Zimonyi Istvan, "History of the Turkic Speaking Peoples in Europe Before the Ottomans"

7/31/2019 Zimonyi Istvan, "History of the Turkic Speaking Peoples in Europe Before the Ottomans"

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Zimonyi Istvan: "History of the Turkic speaking peoples in Europe before the Ottomans".The lectures include the history of the Turkic speaking peoples of Eastern Europe from the

Huns to Kipchaks 4-14th century.

1. The history of the Turkic speaking peoples of Eastern Europe from the Huns to Khazars 4-10th century.

Introduction

The first Turkic speaking peoples reached the Eastern Europe along the steppe stretchingfrom Mongolia to the Carpathian basin. The steppebelt of Eurasia represented the same wayof life and culture in the Middle Ages and the nomads created empires which determined thefate of Eurasia. The first nomadic empire was founded by the Xiongnu in the 2th century B.C.Then the Türks created a vast nomadic empire from Mongolia to the Crimea in the 6 th century. Finally the Mongols united the Eurasian steppe under their rule in the 13 th century

which included the neighbouring sedentary civilisations. The formation of these empires andtheir successor states had basic impetus for the history of the Eastern European steppe.

The periodisation of the medieval history of the nomads in Eastern Europe is in closeconnection with the fate of the above-mentioned empires. The Hun empire (370-453) was alate successor state of the Xiongnu. The age of migrations after the fall of the Hun empirerepresented western move of the Onogurs, Ogurs and Saragurs around 463, that of the Sabirscirca 506, and the coming of the Avars in the 550s provoked by the western raids of theTürks. The Avar empire consolidated its power in the Carpathian basin between 568 and 803.The Khazar empire was a successor state of the western Türk Kaghanate, wich ruled thesteppe between the Volga and lower Danube between 7th century and 965. The Pechenegsand the Uz moved the Eastern Europe as a consequence of disturbances in the Kazak steppeduring the 10-11th century, while the Kipchaks arrived to the South Russian steppe in themiddle of the 11th century provoked by conflicts in Central Asia. The Kipchaks ruled thesteppe during the 11-13 centuries and they formed the basic inhabitants of the steppe in theMongol period. The Goden Horde was an ulus of the Mongol world-empire in the 13-15thcenturies.

The steppebelt runs paralel with forestzone in the north, and sedentary civilisations suchas China, Transoxania, Persia, East Roman Empire, later Byzantium in the south. Althoughsedentary civilisations played significant role in the formation of nomadic empires bymediating to them technical inventions, advanced system of administration, world religion,

prestige goods and nomadic peoples profited from the controlling the long ditance commerce

and political and diplomatic contacts with them, the contacts between nomads and forestdwellers should also be taken into consideration. The sedentary civilisations could not controlthe steppe for long. The nomads of the Eurasian steppe could be conquered from the forestzone by the Russians with the military superiority of the Europeans.

There is no geographical barrier between the steppe and the forest, but the southerncivilisations should defend themselves against nomadic incursions. The Chinese Great Wall isworth mentioning in this respect. The key territory of Eurasia has been the Kazak steppe,Transoxania/Özbegistan and Khorasan. The nomads of the Eurasian steppe controling thisarea could reach Europa through the steppe, India through Afganistan and Persia and theeastern half of Middle East and they could take possession the silk roads. There is a natural

barrier including the Caspian Sea – Caucasus – Black Sea between the Steppe and sedentary

civilisations in Eastern Europe.The western steppezone can be divided into three regions: 1. steppe north of the



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Caucasus; 2. northern shore of the Black Sea; 3. the Carpathian Basin. The main military andcommercial routes were determined by the big rivers and mountain passes (Volga, Don,Dnieper, Danube; Darband, Darial passes).

The medieval history of Eastern Europe can be regarded as a competition betweensteppe and forest for the dominance. The nomadic empires of Eastern Europa including the

Huns, Avars, and Khazars determined the history of Estern Europe from the 4th

to the 10th

century. The Rus’ centred on Kiev became a great power in the 10 th century and the easternzone of the forest was under the control of the Volga Bulghars at the same time. After the fallof the Khazar empire the Kipchaks/Cumans could consolidate the steppe zone by the end of the 11th century. There was a balance of power between the forest and steppe in the 11-13 th century. The Mongol conquest brought fundamental changes in the former balance of power.The Mongols organised the powers of Eastern Europe into a single political unit calledGolden Horde. The Golden Horde lost its integrity in the second half of the 14th century andnew regional political units emerged in the 15th century such as the Khanates of Kazan,Crimea, Astrakhan. The shift in balance of power allowed the principality of Moscow tocollect the Russian lands and to get rid of the Mongol rule. In the 16 th century the Russians

had the upper hand of these Khanates. The Khanate of Kazan was conquered in 1552 and thatof Astrakhan in 1556. The steppe had to capitulate.

The world-religions among the nomads of Eastern Europe was connected with theneighbouring civilisations: In the ninth and tenth century three world religions originatingfrom the Mediterranean flourished in Eastern Europe: Judaism was adopted by the Khazars inthe first half of the 9th century, the Volga Bulghars embraced Islam in the beginning of the10th century and Christianity spread among the Rus’ at the end of the 10th century. Judaismlost its political background after the fall of the Khazar Empire and only some Jewishcommunities could survive in the Crimea and Caucasus. Eastern Europe was divided intothree religious communities during the 11-13th century: The first represented the Christian

principalities of the Rus’ in the western part of the forest zone. The second was the MuslimVolga Bulghars in the Volga-Kama-region and the third was the pagan Cumans of the steppe.The formation of the Golden Horde changed the situation. According to the religious policyof the Mongols all representatives of the religious communities enjoyed privileges in order tosupport the consolidation of the Mongol rule. There was a serious competition betweenChristianity and Islam for the influence in the court of the Golden Horde. Berke was the firstMuslim ruler of the Golden Horde, whose relatives and retinue and other officials followedhim in choosing Islam. It was a turning point in the spread of Islam among the nomads of Eastern Europe. Islam finally gained ground during the reign of Özbeg (1312-1342) when itwas declared to the religion of the state. The Islamization of the nomads of Eastern Europewas the consequence of the conversion as the peoples of the Volga-Kama region had

embraced Islam earlier. The decline of the Golden Horde and the Russian conquest wasfavourable for Christianisation and as a consequence Islam could survive only in the Volga-Kama region and in the Crimea in the European part of Russia.

The languages and ethnic map of Eastern Europe changed in the Middle Ages. Therewere Iranian speaking nomads such as Scythians, Sarmatians and Alans from antiquity in thesteppe. The appearance of the Turkic speaking elements can be connected with the Huns inthe 4th century A.D., although the language of the Huns cannot be determined at the presentstate of our knowledge. The Onogurs, Ogurs, Saragurs, Sabirs and Bulghars may have beenTurkic speaking peoples. The language of the Khazars was Turkic. So The Turkic becamedominant in Eastern Europe in the 4-6th century in the steppe. The glosses in the sources andthe Turkic loanwords in Slavic and Hungarian proved that the Bulgar-Turkic or Chuvash type

Turkic languages played predominant role in the 5-10th

century. The role of common Turkic became more important with the coming of the Kipchaks in the 11th century. The steppe zone



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was inhabited by peoples speaking common Turkic in the 12-15th century. Chuvash-typeTurkic became marginal. It could survive by the Volga Bulghars till the 14th century. After thefall of the Volga Bulghars state it was reduced to a smaller group named later as Chuvash.Turkic speaking peoples reached the Carpathian basin and northern Balkan in the MidlleAges. Pannonia was a Roman Province and east of the Danube was inhabited by Iranian and

german speaking peoples in the 4th

century. The Huns conquered the whole Carpathian basin,which brought the Roman rule to an end and opened new possibilities for the Germanspeaking peoples. After the fall of the Huns the Carpathian basin was inhabited by Germanspeaking tribes: Gepids, Lombards etc. The conquest of the Avars caused the disappearrenceof the German speaking peoples and the Avars speaking either Turkic or Mongolian took dominant position. They attacked and destroyed the limes along the lower Danube, which

prepared the penetration of the Slavic goups into the Balkans. Then the Slavic tribes of thenorth Balkans assimilated the Bulghars in the 8-9th century. The Slavic Bulghars later did thesame with the Pecheneg and Cuman groups wandering to the Balkan. The Carpathian basinwas conquered by the Hungarians in the end of the 9 th century. The Hungarian tribalconfederacy included three Turkic speaking tribes, the Kavars. The Hungarian kingdom

received later Pechenegs in the 10-11th century, and they were auxiliary troops of theHungarian kings. Cuman tribes migrated to Hungary in the beginning of the 13 th century as aconsequence of the Mongol invasions. The forest zone of Estern Europe was inhabited byFinno-Ugric speaking peoples in the East and Slavic spoeking communities in the western

part.The most important historical difficulty of the study of the medieval nomadic empires

and confederacies of Eastern Europe is the lack of inner sources. Only the Türk Empire has itsown sources known as the Runic Inscriptions of the Orkhon valley.

The most important sources on the nomads of Eastern Europe of the 5-15th centurywere composed in the neighbouring sedentary states. Three of them played predominant role:The late Roman Empire and its successor states produced Latin data in Western Europe.Greek sources were written in Byzantium, and the rise of Islam brought the revival of theMuslim (Arabic, Persian) literature in the Caliphate in the 9-11th century.

I call the attention some basic sourcebook: Aalto and Pekkanen published the passagesof the Latin literature on the Turkic and Mongolian and Finno-Ugric speaking peoples of Eurasia. Gyula Moravcsik collected the data concerning the Turkic speaking peoples in theByzantine sources and published his work entitled Byzantinoturcica which includes a shorthistorical overview of Turkic speaking peoples with complete secondary literature, the Greek names of the nations and tribes, persons and places in alphabetical order.

