The Cumans or Kumans[2] (Bulgarian: кумани, romanized: kumani; German: Kumanen; Hungarian: kunok; Polish: Połowcy; Romanian: cumani; Russian: половцы, romanized: polovtsy; Ukrainian: половці, romanized: polovtsi) were a Turkic[2][3][4][5] nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsy in Rus', Cumans in Western and Kipchaks in Eastern sources.[6]
Related to the Pecheneg,[7] they inhabited a shifting area north of the Black Sea and along the Volga River known as Cumania, from which the Cuman–Kipchaks meddled in the politics of the Caucasus and the Khwarazmian Empire.[8]: 7 The Cumans were fierce and formidable nomadic warriors of the Eurasian Steppe who exerted an enduring influence on the medieval Balkans.[9]: 116 [10] They were numerous, culturally sophisticated, and militarily powerful.[11]: 13
Many eventually settled west of the Black Sea, influencing the politics of Kievan Rus', the Galicia–Volhynia Principality, the Golden Horde Khanate, the Second Bulgarian Empire, the Kingdom of Serbia, the Kingdom of Hungary, Moldavia, the Kingdom of Georgia, the Byzantine Empire, the Empire of Nicaea, the Latin Empire and Wallachia, with Cuman immigrants becoming integrated into each country's elite.[12]: 281 The Cumans also played a prominent role in the Fourth Crusade[citation needed] and in the creation of the Second Bulgarian Empire.[8][13]: 50 Cuman and Kipchak tribes joined politically to create the Cuman–Kipchak confederation.[11]: 7
History of the Turkic peoples pre–14th century
Court of Seljuk ruler Tughril III, circa 1200 CE.
Turkic peoples
Oghuz Turks
Karluks
Kipchaks
Onogurs
Kumyks
Yakuts
Dolgans
Krymchaks
Sabir people
Crimean Karaites
Turkic Languages
Turkish
Azerbaijani
Uzbek
Kazakh
Uyghur
Turkmen
Tatar
Kyrgyz
Bashkir
Chuvash
Qasgqai
Karakalpak
Sakha
Kumyk
Karachay-Balkar
Tuvan
Gagauz
Karaim
Krymchak
Turkic Mythology
Belief system: Tengrism and Shamanism
Chief gods and goddesses: Kayra and Ülgen
Epics and heroes: Ergenekon and Asena
Major concepts: Sheka and Grey wolf
Pre-14th century
Yenisei Kyrgyz People 202 BCE–13th CE
Yenisei Kyrgyz Khaganate
Dingling 71 BC–?? AD
Tiele (Gaoche)
Göktürks
First Turkic Khaganate 552–581
Western Turkic Khaganate 581–657
(Tokhara Yabghus, Turk Shahis)
Eastern Turkic Khaganate 581–650
Second Turkic Khaganate 682–744
Sabiri People
Khazar Khaganate 618–1048
Xueyantuo 628–646
Kangar union 659–750
Turk Shahi 665-850
Türgesh Khaganate 699–766
Kimek confederation 743–1035
Uyghur Khaganate 744–840
Oghuz Yabgu State 750–1055
Karluk Yabgu State 756–940
Kara-Khanid Khanate 840–1212
Western Kara-Khanid
Eastern Kara-Khanid
Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom 848–1036
Qocho 856–1335
Pecheneg Khanates 860–1091
Ghaznavid Empire 963–1186
Seljuk Empire 1037–1194
Sultanate of Rum
Cuman–Kipchak confederation 1067–1239
Khwarazmian Empire 1077–1231
Kerait Khanate 11th century–13th century
Atabegs of Azerbaijan 1136–1225
Delhi Sultanate 1206–1526
Mamluk dynasty
Khalji dynasty
Tughlaq dynasty
Qarlughid Kingdom 1224–1266
Golden Horde 1242–1502
Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo) 1250–1517
Bahri dynasty
Ottoman State 1299–1922
v
t
e
Part of a series on the
History of Tatarstan
Great Bulgaria
Turco-Mongols
Great Tartary
Volga Bulgaria
Kipchaks
Mongol invasion
Golden Horde
Khanate of Kazan
Muscovy
Kazan Governorate
Tatar ASSR
Republic of Tatarstan
v
t
e
After the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus' in 1237, many Cumans sought asylum in the Kingdom of Hungary, as many of them had already settled there in the previous decades. The Cumans also played an important role in the Second Bulgarian Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Latin Empire, and the Nicaea Empire's Anatolia.[8]: 2 [12]: 283 [14][15]
The Cuman language is attested in some medieval documents and is the best-known of the early Turkic languages.[5]: 186 The Codex Cumanicus was a linguistic manual written to help Catholic missionaries communicate with the Cuman people.
^Williams, Brian G. (2001). The Crimean Tatars: The Diaspora Experience and the Forging of a Nation. Brill. pp. 42–43. ISBN 9004121226.
^ abKovács, Szilvia (2020). "Kumans". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830.
^Robert Lee Wolff: "The 'Second Bulgarian Empire'. Its Origin and History to 1204". Speculum, Volume 24, Issue 2 (April 1949), 179. "Thereafter, the influx of Pechenegs and Cumans turned Bulgaria into a battleground between Byzantium and these Turkish tribes ..."
