ThePechenegs (/ˈpɛtʃənɛɡ/) orPatzinaks[note 1] also known asPecheneg Turks[1] were a semi-nomadicTurkic people fromCentral Asia who spoke thePecheneg language. In the 9th and 10th centuries, the Pechenegs controlled much of the steppes of southeastEurope and theCrimean Peninsula. In the 9th century the Pechenegs began a period of wars againstKievan Rus', and for more than two centuries launched raids into the lands of Rus', which sometimes escalated into full-scale wars.
The Pechenegs were mentioned asBjnak,Bjanak orBajanak in medievalArabic andPersian texts, asBe-ča-nag inClassical Tibetan documents, and asPačanak-i in works written inGeorgian.[4]Anna Komnene and other Byzantine authors referred to them asPatzinakoi orPatzinakitai.[4] Inmedieval Latin texts, the Pechenegs were referred to asPizenaci,Bisseni orBessi.[4]East Slavic peoples use the termsPečenegi orPečenezi (plural ofPečeneg), while thePoles mention them asPieczyngowie orPiecinigi.[4] The Hungarian word for Pecheneg isBesenyő; the Romanian term isPecenegi.[4]
According toMax Vasmer and some other researchers theethnonym may have derived from theOld Turkic word for "brother-in-law, relative” (baja,baja-naq orbajinaq;Azerbaijani:bacanaq,Kyrgyz: baja,Turkmen:baja andTurkish:bacanak), implying that it initially referred to an "in-law related clan or tribe".[4][5]Peter Golden considers this derivation by no means certain.[6]
InMahmud Kashgari's 11th-century workDīwān Lughāt al-Turk, Pechenegs were described as "a Turkic nation living around the country ofthe Rum", whereRum was the Turkic word for theEastern Roman Empire orAnatolia, and "a branch ofOghuz Turks"; he subsequently described the Oghuz as being formed of 22 branches, of which the Pecheneg were the 19th.[7]
Pechenegs are mentioned as one of 24 ancient tribes ofOghuzes by 14th-century statesman and historian ofIlkhanate-ruled IranRashid-al-Din Hamadani in his workJāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh ("Compendium of Chronicles") with the meaning of the ethnonym as "the one who shows eagerness". The 17th-centuryKhan of theKhanate of Khiva and historianAbu al-Ghazi Bahadur mentions the Pechenegs asbechene among 24 ancient tribes ofTurkmens (or Oghuzes) in his bookShajara-i Tarākima (“Genealogy of the Turkmen") and provides for its meaning as "the one who makes".
Three of the eight Pecheneg "provinces" or clans were collectively known asKangars.[8] According toConstantine VII Porphyrogenitus, the Kangars received this denomination because "they are more valiant and noble than the rest" of the people "and that is what the title Kangar signifies".[8][9] Because no Turkic word with a similar meaning is known,Ármin Vámbéry connected the ethnonym to theKyrgyz wordskangir ("agile"),kangirmak ("to go out riding") andkani-kara ("black-blooded"), whileCarlile Aylmer Macartney associated it with theChagatai wordgang ("chariot"),[10] semantically related to the TurkicGaoche.[11]
Omeljan Pritsak proposed that the name had initially been a composite term(Kängär As, mentioned in Old Turkic texts) deriving from theTocharian word for stone(kank) and the ethnonymAs, suggesting that they were Tocharian-speaking or at least formed a confederation consisting of Tocharian,Eastern Iranian andBulgaric Turkic elements. Their connection with Eastern Iranian elements is hinted at in the remark ofal-Biruni regarding a people that "are of the race of al-Lān and that of al-Ās and their language is a mixture of the languages ofKhwarazmians and the Badjanak.".[12]
