title: Cumans

text: After crushing defeats and facing complete collapse, the Hungarians engaged in a suicidal betrayal of the Cumans, the people that had done the most in repelling the Mongols. Some of the barons went to Köten's house with the intent of killing him as scapegoat or handing him over to the Mongols, possibly believing the Cuman–Kipchaks were Mongol spies. However, the barons had Köten assassinated in Pest on 17 March 1241. When news of this outrage reached the Cuman camp there was an eruption of "Vesuvian intensity". In revenge for this victimization they slaughtered a vast number of Hungarians. The Cumans then left for the Balkans and the Second Bulgarian Empire, going on a rampage of destruction through Hungary "equal to that which Europe had not experienced since the incursions of the Mongols".


title: Cumans

text: With this departure of its only ally and most efficient and reliable military force, Hungary was now further weakened to attack, and a month later it was destroyed by the Mongols. After the invasion, King Béla IV, now penniless and humiliated after the confiscation of his treasury and loss of three of his border areas, begged the Cumans to return to Hungary and help rebuild the country. In return for their military service, Béla invited the Cumans to settle in areas of the Great Plain between the Danube and the Tisza rivers; this region had become almost uninhabited after the Mongol raids of 1241–1242. The Cuman tribes subsequently settled throughout the Great Hungarian Plain, creating two regions incorporating the name Cumania ("Kunság" in Hungarian): Greater Cumania ("Nagykunság") and Little Cumania ("Kiskunság"). Six of these tribes were the Borchol (Borscol), who settled in county of Temes (the Borchol clan was also active around Rus'; they were also a tribe of the Golden Horde mentioned as Burcoylu); Csertan, who settled in Little Cumania; Olas, who settled in Greater Cumania; Iloncsuk, who settled in Little Cumania; Kor, who settled in the county of Csanad and the sixth being, possibly, Koncsog.


title: Cumans

text: As the Cumans came into the kingdom, the Hungarian nobility suspected that the king intended to use the Cumans to strengthen his royal power at their expense. During the following centuries, the Cumans in Hungary were granted rights and privileges, the extent of which depended on the prevailing political situation. Some of these rights survived until the end of the 19th century, although the Cumans had long since assimilated with Hungarians. The Cumans were different in every way to the local population of Hungary – their appearance, attire, and hairstyle set them apart. In 1270, Elizabeth the Cuman, the daughter of a Cuman chieftain Seyhan, became queen of Hungary. Elizabeth ruled during the minority of her son (future king Ladislaus IV of Hungary) in the years of 1272–1277. A struggle took place between her and the noble opposition, which led to her imprisonment by the rebels; but supporters freed her in 1274. During her reign, gifts of precious clothes, land, and other objects were given to the Cumans with the intent to ensure their continued support, and in particular during the civil war between King Béla IV and Stephen V of Hungary, when both sides tried to gain Cuman support. During this conflict, in 1264, Béla sent Cuman troops commanded by the chieftain Menk to fight his son Stephen. Elizabeth married Stephen V; they were parents of six children. Their son, Ladislaus IV became the king of Hungary while her other son, Andrew of Hungary, became Duke of Slavonia.


title: Cumans

text: By 1262, Stephen V had taken the title of 'Dominus Cumanorum' and became the Cumans' highest judge. After his enthronement, the Cumans came directly under the power of the king of Hungary and the title of 'Dominus Cumanorum' (judge of the Cumans) had passed to the count palatine, who was the highest official after the king. The Cumans had their own representatives and were exempt from the jurisdiction of county officials.


title: Cumans

text: By the 15th century, the Cumans were permanently settled in Hungary, in villages whose structure corresponded to that of the local population, and they were Christianized. The Cumans did not always ally with the Hungarian kings – they assassinated Ladislaus IV; however, other sources suggest that certain Hungarian barons had a role in his murder, thus Ladislaus fell victim to his political enemies. The royal and ecclesiastical authorities incorporated, rather than excluded, the Cumans. The Cumans served as light cavalry in the royal army, an obligation since they were granted asylum. Being fierce and capable warriors (as noted by Istvan Vassary), they had an important role in the royal army. The king led them in numerous expeditions against neighbouring countries; most notably they played an important part in the Battle on the Marchfeld between Rudolf of Habsburg and Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1278 – King Ladislaus IV and the Cumans (which numbered 16,000) were on Rudolf's side.


title: Cumans

text: Hungarian kings relied on the Cumans to counterbalance the growing independent power of the nobility. Royal policy towards the Cumans was determined by their military and political importance. The Hungarian kings continuously hoped to use Cuman military support, the main reason for the invitation to settle and continued royal favors to them. The kings' main aim was to secure Cuman loyalty by various means, including intermarriage between the Cumans and the Hungarian royal family. Ladislaus IV "the Cuman" (whose mother was Queen Elizabeth the Cuman) was particularly fond of the Cumans and abandoned Hungarian culture and dress for Cuman culture, dress, and hairstyle; he lived with his Cuman entourage and concubines, who were Küpçeç, Mandola, and Ayduva.


title: Cumans

text: There were clashes between the Hungarians and Cumans in 1280 and 1282. The first involved the king convincing the Cumans not to leave the country, yet a small group still moved to Wallachia. The second was a battle between Cuman rebels and the king's forces. The Cumans initially lived in felt yurts, but as time went by they gradually gave up their nomadic way of life. The head of Cuman clans served the dual role of a military leader and a judge. The Cumans, having their own jurisdiction, were exempt from Hungarian jurisdiction and appealed to the king only in cases of unsettled disagreements. The Cumans paid 3000 gold bullions a year to the king, as well as other products and animals (since King Béla IV). They had own priests and they were not paying port and custom dues. Cuman villages did not have landlords and thus no manors were established; this meant that the people of these villages bought off statute labour. The royal guard of the Hungarian kings were Cumans, called "nyoger". From the 16th century onwards, the Cumans between the Danube and Tisza rivers were referred to as "Kiskun", while who lived to the east of the Tisza river were referred to as "nagykun". The majority of Cumans were exterminated during the Great Turkish War.


title: Cumans

text: The Cumanians' settlements were destroyed during the Turkish wars in the 16th and 17th centuries; more Cumans than Hungarians were killed. Around 1702, Cuman and Jasz privileges were lost. The court sold all three districts to the Teutonic Knights, though the lordship of these three regions was returned to Hungary. In 1734, Karcag became a market town, due to the permission to organise fairs. During this time, it had bought off its borders as its own property for 43,200 Rhenish florins. On May 6, 1745, due to the cooperation between the Cumans and Jasz people, as well as their material strength of their communities, they were able to officially buy off their freedom by paying off more than 500,000 Rhenish florins and by arming and sending to camp 1000 cavalry. At the beginning of the 18th century the Cumanian territories were resettled by Hungarian-speaking descendants of the Cumans. In the middle of the 18th century they got their status by becoming free farmers and no longer serfs. Here, the Cumans maintained their autonomy, language, and some ethnic customs well into the modern era. According to Pálóczi's estimation, originally 70–80,000 Cumans settled in Hungary. Other estimations are 180–200,000.


title: Cumans

text: Cuman involvement in Serbia first occurred as a result of marital ties between Serbia and Hungary. King Stephen V of Hungary gave his daughter, Catherine (whose mother was Queen Elizabeth the Cuman, daughter of the Cuman chieftain Seyhan) in marriage to Stefan Dragutin, son of King Stefan Uroš I of Serbia. King Uroš had promised both his son and King Stephen that he would make Dragutin king during his own lifetime; but he later declined this. Dragutin, in disappointment, requested aid from King Stephen, who said he would lend his Hungarian and Cuman troops. Subsequently, Dragutin set out with his troops and marched on his father. King Uroš had declined once more, and in 1276 Dragutin clashed with his father's army in Gacko, winning the battle. Afterwards, Dragutin took the throne and became king of Serbia. After King Stephen's death, his son, Ladislaus IV the Cuman, continued to support Dragutin, his brother-in-law. From 1270 onwards Cuman mercenaries and auxiliaries were present on both sides of the warring factions, sometimes ignoring the orders of the party they were fighting for, instead acting on their own and looting the countryside. The Cumans had also burned down Žiča, the former see of the archbishopric of the Serbian Church.


title: Cumans

text: By 1272, the region of Braničevo in Serbia had become a Hungarian banate, but soon afterwards, its rulers, Kudelin and Darman succeeded in making it an independent state. Kudelin and Darman were either Cuman warriors in Bulgarian service or Bulgarian nobles of Cuman origin. This move to independence had angered Ladislaus IV as well as Dragutin, who wanted to crush the rebellion. Darman and Kudelin were supported by the Tatars of the Golden Horde (Kipchak Khanate) against the Hungarians and Serbs. Subsequently, Dragutin attacked the brothers but failed to defeat them. After this attack the brothers hired Cuman and Tatar mercenaries. Dragutin in turn went to his brother, King Milutin for help. Dragutin battled the brothers again, this time with King Milutin's help as well as support from King Ladislaus IV (Cuman troops), and defeated them. After this King Ladislaus continued negotiations with Darman and Kudelin, but this had failed so he sent Transylvanian and Cuman troops against them. The Cumans had fought on both the Bulgarian and Hungarian-Serbian sides.


title: Cumans

text: The Cumans were also involved with the semi-independent Bulgarian Tsardom of Vidin between 1290 and 1300, which had become a target of Serbian expansion. In 1280 the Cuman noble, Shishman, became ruler of Vidin. He was perhaps granted the position of despot of Vidin soon after the accession of another Bulgarian noble of Cuman origin, Tsar George Terter I (r. 1280–1292), to the Bulgarian throne in 1280. Shishman was either a close relative or a brother of George Terter I. Shishman may have established his authority over the Vidin region as early as the 1270s, after the death of the previous ruler of that area, Jacob Svetoslav. Danilo, a Serbian archbishop, reported, "At that time in the land of the Bulgars a prince called Shishman emerged. He lived in the town of Vidin, and obtained the adjacent countries and much of the Bulgarian land." Some years after, Shishman invaded Serbia and got as far as Hvosno. After failing to capture Ždrelo, he returned to Vidin, which was subsequently attacked and devastated by King Milutin. However, Milutin replaced him on his throne on the basis that he would become Shishman's ally. In fact, the alliance was strengthened by Shishman marrying the daughter of the Serbian grand župan Dragos. Further security came about when Milutin later gave his daughter Anna as a wife to Shishman's son Michael, who in 1323 became Tsar of Bulgaria.


