Alsószentmihály Inscription

The Alsószentmihály inscription is an inscription on a building stone in Mihai Viteazu, Cluj (Transylvania, today Romania). The origins and translation of the inscription are uncertain.

The relic

The stone was an ancient Roman building stone—proved by the leaf-symbol, a frequently applied ornamental element of ancient Roman inscriptions— reused in the 10th century. Alsószentmihály located on the territory of the late Province Dacia existed up to the middle of the 3rd century. Dénes showed that the Kabars (Khazar rebels who joined the Hungarians in the 9th century) probably settled in this region (that time Transylvania). In some parts of Hungary, there are data of the Kabars even from the 13th century.

Script used for the Alsószentmihály inscription

Some quotations from historian Gábor Vékony about the identification of the script in this inscription:

* "Since the Alsószentmihály inscription was not found in the geographical area of the Old Hungarian script, and in the first line, only vowels could be read based on the Khazarian script, we can state surely that the possible transcription of the inscription is surely out of the Khazarian script".
* "To summarize, we can state that the Alsószentmihály inscription is the relic of the Kabars settled into Transylvania, which is naturally written in Khazar with Khazarian script."
* "Similar symbols occur in other Khazarian runic inscriptions as well."
* "In Transylvania, the inscription of the reused stone built into the wall of the church of Alsószentmihály is unambiguously written with Khazarian runic alphabet."

Based on the quotations above, it can be stated that Vékony identified the script of the Alsószentmihály relic as a Khazarian script. According to Vékony, another relic, the Homokmégy-Halom inscription contains Khazarian text as well.

The meaning of the inscription

The Alsószentmihály inscription was deciphered by archaeologist Gábor Vékony.

The transcription of Vékony (it uses IPA symbols):

According to Vékony, the inscription was made by a Kabar leader, whose religion was Karaite. The first symbol of the first row is a ligature, its transcription: ^atl^ïɣ. The first symbol (from left) in the second row is a Khazarian word separator.

In the inscription, the third symbol of the first row (from left), and the symbols in the second and last place can be considered as descendants of the Old Turkic script. Nevertheless, their relation needs more evidence.

Critics, alternative theories

There are several critics of Vékony's theories and translations, most notably the Hungarian linguist and historian, András Róna-Tas. The debates were summarized by István Riba in 1999 and 2000.Riba, István (2000). . ''The Hungarian Quarterly''. Vol. XLI. No. 157, Spring 2000

Notes

External links

The Alsószentmihályfalva Rovas inscription on the RovasPedia
* Jenő Demeczky, Dr. Gábor Hosszú, Tamás Rumi, László Sípos, Dr. Erzsébet Zelliger
Revised proposal for encoding the Rovas in the UCS. Individual Contribution for consideration by UTC and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2
14. October 2012.

Rovás Info News Portal
* Rovas Foundation
Code request for the Rovas script in ISO 15924 (2012-10-20)
* Jenő Demeczky, György Giczi, Dr. Gábor Hosszú, Gergely Kliha, Dr. Borbála Obrusánszky, Tamás Rumi, László Sípos, Dr. Erzsébet Zelliger
Additional information about the name of the Rovas script. Individual Contribution for consideration by UTC and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2
2012-10-21.
* Jenő Demeczky, György Giczi, Gábor Hosszú, Gergely Kliha, Borbála Obrusánszky, Tamás Rumi, László Sípos, Erzsébet Zelliger
About the consensus of the Rovas encoding – Response to N4373 (Resolutions of the 8th Hungarian World Congress on the encoding of Old Hungarian). Individual Contribution for consideration by UTC and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2
Registered by UTC (L2/12-337), 2012-10-24

References

* Bálint, Csanád (1980): Some Archaeological Addenda to P. Golden's Khazar Studies. In: Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarium Hungaricae Vol. 34. 1981, pp. 397–412
* Bálint, Csanád (1981): A kazár kaganátus régészeti kutatása a Szovjetunióban he archaeological research of the Khazar Khanate in the Soviet Union In: Magyar Tudomány ungarian Science No. 5. 1980, pp. 381–386
* Benkő, Elek (1972): Egy újabb rovásírásos emlék Erdélyből new runic script relic from Transsylvania (A szentmihályfalvi templom rovásfelirata he runic inscription of the Alsószentmihály church. In: Magyar Nyelv ungarian Language 1972, Vol. LXVIII, No. 4, pp. 453 and Appendix
* Dénes, József (1984–1985): A magyarok hét neme és hét országa (A magyar "törzsek" elhelyezkedése a Kárpát-medencében") he seven gens and seven countries of the Magyars (The allocation of the Magyar "tribes" in the Carpathian Basin) In: Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve he Annual of the Ferenc Móra Museum of Szeged Szeged, 1991, pp. 571–577
* Györffy, György (1990): A magyarság keleti elemei. he Eastern Elements of the Hungarians Budapest: Gondolat.
* Kristó, Gyula & Makk, Ferenc (2001): A kilencedik és a tizedik század története he history of the 9th and the 10th centuries In: Magyar Századok ungarian Centuries Published by Pannonica Kiadó, Ser. ed.: Gyula Szvák, 222 p. 
* Róna-Tas, András (1999): The Khazars and the Magyars. In: Golden, Ben-Shammai, and Róna-Tas (eds., 1999), pp. 269–278
* Róna-Tas, András (2007): Tudtak-e írni a magyarok a honfoglalás előtt? Írásbeliség Eurázsiában, 7–9. század ould the Hungarians write before the Magyars' Landtaking? Literacy in Eurasia, 7th–9th centuries In: História, Vol. 29, No. 8, pp. 22–24
* Vékony, Gábor (1985): Késő népvándorláskori rovásfeliratok unic inscriptions from the Late Migration Period In: Életünk Vol. XXII, No. 1, pp. 71–84
* Vékony, Gábor (1987): Későnépvándorláskori rovásfeliratok a Kárpát-medencében unic inscriptions from the Late Migration Period in the Carpathian Basin Szombathely-Budapest: Életünk szerkesztősége.
* Vékony, Gábor (2004): A székely írás emlékei, kapcsolatai, története. Budapest: Nap Kiadó.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alsoszentmihaly Inscription
Extinct languages of Europe
Khazars
Inscriptions of disputed origin
Karaite Judaism in Europe
Rovas script
Turkic inscriptions