Cuman–Kipchak Confederation Dasht-i Qipchaq | |||||||||||
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| 10th century–1241 | |||||||||||
_eng.png) Cumania (Dasht-i Qipchaq) c. 1200 | |||||||||||
The Cumans in relation to main Central Asian politiesc. 1000 | |||||||||||
| Status | Nomadic tribalconfederation | ||||||||||
| Capital | Sarai | ||||||||||
| Common languages | Kipchak languages (includingCuman) | ||||||||||
| Religion | Tengrism,Christianity,Islam | ||||||||||
| Demonyms | Cuman,Kipchak | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
• Established | 10th century | ||||||||||
• Disestablished | 1241 | ||||||||||
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| History of the Turkic peoplespre–14th century | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The nameCumania originated as theLatinexonym for theCuman–Kipchak confederation, which was a tribalconfederation in the western part of theEurasian Steppe, between the 10th and 13th centuries. Theconfederation was dominated by twoTurkic nomadic tribes: theCumans (also known as the Polovtsians orFolban) and theKipchaks. Cumania was known in Islamic sources asDasht-i Qipchaq(دشت قپچاق) which means "Steppe of the Kipchaks" or "Kipchak Plains" inPersian,[1] andal-Qumāniyīn(القمانيين) which means "The Cumans" or "The Cuman people" inArabic.[2][3] Russian sources have referred to Cumania as the "PolovtsianSteppe" (Polovetskaia Step), or the "PolovtsianPlain" (Pole Polovetskoe).[4]
A different, more organized entity that was later known as theGolden Horde was also referred to as "Comania" by Armenian chroniclerHethum (Hayton) of Korykos.[5]: 38 "Cumania" was also the source of names, or alternate names, for several smaller areas – some of them unconnected geographically to the area of the federation – in which Cumans and/or Kipchaks settled, such as the historic region ofKunság in Hungary, and the formerDiocese of Cumania (inRomania and Hungary). Hethum of Korykos described Cumania as "wholly flat and with no trees".[5]: 38 Ibn Battuta said of Cumania, "This wilderness is green and grassy with no trees, nor hills, high or low ... there is no means of travelling in this desert except in wagons." Battuta's contemporary,Hamdallah Mustawfi, elaborated,
This is of the Sixth Clime, its plains bear excellent pasturage ... but there are here few houses or towns or villages. Most of the inhabitants arenomads of the plain ... Most of the lands here are swamps ... The pasturage, however, being excellent, horses and cattle are numerous, and the population for the most part subsists on the produce thereof. The climate is cold, and their water comes from springs and wells.[5]: 40
By the 11th and 12th centuries, the nomadic confederacy of the Cumans and (Eastern) Kipchaks (who were a distinct tribe with whom the Cumans created a confederacy, although other sources say that Cumans and Kipchak are simply different names for the same tribe[6]) were the dominant force over the vast territories stretching from present-dayKazakhstan, southern Russia,Ukraine, to southernMoldavia and easternWallachia in present-day Romania. Considering the nomadic way of life of these peoples, these frontiers can be regarded only as approximate; hence there were various definitions over what Cumania meant over the course of time. Depending on their region and their time, different sources each used their own vision to denote different sections of the vast Cuman territory: inByzantine, Russian,Georgian,Armenian,Persian and Muslim sources, Cumania meant thePontic steppe, that is the steppelands to the north of theBlack Sea and on its eastern side as far as theCaspian Sea, where the lowlands between theDnieper, theVolga, theUral and theIrtysh rivers were favorable to the nomadic lifestyle of the Cumans. Later, for a short time period, in Western sources Cumania also referred to the area in eastern Wallachia and southern Ukraine (centered on the lowlands ofBudjak and theBărăgan Plain), referring to the area where the first contact between the Cumans and theWestern Christians took place, and where, later, the Cumans of the region would accept Catholicism.
Using the traditional Turkic assignment of colours to the cardinal points, White Cumania used to be located to the west and may have denoted eastern Wallachia, while Black Cumania was located to its north and may have denoted Moldavia.
