Menumorut
According to Anonymus, Menumorut's duchy was populated primarily with Khazars and Székelys, and he acknowledged the suzerainty of the (unnamed) ruling Byzantine Emperor at the time.
The most important source of the Magyars' early history is a work known as De Administrando Imperio, written by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII around 952.
[3][4] [5] In the same area, three or four local variants of the Saltovo-Mayaki archaeological culture, which represented semi-nomadic groups, emerged in the western regions of the Eurasian steppes in the second half of the 8th century.
[18][19] On the other hand, Anonymus did not write of Svatopluk I of Moravia, Luitpold of Bavaria, and other local rulers whose fights with the conquering Magyars were described in late 9th-century or early 10th-century sources.
[30][31] According to historian András Róna-Tas, these wildernesses of the Avars (solitudo Avarorum) were situated in the plains along the rivers Tisza and Danube, including Crișana.
[34][35] Svatopluk's empire included Crişana, according to historian Gyula Kristó, since Emperor Constantine's reference to "great Moravia, the unbaptized"[36] describes the rivers Timiș, Mureș, Criș, Tisza and Toutis as within its territory.
[37][38] Archaeologist Alexandru Madgearu [ro] rejects Kristó's theory, because no archaeological finds from the late 9th century evidence Moravian influence in Crișana.
[43] Menumorut ruled an area bordered by the rivers Tisza, Mureș, Someș, and the Igyfon Wood at the time of the Magyars' invasion, according to the Gesta Hungarorum.
[49][50] Anonymus wrote that Menumorut was the grandson of one "Prince Marót" (whose name was derived from the ancient Hungarian exonym for the Moravians), who he states was ruler of Crișana in the times of Attila the Hun.
[51][47] According to the Gesta, Menumorut communicated "haughtily with a Bulgarian heart"[52] with the Magyars' envoys, informing them that "the emperor of Constantinople"[53] was his lord.
[56][57] After conquering the northeastern region, their leader, Grand Prince Árpád, sent two envoys, Ősbő and Velek, to Menumorut, demanding "the land from the Someș River to the border of Nyírség, up to the Meseș Gates".
[58][48] Menumorut received Árpád's envoys amicably, but refused to yield, stating that the Byzantine Emperor guaranteed him rule over the land.
[63] Menumorut was at this point planning to escape to the Byzantine Empire, but his warriors prevented Szabolcs and Tas from crossing the Criş at Szeghalom, thus forcing the Magyars to temporarily retreat.
[63] Ősbő and Velek crossed the Tisza and halted at the river Kórógy, where the Székelys, "who were previously the peoples"[67] of Attila the Hun, according to Anonymus, voluntarily joined them.
[69] Their arrival frightened Menumorut, who left "a host of warriors" in Biharia and "betook himself and his wife and daughter to the groves"[70] of the Igyfon Wood.
