Súr (chieftain)

Súr or Sur (Latin: Sura or Assur; died 15 August 955) was a Hungarian chieftain and military leader in the 10th century. He was one of the generals, alongside Bulcsú and Lehel, who were executed after the Battle of Lechfeld.

Name and tribal territory

Historian György Györffy considered that Súr's name derived from an old Turkic dignity called "čor" in the 7th century, which title was then taken over by the Pechenegs ("čur"). In contrast, Gyula Kristó argued that his name originated from the Slavic equivalent "šurъ" meaning "brother-in-law".

Based on his name Györffy considered that Súr was of Pecheneg origin, who came from a subjugated tribe, which was ordered to settle down along the western border during the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin protecting and guarding the gyepűelve there. Györffy argued that Súr was progenitor of the gens (clan) Osl, which possessed landholdings in Sopron County in the 13th century, as his name occurs frequently among members of the kindred.

Sources

• Györffy, György (1970). "A honfoglaló magyarok települési rendjéről [On the Settlement System of the Conquering Hungarians]". Archaeologiai Értesítő (in Hungarian). 97 (2). Magyar Régészeti és Művészettörténeti Társulat: 191–242. ISSN 0003-8032.
• Kordé, Zoltán (1994). "Súr". In Kristó, Gyula; Engel, Pál; Makk, Ferenc (eds.). Korai magyar történeti lexikon (9-14. század) [Encyclopedia of the Early Hungarian History (9th-14th centuries)] (in Hungarian). Akadémiai Kiadó. pp. 611–612. ISBN 963-05-6722-9.
• Kristó, Gyula (1985). Az augsburgi csata [The Battle of Augsburg] (in Hungarian). Akadémiai Kiadó. ISBN 963-05-3838-5.
• Tóth, Sándor László (2015). A magyar törzsszövetség politikai életrajza [A Political Biography of the Hungarian Tribal Federation] (in Hungarian). Belvedere Meridionale. ISBN 978-615-5372-39-1.