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Cumans / Kiptchaks - 894-1261

Comans or Cumani (Russ. Polowtze, Magyar Palocz and Attn) is a term chiefly used by Europeans for the Turkish tribes that occupied Moldavia and the adjacent regions of south Russia. The origin of the name is uncertain; but it seems to be Turkish, though it rarely occurs in Oriental records. The most probable conjecture regarding the people denoted by it is that they were a mixture of Ghuzz and Petchenegs. Oriental authors know much more of their neighbours to the east, the Kipchaks, a very common name of Turkish clans down to the present day. Sometimes both names are combined : Rubruqujs speaks of the Coman Kipchaks. Anna Comnena informs us that the Comans spoke the same dialect as the Petchenegs, a dialect well known to European scholars from the so-called Codex Cumanicus.

South of the Jaxartes Turkish invaders can with some approximation be discriminated from Persian settlers. They belong to two separate divisions of the human race. Religion, manners and customs, physique and language, all present features assisting the division. North of the Jaxartes, in the great deserts of the Khirgises, and in the steppes of Little Tatary and of Siberia, we meet with much more complicating circumstances. There the difference is one of degree rather than of kind.

The Volga, the eastern limit of Europe, was near enough to the Greeks and Russians find invasions (especially as it was not likely to be a mere isolated raid) mentioned in their annals; and on turning to them we find ourselves among a long series of such notices. Wherever the term Gusses or Gozz is found in the accounts of the Arabs, there is found the names Uzes or Comaui used by the Byzantines, the former term used with great laxity, and sometimes made to include the Petchenegs. Anna Comnena, in 1070, first uses the name Comani.

The name Comanians is therefore of small value in tracing the history of the Gusses; it is merely the appellative they derived from their situation. Nikon, the Russian chronicler, in speaking of them, says, the "Cumani, more properly Polowtzy." Another writer, quoted by Schlozer, says, "the Cumani, that is the Polowtzi." Nestor, in describing one of their invasions of the Greek empire, says Polowtzi where the Greek writers say Cumani. One thus identify the Cumani of the Greeks with the Polowtzki so celebrated in the Russian annals of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Polowtzki merely means steppe-men.

The Byzantines placed the first arrival of the Comani or Kiptchaks about the years 894-899, when they drove the Petchenegs from between the Ural or Jaik and the Volga. The Russians first speak of the Polowzi in 996, during the reign of Wladimir, when their prince, Wolodar, invaded Russia. They were then defeated and their king killed. From this date to the year 1229, when they occur for the last time in the Russian chronicles, the history of Russia is little more than the account of their fearful devastations, invited and assisted by the miserable squabbles of the various Russian princes.

In their earlier struggles with the Petchenegs the Kiptchaks were in alliance with the Khazars; and with them they first drove the Petchenegs across the Don. A portion of the latter, however, survived in the deserts between the Ural and the Volga; the remainder were gradually pressed westward into Hungary and on to the weak defences of the Greek empire; and the Comans gradually occupied the country north of the Euxine and the Caucasus, where they are placed by Rubruquis and De Plano Carpino. Describing the Nogay steppe north of the Crimea, the former writer says, " This whole level was, previously to the irruption of the Tartars, inhabited by the Comanians On the invasion of the Tartars a great multitude of Comaniaus fled to the sea-shore..."

Many of the Comans followed in the steps of previous unfortunate nomads and made their way towards the Hungarian plains, with whose inhabitants they had had many conflicts, in two of which, in 1070 and 1089, they had been severely defeated by the Hungarians Salomo and Ladislav (see Zeuss 'Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstamme').

The Cumans rose into importance in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when they invaded, devastated and ruled over the countries between the Volga and the Danube. By 1114 the Patzmaks and Khazars, old enemies in the lands on the Euxine, gave way to the Cumans, known in Russian history as Polovtzi and Parthi. They spread themselves from the Ural river to the borders of Servia and Danubian Bulgaria, cutting off Russia from the Caspian. In the next century Russians and Cumans - momentary allies - fell before the advance of the Mongols, commonly known in European history as Tartars. Known only as ravagers in the lands more to the west, over Russia they become overlords for two hundred and fifty years. All that Russia escaped, absorption by the Lithuanian became tributary to the Mongol. Although subdued by the Mongols in 1237, their numerous tribes were mentioned at a later period by Carpini and Rubruquis.