If the latter assumption is valid, the Kangars' ethnonym suggests that (East) Iranian elements contributed to the formation of the Pecheneg people butSpinei concedes that Pechenegs were of "a predominantly Turkic character... beyond any doubt".[13][14] This may be mirrored in theOld Rus translation ofJosephus Flavius (ed. Meshcherskiy, 454) which adds "theYas, as is known, descended from the Pecheneg tribe." On the basis of their fragmentary linguistic remains, scholars view them asCommon Turkic-speakers, most probablyKipchak (Németh, followed byLigeti)[15] orOguz (Baskakov).[16]Hammer-Purgstall classifies the ChineseKangju and ByzantineKangar as purely Turkic name variants of theKangly;[17] however,Wang Pu's institutional historical workTang Huiyao apparently distinguishes theKang(ju) from theKangheli (akaKangly).[18]Menges saw inKang-ar-as the plural-suffix-as, and Klyashtorny the Turkic numerus collectivus-ar-,-er-.[19][20]
Mahmud al-Kashgari, an 11th-century man of letters who specialized in Turkic dialects argued that the language spoken by the Pechenegs was a variant of theCuman andOghuz idioms.[21] He suggested that foreign influences on the Pechenegs gave rise to phonetical differences between their tongue and the idiom spoken by other Turkic peoples.[22] Anna Komnene likewise stated that the Pechenegs and the Cumans shared a common language.[21] Although the Pecheneg language itself died out centuries ago,[23] the names of the Pecheneg "provinces" recorded by Constantine Porphyrogenitus prove that the Pechenegs spoke a Turkic language.[24] The Pechenegs are thought to have belonged to theOghuz branch of theTurkic family, but their language is poorly documented and therefore difficult to further classify.[25]
Byzantine emperorConstantine VIIPorphyrogennetos lists eight Pecheneg tribal groupings, four on each side of theDnieper river, reflecting the bipartite left-right Turkic organization. These eight tribes were in turn divided into 40 sub-tribes, probably clans. Constantine VII also records the names of eight former tribal leaders who had been leading the Pechenegs when they were expelled by theKhazars andOghuzes.Golden, followingNémeth andLigeti, proposes that each tribal name consists of two parts: the first part being anequine coat color, the other the tribal ruler's title.[26]
The Erdim, Čur, and Yula tribes formed theQangar/Kenger (Greek: Καγγαρ) and were deemed "more valiant and noble than the rest".
^Possibly not an equine coat color; cf.Ottoman Turkish قاپوkapu "door, gate,Porte", Hung.kapu "gate, entrance, door". If so, this tribe was the guardians of the Pechenegs to the west.[27]
According toOmeljan Pritsak, the Pechenegs are descendants from the ancient Kangars who originate fromTashkent. TheOrkhon inscriptions listed the Kangars among the subject peoples of theEastern Turkic Khaganate. Pritsak says that the Pechenegs' homeland was located between theAral Sea and the middle course of the Syr Darya, along the important trade routes connecting Central Asia with Eastern Europe, and associates them withKangars.[29]
The whole of Patzinakia is divided into eight provinces with the same number of great princes. The provinces are these: the name of the first province is Irtim; of the second, Tzour; of the third, Gyla; of the fourth, Koulpeï; of the fifth, Charaboï; of the sixth, Talmat; of the seventh, Chopon; of the eighth, Tzopon. At the time at which the Pechenegs were expelled from their country, their princes were, in the province of Irtim, Baïtzas; in Tzour, Kouel; in Gyla, Kourkoutai; in Koulpeï, Ipaos; in Charaboï, Kaïdoum; in the province of Talmat, Kostas; in Chopon, Giazis; in the province of Tzopon, Batas.
