SHORT LOAN Andris Pél6czi-Horvéth PECHENEGS, CUMANS, TASIANS Steppe peoples in medieval HungaryEditor oftheseie: ISTVANBONA Original ie: BESENYOK, KUNOK, JASZOK (Corvina Kind, Budapes, 1989 ‘Translated by TIMOTHY WILKINSON Series design by JUDIT KALLOI Photographsby FERENC CSECSETKA:9, 69, 70,74, 76 ANDRASDABASI:23, 25 ZSUZSANNAD. ERDOKORT:1, 48,49 JOZSEFKARATH:2,3,4 "ANDRASPALOCZIHORVATH:71, 72,73 allother Plates areby KALMAN KONYA, Drawingsand maps by AGOSTON DEKANY ‘Onthe cover: Entry ofthe various lansinto Hungary (Chronic Pusu) © Andrés Paécxi Horvith Isswvotss.3119 ISBN963 13 2740 Kner Printing House, Gyomaended CO 2807-42093 Pechenegs 7 Pechenegs and Magyars 7 "The people of “Pecheneg-land” 11 The Pechenegs in Hungary 27 (Cumans and Iasians From Central AsiatotheDanubeBasin 39 Cumanian settlementareasin Hungary 54 Tasians: language, origin andsettlements 62 Heathen horsemen forChristiankings 68 Dress 86 Religionandart 96 Nomad campsand permanent villages 110 Chronology 121 Abbreviations 123 Selected Bibliography 125 List of Figures 128 List of Plates 135Pechenegs and Magyars ‘A knight from one of the leading dans came from the land of the Pechenegs. He was called Thonuaobs, fither of Urcund, from whom the Tomaj [Thomoy] clan is descended. Prince ‘Taksony gave him dwelling-lands in the parts of the Kemej up tothe River Tisza, where the village of Abéd-céy stands. This is how Anonymus, notary to King Bél Il recorded in the last chapter of his Gesta Hungaronam the history, based on fam- ily tradition, of his Pecheneg ancestor of the Tomaj clan who ‘emigrated to Hungary during the reign of Prince Taksony, be- tween A.D. 955 and 970. The properties and monastery of this, particular clan were situated on the left bank of the middle Tisza river butin the Arpédian era extensive Pecheneg settlement tex Fitories could also be found farther from the bank of the river, along the streams that ran down from the Bikk Hills. ‘Thonuzoba (Flungarian Disené-apa ‘Pig-Fither’) was not the first contact that the Magyars had had with the Pechenegs. Before their occupation of Hungary, Magyar tribes then living, to the east of the Carpathian Basin had suffered two major Pecheneg attacks—both described in detail by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, the Byzantine emperor (A.D. 912-959), in his De Administando Imperio, compiled around A.D. 950. According to tradition, the first of these attacks—the so-called. Kangar-Pecheneg war—split the proto-Magyars who were then living near the middle course of the Volga and Don rivers, ‘whereupon part of them then moved into the Etelkiz, west of the Don, whilst the other part migrated to beyond the Caucasus. The next decisive conflict occurred at the end of the 7MgGyaRs 74, fy Dani vou MoRDVINS RUSSIAN PR)NCIPALITIES BURTAS SA a i— 7 ey 1 Migration ofthe Pechenegs and Tocco of their tribes on tie East Eurpean steppein the 10% censury ‘BULGARS KIMAKS KARLUKS SAMANID EMPIREninth century. In 895, the Pechenegs, crossing the Volga and Don, irrupted upon the Magyar encampments at atime when their leader's army of two tiimens (approximately 20,000 men) ‘was away attacking Bulgar frontier posts in the eastern half of the Carpathian Basin, Evicted from the Etelkéz, the Magyar tribes fled into Transylvania whilst their previous settlement areas fell into the hands of the Pechenegs. ‘The dreadful memory of that Pecheneg raid became a mythi- ‘al element in the pages of the old Hungarian chronicles. The story has it that during their migration the Magyars came to a territory where they saw innumerable eagles. However, they were unable to stay there “since the eagles swarmed down on. them from the trees like flies, engorging themselves upon their cate and horses". This allegorical depiction of the defeat once hhad a direct significance because the name that the Magyars gave to the Pechenegs—besenyéh—chimed with a loan-word of Turkic origin, bee, meaning ‘bird of prey’. (The original ethnic name, Belenek, was, in fac, a diminutive form derived from the Old Turkic personal name Bete. In English-language literature the Byzantine Greek name Patzirak is sometimes encountered.) For decades fear of the Pechenegsinfluenced the Magyar leaders in theic decisions on foreign policy and in their choice of targets for marauding expeditions, to such an extent that even the skil- fal diplomacy of Byzantium failed to tempt them into an alliance against the Pechenegs waereby they would have been able tore-occupy their old territories. In the middle of the tenth century, two generations after the memorable defeat, Prince Taksony sought an ally in the for- midable eastern neighbour, bringing back a wife for himself from the land of the Bete, with its hidden pecils, and arranging for the settling of his own country by large contingents of Pechenegs in order both to strengthen the armed forces loyal to his command and to secure the defences of his westem border. 1 was during this period that the first Pecheneg colonies were established to the south of the River Leitha, in the marshy re~ gion around Lake Fert, Hungarian cronies relate that at the ‘end of the eleventh century the Pechenegs who had settled here were carrying out duties as frontie: guards. 10 The people of “Pecheneg-land” Up to 895, the Pecheneg hordes had inhiabited the grassy steppes lying to the east of the River Volga and north of the ‘Caspian and Aral Seas. They are first mentioned in an eighth century report, written in Tibetan, from an Uighur envoy. ‘They lived on the open and wooded steppes of westem Siberia, adjacent to related peoples of similar culture—Kipchaks (Qip- chags), or Cumans, and Kimiks, who spoke the same type of Turkic language as themselves—whilst in the south-east, towards the River Syr-Darya, were the Ghuzz, or Uzes, ofthe Oghuz-Turkic group. In the Aral Sea region the Pechenegs wwere separated by a barren, uninhabited tract, several days’ joumey across, from the more highly urbanized civilization of ‘Khwarizm, the population of which had adopted Islam follow- ing the Arab conquest of the eighth century. By the lower reaches of the Volga the Pechenegs bordered the Khazar empire and were regularly the target of Khazar raids to obtain slaves. ‘The Pechenegs complained about the Kipchaks too, in exzctly the same terms, to the merchants from the cities of Central Asia ‘who passed through their territories, although it is quite clear thatincursions of this kind were reciprocal. The events that precipitated the great westward migrations of steppe peoples at the end of the ninth century took place in Central Asia in A.D. 893. From his capital in Bokhara, Emir Ismail bn-Almed, second ruler of the Samanid dynasty which hhad recently installed itselfin the region of the Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya rivers, began a campaign against his “Turkish” steppe-neighbours (by which he meant the Ghuzz). The emir ‘may have been inspired chiefly by the goal of propagating the true faith, but the results of his expedition suggest that he also hhad less exalted objectives. He had the katun, wife of the "Tur ish” khagan, captured along with a reported 10,000 prisoners, whilst countless horses, sheep and camels were driven away and his forces returned home laden with treasures. The defeated and plunderedl Guz were ao attacked fru dhe north by the Kimiks, afer which they made an alliance with the Khazars and threw their remaining forces against the Pechenegs. This cam- paign probably took place in the following year, A.D, 894, as some time would have been required to create the Khazar alliance and to co-ordinate the operations. ‘As a result of the attack the Pechenegs lost their grazing-nd aand a great part of their livestock. They were left with just one ‘way out of their acute predicament: to move further westwards ‘on the steppe and make up their losses at the expense of the ‘Magyars. This is what lay behind the attack on the Magyar ‘encampments in A.D. 895. The Pechenegs found a natural ally in the Bulgars, who were at that time fighting the Magyars. ‘Their successful campaign paved the way to one and a half cen- turies of dominion over the East European steppe. Here not ‘only were they able to control East-West trade, but also, since they now held the North-South water routes and hence could ‘cut the access ofthe East Slavs to the sea, they could keep an eye on the developing relations between the Russian Principalities and Byzantium. The route that the Rus-Norse (Varangian) navigators had to take to Constantinople was down the River Dnieper, through the heart of Pecheneg territory. Pecheneg ‘warriors could therefore wait in ambush at rapids and make surprise attacks on travellers who were forced to take to the river bank. ‘The Byzantines penetrated the Pechenegs? land, ‘which they called Patzinadia, sending teoop-carrer ships up the larger rivers and dispatching ambassadors bearing gifts from the emperor to try to win over the Pecheneg leaders to the aims of Byzantine diplomacy. (Our sources are unanimously of the view that the Pechenegs” settlement territories extended westwards as far as the Carpa- ‘thians and the lower Danube. According to the reports of Con- stantine Porphyrogenitus, their tribal federation in the tenth century comprised eight tribes, with the River Dnieper form- ing a natural boundary between the western and eastern por- tions. Constantine also lists the names and domains of the indi~ vidal tribes, though, understandably, he had more accurate information about the more westerly hordes that lay nearer Byzantium. The Giazichopon were situated by the lower Danube, on the border with Bulgaria; the Chabouxingyla tribe lived neat to present-day Hungary, around the Sereth and Prut rivers; the Zabdiertim settled along the Dniester and Bug rivers and were neighbours with various Slav peoples; the Charaboi lived by the Dnieper, in proximity to the Russians. There is no reliable information about areas nomadized by the four tribes to the east of the Dnieper (the Kouartzitzour, Syroukalpei, Borotal- ‘mat and Boulatzopon), but their grazing-land may have spread from the Khazar Empire in the north, by the middle Don, acrossto the Volga. 2 ‘Thus the Pechenegs remained neighbours of the Khazars even after their migration into Europe. By the last years of the ninth century the fortresses on the Don, with their ethnically mixed garrisons—among them Pecheneg warriors who had settled down there in earlier times—were no longer defending the north-westem border of Khazaria from Magyar attacks but against the recently immigrant Pechenegs. Khazar kurgans, or burial mounds, of the tenth and eleventh centuries which have ‘been discovered on the steppe between the lower reaches of the Don and Volga testify to the presence of a substantial nomadic population which may also have been partially Pecheneg in ori= gin, Insofar as any credence can be placed in the late tenth-cen- tury Persian geographical treatise, the Hudud al-Alem (‘The Boundaries of the World’), as a source, it must have been some- ‘where in this region that the Khazar-Pechenegs, to which it makes reference, lived. Few contemporary observations are extant concerning the internal relations or social structure of the Pechenegs. Our most important source on these matters is the already cited work of the scholarly Byzantine emperor, Constantine Porphyro- jgenitus, that inexhaustible store of information on the history of Easter Europe in the tenth century. Three hordes played a leading role in the confederation, the Chabouxingyla, labdertim and Kouarizitzour, which were known collectively as the Kan «gar. This word, according to Constantine, meant ‘valiant war- ror, ofnoble birth’ (Lészl6 Résonyi has suggested a connection with the Central Asian Turkic word kingir, meaning ‘brave’). ‘The Kangar appear in sources from as early 2s the sixth century onwards. The Persians led a campaign against them to the Caucasus region in A.D. 541. We do not know how the two ‘Turkish-speaking peoples, the Pechenegs and the Kangar, came to be amalgamated but it is plausible to speculate that sometime during the sixth to ninth centuries the Kangar, as conquerors, formed the federation of Pecheneg hordes, placing themselves in the position of the leading hordes. The Kan Pecheneg tribal federation began to play an independent politi- ‘al role on the steppe only from the end of the eighth century, - following the collapse of the Turkic Empire. A system of central organization of the hordes came into being whilst they were still to the east of the Volga. The eight hordes were divided into forty sections, that is, each horde comprised five clans, each with a ‘lesser prince’ at its head. (At 32 Bonestit-tip (whip handle?), inthe shape of a bird's head, fro the grave ofaomadicwarior 5 Silver handle ofa riding whip rom the nomad cemetery at Sarkel the time ofthe conquest of Hungary, the Magyars, too, usually had an average of five dans within the frame of each of their tribes.) These clans were no longer social units based on ties of kinship but the nuclei of a territorial organization directed by a clan aristocracy. Power lay in the hands of noble clans which ‘were separate from the common people and from whose ranks the dignitaries were selected. Referring to the Pecheneg nation, ‘Constantine writes of ‘Law and ancient principle... depriving them of authority to transmit their ranks to their sons or their brothers, it being sufficient for those in power to rule for their own lifetime only, and when they dic, either their cousin or sons of their cousins must be appointed, so that the rank ‘may not run exclusively in one branch of the family, but the collaterals also inherit and succeed to the honour. (De Administrando Imperio transl. R. J. H. Jenkins) ‘This system of inheritance may be