Polovtsy, Cumans and Pechenegs. Khazars - who are they? Khazars, Pechenegs and Cumans
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The Pechenegs (Patzanakitai, by Constantine Porphyrogenet, Bachanaki, by Ishtakri), were, as we have seen, a Turkic tribe, which, according to Marquart, once formed part of the confederation of the Western Tukyu, but were driven out by the Karluks to the lower reaches of the Syr Darya and the Aral Sea.
Continuing their movement to the west, they wandered between the Urals (Yaik) and the Volga (Itil), when, between 889 and 893. (according to Constantine Porphyrogenet), they were expelled from the country by a joint attack of the Khazars and Oguzes. This led to the Pechenegs capturing Lebedia, north of the Sea of Azov, taking it away from the Magyars. A little later, the Pechenegs, resuming their advance to the west, again pursued the Magyars into Atelkuza, that is, the western part of the Russian steppe, between the Dnieper and the lower Danube. By 900, the Pechenegs were already wandering between the mouth of the Dnieper and the Danube. In 934 they took part in the Hungarian invasion of the Byzantine Empire in Thrace, and in 944 in the campaign of the Russian prince Igor in Byzantium itself. In 1026 they crossed the Danube, but were dispersed by Constantine Diogenes. In 1036, the Russian prince Yaroslav of Kiev inflicted a major defeat on them, as a result of which they lost their dominance in the steppe, which forced them to again change their position towards the Byzantine Empire. In 1051, due to this pressure and in response to the advance of the Oghuz, they again attacked the empire; a new invasion took place in 1064, when they marched through Thrace to the gates of Constantinople. The real drama for Byzantium began when it used mercenaries from among the pagan Turks of Europe to confront the Muslim Turks of Asia, since the blood relationship of the pagan Turks was often much stronger than their loyalty to the basileus. This happened in 1071, on the eve of the Battle of Malazkert, when Pecheneg detachments left the service of Emperor Roman Diogenes and went over to the side of Sultan Alp Arslan. In Europe, during the reign of Alexei Komnenos, the Pechenegs made a new invasion of Thrace in 1087, and reached Kule (between Aenos and Constantinople), where they were put to flight, leaving their leader Tzelga on the battlefield. Alexey Komnenos made the mistake of pursuing them and was defeated in Dristra (Silistria) (autumn 1087). The empire was saved by the arrival of another Turkic horde, the Kipchaks or Cumans, who advanced from the Russian steppes following the Pechenegs and defeated them on the Danube. But since all these hordes were returning to Russia, the Pechenegs, under pressure from the Kipchaks, again entered Thrace in 1088-1089, reaching Ipsala, south of Adrianople, where Alexei achieved peace through ransom. In 1090 the Pechenegs allied with the Seljukids from Asia Minor to attack Constantinople through the Maritza valley, from Andrionopolis to Aenos, while the Seljuk flotilla, master of Smyrna, attacked the coast and from Nicaea the Seljuk army threatened Nicomedia.
This was a situation reminiscent of the times of Heraclius and the Avars, but now in Asia, as in Europe, Byzantium opposed the Turks, the pagan Turks in Europe and the Muslim Turks in Asia, united against the empire by ties of common origin. The Pechenegs wintered near Lule Burgas, opposite the Byzantine lines, which retreated to Tchorlu. Once again Alexei Komnin called on the Kipchaks for help. Those, under the command of Togor-tak and Maniak, descended from Russia to Thrace and attacked the Pechenegs from the rear. On April 29, 1091, the united troops of the Byzantines and Kipchaks defeated the Pecheneg army at Lebourgnon. It was practically the “liquidation” of the entire people.
The remaining Pechenegs, having recovered in Wallachia, took the next generation, in 1121, a new initiative limited to the territory of Bulgaria, in the north of the Balkans, but were taken by surprise and destroyed by Emperor Ioan Komnenos in the spring of 1122.
The Pechenegs were replaced in the Russian steppes by the Oguzes and Kipchaks.
The Oguzes - Guzzi in Arabic, whose Asian descendants are known as Turkmen - roamed the northeast of the Caspian Sea and the north of the Aral Sea. One of the clans of this people, namely the Seljuks, in the 11th century, after the adoption of Islam, moved in search of a better life to Persia, where they founded the great Turkic Muslim empire of Toghrul Beg, Alp Arslan and Melik Shah. Another Oghuz clan, remaining pagan, namely the Ozoi, according to Byzantine historians, overthrew the domination of the Pechenegs on the territory of the Russian steppe in the same 11th century. Russian chronicles first mention these Oguzes, under the simple name Torki, in 1054, simultaneously with the appearance of the Cumans and Kipchaks.
Byzantine historians note that during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine X Doukas, these Ozoi crossed the Danube in 1065, numbering 600,000 and devastated the Balkan Peninsula as far as Thessalonica and Northern Greece, but were soon destroyed by the Pechenegs and Bulgars. The last Oguz detachments went west from the Volga, where they were finally subjugated, destroyed and assimilated by the Kipchaks.
The people, called in the Turkic language - Kipchak, are known among the Russians as Cumans, among the Byzantines they were called Komanoi, among the Arab geographer Idrizi - Kumans, and finally, among the Hungarians, they were called Kuns. According to Gardizi, they came from that part of the group of Kimak Türks who lived in Siberia, on the middle reaches of the Irtysh, and perhaps, according to Minorsky, along the Ob.