The great project of German medievalists on the Latin Greek and Slavic sources onearly medieval Eastern Europe, entitled Glossar zur frühmitelalterlichen Geschichte im

östlichen Europe is of crucial importance. Beside the Slavic speaking peoples the nomads of Eastern Europe were also included. The item consists of the name and its variations, therelevant passages from the sources, references to other items and the literature.

Professor Samuel Szádeczky-Kardoss collected extracts from the Greek and Latinsources on the Avars. He compiled another source book on the early Bulghars from 480 to theconquest of the Balkans in 680, which is unpublished. His student, Csaba Farkas collectedand translated the extracts from Greek and Middle-Latin works on the Türk Empire.

As for the Muslim sources on the nomads of Eastern Europe Minorsky lay thefoundation with his translation of the Hudūd al-cĀlam into English and its historical and

philological commentaries and that of al-Marwaz ī ’s chapters on the Turks and China.The Polish Orientalists under the guidance of Lewicki decided to collect the Arabic

sources on the Slavic speaking peoples. As the history of the Slavs can be separated from theother peoples of Eastern Europe, the collection contains the references on the nomadic



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peoples such as the Khazars, Volga Bulghars, Hungarians. In cooperation with professor Hansgerd Göckenjan we published the German translation of the authors Ğayhān ī -traditionwith historical comments to the texts.

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The history between the 4th and 10th century

The first great nomadic power in Eastern Europe was the empire of the Huns. Theidentification of the Huns with the Xiongnu has been a subject of a long discussion. Theethnic name Hun can be derived from the form reflected in the Chinese Xiongnu. Thelanguages of the Huns and Xiongnu are unknown. The ethnic identification of the rulingelements of both empires is hardly provable. The Hun court and ruling clan must haveconnected his descent to the Xiongnu to legitimise his power.

The Huns crossed the Volga around 370 and defeated the Alans, then conquered theOstrogothic kingdom of Ermanaric. In 376 the Huns attacked the Visigothic kingdom on theDniestr. The consequence of the Hun raids was the migration of the Gothic groups to theterritory of East Roman soil. The Huns consolidated their power north of the Black Sea in the

following two decades. In 395 the Huns attacked the Balkans and across the Caucasus AsiaMinor. Sometimes between 402 and 406 the Hun raid set into motion the Vandals and other German speaking peoples, which lead to migration of peoples to the west.

In 424 Ruga, Hun king put his residence to the eastern part of the Carpathian basin andhis help was the decisive factor in restoring the Roman rule in Gaul. The Huns could gainPannonia in 434 for their military aid to the Romans. At the same time the Huns wage war against Eastern Roman Empire. The raid was interrupted by the death of the Hun king, Ruga.The new ruler was Bleda and his younger brother Attila was a co-ruler. They concluded peacetreaty with them near Margus. The Romans had to hand over the Hun refugees and pay eightsolidi ransom for a Roman prisoner; they promised not to form alliance with the enemies of the Huns and they pay annual subsidies 700 pounds of gold. The peace lasted only to 441 asthe Huns using the attack of the Vandals against Sicily and the raid of the Persians against theeastern provinces began a new assault invading Sirmium, Naissus (Nish), Serdica (Sofia)Philippopolis (Plovdiv). Constantinople had to ask peace and must have paid 6 000 pounds“compensation” and the annual subsidy was raised to 2 100 pounds. The common rule of the

brothers came to an end in 445, when Attila succeeded in getting the power by murdering his brother Bleda. In January 447 the walls of Constantinople crashed down during anearthquake. Attila receiving the news decided to attack Constantinople. He penetrated as far as the pass of Thermopylae, when the news of the rebuilt of the walls arrived and he retreated.The Roman envoys visited the court of Attila in 449 and Priscus was among them, who left

behind a description of life in Attila’s court and the political situation. Attila wanted peace

with East Roman Empire to get free hand in the West so he did not raise the annual subsidy.Attila’s target was Gaul. The Roman defender was the former protégé of the Huns, Aetius.Both armies consisted from German speaking peoples. The decisive battle took place on theCatalaunian – more accurately Mauriacan - fields five kilometres from Troyes in 451.Although the battle ended in a draw, it was a failure for Attila, as he retreated. Next year Attila took north Italian towns Aquileia, Pavia and Milan, but disease and hunger made theHuns retreat. Attila died in 453 and his realm collapsed. The Gepids led the rebellious tribes,who defeated the Huns and their allies at the Nadeo, an unidentified river in 455. Most of theHuns retreated to the east afterwards.

The historical role of the Huns has been debated. A typical western point of view isrepresented in a book of Thompson. He described the Huns as follows: “They were mere

plunderers and marauders” (Thompson 1948, p. 215). The German Altheim offered a morenuance description: They made a new epoch in the European history. They are connected



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with beginning of the migration of peoples, the decline of West Roman Empire, political andcultural integration of nomads and Germans, dawn of the German Epos and the starting pointof the German Roman unity “in der europäischen Geschichte haben sie Epoche gemacht. Der Beginn der Völkerwanderung, der Niedergang des weströmischen Reiches, der Versuch,Reitervölker und Germanen zu staatlicher und kultureller Einheit zu verschmelzen; die

Anfänge des germanischen Epos und das Erwachen einer germanisch-römischen Einheit sindmit ihnen verknüpft” (Altheim 1951, p. 14). Hungarian historiography represents differenttraditions. Since the Hungarian nobility regarded the Huns as their ancestors from the 13th tothe 19th centuries, the Huns and Attila have been part of the national consciousness (Szűcs1975). According to István Bóna, the author of the latest monograph on the Huns, they

brought on the migration of the German tribes and created new political and ethnic units.They put an end to Roman rule in Pannonia and united the territory of the Carpathian Basininto one polity. They demolished the towns and fortresses of the Northern Balkans,weakening its Roman tradition. The Huns thus paved the way for the conquest of theseterritories by the Slavs and Danube Bulghars (Bóna 1984, p. 276). In fact, the appearance of the Huns in Eastern Europe presented a new challenge. After defeating the Goths, the rest of

that people managed to seek refuge in the Balkans, leading to the battle of Adrianople, wherethe Roman emperor Valens died in 378. Disturbances in the Balkans bode ill for the capital of Constantinople. In 413 the wall of Theodosius was built up around the city to symbolise theeffects of these events. The Huns attacked and then conquered the Carpathian Basin from the400s, spurring on the great migrations or Völkerwanderung of the German tribes. As aconsequence, the limes on the Rhine collapsed. The Hun attacks against the Eastern andWestern Roman Empires brought on fundamental changes. The raids of the Huns against theWestern Roman Empire represented the most important external factor in its collapse. TheHun Empire fell after the death of Attila and the German peoples of the Carpathian Basin took on the military and in some respects the political traditions of the Huns.

The next hundred years can be regarded as age of migrations in the steppe EasternEurope. The fall of the Hun Empire was followed by the western move of the Saragurs, Ogursand Onogurs before 463. The next migration was that of the Sabirs a half century later circa506. Finally the coming of the Avars in the 550s was provoked by the western raids of theTürks, who themselves conquered Eastern European steppe as far as the Crimea.

The Saragurs, Urog (Ugor) and Onogurs came to Eastern Europe shortly before 463 dueto a migration originating from Inner Asia. Priscus the Rhetor’s original report on the eventscan be reconstructed from two fragments. The Saragurs, Urog (Ugors) and Onogurs sentemissaries to Byzantium. The Sabirs, who, in turn, had been driven out by the Avars, hadexpelled them from their homeland. They had been forced to move by the peoples living on

the coast of the Ocean. They had been compelled to migrate by the sea mists and griffins. TheSaragurs had defeated the Akatir Huns in battle and then sent emissaries to Constantinople.The Byzantine emperor received them and gave them precious gifts.

Later the Saragurs, having been urged on by the Byzantines, raided the Persiansthrough the Caucasus in 466. They are mentioned among the nomadic tribes living north of the Caucasus in the mid-6th century in the geographical addendum by Pseudo-ZachariasRhetor.

The Ogurs were also enumerated in this catalogue of nomadic peoples. TheophylactusSimocattes reported that the Türk ruler founded an empire by defeating the surrounding

peoples. Among the most significant among them were the Ogurs on the bank of the River Til( Ätil =Volga or Kama). The two ancient tribes of Ogurs were the Var and Chunni. A small

portion of these tribes fled westward and acquired the name Avar; their leader used the titleKaghan, i.e. sovereign ruler among the Turkic-speaking nomads. It would seem that the



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Ogurs together with the Juan-juan and the Hephtalites played a dominant role in the ethniccomposition of the Avars. In 568/9, as Zemarchos, a Byzantine envoy to the Türk empire, wasreturning from the court of the Türk ruler, he met the leader of the Ogurs on the bank of theAtil (Volga), this leader being the representative of the Türks. One group of these Ogurs took

part in the ethnogenesis of the Avars, while the rest submitted to the Türks and their name

was reflected later in the denomination Yugra.The Onogurs were mentioned by Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor as Onā gur, who wanderedunder tents. According to Iordanes, the Hunugur s were famous for the ermine trade and theyinhabited the marshes of the Maeotis, moved to Moesia, Thrace and Dacia and finally to thesteppes north of the Black Sea. Agathias noted in 555 that the Colchis in a campaign againstLazis (Lazica) had defeated the Onogurs, and therefore the locality was called Onogoris.Geographus Ravennas put the territory of Onoguria in the vicinity of the Maeotis and henoted that the Onogurs were able to obtain fish in abundance, which they ate without salt asthe pagans did. Theophylactus Simocattes mentioned in the account concerning the beginningof Avar history that the Barsels, Onogurs and Sabirs were struck with panic when they sawthe people called Var and Chunni because they identified them with the Avars. According to

Menander Protector, the Avars forced first the Onogurs, then the Barsels and finally theSabirs to submit between 558 and 560. In 576, the Byzantine diplomat Valentine visited thecourt of the Western Türk Kaghan, Turxanthos, who made a boast of his triumph over theAlans and Onogurs in spite of the fact that these peoples were fearless and possessed greatmilitary strength. The next piece of data is in the list of Byzantine bishoprics dated to the mid-8th century. The bishop of the Onogurs was enumerated among the bishops under the

jurisdiction of the Crimean Gothic Metropolite. The bishoprics can be located between theCrimean Peninsula and the Volga north of the Caucasus on the basis of the names on the list.So the Onogurs must have inhabited the region east of the Maeotis bordered by the Sabirs andAlans from the 460s until the mid-8th century and engaged in fishing and fur-trading.

