Kurszán

Kurszán or Kusál (died 904), was a Hungarian (Magyar) chieftain at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries, who had a crucial role in the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin. He was kende of the Magyars in the dual leadership with Árpád serving as a gyula - according to a mainstream theory. While kende probably corresponded roughly to the Khazar title khagan, Kurszán's role equated to the Khazar military title bek. In Latin sources he was referred to as rex and some scholars say he had a political status as a sacred king until he was massacred in a political plot of Western rulers and was temporarily succeeded by Árpád. There is also arguments that Kurszán, who appears as an active actor in Western and Byzantine sources, rather held the dignity of gyula, while Álmos then Árpád served as kende, the "sacred king".

== The name of Kurszán == According to some historians, such as Gyula Kristó, it is wrong to call the conquering prince "Kurszán". Western sources refer to the leader of the Hungarians as "Kusal", and Georgius Monachus Continuatus (the successor to the Chronicle of George the Friend) says that he was "Kusanes", who received Byzantine envoys alongside Árpád. In earlier times, this person was unanimously identified with the son of Könd, Curzan, mentioned in the Gesta Hungarorum. Later, however, many questioned the correspondence of the two names and thus the identity of the two persons. However, we must also take into account that the name Kurszán was written by chroniclers who did not know Hungarian, and even within the same chronicle it happened that a foreign name was written in different forms.