Today'sSzékely Land roughly corresponds to the Romanian counties of Harghita,Covasna, and central and eastern Mureș where they currently make up roughly 80% of the population. Based on the official2011 Romanian census, 1,227,623 ethnic Hungarians live in Romania,[12] mostly in the region ofTransylvania, making up 19.6% of the population of this region. Of these, 609,033 live in the counties of Harghita, Covasna, and Mureș, which taken together have a Hungarian majority (58%).[13] The Hungarians in Székely Land, therefore, account for half (49.41%) of theHungarians in Romania. When given the choice on the 2011 Romanian census between ethnically identifying asSzékely or asHungarian, the overwhelming majority of the Székelys chose the latter – only 532 persons declared themselves as ethnicSzékely.[1]
The Székely territories came under the leadership of theCount of the Székelys (Latin:Comes Siculorum), initially a royal appointee from the non-Székely Hungarian nobility who was de facto amargrave; from the 15th century onward, thevoivodes of Transylvania held the office themselves. The Székelys were considered a distinct ethnic group (natio Siculica)[14] and formed part of theUnio Trium Nationum ("Union of Three Nations"), a coalition of three Transylvanianestates, the other two "nations" being the (also predominantly Hungarian) nobility and theSaxons (that is,ethnic German burghers). These three groups ruled Transylvania from 1438 onward, usually in harmony though sometimes in conflict with one another. During theLong Turkish War, the Székelys formed an alliance with PrinceMichael the Brave ofWallachia against the army ofAndrew Báthory, recently appointed Prince ofTransylvania.
In theMiddle Ages, the Székelys played a role in the defense of theKingdom of Hungary against theOttomans in their posture as guards of the eastern border.[7]Nicolaus Olahus stated in the bookHungaria et Athila in 1536 that"Hungarians and Székelys share the same language, with the difference that the Székelys have their own words specific to their nation."[15][16][17] The people of Székelys were in general regarded as the most Hungarian of Hungarians. In 1558, a Hungarian poet, Mihály Vilmányi Libécz voiced this opinion, instructing the reader in his poem that if they had doubts about the correctness of the Hungarian language:"Consult without fail the language of the ancient Székelys, for they are the guardians of the purest Hungarian tongue".[18]
The origin of the Székelys has been much debated. It is now generally accepted that they are descendants of Hungarians. The Székelys have historically claimed descent fromAttila'sHuns[10] and believed they played a special role in shaping Hungary. Ancient legends recount that a contingent of Huns remained in Transylvania, later allying with the main Hungarian army thatconquered the Carpathian Basin in the 9th century. The thirteenth-century chroniclerSimon of Kéza also claimed that the Székely people descended from Huns who lived in mountainous lands prior to the Hungarian conquest.[19]
These Székelys were the remains of the Huns, who when they learned that the Hungarians had returned to Pannonia for the second time, went to the returnees on the border of Ruthenia and conquered Pannonia together.
They were afraid of the western nations that they would suddenly attack them, so they went to Transylvania and did not call themselves Hungarians, but Székelys. The western clan hated the Huns in Attila's life. The Székelys are thus the remnants of the Huns, who remained in the mentioned field until the return of the other Hungarians. So when they knew that the Hungarians would return to Pannonia again, they hurried to Ruthenia to them, conquering the land of Pannonia together.
After the theory of Hunnic descent lost scholarly currency in the 20th century, two substantial ideas emerged about Székely ancestry:[22]
Some scholars suggested that the Székelys were simplyMagyars,[22] like other Hungarians, transplanted in the Middle Ages to guard the frontiers. Researchers could not prove that Székelys spoke a different language.[22] In this case, their strong cultural differences from other Hungarians stem from centuries of relative isolation in the mountains.
Some theories suggest that the Székelys might have absorbed influences from various groups, including Turkic tribes, but this is more about cultural exchange rather than direct lineage. Overall, while there may be historical connections and interactions, the Székelys are primarily of Hungarian origin.[23]
According to a new model,[24] the Székelys are the descendants of those "wanderers" who ran away from the feudal state and the landlord system mostly during the 11th and 12th centuries. These parasocial groups settled in border regions and hard-to-reach places (forests, swamps) down where the institutional vacuum allowed them to found independent communities. The Hungarian kings reintegrated these groups into the kingdom's society from the beginning of the 12th century. The HungarianHajdúk,Cossacks,Maroons, andʿApiru offer an analogy for the process.