The Kimaks and Oghuzs were, in any case, closely related peoples. (Kashgari noted that both of them differed from the others by the change in the sound of the internal “u” in “dj”. By the middle of the 11th century, the Kipchaks, having separated from the bulk of the Kimaks, emigrated towards Europe. In 1054, as we have seen, Russian chronicles first record their presence in the steppes north of the Black Sea, as did the Oguzes. The Kipchaks defeated the Oguzes and pushed them in front of them. The Kipchaks used the Oguzes' victory over the Pechenegs and, when the Oguzes were defeated by the Byzantines and Bulgars during an unsuccessful invasion of the Balkans (1065. and subsequent years), the Kipchaks turned out to be the only masters of the Russian steppes. In 1120-1121, Ibn al-Athir gave them this name, and as allies of the Georgians. At the same time, the Mongol clans, closely related to the Khitans and less close to the Karakitai who migrated to the west, came from the Chinese-Manchu borders to the region of the Ural and Volga rivers, where they united with the bulk of the Kipchaks, among whom they played an organizational role and had the status of the ruling class; however, very soon they assimilated, having adopted the Turkic way of life, with a purely Kipchak element. The Kipchaks remained the masters of the Russian steppes until the invasion of the generals of Genghis Khan in 1222. We see that at this time, under the influence of the Russians, some Kipchak leaders began to accept Christianity. We will also see that the Kipchaks left their name in Mongolian Rus', since the Genghis Khanid state created in this country was called the Kipchak Khanate.
It should be noted that the achievement of the Byzantine Empire is its ability to resist for centuries the invasion of numerous hordes that attacked its borders. From Attila to the Oguzes, all these Turks and Mongols posed a much more formidable danger to Christian civilization than the events of 1453.
Tartaria: Some facts I
The secret occupation of the Russian North by the Germans during WWI...
Fatta's fall to Earth
And once again about the Liberia of Ivan the Terrible...
Pechenegs- nomadic tribes that in the 8th-11th centuries inhabited the eastern steppes of Europe and opposed such states as Kievan Rus and the Byzantine Empire. In the 9th century, Muslim propaganda began to penetrate the Pecheneg nomads. It was opposed by Christian propaganda. But she was defeated, and the Pecheneg tribes converted to Islam. As a result of this, they became enemies of the Christian world.
In 1036, the Pecheneg army raided Kyiv. Yaroslav the Wise was not in the city at that time. But he arrived in time with the Varangians and the Novgorod squad. The prince replenished the army with Kyivians and gave battle to the invaders. The battle was very fierce, but the Russian squad defeated the enemy. The defeat of the nomads was crushing, and they no longer disturbed Kievan Rus.
At the same time, Byzantium waged an unsuccessful fight against the Seljuk Turkmen. The latter were a related people to the Pechenegs, since they belonged to the same branch of the Turkic peoples, which were called Oguzes. The Seljuks also professed Islam and, having united with the Pechenegs, began to represent a formidable force.
The Seljuk Turkmens captured part of Asia Minor and reached the Bosphorus Strait. And on the Balkan Peninsula, the Pecheneg tribes significantly displaced the Byzantines. In the second half of the 11th century, the Seljuks and Pechenegs became a real threat to Byzantium, as they could conquer all of Asia Minor.
Cumans(Cumans) are a Turkic nomadic people. In the middle of the 11th century, these nomads reigned supreme on the territory of modern Kazakhstan. But these lands seemed not enough for them. They crossed the Volga in its lower reaches and appeared in the southern steppes of Kievan Rus.
Outwardly, the Cumans were blue-eyed and fair-haired. It was in Rus' that they began to be called Polovtsy from the word “polova” - chopped straw of a matte yellow color. The Pechenegs and Cumans were sworn enemies. Their enmity continued for hundreds of years, and in the 11th century reached its peak over religion. The Pecheneg tribes converted to Islam, while the Polovtsians retained pagan beliefs inherited from their ancestors.
When Yaroslav the Wise died, Prince Vsevolod made an attempt to establish friendly relations with the Polovtsians. But his initiative ended in nothing. Relations with these people remained hostile. Polovtsian detachments constantly clashed with Russian squads, and this confrontation ended in a big war.
Kievan Rus, Pechenegs and Polovtsians in the 9th-11th centuries on the map
In 1068, a strong Polovtsian army moved to Kievan Rus. The three sons of Yaroslav the Wise (Izyaslav, Vsevolod, Svyatoslav) gathered a well-equipped squad and set out to meet the enemy. The opposing troops met on the Alta River. This battle ended in the defeat of the Russian squad. Prince Izyaslav fled to Kyiv, where the inhabitants of the city demanded horses and weapons from him in order to again enter into battle with the Polovtsians. But the Grand Duke knew well that he was not popular with the people of Kiev, so he did not dare to hand over the weapons. This outraged the residents of Kyiv, and Izyaslav, taking his son Mstislav with him, hastily fled to Poland.
In the same year 1068, Prince Svyatoslav, who reigned in Chernigov, gathered an army of 3 thousand warriors. With this small squad, he went out to meet the 12,000-strong Polovtsian army. In the battle on the Snovya River, the Polovtsians were completely defeated.
The reason for the victory of the Russian squad was that the Polovtsian horsemen showed skill in short raids and skirmishes with small enemy cavalry units. But when they encountered confrontation between Russian cities and Russian infantry, they showed complete unpreparedness for such warfare. As a result of all this, the warlike nomadic people ceased to pose a serious threat to Kievan Rus.
