The Magyar band sent to Arnulf had reported back that the plains across the Carpathian Mountains would form a suitable new homeland that could be easily conquered and defended from the rear.

The tribes elect as their unifying leader Árpád, the leader of their most powerful tribe, and, with nowhere else to turn, plan a movement westward from their home in the northern Caucasus.

The earliest reliable source of Árpád's life is an early tenth-century document, the Continuation of the Chronicle by George the Monk.

It narrates that the Emperor Leo VI the Wise sent his envoy Nicetas Sclerus to the Magyars in 894 or 895 "to give presents" and incite them against the Bulgarian Empire.

Sclerus met with their two leaders, Árpád and Kurszán, at the Lower Danube.

Sclerus's mission succeeded: a Magyar army soon crossed the Danube on imperial ships against Bulgaria.

An interpolation in Porphyrogenitus's text suggests that the invading Hungarians were under the command of Árpád's son, Liüntika.

The positions held by Árpád and Kurszán at the time of their negotiations with Sclerus are debated by historians.

Spinei wrote that Árpád was the gyula, and Kurszán was the kende.

In contrast, Kristó said that Kurszán was the gyula and Árpád represented his father, Álmos kende.

The Magyar army defeated the Bulgarians, but the latter hired the Pechenegs against them.

The Bulgarians and Pechenegs simultaneously invaded the Hungarians' territories in the western regions of the Pontic steppes in 895 or 896.

The destruction of their dwelling places by the Pechenegs forced the Hungarians to leave for a new homeland across the Carpathian Mountains towards the Pannonian Plain.