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Great Moravia

Great Moravia (Latin: Regnum Marahensium; Greek: Μεγάλη Μοραβία, Meghálī Moravía; Czech: Velká Morava [ˈvɛlkaː ˈmorava]; Slovak: Veľká Morava [ˈvɛʎkaː ˈmɔrava]; Polish: Wielkie Morawy, German: Großmähren), or simply Moravia,[1][2][3] was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavic to emerge in the area of Central Europe,[4] possibly including territories which are today part of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Poland, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine and Slovenia. The formations preceding it in these territories were the Samo's tribal union (631 - 658) and the Pannonian Avar state (567 – after 822).

Great Moravia
Velká Morava (Velkomoravská říše) (Czech)
Veľká Morava (Veľkomoravská ríša) (Slovak)
Regnum Marauorum/Marahensium (Latin)
Terra Marauorum/Marahensium (Latin)

Veligrad

 

Mojmír I (first)

Mojmír II (last)

 

833

c. 907

Its core territory is the region now called Moravia in the eastern part of the Czech Republic alongside the Morava River, which gave its name to the kingdom. The kingdom saw the rise of the first ever Slavic literary culture in the Old Church Slavonic language as well as the expansion of Christianity, first via missionaries from East Francia, and later after the arrival of Saints Cyril and Methodius in 863 and the creation of the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet dedicated to a Slavic language. Glagolitic was subsequently replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet created in the First Bulgarian Empire.


Although the borders of this empire cannot be exactly determined, Moravia reached its largest territorial extent under prince Svatopluk I (Slovak: Svätopluk), who ruled from 870 to 894. Separatism and internal conflicts emerging after Svatopluk's death contributed to the fall of Great Moravia, which was overrun by the Hungarians, who then included the territory of present-day Slovakia in their domains. The exact date of Moravia's collapse is unknown, but it occurred between 902 and 907.


Moravia experienced significant cultural development under King Rastislav, with the arrival in 863 of the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius. After his request for missionaries had been refused in Rome, Rastislav asked the Byzantine emperor to send a "teacher" (učiteľ) to introduce literacy and a legal system (pravьda) to Great Moravia. The request was granted. The missionary brothers Cyril and Methodius introduced a system of writing (the Glagolitic alphabet) and Slavonic liturgy, the latter eventually formally approved by Pope Adrian II.[5] The Glagolitic script was probably invented by Cyril himself and the language he used for his translations of religious texts and his original literary creation was based on the Eastern South Slavic dialect he and his brother Methodius knew from their native Thessaloniki. Old Church Slavonic, therefore, differed somewhat from the local Slavic dialect of Great Moravia which was the ancestral idiom to the later dialects spoken in Moravia and western Slovakia. Later, the disciples of Cyril and Methodius were expelled from Great Moravia by King Svatopluk I, who re-orientated the Empire to Western Christianity.

State and society[edit]

Sources[edit]

Written sources from the 9th century contain almost no information on the internal affairs of Moravia.[9] Only two legal texts—the Nomocanon and the Court Law for the People—have been preserved.[9][136] The former is a translation of a collection of Byzantine ecclesiastical law; the latter is based on the 8th-century Byzantine law code known as Ecloga.[136][137] Both were completed by Methodius shortly before his death in 885.[136]


In addition to the study of early medieval chronicles and charters, archaeological research contributed to the understanding of the Moravian state and society.[185] The Moravian centres at Mikulčice, Pohansko and Staré Město were thoroughly excavated in the 1950s and 1960s.[185] However, as Macháček writes, "the acquired huge amounts of finds and data still have to be properly processed".[185]

Economy[edit]

The large 9th-century fortresses unearthed at Mikulčice and other places were located in the wider region of the confluence of the rivers Morava and Danube.[231] Two important trade routes crossed this region in this period, the Danube and the ancient Amber Road, implying that these settlements, all lying on rivers, were important centres of commerce.[231] Finds of tools, raw materials and semi-manufactured goods[232] show that quarters inhabited by craftsmen also existed in these settlements.[233] The large fortresses were surrounded by a number of small villages where the locals were engaged in agriculture.[234] They cultivated wheat, barley, millet and other cereals, and farmed cattle, pigs, sheep and horse.[235] Their animals were relatively small: for instance, their horses were not larger than modern Przewalski horses.[236]


The existence of a general exchange medium in Moravia has not been proven:[231] there is no sign of local coinage[237] and foreign coins are scarce.[238] According to Bialeková and other archaeologists, the axe-shaped ingots (grivnas) unearthed in great number in fortresses served as "premonetary currencies". This theory has not universally been accepted, because these objects have also been interpreted as "intermediate products intended for further treatment".[239] According to Macháček, the lack of coins meant that Moravian monarchs could not "effectively collect taxes, customs and fines", which weakened their international position.[210]