title: Cumans

text: The Cumans who remained scattered in the prairie of what is now southwest Russia joined the Mongol Golden Horde Khanate, and their descendants became assimilated with local populations including the Mongols (Tatars). The cultural heritage of those Cuman–Kipchaks who remained was transferred to the Mongols, whose élite adopted many of the traits, customs, and language of the Cumans and Kipchaks; the Cumans, Kipchaks, and Mongols finally became assimilated through intermarriage and became the Golden Horde. Those Cumans, with the Turko-Mongols, adopted Islam in the second half of the 13th and the first half of the 14th century.


title: Cumans

text: In 1071, Cumans participated in the Battle of Manzikert as mercenaries in the Byzantine army against the Seljuks. Emperor Romanus had sent the Cumans and Franks to secure the fortress of Ahlat on the shore of Lake Van. The Cumans, who did not receive their pay, later defected to the Seljuks. In 1086 Cumans devastated Byzantine settlements in the Balkans. Later the Cumans joined the Pechenegs and the former Hungarian king, Salomon, in plundering the Byzantine Balkan provinces. Subsequent to this, the Cumans gave aid to Tatos, the chief of Distra. In 1091 there was a disagreement in plunder shares between the Cumans and Pechenegs, which resulted in a breach between the two peoples; this contributed to the Cumans (led by Togortok/Tugorkan and Boniak, who had repeatedly raided Kievan Rus') joining Alexios I Komnenos against the Pechenegs in the Battle of Levounion. A couple of weeks afterwards the Cumans invaded the Balkans. After the Battle of Kalka River a large group of 10,000 Cumans invaded Thrace where they pillaged towns that had recently come under the control of the Nicaean Empire. This continued until 1242 when Nicaean emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes, in response to the situation, won their favour with "gifts and diplomacy". Thereafter he succeeded in settling most of them in Anatolia throughout the Meander valley and the region east of Philadelphia. Most of these Cumans enrolled in the army and soon afterwards were baptized. Vatatzes' policy towards the Cumans was distinguished by its enormous scale and relatively successful outcome.


title: Cumans

text: Cumans had served as mercenaries in the armies of the Byzantine Empire since the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118) and were one of the most important elements of the Byzantine army until the mid-14th century. They served as light cavalry (horse-archers) and as standing troops; those in the central army were collectively called "Skythikoi/Skythikon". Other Cumans lived a more dangerous life as highlanders on the fringes of the empire, possibly being involved in a mixture of agriculture and transhumance, acting as a buffer between Nicaean farmers and Turkic nomads. These Cumans were frequently mustered for Byzantine campaigns in Europe. In 1242 they were employed by Vatatzes in his siege of Thessaloniki. In 1256 emperor Theodore II Laskaris left a force of 300 Cumans with the Nicaean governor of Thessaloniki. In 1259, 2000 Cuman light cavalry fought for the Nicaean Empire at the Battle of Pelagonia. Cumans were again involved in 1261, where the majority of the 800 troops under Alexios Strategopoulos that retook Constantinople, were Cumans. Large Cuman contingents were also part of the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos' European campaigns of 1263–1264, 1270–1272 and 1275. Cumans were again employed by emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos in 1292, in his campaign against the Despotate of Epirus. The Cumans, together with Turk mercenaries, terminated the campaign by an unauthorized retreat.


title: Cumans

text: In contrast to their light cavalry counterparts, Cuman standing troops appear as a distinct group only once, albeit very significantly. During the election of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos to the regency in 1258, after the consultation of Latin mercenaries, the Cumans present at the court offered their opinion on the matter in "good Greek". This is indicative of the Cumans spending considerable time in the company of Greek speakers. The importance of this Cuman group came from its tendency to foster assimilation (Hellenization) and, through time, the social advancement of its members. An example of this influential group was Sytzigan (known as Syrgiannes after baptism), who before 1290 became "Megas Domestikos" (Commander-in-Chief of the Army) under Emperor Andronikos II. His son, Syrgiannes Palaiologos, attained the title of Pinkernes and was a friend of Andronikos III Palaiologos and John Kantakouzenos. An act from the archive of the Lavra of Athanasios mentions Cuman "Stratioti" (mercenaries from the Balkans) in the region of Almopia who received two "douloparoikoi" in 'pronoia' (a Byzantine form of feudalism based on government assignment of revenue-yielding property to prominent individuals in return for military service) some time before 1184.


title: Cumans

text: The Cumans had been wandering and plundering Byzantine lands. Emperor Ioannes III wanted to prevent further damage and to take advantage of their military abilities, therefore he transferred some of these Cumans to the Byzantine Service, some in Thrace and Macedonia, and some in Anatolia to the Meander (Menderes) Basin (Meander (Menderes) river and its surroundings) and some to the Phrygian And Bithynia Field. They were settled in the modern regions of Ankara, Afyon, Eskişehir, Bolu, Düzce, Kastamonu, Sakarya and Zonguldak as farmers, and in the territories of the Nicene Empire and the Latin Empire, to be protected from the danger of Mongol and Seljuk invasion. When the Ottomans conquered the lands they lived in, these Cumans intermixed with the Turkmen and were assimilated among the Muslim Oghuz Turks.


title: Cumans

text: Horses were central to Cuman culture and way of life, and their main activity was animal husbandry. The knight Robert de Clari described the Cumans as nomadic warriors who raised horses, sheep, goats, camels, and cattle. They moved north with their herds in summer and returned south in winter. Some of the Cumans led a semi-settled life and took part in trading and farming, as well as blacksmithing, furriery, shoe making, saddle making, bow making, and clothes making. They mainly sold and exported animals, mostly horses, and animal products. They attached feeding sacks to the bridles of their horses, allowing them to cover great distances. They could go on campaign with little baggage and carry everything they needed. They wore sheepskin and were armed with composite bows and arrows. They prayed to the first animal they saw in the morning. Like the Bulgars, the Cumans were known to drink blood from their horse (they would cut a vein) when they ran out of water far from an available source. Their traditional diet consisted of soup with millet and meat and included beer, curdled mare's milk, kumis, and bread (though bread could be rare depending on location).


title: Cumans

text: The fundamental unit of Cuman society was the family, made up of blood relatives. A group of families formed a clan, led by a chief; a group of clans formed a tribe, led by a khan. A typical Cuman clan was named after an object, animal, or a leader of the clan. The names of the leaders of clans or tribes sometimes ended in "apa/aba". Cuman names were descriptive and represented a personal trait or an idea. Clans lived together in movable settlements named 'Cuman towers' by Kievan Rus' chroniclers.


title: Cumans

text: The Cuman–Kipchak tribes formed sub-confederations governed by charismatic ruling houses – they acted independently of each other and had opposing policies. The territory controlled distinguished each Cuman tribe: the "seashore" Cuman tribes lived in the steppes between the mouths of the Dnieper and the Dniester; the "coastal" tribes lived on the coast of the Sea of Azov; the "Dnieper" tribes lived on both banks of the bend in the Dnieper Valley; and the "Don" Cumans lived in the Don River Valley. D. A. Rasovskii notes five separate independent Cuman groups: the central Asiatic, the Volga-Yayik (or Ural), the Donets-Don (between the Volga and the Dnieper), the lower course of the Dnieper, and the Danube. The Rus' grouped the Cuman–Kipchaks into two categories: the Non Wild Polvcians – 'civilised' Cumans of the western part of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation who had friendly relations with Kievan Rus' – and the Wild Polvcians  – who formed the eastern part of the confederation and who had hostile relations with Kievan Rus'. As the Cuman–Kipchaks gained more territory, they drove off or dominated many tribes – such as the Oghuz, various Iranian and Finnic tribes, Pechenegs, and Slavs. They also raided the Byzantine Empire and a few times joined the Normans from southern Italy and the Hungarians in doing so. Over the course of time feudalism would take over the traditional social structure of the Cumans, and this led to the changing of identity from kinship to territory-based. Some of the Cumans eventually settled and led sedentary lives involved in agriculture and crafts such as leather and iron working and weapon making. Others became merchants and traded from their towns along the ancient trade routes to regions such as the Orient, Middle East, and Italy.


title: Cumans

text: The Cumans also played the role of middlemen in trade between Byzantium and the East, which passed through the Cuman-


title: Cumans

text: controlled ports of Sudak (Surozh), Oziv, and Saksyn. Several land routes between Europe and the Near East ran through Cuman territories: the Zaloznyi, the Solianyi, and the Varangian. Cuman towns – Sharukan, Suhrov/Sugrov, and Balin – appeared in the Donets River Basin; they were also inhabitted by other peoples besides the Cumans. Due to the practice of Cuman towns being named after their khans, town names changed over time – the town of Sharukan appears as Osenev, Sharuk, and Cheshuev. Rock figures called stone babas, which are found throughout southern Ukraine and other areas on the steppes of Russia, were closely connected with the Cuman religious cult of shamanism. The Cumans tolerated all religions, and Islam and Christianity spread quickly among them. As they were close to the Kievan Rus' principalities, Cuman khans and important families began to slavicize their names – for example, Yaroslav Tomzakovych, Hlib Tyriievych, Yurii Konchakovych, and Danylo Kobiakovych. Ukrainian princely families were often connected by marriage with Cuman khans, lessening wars and conflicts. Sometimes the princes and khans waged joint campaigns; for example, in 1221 they attacked the trading town of Sudak on the Black Sea, which was held by the Seljuk Turks and which interfered with Rus'-Cuman trade.


