Cumania

The name Cumania originated as the Latin exonym for the Cuman-
Kipchak confederation, which was a Turkic confederation in the Cuman-Kipchak
western part of the Eurasian Steppe, between the 10th and 13th centuries. Confederation
The confederation was dominated by two Turkic nomadic tribes: the Desht-i Qipchaq
Cumans (also known as the Polovtsians or Folban) and the Kipchaks.
Khanate
Cumania was known in Islamic sources as Desht-i Qipchaq, which
means "Steppe of the Kipchaks"; or "foreign land sheltering the 10th century–1241
Kipchaks", in the Turkic languages.[4] Russian sources have referred to
Cumania as the "Polovtsian Steppe" (Poloveckaja Step), or the
"Polovcian Plain" (Pole Poloveckoe).[5]

The Golden Horde was also referred to as "Comania" by Armenian

chronicler Hethum (Hayton) of Korykos.[6] "Cumania" was also the
source of names, or alternate names, for several smaller areas – some of
them unconnected geographically to the area of the federation – in which Cumania (Desht-i Qipchaq) c. 1200.
Cumans and/or Kipchaks settled, such as the historic region of Kunság in Capital Not specified
Hungary, and the former Roman Catholic Diocese of Cumania (in
Languages Turkic language
Romania and Hungary). Hethum of Korykos described Cumania as
(Kipchak)
"wholly flat and with no trees".[6] Ibn Battuta said of Cumania, "This
Cuman language
wilderness is green and grassy with no trees, nor hills, high or low...there
is no means of travelling in this desert except in wagons." Battuta's
Religion Tengrism
contemporary, Hamdallah Mustawfi, eloborated, "This is of the Sixth
Clime, its plains bear excellent pasturage...but there are here few houses Political Khanate
or towns or villages. Most of the inhabitants are nomads of the structure
plain...Most of the lands here are swamps...The pasturage, however, History
being excellent, horses and cattle are numerous, and the population for • Established 10th century
the most part subsists on the produce thereof. The climate is cold, and • Disestablished 1241
their water comes from springs and wells."[7]
Preceded by Succeeded by
Kimek Mongol
Khanate Empire
Khazaria
Contents
Meaning
Kunság and the Catholic Diocese of Cumania
See also
References
Footnotes
Notes

History of the Turkic peoples

Meaning Pre-14th century
Turkic Khaganate 552–744
By the 11th and 12th centuries, the nomadic confederacy of the Cumans and
(Eastern) Kipchaks (who were a distinct tribe with whom the Cumans created Western Turkic

a confederacy) were the dominant force over the vast territories stretching Eastern Turkic
 from the present-day Kazakhstan, southern Russia, Khazar Khaganate 618–1048
Ukraine, to southern Moldavia and eastern Xueyantuo 628–646
Wallachia. Considering the nomadic way of life of
Great Bulgaria 632–668
these peoples, these frontiers can be regarded only as
Danube Bulgaria
approximate; hence there were various definitions
Volga Bulgaria
over what Cumania meant over the course of time.
Kazakh Tamga Kangar union 659–750
of Kypchak tribe Depending on their region and their time, different
sources each used their own vision to denote Turk Shahi 665–850
different sections of the vast Cuman territory: in Turgesh Khaganate 699–766
Byzantine, Russian, Georgian, Armenian, Persian and Muslim sources, Uyghur Khaganate 744–840
Cumania meant the Pontic steppe, that is the steppelands to the north of the Karluk Yabgu State 756–940
Black Sea and on its eastern side as far as the Caspian Sea, where the lowlands
Kara-Khanid Khanate 840–1212
between the Dnipro River, the Volga, the Ural and the Irtysh rivers were
Western Kara-Khanid
favorable to the nomadic lifestyle of the Cumans. Later, for a short time
Eastern Kara-Khanid
period, in Western sources Cumania also referred to the area in eastern
Wallachia and southern Ukraine (centered on the lowlands of Budjak and the Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom 848–1036

Bărăgan Plain), referring to the area where the first contact between the Qocho 856–1335
Cumans and the Western Christians took place, and where, later, the Cumans Pecheneg Khanates Kimek confederation
of the region would accept Roman Catholicism. 860–1091 743–1035
Cumania Oghuz Yabgu State
Using the traditional Turkic assignment of colours to the cardinal points, 1067–1239 750–1055
White Cumania used to be located to the west and may have denoted eastern Ghaznavid Empire 963–1186
Wallachia, while Black Cumania was located to its north and may have
Seljuk Empire 1037–1194
denoted Moldavia.
Sultanate of Rum
As in the case of many other large nomadic Eurasian confederacies, the Kerait khanate 11th century–13th century
ethnonym "Cuman" (referring to the inhabitants of Cumania) denoted different Khwarazmian Empire 1077–1231
ethnic realities. While the main component was probably the Turkic-speaking Naiman Khanate –1204
tribes, the confederacy included other ethnic components as well. Cumania
Qarlughid Kingdom 1224–1266
was primarily a political name, referring to the leading, integrating tribe or
Delhi Sultanate 1206–1526
clan of the confederacy or state. The Cumans, when they first appear in written
Mamluk dynasty
sources, are members of a confederacy irrespective of their tribal origin.
Former tribal names disappeared when the tribe in question became part of a Khalji dynasty