But the Byzantine Empire became interested in the Polovtsians. Its lands were subject to raids by the Pechenegs, and the Byzantines called on the Cumans for help. The Polovtsian khans Sharukan and Bonyak brought a huge army of cavalry to the Balkan Peninsula. So the Pechenegs and Cumans entered into confrontation on the initiative of the Byzantine emperor. By 1091, the Polovtsian khans put an end to the Pechenegs on the Balkan Peninsula. The remaining detachments were pressed to the sea at Cape Leburn and some were slaughtered, and some were captured.
The Byzantines and Polovtsians disposed of the fate of their captured enemies differently. The Greeks killed their captives, and the Polovtsian khans annexed them to their own army. The remaining Pechenegs subsequently formed the still existing Gagauz people.
Alexey Starikov
The Polovtsy or Cumans and Pechenegs made up the Kipchak people. They played a significant role in the history of Russia, because for a long time they dominated the southern regions of Russia. According to Abulgazi Bahadur Khan, they were of Tatar origin, and their country, stretching from the Don River to the Volga, was called “Dasht-Kipchak”. He wrote: “In the south are the great mountains /Caucasus/, inhabited by Kerghiz /Circassians/ and Alans or Akas /Ossetians/, who are Christians and wage endless wars with their neighbors the Tatars.”
Byzantine sources confirm the fact that the Pechenegs lived near the Itil /Volga/ and Yaik rivers, from where they were driven out by the combined forces of the Ases and Khazars. As a result, they fled to the west and, having crossed the Don, scattered among the Hungarians and settled on the shores of the Black Sea from the Don to the Danube; in the east, their neighbors were the related Cumans. Konstantin Porphyrogenet wrote: “The Patonaots /Pechenegs/ in ancient times /894/ were called Kangars. They opposed the Khazars, but were defeated and were forced to leave their country and settle in the country of the Turks /Hungarians/.”
After the invasion of Tushi Khan, son. Genghis Khan to their country Desht-i-Kipchak, the forces of the Cumans and Pechenegs were completely undermined, and they were forced out by partVHungary, partly to the Caspian Sea. However, part remained under the rule of the descendants of Genghis Khan in the country of the Kipchak, where both peoples mixed and gave rise to the Nogai people, named after their leader Noga.
Taken together, the above evidence serves as sufficient evidence that the Cumans, Pechenegs and Kangls belonged to the same Tatar clan, spoke the same Tatar dialect and,VIn the end, they disappeared, giving rise to the Nogai people. However, there is a historical mystery here: most of the names of the Polovtsian leaders recorded in Russian chronicles, with the exception of a small number of Tatar and Nogai, are Circassian names that belonged to various clans in Kabarda and the Kuban. Therefore, it is very likely that in those days the Cumans and Pechenegs wereVsubordination to the Circassians and that they were led by Circassian princes. It is especially noteworthy that those encounteredVin the chronicles the names are mostly princely. In addition, it is known; that the daughters of the Cuman princes were distinguished by such beauty that many great Russian princes, as well as Stephen V himself, King of Hungary, took them as wives. This could not apply to Tatar beauties, who could hardly please Europeans who were alien to this type of beauty.
If we take into account the fact that the Circassians were a numerous people and lived at that time asVIt will seem strange to Crimea and the Caucasus that none of the historians mentions them. The reason for this may be that they somehow got lost among the Pechenegs and Cumans, since we know that in 1317 they lived under the name Kabari /Kabardian Circassians/ right next to the Cumans in the north of Crimea near Taganrog. /This evidence is taken from a historical map in the Vienna library, on which their name is marked east of the Cumans./ Moreover, an ancient legend has been preserved about the former dominance of the Circassians over the Nogais. Therefore, it is possible that those whom the Greek authors called the Cumans, and the Russian chronicles called the Polovtsians, were Kipchak Tatars who were under the domination of the Circassian princes.
The Cumans first appeared in history in 966 during the reign of Vladimir, when they raided Russia. They were unlucky on this campaign, as Alexander Popovich, Vladimir's commander-in-chief, attacked them at night and killed Volodar, the leader of the Polovtsians. They had to return home empty-handed. After 65 years, they returned under the leadership of Prince Sokol, and on February 2, 1061, a decisive battle took place, in which they won a landslide victory over the Russians. Having been defeated twice by the Cumans, Svyatopolk tried to conclude a peace treaty with them, which he managed to do in 1094. To consolidate this union, he married the daughter of Prince Togorkan. When soon after this Oleg was expelled from Chernigov, the Polovtsians hastened to his aid under the leadership of the princes Bonjak and Kurdzh, raided Russia, where they caused great unrest. Six days after the destruction of Usta, Prince Togorkan, Svyatopolk's father-in-law, besieged Pereyaslavl. However, he was defeated near the Trubezh River, he himself died at the hands of his son and was buried by Svyatopolk in Berestov. In turn, Bonjak made a surprise attack on Kyiv and almost captured it, but was forced to content himself with plundering the surrounding area and destroying the monastery of St. Stephen and the palace of Vsevolod the Red.
The following year, all the Russian princes, except Oleg, gathered on a campaign against the Polovtsians. Having learned about the Russian preparations, the Polovtsians sent ahead Altunop, one of the most capable commanders, for reconnaissance, but his detachment was suddenly surrounded by the Russians and killed to a single man.