At the beginning of the 6th century, another nomadic tribal confederacy called the Sabirsarrived in the Caucasian steppe area. They controlled the eastern and central regions of the

Northern Caucasus and became involved in the ongoing struggle between Byzantium andSassanid Iran for the dominion in the Caucasus. So they must have had their dwelling placesnear the two strategic passes (Dariel and Darband) of the Caucasus. Having appeared inEastern Europe in the 550s, the Avars first subdued the Sabirs and Onogurs in the NorthernCaucasus and then the Utigurs and Kutrigurs living north of the Black Sea. They reached thelower Danube by 562. The establishment of the Türk Empire led to the western migration of the Avars. When the Türks entered diplomatic negotiations with Byzantium, one of thequestions was the Avar migration. The Türks considered the Avars their fugitive slaves. The

Avars were then aware of the Türk threat and so were forced to search for a new dwelling place. As the Byzantine fleet prevented the Avars crossing the Danube, they formed analliance with the Langobards against the Gepids. The Avars entered the Carpathian Basin in567 and after defeating the Gepids settled east of the Danube. The Langobards left for Italy in568, so the Avars took possession of their territory in Pannonia. The Türks conqueredterritory as far as the Crimean Peninsula in the 570s. The Alans and the Onogurs submitted tothem. As a by-product of the family feud within the Türks’ ruling clan, they lost the Crimea inthe 590s. The Avars launched an attack against the Antes who inhabited the middle Dniepr and Dniester in 602 and were confederates of Byzantium and the Türks. The conquest of theAntes won the Avars their former sphere of influence in the territory north of the Black Sea.The Chinese sources gave information on a successful revolt of the western T’ieh-lê against

the Türks. The Byzantine and Chinese data may reflect the same events.



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In the first half of the 7th century three political centers ruled the steppe of EasternEurope. The Khazars north of the Caucasus; The Onogundurs known as Bulghars north of theBlack Sea and the Avars in the Carpathian basin.

The second empire on the Hungarian plain was that of the Avars. They migrated to

Eastern Europe shortly before 557 having been defeated by the Turks. As for the origins of the Avars Theophylactus Simocatta recorded that the Avars were named as Varchunni theancient tribe of the Ogurs in reality but they took the name Avar to gain prestige among theOnogurs and Sabirs and other nomads. The story shed light on the formation of ethnogenetictheory combining the Juan-juan~Avar contimuity, the Ephtalite~Varchun identification andOgur participation in the ethnogenesis.

The Avars sent their first envoys to Constantinople in 558. The emperor incited theAvars against his nomadic enemies north of the Black Sea. The Avars conquered the Sabirs,Onogurs, Utighurs and Kutrighurs and reached the lower Danube by 562. Bayan, the Kaghanof the Avars had two choices in further western migration; to cross the Danube or to settle tothe Carpathian basin. Both possibilities were blocked as the Byzantine float prevented the

Avars in crossing the Danube, while the eastern passes of the Carpathian Mountain were blocked by the Gepids. Bayan made raids as far as the river Elbe marching north of theCarpathians. Finaly the Lombard king made an alliance against the Gepids and the Avarscould cross the Carpathian Mountain through the northern passes. The Avars defeated theGepids settled in the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin. The Lombards living in Pannoniamigrated to Northern Italy in 568, which also saw the end of the great migrations of theGerman peoples. The Avars occupied the entire Carpathian Basin.

The Byzantine-Avar relation was determined by several factors: The Byzantinediplomacy used all means to defend the limes along the Danube. The Byzantine army couldfulfil this task accept, when it was used in the Persian wars, but the Persian-Byzantine warslasted from 572 to 591 and later from 604 to 628. The Byzantine emperors should have payannual subsidy to prevent the Avars in raiding the empire during these periods. The Avars

profited from the annual payment. The archaeologist, István Bóna estimated the weight of theannual payment 400 kg gold. If the Avar army consisted of 20 000 warriors, it means 18grams per person and the graves contains 10 grams in fact. In spite of the subsidy, the Avarstook advantage of the Byzantine crises and attacked the empire. Between 582 and 586, theAvars destroyed the system of the lower Danube limes.

The Balkans became vulnerable to the penetration of the Slavs, who migrated southalong the range of the Carpathians. There is a long-standing debate on the Avar-Slavicconnection. The Slavic raids were organised partly by the Avars, but Slavic groups formedindependent polities after the weakening of Avar power. The Avars played a decisive role in

the penetration of the Slavs into the Balkans.The victorious ending of the Persian war gave free hand to the Byzantines to takerevenge. The counterattack started in 592. The most serious threat was the raid of Priscus in599-600, when the Byzantine troops crossed the Danube and reached the Tisza or Temes. Butthe revolt and install Phocas to the Byzantine throne in 602 and the recurrence of war betweenPersia and Byzantium changed the situation. The Avar ruler reconquered the territory north of the Black Sea. In 626 the Avar army in cooperation with a Persian troop laid siegeConstantinople. The ten days’ siege was not successful and did much harm to the prestige of the Kaghan. The Wendic uprising and the state founded by Samo was a sign of weakening theAvar power. In 631-2 the Avar throne was vacant and Avars and Bulghars fought for the

position, which led to a civil war. The Avars could consolidate their power in the Carpathian

Basin, but lost the eastern territories north of the Black Sea, where Kuvrat found his realm.



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The disintegration of Kuvrat’s realm in the 670s had depp impact on Avar history.Kuvrat’s fourth son, Kuver moved with his people to Pannonia acknowledged the supremacyof the Avars. Kuber became a regent of a province (Pannonia Sirmiensis) north of theDanube. Finally he rebelled and escaped to Thessalonica. It is supposed that the most of his

people remained in the Carpathian Basin. The transformation of archaeological finds in the

Carpathian Basin is connected with their appearance around 670-80.The next hundred year of the Avar history is little known because of the lack of sources. The end of the Avar Empire was also closely linked to European history. The mostfamous ruler of the Carolingian Empire, Charlemagne, launched an attack against the Avarsin 791. The campaign was glorified by the Latin authors, but was a disaster for the Franks, asthey lost nine-tenth of their horses and they had to retreat without defeating the enemy. Theinternal feud made possible to the Franks to reach the court of the Kaghan and gain great

booty in 895. The Avar Empire declined and its western part, Pannonia, became part of theCarolingian Empire for a century as Oriens, but the final blow came from the Bulghar KhanKrum, who annexed the territory east of the Danube.

The Avars rule the Carpathian Basin for two and half centuries (568-803). The Avar

Empire was permanent threat for Byzantium for a century. The Franks were driven ontodefensive against them till Charlemagne. The Avars shaped the movements of the Slavicexpansions from the north to the Balkans. The Avars introduced iron stirrup, which broughtrevolutionary development of cavalry in Europe.

The first authentic report on the Bulgars can be dated to 480, when they fought againstthe Goths in the Balkans as allies of the Byzantine emperor Zeno. The Bulgars lived north of the Black Sea and west of the Don River on the basis of John of Antioch’s data. The originand the former dwelling places of these Bulgars have been debated. According to Németh’shistorical theory, the Bulgars were formed from the Ogur peoples and from the Huns, andtheir name Bulgar ‘mixture’ reflected this process. Németh later proposed a new etymology of the ethnic name Bulgar, which demolished the linguistic foundation of his construction. Theeastern origin of the Bulgars can be advanced using several arguments. The name Bulgar has

been identified on a coin in the territory of Sogdiana, and the Muslim geographical literaturementioned the town of Burgar in the same region. Furthermore, the author of the Liber

generationis derived the Bulgars from Sem and not from Yaphet, the forefather of the EasternEuropean nomads in 354. This means that the Bulgars lived in the east in the vicinity of Bactria within the geographical setting of the Christian literature. It can be concluded that theBulgars moved westward from Inner Asia before 480 and that their migration might have

been tied to that of the Ogur people in 463. In 480, a Gothic leader, Theoderich Strabon, whothreatened Constantinople, defeated the Bulgars as allies of Byzantium. The Bulgars were

frequently mentioned in the Greek and Latin sources from that time on. The dwelling place of these Bulgars has been located in different regions. The southwestern part of the CarpathianBasin is clearly possible, as they would have been able to carry out raids against the Gothsand the provinces of the Balkans. The Latin poet Ennodius assigned the defeat of the Bulgarsto Theoderich the Great in 480. According to Paulus Diaconus, Theoderich the Great defeatedthe Gepids and Bulgars on the Sava River on his way to Italy in 488. The first successfulattack of the Bulgars against Thrace is dated to 493, when the Byzantine commander waskilled in a night battle. The next important venture took place in 499 as they defeated aByzantine army of fifteen thousand in Thrace. In 502, the Bulgars had retreated with their

booty from Illyria and Thrace, before the Byzantine army could march against the invaders.As a consequence, the Byzantine court deployed his tested diplomatic method in hiring the

Bulgars for gold against his enemies. The Bulgar auxiliary formed part of the Byzantine armysent against Mundo in 505. Then they played an active role in the revolt of Vitalianus in 513-



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515. Finally, in 548, they fought under a Byzantine army in Italy. Other accounts of theBulgars were also recorded in the meantime. In 518, they overran Illyria and defeated theByzantine army sent against them by means of fascinating songs and magic. The raidingBulgars were repelled in Illyria in 530, and their leaders were marched off to Constantinople.In 535, the Bulgars were again defeated in Moesia. Two Bulgar kings led an army against

