page_title: Cumans
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Cumans / History / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: This image is a zoomed-in version of Eastern Hemisphere in 1200 AD. thumb|300px|left|Eastern Hemisphere in 1200 AD. Author: Thomas A. Lessman. Source URL: http://www.ThomasLessman.com/History/images/East-Hem_1200ad.jpg. Image was created by me (Thomas Lessman) based on map of Eastern Hemisphere in 1200AD. Image is free for public and/or educational use. I would appreciate a mention if this image is used elsewhere. If anyone is interested in helping further this work, please contact Thomas Lessman at talessman@yis.us. Other Historical Maps by Thomas Lessman 1. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_500bc.jpg 500 BC. 2. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_323bc.jpg 323 BC. 3. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_200bc_web-sm.jpg 200 BC. 4. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_100bc.jpg 100 BC. 5. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_050bc.jpg 050 BC. 6.en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_001ad.jpg 001 AD. 7. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_050ad.jpg 050 AD. 8. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_100ad.jpg 100 AD. 9. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_200ad.jpg 200 AD. 10. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_300ad.jpg 300 AD. 11. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_400ad.jpg 400 AD. 12. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_475ad.jpg 475 AD. 13. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_476ad.jpg 476 AD. 14. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_477ad.jpg 477 AD. 15. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_500ad.jpg 500 AD. 16. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_565ad.jpg 565 AD. 17. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_600ad.jpg 600 AD. 18. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_700ad.jpg 700 AD. 19. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_800ad.jpg 800 AD. 20. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_900ad.jpg 900 AD. 21. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_1025ad.jpg 1025 AD. 22. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_1100ad.jpg 1100 AD. 23. en:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:East-Hem_1200ad.jpg 1200 AD.
context_page_description: The Cumans, also known as Polovtsians or Polovtsy, were a Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation. After the Mongol invasion, many sought asylum in the Kingdom of Hungary, as many Cumans had settled in Hungary, the Second Bulgarian Empire playing an important role in the development of the state, and Anatolia before the invasion.
  Related to the Pecheneg, they inhabited a shifting area north of the Black Sea and along the Volga River known as Cumania, from which the Cuman–Kipchaks meddled in the politics of the Caucasus and the Khwarezm Empire. The Cumans were fierce and formidable nomadic warriors of the Eurasian steppe who exerted an enduring influence on the medieval Balkans. They were numerous, culturally sophisticated, and militarily powerful.
context_section_description: The ethnic origins of the Cumanians 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.
  The Roman natural philosopher Pliny the Elder (who lived in the 1st century AD), in describing the "Gates of Caucasus" (Derbent, or Darial Gorge), mentions "a fortress, the name of which is Cumania, erected for the purpose of preventing the passage of the innumerable tribes that lay beyond". The Greek philosopher Strabo (died c. 24 AD) refers to the Darial Gorge (also known as the Iberian Gates or the Caucasian Gates) as Porta Caucasica and Porta Cumana. Chinese authors mentioned a Tiele tribe named 渾 (Mand. Hún < MC *ɦuon), possibly a transcription of underlying *Qun. The writings of al-Marwazi (c. 1120) state that a Turkic "Qun" people (Hungarians called Cumans "Kun") came from the northern Chinese borders – "the land of Qitay" (possibly during a part of a migration from further east). After leaving the lands of the Khitans (possibly due to Kitai expansion), the Qun entered the territory of the Šari people, whom the Quns expelled. Marwazi wrote that the Qun were Nestorian Christians. Golden surmised that these Quns might have sprung "from that same conglomeration of Mongolic peoples from which the Qitañ sprang".; however, Golden later suggested that the Quns were Turkic.
  It cannot be established whether the Cumans conquered the Kipchaks, if the Šari whom the Quns had defeated were to be identified as Kipchaks, or whether they simply represent the western mass of largely Kipchak-Turkic speaking tribes. A "victim" of the Cuman migration to the west was the Kimek Khanate (743–1220), which dissolved but then regrouped under Kipchak-Cuman leadership. Due to this, Kimek tribal elements were represented amongst the Cuman–Kipchaks. The Syrian historian Yaqut (1179–1229) also mentions the Qun in The Dictionary of Countries, where he notes that "(the sixth iqlim) begins where the meridian shadow of the equinox is seven, six-tenths, and one-sixth of one-tenth of a foot. Its end exceeds its beginning by only one foot. It begins in the homeland of the Qayi, Qun, Khirkhiz, Kimak, at-Tagazgaz, the lands of the Turkomans, Fārāb, and the country of the Khazars." The Armenian historian, Matthew of Edessa (died 1144), also mentioned the Cumans, using the name χartešk (khartes, meaning "blond", "pale", "fair").
  Potapov writes that:
  ...during the period from the end of the 800s to 1230 AD [the Cumans] spread their political influence in the broad steppes from Altai to Crimea and Danube. Irtysh with its adjoining steppes (at least below the lake Zaisan) was in the sphere of that confederation. Members of the confederation undoubtedly also were the ancestors of the present Kumandy [in Altai] and Teleuts, which is evidenced by their language that like the language of the Tobol-Irtysh and Baraba Tatars belongs to the Kypchak group.
  The Cumans entered the grasslands of the present-day southern Russian steppe in the 11th century AD and went on to assault the Byzantine Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Principality of Pereyaslavl and Kievan Rus'. The Cumans' entry into the area pressed the Oghuz Turks to shift west, which in turn caused the Pechenegs to move to the west of the Dnieper River. Cuman and Rus' attacks contributed to the departure of the Oghuz from the steppes north of the Black Sea. The Cumans first entered the Bugeac (Bessarabia) at some point around 1068–1078. They launched a joint expedition with the Pechenegs against Adrianople in 1078. During that same year the Cumans were also fighting the Rus'. The Russian Primary Chronicle mentions Yemek Cumans who were active in the region of Volga Bulgaria.
  The vast territory of the Cuman–Kipchak realm consisted of loosely connected tribal units that represented a dominant military force but were never politically united by a strong central power; the khans acted on their own initiative. The Cuman–Kipchaks never established
caption: Asia, circa 1200
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