Non-Christians in a medieval frontier society: Jews, Muslims, and pagans in thirteenth-century Hungar

This study is an analysis of relations between Christians and non-Christians (Jews, Muslims and the pagan Cumans) in the thirteenth-century frontier kingdom of Hungary. Thirteenth-century Hungary was both an area of recent Christianization and a meeting-point of two frontiers, which created a unique background to the problem of non-Christians. The country was converted to Christianity in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, and pagan revolts occurred as late as the mid-eleventh century. Yet as a frontier zone of medieval Christendom, Hungary played an important role in defense against incursions from the East. At the same time its Eastern regions were the last extension of the steppe; this made the ancient nomadic and pagan lifestyle possible and provided a base for nomadic raids. In the second half of the thirteenth century both nomad conquest (the Mongol invasion and continued fear of its recurrence) and royal policies (settlement of the pagan Cumans) threatened to detach Hungary from Christendom. Both Hungary's recent Christianization and its position of lying astride two socioeconomic and ethnoreligious frontiers created tension; Hungary maneuvered between Christendom and the nomad pagan world that threatened to erode Christianity.;My analysis encompasses the economic, social and legal situation of non-Christian communities in the kingdom, royal and ecclesiastical policies towards them, and relations and influences between the Christian and non-Christian population. I address issues of acculturation, assimilation, and group identity through a comparison of the fate of the three communities. Jews retained their identity while Muslims assimilated by the end of the thirteenth century, Cumans by the early modern era. I argue against the paradigm of tolerance vs. persecution and the gradual birth of a "persecuting society"; coexistence included both peaceful and violent interaction. This study offers a new perspective on Europe's multi-ethnic and multi-religious past, prior to the formation of states and nationalism.