regarded, in part, as operat- ing by the principle of genealogical seniority, with rank being inhetited by the eldest male relation, bypassing direct lineal descendants, but also in part as the expression of a distinctive form of democtacy within the clan aristocracy which served to stabilize authority. As a check on the emergence of dominant clans, and consolidation of their power, another trend that has ‘been observed in analyses of Turkish societies comes into play namely, other clans with claims to ascendancy and power arise by means of marriage alliances, thereby keeping the leadership system in constant flux. ‘A unified organization is indicated not only by the regular structure of the horde system but also by the naming of the hhordes. The first clement of these compound names designates ‘colour, the second the name of the dignity borne by the chief of the horde in question. Lisz16 Résonyi has proposed the fol- lowing translations of the colour-names: Giazi = steppe-col- ‘oured, Chabousin = cinnamon or bark-coloured, labdi= glisten- ing or glittering white, Chara = black, Kouartzi = bluish-grey, Sprow = grey, Bom = dark grey, Bola = picbale, spotted. There are two possible ways of interpreting these colours from our Knowledge of the customs for naming tribes among steppe peoples. In Gyula Németh’s opinion they designate colorations of horses; in other words, the names given to horses of different “ colours that were favoured and bred by the vatious tribes even- tually became the horde names. This would mean that the military retinues grouped around the tribal chieftains would hhave horses selected for their similar coloration. .Gydrgy GySrffy maintains, with reference to nomad practices, that the ~‘colour designations refer to the horsetail ensigns that were atached to spears. as a_way of distinguishing the individual fighting. units in battle, The ensign symbolized the horde and later also the office held by the tribal chief’ Among several sources that mention Pecheneg usage of ensigns, Gardezi, a Per- sian historian of the eleventh century, reported that “they have standards and spears which they raise on high in battle”. Despite the fict that none of our sources speaks of an over- Jord in supreme command of all the hordes, we must regard it as certain that the Pecheneg tribal federation had some form of central leadership, at least by the time that they entered into Europe. The various titles that are preserved by the horde names suggest a “court” order or precedence of the tribal chiefs. At the end of the ninth century and in the frst half ofthe tenth. century, supremacy among the Pechenegs, following the prac- tice of almost all nomad peoples at this stage in their develop- ‘ment, probably lay with the chief of the labdierim horde. Con stantine mentions this name first in his lists of both realms (tribes) and tribal chiet. It is also the only horde whose name does not refer to a dignity but expresses 2 meaning consonant ‘with the word kangar, for ertim means ‘bravery, manliness, vir- tue'—worthy epithets, indeed, for the leading horde of a nomadic people. The initial clement of the name, meaning “white, gltering’, ikewise hints at distinction in the thinking of steppe peoples. This Kangar horde is known to have occupied the best-protected position among the Pechenegs to the west of the Dnieper, and its encampments were also defended against ppossible attack fom the Magyars, Bulgars or Byzantines by strongholds on the right bank of the Dniester. The name of the neighbouring Gyla horde, which also had a leading role, may have a parallel in the well-known title of gywla among the Magyars. In the tenth century A.D. the bonds of the tribal federation slackened; the hordes, having their own grazing-land, livestode ‘and armies, acquired a substantial degree of autonomy. With population growth, the possible detachment of some clans and the arrival of others from the east, the tribal system described 15 4 Tron spearhead for penetrating armour; fm the territory ofthe Pesheneg-descended ‘Black Caps!5 Arrow heads fom the Pecheneg ‘etlement area htwcen the Dniester and the Danube river- above was gradually transformed; by the mid-eleventh century sources make reference to as many as 13 hordes. In this period there was a struggle for leadership of the federation between ‘two of the horde chieftains, Tirek (Tyrach) and Kegen. In 1048, Kegen, son of Beléer, heading two dissident tribes with previ- ‘ously ‘unrecorded names (Belemanis, Pagumanis), fled to Byzantine territory and accepted Christianity; his pursuer, ‘Tyrach, came to the same end not long afterwards when he suf- fered a defeat at the hands of the Byzantine emperor. However, not even after these events did a stable, hereditary central authority, capable of unifying all he hordes, emerge. ‘The rule of the aristocratic class in nomad societies of the ‘Middle Ages, from the Turks to the Mongols, was backed by a permanent military retinue which, in time of war, formed the corps.of the army. and. also supplied the military com- . Representatives of such a military caste among the Pechenegs crop up during the tenth century in the bodyguards and auxiliary forces composed of foreign recruits in Byzantium and the Russian Principalities, amongst the Poles and Magyars, and, as we have seen, at an earlier date amongst the Khazars as, well. Warriors ofthe Talmat horde seem to have been especially ‘enteeprising in this respect, as evidenced by the frequent occur- rence of their name in a number of countries. Men on lifetime military service were also foremost in pressing for, and par- ticipating in, the innumerable marauding raids that were con- ducted against neighbouring countries. The aim of such cam~ paigns, above and beyond the acquisition of booty and slaves for trading, was to extract tribute and “protection-money”, ‘thus most of them must have been planned actions that were agreed by the horde chieftains in accordance with the political situation of the moment. Bands of such retainers regularly avacked the Russians, the Bulgars, and, across Bulgaria, Byzantium; later on, when the Byzantines extended the Empire's borders up to the Danube in the tenth century, their ‘own garrisons had to bear the brunt of Pecheneg incursions di- reclly. Pechenegs were continually engaged, frst on one side, then the other, in the recurring wars between the neighbouring powers. For instance, in 962 they besieged Kiev, then in 965 participated on the side of Prince Svyatoslav of Kiev in his cam- ‘ptign against his old foe, the Khazars. Pechenegs also accom ‘panied the prince on the Balkan venture of 968, which Svyatos- 16 lav had to break off when he received news that his capital city ‘was under attack from another group of Pechenegs. During his retum home from this campaign, in 972, the prince was cap- tured by one of the Pecheneg hordes for fling to seek permis- sion to pass