Josip Mikoczy-Blumenthal ( hu, Mikóczy-Blumenthal József; 2 March 1734 – 22 March 1800) was an 18th-century

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

n historian known as the first proponent of the Iranian-Caucasian theory on the origins of the

Croats The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, G ...

, which he presented in a lost paper published in 1797.

Biography

Josip Mikoczy-Blumenthal was born in Zagreb on 2 March 1734. He finished

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

gymnasium in Zagreb and became professor in university in

Trnava Trnava (, german: Tyrnau; hu, Nagyszombat, also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, to the northeast of Bratislava, on the Trnávka river. It is the capital of a ''kraj'' (Trnava Region) and of an '' okres'' (Trna ...

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. Since 1773 he worked as a professor of rhetoric and

Greek language Greek ( el, label=Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy (Calabria and Salento), southern Al ...

. He became librarian in Faculty of Law in Zagreb in 1792 and from 1793 until 1797 he worked in its historiographical department. Mikoczy-Blumenthal died in 1800.

Work

Important works of Mikoczy-Blumenthal include ''Josephi Mikocsi otiorum Croatiae liber unus'' in 1806 which was the first historiographical debate in Croatia and ''Banorum Dalmatiae, Croatiae et Slavoniae ad seculum XIV. perducta series 1792'' in which he gave detailed and thorough list of all Croatian bans through five centuries. Others non published works include ''Lexicon historicum et topographicum'' and ''Geographica descriptio Croatiae et Slavoniae''. However, his most important work is "Hrvati rodom Slaveni, potekli od Sarmata potomaka Medijaca" (eng. "

of Slavic group originated from

Sarmatians The Sarmatians (; grc, Σαρμαται, Sarmatai; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples of classical ant ...

descending from

Medians The Medes ( Old Persian: ; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were an ancient Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, th ...

") which he defended as a doctoral dissertation in Royal Academy in Zagreb in 1797. With this work he became the founder of Croatian Iranian origin theory. According to him Croats were people descending from Medes from western

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. His paper, originally written in Latin, has since been lost, with only the paper's summary written in Croatian survived to this day. However, his theory of Iranian origins of Croats (rather than the popular idea of their common Slavic ancestry gained some traction in the 19th and 20th centuries among local scholars.

References

External links

TANAJSKE PLOČE - EUROPSKA OSOBNICA HRVATA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mikoczy-Blumenthal, Josip 1734 births 1800 deaths 18th-century Croatian historians 18th-century Hungarian historians Croatian expatriates in Slovakia Croatian expatriates in Hungary Writers from Zagreb Academic staff of the University of Trnava