''Gyula'' (Yula, Gula, Gila) was, according to

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

sources, the

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

of one of the leaders, the second in rank, of the Hungarian tribal federation in the 9th–10th centuries. In the earliest Hungarian sources, the title name is only recorded as a

personal name A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is known ...

(''Gyyla'', ''Geula'', ''Gyla'', ''Iula''). According to the Hungarian chronicles,

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

was ruled by a line of princes called Gyula, and their country was occupied by King

Stephen I of Hungary Stephen I, also known as King Saint Stephen ( hu, Szent István király ; la, Sanctus Stephanus; sk, Štefan I. or Štefan Veľký; 975 – 15 August 1038), was the last Grand Prince of the Hungarians between 997 and 1000 or 1001, and the f ...

(1000/1001–1038).

Etymology

The title name has not convincing etymologies, but it is probably of Turkic origin, cf. *''yula'' "torch".

The ''gyula''s in the 9th century

The first data of the title, recorded by Ibn Rusta and

Gardizi Abū Saʿīd ʿAbd-al-Ḥayy ibn Żaḥḥāk b. Maḥmūd Gardīzī ( fa, ابوسعید عبدالحی بن ضحاک بن محمود گردیزی), better known as Gardizi (), was an 11th-century Persian historian and official, who is notable for ...

, can be traced back to the earlier works of

Abu Abdallah al-Jayhani Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Jayhānī ( fa, ابو عبدالله محمد بن احمد جیهانی), or Abu Abdallah Jayhani (; also spelled al-Gayhani, Jaihani), was the Persian people, Persian vizier of the Samanid Empire from 914 ...

. According to these earliest pieces of evidence, the

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...

were ruled conjointly by two ‘kings’. The major one, called ''

kende The ''kende'' (or ''kündü'') was one of the kings of the dual-monarchy of the early Hungarians along with the '' gyula'' or war-chief. The function of the ''kende'' is believed to have been a religious one ("sacral prince").Victor SpineiThe Grea ...

'' (or ''künde''), enjoyed nominal leadership, while effective power was exercised by his colleague, inferior in rank, called the ''gyula''. This peculiar form of governance (‘ dual kingship’) is generally supposed to have been imitative of the

Khazar Khaganate The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...

, which did indeed have a similar organization. However, the only thing that the Muslim sources tell us is that the ''gyula'' was in charge of the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

matters of the tribal confederation; whereas there existed a legitimate ruler (the ''kende'') who had little influence on army-related issues.

The ''gyula''s in the 10th-11th centuries

Following the

Hungarian conquest Hungarian may refer to: * Hungary, a country in Central Europe * Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946 * Hungarians, ethnic groups in Hungary * Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the assignm ...

of the

Carpathian Basin The Pannonian Basin, or Carpathian Basin, is a large basin situated in south-east Central Europe. The geomorphological term Pannonian Plain is more widely used for roughly the same region though with a somewhat different sense, with only th ...

around 896, the title ''gyula'' can be found in the ''

De administrando imperio ''De Administrando Imperio'' ("On the Governance of the Empire") is the Latin title of a Greek-language work written by the 10th-century Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII. The Greek title of the work is ("To yown son Romanos"). It is a domes ...

("On the Governance of the Empire")'' written by the

Byzantine Emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...

Constantine Porphyrogenitus Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Ka ...

. The emperor confirms that around 950 the ''gyla'' was one of the two important officers who assisted the leader of Hungarian tribal federation; also, each tribe had a chieftain. The Byzantine Ioannes Skylitzes in the second half of the 11th century recounted (using earlier written sources) the

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

of the Hungarian chieftain Gyula (or ''gyula'') in Constantinople in the mid-10th century. According to Ioannes Skylitzes, Gyula stayed true to his new faith and took a missionary bishop, Hierotheos, with him. A Slavic source also contains related information. The almost contemporary ''

Annales Hildesheimenses Annals are a concise form of historical writing which record events chronologically, year by year. The equivalent word in Latin and French is ''annales'', which is used untranslated in English in various contexts. List of works with titles contai ...

("The Annals of Hildesheim")'' recorded for 1003 that "King Stephen of Hungary led an army against his maternal uncle, King Gyula" and "obliged his country by force to adopt the

Christian faith Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global populat ...

Persons named Gyula in the Hungarian chronicles

The ''Gesta Hungarorum'' written by an anonymous author

The anonymous writer of the ''

Gesta Hungarorum ''Gesta Hungarorum'', or ''The Deeds of the Hungarians'', is the earliest book about Hungarian history which has survived for posterity. Its genre is not chronicle, but ''gesta'', meaning "deeds" or "acts", which is a medieval entertaining li ...

