Cumans

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Cuman, also called Polovtsy, Polovtsian, or the Anglicized Polovzian (Russian: Половцы Polovcy, Ukrainian: Половцi Polovci, Bulgarian: Кумани Kumani, Romanian: Cumani, Hungarian: Kunok), is a Western European exonym for the western Kipchaks. The Cumans were a nomadic Turkic tribe who inhabited a shifting area north of the Black Sea known as Cumania along the Volga River.

1 History
2 Legacy
3 Further reading
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

The Cumans entered the lands of present-day southern Ukraine, as well as historic Moldavia, Wallachia, and part of Transylvania, in the 11th century. Having conquered the area, they continued their assaults by attacking and plundering the Byzantine Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, and the principality of Kievan Rus'.

In 1089, they were defeated by Ladislaus I of Hungary. In alliance with the Vlachs and the Bulgarians during the Vlach-Bulgar Rebellion by brothers Asen and Peter of Tarnovo, the Cumans are believed to have played a significant role in the rebellion's final victory over Byzantium and the restoration of Bulgaria's independence (1185). The Cumans defeated the Great Prince Vladimir Monomakh of Kievan Rus in the 12th century (at the Battle of the Stugna River) but were crushed by the Mongols in 1238, after which most of them fled Wallachia and Moldova and took refuge in Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Byzantine Empire. After many clashes with the Hungarians, the Cumans were eventually evicted from Hungary to join their kin who lived in Bulgaria. Later, however, a large segment of them were re-invited back to Hungary. The Cumans who remained scattered in the steppe of what is now Russia joined the Golden Horde khanate.

In the 13th century, the Western Cumans adopted Roman Catholicism, while the Eastern Cumans converted to Islam. The Catholic Diocese of the Cumania founded in Milcov in 1227 and including what is now Romania and Moldova, retained its title until 1523.

The Cuman influence in the region of Wallachia and Moldavia was so strong that the earliest Wallachian rulers bore Cuman names. But, given that the rulers Tihomir and Bassarab I governed territories formerly ruled by Romanian leaders (mentioned in the Diploma of the Joannites of 1247), and given that there is no archeological evidence to sustain the continuous presence of a Cuman population (only Hungarian documents mentioning a toll-paying Wallachian population), most historians have concluded that the two rulers were, like the population they governed, Romanian.

Basarab I, son of the Wallachian prince Tihomir of Wallachia obtained independence from Hungary at the beginning of the 14th century. The name Basarab is considered as being of Cuman origin, meaning "Father King".

Cuman influence also persisted in the Kingdom of Hungary with the Cuman language and customs persisting in autonomous Cuman territories (Kunság) until the 17th century.

It is generally believed that the Bulgarian mediaеval dynasties Asen, Shishman and Terter had some Cumans' roots.

[edit] Legacy

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

While the Cumans in Europe have been assimilated into other population groups, their name can still be encountered in placenames as far as the city of Kumanovo in the Northeastern part of the Republic of Macedonia, Comăneşti in Romania and Comana in Dobruja. The Cumans settled in Hungary had their own self-government there in a territory that bore their name, Kunság, that survived until the 19th century. There, the name of the Cumans (Kun) is still preserved in county names such as Bács-Kiskun and Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok and town names such as Kiskunhalas and Kiskunszentmiklós.

Cuman steppe art, as exhibited in Dnepropetrovsk.

Also, toponyms of Cuman language origin can be found especially in the Romanian counties of Vaslui and Galaţi, including the names of both counties.

In the countries where the Cumans were assimilated, family surnames derived from the words for "Cuman" (such as coman or kun, "kuman") are not uncommon. Among the people that have such a name are Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci, Romanian poet Otilia Coman (Ana Blandiana) and Romanian football player Gigel Coman. Traces of the Cumans are also the Bulgarian surname Kumanov (feminine Kumanova), its Macedonian variant Kumanovski (feminine Kumanovska) and the widespread Hungarian surname Kun.

The Cumans appear in Russian culture in the The Tale of Igor's Campaign and a set of "Polovtsian Dances" in Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor.