Banat in the Middle Ages
Archaeological finds and 10th-century sources evidence that Magyars (or Hungarians) settled in the lowlands in the early 10th century, but the survival of Avar, Slav and Bulgar communities can also be documented.
A local chieftain, Ajtony, converted to Eastern Orthodoxy around 1000, but his attempts to control the delivery of salt on the Mureș River brought him into conflict with Stephen I of Hungary.
[15] According to a scholarly theory, refuted by most specialists, the source suggests that the polity mentioned by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus as "great Moravia, the unbaptized"[16] was located in Banat.
[32][33] Historians debate whether Glad was a historical figure, or the unknown author of the Gesta Hungarorum invented him and his duchy to be able to write of the Magyars' heroic deeds during the conquest of their new homeland.
[43] The "Köttlach-type" artefacts found at Deta have been attributed to Slavs from Carinthia, but other finds (including ornamented belts) may also indicate a multicultural community, using imported goods.
[46] These isolated graves and small cemeteries may show the presence of a distinct ethnic group, or prove commercial contacts with the Balkan Peninsula.
[47][48] Both the custom of "Charon's obol" and the graves of the "South Danubian burial horizon" were attributed to the Vlachs (whose presence in Banat is mentioned in later sources), but neither hypotheses have been universally accepted.
[63][64] Lock rings with S-shaped ends were its featuring items, but typical objects of the "steppe horizon" also survived, and the graves also yielded artefacts made after Byzantine patterns.
[63][67] According to an edict of the Byzantine Emperor Basil II, issued in 1019, the Orthodox Bishopric of Braničevo had had a parish in "Dibiskos" during the reign of Samuel of Bulgaria, who died in 1014.
[71] The Long Life of Saint Gerard (an early-14th-century compilation of earlier sources) wrote of a powerful chieftain, Ajtony, who had his seat in "urbs Morisena" on the Mureş around 1000.
[77][78] He owned innumerable cattle and horses and wanted to levy tax on the salt delivered from Transylvania to Stephen I, the first king of Hungary, according to the Long Life of Saint Gerard.
[73][80] Stephen I of Hungary made Csanád the ispán (or head) of a new county, established in Ajtony's former realm, according to the Long Life of Saint Gerard.
[81] Many people visited Gerard, bringing horses, cattle, sheep, carpets, golden rings and necklaces (the most valuable goods of a nomadic society) to the saintly bishop, to receive baptism from him.
[103] Instead of ornamented belt mounts, finger rings decorated with lilies or double crosses became important symbols of social status both in the lowlands and the mountains.
[84][106] The land between the Cerna River and Almăj Mountains was incorporated in the newly established Banate of Severin (a border province of the Kingdom of Hungary) in the 1230s.
[113] In that year, King Andrew II of Hungary's son, Béla, reclaimed the Pechenegs' village, located near Igriș, that his father had granted to Ispán Nicholas Csák.
[134] A papal legate, Philip, Bishop of Fermo, persuaded him to make a promise to force the Cumans to abandon their pagan customs and to adopt a settled way of life.
[141] A member of the Csanád clan, Theodore Vejtehi, entered into an alliance with Michael Shishman of Bulgaria and took control of the territory between the Timiș and the Lower Danube.
[162] The Cuman Ispán Kondam settled peasants at Beba Veche and at "Halazmortva" (near Senta in Serbia) in 1321, the Telegdis invited "guest settlers" to their five villages[note 15] in 1337.
[173] In 1328, Pope John XXII stated that the obligatory payment of tithes was one of the main obstacles of the conversion of non-Catholics (including Cumans and Vlachs) in Hungary.
[178][179] According to historian Ion-Aurel Pop, these acts of violence demonstrate the knezes' attempt to protect their ancient property rights against the Hungarian noblemen.
[180] Historian István Petrovics writes that the pastoralist way of life of the Vlachs, who were newcomers in Banat, gave rise to their conflicts with their more settled neighbors.
[181] Louis I of Hungary, who made several attempts to expand his authority over Wallachia and Bulgaria,[182] regarded the southern region of Banat as an important military zone.
[185] His chronicler, John of Küküllő, also recorded that Louis I ordered the nobles and townspeople of Keve and Krassó Counties to gather the local "Slavic priests ... together with their children, wives and all their possession" to be again baptized according to Catholic rite.
[186] The Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I launched a crushing defeat on the united army of Hungary, Wallachia and Western European crusaders in the Battle of Nicopolis on 25 September 1396.
[192][193] Sigismund granted large domains (including Bečkerek and Vršac in Banat) to Stefan Lazarević, Despot of Serbia, in 1411 to strengthen his loyalty.
[198] John Hunyadi and Nicholas Újlaki, who were also voivodes of Transylvania and counts of the Székelys, were jointly made the ispáns of Temes, Arad, Csanád, Keve and Krassó Counties in 1441, thus again uniting the administration of most Banat.
[202] He granted the new title of "captain general of the inferior parts" to the ispán of Temes County, tasking him with the defense of all royal castles on the border from Belgrade to Turnu Severin in 1479.
[193][207] They settled in the lowlands of Keve, Krassó, Temes and Torontal Counties where Catholic peasants had lived a century earlier, according to papal registers.
[211] Dózsa did not obey the king's command and routed the united army of Stephen Báthory, Ispán of Temes, and Nicholas Csáki, Bishop of Csanád, at Apátfalva on 23 May.
