Álmos

Álmos
Kende or gyula of the Hungarians
Álmos depicted in the Illuminated Chronicle
Reign	c. 850 – c. 895
Predecessor	Levedi (?)
Successor	Árpád
Born	c. 820
Died	c. 895 (aged 75) Transylvania (debated)
Issue	Árpád
House	House of Árpád
Father	Ügyek or Előd
Mother	Emese
Religion	Hungarian Paganism

Álmos (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈaːlmoʃ]), also Almos or Almus, (c. 820–c. 895) was – according to the uniform account of Hungarian chronicles – the first head of the "loose federation" of the Hungarian tribes from around 850. Whether he was the sacred ruler (kende) of the Hungarians, or their military leader (gyula) is subject to scholarly debate. He apparently accepted the Khazar khagan's suzerainty in the first decade of his reign, but the Hungarians acted independently of the Khazars from around 860. The 14th-century Illuminated Chronicle narrates that he was murdered in Transylvania at the beginning of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin around 895.

Anonymus, the unknown author of the Gesta Hungarorum – who wrote his "historical romance" around 1200 or 1210 – states that Álmos descended "from the line" of Attila the Hun. A late 13th-century chronicler, Simon of Kéza wrote that Álmos was "of the Turul kindred". He also wrote of Attila the Hun's banner, which bore "the image of the bird the Hungarians call turul" – identified as either a gyrfalcon or a hawk. A bird has an important role in the legend about Álmos's birth, which was preserved both by the Gesta Hungarorum and by the Illuminated Chronicle. The legend says that Álmos's mother, already pregnant with him, dreamed of a bird of prey "which had the likeness of a hawk" impregnating her. Historians Gyula Kristó and Victor Spinei wrote that this story, which has close analogies in Turkic folklore, initially narrated the origin of Álmos's family from a totemic ancestor.