Soonafterthis24 April1103 Russians of the yearAndThe Polovtsians met again in battle, but the Polovtsians were overcome by such fear that they fled in complete disorder. The bodies of 20 Polovtsian princes were found on the battlefield, threefromof whom Urusoba, Corep and Surbar were famous warriors.
In 1106, the Polovtsians again raided Russia, but this campaign was also unsuccessful, because the commander Svyatopolk caught up with them on the way and took away all the booty. The following year the Polovtsians make a new campaign under the leadership of Old Sharukan and Bonjak himself. But this time too they met strong resistance from the united troops, since agreement reigned between the Russian princes.
In these hostilities, many Polovtsian princes were killed, and among them Tas and Sokur, Bonjak's brothers. Only by some miracle did Sharukan himself manage to escape. The Russians managed to capture the entire enemy camp.
When Vladimir Monomakh ascended the throne in 1114, the Russians attacked the combined forces of the Cumans and Pechenegs on the Don River, and the latter suffered such a severe defeat that they were forced to hide with Vladimir himself, who took them into his service.
The following year, Yaropolk, the son of Vladimir, went to war and captured three Polovtsian cities on the Don. He returned home with a large number of captives from the Yases /Ossetians/. Among them was a young girl whom he married and who was christened Helen.
While Vladimir was alive, the Cumans behaved peacefully, but after his death in 1125 they resumed their raids on Russia. In 1184, the prince of Kyiv Svyatoslav proposed to go against the Polovtsians and, when all the princes agreed with him, he declared war on the Polovtsians. The large Polovtsian army, which numbered more than 417 princes, was defeated, and the Russians captured seven thousand prisoners. Among them were the following thirteen princes: Kobzhak, Osaluk, Barazh, Targa, Danila, Bashkard, Tarsuk, Issug-leib, Tereevich, Iksor, Alak, Aturgi and his son.
In 1211, the Cumans raided PereyaslavlAndcaused him significant damage. Five years later, in 1215, they launched another raid on Russia, entered into battle with the Russians, won it and even captured Vladimir himself.
Finally, in 1223, Tushi Khan, the son of Genghis Khan, and his military leaders, Sana-Noyan and Sudai-Boyadur, appeared in the Caucasus and went to war with the Alans, with whom the Cumans were in alliance. But the Mongol leader knew how to convince the Cumans to abandon this alliance and thus succeeded in the battle against the Alans. Soon after this, the Mongols attacked the Cumans, who quickly allied with the Nogais. At that moment they were too weak to resist the Mongols, and therefore turned to the Russian princes for help. In the battle with the Mongols, the combined forces of the Cumans and Nogais were defeated, and their leaders Kobdzhakovich and Kanchokovich were killed.
When the Polovtsy were already driven back to the Dnieper River, one of the most famous princes named Kotek went to Mstislav, his son-in-law, to ask for help. The Mongols tried to prevent this, but their emissaries were killed, and the Cumans received the necessary help.
Finally, the combined troops of the Russians and Pechenegs entered into battle on the Kalka River, in which the Mongols won. The Polovtsians fled, thereby causing panic in the Russian ranks. It was all over. No more than one tenth of the army remained alive: sixty thousand people from Kyiv alone died. After this decisive battle, the Mongols were able to penetrate deep into Russia and reached Veliky Novgorod. Then, in 1229, the Cumans, partly expelled and partly conquered, disappeared from the pages of history.
The names of Polovtsian leaders and princes, preserved in Russian chronicles, are mainly Circassian. This fact does not contradict historical data, according to which their former residence was much further north than today. Secondly, the fact that the Circassian language was widespread during the time of Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the Western Caucasus is a fact confirmed by him himself, since the word “Sapaxis” (with a Greek ending) mentioned by him is the same word as the Circassian “sapa”, meaning dust.
According to Klaproth, the following names are preserved in Russian chronicles: Abaruk, a surname from the Abkhaz tribe; Abroko is another, but dissimilar name from the same tribe.
Tarsuk...
Kurtok /Kurchok/ is a surname common in the Abkhaz tribe.
Ozaluk /Zaluk/ is a surname among Kabardians. Kanchokovich...
Itlar, Eltarch is the surname of the Kemirgoyevites. Kurka /Kurgoko/, a well-known surname common among Beslaneevites. Sokol, a princely surname among the Kumyks.
Kobran, a surname in Kabarda.
Togorkan...
Sharukan...
Urusoba...
Alak is a common name.
Bonjak is a surname among the Shapsugs in the village of Schmitt. Yaroslanop is a surname in Kabarda. Altunop is a surname among the Abadzekhs. Surbar...
Aturgi is the surname of the Beslaneevites. Kogrep...
Bluish is a surname in the Kemirgoy tribe.
Pechenegs, Polovtsians and Rus'
Already at the beginning of the 9th century, the Pechenegs roamed between the Yaik and the Volga. Pressed by the Turkic tribe of Uzes (Torks), the Pechenegs began to move in the area between the Don and the Dnieper.
According to the 10th century Byzantine writer Leo the Deacon, “the Pechenegs are a numerous pastoral people, omnivorous, nomadic and living mostly in tents.” The Pechenegs were divided into eight hordes, and each horde into forty uluses.
The Byzantine writer of the 11th century, Theophylact of Bulgaria, says that for the Pechenegs, “a peaceful life is misfortune, the height of prosperity is when they have an opportunity for war. The worst thing is that their numbers exceed the spring bees, and no one yet knew how many thousands or tens of thousands they were considered to be; the number of willows is countless.”
Pecheneg warriors had at least two horses with them, and sometimes (depending on the horse population) and more. The horse under the rider was constantly changing, and changing the horse very significantly “increased the speed and range of the run. “They do not stop riding,” says Robert de Clari about the Pechenegs, “day and night with such tirelessness that they make six, seven and eight horse marches during the night and day.”
In the 10th century, the Pecheneg nomads occupied vast steppe spaces from the right bank of the Don to the confluence of the Prut and the Danube in the west. In the south, the lands of the Pechenegs reached the Black Sea, in the north they bordered on Russia. Appearing at the Russian borders, the Pechenegs began to disturb Rus'. In the first half of the 11th century. The Russians managed to thoroughly weaken the Pechenegs, but Torks appeared in the steppes to replace them. In 1060, the combined forces of the Russian princes defeated the Torci. Soon new formidable nomads appeared - the Polovtsians, to whom the remnants of the Pechenegs and Torques submitted.
In comparison with the steppe nomads - their predecessors - the Cumans (apparently one of the branches of the Kangla) were the greatest threat to Rus'. Among the tribes that attacked Kievan Rus in the pre-Mongol period, the Cumans were more numerous and powerful than their predecessors.
About the Cumans, Rabbi Petakia (circa 1170) reports that “they live in tents, are extremely far-sighted, have beautiful eyes... They are excellent shooters and kill birds on the fly.” According to Elomari, “their diet consists of animals: horses, cows and sheep... Most of their food consists of meat obtained through hunting.” In general, the main branch of the Polovtsian economy was nomadic cattle breeding. In areas adjacent to the Russian principalities, the Polovtsy partially settled down and engaged in agriculture. The most important export items from the Polovtsians were furs and slaves, which were acquired through armed raids and imposing tribute on conquered tribes.
In terms of their social system, the Polovtsians were in the stage of disintegration of patriarchal-tribal relations, the separation of the clan nobility, and the transition to feudalism, but the basis of social production still remained the labor of free members of clan communities.
In the southern Russian steppes, the Polovtsians formed a large association, the bulk of the population of which led a nomadic lifestyle, and some were already switching to settled agricultural labor. The Polovtsians absorbed the population of the Khazars - partially exterminated it, partially merged with it, which can explain the fact that in the 12th-13th centuries nothing more was known about the Khazars.
Among the sedentary peoples surrounding them, the Polovtsians did not have a common name. In Muslim sources they appear under the name of Kipchaks, in Byzantine sources - Cumans, in Hungarian - Kuns, etc. The Byzantine name “Cuman” was the proper Turkish name of this Turkic-speaking people. The Russians gave him the name “Polovtsy”. There has been much debate about the origin of the word “Polovtsy”. The most widely accepted explanation for the word “Polovtsy” is from “polovy” (the Old Slavic word “pilaf” means straw, which is where “polovy” comes from, “polovy” means pale, whitish-straw color). This is what the Russians allegedly called the Polovtsians because of their blond hair. However, the fair hair of the Polovtsians is not attested by written sources. It is much more likely, therefore, that the word “Polovtsians” is a translation of the actual Polovtsian (Turkish) name - “kuman”. The Kuman River (Nogai name) is known among Russians as the Kuban. The root of this word is “Cuba” - among the Nogais it is “pale”, among the Shors it is pale, grayish, among the Kazakhs it is pale yellow. The Kazakhs call the steppe “kuba-zhon” (compare with the Russian “polovet” - fade, wither, turn yellow). The word “Kuban - Kuman”, obviously, was adopted by the Russians in the corresponding semantic translation (“Polovtsy”) ( Wed. A. Ponomarev. - Kuman - Polovtsy, “Bulletin of Ancient History”, M., 1940, No. 3-4).
The origin of the name “Kobyakovo Settlement,” as the known remains of a large ancient settlement near the village of Aksaiskaya are called, should also be associated with the stay of the Polovtsians on the Don.
“Kobyak” is a name widespread among the Turkic tribes, which was also borne by some of the nobles in Asia Minor, for example, the Seljukids of Rum had a vizier Sa"d - ed - din Kobyak.
The name of the major Polovtsian khan Kobyak, who, together with many Polovtsian princes, was defeated and captured by the Russians in 1183-1184, is historically attested. during their campaign against the Polovtsians ( In 1184, Prince Svyatoslav won a brilliant victory over the Polovtsians on the Orelya River (which flows into the Dnieper). Svyatoslav's troops captured more than 7,000 Polovtsians, including over 400 Polovtsian princes. Among the captives was Khan Kobyak).
In the XI-XII centuries. the possessions of the Polovtsy-Kipchaks were the steppes of the northern Black Sea region between the Danube and the Volga, including also the Crimean steppes and the shores of the Sea of Azov with the Ciscaucasia.
The northern borders of the Polovtsian land were in contact with the southeastern borders of Kievan Rus. A significant number of Polovtsian encampments were located along the Seversky (Northern) Donets and beyond it, in particular, between the North. Donets and Tor (Butt). These were Donetsk Polovtsians. In the river basin The Don Polovtsians roamed the Don. It is known that in the river basin. Molochnaya was one of the major centers of the Primorye Polovtsians (and later Nogais), who roamed from the Dnieper to the lower Don along the shores of the Sea of Azov. Between North Along the Don and Tor, in the depths of the Polovtsian land, lay the cities of Sharukan, Sugrov, Balin. In bold campaigns against the Polovtsy - in 1103, 1109, 1111, 1116, the Russians reached these lands.
That the Polovtsians who lived in the Don region were numerous is confirmed by the chronicle, which testifies that when Prince Igor Svyatoslavovich made his famous campaign against the Polovtsians in 1185, then, according to the prince himself, he “assembled (collected upon himself) the whole land Polovtsian" (Ipatiev Chronicle) ( Sometimes separate groups of Polovtsians left their nomadic camps and went over to the side of the Russian princes. In contrast to the steppe “wild” nomads, such pacified natives were called “our filthy ones” in Rus', entrusting them in some cases with guard military service, that is, the defense of Russian borders. Such pacified nomads (Polovtsy, Pechenegs, Torques, Berendeys and others) were known under the general name “black hoods.” Some of the Torci gradually finally merged with the Russians, taking part in the general state life of Rus').
Polovtsian antiquities are known to us from burial mounds. In these burials there are with the skeletons (lying with their heads to the east) sabers, quivers, arrows, chain mail (by the way, all over the world the gradual transition from sword to saber can be traced in detail precisely in the southern Russian burials of the related Pechenegs, Torks and Polovtsians). Finds of silver beads are found in women's burials. Often, instead of building mounds over the graves of the dead, the Polovtsians preferred to bury the dead in the mounds of pre-existing, more ancient mounds - the Bronze Age or Scythian-Sarmatian time (the so-called “inlet” burials).
Such a common type of ancient monuments in the southern Russian steppes as “stone women” is also associated with the Polovtsians.
Let’s remember “The Steppe” by A.P. Chekhov: “A kite flies just above the ground, smoothly flapping its wings, and suddenly stops in the air, as if thinking about the boredom of life, then shakes its wings and rushes like an arrow over the steppe... For a change, a white flashes in the weeds a skull or a cobblestone, a gray stone woman or a dried willow with a blue raksha on the top branch will grow for a moment, a gopher will cross the road - and again weeds, hills, rooks will run past your eyes...”
Evening night. “You drive for an hour or two... You come across a silent old man-mound or a stone woman, placed by God knows who and when, a night bird flies silently over the earth, and little by little steppe legends, stories of people you meet, tales of a steppe nanny come to mind and everything that he himself was able to see and comprehend with his soul... The soul gives a response to the beautiful, harsh homeland, and I want to fly over the steppe together with the night bird.”
It is no coincidence that Chekhov showed the stone woman as a typical element of the steppe landscape, which the great writer called so well and sang so enthusiastically.
Rice. 23. Stone “women” from the collections in the Novocherkassk Museum. A - female statue.
An integral part of the steppe southern Russian landscape of the Middle Ages were the sculptures (made of sandstone, granite, limestone and other rocks) of male and female figures standing on the mounds, the so-called stone “women” (from the Turkic - “balbals”). These sculptures can still be found in Don villages and farmsteads. Even in the last century, there were hundreds of them in the Don steppes. Several typical specimens of stone women were collected in the Novocherkassk city garden; individual specimens are available in all museums of the Rostov region (Fig. 23). The average height of a “woman” is approximately 2 m. The hands of the statue are always folded together on the lower abdomen and hold a ritual vessel - a mug, cup, horn. The faces of male figures are depicted with mustaches and, less commonly, beards. Some male statues depicted weapons - helmets, sabers, bows, quivers with arrows, a chair on a pendant, etc., while female statues depicted earrings, beads, necklaces, chest boxes and other jewelry. The presence of earrings is, however, also typical for male statues.
Rice. 23. Stone “women” from the collections in the Novocherkassk Museum. B - male statue
Most often people are depicted in a standing position, but sometimes in a sitting position. The legs are always disproportionately short. The stone women are made, as a rule, crudely, but some of them are finished much better and carefully (details of clothing, hairstyle, weapons, jewelry), others are extremely schematized.
Stone women are distributed very widely - from the Dniester in the west through Ukraine and Crimea, the southern Russian steppes and the Caucasus to Mongolia. Inscriptions and other data found in Mongolia along the Orkhon River indicate that stone women were erected here by Turkic tribes, they were always placed facing the east and depicted the main enemy of the one who was buried under the mound and who once defeated the enemy with his hand. According to shamanic beliefs, the soul of the one depicted in the statue will forever, and beyond the grave, serve the one who rests under the mound. This interpretation, however, cannot be considered complete: it does not explain, in particular, the meaning of female figures.
The stone women of the southern Russian steppes, therefore, with the greatest justification should be attributed in their mass to the Turkic nomads and, above all, to the Polovtsians.
The abundance of stone women in the southern Russian steppes was noted at the beginning of the second half of the 13th century. In 1253, the Dutch monk William de Rubruk was sent by the French king Louis IX to the Tatars to convert them to Christianity. From Constantinople, Rubruk traveled through the Crimea and the Azov steppes, crossed the Severn River. Donets, Don, Khoper, Medveditsa and visited Sarai, the Caucasus, Central Asia and southern Siberia.
In an interesting description of his journey, Rubruk says that, driving through the steppes, he noticed that the Cumans (Cumans) “pile a large hill over the deceased and erect a statue of him, facing the east and holding a cup in his hand in front of the navel.”
On stone “women” with a male image, there are very often belts that cross across the chest, reinforced on both sides with metal plaques.
