TheLendians (Polish:Lędzianie) were aLechitic tribe who lived in the area of EastLesser Poland andCherven Cities between the 7th and 11th centuries. Since they were documented primarily by foreign authors whose knowledge ofCentral andEastern Europe geography was often vague, they were recorded by different names, which includeLendzanenoi,Lendzaninoi,Lz’njn,Lachy,Lyakhs,Landzaneh,Lendizi,Licicaviki andLitziki.
It is suggested that the name "Lędzianie" (*lęd-jan-inъ) derives from the word "lęda" ofProto-Slavic andOld Polish origin, meaning "slash-and-burn field".[1][2]. Therefore it is suggested that the name of the tribe comes from their use ofslash-and-burn agriculture, which involved cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields.[2] Accordingly, in this meaning Lendians were woodland-burning farmers,[3] or "inhabitants of fields".[4] Several European nations source their ethnonym for Poles, and hence Poland, from the name of Lendians: Lithuanians (lenkai,Lenkija) and Hungarians (Lengyelország).[5][6]
Gerard Labuda notes that the Rus' originally called a specific tribal group settled around theVistula river as the Lendians and only later in the 11th and 12th century started to apply the name of the tribe to the entire populace of the "Piast realm" because of their common language.[7]
| Sources mentioning Lendians: Bavarian Geographer (843) –Lendizi – (33) on the map |
In Latin historiography theBavarian Geographer (generally dated to the mid-9th century) attests thatLendizi habent civitates XCVIII, that is, that the "Lendizi" had 98gords, or settlements.[6] The Lendians are mentioned, among others, byDe administrando imperio (c. 959, as Λενζανηνοί), byJosippon (c. 953, asLz’njn), by thePrimary Chronicle (c. 981, as ляхи), byAli al-Masudi (c. 940, asLandzaneh).
They are also identified to theLicicaviki from the 10th-century chronicleRes gestae saxonicae sive annalium libri tres byWidukind of Corvey, who recorded thatMieszko I of Poland (960–992) ruled over theSclavi tribe. The same name is additionally considered to be related to the oral tradition ofMichael of Zahumlje fromDAI that his family originates from the unbaptized inhabitants of the riverVistula called asLitziki,[8][9][10][11][12][7] and the recount byThomas the Archdeacon in hisHistoria Salonitana (13th century), where seven or eight tribes of nobles, who he calledLingones, arrived fromPoland and settled inCroatia underTotila's leadership.[13][14][15][16]
TheWest Slavs (Lendians andVistulans) moved into the area of present-day south-eastern Poland, during the early 6th century AD. Around 833, the region inhabited by the Lendians was incorporated into theGreat Moravian state. Upon the invasion of theHungarian tribes into the heart of Central Europe around 899, the Lendians submitted to their authority (Masudi). In the first half of the 10th century, they alongsideKrivichs and other Slavic people paid tribute toIgor I of Kiev (DAI).[6]
From the mid-950s onward, the Lendians were politically anchored in the Bohemian sphere of influence.[5]Cosmas of Prague relates that the land ofKraków was controlled by thePřemyslids ofBohemia until 999.[17] His report is buttressed by the foundation charter of theArchdiocese of Prague (1086), which traces the eastern border of the archdiocese, as established in 973, along theBug andStyr (orStryi) rivers.[5][18]Abraham ben Jacob, who travelled in Eastern Europe in 965, remarks thatBoleslaus II of Bohemia ruled the country "stretching from the city ofPrague to the city of Kraków".[19]
In the 970s, it is assumed thatMieszko I of Poland took over the region: thePrimary Chronicle infers this when reporting thatVolodymyr the Great conquered the Cherven Cities from the Lyakhs in 981: "Volodymyr marched upon the Lyakhs and took their cities: Peremyshl (Przemyśl), Cherven (Czermno), and other towns".[20] HistorianLeontii Voitovych speculates that if the lands were under control of theDuchy of Poland then theKievan Rus' conquest would have been an open call for war between the principalities with an inevitable long struggle, but such a thing did not happen according to Voitovych, possibly indicating in Voitovych's view that the lands and its population weren't Polish, but an independent political-tribal union with some vassalage to Bohemia.[21][22]: 142–143