Scythia and Moesia in 539, but they were attacked and defeated by two Byzantine generals.Then a new Bulgar army appeared and put the victorious Byzantines to flight. Once the Avarshad conquered the Carpathian Basin in 567-568, the Bulgars of Pannonia became subjects of the Avar Kaghan and were forced to participate in the Avar campaigns as confederateauxiliary troops. In 594, a Bulgar regiment forced a similar Byzantine unit to retreat on thelower Danube. The following year, the Byzantine general Priscus expelled the Bulgar armyunder the command of the Avar Kaghan from Singidunum. The Bulgar auxiliary troops wereused in the second Avar siege of Thessalonica in 618 and in the unsuccessful ten-day Avar siege of Constantinople in 626. The sources present incomplete and confusing accounts of thehistory of Kuvrat’s empire, which played a decisive role in Eastern Europe in the 7 th century.Even its denomination is debated. The empire is called Great Bulgar ( Palaia Bulgaria, Magna

Bulgaria) in the literature, which is a western (Byzantine) tradition. The term can beexplained as the earlier land of the Danubian Bulgars by analogy of the pair Scythia minor and Scythia maior . Kuvrat’s empire is quoted under the name Onogur-Bulgar. Agathon usedthis form of the ethnonym for the Danubian Bulgars, when they attacked Byzantium in 713.On the other hand, Patriarch Nicephorus mentioned Kuvrat as the ruler of the Onogundursand the empire is called Onogundur-Bulgar. According to a later Byzantine source, theOnogundurs crossed the Danube between 668 and 685. The Hebrew sources also recorded thename Onogundur in connection with the same events. The Muslim authors were familiar withthe Danubian Bulgars by another name, which is W.n.nd.r (<Onogundur). The old Hungarianname for Belgrade was Nándorfehérvár ‘white fortress of the Nándor ’, which was sometimescalled Bolgárfehérvár ‘white fortress of the Danubian Bulgars’. The form Nándor may also bederived from the form Onogundur. Moravcsik identified the name Onogur with theOnogundurs, and the latter could be a Bulgar-Turkic or external designation of the Onogurs.Beševliev rejected the identification of the Onogurs with the Onogundurs based on Agathon.The connection of the two ethnonyms and its historical background will be discussed later.Three ethnic groups would dominate the entire history of Kuvrat’s empire: the Onogundurs,Bulgars and Kutrigurs.

In 602, the Avars reconquered the peoples living north of the Black Sea. TheBulgarian List of Princes containing the names of the Danubian Bulgar dynasty begins withAvitochol and Irnik, who can be identified with the famous ruler of the Huns, Attila, and hisson. The next person, Gostun, acted as regent for two years whereupon Kour’t (Kuvrat) ruled

for sixty years. Gostun must have been the representative of the Avar Kaghan. He has beenlinked to Organas of the Byzantine sources, who was Kuvrat’s nephew, and it formed part of his policy to send Kuvrat to Constantinople, where he spent some years in the Imperial courtand accepted baptism in 618-619. The Byzantine interest in seeking a confederacy north of the Black Sea can be explained by the lasting war with Persia, while Organas tried tocounterbalance his dependency on the Avar ruler, who demanded auxiliary troops. The Bulgar units took part in the siege of Thessalonica in 618 and that of Constantinople in 626. Thefutile siege of Constantinople and the successful fight for freedom by the Wendic Slav ruler Samo shattered the position of the Avar Kaghanate in 623. As a consequence, after the deathof the Avar Kaghan in 632, both an Avar and a Bulgar candidate claimed the throne. Asmentioned earlier, the Avars defeated the Bulgars, who fled to Bavaria and were slaughtered

there. These events have been linked recently with the account of Patriarch Nicephorus, whostated that Kuvrat, the ruler of the Onogundurs, rebelled against the Avar Kaghan and



10

expelled his men. He sent an envoy to Constantinople and entered into an alliance withHeraclius, who gave him the title Patricius as well as many precious gifts. The events can bereconstructed in the following way: Kuvrat took advantage of the declining power of the Avar dynasty and organized a rebellion to seize the throne of the Kaghan at the beginning of the630s, but the Avars managed to preserve their position only in the Carpathian Basin.

Kuvrat founded an independent realm with the assistance of Byzantium. Itsgeographical extent can be determined by the following sources. The Armenian Annanias of Shirak wrote his geographical work in about 680 and enumerated the Bulgar groups: kup’i-bulgar, duč ’i-bulgar, olxontor-bulgar, č ’dar-bulgar . The first elements of the ethnonyms aredesignations of rivers which empty into the Black Sea. The kup’i can be identified with theKuban River, but the Bug River has also been considered. The term olxontor seems to be anethnonym from Onogundur. Theophanes Confessor and Patriarch Nicephorus preserved anaccount of the story of Kuvrat and his five sons. The original report can be dated to the end of the 7th century and begins with the geographical setting of Great Bulgaria. The Bulgars’dwelling place was situated on the River Kuphis, which is identical with the Kuban River.The borders of Kuvrat’s empire mark out a large territory, as the allied Kotrag, the

embodiment of the Kutrigurs, lived on the West Bank of the Don and other Bulgar tribes wereable to nomadize in regions further to the west. The discovery and identification of Kuvrat’sgrave in the village of Malaja Pereščepina was a turning point. Three signet rings were foundin the grave with the following Greek inscription: Khobratoi patrikoi. The village is situatedon the Vorskla River, one of the Dnieper’s eastern tributaries halfway between Kiev and theBlack Sea on the fringe of the steppe zone. On the basis of this grave, Kuvrat’s empire waslocated either between the Kuban and Don or between the Dnieper and Dniester.

Kuvrat was on close friendly terms with the Byzantine emperor Heraclius during hisreign. Thus, after the death of the emperor (641), Kuvrat aided the party of his patron in thestruggle for succession to the throne, but his opponent, Constans II, prevailed. Kuvrat diedduring his reign between 641 and 668. According to the Bulgarian List of Princes, Gostunwas a regent for two years and then Kuvrat ruled for sixty. The regency of Gostun was datedto between 603 and 605, and consequently Kuvrat must have held power from 605 to 665.Due to the chronological ambiguity of the List of Princes, we have no precise timeframe for his reign: the date of Kuvrat’s death is put between 650 and 665. The author of the account of Kuvrat’s empire preserved by Theophanes Confessor and Patriarch Nicephorus described thegeographical location of the empire and then the death of Kuvrat and finally told the story of his five sons, who, having split up, each took with him his own share of the people in spite of their father’s injunction. The eldest, (Bat) Baian, remained in his land; the second, Kotrag,crossed the Don and settled there; the fourth son moved to Pannonia and became a subject of the Avar Kaghan; the fifth son wandered to Italy, took up residence in Pentapolis of Ravenna

and paid tribute to the Byzantines. The third son, called Asparuch, crossed the Dnieper andDniester and took possession of the Danube estuary.After the sons had scattered, the Khazars came from Bersilia and conquered the

peoples as far as the Black Sea. Baian was also subjugated and forced to pay tribute to theKhazars. The Armenian and Hebrew sources reversed the chronological order of the events.Ananias of Shirak said that Asparuch, having been defeated by the Khazars, fled from theMountains of the Bulgars to an island of the Danube and drove the Avars from there. Theauthor of Kaghan Joseph’s letter recorded that although the people of W.n.nt.r (Onogundur)outnumbered the Khazars, the Khazars pursued them to the Danube. Two interpretations can

be considered: Internal conflicts broke out among the sons of Kuvrat, and they divided anddismembered the realm. The Khazars obtained knowledge of the disintegration and launched

an attack or it was the assault of the Khazars that brought an end to Kuvrat’s empire. Acombination of both interpretations may be correct: the temporary weakening of the empire



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caused by the succession to the throne created a favourable situation for the Khazars todeclare war against Kuvrat’s empire. The Khazar conquest can be dated from 660 to 670 asthe Bulgarian List of Princes recorded a three-year rule by Bezmer after Kuvrat (605-665?),i.e. 665-668, and Bezmer is identified with Baian. Certainly, Asparuch had lived in theDanube estuary for some time; then he defeated the Byzantine army in 679, crossed the

Danube and took possession of the territory between the Danube and the Balkan Mountains.So the Khazars must have made the assault before 679.

The Khazar Khaganate was the first great power whose centre lay north of theCaucasus and then on the Lower Volga. The first data on the Khazars derived from the middleof the 6th century, who were the subjects of the Western Türk Empire. As it was mentionedthe Avars conquered the territory north of the Black Sea shortly after 600, but the region of the North Caucasus remained in the hand of the Türks.

In 626 the Turks reached the gate of the Chinese capital while the Persians and Avarsundertook a siege of Constantinople. The Byzantine diplomacy became active to avert thedanger. Heraclius made an alliance with the Western Turks and their subjects the Khazars

crossed the Caucasus in 628 and attacked the Persians. The Avars could not takeConstantinople, which caused severe disturbances within the Avar Empire. One consequencewas the formation of Kuvrat’s empire north of the Black Sea. In 630 the Eastern Turks weredefeated by the Chinese and they submitted to the Chinese, while internal crisis weakened theWestern Turks. The Khazars took the opportunity to found a sovereign rule north of theCaucasus.

In the 630s a new power was born in Arabia. The Muslims uniting Arabia attackedByzantium and Persia and conquered Persia, Syria and Egypt. The Muslim troops reached theCaucasus and first crossed it in 652. The attacking Arabic army suffered a serious failureagainst the Khazars, who could just before consolidate their position. The next three decadescan be characterized as peaceful coexistence, since both sides had other interest.

