CHAPTER 2 The History of the between the 10th and the 14th Century According to the Written Sources

The history of the Banat in the Middle Ages (10th to 14th century) is known from several written sources, which provide important information on social and administrative structures, as well on various ethnic groups. In addition, those sources shed some light on the religious practices in the region. To be sure, the sources in question are few and sparse. Most studies exclu- sively based on them are marred by contradictions and far-fetched conclu- sions, as well as by nationalist biases. Several authors admit, however, that the region was home to a variety of peoples.1 It is generally believed that in the aftermath of the collapse of the Avar Khaganate, following the Frankish victories, the Banat was ruled by Bulgars. However, there are no sources explicitly describing political developments in the region during the 9th century. Under the years 822 and 824, the Frankish annals mention a group of peo- ple named Praedenecenti, who are also called Marvani or Merehani. They were apparently a Slavic tribe in conflict with the Bulgars.2 Judging by the evidence of the annals, after 824 the Bulgars established their hegemony in the region where the Praedenecenti lived. By 827, they definitely had under their rule a number of Slavic groups in southern Pannonia.3 Some believe that those Slavs lived side by side with remnants of the Avar and with Romanic (i.e., Romance- speaking) populations.4 By contrast, some Hungarian historians believe that the region was inhabited only by Slavs and Bulgars, the latter being the rem- nants of the Turkic-speaking population previously under Avar rule. The only basis for that theory is a number of river names, such as Caraş, which are

1 Györffy (1963), (1987); Madgearu (1998), pp. 194–196; Pop (1996), pp. 117–130; Pascu (1971), pp. 50–51, 81–87; Horváth-Pálóczi (1989), pp. 32, 33, 57, 58, 63; Popa (1989), pp. 353–376; Ţeicu (1998); Vinulescu (1936), pp. 869–876; Achim (2000a), pp. 11–24; Achim (2000d), pp. 63–77; Achim (2000h), pp. 145–160; Oţa (2007c), pp. 17–37; Pesty (1876); Pesty (1878); Pesty (1882/1883); Pâclăşianu (1943), pp. 21–25; Ştefănescu (1991), p. 56 with bibliography on , their organization, religion etc. 2 Madgearu (1998), pp. 194–195. 3 Spinei (1999), p. 50. 4 Bejan (1995), p. 99.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���5 | doi ��.��63/9789004281578_�03 The History Of The Banat Between The 10th And The 14th Century 19 believed to be of Bulgar (i.e., Turkic) origin.5 Meanwhile, the idea of a strong Bulgar presence in the Banat has also been accepted by some Romanian ­scholars.6 Others do not exclude the possibility that the Turkic-speaking ele- ments in question were Avars, who continued to live in the lands to the east from the river after the demise of the Khaganate.7 Still others have also pointed out that Turkic river names such as Caraş may well be of a later date, going back perhaps to the Pechenegs.8 The next important episode in the history of the Banat is a mention in the of a polity led by a duke named G(a)lad.9 There is much dispute regarding this piece of information, as some historians believe in its authenticity, while others completely reject it. G(a)lad’s rule over the area between the Mureş, Tisza and Danube rivers, up to the Carpathian Mountains, is mentioned only in the 12th-century chronicle.10 This is not the place to enter the historiographic debate regarding authenticity of the Gesta Hungarorum and the historical reality of Duke G(a)lad and of his polity, both topics which received considerable attention in the Romanian historiography.11 One of the key arguments used by Romanian historians in support of the idea that the infor- mation in the Gesta Hungarorum can be trusted and that there really was a local duke in the early 10th century named G(a)ladis is the relatively large number of local place names supposedly derived from that duke’s name: Gladna Română (Timiş County), Valea Gladu and Cladova (),12 Galad, Gladska, and

5 Györffy (1987), p. 470. 6 Pop (1996), p. 118. 7 Rusu (1975), pp. 201–202; Pop (1996), p. 118. For Avars to the east from the river Tisza, see Szőke (1990/1991), pp. 145–157. 8 Binder (1968), p. 629. 9 Gesta Hungarorum 11 and 44, in Martyn Rady, László Veszprémy, and János M. Bak (eds.), Anonymus and Master Roger (Central European Medieval Texts, 5) (Budapest/New York: Central European University Press, 2010), pp. 32, 94–97. It is worth mentioning that duke G(a)lad is mentioned only in the Gesta Hungarorum and does not appear in any other source. As a consequence, historians have raised serious doubts about the historical authenticity of the episode and even about the existence of a polity in the early tenth- century Banat. 10 For a much earlier dating of the Gesta Hungarorum to the 11th century, see Sălăgean (2006), pp. 11–57. 11 Madgearu (1996), pp. 8–13; (1998), pp. 191–207; Madgearu (2005); Pop (1996), pp. 112–120; Bejan (1995), pp. 104–112; Bizerea, Bizerea (1978), pp. 1–16; Pascu (1971), pp. 29, 44, 51, 57; Ţeicu (1998), pp. 495–496; Spinei (1990b), p. 127 etc. 12 Glück (1976), p. 76.