across their territory. The Pecheneg leader, Kuria, had Svyatoslav killed and ordered a drinking-vessel to be made of his skull We have no evidence that there was any major conflict be- tween the Magyars and Pechenegs in the decades that followed the Magyar conquest of Hungary. The lands of the two peoples ‘were separated by a joumey of four days across the eastern Car- pathians, which were easily sealed off and had well-guarded ‘passes that offered more formidable obstacles to Pecheneg attack than the plain of the lower Danube. In 934 a Pecheneg detachment even took patt, as ally, in a Magyar raiding expedi- tion into Bulgar and Byzantine tersitory. According to the account of the tenth-century Arab geographer, Masudi, it was the Pechenegs’ tactics that brought off victory for the combined armies of the “Turks” in the decisive battle with the Byzantines. ‘With the Magyar forces drawn up in a main body with left and right flanks, the Pechenegs advised that a cavalry regiment of fone thousand mounted archers be placed on either wing. This cavalry then assaulted the Byzantine lines from both sides in altemation, constantly firing arrows whilst they swept actoss the face of the enemy army to the opposite flank. They circled in this manner, like a windmill, until the Byzantines broke ranks and were provoked into the offensive, At this point, the ‘waiting main body of the Magyar army opened its lines to the assault but immediately poured arrows upon them and then pressed home the attack in closed ranks to secure the victory. ‘Masudi provides 2 vivid description of nomad tactics, though. he grossly exaggerated the size of the forces involved: the in- itial disruptive manoeuvre against the Byzantines was, in real- ity, executed by much smaller units, Princess Anna Comnena (1083-after 1148), daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus (1081-1118), writes that the Pecheneg squadrons of long-range archers mounted their attacks from the cover of a barricade of wagons. In all likelihood this refers to Pecheneg groups that moved into Byzantine terztories on the lower Danube along with their entire households and livestock. ‘The rapid manocuvring of the altemating “sweeps” called for v7 6 Tron mace with four pikes—a became widespread inthe7 Oriewattype ste ofthe Icio a high degree of practice and discipline. The Pechenegs were also successful in employing other means of nomad warfare such as the feigned flight, the attack from ambush, and rapid ‘withdrawal should their endeavours prove unproductive; they ‘would never engage in fighting at close quarters unless they had ‘managed to break the enemy’s ranks, The Pecheneg army was composed entirely of lightly armoured troops, whose main ‘weapons were the bone-reinforced, double-curved bow with thomboid, flat arrows and the spear. They wore a leather cuirass for body protection and also carried a mace, a small axe anda sabre for use in close combat. Hand-to-hand fighting was not, in fact, a strong suit of nomad armies ofthe age, especially when up against closed-for- ‘mation attacks by the Byzantine armoured cavalry or the more heavily armed Russians. They would not undertake direct assaults on walled towns or strongholds but would rather attempt to starve such places into surrender. Pastoralism, the basis of the Pechenegs’ livelihood, found favourable conditions in the well-watered steppes of South Russia. After the débicle suffered at the hands of the Ghuzz at the end of the ninth century, their animal stocks were quickly replenished—with the herds seized ftom the Magyars no doubt helping in this—and by the middle of the tenth century they were in a position to make regular sales of horses, cattle and sheep to the Russians. At their winter quarters in river valleys they pursued a self-sufficient agriculture. Anna Comnena ‘writes of one Pecheneg group that moved into lands south of the Danube and, having pillaged the district and occupied sev- ral of the smaller towns, took care of their own needs during the subsequent lull in fighting by sowing wheat and mille. In the Don Basin the Pechenegs held sway over settlements of the Saltovo-Mayatskaya culture and their advanced agriculture, ‘which died out in the second half of the tenth century—quite probably around the time of Prince Svyatosla’s campaign ‘against Khazaria—but whose crops supplemented the restricted nomad economy, stimulating the development of the Pechenegs who settled there. ‘The merchants of the Crimean cities that were under Byzan- tine suzecainty bought animal hides and beeswax from the Pechenegs, the latter article possibly representing a form of trib- ‘ute from the forest peoples. In exchange, the Pecheneg ite, ‘with their fondness of splendour and luxury, purchased Byzan~ 18 tine silk fabrics, brocades of gold and silver, gold lace and braid trimmings for their garments, Parchus leather, and also pepper ‘transported by caravan from the Far East. Items like these, in addition to sackfuls of gold coin, would also have been among the giffs bestowed on them by the Byzantine emperor. The main trading centres, on the evidence of the distribution of tenth to twelfth-century Byzantine coinage in Eastern Europe, ‘were the Crimea, Tamar-tarkan on the Sea of Azov, and Kiev, with the great rivers marking the routes into the north. The Pechenegs were in contact with the Mohammedan world through the merchants of Volga Bulgaria and Khwarizm, The fars they needed for their winter clothing were provided by their northerly neighbours, among them the Burtas who in- hhabited the Volga region and were farmed afar for their rare foxfurs. ‘The archaeological heritage of the Pecheneg tribes in their ‘main settlement areas—the Don-Donets region, the Sea of ‘Azov littoral and on the Crimean peninsula, the lower Dnieper and Dniester tivers, Moldavia and Wallachia—is represented by relatively few grave finds. despite their presence there for 150-200 years. ‘The number of secure finds is extremely small—a circumstance which makes it difficult to differentiate Pecheneg graves from the archaeological remains of other steppe peoples of the same era. Archacological study of nomad relics ofthe Early Middle Ages is generally able to establish the historical period to which any given grave find should be assigned on the basis of typological and chronological se- quences of artefact types and burial customs, but ithas been less successful in bringing ethnic considerations into distinguishing between finds. Nor is research proceeding at the same intensity inal places ofinterest. Grave finds from the tenth and eleventh centuries are concen trated in the lower Volga region which had a population of eth- nically mixed origin—up to the end of the tenth century still within the confines of the Khazar Empire. Here, outside the areas inhabited by the Pechenegs, are distributed the objects that are regarded as most characteristic of the