In 659 the Western Turks also submitted to the Chinese, which strengthenedthe power of the Khazars. The victory over the Arabs and the fall of the Western Turk Empire

promoted the further conquest. The Khazars were powerful enough to attack their westernneighbour, Kuvrat’s empire. The successful campaign took place in the 670s. Most of theinhabitants submitted to the Khazar Khagan, other tribes migrated to the West. The Khazarsextended their power to the territory north of the Black Sea.

The Arab-Khazarian conflicts restarted in the end of the 7th century. Till 722 thecampaigns concentrated on the two passes of the Caucasus (Darband, Darial). In 722 theMuslims attacked and took the Khazar capital, Balanjar and the Khazar ruler had to move hisresidence to Etil on the lower Volga. The Khazars launched a numerous army against the

Caliphate in 730. The Khazars crossed the Darial and defeated the army of the Muslimgovernor of Armenia. They reached Azarbayjan. The Khazars threatened the central part of the Caliphate, so the Arabs reinforced their army and forced the Khazars behind the Caucasus.The greatest effort of the Caliphate was done in 737. The Muslim troops under Marwāncrossed both passes of the Caucasus and reached the capital on the Volga. The Khazar ruler retreated to the North, but the Muslim army followed him and after the final defeat, theKhazar king was forced to embrace Islam. As the Arabs did not build military colonies in theKhazar territory, Islam could not spread among the Khazars and the Khazar ruler’s conversionwas short lived as he adopted Judaism later. The Khazars defended Eastern Europe against theconquest of the Caliphate and the spread of Islam in the 7th–8th centuries.

The Abbasids formed a new policy, which promoted commerce, and created

prosperous trade between the caliphate and the Khazar Empire in the ninth century. Muslimmerchants from the central region of the caliphate travelled through the Caucasus to the lower



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Volga to obtain commercial goods. According to the Muslim sources the Khazar capital had agreat Muslim colony with mosques, imams and mu’ezzins and schools. So the Khazar Khaganate became a trading centre between the Caliphate and the forest zone of EasternEurope. In the 9th century, the Khazar khagan subjugated the peoples living in the steppe-forest and southern part of the forest zone, i.e. the Turkic-, Finno-Ugric- and Slavic-speaking

tribes of the later Volga Bulghar state, the Burtas, Vjatich, Radimich, Severjan, and Poljan, inorder to secure the most precious goods (slaves, furs, wax, honey). The Khazar conquest prompted the formation of larger political units in the forest belt. Another consequence wasthe penetration of Northmen or Vikings into North-eastern Europe with the same effects for the communities of the forests.

The Khazars were in good terms with the other neighbouring great power, Byzantium.They were allies of Heraclius against the Persians in 628. The expansion of the Caliphatemade the coalition stronger. Beside military cooperation the political ties were sealed bydynastical marriages. In the 9th century the alliance survived. In 838 Byzantine craftsmen builta new forest on the Don, called Sarkel for the Khazars. In 861 Constantine travelled to theKhazar court and converted some Khazars to Christianity. The cooperation was injured by the

clash of interests in the Crimea and religious conflicts between Jews and Christians.The Khazar Khagan and his intimate followers embraced Judaism in the first half of

the 9th century. The determining factors of the conversion were 1. the great role of Jewishmerchants in commerce in Khazaria and in world-trade 2. The conversion either to Islam or toChristianity strengthened the political and cultural influence of both neighbouring great

powers, i.e. Byzantium, Caliphate.The Pechenegs conquered the territory north of the Black Sea in the end of the 9th

century, which brought fundamental changes in the Khazar Empire. The Khazars coulddefend their central territories north of the Caucasus, but they colud not prevent thePechenegs to penterate into the territory west of the Don, where the Hungarian tribalconfederacy lived. The had to wander to the Carpathian basin in 895 and converted toChristianity in 1000 and the Carpathian Basin became the part of Latin Europe. TheHungarian kingdom received Pecheneg, Uz and Kipchak/Cuman groups, and they were in theservice of the Hungarian king and were assimilated. The Khazar Kaghan lost its control over the territory west of the Don. The consequences were disastorous. The Khazar rule over theSlavic speaking tribes of the forestzones north of the Pontic steppes colud not be maintained.The Rus’ taking in the situation conquered Kiev, the Khazar centre and laid the foundation for the Kievan Rus’ Empire. The importance of commercial routes between Europe and theCaliphate also changed. The most significant trade route became the one starting fromTransoxania and Khorezm under Samanid rule crossing the Kazak steppe reaching the Volga-Kama region. The inhabitants of that territory, i.e. the Volga Bulghars under Khazar

supremacy embraced Islam officially in 922 , a hostile act against the Jewish Khazar ruler. Inturn of the 9-10th century the Khazar Empire was in a deep crisis loosing the territories westof the Don and the trade monopoly was challenged by the Volga Bulghars.

In the 10th century the Khazars could maintain their power north of theCaucasus. The Khazar-Byzantine and Khazar-Muslim relations were cool. The Rus’merchants and pirates could make an alliance with the Khazar ruler and they were able to usethe Don-Volga water way against the Muslim provinces of the Caspian in 912 and in 944. TheMuslim retinue of the Khazar king had a serious influence in the Khazar court and the Kaghan

prohibited the Rus’ to use the Don-Volga waterway in the middle of the 10th century. The prince of Kievan Rus’, Sviatoslav destroyed the Khazar Khaganate. The final destructioncame in 965, when the capital was taken.

The Khazar Khaganate was a successor state of the Western Türk Empire, whichexisted for nearly three and a half centuries (628-965) an unexpectedly long time for a



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nomadic state-formation. The Khazars prevented the Arabs in penetrating into Eastern Europe by force. There were no serious western migration in the steppe accept the Pecheneg move.The Khazar rule promoted the integration of tribes or tribal confederacies within the Slavicand Finno-Ugric speaking groups of the forest-zone. The Khazars played mediator role in thecommerce between the Caliphate and Northern Europe. Finally the conversion to Judaism

was also historically worth mentioning.

READING:Peter Golden's An Introduction to the History of the Turkic peoples. Wiesbaden 1992, 85-113,233-258. There is a Turkish translation: P.B. Golden, Türk halklari tarihine girish. Ankara,2002, 68-92, 192-214.

Literature:D. Sinor, Introduction à l'étude de l'Eurasie Centrale. Wiesbaden 1963.Y. Bregel, Bibliography of Islamic Central Asia. I-III. Bloomington 1995.

EI2 = The Encyclopedia of Islam. New Edition. I- Leiden/London 1960-

R. Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes. A History of Central Asia. New Brunswick, NewJersey 1970.Central Asia. Ed. by G. Hambly. London-Edinburgh 1969D. Sinor, Inner Asia. History - Civilization - Languages. A Syllabus. Bloomington 1971P. B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples. Wiesbaden 1992.D. Sinor (ed.) The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Cambridge 1990HISTORY OF CIVILIZATIONS OF CENTRAL ASIA (Published by the UNESCO, Multiple HistorySeries)

III: The crossroads of civilizations A. D. 250 to 750. Editor: B. A. Litvinsky. Co-editors: Zhang Guang-da and R. Shabani Saghabadi. Paris 1996.IV: The age of achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century. Part one:The historical, social and economic setting. Editors: M. S. Asimov and C. E.Bosworth. Paris 1998.

D. Christian, A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia. I. Inner Eurasia fromPrehistory to the Mongol Empire. Oxford, Malden, Mass. 1998.

Huns

1. Attila és hunjai. Szerk Németh Gy. Bp. 1940, 1986

2

(Harmattta J. bevezető jével és az ujabbirodalommal).2. Bóna I., Cseh J., Nagy M., Tomka P., Tóth Á. Hunok-Gepidák-Langobardok. MÖK 6.Szeged 1993, 10-51.3. Franz Altheim, Attila und die Hunnen. Badaen-Baden 1951; Geshichte der Hunnen. 5 Bde.Berlin 1959-1962.4. Franz Altheim - Hans-Wilhelm Haussig, Die Hunnen in Osteuropa. Ein Forschungsbericht.Baden-Baden 1963.5. Thomas Barfield, The Hsiung-nu Imperial Confederacy: Organization and Foreign Policy:Journal of Asian Studies 41 (1981), 45-61; The Perilous Frontier. Nomadic Empires andChina. Cambridge, Mass. 1989.

6. I. Bóna, Das Hunnenreich. Stuttgart 1991.



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7. Helmut de Boor, Das Attilabild in Geschichte, legende und heroischer Dichtung. Darmstadt19632 8. H. Homeyer, Attila. Der Hunnenkönig von seinen Zeitgenossen dargestellt. Berlin 1951.9. Otto J., Maenchen-Helfen, Die Welt der Hunnen. Eine Analyse ihrer historischenDimension. Wien-Köln-Graz 1978.

10. E. A. Thompson, A History of Attila and the Huns. Oxford 1948. (uj kiadás)11. Tibor Schäfer, Untersuchungen zur Gesellschaft des Hunnenreiches auf kulturanthropologischer Grundlage. Bochum 1996.12. Gerhard Wirth, Attila. Das Hunnenreich und Europa. Stuttgart 1999.

Onogurs, Ogurs, Saragurs, Kutrigurs

Utigurs, Bulghars

1. V. Beševliev, Aus der Geschichte der Protobulgaren: Études Balkaniques (Sofia)6, 2.(1970), 39_56.2. V. Beševliev, Die protobulgarische Periode der bulgarischen Geschichte. Amsterdam 1981.

3. A. Mohay, Priskos' Fragment über die Wanderungen der Steppenvölker: Studies in theSources on the History of Pre-Islamic Central Asia. Ed. by. J. Harmatta. Bp. 1979, 129-144.4. Moravcsik Gy., Az onogurok történetéhez. Magyar Nyelv 26 (1930), 4-18, 89-109.

Avars

1. Szádeczky-Kardoss S., Avarica. Über die Awarengeschichte und ihre Quellen. Szeged1986.2. W. Pohl, Die Awaren. Ein Steppenvolk in Mitteleuropa 567-822 n. Chr. München 1988.