political unit. For instance, when we hear of an incursion of Cumans, it means Tughlaq dynasty
that certain tribes of the Cuman confederacy took part in a military enterprise. Golden Horde | [1][2][3] 1240s–1502
In his "History of the Mongols", the Persian historian Rashid-al-Din Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo) 1250–1517
Hamadani, referred to Cumania around 1236–1237, during the Mongol Bahri dynasty
invasion of Möngke, the future Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. Among
Ottoman Empire 1299–1923
others, he mentions the Kipchaks, the Turkophone Asi (probably the same as
Other Turkic dynasties
the later Jassic tribe) and the "Karaulaghi" (Black, i.e. "from the north",
in Anatolia
Vlachs).[8]
Artuqid dynasty
The vast territory of this Cuman-Kipchak realm, consisting of loosely Saltuqid dynasty
connected tribal units who were the military dominating force, was never in Azerbaijan
politically united by a strong central power.Cumania was neither a state nor an Ahmadili dynasty
empire, but different groups under independent rulers, or khans, who acted on Ildenizid dynasty
their own initiative, meddling in the political life of the surrounding states: the in Egypt
Russian principalities, Bulgaria, Byzantium and the Wallachian states in the Tulunid dynasty
Balkans, Armenia and Georgia (see Kipchaks in Georgia) in the Caucasus, and Ikhshidid dynasty
Khwarezm, having reached as far as to create a powerful caste of warriors, the in Fars
Mamluks, serving the Muslim Arab and Turkish Caliphs and Sultans. Salghurid dynasty
in The Levant
In the Balkans, we find the Cumans in contact with all of the statal entities of
Burid dynasty
that time, fighting with the Kingdom of Hungary, allied with the Bulgarians
Zengid dynasty
and Vlachs against the Byzantine Empire, and involved into the politics of the
fresh Vlach statal entities. For example, Thocomerius, by name apparently
a Cuman warlord (also known as Tihomir, he might have been a Bulgarian
noble), was possibly the first one to unite the Vlach states from the west
and the east of the Olt River, and his son Basarab I is considered the first
ruler of the united and independent Wallachia. This interpretation
corresponds with the general view of the situation of the Romanian lands
in the 11th century, with the natives living in collections of village
communities, united in various small confederacies, with more or less
powerful chiefs trying to create little kingdoms, some paying tribute to the
various militarily dominant nomadic tribes (see Romania in the Middle
Ages).
Cuman/Kipchak statue, 12th century, Luhansk
This pontic Cumania, (and the rest of the Cumanias to the east), ended its
existence in the middle of the 13th century, with the Great Mongol
Invasion of Europe. In 1223,Genghis Khan defeated the Cumans and their Rus' allies at the Battle of Kalka (in modern Ukraine), and
the final blow came in 1241, when the Cuman confederacy ceased to exist as a political entity
, with the remaining Cuman tribes being
dispersed, either becoming subjects of the Mongol conquerors as part of what was to be known as the Golden Horde, or fleeing to the
west, to the Byzantine Empire, theBulgarian Empire, and the Kingdom of Hungary.

Kunság and the Catholic Diocese of Cumania

Coat of Arms of early

modern Kunság
Hungarian King Ladislaus I of Hungary (on the left) wrestling with the
Cuman khan (on the right. Ironically, the holder of this office will find
On the Great Hungarian Plain, Cuman settlers
refuge in Hungary two centuries later, during the days of king Béla IV
gave their name to two regions known as Árpád, and will remain resident as khan-in-exile with an émigré court.)
Kunság, the Hungarian word for Cumania:
Greater Cumania (Nagykunság) and Little
Cumania (Kiskunság), located the Great Hungarian Plain. Here, the Cumans maintained their language and some ethnic customs well
into the modern era.