title: Cumans

text: The Cumans were reported to be handsome people with blond hair, fair skin and blue eyes, and desirable women. Cuman women had a high reputation for their beauty amongst the Russian aristocracy. Robert de Clari reported that the Cumans often wore a sleeveless sheepskin vest, usually worn in conjunction with bracers. Underneath the vest was worn a short or long sleeved tunic/tabard, extended to the mid calf, splitting in the front and back between the legs. Men wore trousers and a kaftan, each fastened by a belt, which was the traditional costume. The women also wore caftans, as well as pants, dresses, and tunics shorter than those worn by men, sometimes split along the front, back, and sides. Clothes were commonly coloured deep crimson for decoration. Cuman men wore distinguishing conical felt or leather hats, pointed at the top with a broad brim (if made of felt) or a fur trim around the base (if made of leather). The brim of the hat formed a sharp angle at the front and upturned on the rear and at the sides. Women wore a large variety of head dresses and also wore conical hats but with a felt top and a cloth veil extending down the back. This veil only covered the back neck and not the hair or face; another source states that it did cover the hair and that sometimes one or two braids were visible. Women wore a variety of jewellery, such as torques, a type of neck ornament consisting of one or several metal strands attached to a ribbon or necklace and hung around the neck, and head dresses that were made of a series of silver rings on a solid, cylindrically shaped material that was fastened at the temples. The men shaved the top of their head, while the rest of the hair was plaited into several braids; they also had prominent moustaches. Other Cumans also wore their hair very long, without shaving the top. The women had their hair loose or braided with buns twisting at the side. Both men and women followed a tradition of braiding coloured ribbons into their hair. For footwear, Cuman men and women wore long leather or felt boots with support straps connected to their belt. Both men and women wore cloth or metal arm bands.


title: Cumans

text: When the Cuman–Kipchaks swore oaths, it was done with swords in the hands that touched the body of a dog cut in two. The Italian Franciscan friar, traveler, and historian, John of Plano Carpini, says that when the Hungarian prince married the Cuman princess, ten Cumans swore over a dog cut in half with a sword that they would defend the Kingdom of Hungary. The Christian writer and historian of the crusades, Jean de Joinville (c. 1224–c. 1317), mentions that when the Cumans and Byzantines made an alliance, the Cumans made a dog pass between both sides and cut it with a sword, obliging the Byzantines to do the same; the Cumans said that both they and the Byzantines should be cut in pieces if they failed each other. Joinville described a Cuman noble's funeral: he was buried seated on a chair whilst his best horse and best sergeant were placed beside him alive. Prior to this the sergeant was given a large sum of money by the Cuman leaders for the purpose of handing it back to them when they too would come into the afterlife. The Cuman khan also gave a letter of recommendation to the sergeant, which was addressed to the first king of the Cumans, in which the present king testified to the sergeant's good character. After these proceedings a huge mound was raised above the tomb. Cumans were buried in their warrior outfits. Wolves were greatly respected by the Cuman–Kipchaks, and they would sometimes howl along with them in commune. The personal bodyguard of the khan were called Bori (wolf in Turkic). Like other nomadic nations, the Cuman–Kipchaks initiated blood bonds (with the purpose of symbolically cementing a bond) by the drinking or mixing of each other's blood.


title: Cumans

text: Amongst the Cuman–Kipchaks ethnic names often became personal names – this was also practiced amongst the Mongols. This practice involved naming newborns after the names of conquered tribes and people. Names such as 'Baskord' (from the Bashkirs), 'Imek' (from the Kimeks), 'Kitan' (from the Mongol Khitan people), and 'Urus' were used by the Cumans. Friar William of Rubruck, a Franciscan traveler who visited the Mongols in 1253–55, provides another account of Cuman customs. He mentions that Cumans built statues for dead notables, facing east and holding a cup (these statues are not to be confused with the balbals, which represent the enemies that were killed by him). He also notes that for richer notables, the Cumans built tombs in the form of houses. Rubruk gives an eyewitness account of a man who had recently died: the Cumans had hung up sixteen horses' hides, in groups of four, between high poles, facing the four points of the compass. The mourners then also placed "kumis" for the dead man to consume. Other graves had plenty of stones statues placed around them (balbals), with four tall ones placed to face the points of the compass. Rubrick also wrote "Here the Cumans, who are called Chapchat [Kipchak] used to pasture their flocks, but the Germans call them Valans and their province Valania, and Isidorus calls (the region stretching) from the river Don as far as the Azov Sea and the Danube, Alania. And this land stretches from the Danube as far as the Don, the borderline of Asia and Europe; one can reach there in two months with quick riding as the Tatars ride... and this country which extends from the Danube to the Tanais [Don] was all inhabited by the Chapcat Comans, and even further from the Don to the Volga, which rivers are at a distance of ten days' journey...And in the territory between these two rivers [i.e. the Don and the Volga] where we continued our way, the Cuman Kipchaks lived."


title: Cumans

text: For many years before the Mongol invasion, the Cuman–Kipchaks were in ambiguous relationships with their neighbours (often through marital and martial alliances), the Kwarizmians, Byzantines, Georgians, and the Rus'; at a given time they could be at peace with one, at war with another. The Byzantine Empire hesitated to go to war with the Cuman–Kipchaks north of the Danube River; instead, like the Hungarians, they chose to bribe them. Since Kwarizm had more important enemies, they hired the Cuman–Kipchaks for garrison duty. There were numerous ways the Cuman–Kipchaks could make a living as nomadic warriors. One could partake in questing and raiding with their tribe and subsequently keep the spoils. Another avenue was to seek employment as a mercenary in exchange for the guarantee of loot. One could serve in a garrison, although this caused those Cumans to eventually forget their light cavalry skills and become poor infantry. This was fully exploited when the Mongol army destroyed the Cuman–Kipchak garrison in Samarkand. Cuman–Kipchak women fought beside their fellow male warriors. Women were shown great respect and would often ride on a horse or wagon while the men walked.


title: Cumans

text: In their travels, the Cumans used wagons to transport supplies as well as weapons such as mangonels and ballistas. Light felt tents with a frame consisting of wooden laths could be carried on top of wagons and easily be placed on the ground. The windows of the tents were "grilled" in such a way that it was difficult to see in but easy to see out. As the Cumans became more settled, they constructed forts for defence and settlement purposes. The Cuman–Kipchaks used dung for fires when firewood was not available. The Cumans had very strict rules (taboos) against theft, and thus would, without prohibition, loosen their horses, camels, and livestock (sheep, oxen) without shepherds or guards when they were stationary. The law of blood vengeance was common among the Cuman–Kipchaks.


title: Cumans

text: The Cuman calendar was atypical, as it showed neither specific Christian influences nor any trace of the Chinese–Turkic twelve-year animal cycle; it appeared to be an archaic system.


title: Cumans

text: Up until the late 11th and early 12th centuries, the Cumans fought mainly as light cavalry, later developing heavy cavalry. The main weapons of the Cumans were the recurved and, later, the composite bow (worn on the hip with the quiver), and the javelin, curved sword (a sabre less curved than a scimitar), mace, and heavy spear for lancing. Due to European influence, some of the later period Cumans wielded war hammers and axes. For defense they used a round or almond shaped shield, short sleeved mail armour, consisting of commonly alternating solid and riveted rows, Lamellar armour (iron or leather), leather cuirass, shoulder spaulders, conical or dome shaped iron helmet with a detachable iron or bronze anthropomorphic face plate (gold for princes and khans), and at times a camail suspended from the helmet, consisting of chain or leather. The armour was strengthened by leather or felt disks that were attached to the chest and back. The items suspended from the belts were a bow case with bow, a quiver, a knife and a comb. They also wore elaborate masks in battle, shaped like and worn over the face. The Cuman Mamluks in Egypt were, in general, more heavily armed than Mongol warriors, sometimes having body armour and carrying a bow and arrow, axe, club, sword, dagger, mace, shield, and a lance. The Cuman Mamluks rode on larger Arabian horses in comparison to steppe ones.


title: Cumans

text: The commonly employed Cuman battle tactic was repeated attacks by light cavalry archers, facing and shooting to the rear of the horse, then a feigned retreat and skilled ambush. To maintain this tactic to optimum efficiency, the Cumans kept a large number of reserve horses (10–12 remounts) to replace fatigued ones, so that a fresh horse was available at all times. The horsemen used oval shaped stirrups and employed a large bridle for their horses. Another important accessory was a small whip attached to the rider's wrist. Tribal banners were either made of cloth with tribal emblems or dyed horse hair – with more tails signifying greater importance of the warrior or group. Some of the Cumans who moved west were influenced by Western heraldry, and they eventually displayed hybridized European-Cuman heraldry.


title: Cumans

text: Niketas Choniates, while describing a Battle of Beroia in the late 12th century, gave an interesting description of the nomadic battle techniques of the Cumans:


title: Cumans

text: They [The Cumans] fought in their habitual manner, learnt from their fathers. They would attack, shoot their arrows and begin to fight with spears. Before long they would turn their attack into flight and induce their enemy to pursue them. Then they would show their faces instead of their backs, like birds cutting through the air, and would fight face to face with their assailants and struggle even more bravely. This they would do several times, and when they gained the upper hand over the Romans [Byzantines], they would stop turning back again. Then they would draw their swords, release an appalling roar, and fall upon the Romans quicker than a thought. They would seize and massacre those who fought bravely and those who behaved cowardly alike."


title: Cumans

text: Each one has at least ten or twelve horses, and they have them so well-trained that they follow them wherever they want to take them, and they mount first on one and then on another. When they are on a raid, each horse has a bag hung on his nose, in which his fodder is put, and he feeds as he follows his master, and they do not stop going by night or by day. And they ride so hard that they cover in one day and one night fully six days' journey or seven or eight. And while they are on the way they will not seize anything or carry it along, before their return, but when they are returning, then they seize plunder and make captives and take anything they can get. Nor do they go armed, except that they wear a garment of sheepskin and carry bows and arrows.


title: Cumans

text: The Cuman people practiced the shamanistic religion of Tengrism. Their belief system had animistic and shamanistic elements; they celebrated their ancestors and provided the dead with objects whose lavishness was considered an indicator to the recipient's social rank.


title: Cumans

text: The Cumans referred to their shamans as Kam (female: kam katun); their activities were referred to as qamlyqet, meaning "to prophesy". The Cumans used Iranian words to designate certain concepts: "uchuchmak" (a native Turkic word cognate with Turkish "uçuşmak") meaning "fly away, paradise" and "keshene" meaning "nest" (an Iranian borrowing; the concept was that the soul has the form of a bird).


title: Cumans

text: Funerals for important members involved firstly creating a mound, then placing the dead inside, along with various items deemed useful in the afterlife, a horse (like the Bulgars), and sometimes a servant or slave.


title: Cumans

text: Cuman divination practices used animals, especially the wolf and dog. The dog "It/Kopec" was sacred to the Cuman–Kipchaks, to the extent that an individual, tribe, or clan would be named after the dog or type of dog. Cumans had shamans who communicated with the spirit world; they were consulted for questions of outcomes.