period: opea-work bbird-shaped mounts and leaf-shaped ear-picks. These appeared among the nomads as fishionable omaments and were presum~ ably the products of Alan master craftsmen in Khazaria or the northern Caucasus. In several cases it can be observed that high- ranking nomad women no longer used them as toilet articles 19 8 Binkshaped, open-work dress ‘mount fom the Tower Volga region 9 Leaf-shaped pendant with a Tree-of if design10 Pecheneg horse burial rom the Crimean steppes. The skinned Iorse-hide, with the skull and fore- limb bones il tached, was placed on the left side of the man's body. snaffle was inthe horse's rte anal cad iron if close to ha lint but, sometimes even in a broken or damaged state, as an article of clothing: from their position in the graves, these open-work bronze picks, with their designs of animals or plants (the latter suggesting a “tree of life"), may well have been wom as braid omaments. “The destruction of agriculeural settlements in the lands to the north of the Black Sea signalled the great migration of peoples at the end of the ninth century: the departure of the Magyars and the appearance of the Pechenegs. This is the period when settlements of the Rommni-Borshevo group, identified with the Severians, came to an end in the northern zone of the wooded steppe between the Dnieper and the Don, along with some settlements of the Saltovo culture further to the south, and other East Slavic tribes that had been living to the west of the Dnieper (the Ulichians and Tivertsi) were forced to withdraw north- ‘wards. Some settlements of the Balkan-Danube dvilization situated between the Dniester and the mouth of the Danube ‘were also abandoned in the wake ofthe Pecheneg. influx, Only the graves of the nobles and the warrior class, buried with their horse, harness and weapons, can be identified with certainty among the relic of the Pechenegs who now took over the steppe; it has not yet proved possible to date or determine the ethnic status of graves that have yielded few, non-distinctive objects or are empty. According to S. A. Plemeva, the Pechenegs placed their dead in wooden coffins, which were ‘buried with the head oriented to the west, usually ina grave dug into an eatlier kurgan of the Bronze Age or the Sarmatian era, but otherwise with a small mound raised over the grave. The remains of the riding horse sacrificed during the fimeral feast its stripped hiide with the skull and lower limb-bones left -site—together with its hamess were either placed on the left side of the body or buried on top of it. The latter practice scems to conform to the Ghuzz custom, known from a description by Tn Fozlin, of covering the grave-pit with planks on which 2 horse-side—sometimes stuffed—was placed. All forms of partial horse burial were widespread on the East Buropean steppe long before the appearance of the Pechenegs, whilst the other elements of the burial ritual similarly reflect long-standing beliefs. Hitherto, it as not been possible to discover any burial custom that could be said to be exclusive to the Pechenegs. ‘The main implements and weapons that the steppe warrior took with him to the next world attest, not just to their place in the nomad system of beliefs, but also to the craftsmanship of the Pechenegs. Among the relics of the traditional metal-working skill of the nomads are iron snafflebits, stirups, buckles, dag gets, tinder sets, arrowheads, batde-axes, and spears; scissors are the characteristic find of female Pecheneg graves, It was the Pechenegs who brought from the Volga to the West the uunjointed snafile, with its rigid, straight or curved mouth- piece, which evolved on the wooded steppe of the Urals or ‘West Siberia to make it easier to rein back the horse, as well as new type of round stirrup that was better suited for use with soft-soled boots. The damascened linear designs on the stirrups (from Vitaneyt) resemble the technique used on Magyar iron- ‘work of the Conquest period. ‘The tribal and clan aristocracies, with their great wealth of animal stocks augmented by the levying of tributes and plun- dering raids on neighbouring setles, were described by Gaz~ dezi in the following terms: “The Pechenegs are wealthy and have many horses, catle and sheep as well as vessels of gold and silver.” This affluence is most reedily appreciated from the silver or gilded silver belt mounts, annular braid omaments, pendants, bracelets, and finger-rings, but also from the new, Oriental-style decorated horse-trappings. ‘One of the richest male graves of the late nomadic period that is known to us came to light in 1904at Gayevka, in the environs a 11. Pecheneg horse-trappings: an tunjoined snaffle, a pair af oval stirrups, and girth buckle (from Vitaneti, Rumania) 412 Axe, tinder stand iron knife froma Pecheneg horseman’s ‘equipment (Vitaneti, Rumania)15 Glled stverhamess dxcraton tom Geyevbs leaf Spel mains rtten cap dutibor of Voronezh on the middle Don, which was at the northerly ‘margin of the lands occupied by the Gold coins of the Byzantine Emperor Basil Il (A.D. 976-1025) and his heir, ‘Constantine, later to become Constantine VIII (1025-1028), date the find to the beginning of the eleventh century. Some of the 215 gilded silver and nielloed mounts and other articles which are catalogued as hamess omaments may have been applied to accoutrements of dress (belt-buckles, sabretache- Jocks, boot mounts). The central decorations of the hamess ‘were the large lea shaped mounts with bells which were placed ‘on the forehead and the breast strap; smaller decorative mounts, also with bells, were on the nose-band. Cruciform strap dis- tributors covered up crossing or branching-points of the har- ‘ness-straps, allowing attachment of a strap end in each direc- tion, The triple sirap-distrbutor mounts were probably used to connect the breast strap and girth-leather. The designs of ten- drils and palmettes, intertwined ribbons and palmettes, and double leaf-rows, together with the unusual niello technique, evince an eclectic art noutished equally by Byzantine, Norse and steppe roots. These motifs appeared in Russia in the first half of the eleventh century. The design and omamentation of the buckle and the heart-shaped mounts are elements that orig inated from the steppe. Hamess omaments which closely resemble the Gayevka find in design, type and embellishment ‘were discovered around the lower Dnieper river (Kamenka, Kotovka, Staro-Shvedskoye, Gorozheno) and in the Crimea (Saraili-Kiyat). ‘The influence of Norse art on the intricately intertwined rib- ‘bons of the latter omaments is unequivocal. Steppe art in 1 purer form, with simple palmette designs, beaded border ‘motifs, etc, is seen on mounts from contemporary horse-trap- pings of a similar type that is known from sites east of the Volga, including the left bank of the river (Bikovo, Kalinovka, Novonikolskoye), the southern Urals (Nezhenka) and north of the Aral Sea (Chelkar). There can be no doubt that Pecheneg metalcraft of the Don and Dnieper regions had its precedents in the steppe traditions of West Siberia as regards the forms, fanc- tion and use of these mounts, just as itis no accident that we ‘must reckon with the influences of Byzantine and Rus-Norse artin the Black Sea region. The evident links between the hand- ‘crafts of the territoties to the west and cast of the Volga are explicable—quite apart from the extremely rapid spread of 2 {innovations in equipment and weaponry that took place among equestrian peoples—by the fact that during the tenth century cone of the hordes which separated from the main body of Pechenegs carried on its existence in the Ural region within the Ghuzz tial federation. ‘Among the archaeological sources of the Pecheneg era, men- tion must be made of the nomad haurgan cemetery at Sackel, During the A.D. 830s the Khazars, with Byzantine assistance, built the fortress of Satkel on the left bank of the River Don. Its garrison, recruited from nomad mercenaties, remained there even after 965, when the campaign of Grand Prince Svyatoslav of Kiev brought an end to Khazar rule. Excavation of the kr- _gons that lie next to the fortress revealed the graves of predomi~ nantly adult males (82-83% of the graves were male}—obvi- ously the warriors who manned the fortress. In one group of Jurgans, separated spatially from the rest, artefacts of the 3 14 Finds fromthe Gayevke cassemblege ‘Thepalmete-omamented buckle, thesmall round mounts and heart- shaped mounts could have served ‘equally well oadom a belt or Ihamsess, The cruciform mount ‘covered afour-avay branching of thehamess straps thar were attached it, Therow of mounts with decorations of interlaced ribbons and palmettes probably ‘comes froma purse15 Bone simup-strap adiustor and sirup decorated with gilded ‘copper inlays fromthe setlement area ofthe ‘Back Caps! (12th century) Pecheneg type were found: snafiles with unjointed mouth- pieces, round stirrups, open-work leaf-shaped pendants, five- tinged discs, and scissors. Anthropometric studies of the skulls from this group showed that short-headed Europids of the so- called Pamir type, originating from the Kazakh steppe in West Siberia predominated. The presence of members of the Pecheneg nation among the nomads who lived and died here in the service of first the Khazars and later the Russians may, there fore, reasonably be inferred. Nevertheless, it must be acknowl edged that this was a military garrison of mixed ethnic back- ground whose cemetery does not allow us to characterize any cultural aspects specific to the Pechenegs. The bronze and precious-metal accoutrements yielded by the cemetery are commercial items of diverse origins—Khazar, Alanic, Khwarizmian, Volga Bulgar, and Russian. ‘Our information about Pecheneg social organization is, at present, extremely sketchy, We may suspect that the noblemen ‘buried along with decorated horse-trappings (Gayevica, Saraili- Kiyat) include the chieftains of the tribes and the clan sub- groups. Most of our archaeological data relate to the permanent rilitary retinues, whose number at the time they were still in their ancestral homeland of West Siberia was put at 5,000 war- iors by a Uigur envoy’s report that has survived in a manu- script from Tun Huang (A.D. 750-850). By the tenth century, the Pechenegs, having moved to geographically and economi- cally more favourable surroundings, no doubt considerably augmented this force, though we have no way of knowing its size relative to the population that was engaged in productive ‘work. Taking other nomadic societies as our model, we would include among the latter the non-conscripted herdsmen who formed the middle class of freemen, the servant class, and the prisoner-slaves, among them the foreign craftsmen engaged at the chief” headquarters and the inhabitants of the agricultural settlements of subject Slavs, Alans, etc. At the end of the tenth century and beginning of the eleventh century major shifis in power took place in Easter Europe. ‘The Khazar Empire succumbed to the onslaughts of the Rus- sians and the Ghuzz, whilst Kievan Russia under Grand Prince ‘Svyatoslay (961-972) and Prince Vladimir I (980-1017), by its ‘unification of the East Slavs, developed into a great power. The ‘Bulgarian Empire fell victim to the expansionism of the ‘ines, who, from the lands lying south of the Danube as far as m4 eastern Bulgaria, on the opposite bank to the Pechenegs, cre- ated the frontier province (theme) of Paristrion. Around the turn of the millennium the Magyars and the Poles founded new states, bringing their nations into the fold of western Christian- ity. Among the Pechenegs, entienched in their nomad economy, conditions were not favourable for the formation of a state; their relations with Svyatoslav and the events of 1048-49 demonstrate the complete decentralization of their tribal feder~ ation, ‘When the new migratory wave of nomadic peoples arrived in Europe in the middle of the eleventh century, the Pechenegs were unable to check the pressure that was being exerted on them from the East by the Ghuzz. There was no longer any possibility for the people as a whole to migrate any further and so they were gradually engulfed by the ring of strengthening states of the surrounding sedentary peoples. From 1048 ‘onwards a stream of Pechenegs moved continually into Byzan- tine territory, most of whom were settled in Paristrion as fron- tier guards. Rebellions by these military colonists, or foederat, Of the frontier provinces and raids by their Pecheneg kinsmen ‘who kept appearing in the north of the Empire to join them ‘were the source of decades of trouble to Byzantium, which did not succeed in dealing a decisive blow against them until 1091 at ‘Mount Levunion, near the mouth of the Maritsa river, where a Pecheneg army was almost obliterated with the assistance of the Cumans. The remnants of the Pechenegs, now forced back to the western perimeter of the steppe, mounted their last attack 25 16, Helmet with endiland palmene embellishment fom ‘homed nobleman’s grave nthe iver Rosregion (12 century)‘on Byzantium in 1122 but were finally defeated by Emperor John 11 Comnenus, (It was in memory of this victory that the so-called “Pecheneg feast” was instituted in Constantinople.) ‘The defeated Pechenegs were then re-settled by the Byzantine government in the Sofia~Ni-Skopje region and other parts of the Balkans. ‘At the end of the eleventh and the early part of the twelfth century, the Russian Principalities began to colonize the River Ros region, south of Kiev, with elements of various nomad peoples as frontier guards, including Pechenegs, Ghuzz, Berends and other ethnic fragments which had been driven off the steppe under pressure from the Cumans. Pecheneg tradi- tions are striking in the twelfth-century archaeological relics