House of Basarab

Basarab redicts here. For other uses, see Basarab (disambiguation).

The Basarabs were an early dynasty which had an important role in the establishing of the Wallachian Principality.

Name and origins

The dynasty was named after Basarab I, who gained the independence of Wallachia from the Kingdom of Hungary.

Basarab I's name was originally Basarabai and lost the ending -a when it was borrowed in Romanian. The name is of Cuman,or pecheneg , origin and most likely meant "father ruler". Basar was the present participle of the verb "to rule", derivatives attested in both old and modern Kypchak languages. The Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga believed the second part of the name, -aba, to be an honorary title, as recognizable in many Cuman names, such as Terteraba, Arslanapa, and Ursoba.

Basarab's father Thocomerius of Wallachia also bore a Cuman name, identified as Toq-tämir, a rather common Cuman and Tatar name in the 13th century. Muscovy chronicles around 1295 refer to of a Toktomer, a prince of the Mongol Empire present in Crimea.

While the names indicate a Cuman (or Pecheneg) origin, contemporaries constantly identified Basarab as a Vlach. Charles I of Hungary speaks of him as "Bazarab infidelis Olacus noster" ("Bazarab, our [- pluralis majestatis] treacherous Vlach"). A parallel can be found with the Asen dynasty, mentioned as Vlachs, and presumably of partial Cuman ancestry, who ruled over the Second Bulgarian Empire.

Legacy

The Basarab name is the origin of several placenames, including the region of Bessarabia (part of the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine) and a few towns, such as Basarabi in Romania, Basarabeasca in the Republic of Moldova, and Basarbovo in Bulgaria.

References

• Vasary, Istvan, Cumans and Tatars, Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 149-155