To the Question of Pre-Christian Believes of Hungarians

The question about what nature Hungarian religion had before Christianity has been interesting for Hungarian science since the 18th century. Shaman burials of the 10th century were excavated as well as many artifacts with symbols and attributes of the World Tree, the centerpiece of shamanistic universe. The relics of shamanism, close to one of Siberian peoples, stayed among Hungarians to the middle of the 20th century. There are very insufficient written Arabian sources of 9th and 10th centuries, reporting that «Hungarians are fire-worshipers» that simply means they were pagans. It was all about the religion of Hungarians. The new knowledge was found in the geographical works by al-Bakri (1068): «There is a nation that has no other deity except the sublime God. They believe in the Lord of Heaven as the Only and Almighty». The pagan religion of Hungarians of the 10th century before Christianity in no case was identical with the shamanism of Siberian peoples of the 19th century. Their religion was similar to one of Khazars (also semi-nomadic nationhood), and resembled one of Turkic. This religion is commonly called Tengrism. I. Dienes called it «pagan state religion» for Hungarians of the 10th century. It is indeed possible that Hungarian sacred prince was at the same time the «supreme shaman», who was surrounded by the similar «shaman aristocracy» as it is known in eastern countries. So far Hungarian rulers held both political and religion power. There also were many shamans who dealt with «ordinary people». After Christianization they remained, though secretively, but the top layer of «white shamans» was cut off. This «pagan state religion» as multicolored shamanism had a strongly syncretic character; from their neighborhood eastern areas Hungarians used ready-made foreign pieces of many religious communities, even of Byzantine Christianity. For example the archaeological plate of a belt bag from Tisabezded village with Hungarian, Iranian and Byzantine objects show it very well. However, even a highly developed variant of shamanism cannot perform the function of the state religion neither in nomadic nor in settled societies. For this purpose, only dogmatic religions can exist, especially world religions with the well-developed organization when Church can be the basis for the secular authorities. This is the reason why empires of the East adopt one of world religions as a state religion (even the typical nomadic state the Golden Horde embraced Islam). Semi-nomadic Hungarians very fast adopted Christianity, not long after they found their new Motherland in the Carpathian Basin. The «pagan state religion» (Tengrism) was a transition state between the former shamanism and state religion as well as the sacred Principality of semi-nomadic societies was between a tribal state and a real state. Both of them had the important function in Hungarian history. They considerably simplified the formation of the state of the European type and the adoption of Christianity, the both of which represent the guarantee of survival for the people came from Eastern.

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