Khazars

1. D.M. Dunlop, The History of the Jewish Khazars, Princeton 1954.2. M. I. Artamanov, Istorija hazar. Leningrad 1962.3. D. Ludwig, Struktur und Gesellschaft des Chazaren-Reiches im Licht der schriftlichenQuellen.. Münster 1982.4. Brook, K. A., The Jews of Khazaria. Northvale, New Jersey, Jerusalem 1999.



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2. The history of the Turkic speaking peoples of Eastern Europe from 10th to the 14thcentury.

Introduction

The Pecheneg movement in the end of the 9th

century was a starting point for further migrations. The Oghuz and Kipchak westward migrations changed the linguistic and ethnicalmap of Eastern Europe. There were not nomadic great power in the Eastern European steppeafter the fall of the Khazar Kaghanate in 965. The next hundred years can be described as therule of the Pechenegs and Uz in the steppe. The Volga Bulghars on the Volga-Kama regionembraced Islam in 922 and it became an important centre of trade between the Islamic worldand Europe. The Volga Bulghars formed a settled civilisation with towns and Islamic culturetill the Mongol invasion. The Kipchaks arrived in Eastern Europe in the middle of the 11thcentury and dominated it for two centuries. The Kipchaks had close contacts with the Russian

principalities. Kipchak groups migrated to Georgia and Hungary and even Egypt, which brought political changes there. Kipchaks played important role in the formation of the second

Bulgarian kingdom and in Latin Empire. The Mongol conquest was the starting point of anew period.

*

The Pechenegs must have spoken a common Turkic perhaps Kipchak Turkic language.The earliest datum on them can be found in the Tibetan translation of an 8 th century Uigur account of the Northern people. According to it they have five thousands warriors and wagedwar against the Hor. The ethnonym Hor was identified with the Oguz of the Kazak steppe,however Senga emphasized that the term dentoted the Uighurs, dominating Inner Asia from744. The raids took place in the vicinity of Jungaria and can be dated between 750 and 820. Itmeans that the Pechenegs wandered to the westerp half of the Kazak steppe before 820. Their migration could follow a southern route reaching the Syr-Darya or the northern way throughthe southern part of Western Siberia. The northern route is preferred for historicalconsiderations. In the second half of the 9 th century the habitate of the Pechenegs wererecorded in Muslim and Byzantine sources. The Kipchaks lived north, a Khazars southwestand the Oguz east of them. The central part of their homeland was the Ural river.Konstantinos Porphyrogenetos gave a detailed description of the Pechenegs and mentionedthe more valiant three tribes of the Pechenegs were also calles Kangar. The interpretation of this statement has been debated. The etymology and historical explanations of the use of thisterm are uncertain. The Pechenegs were driven out their habitate in the end of the 9 th century.

In the background of their migration stood changes in the political situation of westernEurasia. In the second half of the 9 th century the Karluk Empire controlled the region. TheKimek and Oguz tribal unions were powerful but submitted to the Karluk ruler. In 893 theSamanid Emir, Ismail attacked the western Karluks and sacked their capital, Talas. TheOghuz, living west to the Karluks exploited the situation and became independent similarly tothe Kimeks. The Oghuz attacked the Pechenegs and most of them escaped. One minor partremained and became a tribe of the Oghuz federation recorded by Konstantinos, Ibn Fadlanand Mahmud al-Kashghari. The Khazars were successful in preventing the conquest of theterritory north of the Caucasus, so the Pechenegs had to cross the Volga and Don north of theKhazar fortifications and invaded the region north of the Black Sea, where the Hungarianslived. Being defeated the Hungarians settled in the Carpathian Basin. The Pecheneg tribal

union was composed of eight tribes. Four of them lived east of the Dniepr: 2. Küer či Čur ‘Thetribe of the Chur with buish horse’; 4. Suru Kül bey ‘the tribe of the Kül Bey with grayish



16

horses’; 6. Boru Talmač ‘the tribe of the Tolmach with grayish horses; 8. Bula Čaban ‘tribeof the Chaban with with piebald horses’. The rest four tribes lived west of the Dniepr: 7. YaziQapan ‘the tribe of Qapan with dark-brown horses’ in the vicinity of Bulghars; 3. Qabuq šinYula ‘the tribe of Yula with bark colored horses’ in the vicinity of Hungary; 5. Qara Bay ‘thetribe of the Bay with black horses’ in the vicinity of Rus’; 1. Yawdi Erdim ‘the tribe of Erdim

with brilliant, shining horses’ next to Slavic Ulich, Drevljan and Polands. Most of the tribalnames consist of titles and names of horse-colour. Konstantinos recorded six names of Pecheneg fortresses on the western bank of the Dniestr. He mentioned also the diplomatic

possibilities when being in good term with the Pechenegs, they can be hired as allies againstthe Rus’, the Hungarians and the Bulghars.

The Pechenegs recorded first in the Rus’ chronicles in 915. The Byzantines hired thePechenegs to march against Bulgaria in 917, but the Pechenegs returned from the Danube. In924 the Byzantine court could make pressure on the Bulghars by forming an allience amongthe Hungarians, Pechenegs and Rus’. The Pechenegs cooperated with the Hungarians in 934and they together marched against Byzantium. In 944 Igor ruler of Kievan Rus’ made anallience with the Pechenegs and raided Byzantium. The Byzantine emperor asked Sviatoslav

to attack the Bulghars and he invaded their territory in 967. Since Sviatoslav consolidated hisrule there and regarded Bulgaria as his country, the Byzantine court hired the Pechenegs, whoattacked Kiev in 968. So Sviatoslav had to retreat to succour his capital. In 969 Sviatoslavmarched again to Bulgaria and his army consist of Hungarian and Pecheneg auxiliary troops.The Byzantine emperor took the field against him and defeated the Rus’ army. Thewithdrawing Sviatoslav was killed on the Dniepr by the Pecheneg prince, Küre an ally of Byzantium in 972. Sviatoslav’s skull was transformed to a drinking cup according to the oldnomadic tradition symbolizing the transmitting his bravity and might. Under Vladimir (980-1015), who converted the Rus’ to Christianty, the Pechenegs raided Pereialavl twice in 988and 992 and attacked Belgorod in 997. Vladimir started to built a line of fortifications to thesouth of Kiev to protect it against the raids of the Pechenegs. Iaroslav (1036-1054) succeededin defeating the Pechenegs near Kiev in 1036, which was a turning point as the Pechenegsmigrated to the west reaching the Danube. Two tribes crossed the Danube in 1040 and enteredByzantine service. These groups repulsed the attack of those Pechenegs who lived north of the Danube in 1048. In the middle of the 11th century the Pechenegs left the steppe regionnorth of the Black Sea. Some tribes were assimilated by the coming Oguz and Cumans in thesteppe. Most of the tribes wandering to the west were assimilated by the Danubian Bulgharsin the Balkan and by the Hungarians in the Carpathian basin. The Pechenegs in byzantineservice made several revolts and were finaly defeated by Lebunion with the help of theCumans in 1091.

There were two significant attempts to convert the Pechenegs. Al-Bakri mentioned that

Islam spread among the Pechenegs around 1010. At the same time Bruno of Querfurt visitedthe Pechenegs and converted some of them in 1007.

The Oguz tribes of the Kazak steppe north of Transoxania were put to Islamization fromthe beginning of the 10th century. One of their chief, Seljük, the founder of the dynastyembraced Islam in 980s. The Seljükids defeated the Gaznevids in 1040 and then conqueredBagdad in 1055 so they reunited the eastern half of the Caliphate. Parallel with these eventsone part of them crossed the Volga and wandered to Eastern Europe. The Oguz were calledTorki in the Russian annals. After the fall of the Khazar empire in 965 the Oguz tribes took the lower Volga. The Russian chronicles recorded in 1054 that the Kievan Prince defeatedthem. In 1060 the Oguz were attacked in the region between the Don and Dniepr and by 1064

they reached the lower Danube. In 1068 Oguz penetrated into Hungary but were repulsed.The Oguz found employment in Rus’ and Byzantine service and were assimilated.



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The Volga Bulgars are considered the remnants of the peoples of Kuvrat’s empire whoremained behind in their ancient dwelling places and whose empire was located in the Volga-Kama region from the beginning of the 10th century until the Mongol invasion (1236). The

Volga Bulgars embraced Islam officially in 922, and theirs was the only Muslim state inEastern Europe before the age of the Golden Horde. Its stability and very existence was due toits role in trade mediation between the Islamic world and Eastern Europe.

The Turkic-speaking tribes of the Volga Bulgar confederacy ( Bulg ār, Äskäl, Barsūl ā~Bersil, Suwār~Sabir, Baran ğ ar~Balan ğ ar ) migrated from the steppe belt to theVolga-Kama region, which is situated in the forest zone, and mixed with the local Finno-Ugric-speaking inhabitants. The date of the migration is debated as no direct reference ismade to it in the sources. According to the traditional view, the tribes of the Volga Bulgarsmigrated north in about 680 after the fall of Kuvrat’s empire north of the Black Sea. But our sources were aware that the elder son of Kuvrat remained at home with his people andsubmitted to the Khazars, while the rest of the inhabitants moved to the west. More reliable is

the assumption of a later migration. The Arabic-Khazar wars took place in the NorthernCaucasus in the first half of the 8th century and some tribes of Bulgars were forced to evacuatetheir southern settlements and move to the Volga-Kama region. The Volga Bulgars gained in

political prestige from the beginning of the 9 th century, when trade began to flourish betweenthe Caliphate and the Khazar Kaghanate as the Khazars collected commercial goods (fur,slaves, wax and honey) from their subjects living in the northern forest zone. A new wave of migration is taken into account at the end of the 9 th century, which is corroborated byarchaeological, numismatic and linguistic data. This may be interrelated with the westwardmovement of the Pechenegs c. 895, which shattered the leading position of the Khazars inEastern Europe.