Paul Pelliot originated the proposal that theBook of Sui—a 7th-century Chinese work—preserved the earliest record on the Pechenegs.[31] The book mentioned a people namedBĕirù, who had settled near theĒnqū andAlan peoples (identified asOnogurs andAlans, respectively), to the east ofFulin (or theEastern Roman Empire).[31][32][33]Victor Spinei emphasizes that the Pechenegs' association with theBĕirù is "uncertain".[32] He proposes that an 8th-century Uighur envoy's report, which survives in Tibetan translation,[34] contains the first certain reference to the Pechenegs.[32] The report recorded an armed conflict between theBe-ča-nag and theHor (Uyghurs orOghuz Turks) peoples in the region of the riverSyr Darya.[32][35]
TheTurkic Khaganate collapsed in 744 which gave rise to a series of intertribal confrontations in theEurasian steppes.[39] TheKarluks attacked theOghuz Turks, forcing them to launch a westward migration towards the Pechenegs' lands.[39] The Uighur envoy's report testifies that the Oghuz and Pecheneg waged war against each other already in the 8th century, most probably for the control of the trade routes.[39] The Oghuz made an alliance with the Karluks andKimaks and defeated the Pechenegs and their allies in a battle near the Lake Aral before 850, according to the 10th-century scholar,Al-Masudi.[39] Most Pechenegs launched a new migration towards theVolga River, but some groups were forced to join the Oghuz. The latter formed the 19th tribe of theOghuz tribal federation in the 11th century.[39][5]
The Pechenegs who left their homeland settled between theUral and Volga rivers. According toGardizi and other Muslim scholars who based their works on 9th-century sources, the Pechenegs' new territory was quite large, with a 30-day-walk extension, and were bordered by theCumans,Khazars, Oghuz Turks andSlavs.[40][41]
The same sources also narrate that the Pechenegs made regular raids against their neighbors, in particular against the Khazars and the latter's vassals, theBurtas, and sold their captives.[1][42] The Khazars made an alliance with the Ouzes against the Pechenegs and attacked them from two directions. Outnumbered by the enemy, the Pechenegs were forced into a new westward migration.[12][32][43] They marched across the Khazar Khaganate, invaded the dwelling places of theHungarians, andexpelled them from the lands along theKuban River and the upper course of the riverDonets.[40][43] There is no consensual date for this second migration of the Pechenegs: Pritsak argues that it took place around 830,[1] but Kristó suggests that it could hardly occur before the 850s.[44]
The Pechenegs settled along the riversDonets andKuban.[1] It is plausible that the distinction between the "Turkic Pechenegs" and "Khazar Pechenegs" mentioned in the 10th-centuryHudud al-'alam had its origin in this period.[1] TheHudud al-'Alam—a late 10th-century Persian geography—distinguished two Pecheneg groups, referring to those who lived along the Donets as "Turkic Pechenegs", and to those along the Kuban as "Khazarian Pechenegs".[12] Spinei proposes that the latter denomination most probably refers to Pecheneg groups accepting Khazar suzerainty, implies that some Pecheneg tribes had been forced to acknowledge the Khazars supremacy.[32]
In addition to these two branches, a third group of Pechenegs existed in this period: Constantine Porphyrogenitus andIbn Fadlan mention that those who decided not to leave their homeland were incorporated into the Oghuz federation of Turkic tribes.[5][1]
Originally, the Pechenegs had their dwelling on the river Atil (Volga), and likewise on the riverGeïch, having common frontiers with the Chazars and the so-called Uzes. But fifty years ago the so-called Uzes made common cause with the Chazars and joined battle with the Pechenegs and prevailed over them and expelled them from their country, which the so-called Uzes have occupied till this day. [...] At the time when the Pechenegs were expelled from their country, some of them of their own will and personal decision stayed behind there and united with the so-called Uzes, and even to this day they live among them, and wear such distinguishing marks as separate them off and betray their origin and how it came about that they were split off from their own folk: for their tunics are short, reaching to the knee, and their sleeves are cut off at the shoulder, whereby, you see, they indicate that they have been cut off from their own folk and those of their race.
However, it is uncertain whether this group's formation is connected to the Pechenegs' first or second migration (as it is proposed by Pritsak and Golden, respectively).[5][1] According to Mahmud al-Kashgari, one of the Üçok clans of the Oghuz Turks[46] was still formed by Pechenegs in the 1060s.[1]
Sviatoslav enters Bulgaria with Pecheneg allies,[47] from theConstantine Manasses Chronicle.
In the 9th century, theByzantines allied with the Pechenegs, using them to fend off other, more dangerous tribes such asKievan Rus' and theMagyars (Hungarians).
