Zerind the Bald
| Zerind the Bald | |
|---|---|
| Duke of Somogy (debated) | |
| Reign | before 972 |
| Successor | Koppány |
| Died | c. 972 |
| Issue | Koppány |
| Dynasty | Árpád dynasty |
| Father | Teveli (?) |
Zerind the Bald (Hungarian: Tar Szerénd; Latin: Zyrind calvus) was a Hungarian lord in the 10th century. According to modern scholars' consensus, he was a member of the royal Árpád dynasty. He was the father of Koppány, the late 10th-century rebellious Duke of Somogy.
Zerind the Bald was the father of Koppány, an opponent of Stephen I of Hungary, according to the Illuminated Chronicle. Koppány's attempt to seize the throne against Stephen I after the death of Stephen's father, Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians, suggests that Zerind and his son were members of the Hungarian royal family, descending from Árpád. However, Zerind's exact family connections are debated, because he is not mentioned on the list of the grandsons of Árpád, compiled by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the mid-10th century.
According to two historians (István Katona and Kornél Bakay), Zerind the Bald was identical with Michael, the younger brother of Grand Prince Géza, whose pagan name is unknown. They say that Zerind the Bald must have been closely related to Géza, because Koppány's claim to marry Géza's widow, Sarolt, was qualified as an incestuous attempt by 14th-century Hungarian chronicles, but was fully in line with the pagan custom of levirate marriage. Other historians (including Gyula Kristó and György Szabados) write that Zerind the Bald was descended from one of the elder sons of Árpád, Tarkatzus or Jutotzas. For instance, Kristó writes that Koppány's attempt to seize the throne after the death of Grand Prince Géza shows that Koppány and Zerind the Bald were descended from Árpád's oldest son, because Géza (who was the grandson of Árpád's youngest son, Zoltán) should have been succeeded by the oldest descendant of Árpád's firstborn son if the Hungarians adopted customary law similar to the customs governing the succession to tribal leadership among an other people of the Eurasian steppes, the Pechenegs.
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