The region again fell under the Polish sphere of influence in 1018, whenBolesław I of Poland took the Cherven Citieson his way to Kiev.Yaroslav I the Grand Prince of Rus' reconquered the borderland in 1031.[5] Around the year 1069, the region again returned to Poland, afterBolesław II the Generous retook the area and the city ofPrzemyśl, making it his temporary residence. Then in 1085, the region became aprincipality under Rus',[citation needed] and it remained part of Kievan Rus' and its successor state ofHalych-Volhynia until 1340 when it was once again taken over byKingdom of Poland underCasimir III of Poland. It is presumed that most of the Lendians were assimilated by theEast Slavs, with a small portion remaining tied to West Slavs and Poland.[citation needed] The most important factors contributing to their fate were linguistic and ethnic similarity, influence ofKievan Rus' andOrthodox Christianity, deportations to centralUkraine byYaroslav I the Wise after 1031[23] and colonization of their lands byRuthenians fleeing west during Mongol assaults onRuthenia during reign ofDanylo of Halych.[citation needed]
Constantine VII reports that in the year 944 Lendians were tributaries to theKievan Rus' and that theirmonoxylae sailed under prince Wlodzislav downstream toKiev to take part in thenaval expeditions against Byzantium. This may be taken as an indication that the Lendians had access to some waterways leading to theDnieper, e.g., theStyr River.[24] According toNestor the Chronicler and his account inPrimary Chronicle, the Lendians (Lyakhs) inhabited theCherven Cities, when in 981 they were conqured byVladimir the Great.[25] Based on Constantine's and Nestor's report,Gerard Labuda concludes that the Lendians occupied the area between the UpperBug, Styr, and UpperDniestr rivers in the east and theWisłoka river in the west.[26] This would indicate that through their land crossed an important route that connectedPrague,Kraków,Kiev and theKhazars.[5][27]
Polish historiansWojciech Kętrzyński,Stefan Maria Kuczyński, Janusz Kotlarczyk, and Jerzy Nalepa, among others, generally locate the Lendians in Upper San and Upper Dniester.[21] Krzysztof Fokt advanced a viewpoint which claims that Lendians inhabited the whole ofWestern Ukraine (partly shared by D. E. Alimov[28]), moving White Croats much further to the East in the direction ofVyatichi.[21]
Henryk Łowmiański argued that the Lendians lived betweenSandomierz andLublin, and that withVistulans even were tribal groups ofWhite Croats.[5][29][30]Leontii Voitovych also argues that the Lendians lived east ofVistulans and south ofMazovians, more specifically, in the area between Sandomierz and Lublin.[31][22] Janusz Kotlarczyk considered thatRed Ruthenia extended over a vast territory betweenCarpathian Mountains and Przemyśl on the south (inhabited by White Croats) and Volhinia on the north (partly inhabited by Lendians).[32]Alexander Nazarenko considers that uncertainty of extant 10th-century descriptions of the upper Dniester and Bug River region makes it plausible to infer that the Lendians, White Croats and probably some other peoples shared this vast territory along the border of modern-day Ukraine and Poland.[24]
According to Mykhailo Kuchynko, archaeological sources conclude that Prykarpattian region of Western Ukraine was not settled by West Slavic Lendians but East Slavic Croats, while the elements ofmaterial culture in early medieval sites alongside Upper San River in present-daySubcarpathian Voivodeship in Southeastern Poland show they belonged to East Slavic ethno-tribal affiliation. The early medieval sites nearDukla Pass, and villagesTrzcinica andPrzeczyca indicate that West Slavic material tradition started only at riverWisłoka, the right tributary of Upper Vistula.[22]