Very characteristic is the limestone sculpture sketched by the artist, discovered on the Don in the mound of a small mound (see Fig. 23-B). On the head of a male warrior is a high conical helmet with an applied top, a tube for feathers, a crown and a nosepiece with two holes. On the warrior’s shoulders and chest there are three belts, apparently covered with rectangular metal plates with notches intersecting diagonally. The ends of the belts hang over the chest, intersecting with the transverse belt, and in this place, in addition to the two belts, there are two chest plaques. Belts and plaques could hardly protect a warrior from enemy attacks and, most likely, were not part of the weaponry, but a decorative ceremonial military detail, “perhaps a sign of a certain military dignity or an attribute of a certain category of warriors” ( P. N. Shultz. - Stone sculptures of warriors from the Chokrak kurgan group. Collection of research and materials of the Artillery Historical Museum of the Red Army, I, M.-L., 1940). The warrior's pronounced cheekbones, mustache and braid falling behind are striking.
All these are typical elements of the “Polovtsian” group of stone male sculptures.
The following is curious: in one of the mounds near the village. Guselshchikov, 10 versts from the Novonikolaevskaya village, b. Taganrog district, in 1902 a medieval burial was found. Along the left side of the skeleton lay a double-edged straight iron sword, at the belt was a drilled tooth (amulet), two jasper beads, and on the chest were several belts reinforced and decorated with copper wire, and two round shields arranged in such a way that a cross was placed below ( made of copper with an admixture of about 10% gold), on which was dressed a circle of thick leather bound with a thin sheet of silver. In other words, these belts are completely similar to those depicted on stone women ( Excavations in the Taganrog district. Proceedings of the XV Archaeological Congress in Kharkov, volume I, M., 1905).
The Polovtsy caused Rus' a lot of troubles and troubles. Rus' began to be attacked by the Polovtsians in 1061.
They began to disturb the Russian lands especially strongly from the middle of the 12th century. In general, over two centuries one can count more than 40 major devastating Polovtsian raids on Rus', not counting hundreds of everyday small ones. These raids stopped only just before the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars, who conquered the Polovtsians and partially introduced them to their hordes. The struggle of Rus' against the Polovtsians was long and persistent. Even at the congress of princes in Lyubech (1097), the voices of individual princes were heard: “Why are we destroying the Russian land, which we ourselves own? And the Polovtsians carry our land in different ways and for the sake of it they are fighting between us to this day. From now on, have one heart and let us preserve the Russian land!” ( Ipatiev Chronicle, ed. 1871).
Already from the beginning of the 12th century, Rus' went on the offensive against the steppe nomads. The Russians inflicted a number of crushing blows on the Polovtsians.
One of the main directions of Russian campaigns to the Polovtsian land, “to the Don”, researchers (K.V. Kudryashev and others) consider the paths along the watershed between Oskal and Don to the lower reaches of the North. Donets or along the watershed between Don and Khopr (where the famous Nogai highway would pass in the 17th century) towards the Lower Don. This last path was also recorded by chroniclers.
The most successful were the four campaigns against the Polovtsians of Vladimir Monomakh in 1103-1116, when Vladimir managed to penetrate deep into the Polovtsian land, “drank,” according to the Chronicle, “the Don with a golden mantle,” and forced a significant number of Polovtsians to migrate to the North Caucasus. The power of the Polovtsians was seriously weakened by the bold and active resistance of the Russians. However, the growth of feudal civil strife in Rus', which forced individual princes to look for allies among the Polovtsians to fight other princes, allowed the Polovtsians to ravage the southern Russian lands for some time. Feudal strife seriously weakened Rus' at that time and prevented the unification of its forces, which had a significant impact in the famous tragic campaign against the Polovtsians of Seversky Prince Igor in 1185.
Polovtsy Polovtsy (Cumans, Kipchaks) are the people of the Turkic tribe, who once formed one whole with the Pechenegs and Torks (when they lived in the steppes of Central Asia); in Petrarch's papers a dictionary of the Polovtsian language has been preserved, from which it is clear that their language is Turkic, which is closest to the Quattro-Turkish. P. came to the southern Russian steppes following the Pechenegs and soon ousted both of them. From this time (2nd half of the 11th century) until the Mongol-Tatar invasion, they carried out constant attacks on Rus', especially southern Russia - they devastated lands, plundered livestock and property, took away a lot of prisoners, whom they either kept as slaves or sold in slave markets Crimea and Central Asia. Their attacksP. they did it quickly and suddenly; Russian princes tried to recapture their captives and cattle when they returned to their steppe. The border principality of Pereyaslavl suffered most from them, then Porosye, Seversk, Kiev, and Ryazan regions. Sometimes Rus' ransomed its prisoners from P. To defend its southern borders, Rus' built fortifications and settled on the borderlands of allied and peaceful Turks, known as black hoods. The center of the Black-Klobutsky settlements was Porosye, on the southern border of the Kyiv principality. Sometimes the Russians waged an offensive war with the Polovtsians, undertaking campaigns deep into the Polovtsian land; one of such campaigns was the campaign of the hero of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” Igor Svyatoslavich, in 1185; but they brought more glory than benefit. The Polovtsian people split into several tribes, which were named after their leaders. Thus, the chronicle mentions the Voburgevichs, Ulashevichs, Bosteeva, Chargova children. P. were excellent