Charles River Editors - The Cumans: The History of the Medieval Turkic Nomads Who Fought the Mongols and Rus’ in Eastern Europe

By Charles River Editors

The field of Igor Svyatoslavich's battle with the CumanKipchaks , by Viktor Vasnetsov

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Ivan Bilibin's illustration of the Cumans fighting the Rus in The Tale of Igor's Campaign

Let us begin this narration, brethren,

from the old times of Vladimir to this present time of Igor,

who strengthened his mind with courage,

who quickened his heart with valor

and, thus imbued with martial spirit,

led his valiant regiments

against the Kuman land

in defense of the Russian land. The Tale of Igors Campaign

Before the Mongols rode across the steppes of Asia and Eastern Europe, the Cumans were a major military and cultural force that monarchs from China to Hungary and from Russia to the Byzantine Empire faced, often losing armies and cities in the process. The Cumans were a tribe of Turkic nomads who rode the steppes looking for plunder and riches, but they rarely stayed long after they got what they wanted.

From the late 9 th century until the arrival of the Mongols in 1223, there was virtually nothing that could be done to stop the Cumans. Old Russian chronicles, Byzantine texts, Western European chronicles, and travel diaries of Islamic scholars all reveal that the Cumans were a threat to any kingdom in their path. Some kingdoms chose to fight the Cumans and often suffered heavy destruction, while others believed buying them off was the more reasonable course of action. The latter course often brought them into intimate contact with the most powerful kingdoms of medieval Eastern Europe before the Cumans were eventually replaced by the Mongols, with the remaining Cumans dispersing and integrating into various European and central Asian kingdoms in the 13 th century. Many Cumans joined the Mongol Golden Horde and later became Muslims, while some helped found dynasties in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania.

The Cumans came from somewhat mysterious origins before they became the western vanguard of a massive nomadic horde that grew in ferocity and effectiveness as the centuries passed, but they were far more than mindless barbarians interested in violence alone. Although violence did play a major role in early Cuman culture, sources reveal they were also interested in diplomacy and eventually integrated with their sedentary neighbors. Archaeological discoveries further indicate that their culture was unique, complete with mythology and some art, but in the end, the Cumans disappeared as quickly as they appeared on the historical scene, much like other nomadic peoples before and after them.

The Cumans: The History of the Medieval Turkic Nomads Who Fought the Mongols and Rus in Eastern Europe examines how the Cumans became a major fighting force in the region, and the influence they had. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Cumans.

One of the first major problems historians encounter when studying the Cumans is with the primary source material. Although there are plenty of primary source documents from the Middle Ages describing the Cumans and their activities, none of them were written by the Cumans themselves, and since the Cumans left no written records, modern scholars are forced to examine evidence left by people other than the Cumans, who were often fighting the very people writing about them. Not surprisingly, such works often have an anti-Cuman bias. Another problem presented by non-Cuman medieval sources is the nomenclature, as the people who had extensive contact with the Cumans knew them by different names.

The Russians in the city of Kiev, known as the Rus, were among the first people to record their dealings with the Cumans. In the Old East Slavic language history, commonly referred to today as The Primary Russian Chronicle, the Rus referred to the Cumans as Polovtsians or Polovcians (Golden 1998, 186). The texts are pretty consistent with the use of the name Polovcian, so there is no confusion associated with multiple names.

Meanwhile, Muslim historians and travelers, both Arab and Persian, generally referred to the Cumans as Kipchaks (Golden 1998, 186), which was correct in a more general sense. As will be discussed later, the Cumans were part of a confederation of nomadic tribes including the Kipchaks, which is sometimes referred to as the Kipchak-Cuman confederacy, but medieval Islamic writers sometimes confused the Cumans with other Turkic steppe peoples, including the Pechenegs, who inhabited the region known as Cumania before the Cumans arrived. It is worth noting that Muslim writers recording their meetings with the Cumans usually did so under less violent circumstances than the Rus and Western chroniclers, and they typically interacted with the Cumans later than the Europeans did.

Medieval Western and Latin writers knew them as the Cumans, a term used extensively in Crusader chronicles and in the Latin language Codex Cumanicus , which was written by Roman Catholic missionaries in the 13 th century. Western chroniclers also recorded the Cumans extensive activities in southeastern Europe in the early 13 th century, most notably during the Fourth Crusade. The word cuman was actually a Turkic word for pale, as the Cumans were known to be fairer and blonder than the other Turkic nomads of the steppes during the period (Vsry 2009, 5).

In addition to these written primary sources, the Cumans left some archaeological artifacts behind, usually funerary goods. Modern philologists have also conducted linguistic studies to trace the geographic and ethnic origins of the Cumans, although these studies are still open to debate.

A major reason the Cumans were known by so many different names is because they were actually a part of a vast confederation of Turkic tribes. The nomadic Turkic tribes of the Middle Ages inhabited a swath of land stretching from what is known as Mongolia today to the northern shore of the Black Sea, and from Siberia down to central Asia. The land in this area, which is primarily steppe, is not good for settled agriculture, although it is conducive to a pastoral subsistence.

Thus, most of the steppe tribes of the era lived through conquest. Tribes would ride on horseback to raid sedentary kingdoms, take food, riches, and people, and usually leave as quickly as they arrived. At the same time, the tribes often battled each other for grazing and raiding territories, although they could be quite diplomatic and often made alliances. The Cumans hailed from one such alliance that at its peak comprised an area much larger than any empire before it.