of this population, who were called Chemye Klobuki (‘Black Caps’) by the Russians. ‘The Pechenegs in Hungary ‘A contemporary traveller in tenth-century Hungary would have been able to observe numerous ethnic groups of Oriental origin. Even before the Magyars entered the country, they had bboen joined by dissident tribes of Kavars (the word kabar itself ‘means ‘rebel’) who had broken away from the Khazar Empire and were organized by the Magyars into a single horde func- tioning as military auxiliaries under their central command. ‘The composition of this force reflected the diverse ethnic pic- ‘ure of the Khazar Empire, including asit did Alans, Volga Bul- gars, Khwarizmians, and, in smaller numbers, the Khazars, themselves of Turkic stock. Our information indicates that the most cleacly definable ethnic element among the Kavar tribes was undoubtedly formed by the Khwarizmians, who were usually known in Hungary under the name kdliz. There were also groups of Mohammedan Alans, Volga Bulgars, and kaliz ‘who entered the country at later dates (for instance, Khwariz- mian traders may have settled in Hungary at the same time as the Pechenegs) ‘The Khwarizmians fulfilled an important role in the econ- comic life of the Khazar Khaganate and, indeed, even supplied men for the bodyguard of the khagan himself. Its therefore no surprise, given these antecedents, that in Hungary, too, the Lkiliz had 2 special line of duties, providing the country’s royal minters from the. eleventh century onwards. Their traders settled at the major crossroads, near market-towns, and in centres of intemational commerce. With their unrivalled busi- ness skills and the wide knowledge of the world gained through their travels, they were eagerly sought by Hungary's rulers for ‘employment in the service of the young state. In this way, and. despite their profession of Islam, the kéliz were fairly well treat- cd by the Christian state, becoming the administrators of the king's revenues, officals in his treasury and salt “chamber” or exchange. Along with these fimctions, they also had an import- ant military role as we know that in the twelfth century the kaliz ‘were in the frontier guard and fought in the king’s army. It was thanks to their prominent economic role and the great cohesive strength of the Mohammedan religion that they were able to ‘maintain their ethnic identity for several centuries, whereas the majority of the Kavars had already been assimilated into Ma- 717 Encampment temitoies _gantedto the Pechenegs in Spin Hungary 41) Groups) setements authenieaed by docmeetary ‘evidence ard place namesof Pechengg origin 2) Ardhacologicl finde abate to the Pecnegs 5) Pechoneg clan centregyardom, both linguistically and culturally, by the end of the tenth century. ‘The evolution of the Hungarian state and the integration of ‘Hungarian society into Christian Europe were accompanied by ‘changes in the organization of the army. In line with new tacti- cal requirements, Prince Géza (972-997) and King Stephen I (997-1038) transformed what had been a nomadic-style army into a fighting force of the Wester type, the nucleus of which ‘was a small but well-equipped armoured cavalry under the ‘command of Westem knights. During the era of the Arpad ‘dynasty, the bulk of the army was made up of a transitional type of cavalry, equipped with light armour, close-combat ‘weapons, and bow and arrows. Nevertheless, the country's rulers tried to retain certain, well-tested. features of nomadic army organization, battle order and tactics, so that the Hunga- rian army sill kept as an advance guard a corps of light cavalry that fought in the nomadic style, which continued to be recruited ftom military colonist peoples. At the time of the ‘Sécupation of Hungary it was the Magyars’ Kavar confederates ‘who had supplied this advance guard; however, by the time of the foundation of the Hungarian state most of the Kavars, along ‘with the military servicemen from other hordes, were dispersed jn smaller contingents to points of strategicimportance in order to secure the ruling dynasty's authority. This did not mean that the light cavalry was left without a social basis because during the reorganization it was built up around the Szeklers, who ‘mainly carried out frontier-guard duties, and the more recently arrived Pechenegs. The Szeklers, who were among the Ma- ‘gyars’ allied subjects during the conquest of Hungary and who ‘continued to live in large groups, even after the various re- ‘organizations and re-seitlements, had an officer corps placed in command of them in the eleventh century. One of the clans that supplied such officers was of Pecheneg origin (ramus Besseni- jew). The obligation that was placed on the Szeklers to provide the royal army at times of war with both an advance and a rear guard remained up to the end of the Middle Ages. ‘The Pecheneg and Szekler vanguard of the Hungarian army | is first recorded in A.D. 1116. In 1146 they successfully ‘employed the stratagem of a feigned flight against the Germans \ at a battle on the River Leitha—a manceuvre which was evi- \ dently incomprehensible to its later chronicler: 30 ‘The wicked Pechenegs (Bisseni pesmi) and contemptible Sacklers (Sicli vlisimi) all suddenly began to flee, like sheep before wolves, for, as was customary, it was they ‘who proceeded atthe front of the Hungarian battle-array. (Chronicon Picum [llumsinated Chronicle], 14th century) Ie seems possible that this force received replacements from the Pechenegs’ own lands on a number of occasions up to the beginning of the thirteenth century, as the Magyar tradition also speaks of more than one infhux of Pechenegs. Bishop Hart- vig’s Legend of St. Stephen recalls a group of Pechenegs that arrived in Pannonia from the direction of Bulgaria “on carts laden with much gold and silver and many kinds of jewellery”. ‘This account sets the event ofa later, post-1050 influx back into the reign of King Stephen, but itis still conceivable that smaller contingents of Pechenegs had already started to appear in Hun- gary between 1027 and 1036 asin that period they were carrying ‘out regular marauding expeditions south of the lower Danube. ‘Small, breakaway groups may have reached Hungary at the tend of the 1040s as a result of inter-tribal strife among the Pechenegs and then the Pecheneg-Byzantine war. However, the biggest wave of immigrations can be dated to after 1055, ‘when the Pechenegs were displaced from the steppes east of the Dnieper due to the breakthrough made by the Ghuzz. In subse- quent decades great Pecheneg pressure was exerted especially on the Danubian frontier of the Byzantine Empire, this being increased still farther when the Ghuzz appeared on the western fringes of the steppe. After a short period of Ghuzz mastery, the entire East European steppe came under Cuman suzerainty in the 1070s, though remnants of Pecheneg hordes survived for ‘auch