^Bartusis, Mark C. (1997). The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society, 1204–1453. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 26–27. ISBN 978-0-8122-1620-2.
^ abSpinei, Victor (2009). The Romanians and the Turkic Nomads North of the Danube Delta from the Tenth to the Mid-Thirteenth Century. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-9004175365. Archived from the original on 2016-12-07. Retrieved 2015-10-19.
^"Polovtsy". Encyclopedia.com. 31 May 2023.
^"Cumans". Encyclopediaofukraine.com. Archived from the original on 5 August 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
^ abcVásáry, István (2005). Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185–1365. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-5218-3756-9.
^Bartlett, W. B. (2012). The Mongols: From Genghis Khan to Tamerlane. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-4456-0791-7.
^Prawdin, Michael (1940). The Mongol Empire: Its Rise and Legacy. Transaction Publishers. pp. 212–15. ISBN 978-1-4128-2897-0. Archived from the original on 8 January 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
^ abNicolle, David; Shpakovsky, Victor (2001). Kalka River 1223: Genghiz Khan's Mongols Invade Russia. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84176-233-3.
^ abSinor, Denis, ed. (1990). The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-5212-4304-9.
^Grumeza, Ion (4 August 2010). The Roots of Balkanization: Eastern Europe C.E. 500–1500. University Press of America. ISBN 978-0-7618-5135-6. Archived from the original on 8 January 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
^Golev, Konstantin (2018). "The Bulgarophilia of the Cumans in the Times of the First Asenids of Bulgaria". Golden Horde Review. 6 (3): 455. doi:10.22378/2313-6197.2018-6-3.452-471.
^"Mitochondrial-DNA-of-ancient-Cumanians". Goliath.ecnext.com. Archived from the original on 2010-01-24. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
of the endonym Cuman is unknown. It is also often unclear whether a particular name refers to the Cumans alone, or to both the Cumans and the Kipchaks...
the Cumans and (Eastern) Kipchaks (who were a distinct tribe with whom the Cumans created a confederacy, although other sources say that Cumans and Kipchak...
the Cumans (Polovtsy, Folban, Vallany, Kun) and Kipchaks; the language was similar to today's various languages of the West Kipchak branch. Cuman is documented...
during the minority of her son from 1272 to 1277. The Cumans were the western tribes of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation. Her people followed a shamanist...
agreed to persuade the Cumans to submit to the legate, but many Cumans preferred to leave Hungary. Ladislaus vanquished a Cuman army that invaded Hungary...
The Cumans, also known as "Polovtsians", were a Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation. Their homeland...
Cumans were known to have become mercenaries in Europe and taken as slave warriors. In Egypt, the Mamluks were in part drawn from Kipchaks and Cumans...
remains have been found in Cuman gravesites. The name "quman-dur" means "belonging to the Cumans" or "the dog of the Cumans", thus distinguishing it from...
Muslim geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi wrote that the two Cuman groups (the Black Cumans and White Cumans) were separated from each other by the Dniester River...
attacking the Qanglis Cumans, who had supported their fellow Cumans in the Caucasus a year before. They fought against the Cuman army near the Ural Mountains...
51. Vásáry, István. Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185-1365. Vásáry, István (2005). Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military...
The Cumaean Sibyl (Latin: Sibylla Cumana) was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae, a Greek colony near Naples, Italy. The word...
Turkic peoples. Anna Komnene likewise stated that the Pechenegs and the Cumans shared a common language. Although the Pecheneg language itself died out...
Palatine was ex officio judge of the Cumans, who "judges over whole Cumania and is also ispán (count) and judge of the Cumans". For this role, the Palatine received...
Angles, Saxons, Slavs, Avars, Bulgars and, later on, the Vikings, Pechenegs, Cumans and Magyars. Renaissance thinkers such as Petrarch would later refer to...
followed them, and the nomadic Cumans became the dominant power of the steppes in the 1060s. Cooperation between the Cumans and the Vlachs against the Byzantine...
(languages in bold are still spoken today): Kipchaks Kipchaks in Georgia Cuman people Cuman language Cumania Kalpak Except for the Southern "dialect", which is...
Kipchak/Cuman mercenaries and successfully exploited their service against the neighboring Muslim states. The first contacts between the Georgians and Cumans-Kipchaks...
(Shihabuddin al-Umari) wrote that, having joined the Golden Horde, the Cumans moved to the position of subjects. The Tatar-Mongols who settled on the...
Kaloyan. Cuman origin, as some of the names in the dynasty, including Asen, are derived from Cuman language, as well as the close ties to the Cumans, such...
Hzak (Hza, Kzak) - the Cumans Khan, the head of the Cumans Of Don river (the Burchevichs), a son of the Beglyuk (Belyuk) Khan. In chronicles he is called...
Cumann na mBan (Irish pronunciation: [ˈkʊmˠən̪ˠ n̪ˠə ˈmˠanˠ]; literally "The Women's Council" but in English termed The Irishwomen's Council), abbreviated...
seen how great a force the Cumans had already mustered. But Svyatoslav Olgovich pointed out that he had pursued the Cumans over a great distance and that...
who created a large confederacy, which was subsequently taken over by the Cumans and the Kipchaks. The ancestors of Russians are among the Slavic tribes...
Global Information
