Zoltán of Hungary
Zoltán[1] (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈzoltaːn]; c. 880 or 903 – c. 950), also Zolta,[1][2][3][4] Zsolt,[1][2] Solt[1][2] or Zaltas[2] is mentioned in the Gesta Hungarorum as the third Grand Prince of the Hungarians who succeeded his father Árpád around 907. Although modern historians tend to deny this report on his reign, because other chronicles do not list him among the Hungarian rulers, there is consensus that even if Zoltán never ascended the throne, all monarchs ruling in Hungary from the House of Árpád after around 955 were descended from him.
Life[edit]
Zoltán in the Gesta Hungarorum[edit]
Modern historians' main source of Zoltán's life is the Gesta Hungarorum, a late 12th-century chronicle whose writer is now known as Anonymus.[5] According to this source, Zoltán was the only son of Árpád, Grand Prince of the Hungarians.[5] In contrast, the nearly contemporary Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus writes that "Zaltas"[6] was Árpád's fourth son.[5] Zoltán's name seemingly derived from the Arabian sultan title with Turkic mediation, but modern scholars have not unanimously accepted this etymology.[5]
According to Anonymus, Zoltán was born after 903, during his father's second campaign against Menumorut.[3] The latter was one of the many local rulers who are solely mentioned in the Gesta Hungarorum among the opponents of the Hungarians during their conquest of the Carpathian Basin.[7] In the Gesta Hungarorum's narration, Menumorut was forced to surrender and to give his daughter in marriage to Zoltán[3][8] in 904 or 905.[4] When Menumorut died, Zoltán inherited his father-in-law's duchy east of the river Tisza, which Anonymus claims was inhabited by "the peoples that are called Kozár".[9][10] Anonymus also states that Zoltán, still a minor, succeeded his father who died around 907.[5] Zoltán, in turn, later abdicated in favour of his son Taksony and died "in the third year of his son's reign".[11][5]