Reference was made to the Volga Bulgars by the Muslim writers from the beginningof the 10th century, when trade routes between the Muslim world and Eastern Europe shiftedand the main route came from Transoxania, crossed the Kazakh steppe and the Volga-Kamaregion and finally reached the north. The crisis of the Khazar Empire and new perspectivesfor trade prompted Almiš, the second known ruler of the Volga Bulgars, to embrace Islam.The Caliph sent a delegation to him in 921-922. A member of the delegation, Ibn Fadlān,reported on the journey in detail. The official conversion to Islam was a manifest act of hostility against the Jewish Kaghan of the Khazars; at the same time, it promoted thedevelopment of towns such as Bulgār and Suwār and the appearance of Volga Bulgar coinage.

In 965, Svjatoslav, ruler of Kiev, attacked the Volga Bulgars and Khazars. The Khazar

state was annihilated, but the Volga Bulgars picked up the pieces and developed a centre for commerce between the Caliphate and Eastern Europe. Albeit the coinage of the VolgaBulgars was suspended for two centuries from the end of the 10 th century, trade flourished, asis attested by archaeological excavations and evidence provided by the eyewitness Arabictraveller, Abū Hāmid al-Ġarnat ī .

The 10th-11th centuries saw peaceful trade relations between the Volga Bulgars and theKievan Rus’. However, the principality of Vladimir-Suzdal consolidated its power on themiddle Volga in the 12th century and attempted to monopolize the Volga trade, thus leading tofrequent hostilities. The major campaigns of the Rus’ started in 1164, when the Volga Bulgar town of Brjahimov ( Ibrahim) was captured. It was identified with Bulgar, a small villagetoday in the vicinity of the Volga-Kama confluence; its Russian name is Bolgary but Bulgar

in Tatar. This expedition compelled the Volga Bulgars to transfer the capital to Bilär (Russian: Biljarsk , Tatar: Biler ) on the Malyj Čeremšan River in the centre of the realm. In



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1184, with his Kipchak auxiliaries, the Rus’ besieged the new capital called Velikij Gorod inRussian (Great Town=Biljarsk). Finally, the Rus’ succeeded in taking O š el , the mostimportant Volga Bulgar town on the right bank of the Volga. The Mordvinians who dwelt

between the principality of Vladimir-Suzdal and the Volga Bulgars gradually came under thecontrol of the Rus’. This is corroborated by the Rus’ founding of Nižnij Novgorod on the

Volga-Oka confluence in 1221.The Mongols first attacked the Volga Bulgars immediately after their victory in the battle of Kalka in 1223. They were then entrapped and defeated by the Volga Bulgars. TheMongols made minor raids against the southern and eastern border of the Volga Bulgar country in 1229 and 1232. At the same time, the Russian principality of Vladimir-Suzdal

posed a threat to the Volga Bulgars from the west. The Hungarian Dominican monk, Julianus,visiting them in 1235, was the first westerner to inform the European courts of theapproaching Mongol invasion against the west. The Mongols launched a war on Europe in1236, and the first victim of this campaign was the empire of the Volga Bulgars.1 Theyintegrated into the Golden Horde and played an important role in its commerce and culture.Bulgar (Rus. Bolgary) on the confluence of the Volga and Kama became the centre of the

country. A large number of inscriptions were engraved on tombstones in the 13 th-15th centuries in the Volga-Kama region with texts in Arabic with Turkic words, phrases and evensentences. They are called Volga Bulgarian inscriptions in the literature; however, a portionof the inscriptions is in a Chuvash-type Turkic language, while the others reflect a commonTurkic dialect. The inscriptions with Chuvash-type Turkic characters existed until the mid-14th century, whereas the other inscriptions continued to be produced. It can be concluded thatthose among the Volga Bulgars who spoke a Chuvash-type language died out or wereassimilated by the Kipchaks, who moved into this territory in the 13th century.

The next phase of the history of Eastern Europe is connected with the migration of theKipchaks/Cumans. The double name can be explained by the fact that there are different self-denominations and the Latin and Byzantine sources called this people Cumani. The easternsources including Muslim, Chinese and Mongolian used the term Kipchak. The Latin sourcesin Hungary first applied the name Cun and later Cuman. In Hungarian language the form kún has been preserved. Their Russian name is Polovcy, which is derived from the colour ‘yellow,

pale’. It was take by othe Slavic languages and Hungarian Palóc. Similar etymolgy isreflected in the German forms: Falb; Latin: Flavus and Armenian Xartes.

The Kipchaks were probably recorded among the peoples of the Türk Empire. Gardizimentioned them among the tribes of the Kimek confederation. They lived on the Irtis in the8th century. In the 9-10th centuries their habitat reached the southern slopes of the Uralmountains under the supremacy of the Kimek Kaghan.

There are two sources describing the Cuman migration to Eastern Europe. Marwazi(writing around 1120) recorded a wave of migration starting in the east. The Kitay provokedthe western move of the Quns and Qay. The people called Sary then moved to the lands of theOguz/Türkmens, who in turn wandered to the territory of the Pechenegs. The ArmenianMathew of Edessa reported in 1050 that the people of the Snakes defeated the Pales ( Xartes),who attacked the Uz and Pechenegs. The records are confused in some respect, but theyreflect the coming of the Cumans to Eastern Europe. It is corroborated by the Russian annalsrecording the Cumans east of the Dniepr in 1061 and 1068 and they crossed the Dnieper shortly before 1070. They were mentioned in the territory of Byzantium in 1078 in alliance of the Pechenegs they sieged Adrianople/Edirne and in 1091 they fought against the pechenegsnear Lebunion. By the end of the century the Cumans were in possession of the lower

1 Volžskaja Bulgarija i mongolskoe našestvie. Kazan’ 1988.



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Danube. First they penetrated into the Carpathian basin in 1091 and the Hungarian kingLadislaw made them retreat.

The Rus’ principalities made a common effort to raid the Cumans in 1093, but theysuffered a serious defeat at the river Stugna. The Kievan prince married the daughter of aCuman ruler. The Cumans under Bönek and Tugorkan became great power. The Rus’

princescombined their forces and in 1103 they undertook a succefull expedition along theDniepr. The campaigns of Vladimir Monomakh to the central towns of the Cumans on theDoniec (Sugrov, Ossenev) in 1113 and 1116 marked the shift of power. The succesfulunification of the Rus’ principalities under Vladimir monomakh (1113-1125) gave them theupperhand.

The Rus’ offensive was a major factor in the migration of the Cuman prince, Otrok togeorgia. David the king of Georgia invited 40 000 Cumans to his country and he could build a

powerfull kingdom in the Caucasus with the help of the Cumans. The combined Georgian andCuman troops gained vitory over the Muslims in the battle of Didgor in 1221. After the deathof Vladimir Monomakh in 1225 Otrok migrated back to the Don. A large part of Cumansremained in Georgia and played important rule there.

The Cumans on the steppe regained their political importance after the death of Vladimir, because the Rus’ princes themselves invited the Cuman auxiliary troops in internalconflicts. By the middle of the 12th cetury the political unity of the Kievan Rus’ came to anend. The princes of Chernigov and Vladimir-Suzdal were traditional allies of the Cumans andthey took part in the internal wars fo the Rus’ principalities and they raid yearly taking booty.The Rus’ princes succeeded in repulsing them when they could unite their forces. The Rus’defeated the Cumans in 1184 and they captured 17 Khans. Next year Igor, the prince of aminor principality launched an attack against the Cumans and he was repelled. Thedescription of this campaign was recorded in a literary form known as “Tale of Igor’s Host”(Slovo o polku Igorove). The tale reflects the nucleus of the Rus’-Cuman relations includingmilitary and cultural aspects.

The Cumans were active in the Balkans. They crossed the Danube several times in the1150s. But the Byzantine court preferred peace with the Cumans and they hired troops fromamong the Cumans. The western Cumans had decisive role in the foundation of the secondBulgar Tsartum. The Bulgars under Byzantine rule began to revolt in 1185. Their leadersAsen, Peter and Kalojan were defeated and they escaped to the Cumans living north of theDanube. They hired Cuman troops and Asen founded the second Bulgar Cartum in 1187 andthe Cuman auxiliary troops could be used in consolidating the power of the Bulgar carsagainst Byzantium and later against the Franks invading Constantinople in the fourth Crusadein 1204.

The Hungarian kings followed with growing attention the activity of the Cumans in the

western Rus’ principilaties and in the Balkans. The Hungarian king Andrew the Secondsettled the Teutonic Order in Transylvania to protect the border in 1211. The Teutonic Order however tried to act as an independent power and therefore they were expelled. TheHungarian king, Andrew’s son, Béla as Prince of Transylvania took the task of the missionwork. The Dominican missions were successful. In 1227 Bortz, the fourth prince of theCumans living on the lower Danube was baptized with his people and submitted to theHungarian king. A new Cuman bishopric was established and the Hungarian king took thetitle rex Cumaniae to his titles in 1229.

The turn of the 12-13th century brought the possibilty of forming a central power amongthe various Cuman groups. Könchek and his son Iurii Konchakovich took steps towardcentralization, but the Mongol invasion put to an end of this process.

The Mongol forces attacked Eastern Europe first through the Caucasus, whenChinggis Khan sent his generals Jebe and Sübötei to pursuit the fleeing Shah of Khwarazm.



