The Cumans reach the Black Sea steppes and the borders of Rus’
In the 11th century the Kipchak nomads whom the Rus’ called Polovtsy and the West called Cumans moved from beyond the Volga into the Black Sea steppes, displacing the Torks and the remaining Pechenegs. The Primary Chronicle records their first visit to the borders of Rus’ in 1054 or 1055 and their first raid in February 1061 or 1062; for almost two centuries, until the Mongol invasion, the steppe — the Dasht-i Kipchak of Eastern writers — was theirs.
- Date
- between 1054 and 1055 – between 1061 and 1062exact date unknown: an interval is given · duration: ≈ 7 years
- Place
- Black Sea steppe between the Dnieper and the Donapproximate locationtoday: Southern and eastern Ukraine · Eastern Europe
- Route
- Steppes beyond the Volga → Black Sea steppe between the Dnieper and the Don → Pereiaslav
- Participants
- Cumans, Kievan Rus’, Vsevolod I of Kyiv
- Threads
- Central Asia and the Steppe (11th–12th c.)
- Also known as
- Polovtsians; Polovtsy; Kipchaks; Qipchaqs; Cuman–Kipchak confederation; Dasht-i Kipchak; Bolush; Половцы; Кыпчаки; Куманы; Дешт-и-Кыпчак; Болуш
The Cumans were a confederation of Turkic-speaking nomads of the Kipchak group: the Rus’ chronicles call them Polovtsy — traditionally from polovyi, ‘pale yellow’ — Western sources Cumans and Eastern ones Kipchaks. In the course of the 11th century they crossed the Volga into the steppes north of the Black Sea, pushing out the Pechenegs and the Oghuz, whom the Rus’ called Torks. Cuman and Rus’ attacks hastened the departure of the Oghuz: in 1060 the sons of Yaroslav and Vseslav of Polotsk led a great campaign against the Torks, who fled and, says the chronicle, perished in their flight. In time the Cuman lands stretched from the Danube to Taraz, and Eastern writers came to call the steppe Dasht-i Kipchak, ‘the Kipchak steppe’.
The Primary Chronicle first mentions them in the entry after Yaroslav’s death: ‘In the same year Bolush came with the Cumans, and Vsevolod made peace with them, and the Cumans went back whence they had come.’ A few years later ‘the Cumans came for the first time to make war on the Rus’ land’: on 2 February Vsevolod of Pereiaslav went out against them and was defeated, and they ravaged the country and left — ‘the first evil from the pagan and godless enemies’. Their prince is called Iskal or Sokal in different readings.
The chronicle dates the two entries to the years 6563 and 6569 from the Creation, usually rendered as 1055 and 1061. But its years did not always begin in the same month: Yaroslav’s death on 20 February 1054 stands under 6562, which by March reckoning would run from March 1054 to February 1055. Bolush’s visit may therefore fall in 1054 or 1055, as modern works differ, and the February raid in 1061 or, by March reckoning, 1062. From then on the Cumans were the main power of the steppe: enemies who defeated the sons of Yaroslav on the Alta in 1068, but also allies and in-laws of the Rus’ princes — the khan Tugorkhan was the father-in-law of Sviatopolk II of Kyiv — until the Mongols broke their power in 1236–1242.
Connections
Consequences
- The Battle of the Alta and the Kyiv uprising1068 · Eastern Europe
Related events
- The Pechenegs seize the Pontic steppebetween 889 and 896 · Eastern Europea century and a half earlier the Pechenegs had taken the same steppe from the Magyars
- Battle of Levounion29 April 1091 · Balkans and Anatoliathe Cuman khans Tugorkan and Boniak of the Rus’ chronicles — Anna Komnene’s Togortak and Maniak — fought for Alexios I against the Pechenegs at Levounion (1091)
- The Council of Liubech1097 · Eastern Europethe princes declared that the Cumans were tearing the land apart while they fought one another
Same participants
- Hilarion, the first metropolitan of Kyiv from Rus’1051 … February 1052 · Eastern Europevia Kievan Rus’
Same place
- Death of Sviatoslav at the Dnieper rapids972 · Eastern Europe
Adjacent events in the thread
- The Kara-Khanid Khanate splits into western and eastern khanatesbetween 1040 and 1042 · Central and Northern Asia
- Yusuf Balasaguni completes the Kutadgu Biligbetween 1069 and 1070 · Central and Northern Asia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Norman conquest of SicilyMay 1061 – between 1090 and 1091
Balkans and Anatolia
- East–West Schism: the excommunications of 105416 July 1054
- Michael Psellos writes the Chronographiac. 1059 – c. 1078
Middle East and Egypt
- Tughril Beg enters Baghdadbetween 17 December and 18 December 1055
- The caliphate of al-Mustansir and the ‘Mustansirite hardship’13 June 1036 – 29 December 1094
Africa
- The Banu Hilal invade Ifriqiyabetween 1050 and 1051 – 1057
- The Almoravids: from a desert reform movement to an empirebetween 1039 and 1046 – 1147
- K2 (Bambandyanalo) and the rise of Mapungubwec. 1000 – c. 1220
- Igbo-Ukwu: bronze casting in the West African forest800–899 – 1100–1199
East Asia
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Anawrahta builds the Pagan Empire1044–1077
- Polynesians settle the Society Islandsbetween 1025 and 1120
North America
- Classic Mimbres: the painted bowls of the Mogollonc. 1000 – between 1130 and 1150
- Pueblo II: stone pueblos and the Chaco worldc. 900 – c. 1150
Latin America
- Collapse of Tiwanakuc. 1000 – c. 1150
- Tula and the Toltecs: the leading city of central Mexicoc. 900 – c. 1150
- Middle Sicán: the Lambayeque culture at its height at Batán Grandec. 900 – c. 1100
- Chimor: the Chimú kingdom and its capital Chan Chanc. 900 – c. 1470
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Cumans
- Wikipedia (Russian): Половцы
- Wikipedia (Russian): Русско-половецкие войны
- Повесть временных лет / Подгот. текста, пер., ст. и коммент. Д. С. Лихачёва; под ред. В. П. Адриановой-Перетц. — 2-е изд. — СПб.: Наука, 1996.
- Плетнёва С. А. Половцы. — М.: Наука, 1990.
- Golden P. B. An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples. — Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1992.