'' ("The Deeds of the Hungarians") was the first Hungarian chronicler who compiled the list of the seven Hungarian conqueror chiefs around 1210. At the seventh place we can find Tétény ''(Tuhutum)'', his son Horka ''(Horca)'' and the latter's sons, Gyula ''(Gyyla/Geula)'' and Zombor ''(Zubor)''. According to the author of the ''Gesta'', Zombor ''(Zubor)'' was the father of the younger Gyula ''(Geula/Gyla)''. The ''Gesta'' also narrates that Tétény occupied the land of Transylvania from the

Vlach "Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other Eastern ...

(

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

) Duke

Gelou Gelou ( ro, Gelu; hu, Gyalu) was the Vlach ruler of Transylvania at the time of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin around 900 AD, according to the ''Gesta Hungarorum''. Although the ''Gesta Hungarorum'', which was written after 115 ...

; neither Tétény nor Gelou are mentioned in other primary sources. The family tree of the ''gyula''s according to the anonymous author of the ''Gesta Hungarorum'': Tétény ''(Tuhutum)'' ♂ │ Horka ''(Horca)'' ♂ ┌───────────────────┴──────────────────────┐ Gyula ''(Gyyla/Geula)'' ♂ Zombor ''(Zubor)'' ♂ ┌───────────┴──────────┐ │ Karold ''(Caroldu)'' ♀ Sarolt ''(Saroltu)'' ♀ Gyula the Younger ''(Geula/Gyla)'' ♂ ∞ Géza ♂ ┌─────────┴────────┐ │ Bolya ''(Bua/Biua)'' ♂ Bonyha ''(Bucna)'' ♂ Stephen I ♂ │ │ Maglód kindred ''(genus Maglout)''

The ''Gesta Hungarorum'' written by Simon of Kéza

Simon of Kéza Simon of Kéza ( hu, Kézai Simon) was the most famous Hungarian chronicler of the 13th century. He was a priest in the royal court of king Ladislaus IV of Hungary. In 1270–1271, bearing the title "master" (''magister''), Simon was part of a d ...

, who wrote his ''Gesta Hungarorum'' between 1280 and 1285, inserted Gyula'' /Iula/ ''in connection to Transylvania in the list of the seven Hungarian conqueror chiefs. He, as opposed to the anonymous writer of the ''Gesta Hungarorum'', wrote not about two but only one Gyula.

The ''Chronicon Pictum''

The chronicle increased the members of the Gyula family with the same name to three. However, it caused a problem for the author to separate these three persons. The chronicle attributes the finding of the ruins of ''Gyulafehérvár'' (in Hungarian, ‘Gyula’s White Castle’; '' Apulum'' in

Roman Dacia Roman Dacia ( ; also known as Dacia Traiana, ; or Dacia Felix, 'Fertile/Happy Dacia') was a province of the Roman Empire from 106 to 271–275 AD. Its territory consisted of what are now the regions of Oltenia, Transylvania and Banat (today ...

, now

Alba Iulia Alba Iulia (; german: Karlsburg or ''Carlsburg'', formerly ''Weißenburg''; hu, Gyulafehérvár; la, Apulum) is a city that serves as the seat of Alba County in the west-central part of Romania. Located on the Mureș River in the historical ...

, Romania) to the conqueror Gyula. The family tree of the ''Gyula'' family according to the ''Chronicon Pictum'': Gyula I ♂ ┌──────────┴─────────┐ Sarolt ♀ Gyula II ♂ ∞ Géza ♂ │ Gyula III ♂

The list of the ''gyula''s

The list of persons who held the ''gyula'' office is still subject to debate. Many historians (''e.g.'', György Györffy, Florin Curta) suggest that at the time of the Hungarian conquest Árpád was the ''gyula'', who was later considered to be the ancestor of the dynasty that ruled Hungary until 1301. At any rate, Hungarian chroniclers are unanimous in reporting that the conquest of the Carpathian Basin was directed by Árpád. Florin Curta suggests that when the ''kende'' of the conquest (whom he does not name) died in 902, the leadership passed onto Árpád, and one of Árpád's kinsmen became ''gyula''. Other scholars (''e.g.'', Gábor Vékony, C. A. Macartney) argues that Árpád was the ''kende'', and the ''gyula'' was

Kurszán Kurszán (died 904), was a kende of the Magyars in the dual leadership with Árpád serving as a gyula - according to a mainstream theory. While ''kende'' probably corresponded roughly to the Khazar title ''khagan'', Kurszán's role equated to the ...