._Simferopol_Museum%2c_Crimea%2c_Ukraine.jpg)
As in the case of many other large nomadic Eurasian confederacies, the ethnonym "Cuman" (referring to the inhabitants of Cumania) denoted different ethnic realities. While the main component was probably the Turkic-speaking tribes, the confederacy included other ethnic components as well.Cumania was primarily a political name, referring to the leading, integrating tribe or clan of the confederacy. The Cumans, when they first appear in written sources, are members of a confederacy irrespective of their tribal origin. Former tribal names disappeared when the tribe in question became part of a political unit. For instance, when we hear of an incursion of Cumans, it means that certain tribes of the Cuman confederacy took part in a military enterprise. In his"History of the Mongols", the Persian historianRashid-al-Din Hamadani, referred to Cumania around 1236–1237, during the Mongol invasion ofMöngke, the future Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. Among others, he mentions the Kipchaks, the TurkophoneAsi (probably the same as the laterJassic tribe) and the "Karaulaghi" (Black, i.e. "from the north",Vlachs).[8]
The vast territory of this Cuman-Kipchak realm, consisting of loosely connected tribal units who were the military dominating force, was never politically united by a strong central power. Cumania was neither a state nor an empire, but different groups under independent rulers, or khans, who acted on their own initiative, meddling in the political life of the surrounding states: the Russian principalities,Bulgaria, Byzantium and theWallachian states in the Balkans, Armenia and Georgia (seeKipchaks in Georgia) in the Caucasus, andKhwarezm, having reached as far as to create a powerful caste of warriors, theMamluks, serving the Muslim Arab and Turkish Caliphs and Sultans.
In the Balkans, we find the Cumans in contact with all of the statal entities of that time, fighting with the Kingdom of Hungary, allied with theBulgarians andVlachs against the Byzantine Empire. For example,Thocomerius, by name apparently a Cuman warlord (also known asTihomir, he might have been a Bulgarian noble), was possibly the first one to unite the Bulgarian states, north from the Danube, from the west and the east of theOlt River, and his sonBasarab I is considered the first ruler of the united and independentWallachia. This interpretation corresponds with the general view of the situation of the Romanian lands in the 11th century, with the natives living in collections of village communities, united in various small confederacies, with more or less powerful chiefs trying to create little kingdoms, some paying tribute to the various militarily dominant nomadic tribes (seeRomania in the Middle Ages).
This Pontic Cumania, (and the rest of the Cumanias to the east), ended its existence in the middle of the 13th century, with theMongol invasion of Europe. In 1223,Jebe andSubutai defeated the Cumans and their Rus' allies at theBattle of Kalka (in modern Ukraine), and the final blow came in 1241, when the Cuman confederacy ceased to exist as a political entity, with the remaining Cuman tribes being dispersed, either becoming subjects of the Mongol conquerors as part of what was to be known as theGolden Horde, or fleeing to the west, to the Byzantine Empire, theBulgarian Empire, and theKingdom of Hungary.
On theGreat Hungarian Plain, Cuman settlers gave their name to two regions known as Kunság, theHungarian word for Cumania:Greater Cumania (Nagykunság) andLittle Cumania (Kiskunság), located on the Great Hungarian Plain. Here, the Cumans maintained their language and some ethnic customs well into themodern era.
Cumania name was also preserved as part of theCatholic ecclesiastical structure with a "Diocese of Cumania" existing until 1523 in what is nowRomania, long after the Cumans ceased to be a distinct group in the area. AtMilcovul, years earlier, in 1227, the Cuman warlord Bortz accepted Catholic Christianity from missionaryDominican friars.Pope Gregory IX heard about the mass conversion of the Cumans, and on 1 July 1227 empoweredRobert, Archbishop of Esztergom, to represent him to Cumania and in neighbouring Land of theBrodnici. Teodoric, the bishop of this new diocese, became the guardian of the Dominican Order in the Kingdom of Hungary.[9]
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Hence, Cumania diocese became part of the superior archbishopric of Esztergom, determining KingBéla IV of Hungary to add "Rex Cumaniae" (King of Cumania)[10] to his titles in 1228, and later to grant asylum to the Cumans in face of the Mongol invasion. The Diocese of Cumania, or of Milcovul, had subordinated inTransylvania theabbacy ofSibiu, the dioceses ofBurzenland,Brasso andOrbai, and over the Carpathians, in the lands of the "infidel"Orthodox Vlachs (in partibus infidelium), all the Christian Catholics, irrespective of their ethnicity, despite the fact that many believers fell under the influence of the Romanian Orthodox "pseudo" bishops (episcopo Cumanorum, qui loci diocesanus existit, sed a quibusdam pseudoepiscopis Graecorum ritum tenentibus).[11]
So, at that moment, Hungarian and Papal documents use the name Cumania to refer to the land between the eastern border of the lands ofSeneslau and the land of the Brodnici (Buzău, southernVrancea and southernGalați): that is Cumania meant, more or less,Muntenia. At that time, the use of the nameCumania should not to be understood as asserting the existence of a Cuman state, nor even a land inhabited by Cuman tribes (as the bulk of them had either fled, or weredestroyed by the Mongols, and the rest had been absorbed) but rather to the Diocese of Cumania. From the military point of view, the land comprising the Diocese of Cumania was held either by theTeutonic Order (as early as 1222), or by the Vlachs (Brodnics or the Vlachs of Seneslau). The term Cumania had come to mean any Catholic subordinated to the Milcovul Diocese, so much so that in some cases, the terms Cuman and Wallach (more precisely, Catholic Wallach, as the Orthodox Christians were consideredschismatic, and the Pope did not officially recognise them) were interchangeable.[12]
In a charter from 1247, parts of this earlier Cumania were granted to theKnights Hospitaller, as were theBanate of Severin and the Romanian cnezats of Ioan and Lupu (a fluvio Olth et Alpibus Ultrasylvanis totam Cumaniam …excepta terra Szeneslai Woiavode Olacorum).[13] These, from a juridical point of view, had an inferior status than the states of Seneslau (east of theOlt River) and Litovoi (west of the Olt River), cnezats which continued to belong to the Romanians (quam Olacis relinquimus prout iidem hactenus tenuerant), "like they held them so far".