Some historians have dated the Székely presence in the EasternCarpathian Mountains as early as the fifth century,[22] and found historical evidence that the Székelys were part of theAvar[11] confederation during the so-calledDark Ages, but this does not mean that they were ethnically Avar.
Research indicates that Székelys spokeHungarian.[25] Toponyms at the Székely settlement area also give proof of their Hungarian mother tongue.[25] The Székely dialect does not have more Bulgaro-Turkish loanwords derived from before theHungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin than standard Hungarian does.[25] Even if the Székelys had been a Turkic stock, they would have had to lose their original vernacular at a very early date.[25]
Anautosomal analysis,[26] studying non-European admixture in Europeans, found 4.4% of admixture of East Asian/Central Asian among Hungarians, which was the strongest among sampled populations. It was found at 3.6% in Belarusians, 2.5% in Romanians, 2.3% in Bulgarians and Lithuanians, 1.9% in Poles and 0% in Greeks. The authors stated "This signal might correspond to a small genetic legacy from invasions of peoples from the Asian steppes (e.g., the Huns, Avars, and Bulgars) during the first millennium."
Among 100 Hungarian men (90 of them from theGreat Hungarian Plain), the following haplogroups and frequencies are obtained:[27]
Haplogroup
R1a
R1b
I2a1
J2
E1b1b1a
I1
G2
J1
I*
E*
F*
K*
Frequency
30%
15%
13%
13%
9%
8%
3%
3%
3%
1%
1%
1%
The 97 Székelys belong to the following haplogroups:[27]
Haplogroup
R1b
R1a
I1
J2
J1
E1b1b1a
I2a1
G2
P*
E*
N
Frequency
20%
19%
17%
11%
10%
8%
5%
5%
3%
1%
1%
It can be inferred that Szekelys have more significant German admixture.[why?] A study sampling 45Palóc from Budapest and northern Hungary,[28] found:
Haplogroup
R1a
R1b
I
E
G
J2
Frequency
60%
13%
11%
9%
2%
2%
A study estimating possible Inner Asian admixture among nearly 500 Hungarians based on paternal lineages only, estimated it at 5.1% in Hungary, at 7.4% in Székelys and at 6.3% atCsángós.[29] It has boldly been noted that this is an upper limit by deep SNPs and that the main haplogroups responsible for that contribution are J2-M172 (negative M47, M67, L24, M12), J2-L24, R1a-Z93, Q-M242 and E-M78, the last of which is typically European, while N is still negligible (1.7%). In an attempt to divide N into subgroups L1034 and L708, some Hungarian, Székely, and Uzbek samples were found to be L1034 SNP positive, while all Mongolians,Buryats,Khanty, Finnish, and Roma samples showed a negative result for this marker. The 2,500-year-old SNP L1034 was found typical forMansi and Hungarians, the closest linguistic relatives.[30]
The Székely live mainly in Harghita, Covasna and Mureș counties. They identify themselves as Hungarians, but they maintain a somewhat distinct ethnic identity from other Hungarians.[31] Hungarians form a majority of the population in the counties of Covasna and Harghita. They were estimated to number about 860,000 in the 1970s and are officially recognized as a distinct minority group by theRomanian government.[10]
TheSzékelys of Bukovina, today settled mostly in Vojvodina and southern Hungary, form a culturally separate group with its own history.[citation needed]
Ethnic map of Harghita, Covasna and Mureș showing areas with Hungarian majority
An autonomous Székely region existed between 1952 and 1968. First created as theMagyar Autonomous Region in 1952, it was renamed the Mureș-Magyar Autonomous Region in 1960. Ever since the abolition of the Mureș-Magyar Autonomous Region by theCeaușescu regime in 1968, some of the Székely have pressed for their autonomy to be restored. Several proposals have been discussed within the Székely Hungarian community and by the Romanian majority. One of theSzékely autonomy initiatives is based on the model of theSpanish autonomous community ofCatalonia.[32] A major peaceful demonstration was held in 2006 in favor of autonomy.[33]
In 2013 and 2014, thousands of ethnic Hungarians marched for autonomy on 10 March (on theSzékely Freedom Day) inTârgu Mureș, Romania.[34] 10 March is the anniversary of the execution in Târgu Mureș in 1854, by theAustrian authorities, of three Székelys who tried to achieve national self-determination.[35] Since 2015, the Székelys also have theSzékely Autonomy Day, celebrated every last Sunday of October.[36]
Demonstration for the Autonomy of Székely Land – 2013, Budapest
Áron Tamási, a 20th-century Székely writer fromLupeni, Harghita, wrote many novels about the Székely which set universal stories of love and self-individuation against the backdrop of Székely village culture. Other Székely writers include the folkloristElek Benedek, the novelistJózsef Nyírő and the poetSándor Kányádi.[citation needed]
In the novelDracula byBram Stoker, the title character Dracula declares himself to be a Székely.
