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Boyar
(871 words)

The earliest Russian law code (Russkaya Pravda), dating from the 11th century, lists “boyars,” feudal lords, below the ruling princes but above the court nobility [12]; they had similar status among the Bulgars and Romanians [3]. In Russian the word was used colloquially like barin (“lord”) [11]; derivation from Indo-European *bher (“to carry”) as in German urbar seems natural, but other etymologies have been discussed [16].

In the principality of Moldavia, it is easy to reconstruct how boyars begin to appear as landowners in the late Middle Ages during the dissolution of cli…

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Nolte, Hans-Heinrich, “Boyar”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_017721>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20160907



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