title: Cumans

text: The Cumans in Christian territories were baptised in 1227 by Robert, Archbishop of Esztergom, in a mass baptism in Moldavia on the orders of Bortz Khan, who swore allegiance to King Andrew II of Hungary.


title: Cumans

text: The Codex Cumanicus, which was written by Italian merchants and German missionaries between 1294 and 1356, was a linguistic manual for the Turkic Cuman language of the Middle Ages, designed to help Catholic missionaries communicate with the Cumans. It consisted of a Latin–Persian–Cuman glossary, grammar observations, lists of consumer goods and Cuman riddles. The first copy was written in the monastery of St. John near Saray. A later copy (1330–1340) is thought to have been written in a Franciscan friary. Later, different sections of the codex, such as the Interpreter's Book (which was for commercial, merchant use) and the Missionaries' Book (which contains sermons, psalms and other religious texts along with Cuman riddles) were combined. The Interpreter's Book consists of 110 pages; pages 1–63 contain alphabetically arranged verbs in Latin, Persian and Cuman. The Missionaries' Book contains vocabulary listings, grammatical notes, Cuman riddles, religious texts and some Italian verses. The Cuman riddles are the oldest documented material of Turkic riddles and constitute Turkic folklore. Some of the riddles have almost identical modern equivalents (for example Kazakh). The Codex Cumanicus is composed of several Cuman–Kipchak dialects.


title: Cumans

text: The Cumans' language was a form of Kipchak Turkic and was, until the 14th century, a lingua franca over much of the Eurasian steppes. A number of Cuman–Kipchak–Arabic grammar glossaries appeared in Mamluk lands in the 14th and 15th centuries. It is supposed that the Cumans had their own writing system (mentioned by the historian Gyárfás), which could have been a runic script. The supposition that the Cumans had a runic script is also suggested by the academic Hakan Aydemir, who mentioned a buckle with runic writing from a Cuman grave There was also some Khazar Jewish linguistic influence upon the Cumans – the Cuman words "shabat" and "shabat kun" (meaning Saturday) are related to the Hebrew word "Shabbat" (meaning Sabbath). These Hebrew influences in the language may have resulted from contact or intermarriage between Khazars and some of the Cumans in the mid-11th century.


title: Cumans

text: The looks of a typical Cuman are a matter of sensationalist debates. This is because in spite of their Eastern origins, several sources point at them being white, blue-eyed, and blond. It is important to elaborate, however, that the full range of available data sketches a more complex picture. While the written sources predominantly emphasize a fair complexion (e.g. Adam of Bremen referring to them as "the blond ones") the craniometric and genetic data, as well as contemporary art, support the image of a highly heterogenous in appearance people. Skulls with East Asian features are often found in burials associated with the Cumans and Pechenegs in Europe. The genetic material is mixed, albeit that European matrilineal DNA predominates (see also below). Unlike the written sources, paintings and miniatures from between the 12th and 14th century (close in time to the settlement of Cumans to Central Europe) tend to support the picture of a mixed population that is suggested by the craniometric and genetic analyses. In the Anjou Legendarium Cumans are depicted with East Asian features and dark hair, while a fresco in the Kraskovo church in Slovakia confirms the stereotype of the blond Cuman. There are also depictions of Cumans with Caucasian features, but dark complexion (e.g. in the Képes Krónika Pictum). Notably, all of these phenotypes can be traced to groups described in Chinese and Arab sources, that are assumed to have later merged in the Cuman–Kipchak confederation. Fair complexion, e.g. red hair and blue or green eyes, were already noted by the Chinese among the Qincha (Kipchak), while the Tiele (to whom the Qun belonged) were not described as foreign looking, i.e. they were likely East Asian in appearance. A dark complexion was attributed to the Pechenegs by Ibn Fadlan, who did not specify, however, if their features are European or Asian. The Kipchak, Qun and Pechenegs all assimilated into the Cuman-Kipchak confederation, eventually.


title: Cumans

text: Integrating evidence from texts, art, craniometric and genetic analyses ultimately supports the hypothesis of a diverse in appearance population. The presence of blond Cumans was likely noted by contemporary writers, because it was unexpected given how similar the Cumans were in culture and customs to the Mongols and Pechenegs.


title: Cumans

text: As the Cumans ceased to have a state of their own, they were gradually absorbed into Eurasian populations (certain families in Hungary, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Turkey, Romania, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tatars in Crimea). The Cumans in Dobruja were assimilated into Bulgarian and Romanian people. Traces of the Cumans can still be found in placenames stretching from China to the Balkans, such as:


title: Cumans

text: The flower, "Kumoniga" (melilot), is also a relic of the Cumans. The Gagauz people are believed by some historians to be descendants of the Cumans; the name Qipcakli occurs as a modern Gagauz surname. The etymology of the Sea of Azov is popularly said to derive from a certain Cuman prince named Azum or Asuf, who was killed defending a town in this region in 1067.


title: Cumans

text: As the Mongols pushed westward and devastated their state, most of the Cumans fled to Hungary, as well as the Second Bulgarian Empire since they were major military allies. The Cuman participation in the creation of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1185 and thereafter brought about basic changes in the political and ethnic sphere of Bulgaria and the Balkans. Bulgarian Tsar Ivan-Asen II was descended from Cumans and settled them in the southern parts of the country, bordering the Latin Empire and the Despotate of Thessalonica. Those territories are in present-day Turkish Europe, Bulgaria, and North Macedonia.


title: Cumans

text: The Cumans who settled in Hungary had their own self-government in a territory that bore their name, Kunság, that survived until the 19th century. Two regions – Little Cumania and Greater Cumania – exist in Hungary. The name of the Cumans ("Kun") is preserved in county names such as Bács-Kiskun, Kunbaja and Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok. The Cumans were organized into four tribes in Hungary: Kolbasz/Olas in upper Cumania around Karcag and the other three in lower Cumania.


title: Cumans

text: The Cuman language disappeared from Hungary in the 17th or 18th century, possibly following the Turkish occupation. The last person who was able to speak some Cumanian on a decaying level was István Varró from Karcag, who died in 1770. During the 1740s, when Cuman was no longer spoken, a Cuman version of the Lord's Prayer suddenly surfaced. It was taught in schools in Greater Cumania and Little Cumania until the mid-20th century, in turn becoming a cornerstone of Cuman identity. In the 20th century enthusiastic self-styled Cumans collected 'Cuman folklore', which consisted of elements such as a traditional Cuman dance, Cuman characteristics such as pride and staunch Calvinism. (By religion, as may be seen by figures for religion in Hungary, the Kiskunság is almost entirely Roman Catholic, whereas in Nagykunság, Protestants do outnumber Catholics, but only narrowly.) This ethnic consciousness was linked to the legal privileges attached to the Cumans' territory. Their 19th-century biographer, Gyárfás István, in 1870 was of the opinion that they originally spoke Hungarian, together with the Iazyges population. Despite this mistake, he has the best overview on the subject concerning details of material used. Cuman influence is also present in the modern Hungarian language in the form of loanwords, particularly in the areas of horse-breeding, eating, hunting and fighting.


title: Cumans

text: In 1918, after World War I, the Cuman National Council was formed in Hungary, which was an attempt to separate the Kunság region (Greater Cumania and Little Cumania) from the Hungarian state, with the aim of forming a new independent Cuman state in Europe. The Cuman National Council declared the independence of Kunság, and elected its president Count Gedeon Ráday on December 18. However the council's efforts remained unsuccessful. In 1939, Cuman descendants organized celebrations for the 700th anniversary of their arrival in Hungary, where they emphasized their separate ethnic existence and identity with ceremonial speeches. In 1995, The Cuman Memorial Site was inaugurated as a tribute to the Cuman ancestors and the redemption of the former Nagykun District. In 2009, and subsequently 2012, a World Meeting of the Cumans was held in Karcag. During the first meeting, which lasted two weeks, academic conferences, historical exhibitions, publications, presentations of traditional and cultural festivals and lectures in relation to the Cumans were held. In the 2012 meeting, the minister for rural development, Sándor Fazekas, mentioned how Cuman traditions are still kept alive, such as costumes, folk songs, and food.


title: Cumans

text: Toponyms of the Cuman language origin can be found in some Romanian counties of Galați, Teleorman and Vaslui, including the names of those three counties. When some of the Cumans moved to Hungary, they brought with them their Komondor dogs. The Komondor breed has been declared one of Hungary's national treasures, to be preserved and protected from modification. The name Komondor derives from Koman-dor, meaning "Cuman dog".


title: Cumans

text: 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. Traces of the Cumans are the Bulgarian surnames Kunev or Kumanov (feminine Kuneva, Kumanova) and Asenov, its variants in North Macedonia Kunevski, Kumanovski (feminine Kumanovska); the Kazakh surname Kumanov; the widespread Hungarian surname Kun; the Hungarian surnames of Csertan, Csoreg, Kokscor, Karacs, Kekcse; the Hungarian surname of Kangur – a byname of one of the families of Karcag (the words Kangur and Karcag derive from Qongur and Qarsaq respectively, and occur as modern day clan names of the Kazakhs – the Kipchak tribes Qongur and Qarsaq, as well as names used by the Kirgyz in the Manas epic – mentioned as Kongur-bay, lord of the Mongol Kalmyk people and the warrior Kongrolu); the Hungarian surname of Kapscog (from "Kipchak")- Kapsog Tojasos Kovacs, a byname of Kovacs family, as well as the name of Eszenyi Kopscog of Hungary; and the Greek surname Asan. The names "Coman" in Romania and its derivatives, however, do not appear to have any connection to the medieval Cumans, as it was unrecorded until very recent times and the places with the highest frequency of such names has not produced any archaeological evidence of Cuman settlement.


title: Cumans

text: Over time, Cuman culture exerted an influence on the Ceangăi/Hungarian Csangos and Romanian culture in Moldavia, due to the Hungarians in Moldavia socializing and mingling with the Cumans between the 14th and 15th centuries. Hakan Aydemir, a Turkic linguist, states that the 'ir' of the Ceangăi/Csangos and Székelys dialect, which means 'carve', 'notch', as well as the words 'urk/uruk' (meaning 'lasso', 'noose'), 'dszepu (meaning 'wool') and 'korhany' (meaning 'small mountain', 'hill') are of Cuman–Kipchak origin. Additionally, the Cumans could have also had some connection with Székelys runes. Several Romanian as well as Hungarian academics believe that a significant Cuman population lived in Moldavia in the 15th century; these Cumans later assimilated into the Romanian population. People in Hungary with the surname Palóc are descended from the Cumans (and possibly Kabars and Pechenegs) – "Palóc" origintates from the Slavic word "Polovets"/"Polovtsy". Although the Palócs were similar to the Hungarians in origins and culture, they were considered distinct groups by the Turks. The first written record of the word "palóc" as the name of a people appears in the Mezőkövesd register in 1784.