The Sun and Moon are the symbols of the Székelys, and are used in thecoat of arms of Transylvania and on theRomanian national coat of arms. The Sun and the Moon, the symbols of the cosmic world, are known from Hungarian grave findings from theperiod of the Hungarian conquest.[38] After the Hungarians becameChristians in the 11th century, the importance of these icons became purely visual and symbolic. The Székelys have succeeded in preserving traditions to an extent unusual even in Central and Eastern Europe. A description of theSzékely Land and its traditions was written between 1859 and 1868 byBalázs Orbán in hisDescription of the Székely Land.
^Archivum Ottomanicum, Volume 20, Mouton, 2002, original from: theUniversity of Michigan, p. 66, Cited: "A few tens of years ago the Szekler population was estimated at more than 800.000, but now they are probably ca. 500.000 in number."
^Ramet, Sabrina P. (1997). "The Hungarians of Transylvania".Whose Democracy?: Nationalism, Religion, and the Doctrine of Collective Rights in Post-1989 Eastern Europe.Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 67–69.ISBN978-0-8476-8324-6.
^Csukovits, Enikő (2005).Késő középkori leírások Erdély-képe [Image of Transylvania in late medieval descriptions](PDF) (in Hungarian).Hungari et Siculi eadem lingua utuntur, nisi quod Siculi quaendam peculiaria gentis suae habeant vocabula
^abcdeCathy O'Grady, Zoltán Kántor and Daniela Tarnovschi,Hungarians of Romania, In: Panayote Dimitras (editor), Center for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe — Southeast Europe (CEDIME-SE) Minorities in Southeast Europe, Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center, 2001, p. 5
^Aydemir, Hakan (15–16 November 2019)."A székely eredetkérdés megoldása" [Solution of the Szekely origin question)].A népvándorláskor kutatóinak XXIX. Konferenciája (29th Conference of scholars on the Migration Period) (in Hungarian). Budapest.
^Garrett Hellenthal; et al. (14 February 2014). "A Genetic Atlas of Human Admixture History".Science.343 (6172): 751 (Fig.3.).CIs. for the admixture time(s) overlap but predate the Mongol empire, with estimates from 440 to 1080 CE. In each population, one source group has at least some ancestry related to Northeast Asians, with ~2 to 4% of these groups total ancestry linking directly to East Asia. This signal might correspond to a small genetic legacy from invasions of peoples from the Asian steppes (e.g., the Huns, Avesta, Magyars, and Bulgars) during the first millennium CE.
^abCsányi B, Bogácsi-Szabó E, Tömöry G, Czibula Á, et al. (July 2008). "Y-Chromosome Analysis of Ancient Hungarian and Two Modern Hungarian-Speaking Populations from the Carpathian Basin".Annals of Human Genetics.72 (4):519–534.doi:10.1111/j.1469-1809.2008.00440.x.PMID18373723.S2CID13217908.
Köpeczi, Béla, ed. (2001–2002).History of Transylvania. Boulder, CO; Highland Lakes, NJ: Social Science Monographs; Atlantic Research and Publications.LCCN2001131858.OCLC469634201. Co-published with the Hungarian Research Institute of Canada. Distributed byColumbia University Press, New York.
Ioan Aurel Pop, "The Ethno-Confessional Structure of Medieval Transylvania and Hungary". Cluj Napoca, 1994 (Bulletin of the Center for Transylvanian Studies, vol. III, number 4, July 1994)
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