The range of Slavic ceramics of thePrague-Penkovka culture marked in black, and presumed location of three Early Medieval tribes of Dulebes in Central and Eastern Europe, per V.V. Sedov (1979).The presumed location of Dulebes (green) in present-dayCzech Republic during the 10th century per abandonedhypothesis about the Czech tribes.[1]
The etymological origin of their ethnonym is uncertain.Jan Długosz argued it derives from the name of their supposed progenitor, Duleba.[3] Others, such asOleg Trubachyov consider that the ethnonym existed before theEarly Middle Ages because it derives fromWest Germanic languages;*dudlebi from*daud-laiba- in the meaning of "inheritance of the deceased", which would fit "with the early historical process of development of the lands by the Slavs abandoned at one time by theGermanic tribes".[4][5] Initially, the Proto-Slavic tribe possibly was part ofPrzeworsk culture near Old Western Germanic area, but later belonged to thePrague-Korchak culture.[2][4][5] It would be "only Slavic ethnonym with a Germanic etymology".[6]
ThePrimary Chronicle describes them as a tribe that formerly lived along theBug river, "where theVolhynians now are found", inVolhynia what is today WesternUkraine.[7] According to the chronicle, theDulebi suffered greatly from the invasion of thePannonian Avars in the late 6th or early 7th century:[2][8]
"They made war upon the Slavs, and harassed the Dulebians, who were themselves Slavs. They even did violence to the Dulebian women. When an Avar made a journey, he did not cause either a horse or a steer to be harnessed, but gave command instead that three or four or five women should be yoked to his cart and be made to draw him. Even thus they harassed the Dulebians. The Avars were large of stature and proud of spirit, and God destroyed them."
Some scholars relate them toAntes,[9][10] having seen a connection between the demise of the Antes by the Avars and the oppression of the Dulebes by the same Avars and the tradition recorded byAl-Masudi andAbraham ben Jacob that in ancient times theWalitābā (which some read asWalīnānā and identified with theVolhynians) were "the original, pure-bloodedSaqaliba, the most highly honoured", who dominated the rest of the Slavic tribes, but whose "original organization was destroyed" and "the people divided into factions, each of them ruled by their own king", due to "dissent", as implying the existence of a Slavic federation which perished after the attack of the Avars.[11][12]
Some consider that because of the oppression mentioned in thePrimary Chronicle, some of them resettled along the UpperVltava River in today's SouthernCzech Republic, while others were part of theSlavic settlement of the Eastern Alps nearLake Balaton andDrava River inCarantania and today's southwesternHungary.[2][4] The place of their migration is uncertain and is argued to be from Volhynia to the West due to Avar invasion,[5][13][14][15][16] or from theVistula andOder Rivers in all the directions because of supposed proximity with West Germanic tribes.[4][5]
InPannonian Basin, in the charter byEmperor of theCarolingian Empire,Louis II (843–876), appears Tudleipin in a list of possessions of theSalzburg archbishop Adalwin; church Dudleipin built by Duke ofLower Pannonia,Pribina (846–861), is recorded inConversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum (c. 870); comitatus Dudleipa is mentioned in the "Letter ofKing Arnulf of 891" written during the time ofOtto II (973–983), the county probably located in the territory of laterVas County; a locality called Dulieb in the Upper Drava region is mentioned in the Tyrolean act from 1060.[5][19] Part of these toponyms most probably was located nearBad Radkersburg and in-between of it andLeibnitz separated byMur river.[19][20][21] Today exist many hydronyms and toponyms on the territory of Poland, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia which derive from*dudleb-.[3][5]
^Třeštík, Dušan (2011),"České kmeny" [Czech tribes],Akademická encyklopedie českých dějin (in Czech), vol. 2, Č/1, Prague: Historický ústav Akademie věd České republiky, pp. 69–70
^abcdeSedov, Valentin Vasilyevich (2013) [1995].Славяне в раннем Средневековье [Sloveni u ranom srednjem veku (Slavs in Early Middle Ages)]. Novi Sad: Akademska knjiga. pp. 41–44, 164, 388,428–430,435–437, 481, 497, 499, 515.ISBN978-86-6263-026-1.
^abcdSedov, Valentin VasilyevichПроисхождение и ранняя история славян, 1979, Наука, pg. 131–132 (pdf. 138-139): Другой славянский этноним — дулебы, восходящий также к праславянской поре, территориально связан с племенной группировкой славян, представленной керамикой первой группы (рис. 25). Бесспорно, что дулебы составляли какую-то часть этой группировки; наряду с ними в ее составе были и другие праславянские племена, названия которых не дошли до нас. Разбросанность этнонимов дулебы отражает миграции выходцев из этого племени. Где находилась коренная территория дулебов, определить невозможно. Поскольку этот этноним имеет западногерманское происхождение [Трубачев О. Н. Ранние славянские этнонимы — свидетели миграции славян, с. 52, 53.], то, видимо, нужно допустить, что славянское племя дулебов сложилось ещё в римское время где-то по соседству с западногерманским населением. Оттуда дулебы расселились в разных направлениях. Средневековые письменные источники фиксируют дулебов на Волыни, в Чехии, на среднем Дунае, между озером Балатон и рекой Мурсой, и в Хорутании, на верхней Драве [Niederle L. Slovanske starozitnosti, II, s. 369, 370.].
^Королюк В. Д. Дулебы и анты, авары и готы // Проблемы типологии в этнографии. М.: Наука, 1979. С. 53-59.
^Рыбаков Б. А. Киевская Русь и русские княжества XII—XIII вв. М.: Наука, 1982. 598 с.
^Войтович Л. В. Восточное Прикарпатье во второй половине І тыс. н. э. Начальные этапы формирования государственности // Rossica antiqua: Исследования и материалы. 2006. СПб.: Издательство СПбГУ, 2006. С. 6-39.
^Жих М. И. О предыстории Волынской земли (VI — начало X века) // Международный исторический журнал «Русин». 2008. № 3-4 (13-14). С. 35-57.
^abSteinhübel, Ján (2021).The Nitrian Principality: The Beginnings of Medieval Slovakia. Brill. pp. 163–171.ISBN978-90-04-43863-7.
^Posch, Fritz (1992)."Die Dudleben in der Steiermark" [The Dulebes in Styria](PDF).Blätter für Heimatkunde (in German).66:21–25. Retrieved12 December 2020.
^Amon, Karl (2002)."Die Kirche in Dudleipin" [The church in Dudleipin](PDF).Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereines für Steiermark (in German).93:15–57. Retrieved12 December 2020.