Cumania name was also preserved as part of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical structure with a "Diocese of Cumania" existing until
1523 in what is now Romania, long after the Cumans ceased to be a distinct group in the area. At Milcov, years earlier, in 1227, the
Cuman warlord Bortz accepted Catholic Christianity from missionary Dominican monks. Pope Gregory IX heard about the mass
conversion of the Cumans, and on 1 July 1227 empowered Robert, Archbishop of Esztergom, to represent him to Cumania and in
neighbouring Land of the Brodnici. Teodoric, the bishop of this new diocese, became the guardian of the Dominican Order in the
Kingdom of Hungary.[9]

Hence, Cumania diocese became part of the superior archbishopric of Esztergom, determining King Béla IV of Hungary to add "Rex
Cumaniae" (King of Cumania)[10] to his titles in 1228, and later to grant asylum to the Cumans in face of the Mongol invasion. The
Diocese of Cumania, or of Milcov, had subordinated in Transylvania the abbacy of Sibiu, the dioceses of Burzenland, Brasso and
Orbai, and over the Carpathians, in the lands of the "infidel" Orthodox Vlachs (in partibus infidelium), all the Christian Catholics,
irrespective of their ethnicity, despite the fact that many believers fell under the influence of the Romanian Orthodox "pseudo"
).[11]
bishops (episcopo Cumanorum, qui loci diocesanus existit, sed a quibusdam pseudoepiscopis Graecorum ritum tenentibus

So, at that moment, Hungarian and Papal documents use the name Cumania to refer to the land between the eastern border of the
lands of Seneslau and the land of the Brodnici (Buzău, southern Vrancea and southern Galaţi): that is Cumania meant, more or less,
Muntenia. At that time, the use of the name Cumania should not to be understood as asserting the existence of a Cuman state, nor
even a land inhabited by Cuman tribes (as the bulk of them had either fled, or were destroyed by the Mongols, and the rest had been
absorbed) but rather to the Diocese of Cumania. From the military point of view, the land comprising the Diocese of Cumania was
held either by the Teutonic Order (as early as 1222), or by the Vlachs (Brodnics or the Vlachs of Seneslau). The term Cumania had
come to mean any Catholic subordinated to the Milcov Diocese, so much so that in some cases, the terms Cuman and Wallach (more
precisely, Roman Catholic Wallach, as the Orthodox Christians were considered schismatic, and the Pope did not officially recognise
them) were interchangeable,[12] (as were the terms Wallach and Brodnic).

In a charter from 1247, parts of this earlier Cumania were granted to the Knights Hospitalers, as were the Banate of Severin and the
Romanian cnezats of Ioan and Lupu (a fluvio Olth et Alpibus Ultrasylvanis totam Cumaniam …excepta terra Szeneslai Woiavode
Olacorum).[13] These, from a juridical point of view, had an inferior status than the states of Seneslau (east of the Olt river) and
Litovoi (west of the Olt River), cnezats which continued to belong to the Romanians (quam Olacis relinquimus prout iidem hactenus
tenuerant), "like they held them so far".

See also
Turkic peoples
Timeline of Turks (500-1300)
List of Turkic dynasties and countries
Cuman people
Pechenegs
Kipchaks
Kunság
Mongol invasion of Europe
History of Romania
Crimean Karaites, an ethnic group with possible Cuman origins
Cuman language

References

Footnotes
1. Marshall Cavendish Corporation (2006).Peoples of Western Asia. p. 364.
2. Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (2007). Historic Cities of the Islamic World. p. 280.
3. Borrero, Mauricio (2009).Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present
. p. 162.
4. Adjiev M. Eskenderovich, The Kipchaks, An Ancient History of the urkic
T People and the Great Steppe, Moscow
2002, p.30
5. [1] (http://www.fphil.uniba.sk/fileadmin/user_upload/editors/kksf/GLO-2012_Drobny.pdf)
 6. Victor Spinei, The Romanians and the Turkic Nomads North of the Danube Delta from the Tenth to the Mid-thirteenth
Century (https://books.google.com/books?id=2vl538CMBsAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Romanians+and+the+T
urkic+Nomads+North+of+the+Danube+Delta+from+the+T enth&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4P3nU7mrNtTX7Ab13IDwDg&ved=
0CCEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=The%20Romanians%20and%20the%20T urkic%20Nomads%20North%20of%20th
e%20Danube%20Delta%20from%20the%20T enth&f=false), p.38.
7. Victor Spinei, The Romanians and the Turkic Nomads North of the Danube Delta from the Tenth to the Mid-thirteenth
Century (https://books.google.com/books?id=2vl538CMBsAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Romanians+and+the+T
urkic+Nomads+North+of+the+Danube+Delta+from+the+T enth&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4P3nU7mrNtTX7Ab13IDwDg&ved=
0CCEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=The%20Romanians%20and%20the%20T urkic%20Nomads%20North%20of%20th
e%20Danube%20Delta%20from%20the%20T enth&f=false), p.40.
8. Alexandru D. Xenopol in "Histoire des Roumains', Paris, 1896, i, 168 quotes Rashid-od-Din:

In the middle of spring the princes crossed the mountains in order to enter the country of the Bulares
and of the Bashguirds. Orda, who was marching to the right, passed through the country of the Haute,
where Bazarambam met him with an army, but was beaten. Boudgek crossed the mountains to enter
the Kara-Ulak, and defeated the Ulak people.

