Great Moravia

Great Moravia
Velká Morava (Velkomoravská říše) (Czech)
Veľká Morava (Veľkomoravská ríša) (Slovak)
Regnum Marauorum/Marahensium (Latin)
Terra Marauorum/Marahensium (Latin)
833–c. 907
Orthographic map showing all territories that were ever part of the Great Moravia (dark green). The areas in light green were territories claimed but not controlled by Great Moravia.
Orthographic map showing all territories that were ever part of the Great Moravia (dark green). The areas in light green were territories claimed but not controlled by Great Moravia.
CapitalVeligrad
Common languagesOld Slavic
Old Church Slavonic
Latin (religious)
Religion
Slavic Christianity
Latin Christianity
Slavic paganism
GovernmentMonarchy (principality)
kъnendzь or vladyka[a] 
• c. 820/830
Mojmír I (first)
• 846
Rastislav
• 870
Svatopluk I
• 894
Mojmír II (last)
History 
• Established
833
• Decline and fall
c. 907
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Samo's Empire
Principality of Nitra (disputed)
Vistulans
White Croatia
Duchy of Bohemia
Principality of Hungary
Civitas Schinesghe
Lutici
East Francia

Great Moravia (Latin: Regnum Marahensium; Greek: Μεγάλη Μοραβία, Meghálī Moravía; Czech: Velká Morava [ˈvɛlkaː ˈmorava]; Slovak: Veľká Morava [ˈvɛʎkaː ˈmɔrava]; Polish: Wielkie Morawy, German: Großmähren), or simply Moravia,[1][2][3] was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavic to emerge in the area of Central Europe,[4] possibly including territories which are today part of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Poland, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine and Slovenia. The formations preceding it in these territories were Samo's tribal union (631 - 658) and the Pannonian Avar state (567 – after 822).

Its core territory is the region now called Moravia in the eastern part of the Czech Republic alongside the Morava River, which gave its name to the kingdom. The kingdom saw the rise of the first ever Slavic literary culture in the Old Church Slavonic language as well as the expansion of Christianity, first via missionaries from East Francia, and later after the arrival of Saints Cyril and Methodius in 863 and the creation of the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet dedicated to a Slavic language. Glagolitic was subsequently replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet created in the First Bulgarian Empire.

Although the borders of this empire cannot be exactly determined, Moravia reached its largest territorial extent under prince Svatopluk I (Slovak: Svätopluk), who ruled from 870 to 894. Separatism and internal conflicts emerging after Svatopluk's death contributed to the fall of Great Moravia, which was overrun by the Hungarians, who then included the territory of present-day Slovakia in their domains. The exact date of Moravia's collapse is unknown, but it occurred between 902 and 907.

Moravia experienced significant cultural development under King Rastislav, with the arrival in 863 of the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius. After his request for missionaries had been refused in Rome, Rastislav asked the Byzantine emperor to send a "teacher" (učiteľ) to introduce literacy and a legal system (pravьda) to Great Moravia. The request was granted. The missionary brothers Cyril and Methodius introduced a system of writing (the Glagolitic alphabet) and Slavonic liturgy, the latter eventually formally approved by Pope Adrian II.[5] The Glagolitic script was probably invented by Cyril himself and the language he used for his translations of religious texts and his original literary creation was based on the Eastern South Slavic dialect he and his brother Methodius knew from their native Thessaloniki. Old Church Slavonic, therefore, differed somewhat from the local Slavic dialect of Great Moravia which was the ancestral idiom to the later dialects spoken in Moravia and western Slovakia. Later, the disciples of Cyril and Methodius were expelled from Great Moravia by King Svatopluk I, who re-orientated the Empire to Western Christianity.


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  1. ^ Bowlus 1995, p. 1.
  2. ^ Barford 2001, pp. 108–112.
  3. ^ Curta 2006, pp. 124–133.
  4. ^ Drulák 2012, p. 91.
  5. ^ Elvins, Mark Twinham (1994). Towards a People's Liturgy: The Importance of Language. Gracewing. ISBN 9780852442579.