The Uzes, anotherTurkic steppe people, eventually expelled the Pechenegs from their homeland; in the process, they also seized most of their livestock and other goods. An alliance ofOghuz,Kimeks, andKarluks was also pressing the Pechenegs, but another group, theSamanids, defeated that alliance. Driven further west by theKhazars andCumans by 889, the Pechenegs in turn drove the Magyars west of theDnieper River by 892.
By the 9th and 10th centuries, Pechenegs controlled much of the steppes of southeastEurope and theCrimean Peninsula. Although an important factor in the region at the time, like most nomadic tribes their concept of statecraft failed to go beyond random attacks on neighbours and spells as mercenaries for other powers.
In the 9th century the Pechenegs began a period of wars againstKievan Rus'. For more than two centuries they had launched raids into the lands of Rus', which sometimes escalated into full-scale wars (like the 920 war on the Pechenegs byIgor of Kiev, reported in thePrimary Chronicle). The Pecheneg wars against Kievan Rus' caused the Slavs from Walachian territories to gradually migrate north of the Dniestr in the 10th and 11th centuries.[48] Rus'/Pecheneg temporary military alliances also occurred however, as during the Byzantine campaign in 943 led by Igor.[note 2]
The heroic deed of the young Kyivite during the siege of Kyiv by the Pechenegs in 968.Andrey Ivanovich Ivanov.[49]
In 968 the Pechenegsattacked and besieged Kiev; some joined the Prince of Kiev,Sviatoslav I, in his Byzantine campaign of 970–971, though eventually they ambushed and killed the Kievan prince in 972. According to thePrimary Chronicle, the PechenegKhanKurya made achalice from Sviatoslav's skull, in accordance with the custom ofsteppe nomads. The fortunes of the Rus'-Pecheneg confrontation swung during the reign ofVladimir I of Kiev (990–995), who founded the town ofPereyaslav upon the site of his victory over the Pechenegs,[note 3] followed by the defeat of the Pechenegs during the reign ofYaroslav I the Wise in 1036. Shortly thereafter, other nomadic peoples replaced the weakened Pechenegs in thePontic steppe: theCumans and theTorks. According toMykhailo Hrushevsky (History of Ukraine-Ruthenia), after its defeat near Kiev the Pecheneg Horde moved towards theDanube, crossed the river, and disappeared out of thePontic steppes.
Pecheneg mercenaries served under the Byzantines at theBattle of Manzikert.[50] After centuries of fighting involving all their neighbours—the Byzantine Empire,Bulgaria, Kievan Rus', Khazaria, and the Magyars—the Pechenegs were annihilated as an independent force in 1091 at theBattle of Levounion by a combined Byzantine and Cuman army under Byzantine EmperorAlexios I Komnenos. Alexios I recruited the defeated Pechenegs, whom he settled in the district ofMoglena (today inMacedonia) into atagma "of the Moglena Pechenegs".[51] Attacked again in 1094 by the Cumans, many Pechenegs were slain or absorbed. The Byzantines defeated the Pechenegs again at theBattle of Beroia in 1122, on the territory of modern-day Bulgaria. With time the Pechenegs south of theDanube lost their national identity and became fully assimilated, mostly withRomanians andBulgarians. Significant communities settled in theHungarian kingdom, around 150 villages.[52]
The Pechenegs and contemporary Asian polities circa 1000 CE.
The Pechenegs as a group were last mentioned in 1168 as members of Turkic tribes known in the chronicles as the "Chorni Klobuky (Black Hats)".[55] It is likely that the Pecheneg population of Hungary was decimated by theMongol invasion of Hungary, but names of Pecheneg origin continue to be reported in official documents. The title of "Comes Bissenorum" (Count of the Pechenegs) lasted for at least another 200 years.