title: Cumans

text: Some scholars believe there is also no connection between the Cumans and the Dutch surnames Kooman(s), Koman(s), Koeman(s), (De) Cooman(s) and Coman(s), used particularly in the Flemish area and the Dutch county of Zeeland. They believe these surnames are medieval and were used in the meaning of 'merchant'.


title: Cumans

text: However, other scholars believe the Coumans surname found in the Low Countries and France has its origins in the Cumans.


title: Cumans

text: The Cumans appear in Rus' culture in the Rus' epic poem "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" and are the military enemies of the Rus' in Alexander Borodin's opera "Prince Igor", which features a set of Polovtsian Dances.


title: Cumans

text: The name Cuman is the name of several villages in Turkey, such as Kumanlar, including the Black Sea region. The indigenous people in the Altai Republic, Kumandins (Kumandy), are descended from the Cumans.


title: Cumans

text: By the 17th century, the Kumandins lived along the river Charysh, near its confluence with the river Ob. A subsequent relocation to the Altai was driven by their unwillingness to pay "yasak" (financial tribute) to the Russian sovereign. N. Aristov linked the Kumandins – and the Chelkans – to the ancient Turks, "who in the 6th-8th CC. CE created in Central Asia a powerful nomadic state, which received ... the name Turkic Kaganate".


title: Cumans

text: Persons of Cuman/Kipchak origin also became Mamluk leaders: a prominent Cuman Sultan of the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate, Sultan Baibars (reigned 1260–1277), defeated King Louis IX of France, and resisted the Mongol invasion, defeating the Mongol army at the Battle of Ain Jalut (1260) and the Battle of Elbistan (1277) (by using the feigned-retreat tactic). Mamluks in the empire retained a particularly strong sense of Cuman identity, to the degree that the biography of Sultan Baibars, as reflected by Ibn Shaddad, focused on his birth and early years in Desht-i-Kipchak ("Steppe of the Kipchaks"/Cumania), as well as enslavement and subsequent travels to Bulgaria and the Near East. The historian Dimitri Korobeinikov relates how Baibars' story sums up the tragic fate of many Cumans after the Battle of the Kalka River (1223) and the Mongol invasion of Europe (1223–1242). Roman Kovalev states that this story can further be seen as a mechanism for the preservation of a collective memory broadly reflecting a sense of Cuman identity in the Mamluk Sultanate. In the latter part of the 1260s the Mamluks were allied with the Golden Horde against the Ilkhanate. The creation of this specific warrior class, described as the "mamluk phenomenon" by David Ayalon, was of great political importance.


title: Cumans

text: In the Hungarian village of Csengele, on the borders of what is still called Kiskunsag ("Little Cumania"), an archeological excavation in 1975 revealed the ruins of a medieval church with 38 burials. Several burials had all the characteristics of a Cumanian group: richly jeweled, non-Hungarian, and definitely Cumanian-type costumes; the 12-spiked mace as a weapon; bone girdles; and associated pig bones. In view of the cultural objects and the historical data, the archeologists concluded that the burials were indeed Cumanian from the mid-13th century; hence some of the early settlers in Hungary were from that ethnic group. In 1999 the grave of a high-status Cumanian from the same period was discovered about 50 meters from the church of Csengele; this was the first anthropologically authenticated grave of a Cumanian chieftain in Hungary, and the contents are consistent with the ethnic identity of the excavated remains from the church burials. A separated area of the chieftain grave contained a complete skeleton of a horse.


title: Cumans

text: The ethnic origins of the Cumans are uncertain. The Cumans were reported to have had blond hair, fair skin and blue eyes (which set them apart from other groups and later puzzled historians), although they were often distinguished by their Altaic-Mongoloid features.


title: Cumans

text: A genetic study done on Cuman burials in Hungary determined that they had substantially more western Eurasian mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages. In a 2005 study by Erika Bogacsi-Szabo "et al." of the mtDNA of the Cuman nomad population that migrated into the Carpathian basin during the 13th century, six haplogroups were revealed.


title: Cumans

text: One of these haplogroups belongs to the M lineage (haplogroup D) and is characteristic of Eastern Asia, but this is the second most frequent haplogroup in southern Siberia too. All the other haplogroups (H, V, U, U3, and JT) are West Eurasian, belonging to the N macrohaplogroup. Out of the eleven remains, four samples belonged to haplogroup H, two to haplogroup U, two to haplogroup V, and one each to the JT, U3, and D haplogroups. In comparison to the Cumans, modern Hungarian samples represent 15 haplogroups. All but one is a West Eurasian haplogroup [the remaining one is East Asian (haplogroup F)], but all belong to the N lineage. Four haplogroups (H, V, U*, JT), present in the ancient samples, can also be found in the modern Hungarians, but only for haplogroups H and V were identical haplotypes found. Haplogroups U3 and D occur exclusively in the ancient group, and 11 haplogroups (HV, U4, U5, K, J, J1a, T, T1, T2, W, and F) occur only in the modern Hungarian population. Haplogroup frequency in the modern Hungarian population is similar to other European populations, although haplogroup F is almost absent in continental Europe; therefore the presence of this haplogroup in the modern Hungarian population can reflect some past contribution. "The results suggested that the Cumanians, as seen in the excavation at Csengele, were far from genetic homogeneity. Nevertheless, the grave artifacts are typical of the Cumanian steppe culture; and five of the six skeletons that were complete enough for anthropometric analysis appeared Asian rather than European (Horváth 1978, 2001), including two from the mitochondrial haplogroup H, which is typically European. It is interesting that the only skeleton for which anthropological examination indicated a partly European ancestry was that of the chieftain, whose haplotype is most frequently found in the Balkans."


title: Cumans

text: The study concluded that the mitochondrial motifs of Cumans from Csengele show the genetic admixtures with other populations rather than the ultimate genetic origins of the founders of Cuman culture. The study further mentioned, "This may be the result of the habits of the Cumanian nomads. Horsemen of the steppes formed a political unit that was independent from their maternal descent or their language and became members of a tribal confederation. According to legends, Cumanians frequently carried off women from raided territories. So the maternal lineages of a large part of the group would reflect the maternal lineage of those populations that had geographic connection with Cumanians during their migrations. Nevertheless, the Asian mitochondrial haplotype in sample Cu26 may still reflect the Asian origins of the Cumanians of Csengele. However, by the time the Cumanians left the Trans-Carpathian steppes and settled in Hungary, they had acquired several more westerly genetic elements, probably from the Slavic, Ugric, and Turkic-speaking peoples who inhabited the regions north of the Black and Caspian Seas." The results from the Cuman samples were plotted on a graph with other Eurasian populations, showing the genetic distances between them. The Eurasian populations were divided into two distinct clusters. One cluster contained all the Eastern and Central Asian populations and can be divided into two subclusters; one subcluster includes mainly Eastern Asian populations (Buryat, Korean and Kirghiz Lowland populations), and the other subcluster harbors mainly Central Asian populations (Mongolian, Kazakh, Kirghiz Highland and Uyghur populations). The second cluster contained the European populations. Inside the second cluster, based on HVS I motifs, a clear structure was not detectable, but almost all European populations, including the modern Hungarians, assembled in one section with small distances between each other. Cumans were outside this section; they were found to be above the abscissa of the graph – this is the population from the second cluster, which is closest to the East-Central Asian cluster. The modern Cumans of Csengele, Hungary are genetically nearest to the Finnish, Komi and Turkish populations. The modern day Cuman descendants in Hungary are differentiated genetically from the Hungarians and other European populations.


title: Cumans

text: In relation to the Kumandins, Pankratov regarded the Kumandins as being related anthropologically to the Urals, and suggested that they were less East Asian than the Altaians proper. A majority of mitochondrial DNA lines belonged to the North East Asian haplogroups C or D with also a large minority of west Eurasian lineages such as U.


title: Cumans

text: Cumans appear as one of the civilizations that players can play as in the 2019 strategy game . In addition, players can play a campaign which tells the story of their flight westwards as they retreat from the Mongols.


title: Gang

text: A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collectively, in illegal, and possibly violent, behavior.


title: Gang

text: The word "gang" derives from the past participle of Old English "gan", meaning "to go". It is cognate with Old Norse "gangr", meaning "journey." It typically means a group of people, and may have neutral, positive or negative connotations depending on usage.


title: Gang

text: In discussing the banditry in American history, Barrington Moore, Jr. suggests that gangsterism as a "form of self-help which victimizes others" may appear in societies which lack strong "forces of law and order"; he characterizes European feudalism as "mainly gangsterism that had become society itself and acquired respectability through the notions of chivalry".


title: Gang

text: some of them known as the Mims, Hectors, Bugles, and Dead Boys. These gangs often came into conflict with each other. Members dressed "with colored ribbons to distinguish the different factions." During the Victorian era, criminals and gangs started to form organizations which would collectively become London's criminal underworld. Criminal societies in the underworld started to develop their own ranks and groups which were sometimes called "families", and were often made up of lower-classes and operated on pick-pocketry, prostitution, forgery and counterfeiting, commercial burglary and money laundering schemes. Unique also were the use of slangs and argots used by Victorian criminal societies to distinguish each other, like those propagated by street gangs like the Peaky Blinders.


title: Gang

text: In the United States, the history of gangs began on the East Coast in 1783 following the American Revolution. Gangs arose further in the United States by the middle of the nineteenth century and were a concern for city leaders from the time they appeared. The emergence of the gangs was largely attributed to the vast rural population immigration to the urban areas. The first street-gang in the United States, the 40 Thieves, began around the late 1820s in New York City. The gangs in Washington D.C. had control of what is now Federal Triangle, in a region then known as Murder Bay. Organized crime in the United States first came to prominence in the Old West and historians such as Brian J. Robb and Erin H. Turner traced the first organized crime syndicates to the Coschise Cowboy Gang and the Wild Bunch. Prohibition would also cause a new boom in the emergence of gangs; Chicago for example had over 1,000 gangs in the 1920s.


title: Gang

text: Outside of the US and the UK, gangs exist in both urban and rural forms, like the French gangs of the Belle Époque like the Apaches and the Bonnot Gang. Many criminal organizations like the Italian Cosa Nostra, Japanese Yakuza, Russian Bratva, and Chinese Triads, have existed for centuries.


title: Gang

text: Gangs, syndicates, and other criminal groups, come in many forms, each with their own specialties and gang culture.


title: Gang

text: One of the most infamous criminal gangs are Mafias, whose activities include racketeering and overseeing illicit agreements. These include the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the Italian-American Mafia. The Neapolitan Camorra, the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta and the Apulian Sacra Corona Unita are similar Italian organized gangs. Outside of Italy, the Irish Mob, Japanese Yakuza, Chinese Triads, and Russian Bratva are also examples.


title: Gang

text: Narcos or drug cartels are slang terms used for criminal groups (mainly Latin Americans) who primarily deal with the illegal drug trade. These include drug cartels like the Medellin Cartel and other Colombian cartels, Mexican cartels like the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Zetas, and the Primeiro Comando da Capital in Brazil. Other examples are Jamaican Yardies and the various opium barons in the Golden Triangle and Golden Crescent. Many narcos are known for their use of paramilitaries and narcoterrorism like the Gulf Cartel and Shower Posse.


title: Gang

text: Street gangs are gangs formed by youths in urban areas, and are known primarily for street fighting and gang warfare. The term "street gang" is commonly used interchangeably with "youth gang", referring to neighborhood or street-based youth groups that meet "gang" criteria. Miller (1992) defines a street gang as "a self-formed association of peers, united by mutual interests, with identifiable leadership and internal organization, who act collectively or as individuals to achieve specific purposes, including the conduct of illegal activity and control of a particular territory, facility, or enterprise." Some of the well-known ones are the Black gangs like the Bloods and the Crips, also the Vice Lords and the Gangster Disciples. Other racial gangs also exist like the Trinitario, Sureños, Tiny Rascal Gang, Asian Boyz, Wa Ching, Zoe Pound, The Latin Kings, The Hammerskins, Nazi Lowriders and Blood & Honour.


title: Gang

text: Biker gangs are motorcycle clubs who conduct illegal activities like the Hells Angels, the Pagans, the Outlaws, and the Bandidos, known as the "Big Four". The U.S. Department of Justice defines outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMG) as "organizations whose members use their motorcycle clubs as conduits for criminal enterprises". Some clubs are considered "outlaw" not necessarily because they engage in criminal activity, but because they are not sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) and do not adhere to the AMA's rules. Instead the clubs have their own set of bylaws reflecting the outlaw biker culture.


title: Gang

text: Prison gangs are formed inside prisons and correctional facilities for mutual protection and entrancement like the Mexican Mafia and United Blood Nation. Prison gangs often have several "affiliates" or "chapters" in different state prison systems that branch out due to the movement or transfer of their members. According to criminal justice professor John Hagedorn, many of the biggest gangs from Chicago originated from prisons. From the St. Charles Illinois Youth Center originated the Conservative Vice Lords and Blackstone Rangers. Although the majority of gang leaders from Chicago are now incarcerated, most of those leaders continue to manage their gangs from within prison.


title: Gang

text: Punk gangs are a unique type of gang made up of members who follow the punk rock ideology. Unlike other gangs and criminal groups, punk gangs follow a range of political and philosophical beliefs that can range from alt-right to radical left. Differing ideologies are one of the causes of conflicts between rival punk gangs, compared to other street gangs and criminal groups who wage gang war solely for illegal profit, vendetta, and territory. Most of them can be seen in political and social protests and demonstrations and are sometimes in violent confrontation with law-enforcement. Examples of punk gangs are Fight For Freedom, Friends Stand United, and Straight Edge gangs.


title: Gang

text: Contemporary organized crime has also led to the creation of anti-gang groups, vigilante gangs, and autodefensas, who are groups who profess to be fighting against gang influence, but share characteristics and acts similarly to a gang. These include groups like the Los Pepes, Sombra Negra, Friends Stand United, People Against Gangsterism and Drugs, and OG Imba.


title: Gang

text: Many types of gangs make up the general structure of an organized group. Understanding the structure of gangs is a critical skill to defining the types of strategies that are most effective with dealing with them, from the at-risk youth to the gang leaders. Not all individuals who display the outward signs of gang membership are actually involved in criminal activities. An individual's age, physical structure, ability to fight, willingness to commit violence, and arrest record are often principal factors in determining where an individual stands in the gang hierarchy; how money derived from criminal activity and ability to provide for the gang also impacts the individual's status within the gang. The structure of gangs varies depending primarily on size, which can range from five or ten to thousands. Many of the larger gangs break up into smaller groups, cliques or sub-sets (these smaller groups can be called "sets" in gang slang.) The cliques typically bring more territory to a gang as they expand and recruit new members. Most gangs operate informally with leadership falling to whomever takes control; others have distinct leadership and are highly structured, which resembles more or less a business or corporation.


title: Gang

text: Criminal gangs may function both inside and outside of prison, such as the Nuestra Familia, Mexican Mafia, Folk Nation, and the Brazilian PCC. During the 1970s, prison gangs in Cape Town, South Africa began recruiting street gang members from outside and helped increase associations between prison and street gangs.


title: Gang

text: Different gangs and criminal syndicates have various roles and members. Most are typically divided into:


title: Gang

text: The numerous push factors experienced by at-risk individuals vary situationally, but follow a common theme of the desire for power, respect, money, and protection. In neighborhoods with high levels of violence, adolescents typically experience pressure to join a street gang for protection from other violent actors (sometimes including police violence and the waging of the war on drugs), perpetuating a cycle of violence. These desires are very influential in attracting individuals to join gangs, and their influence is particularly strong on at-risk youth. Such individuals are often experiencing low levels of these various factors in their own lives, feeling ostracized from their community and lacking social support. Joining a gang may appear to them to be the only way to obtain status and material success or escape a cycle of poverty through profits from illegal activity. They may feel that "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em". Upon joining a gang, they instantly gain a feeling of belonging and identity; they are surrounded with individuals whom they can relate to. They have generally grown up in the same area as one another and can bond over similar needs. In some areas, joining a gang is an integrated part of the growing-up process.


title: Gang

text: Gang membership is generally maintained by gangs as a lifetime commitment, reinforced through identification such as tattoos, and ensured through intimidation and coercion. Gang defectors are often subject to retaliation from the deserted gang. Many gangs, including foreign and transnational gangs, hold that the only way to leave the gang is through death. This is sometimes informally called the "morgue rule".


title: Gang

text: Gang membership represents the phenomenon of a chronic group criminal spin; accordingly, the criminality of members is greater when they belong to the gang than when they are not in the gang—either before or after being in the gang. In addition, when together, the gang criminality as a whole is greater than that of its members when they are alone. The gang operates as a whole greater than its parts and influences the behavior of its members in the direction of greater extend and stronger degree of criminality.


title: Gang

text: Some states have a formal process to establish that a person is a member of a gang, called validation. Once a person is validated as a gang member, the person is subject to increased sentences, harsher punishments (such as solitary confinement) and more restrictive parole rules. To validate a person as a gang member, the officials generally must provide evidence of several factors, such as tattoos, photographs, admissions, clothing, etc. The legal requirements for validating a person are much lower than the requirements for convicting of a crime.


title: Gang

text: Women associated with gangs but who lack membership are typically categorized based on their relation to gang members. A survey of Mexican American gang members and associates defined these categories as girlfriends, hoodrats, good girls, and relatives. Girlfriends are long-term partners of male gang members, and may have children with them. "" are seen as being promiscuous and heavy drug and alcohol users. Gang members may engage in casual sex with these girls, but they are not viewed as potential long-term partners and are severely stigmatized by both men and women in gang culture. "Good girls" are long-term friends of members, often from childhood, and relatives are typically sisters or cousins. These are fluid categories, and women often change status as they move between them.


title: Gang

text: Valdez found that women with ties to gang members are often used to hold illegal weapons and drugs, typically, because members believe the girls are less likely to be searched by police for such items.


title: Gang

text: Different gangs from around the world have their way of recruiting and introducing new members. Most criminal gangs require an interested candidate to commit a crime to be inducted into a gang. Many street gangs, like the Bloods and MS-13, have a ritual where they would beat up (also known as "beat-in" or "jump-in") aspiring applicants for several seconds to show their toughness, willingness, and loyalty. Some of these gangs allow women to become members either through being jumped-in or having sex with male members (known as "sexed-in").


title: Gang

text: Biker gangs like the Hells Angels require a candidate, known as a "hang-around", to be observed and mentored by veteran gang members (which can last a year or more) in order to assess their personalities and commitment. The Cosa Nostra requires people wanting to be full members or become made men to take part in a ceremony involving oaths, agreement, and bloodletting to show their loyalty. The Sigue-Sigue Sputnik from the Philippines require gang members to tattoo (or "tatak") the name of the gang or their leader into their body. Triads have a more unique way of initiating associates into full members. Triad ceremonies take place at an altar dedicated to Guan Yu (關羽, GuānYǔ), with incense and an animal sacrifice (usually a chicken, pig or goat). After drinking a mixture of wine and blood (from the animal or the candidate), the member passes beneath an arch of swords while reciting the triad's oaths. The paper on which the oaths are written will be burnt on the altar to confirm the member's obligation to perform his duties to the gods. Three fingers of the left hand are raised as a binding gesture. The triad initiate is required to adhere to 36 oaths.


title: Gang

text: Training and expertise in various forms of illicit activities, including combat, exist variously throughout different gangs. Specific members of American mafia groups, like police infiltrators, double agents, and sometimes also enforcers and hitmen, have had backgrounds in law enforcement or the military. Sicilian mafia and Calabrian Mafia in Southern Italy became notorious for creating "schools" in the countryside to train children as young as eleven in weapons and illegal activities. Giovanni Tinebra, the chief public prosecutor of Caltanissetta, once stated, "Instead of going to school, many boys go into the countryside where there are people who teach them to shoot and turn them into killing machines."


title: Gang

text: Some drug cartels in Colombia and Mexico have established themselves as paramilitaries. The earliest and most famous example was the time when the Medellin Cartel hired Israeli soldier Yair Klein to train militiamen and assassins. Los Zetas became infamous for being founded by US-trained Mexican commandos. Together with Kaibiles from Guatemala, they set up camps to train future sicarios and soldatos. Other Mexican cartels who trained their members include the Jalisco Cartel, who trained their members for three months in ambushes, codes of silence and discipline, inside camps.


title: Gang

text: In the case of street gangs, most do not train their members in shooting and combat. Although a few would train their youths how to shoot using empty cans and bottles as targets (with some cases using underground shooting ranges), most gangsters have no formal instructions in firearms usage and safety. The late 90s and early 2000s saw many gang members in the US being sent by judges to the military to “set them on the right path”, which only led to these street gangs gaining military training and experience. Many street gangs, most notably Africa-American gangs like the Folk Nation and Bloods, continue to have a presence in the US Military.


title: Gang

text: The United Nations estimates that gangs make most of their money through the drugs trade, which is thought to be worth $352 billion in total. The United States Department of Justice estimates there are approximately 30,000 gangs, with 760,000 members, impacting 2,500 communities across the United States.


title: Gang

text: Gangs are involved in all areas of street-crime activities like extortion, drug trafficking, both in and outside the prison system, and theft. Gangs also victimize individuals by robbery and kidnapping. Cocaine is the primary drug of distribution by gangs in America, which have used the cities Chicago, Cape Town, and Rio de Janeiro to transport drugs internationally. Brazilian urbanization has driven the drug trade to the favelas of Rio. Often, gangs hire "lookouts" to warn members of upcoming law enforcement. The dense environments of favelas in Rio and public housing projects in Chicago have helped gang members hide from police easily.


title: Gang

text: Street gangs take over territory or "turf" in a particular city and are often involved in "providing protection", often a thin cover for extortion, as the "protection" is usually from the gang itself, or in other criminal activity. Many gangs use fronts to demonstrate influence and gain revenue in a particular area.


title: Gang

text: Gang violence refers mostly to the illegal and non-political acts of violence perpetrated by gangs against civilians, other gangs, law enforcement officers, firefighters, or military personnel. A gang war is a type of small war that occurs when two gangs end up in a feud over territory or vendetta. Gang warfare mostly consists of sanctioned and unsanctioned hits, street fighting, and gun violence.


title: Gang

text: Modern gangs introduced new acts of violence, which may also function as a rite of passage for new gang members. In 2006, 58 percent of L.A.'s murders were gang-related. Reports of gang-related homicides are concentrated mostly in the largest cities in the United States, where there are long-standing and persistent gang problems and a greater number of documented gang members—most of whom are identified by law enforcement. Gang-related activity and violence has increased along the U.S. Southwest border region, as US-based gangs act as enforcers for Mexican drug cartels.


title: Gang

text: Despite gangs usually formed in the community, not specifically in schools, gang violence can potentially affect schools in different ways including:


title: Gang

text: Global data on the prevalence of these different forms of gang violence in and around schools is limited. However, available evidence suggests that gang violence is more common in schools where students are exposed to other forms of community violence and where they fear violence at school.


title: Gang

text: Children who grow up in neighbourhoods with high levels of crime has been identified as a risk factor for youth violence, including gang violence. According to studies, children who knew many adult criminals were more likely to engage in violent behaviour by the age of 18 years than those who did not.


title: Gang

text: Gang violence is often associated with carrying weapons, including in school. A study of 10–19-year-olds in the UK found that 44% of those who reported belonging to a delinquent youth group had committed violence and 13% had carried a knife in the previous 12 months versus 17% and 4% respectively among those who were not in such a group.


title: Gang

text: According to a meta-analysis of 14 countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Central and South America, sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific also showed that carrying a weapon at school is associated with bullying victimization.


title: Gang

text: Comparison of Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) data on school violence and bullying for countries that are particularly affected by gang violence suggests that the links may be limited. In El Salvador and Guatemala, for example, where gang violence is a serious problem, GSHS data show that the prevalence of bullying, physical fights and physical attacks reported by school students is relatively low, and is similar to prevalence in other countries in Central America where gang violence is less prevalent.


title: Gang

text: Women in gang culture are often in environments where sexual assault is common and considered to be a norm. Women who attend social gatherings and parties with heavy drug and alcohol use are particularly likely to be assaulted. A girl who becomes intoxicated and flirts with men is often seen as "asking for it" and is written off as a "hoe" by men and women. "Hoodrats" and girls associated with rival gangs have lower status at these social events, and are victimized when members view them as fair game and other women rationalize assault against them.


title: Gang

text: Most modern research on gangs has focused on the thesis of class struggle following the work of Walter B. Miller and Irving Spergel. In this body of work The Gaylords are cited as the prime example of an American gang that is neither Black nor Hispanic. Some researchers have focused on ethnic factors. Frederic Thrasher, who was a pioneer of gang research, identified "demoralization" as a standard characteristic of gangs. John Hagedorn has argued that this is one of three concepts that shed light on patterns of organization in oppressed racial, religious and ethnic groups (the other two are Manuel Castells' theory of "resistance identity and Derrick Bell's work on the permanence of racism).


title: Gang

text: Usually, gangs have gained the most control in poorer, urban communities and developing countries in response to unemployment and other services. Social disorganization, and the disintegration of societal institutions such as family, school, and the public safety net, enable groups of peers to form gangs. According to surveys conducted internationally by the World Bank for their World Development Report 2011, by far the most common reason people suggest as a motive for joining gangs is unemployment.


title: Gang

text: Ethnic solidarity is a common factor in gangs. Black and Hispanic gangs formed during the 1960s in the USA often adapted nationalist rhetoric. Both majority and minority races in society have established gangs in the name of identity: the Igbo gang Bakassi Boys in Nigeria defend the majority Igbo group violently and through terror, and in the United States, whites who feel threatened by minorities have formed their own gangs, such as the Ku Klux Klan. Responding to an increasing black and Hispanic migration, a white gang formed called Chicago Gaylords. Some gang members are motivated by religion, as is the case with the Muslim Patrol and the Epstein-Wolmark gang.


title: Gang

text: Most gang members have identifying characteristics which are unique to their specific clique or gang. The Bloods, for instance, wear red bandanas, the Crips blue, allowing these gangs to "represent" their affiliation. Any disrespect of a gang member's color by an unaffiliated individual is regarded as grounds for violent retaliation, often by multiple members of the offended gang. Tattoos are also common identifiers, such as an '18' above the eyebrow to identify a member of the 18th Street gang. Tattoos help a gang member gain respect within their group, and mark them as members for life. Tattoos can also represent the level they are in the gang, being that certain tattoos can mean they are a more accomplished member. The accomplishments can be related to doing a dangerous act that showed your loyalty to the gang. They can be burned on as well as inked. Some gangs make use of more than one identifier, like the Nortenos, who wear red bandanas and have "14", "XIV", "x4", and "Norte" tattoos. Some members of criminal gangs are "jumped in" (by going through a process of initiation), or have to prove their loyalty and right to belong by committing certain acts, usually theft or violence.


title: Gang

text: Gangs often establish distinctive, characteristic identifiers including graffiti tags colors, hand signals, clothing (for example, the gangsta rap-type hoodies), jewelry, hair styles, fingernails, slogans, signs (such as the noose and the burning cross as the symbols of the Klan), flags secret greetings, slurs, or code words and other group-specific symbols associated with the gang's common beliefs, rituals, and mythologies to define and differentiate themselves from other groups and gangs.


title: Gang

text: As an alternative language, hand-signals, symbols, and slurs in speech, graffiti, print, music, or other mediums communicate specific informational cues used to threaten, disparage, taunt, harass, intimidate, alarm, influence, or exact specific responses including obedience, submission, fear, or terror. One study focused on terrorism and symbols states that "[s]ymbolism is important because it plays a part in impelling the terrorist to act and then in defining the targets of their actions." Displaying a gang sign, such as the noose, as a symbolic act can be construed as "a threat to commit violence communicated with the intent to terrorize another, to cause evacuation of a building, or to cause serious public inconvenience, in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror or inconvenience … an offense against property or involving danger to another person that may include but is not limited to recklessly endangering another person, harassment, stalking, ethnic intimidation, and criminal mischief."


title: Gang

text: The Internet is one of the most significant media used by gangs to communicate in terms of the size of the audience they can reach with minimal effort and reduced risk. Social media provides a forum for recruitment activities, typically provoking rival gangs through derogatory postings, and to glorify their gang and themselves.


title: Gang

text: Researchers and activists in the United States have debated the true impact of US gangs on crime in the United States, with a 2019 episode of the You're Wrong About podcast claiming that the perceived increase in gang violence was in fact an overblown moral panic. There have been repeated complaints of bias around the enforcement of gang-related laws asking why Frats and Gangs are treated differently "They're both blamed for predisposing their members to violent acts, but they’ve sparked radically different public-policy responses."


title: Gang

text: Activists have also made the link between a perceived increase in gang activity and the sharp rise in US police budgets while pointing out rampant corruption in police gang units, such as the Rampart scandal in the Los Angeles Police Force.


title: Gang

text: In the UK context, law enforcement agencies are increasingly focusing enforcement efforts on gangs and gang membership. However debate persists over the extent and nature of gang activity in the UK, with some academics and policy-makers arguing that the current focus is inadvisable, given a lack of consensus over the relationship between gangs and crime.


title: Gang

text: The Runnymede Trust suggests that, despite the well-rehearsed public discourse around youth gangs and "gang culture", "We actually know very little about 'gangs' in the UK: about how 'a gang' might be defined or understood, about what being in 'a gang' means ... We know still less about how 'the gang' links to levels of youth violence."


title: Gang

text: Professor Simon Hallsworth argues that, where they exist, gangs in the UK are "far more fluid, volatile and amorphous than the myth of the organized group with a corporate structure". This assertion is supported by a field study conducted by Manchester University, which found that "most within- and between-gang disputes ... emanated from interpersonal disputes regarding friends, family and romantic relationships", as opposed to territorial rivalries, and that criminal enterprises were "rarely gang-coordinated ... most involved gang members operating as individuals or in small groups."


title: Gang

text: Cottrell-Boyce, writing in the "Youth Justice" journal, argues that gangs have been constructed as a "suitable enemy" by politicians and the media, obscuring the wider, structural roots of youth violence. At the level of enforcement, a focus on gang membership may be counterproductive; creating confusion and resulting in a drag-net approach which can criminalise innocent young people rather than focusing resources on serious violent crime.


title: Gang

text: Gang members in uniform use their military knowledge, skills and weapons to commit and facilitate various crimes. As of April 2011, the NGIC has identified members of at least 53 gangs whose members have served in or are affiliated with US military.


title: Gang

text: In 2006, Scott Barfield, a Defense Department investigator, said there is an online network of gangs and extremists: "They're communicating with each other about weapons, about recruiting, about keeping their identities secret, about organizing within the military."


title: Gang

text: A 2006 Sun-Times article reports that gangs encourage members to enter the military to learn urban warfare techniques to teach other gang members. A January 2007 article in the "Chicago Sun-Times" reported that gang members in the military are involved in the theft and sale of military weapons, ammunition, and equipment, including body armor. The "Sun-Times" began investigating the gang activity in the military after receiving photos of gang graffiti showing up in Iraq.


title: Gang

text: The FBI's 2007 report on gang membership in the military states that the military's recruit screening process is ineffective, allows gang members/extremists to enter the military, and lists at least eight instances in the last three years in which gang members have obtained military weapons for their illegal enterprises. ""Gang Activity in the U.S. Armed Forces Increasing"", dated January 12, 2007, states that street gangs including the Bloods, Crips, Black Disciples, Gangster Disciples, Hells Angels, Latin Kings, The 18th Street Gang, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Mexican Mafia, Norteños, Sureños, and Vice Lords have been documented on military installations both domestic and international although recruiting gang members violates military regulations.


title: Xoloitzcuintle

text: The Xoloitzcuintle (or Xoloitzquintle, Xoloitzcuintli, or Xolo) is one of several breeds of hairless dog. It is found in standard, intermediate, and miniature sizes. The Xolo also comes in a coated variety, totally covered in fur. Coated and hairless can be born in the same litter as a result of the same combination of genes. The hairless variant is known as the Perro pelón mexicano or Mexican hairless dog. It is characterized by its duality, wrinkles, and dental abnormalities, along with a primitive temper. In Nahuatl, from which its name originates, it is "xōlōitzcuintli" (singular) and "xōlōitzcuintin" (plural). The name comes from the god "Xolotl" that according to ancient narratives is its creator and "itzcuīntli" , meaning 'dog' in Nahuatl language.


title: Xoloitzcuintle

text: Ceramic sculptures of a hairless breed of dog have been found in burial sites in ancient West Mexico. In ancient times, Xolos were often sacrificed and then buried with their owners to act as guides to the soul on its journey to the underworld. They have been found in burial sites of both the Maya and the Toltec.


title: Xoloitzcuintle

text: Sixteenth-century Spanish accounts tell of large numbers of dogs being served at banquets. Aztec merchant feasts could have 80–100 turkeys and 20–40 dogs served as food. When these two meats were served in the same dish, the dog meat was at the bottom of the dish, either because it was held in higher regard or because it was increasingly considered a step above cannibalism.


title: Xoloitzcuintle

text: The Aztecs consumed few domesticated animals, with over 90% of the bones found at archeological sites being deer.


title: Xoloitzcuintle

text: A 1999 genetic study using mitochondrial DNA found that the DNA sequences of the Xoloitzcuintle were identical to those of dogs from the Old World. In 2018, an analysis of DNA from the entire genome indicated that domesticated dogs entered North America from Siberia for 4,500 years and were isolated for the next 9,000 years. After contact with Europeans, these dogs were replaced by Eurasian dogs and their local descendants. The pre-contact dogs exhibited a unique genetic signature that is now almost gone due to their assimilation into the Eurasian dog gene pool. In 2020, the sequencing of ancient dog genomes indicates that in two Mexican breeds the Chihuahua and Xoloitzcuintli derive 4% and 3% of their ancestry from pre-colonial dogs, almost entirely being descended from Eurasian dogs.


title: Xoloitzcuintle

text: Their phenotype is a consequence of canine ectodermal dysplasia caused by a mutation on the Foxl3 autosomal gene.


title: Xoloitzcuintle

text: The breed did not receive any official notice in its homeland until the 1950s. The FCI, founded in 1940, was not prepared to declare the Xolo an official purebred at that time. According to breed historian Norman Pelham Wright, author of "The Enigma of the Xoloitzcuintli", Xolos began to turn up at Mexican dog shows in the late 1940s. Although they were recognized as indigenous specimens of a native breed, interest in them was minimal at that time, because information was scarce and no standard existed by which to judge them. Within a decade, the FCI realized that the breed would become extinct if drastic action were not taken to save it. This led to the widely publicized Xolo Expedition of 1954. With the official sanction of the FCI, Wright and a team of Mexican and British dog authorities set off to discover if any purebred Xolos still existed in remote areas of Mexico. Eventually 10 structurally strong Xolos were found and these dogs formed the foundation of Mexico's program to revive the breed. A committee headed by Wright authored the first official standard for the breed; on May 1, 1956, the Xolo was finally recognized in its native land and, as Mexico is a member of the FCI, worldwide.


title: Xoloitzcuintle

text: Xolos were among the first breeds recorded by the American Kennel Club (AKC). A Mexican dog named 'Mee Too' made breed history as the first AKC-registered Xolo in 1887. 'Chinito Junior', bred and owned by Valetska Radtke of New York City, became the breed's only AKC champion to date. He earned his title on October 19, 1940.


title: Xoloitzcuintle

text: In 1959, the Xolo was dropped from the AKC stud book due to the breed's scarcity and perceived extinction. The Xoloitzcuintli Club of America (XCA), the official parent club for the breed, was founded on October 26, 1986, to regain AKC recognition for the breed. On May 13, 2008, AKC voted to readmit the breed to its Miscellaneous Class starting January 1, 2009. The founding members voted unanimously to recognize all three sizes (toy, miniature and standard) and both varieties (hairless and coated) at their initial meeting. Since then, the XCA has compiled a stud book modeled on requirements for eventual AKC acceptance, held an annual independent specialty show, published a quarterly newsletter, "The Xolo News", and maintained an active national rescue network, National Xolo Rescue (known before 2009 as The Xolo Rescue League). Since January 1, 2007, FSS registered Xolos have been eligible to compete in AKC performance events. The breed was moved into the AKC Studbook in December 2010 and has been eligible to be shown in the AKC Non-Sporting group since January 1, 2011.


title: Xoloitzcuintle

text: The breed ranges in size from about 10 to 55 lb (5 to 23 kg). The height is 9 to 26 inches (23–67 cm). Similar in appearance to a Pharaoh Hound, with a sleek body, almond-shaped eyes, large bat-like ears, and a long neck, the Xolo is notable for its dominant trait of hairlessness. The dominant hairless trait originated in this breed as a spontaneous mutation thousands of years ago. The recessive expression of the trait will produce a coated variety, which is genetically inseparable from the hairless, as the homozygous appearance of the hairless mutation is fatal to the unborn pup. Most litters contain both hairless and coated puppies. The coated variety, covered with a short, flat dense coat represents the original form of the dog, prior to the occurrence of the spontaneous hairless mutation. The hairless variety is completely hairless on the body, with many dogs exhibiting a few short hairs on the top of the head, the toes, and the tip of the tail. Most hairless dogs are black or bluish-gray in color.


title: Xoloitzcuintle

text: The allele responsible for the Xolo's hairlessness also affects the dog's dentition: Hairless Xolos typically have an incomplete set of teeth while the dogs of the coated variety have complete dentition.


title: Xoloitzcuintle

text: The Xolo is moderate in all aspects of its appearance, conveying an impression of strength, agility, and elegance. Xolo body proportions are rectangular, slightly longer in total body length than the height measured at the highest point of the withers (top of the shoulders). The breed occurs naturally in two varieties, hairless and coated. Hairless Xolos are the dominant expression of the heterozygous Hh hairless trait. Coated Xolos (hh) are the recessive expression, and breeding hairless to coated or hairless to hairless may produce pups of either or both varieties. Breeding coated to coated will only produce coated pups because they are recessive to the hairless trait and do not carry the dominant H gene.


title: Xoloitzcuintle

text: Both varieties occur in all hair or skin colors, and the skin is often marked, splashed, or spotted. The most common colors are various shades termed black, grey, bronze, yellowish-blonde, blue and red. The breed occurs in a range of sizes, which breeders have standardized into three designations: Standard, Miniature and Toy.


title: Xoloitzcuintle

text: The Xoloitzcuintle's 'primitive' temperament (very high intelligence, sensitivity, high energy, inquisitiveness, strong hunting, and social instincts) is apparent because the breed's temperament was not modified overall by selective breeding in their native history in Mexico. This has also ensured a sturdy physical nature and vigorous health generally innate in both coated and hairless Xolos. Adult Xolos are frequently noted for their calm demeanor, although puppies can be extremely energetic, noisy, and very oral until they reach maturity (after 2 years old) and do not bark much, after which they tend to settle down and become more calm. Inadequately supervised or exercised Xolos can become escape artists, climbing and jumping fences to chase. Many individuals of this breed can possess guard dog ability and will not back down from a fight. At the same time, adult dogs, when they are raised properly, can become steady, well-behaved, and affectionate companions.


title: Xoloitzcuintle

text: Though physically grown at 1 year, many dog breeds including Xolos, are not 'emotionally mature' until around 2 years. Like active breeds such as terriers, Xolos need calm, consistent and loving obedience training and regular socialization during their growing years. Well-raised Xolos bond strongly with their owners, becoming highly devoted to their families while frequently choosing one specific family member as favorite.


title: Xoloitzcuintle

text: Anyone considering acquiring a Xolo should expect to spend time educating themselves in positive reinforcement dog training techniques and, ideally, should have prior experience with active and intelligent dog breeds. A spacious, well-fenced, and safe physical environment is desirable for this breed. Daily walks are ideal for exercising most Toy-sized Xolos; however, more stimulating physical and mental exercise is advised for larger and more active individuals. Behavior problems in Xolos are typically a result of a dog receiving inadequate or inconsistent supervision, as well as inadequate exercise and mental stimulation. The Xoloitzcuintle is a social dog that should not, in most cases, be an "only dog". It does not do well when kept as an outside-only dog. This is a breed that is at its best when it is made part of the family, receiving regular interaction and socialization with its humans (and other dogs, whether present in the home or as regular playmates).