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They crossed the Caucasus in 1222 and defeated the Alans and the Kipchaks. The westernRussian princes made an alliance with the remnants of the Kipchaks and marched against theMongols, who retreated and fought the decisive battle near the river Kalka in 1223. The alliedRussian and Kipchaks forces were defeated. The Mongols attempted to conquer the VolgaBulghars, but they ambushed and slaughtered the Mongol troops. Then Jebe and Sübötei

returned to Chinggis Khan. He died in 1227 and Ögedey took his throne in 1228. Ögödeydeclared war against North China and Persia. After consolidating the East he convoked thequriltay in 1235 and it was decided to launch an attack against the West, i.e Europe. One thirdof the Mongol army with the Mongol princes (Batu, Güyük, Möngke) and the general Süböteiwere mobilized for the campaign. The Mongol forces joined near the Volga Bulghars in theautumn of 1236 and conquered Volga Bulgharia during the winter. According to the Mongolstrategy the Mongols attacked the nomads on the steppe in summer and marched against theforest region in winter. So they defeated the Kipchaks on the lower Volga and then in theautumn of 1237 they attacked the Pricipality of Vladimir-Suzdal and besieged its towns(Riazan, Kolomna, Vladimir, Suzdal, etc.). The next two years the Mongols defeated theAlans in the Caucasus and the Kipchaks on the steppe. Afterwards a great feast was organized

in 1240 and the second phase of the campaigns was planned, but Güyük and Möngke returnedaccording to the order of Ögödey. In the winter of 1240 Kiev was besieged and it wasfollowed by the fall of the towns of Halich and Volhynia. The Mongols carefully prepared theconquest of the Hungarian kingdom. The envisaged a triple drive, the northern wing attackedPoland and Cracow fell in March 1241 and the Mongols defeated the duke of Silesia, Henry IIon April the 9th and then these Mongol army marched to Hungary from the North. Thesouthern wing penetrated to the Carpathian Basin through Transylvania. The central corpsunder Batu and Sübötei entered Hungary through the Pass of Verecke. Béla IV the Hungarianking gathered the arm force and marched to the river Sajó. The Mongols attacked theHungarians there and the Hungarians suffered a disastrous defeat. Béla IV hade to escape andfinally the king and his retinue could find shelter on an Adriatic island. The Mongols crossedthe Danube in winter of 1241/1242. The end of the Mongol campaign can be connected withthe death of Ögödei on December 11, 1241. The Mongol army left the Carpathian Basin in1242 and most of the Mongol princes returned to their homeland. Batu and his family settledon the rivers of the South Russian steppe.

Batu moved along the Volga and it became the centre of the Golden Horde. Batu(1242-1255) was the founder of Golden Horde. The rule of Berke (1258-1266) and Özbek (1313-1341) brought the Islamization of the nomads. The Golden Horde had to face severecrisis during the second half of the 14th century (dynastical conflicts, plague, conquest of Timur). The successor states could not resist the Ottomans in the Crimea and Russians alongthe Volga in the 16th century.

The later Russian name Golden Horde became the denomination of the state-formation. The ethnic map of the region did not change. The Mongol ruling elite remainedminority among the Cumans and the Turkification was rapid. The Arabic historian al-Umari(†1349) gave a plastic explanation: „This kingdom was earlier the country of the Qibǧāq.When the Tatārs conquered their land, the Qibǧāq became their dependents. They (Tatars)mixed with them and wedded them. The land overcame their nature and origin and they

became similar to the Qibǧāq, as if they were the same race. The Moġuls’ (Mongols)habitation became the land of the Qibǧāq and they wedded them and so their country becametheir homeland.” The passage makes clear that the western name of the Mongols i.e. Tatar denoted Kipchak speaking people in the 14 th century and the Tatar language belongs to theKipchak branch of the Turkic language family. One of the most important source of

information on the Kipchak language is the Codex Cumanicus, which was compiled by theFranciscan monks to assist the missionary work in field in the 14th century.



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The Cumans preserved their political significance in the Balkans after the Mongolinvasion. They acted as auxiliary troops in the service of the Bulgar tsars and in the LatinEmpire. They played important role in the ethnogenesis of the Rumanians, since the founder of the dynasty Basaraba was of Cuman origin and his retinue was recruited from the Cumans.The Crimean colonies of the Italian towns, Venice and Genoa were the centres of slavetrade,

where Kipchak slaves were sold to Europe and Egypt. The Kipchak slaves became the guardsand army in the Muslim provinces of Syria and Egypt. The Muslim success against thecrusaders was in a great part due to them. The first phase of the Mamluk dynasty in Egyptwas of Kipchak origin (1250-1390). The Kipchaks of Egypt could stop the Mongols in Syriain 1260 and they were the defender of the Muslim lands.

In addition the history of the Cumans in Hungary is taken into consideration. TheMongols attacked the Cumans living north of the Black Sea in 1238. Köten the prince of theCumans on the west bank of the Dniepr asked the Hungarian king, Béla IV (1235-1270) to lethim and his people settle to the territory of Hungarian kingdom. The Hungarian king wasready to receive the Cumans, if they take Christianity and take the field against the Mongols.The number of the Cumans were 40 000, who migrated to Hungary. The appearance of Köten

and his Cumans made the Hungarian nobles suspicious against the king and they provokedand murdered Köten in Pest in 1241. The Cumans left for Bulgaria along the Danube.

After the Mongol invasion the Hungarian king called the Cumans back to strengthenhis position. The alliance was sealed by a marriage between the son of the King and thedaughter of the Cuman prince in 1246. The Cumans were settled in the territory between theDanube and Tisza and east of the Tisza river, as these regions were depopulated as aconsequence of the Mongol raids. The Cuman elite and middle class had to give militaryservice for his privileged position. Seven Cuman tribes or clan were mentioned in the sources.Four of them were recorded: Borchol, Chertan, Olash, Kor. The Cumans took part in thecampaigns of the Hungarian kings. Ladislaw was born from the above-mentioned Cumanmarriage and his nickname was Cuman Ladislaw, who was crowned in 1272, when he wasten years old. He commanded the Hungarian army consisting of Hungarian and Cuman unitsagainst Ottokar in the battle of Morvamező in 1278. The victory laid the foundation of theHabsburg dynastic power in the eastern provinces. The king tried to counterbalance the power of the barons with the help of the Cumans. The papal legate forced the Hungarian king toissue the Cuman law in 1279. The Cumans must converted to Chistianity and they had to livein villages taking the way of life and tradtion of the Christians. The Cumans revolted, but theHungarian king defeated them in the battle of Hódtó in 1282. Ladislaw established a Cumanguard in 1285 and the member of the guard was called nyögér . The king could notconsolidate his power and his Cuman kinsmen murdered his in 1290.

The Cuman society changed way of life and they adapt themselves to the Hungarians.

The Cuman elite became Hungarian noblemen and the middle and lower class became peasants. The Franciscan monks were sent to them help adaptation. The former clan systemwas converted to territorial units. As a consequence of the Ottoman conquest the Cumansettlements between the Danube and Tisza were depopulated, but the Cuman provinces east of the Tisza survived. The modern denomination Nagy Kunság (Greater Cumania) refers to theterritory east of the Tisza river, while Kis Kunság (Lesser Cumania) denotes the region

between the Danube and Tisza.The reformation was widespread among the Cumans and the Cuman lord’s prayer was

translated in the 16th century and the existing variation was recorded in the 18th century.The Cuman weapons and costume are reflected in the paintings illustrating the dual of

the Hungarian king with a Cuman abductor in the legend of Saint Ladislaw.



READINGS:Peter Golden's An Introduction to the History of the Turkic peoples. Wiesbaden 1992, 264-282, 297-302. There is a Turkish translation: P.B. Golden, Türk halklari tarihine girish.Ankara, 2002, 219-234, 247-251.

Pechenegs, Cumans/Kipchaks

1. Rásonyi László: Hidak a Dunán. Bp. 1981, 106-163;2. Omeljan Pritsak: The Polovcians ad Rus. Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 2 (1982),

321-380;3. Pálóczi Horváth András: Besenyők, kunok, jászok. Bp. 1989;4. Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples. Wiesbaden

1992, 270-282, 348-350;5. u.ő.: Cumanica I. The Qipčaqs in Georgia: Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 4 (1984),

45-87,6. Cumanica II. The Ölberli: The Fortunes ad Misfortunes of an Inner Asian Nomadic

Clan: Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 6 (1986), 5-29,7. Cumanica III. Urusoba: Aspect of Altaic Civilization. Ed. D. Sinor. Bloomington

1990, 33-46,8. Cumanica IV. The Tribes of the Cuman-Qipčaqs: Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 9

(1995-1997), 99-122;9. Szűcs Jenő: Az utolsó Árpádok. Bp. 1993, 18, 77, 79-80, 83-88, 120-121, 299-321;10. Kun László emlékezete. Szerk. Kristó Gyula. Szeged 1994;11. Zúduló sasok. Új honfoglalók - besenyők, kunok, jászok - a középkori Alföldön és a

Mezőföldön. Gyulai katalógusok 2. Szerk. Havassy P. Gyula 1996;

Volga Bulghars

1. I. Zimonyi, Origins of the Volga Bulghars. Studia Uralo-Altaica 32. Szeged 1990;Wolgabulgaren: Lexikon des Mittelalters IX, München 1998, 315-317.2. S. M. Š pilevskij, Drevnie goroda i drugie bolgarsko-tatarskie pamjatniki v Kazanskojgubernii. Kazan' 1877.3. Smirnov, A. P., (1951) Volžskie bulgary. Moskva.4. R. G. Fahrutdinov, Oèerki po istorii volžskoj bulgarii. Moskva 1984.5. Huzin, F. Š., Volžskaja Bulgarija v domongol'skoe vremja (X- naèalo XIII vekov. Kazan'1997.

S. M. Š pilevskij, Drevnie goroda i drugie bolgarsko-tatarskie pamjatniki v Kazanskojgubernii. Kazan' 1877;P. B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples. Wiesbaden 1992, S. 253-258.

Golden Horde

1. B. Spuler, Die Goldene Horde. Die Mongolen in Russland 1223-1502.Leipzig 1943;2. B. D. Grekov, A. J. Jakubovskij, Zolotaja Orda i ee padenije. Moskva-Leningrad 1950;3. Ch. J. Halperin, Russia and the Golden Horde. Bloomington 1985.

Documents

Zimonyi Istvan, "History of the Turkic Speaking Peoples in Europe Before the Ottomans"