9. The letter of Pope Gregory the IXth:

Gregorius Episcopus … venerabili fratri … Strigoniensi Archiepiscopo apostolicae sedis legato

salutem … Nuper siquidem per litteras tuas nobis transmissas accepimus, quod Jesus Christus …
super gentem Cumanorum clementer respiciens, eis salvationis ostium aperuit his diebus. Aliqui enim
nobiles gentis illius per te ad baptismi gratiam pervenerunt, et quidam princeps Bortz nomine de terra
illorum cum omnibus sibi subditis per ministerium tuum fidem desiderat suscipere christianam; propter
quod unicum filium suum una cum fratribus praedicatoribus, messis dominicae operariis in terra
praedicta, ad te specialiter destinavit, attentius obsecrans, ut personaliter accedens ad ipsum et suos
viam vitae ostenderes ipsis … Unde quamvis pro executione voti tui, quod emiseras pro terrae
sanctae succursu, in peregrinationis esses itinere constitutus, confidei exinde pervenire posse, si piis
eorum desideriis condescendas, intermisso dictae peregrinationis itinere, dilectum filium …
Archidiaconum de Zala ad nos destinare curasti … supplicans ut tibi hoc faciendi, non obstante voto
praedicto, licentiam praeberemus, et … in Cumania et Brodnic terra illae vicina, de cuius gentis
conversione speratur, legationis officium tibi committere dignaremur … Datum Anagniae II. Kal. Aug.
Pontificatus nostri anno I.

10. The full list of titles was

Bela Dei gratia Hungariae

Dalmatiae
Croatiae
Romae
Serviae
Gallicie
Lodomerie
Cumanieque Rex
.
11. The full text of the letter of Pope Gregory the IXth to King Béla of Hungary (14 November 1234) is:

In Cumanorum episcopatu, sicut accepimus, quidam populi, qui Walati vocantur, existunt, qui etsi
censeantur nomine christiano, sub una tamen fide varios ritos habentes et mores, illa committunt, que
huic sunt nomini inimica… Nam Romanam ecclesiam contempnentes, non a venerabili fratre nostro…
episcopo Cumanorum,qui loci diocesanus existit, sed a quibusdam pseudoepiscopis, Grecorum ritum
tenentibus, universa recipiunt ecclesiastica sacramenta, et nonnulli de regno Ungarie, tam Ungari,
quam Theutonici et alii orthodoxi, morandi causa cum ipsis transeunt ad eosdem, et sic cum eis, quia
populus unus facti cum eisdem Walathis eo contempto, premissa recipiunt sacramenta, in grave
orthodoxorum scandalum et derogationem non modicam fidei christiane. Ne igitur ex diversitate rituum
pericula proveniant animarum, nos volentes huiusmodi periculum obviare, ne prefati Walathi materiam
habeant pro defectu sacramentorum ad scismathicos episcopos accedendi, eidem episcopo nostris
damus litteris in mandatis, ut catholicum eis episcopum illi natione conformem provida deliberatione
constituat sibi iuxta generalis statuta concilii vicarium in predictis, qui ei per omnia sit obediens et
subiectus

.
12. The Diploma of King Andrew of Hungary , 11 March 1291, mentions the 'universities' of Saxon, Siculian and
Wallachian nobles at Alba Iulia, yet at the assembly ofBuda on 29 July 1292 there is mention of the 'universitas
nobilium Ongarorum, Siculorum, Saxonum et Comanorum'; the term Cumans simply replacing that of allachs. W
13. The text of the letter is

Bela dei gratia Hungariae … Rex … Contulimus … a fluvio Olth et Alpibus Ultrasylvanis totam
Cumaniam …excepta terra Szeneslai Woiavode Olacorum, quam eisdem relinquimus, prout iidem
hactenus tenuerunt … a primo introitu … fratrum usque ad viginti quinque annos omnes reditus
Cumaniac terrae integraliter domus percipiat iam praefecta, praeterquam de terre Szeneslay antedicta
…; Anno ab incurnatione domini MXXXL
VII. IIII. Nonas Junii. Regni autem nostri anno duodecimo.

Notes
Istvan Vasary: "Cumans and Tatars", Cambridge University Press, 2005;
Binder Pál: "Antecedente şi consecinte sud-transilvanene ale formarii voievodatului Munteniei (sec. XIII-XIV
.)" II.;
Századok 1995, Budapest;
Norman Angell: "Peace Theories and the Balkan W ar"; 1912.

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