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{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)In the middle of spring the princes crossed the mountains in order to enter the country of theBulares and of theBashguirds.Orda, who was marching to the right, passed through the country of theHaute, where Bazarambam met him with an army, but was beaten. Boudgek crossed the mountains to enter theKara-Ulak, and defeated theUlak people.
Gregorius Episcopus … venerabili fratri … Strigoniensi Archiepiscopo apostolicae sedis legato salutem … Nuper siquidem per litteras tuas nobis transmissas accepimus, quod Jesus Christus … super gentem Cumanorum clementer respiciens, eis salvationis ostium aperuit his diebus. Aliqui enim nobiles gentis illius per te ad baptismi gratiam pervenerunt, et quidam princeps Bortz nomine de terra illorum cum omnibus sibi subditis per ministerium tuum fidem desiderat suscipere christianam; propter quod unicum filium suum una cum fratribus praedicatoribus, messis dominicae operariis in terra praedicta, ad te specialiter destinavit, attentius obsecrans, ut personaliter accedens ad ipsum et suos viam vitae ostenderes ipsis … Unde quamvis pro executione voti tui, quod emiseras pro terrae sanctae succursu, in peregrinationis esses itinere constitutus, confidei exinde pervenire posse, si piis eorum desideriis condescendas, intermisso dictae peregrinationis itinere, dilectum filium … Archidiaconum de Zala ad nos destinare curasti … supplicans ut tibi hoc faciendi, non obstante voto praedicto, licentiam praeberemus, et … in Cumania et Brodnic terra illae vicina, de cuius gentis conversione speratur, legationis officium tibi committere dignaremur … Datum Anagniae II. Kal. Aug. Pontificatus nostri anno I.
.In Cumanorum episcopatu, sicut accepimus, quidam populi, qui Walati vocantur, existunt, qui etsi censeantur nomine christiano, sub una tamen fide varios ritos habentes et mores, illa committunt, que huic sunt nomini inimica… Nam Romanam ecclesiam contempnentes, non a venerabili fratre nostro… episcopo Cumanorum,qui loci diocesanus existit, sed a quibusdam pseudoepiscopis, Grecorum ritum tenentibus, universa recipiunt ecclesiastica sacramenta, et nonnulli de regno Ungarie, tam Ungari, quam Theutonici et alii orthodoxi, morandi causa cum ipsis transeunt ad eosdem, et sic cum eis, quia populus unus facti cum eisdem Walathis eo contempto, premissa recipiunt sacramenta, in grave orthodoxorum scandalum et derogationem non modicam fidei christiane. Ne igitur ex diversitate rituum pericula proveniant animarum, nos volentes huiusmodi periculum obviare, ne prefati Walathi materiam habeant pro defectu sacramentorum ad scismathicos episcopos accedendi, eidem episcopo nostris damus litteris in mandatis, ut catholicum eis episcopum illi natione conformem provida deliberatione constituat sibi iuxta generalis statuta concilii vicarium in predictis, qui ei per omnia sit obediens et subiectus
Bela dei gratia Hungariae … Rex … Contulimus … a fluvio Olth et Alpibus Ultrasylvanis totam Cumaniam …excepta terra Szeneslai Woiavode Olacorum, quam eisdem relinquimus, prout iidem hactenus tenuerunt … a primo introitu … fratrum usque ad viginti quinque annos omnes reditus Cumaniac terrae integraliter domus percipiat iam praefecta, praeterquam de terre Szeneslay antedicta …; Anno ab incurnatione domini MXXXLVII. IIII. Nonas Junii. Regni autem nostri anno duodecimo.
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1These are traditional areas of settlement; the Turkic group has been living in the listed country/region for centuries and should not be confused with modern diasporas. 2State with limited international recognition. | |||||