Iron metallurgy and smithing were the most important branches of local industry.[94] An example of highly developed tool production are asymmetrical plowshares.[94] There is no sign of silver, gold, copper or lead mines in Moravia, but jewellery and weapons were produced locally.[231] Accordingly, their prime material was acquired as loot or gift or brought to Moravia by merchants.[240] Archaeological research also evidences the import of prestige goods, including silk, brocade and glass vessels.[231] According to Štefan[231] and Macháček,[210] the Moravians primarily provided slaves, acquired as prisoners of war during their raids in the neighbouring regions, in exchange for these luxury goods. For instance, Archbishop Thietmar of Salzburg accused the Moravians of "bringing noble men and honest women into slavery"[175] during their campaigns in Pannonia.[231] Slave trading is also well documented: the First Legend of Naum narrates that many of Methodius's disciples "were sold for money to the Jews"[241] after 885, and the Raffelstetten Customs Regulations makes mention of slaves delivered from Moravia to the west.[231]

Legacy[edit]

Great Moravian centres (e.g., Bratislava (Pozsony, Pressburg), Nitra (Nyitra), Tekov (Bars) and Zemplín (Zemplén)) retained their functions after the fall of Great Moravia, although the identification of Bratislava, Tekov and Zemplín as Great Moravian castles are not generally accepted.[261] Several sources suggest that Hungarian rulers followed the contemporary German or Bulgar patents when they established the new administrative system in their kingdom, or they introduced a new system.[262]


Social differentiation in Great Moravia reached the state of early feudalism, creating the social basis for development of later medieval states in the region.[263] The question what happened to Great Moravian noble families after 907 is still under debate. On the one hand, recent research indicates that a significant part of the local aristocracy remained more or less undisturbed by the fall of Great Moravia and their descendants became nobles in the newly formed Kingdom of Hungary.[217][218][264] The most prominent example are the powerful families of Hunt and Pázmán.[264] On the other hand, both Anonymous and Simon of Kéza, two chroniclers of the early history of Hungary, recorded that the prominent noble families of the kingdom descended either from leaders of the Magyar tribes or from immigrants, and they did not connect any of them to Great Moravia. For example, the ancestors of the clan Hunt-Pázmán (Hont-Pázmány), whose Great Moravian origin has been advanced by Slovak scholars,[264] were reported by Simon of Kéza to have arrived from the Duchy of Swabia in the late 10th century.[265][266][267]


The territories mentioned as "Tercia pars regni" (lit., "one-third part of the Kingdom of Hungary") in the medieval sources are referred to as the "Duchy" in Hungarian scholarly works and as the "Principality of Nitra" in Slovak academic sources. These territories were ruled autonomously by members of the Árpád dynasty residing in Bihar (today Biharea in Romania) or in Nitra—a practice reminiscent of the Great Moravian appanage system, but also similar to that of some other dynasties in the Early Middle Ages (e.g., the Ruriks in the Kievan Rus').[268][269] The existence of an autonomous political unit centered around Nitra is often considered by Slovak scholars an example of political continuity from the Great Moravian period.[270]


Great Moravia also became a prominent theme of the Czech and Slovak romantic nationalism of the 19th century.[271] The Byzantine double-cross thought to have been brought by Cyril and Methodius is currently part of the symbol of Slovakia and the Constitution of Slovakia refers to Great Moravia in its preamble. Interest about that period rose as a result of the national revival in the 19th century. Great Moravian history has been regarded as a cultural root of several Slavic nations in Central Europe and it was employed in attempts to create a single Czechoslovak identity in the 20th century.


Although the source cited above and other sources mention that Great Moravia disappeared without trace and that its inhabitants left for the Bulgars, with Croats and Magyars following their victories, archaeological research and toponyms suggest the continuity of Slavic population in the valleys of the rivers of the Inner Western Carpathians.[272][273] Moreover, there are sporadic references to Great Moravia from later years: in 924/925, both Folkuin in his Gesta abb. Lobiensium and Ruotger in Archiepiscopi Coloniensis Vita Brunonis[274] mention Great Moravia. In 942, Magyar warriors captured during their raid in al-Andalus said that Moravia is the northern neighbour of their people. The fate of the northern and western parts of former Central Europe in the 10th century is thus largely unclear.


The eastern part of the Great Moravian core territory (present-day Slovakia) fell under domination of the Hungarian Árpád dynasty. The north-west borders of the Principality of Hungary became a mostly uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. This was the Hungarian gyepűelve, and it can be considered as a march that effectively lasted until the mid-13th century.[275] The rest remained under the rule of the local Slavic aristocracy[264] and was gradually[194] integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary in a process finished in the 14th century.[275][276] In 1000 or 1001, all of present-day Slovakia was taken over by Poland under Bolesław I, and much of this territory became part of the Kingdom of Hungary by 1031.[275][277]

History of Moravia

History of Slovakia

History of the Czech lands

Slavs in Lower Pannonia

Archived 2010-02-06 at the Wayback Machine (in Czech)

Great Moravian reenactment and experimental archeology, articles, timeline, primary sources, original findings

(in Czech)

Articles about Great Moravia and text of many primary sources

Dejiny Veľkej Moravy a počiatky Uhorska. Turč. sv. Martin : Matica slovenská, 1929. 16 p. – available at ULB's Digital Library

ZÁBORSKÝ, J.

Media related to Great Moravia at Wikimedia Commons