In 15th-century Hungary, some people adopted the surnameBesenyö (Hungarian for "Pecheneg");[citation needed] they were most numerous in thecounty of Tolna. One of the earliest introductions ofIslam intoEastern Europe came about through the work of an early 11th-century Muslim prisoner who was captured by the Byzantines. The Muslim prisoner was brought into the Besenyő territory of the Pechenegs, where he taught and converted individuals to Islam.[56] In the late 12th century,Abu Hamid al-Gharnati referred to Hungarian Pechenegs – probably Muslims – living disguised as Christians. In the southeast of Serbia, there is a village calledPečenjevce founded by Pechenegs. After war with Byzantium, the remnants of the tribes found refuge in the area, where they established their settlement.[57][58][59][60][61][62]
Some historians believe that the Pechenegs were the ancestors of modernKarakalpaks. According to Askerbay Turganbayev, there is a scientific hypothesis suggesting that after their defeat in the 11th–12th centuries, some Pechenegs migrated to the Aral region, where they contributed to the ethnogenesis of the Karakalpaks. He notes similarities in traditions, nomadic lifestyles, and some linguistic elements between the Karakalpaks and earlierTurkic peoples, including the Pechenegs.[65]
Public figure Olzhas Suleimenov suggested that the name "Pecheneg" derives from the wordPajanak ("in-law"), indicating kinship ties between Pecheneg khagans and Russian princes. This word has parallels in Turkic languages, including Karakalpak, wherebaja orboja also means "in-law."[66]
The 14th-century Persian historian Rashid al-Din recorded that one of the Kipchak tribes was called "Kara-Borkli" ("Black Hats"), which may be linked to the ethnonym "Karakalpaks." Some scholars suggest that this tribe was among the remnants of the Pechenegs that assimilated into Kipchak and later Karakalpak groups.[67]
Archaeological studies in the deltas of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers have uncovered traces of Saka-Massagetae tribes, which may have been the ancestors of the Karakalpaks. The consolidation of Pecheneg tribes in the southeastern Aral region in the 9th–11th centuries is believed to have played a role in Karakalpak ethnogenesis.[68]
^Ibn Haukal describes the Pechenegs as the long-standing allies of the Rus', whom they invariably accompanied during the 10th centuryCaspian expeditions.
^The chronicler explains the town's name, derived from the Slavic word for "retake", by the fact that Vladimir "retook" the military glory from the Pechenegs.
^While his rule's exact end cannot be dated, Kurya was no longer khan by 988.
^Németh, "Die Inschriften," 16, pp. 50-1; Ligeti, "A magyar nyelv," p.362, 506; andGyörffy, "A Besenyők nyelve," p.170-91. Cited in theEncyclopaedia of Islam (New Edition), Vol.VIII, Leiden 1994, p.289
^Баскаков, Н. А.Тюркские языки, Москва 1960, с. 126-131.
^Tang Huiyao,"Vol. 72" quote: "康國馬。康居國也。是大宛馬種。形容極大。武德中。康國獻四千匹。今時官馬。猶是其種。……康曷利馬。印宅。" rough translation: "Horses of theKang nation, which is theKangju nation. They are a stock ofDayuan horses. In the middle of theWude era [622 - 626 CE], theKang nation tributed 4,000 horses. Nowadays, the officials' horses are [probably] of that stock. [...]Kangheli's horses;tamga [resembles] [character] 宅"
^K. H. Menges, Altaic elements, s. 101-104. (cited PDF)
^Askerbay Turganbayev.Historical Science on the Pechenegs as the Ancestors of the Karakalpaks. // Finland International Scientific Journal of Education, Social Science & Humanities. — 2023-04-23. — Vol. 11, iss. 4. — P. 1517–1525. — ISSN 2945-4492.
^Olzhas Suleimenov.Az i Ya. — Almaty: Zhazushy, 1985.
^Rashid al-Din.Jami' al-Tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles). — Moscow: Nauka, 1965.
^A. Nurmukhamedov.Archaeological Findings in the Aral Region. — Nukus: Karakalpakstan, 2001.
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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.
1 Central Asian (i.e.Turkmeni,Afghani andIranian)Turkmens, distinct from Levantine (i.e.Iraqi andSyrian) Turkmen/Turkoman minorities, who mostly adhere to an Ottoman-Turkish heritage and identity.2 In traditional areas of Turkish settlement (i.e. formerOttoman territories).
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