic settlements, left without men, taking with them many children to be slaves, and drove away the cattle.[49] If we accept that W.l.n.d.r designates the town of Belgrade, than part of the Bulgarian Empire, the attack of its soldiers had to be made against the Hungarians, which lands were on the northern side of the Danube, on which southern banks lied the city. The Pecheneg closest settlements had to be much farther from Belgrade to east, their closest territory being today's Oltenia, so, because of the distance, an attack against them would be harder, more dangerous, or to attack both the Hungarians and the Pechenegs woulded be unwise, making two dangerous enemies at once. Learning about this attack, the Hungarians and the Pechenegs made an armistice, mutually gave up the blood money for those killed in the battles, and decided to attack the town together.[49] This shows a kind of nomadic solidarity, undocumented before.
Prelude[edit]
In early spring 934 the Hungarians and the Pechenegs, with 60,000 warriors, entered Bulgaria and attacked the city of W.l.n.d.r. When the Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lekapenos heard about this, he sent 12,000 Muslim warriors converted to Christianity, together with 50,000 Byzantine troops, as al-Masudi writes.[49] It is certain that the Bulgarians too joined them with several thousands soldiers. However, as shown before, the real numbers had to be around 18,000 nomads to 20,000 Christians. The Byzantine army was sent to help their allies, the Bulgarians, attacked by the nomads.
The Byzantine troops arrived in eight days to W.l.n.d.r.[49] Al-Masudi mentions that until they arrived, the Hungarian-Pechenegs massacred many people from W.l.n.d.r or Bulgaria, many saving themselves only by retreating behind the walls of the town. The two armies camped in front of each other for several days.[49]
When the nomadic allies learned that the Byzantines had among them a large contingent of former Muslims converted to Christianity, they sent this news to the Muslim merchants originating from Khazaria, Transcaucasia, Alania and other territories, who lived among them, and those Pechenegs and Hungarians who became Muslims, and did not wanted to fight anybody but the "infidels", in order to convince them to help them against the Christians.[50] It seems that the leaders of the Hungarians and Pechenegs knew very well that Apostasy is one of the worst crimes in Islam, considered to be a Hudud or crime against Allah, punished by death,[51] and used this to convince them to fight against the Byzantines and Bulgarians, by fueling their hatred against the apostates. So the Hungarian-Pecheneg army was joined by a certain number of Muslims, who accepted to fight in the first line to fight directly with the apostates, who also were the avantgarde of the Byzantine-Bulgarian army.[52]
Aftermath[edit]
After taking W.l.n.d.r (as shown before, we presume that the city was Belgrade), the nomadic army went towards Constantinople. Al-Masudi mentions that they went along the way on fields, farms, which they plundered, killing many people, and took the others in captivity.[59] Symeon the Metaphrast writes that they galloped until they reached Constantinople, and took captive "every Thracian".[28] Al-Masudi writes that they camped in front of the great city for 40 days, they sold the children and women for clothes made from textile, brocade and silk. But they killed every one of their male captives, sometimes killing women too. This shows their anger against those who attacked their settlements and drove away their children. This was part of the psychological warfare used often by the nomads, who tried to frighten the enemy in this way, convincing them, that such an attack against them will provoke great suffering to the attackers and their families. Than al-Masudi writes that expended their raids in those territories, their raiding detachments reaching the "countries of the Romans and the Slavs".[59] The last information about this campaign and its end we learn from Symeon the Metaphrast Logothetes, who writes that the emperor sent the patrician and protovestiarios Theophanes, who concluded peace with the Hungarians (as mentioned before, the Byzantine chronicle does not know anything about the Pechenegs, only the Hungarians), paying for the release of every captive.[28] The Byzantines with this peace treaty, also accepted to pay tribute to the Hungarians, which extended in 943, lasted until 957.[60]
Different theory[edit]
According to historians János B. Szabó and Balázs Sudár, there is no evidence that the relevant records from The Meadows of Gold and the Byzantine chronicles – primarily Georgius Monachus Continuatus – refer to the same battle, as there are a number of uncertainties and contradictions between the two types of sources at several points. According to the two historians, the Battle of W.l.n.d.r, which appears in Al-Masudi's work, is not part of the history of Hungary in the Carpathian Basin nor the Hungarian invasions of Europe.
The two historians argue when Al-Masudi writes of 12,000 Arab warriors who converted to Christianity, he refers to the tribe Banu Habib, numbering 12,000 horsemen and their families, converted to Christianity in 935 or 936 when they defected to the Byzantine Empire. The tribe were entrusted the protect the empire along its eastern border against the advancing Hamdanid dynasty.[61] Instead of the Balkan Peninsula, the two historians place the Battle of W.l.n.d.r to the Caucasus, where Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lekapenos pursued an active foreign policy against the Arabs, as a theater of the longstanding Arab–Byzantine wars.[62] Analyzing Al-Masudi's geographical names, B. Szabó and Sudár claim, the four Turkic peoples lived in the area west of Alania and Khazaria along the rivers Sal and Manych. According to the De Administrando Imperio, Pecheneges (identified with "b.dʒ.n.k") of the Pontic–Caspian steppe also lived in that territory surrounding the northwestern part of Caucasus. Based on the remarks of the contemporary Arab geographer Istakhri, refers to the people "b.dʒ.g.r.d" too, this Turkic people also lived in that area.[63]
B. Szabó and Sudár argues the four Turkic peoples appears additionally in At-Tanbih wa-l-'Ishraf ("Admonition and Revision"), Al-Masudi's other work, under a common summary term, vlndrija, who lived in the area of city W.l.n.d.r at the Byzantium's furthest ends bordering the East. The two historians consider the settlement can be identified with Vanand (Kars) in present-day Turkey or Onoguris in present-day western Georgia, along with a certain "Vnndr" in Khazaria.[64] Al-Masudi distinguishes the "W.l.n.d.r" people from the Danube Bulgarians and Volga Bulgars. B. Szabó and Sudár consider the "b.dʒ.g.r.d" people are belonged to the so-called Eastern Hungarians or Savard Hungarians.[65]