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Birth:          ABT  880 of Pannonia
Death:          ABT  950 

Notes
d 949/950
Magyar leader in the invasion of western and southern Europe
defeated by the Saxons, 933, near Merseberg while invading Germany
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zolt%C3%A1n_of_Hungary
Zoltán (Hungarian pronunciation: ['zolta?n]; c. 880 or 903 – c. 950), also Zolta,[1][2] is 
mentioned in the Gesta Hungarorum as the third Grand Prince of the Hungarians who 
succeeded his father Árpád around 907. Although modern historians tend to deny this 
report on his reign, because other chronicles do not list him among the Hungarian 
rulers, there is consensus that even if Zoltán never ascended the throne, all monarchs 
ruling in Hungary from the House of Árpád after around 955 were descended from him.
Life[edit]

Zoltán in the Gesta Hungarorum[edit]

Modern historians' main source of Zoltán's life is the Gesta Hungarorum, a late 12th-
century chronicle whose writer is now known as Anonymous.[3] According to this 
source, Zoltán was the only son of Árpád, Grand Prince of the Hungarians.[3] In 
contrast, the nearly contemporary Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus 
writes that "Zaltas"[4] was Árpád's fourth son.[3] Zoltán's name seemingly derived 
from the Arabian sultan title with Turkic mediation, but modern scholars have not 
unanimously accepted this etymology.[3]

According to Anonymous, Zoltán was born after 903, during his father's second 
campaign against Menumorut.[1] The latter was one of the many local rulers who are 
solely mentioned in the Gesta Hungarorum among the opponents of the Hungarians 
during their conquest of the Carpathian Basin.[5] In the Gesta Hungarorum's narration, 
Menumarot was forced to surrender and to give his daughter in marriage to Zoltán[1]
[6] in 904 or 905.[2] When Menumorut died, Zoltán inherited his father-in-law's duchy 
east of the river Tisza, which Anonymous claims was inhabited by "the peoples that 
are called Kozár".[7][8] Anonymous also states that Zoltán, still a minor, succeeded 
his father who died around 907.[3] Zoltán, in turn, later abdicated in favour of his son 
Taksony and died "in the third year of his son's reign".[9][3]


And his son Zolta succeeded [Árpád], who was similar to his father in character but 
dissimilar in appearance. Prince Zolta was a little lisping and pale, with soft, blonde 
hair, of middling stature; a warlike duke, brave in spirit, merciful to his subjects, sweet 
of speech, but covetous of power, whom all the leading men and warriors of Hungary 
loved marvelously. Some time later, when Zolta was thirteen, all the leading men of 
the realm by their common counsel and of their equal wish appointed rectors of the 
kingdom beneath the prince to mend through the guidance of customary law the 
conflicts and lawsuits of litigants.

—?Anonymous: Gesta Hungarorum[10]

Modern historians' views[edit]

Nowadays historians reject most details of Zoltán's life presented by Anonymous. For 
instance, the Hungarian historian Gyula Kristó says that Zoltán was born around 880 
instead of around 903.[11] His Romanian colleague Alexandru Madgearu likewise 
writes that either Zoltán was born many years earlier than 903 or his marriage must 
have happened years after 904.[1]

Zoltán's father-in-law's identity is also debated. Medievalist Pál Engel says that 
Menumorut is one of the "imaginary figures"[5] invented by Anonymous in order to 
describe the conquering Hungarians' heroic wars against them. Historian Charles R. 
Bowlus writes that he was a Moravian ruler whose daughter's marriage with Zoltán 
symbolized the end of "Great Moravia".[1] Medievalist Tudor Salagean also says that 
Menumorut was a real person, the ruler of a one-time duchy inhabited by Romanians, 
Slavs and many other peoples at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries.[8]

Anonymous's statement that Zoltán succeeded his father as grand prince, or even the 
idea that Zoltán ever ruled the federation of the Hungarian tribes have also been 
challenged. For instance, historian Sándor L. Tóth writes that Zoltán, being the 
youngest among Árpád's four sons, could hardly precede his elder brothers in the line 
of succession.[3] Kristó also says that other Hungarian chroniclers do not make 
mention of Zoltán's rule, implying that Anonymous only inserted Zoltán into the 
incompletely preserved list of the grand princes because he knew that all Hungarian 
monarchs from the House of Árpád descended from him.[11]

Parents
____ Arpad (ABT  845 - ABT  907)
----- ----- ()

Siblings
OF HUNGARY Zoltan (ABT  880 - ABT  950)

Marriage To ____ Men (ABT  900 - )
    m.  

Notes

Parents
____ Menumorut (Mariot) (Maroth) ()
----- ----- ()

Children by ____ Men ABT  900 - 
OF HUNGARY Taksony (ABT  931 - ABT  972)

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