(''Chussal'', ''Chussol'') whose name, in contrast to Árpád, can be found in contemporary Western texts.The ''Annales heremi'', the ''

Annales alamannici The ''Annales Almannici'', which are also referred to as the ''Annals of St. Gall'', provide one of the earliest records of Medieval Europe available. The core text of the ''Annales Alamannici'' covers the years 709 through to 799. Spread over se ...

'', and the ''Annales sangalenses maiores'' refer to him (Róna-Tas, András ''op. cit. p. 344''). The Slavic source narrating the baptism of the Gyula in Constantinople in the middle of the 10th century mentions that his baptismal name was ''Stefan''. According to the chronicle of

Thietmar of Merseburg Thietmar (also Dietmar or Dithmar; 25 July 9751 December 1018), Prince-Bishop of Merseburg from 1009 until his death, was an important chronicler recording the reigns of German kings and Holy Roman Emperors of the Ottonian (Saxon) dynasty. Two ...

(975-1018), the name of King Stephen's uncle whose country was occupied by the Hungarian king in 1003 was ''Procui''. The following is the list of the ''gyula''s supposed by modern historians: *

(before 894–902) ''or''

Árpád Árpád (; 845 – 907) was the head of the confederation of the Magyar tribes at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. He might have been either the sacred ruler or ''kende'' of the Hungarians, or their military leader or '' gy ...

(before 894–902/after 902) *"Gyula I" ''or'' an unknown member of the Árpád dynasty (?–?); "Gyula I" may be identical to Kurszán *"

Gyula II Gyula II was a Hungarian tribal leader in the middle of the 10th century. He visited Constantinople, where he was baptized. His baptismal name was Stephen. Life He descended from a family whose members held the hereditary title '' gyula'', which ...

" (''c.'' 952/953); his

baptismal name A Christian name, sometimes referred to as a baptismal name, is a religious personal name given on the occasion of a Christian baptism, though now most often assigned by parents at birth. In English-speaking cultures, a person's Christian name ...

was ''Stefan'' *"

Gyula III Gyula III, also Iula or Gyula the Younger, Geula or Gyla, was an early medieval ruler in Transylvania ( – 1003/1004). Around 1003, he and his family were attacked, dispossessed and captured by King Stephen I of Hungary (1000/1001-1038). The name ...

"/ (''c.'' 980 – ''c.'' 1003); his name may have been ''Procui''

Notes

References

Sources

Primary sources * Constantine Porphyronenitus (author), Moravcsik, Gyula (editor), Jenkins, Romilly J. H. (translator): ''De Administrando Imperio''; Dumbarton Oaks, 2008, Washington, D. C; * Kézai, Simon (author), Veszprémy, László (editor), Schaer, Frank (translator): ''Gesta Hungarorum: The Deeds of the Hungarians''; Central European University Press, 1999, Budapest; Secondary sources * Berend, Nóra – Laszlovszky, József – Szakács, Béla Zsolt: ''The Kingdom of Hungary''; in: Berend, Nora (Editor): ''Christianization and the Rise of Christian Monarchy: Scandinavia, Central Europe and Rus’ c. 900–1200''; Cambridge University Press, 2007, Cambridge & New York; * Curta, Florin: ''Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages 500–1250''; Cambridge University Press, 2006, Cambridge; * Fügedi, Erik: ''The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895–1526''; I. B. Tauris, 2001, London&New York; * Kristó, Gyula (general editor); Engel, Pál, and Makk, Ferenc (Editors): ''Korai Magyar történeti lexikon (9-14. század)'' /Encyclopedia of the Early Hungarian History (9th–14th centuries)/; Akadémiai Kiadó, 1994, Budapest; (the entry "Anonymus" was written by Zoltán Kordé, "Árpád" by Gyula Kristó, "Gyalu" by Zoltán Kordé, "gyula" by Alfréd Márton, "Gyula" by Sándor László Tóth and László Szegfű, "Kézai Simon" by Tibor Almási, "Kurszán" by Sándor László Tóth, "Tétény" by Zoltán Kordé) * Kristó, Gyula: ''Early Transylvania (895–1324)''; Lucidus Kiadó, 2003, Budapest; * Rady, Martyn: ''Nobility, Land and Service in Medieval Hungary''; Palgrave (in association with School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London), 2000, New York; * Róna-Tas, András (author); Bodoczky, Nicholas (Translator): ''Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: An Introduction to Early Hungarian History''; Central European University Press, 1999, Budapest & New York; {{DEFAULTSORT:Gyula (Title) Magyar tribal chieftains Medieval Transylvania Hungary in the Early Middle Ages Gesta Hungarorum