steppe riders and had their own military system. Their main occupation was cattle breeding (breeding cattle, horses, camels), and therefore they moved from one place to another; Their situation was difficult during the harsh winters. They obtained gold and silver partly by robbery, partly by trade. They did not build P. cities, although Sharukan, Sugrov, Cheshuev are mentioned in their land and belonged to them in the 13th century. Sudak. The Polovtsian khans lived a luxurious life, but the people generally lived simply and unpretentiously; his main food was meat. milk and millet, favorite drink - kumiss. GraduallyP. were exposed to the cultural influence of Rus', sometimes adopted Christianity; Their khans received Christian names. In general, however. P.were pagans. According to Rubrukvis, they built mounds over the ashes of their dead and placed stone women on top of them. In the half of the 13th century. P. were conquered by the Mongol-Tatars. Some of them moved to Transcaucasia, some to Russia, some to the Balkan Peninsula (Thrace, Macedonia) and Asia Minor, some to Hungary; the Hungarian king Bela IV accepted P., who came under the leadership of Khan Kotyan (father-in-law of Daniil Romanovich of Galicia); the heir to the Hungarian throne, Stephen V, married Kotyan’s daughter, and in general P. took a prominent position in Hungary. Finally, part of P. moved to Egypt, where they also settled well in the army; some Egyptian sultans were of Polovtsian origin. See P.V. Golubovsky, “Pechenegs, Turks and Cumans before the Tatar invasion” (Kyiv, 1884); article by prof. Aristov "About the Polovtsian Land" (in "Izv. Nezh. Ist.Phil. Institute"). D. Bag-th snake (Eryx) - a genus of snakes from the subfamily Erycinae family. boas (Boidae), distinguished by a very short, mobile and non-curling tail, covered with small scales and a head not delimited from the body with a rounded muzzle, with a distinct longitudinal groove on the chin and the absence of pits on all labial scutes; The front jaw teeth are only slightly longer than the back teeth. From 5 to 6 species characteristic of the Palearctic Himalayan regions and: living in very dry sandy areas of steppes and deserts. The most common species is the Turkish snake (Eryx jaculus s.turcicus), 66 - 77 cm long, bright yellowish-gray on top, with an oblique black stripe on both sides of the head; black checkers, located in four longitudinal rows along the entire length of the body, merge with each other; the underside is mostly one-color straw-yellow. Distributed from the Balkan Peninsula to the Altai Mountains to the east and to Egypt and Algeria to the west. It buries itself in the sand, lying in wait for prey, which consists mainly of lizards, which it strangles before swallowing. T.Ya.
Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron. - S.-Pb.: Brockhaus-Efron. 1890-1907 .
See what “Polovtsians” are in other dictionaries:
- (Kipchaks), Turkic-speaking people, in the 11th century. in the southern Russian steppes. Nomadic cattle breeding, crafts. They raided Rus' in 1055 and the beginning of the 13th century. Defeated and conquered by the Mongol Tatars in the 13th century. (part of it went to Hungary) ... Modern encyclopedia
- (Kipchaks) Turkic-speaking people, in the 11th century. in the southern Russian steppes. Nomadic cattle breeding, crafts. They raided Rus' in early 1055. 13th century The most dangerous attacks were in con. 11th century Stopped after defeats from the Russian princes in 1103 16.… … Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
CUMANS, Cumans, units. Polovtsian, Polovtsian, husband. Turkic people, related to the Pechenegs, in the 11th and 12th centuries. AD repeatedly attacked Kievan Rus. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
Cumans, ev, units. vets, vtsa, husband. A group of tribes of Turkic origin that roamed the southeast of Europe in the 11th century. 13th century | wives Polovtsian, I. | adj. Polovtsian, oh, oh. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
- (Kipchaks), Turkic-speaking people, in the 11th century. in the southern Russian steppes. Nomadic cattle breeding, crafts. They raided Rus' in 1055 and the beginning of the 13th century. The most dangerous attacks were at the end of the 11th century; ceased after defeats from the Russian princes in 1103 16;... ... Russian history
Cumans- (Kipchaks), Turkic-speaking people, in the 11th century. in the southern Russian steppes. Nomadic cattle breeding, crafts. They raided Rus' in 1055 and the beginning of the 13th century. Defeated and conquered by the Mongol Tatars in the 13th century. (some of them went to Hungary). ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
It is proposed to merge this page with the Kipchaks. Explanation of reasons and discussion on the Wikipedia page: Towards unification / October 23, 2011. The discussion lasts one week (or longer if it is going slowly). Date... Wikipedia
Ev; pl. East. An ancient people of the Turkic linguistic group, who roamed the southeast of Europe at the end of the 11th and beginning of the 13th century; representatives of this people. The fight against the Polovtsians. ◁ Polovtsian, vtsa; m. Polovchanka, and; pl. genus. nok, dat. nkam; and. Polovtsian, oh, oh. P.… … encyclopedic Dictionary
Kipchaks, Cumans, cf. century Turkic people groups. In the 10th century occupied the territory North Zap. Kazakhstan, bordering on the East with the Kimaks, on the South with the Oguzes, and on the West with the Khazars. They split into a number of tribes and led a nomadic lifestyle. All R. 10th century, moving after... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia
Kipchaks, Kypchaks, Cumans, the Russian name for a mostly Mongoloid Turkic-speaking people who came around the 11th century. from the Volga region to the Black Sea steppes. P.'s main occupation was nomadic cattle breeding. By the 12th century P. begins to stand out... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Books
- Cumans in Hungary. Historical sketch, Pyotr Vasilievich Golubovsky. This book will be produced in accordance with your order using Print-on-Demand technology. A short research paper which the author originally intended as an appendix to his…