In an old map of the year 1318, in the Imperial Library at Vienna, Comania or Chumania is the tract north of the Sea of Azof. In this tract Rubruquis mentions passing the tombs of the Comani-stately erections, pyramids and pillars, upon each of which was placed a rude figure holding a drinking-cup. Klaproth, who describes them as they still remain, doubts their having been made by the Comani.

The arrival of the Mongols broke up the Comanian power. When the former had forced their way through the Caucasus, they were opposed by an allied army of Comans and Alans. Commencing the struggle, as they invariably did, with intrigues, they detached the Comans from their alliance by claiming them as brothers and of the same kin, which they denied to the Alans. This is another proof of the ethnic affinities of the Comans.

Having defeated the Alans separately, the Mongols, with consistent treachery, turned their arms upon the Comans. On another occasion, when Comans and Russians were allied, they attempted, but unsuccessfully, the same policy in more flattering terms, saying the Comans were their ancient slaves while the Russians were a noble, independent people. The various alliances of Comans, Russians, and Alans, however, were of little avail. The Mongol tide swept on, and the Comanians, as a separate nation (their capital was Soldaya), were heard of no more in the Nogay steppe.

Many of them were sold by the Mongols to the family of Saladin, and became the nucleus of the Mamelukes, one of whom, called Bibars or Biberdi (a Turk name) became sultan of Egypt and concluded a treaty with the Greek emperor in 1261. The establishment of the Mongol empire of the Kaptchak on the ruins of the Comanian power did not eradicate that race altogether; although the name Coman disappears, the name Kaptchak was adopted by the conquerors, and a vast number of the original Kaptchaks or Comans remained behind in the steppes, under the rule of the Mongols.

In Hungary numbers of them settled. On the middle Theiss still remains a country called Kunsag, and people known as great and little Kumans-the former on the right, the latter on the left bank of the river. In 1410 they were converted to Christianity, and in the same century followed the trades of masons and archers (in Hungarian Jazok). They mixed in many civil commotions, and it was not until the year 1440 that they adopted the manners and language of the Hungarians; they professed Christianity much about the same period. Their ancient dialect is now forgotten, the last individual that recollected a few words in it, was a burgess of Kardzag, who died in 1770. Some sermons however have been preserved, and its affinity with the Tartar or Turkish has thus been proved.

In Hungary, Great Cumania (Nagy Kvnsag, Hung.) was a perfectly level plain, about 20 miles square, lying between Pesth and Debreczin on the river Berettyo, and abounding in corn, water melons, wine, and turtle. The inhabitants, about 33,000 in number, were chiefly Protestants. Little Cumania, (Kis Kvnsag,) to the South of the former, between Pesth and Theresienstadt, had about double the extent with 42,000 inhabitants. This district, which, like the former, enjoyed great privileges, was an immense plain little removed by culture from the state of nature. The intense heat reflected from the sandy soil made the mirage as frequent here as in Egypt, when the Deli Baba, or Fairy of the South, the supposed authoress of the illusion, amuses the shepherd by the scenery she displays. They still exist to the number of 112,000 free persons, but have entirely forgotten their language. According to Klaproth, the last who understood it was a man named Varro, who died in 1770. Remains of it have been preserved and proved to be clearly Turkish.

It is unnecessary to enter into the doubtful discussions to which the history of this peoplo has given rise, to inquire whether they were Ouzes, Folowzes, a tribe of the Petchenegues, or an ancient branch of the great Hungarian nation. It is equally difficult to determine whether they founded the town of Magyar in the steppes of Kuina, or mixed with the Awars of Caucasus.

The river Kama is synonymous with Kuma in the Permiake and Biriaine. The Finnic tribes in the Great Hungary of the middle ages called themselves Komi, and kum in the Wogul idiom signified people. The Cumans might have been originally a Finnic nation on the banks of the Great Kuma ; if that opinion be correct, it is likely that they became powerful during the migrations of the Hungarians or Magiars, mixed afterwards in the course of their distant expeditions and political vicissitudes with Turkish tribes or the Chazares, the Ouzes and Petchenegues, adopted partly the dialects of these strangers, came after many wanderings to the new country of the Magiars, and settled among their kinsmen.