longer in Moldavia. ‘The autonomy of the Pechenegs on the lower Danube was effectively brought to an end by their defeat at the hands of ‘a combined Byzantine-Cumanian army in 1091, With the loss of their grazing land, the dispersion of Pecheneg groups towards the Russian Principalities, Hungary and the Balkans also drew to a close around this date. Thus the Pechenegs who invaded Byzantium in 1122 were already_under Cumanian suzerainty and, after suffering ano feat, a group of them sought refuge in Hungary at King Stephen (1116-1131). The-king tried to make use of his Pecheneg followers in order to consolidate his hold on the country but wnthe effect was rather to provoke unrest among the Hungarian nobility. ‘The presence of the Pechenegs in Hungary can be linked to ‘key tumning-points in their history and to the sites where they ‘were dispersed. The majority of the Pechenegs who entered the country in the tenth century may well have been active partici- ‘ants in the foundation of the Hungarian state, working for the central power, Géza and Stephen settled them, together with their tribal militias as well as groups of other immigrant peoples, throughout Hungary. Some places where they stayed were given the name Besenyé by the surrounding Magyar populations. This may also be the origin of the toponyms Tol- tmdcs, Ertem, Csur and Baj, which preserve the names of Pecheneg hordes. The Pecheneg garrisons deployed along the ‘eastern approaches of Hungary's gateway to the West and in ‘Transylvania may be regarded as among the early areas of settle ‘ment outside the Tisza region, though it should be noted—in ‘contrast to the fairly prevalent, but inadequately documented ‘view—that only a small fraction of the Pechenegs were assigned tofrontier defence. ‘More or less continuous chains of Pecheneg settlements grew ‘up in the following areas: on the lower Raba river and besides its tributary, the Marcal (Gyér and Veszprém Counties); along the River Sirviz (Fejér and Tolna Counties) and probably also the adjacent Danubian marshlands of the Sirk (Tolna and Bod- rog Counties); the middle course of the River Tisza and the ‘Baik foothills (Heves and Borsod Counties); the marshlands of the Sérrét around the River Kérés (Békés County); and along the River Harangod, south of the Maros river-mouth (Csanéd County). These marshy areas, criss-crossed by waterways, ‘were of little agricultural value but proved suitable for settle~ ment by the Pechenegs, with their reliance on rearing livestock. ‘The longevity of their settlements is shown by the adoption of ‘words from their own language to name the rivers, lakes, hills and other topographical features of their districts, for instance, (Caml (Zamur), ‘muddy, marshy place’ (1231: Sar qui. vocatur Chamul); Batkény (balgan) ‘swampy place’; Tokaj ‘iver-bend, co forest at a river-bend’; Tépe, Tebe ‘hilltop, mound’; Bégér “hummock, hump’; Csdé (at) ‘spring, well’, etc. Pecheneg pplace-names are also found in many other places, scattered throughout Hungary, outside the areas listed above. ‘The various groups of settlements were presumably the prod- 2 uct of several waves of immigration but, for the time being, its not possible to establish the chronology of their foundation. ‘The first records that we have for most of the settlements are documents from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; until then there had been less necessity to put the Pechenegs’ legal affairs down in writing due to their autonomy and the slow pace at which they were feudalized. ‘The Pechenegs, in return for living on crown lands and enjoying a collective freedom (liberas Bissenorum), were obliged to render military service to the king and came under the direct authority of his chief minis- tet, the Palatine (nddor). ‘Their social organization, like that of the Szeklers, still mir- rored cleventh-century conditions. They had their own leaders (comes) who had command of a warrior class (miles), similar to the Hungarian soldiery of jabbdey serfs, and also the Pecheneg ‘commoner-freemen. in contrast to the Szeklers, they did not have an officer clas of foreigners placed above them. From the beginning of the thirteenth century, members of the Pecheneg military class strove to gain titles of nobility and private prop- erty; whilst some succeeded, many of the freemen sank to the level of the serf class. We know that during the fourteenth cen- tury Pechenegs with a special legal status, “... having the duty to bear arms according to ancient custom” (“.. byssenoruns anti- (qo more exerciuare debencium”) lived south of the River Maros, in Csanéd County. It was here that they preserved theit privileges longest. On the basis of a document issued by King ‘Louis lin 1369 and ce-affrmed by King Sigismund, Wladislaw Il and others on numerous occasions up until 1495, we know:that the Pecheneg noblemen of Beseny6 village were excused from the payment of tithes, their properties were protected by kking, and their affairs were setled directly by the royal judici ary. In 1347, for instance, Gregorius Besseny6, who had settled with his clansmen on hereditary lands in Fejér County and was Jord (comes, in Hungarian ispdn) of all the Pechenegs, was removed by the king from the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts, especially those of Lipté County. Though we lack reliable information regarding the strength of the Pecheneg light cavalry, we can attempt to estimate this from the size of the Szekler forces. A regular Szekler commu nity would be divided into 6 clans and 24 lineages, with each lineage under obligation to supply 100 horsemen. On top of this was the militia contributed by the commoner-fteemen. 3318 Snoffe with gid, curved mouth-bitforafoal Bajes(Baje, Caecheslovakia) 19 lrommace with four sikes Som Sebmpwdr (Tor ‘Severin, Ruan) inhe agra Poh ‘Thisteanore advance, 12h century von ofthe ect Judging from the relative sizes of the settlement areas occupied by the two peoples, the Pechenegs were a significantly smaller population and, at most, can have sent only a few thousand hhorsemen to war, even if allowance is made for an initially higher contribution of simple herdsman-soldiers. Neverthe less, in relation to their slight population-base, this military force was of major importance, most notably in the twelfth century, and its to this that they owed the perpetuation oftheir privileged status. ‘Contemporary sources tell us nothing about the equipment ‘used by the Pechenegs, and the few archaeological finds merely provide evidence that Oriental costume and weaponry re- appeared with them in the Carpathian Basin. A Pecheneg-style snaffle with curved mouth-piece was discovered at the site of a tenth-century settlement in the village of Bajcs-Fackasd, Komérom County (now Bajé-VIkanovo, Czechoslovakia) on the left bank of the River Zsitva (Zitva, Czechoslovakia). A few kilometres from there lies ZsitvabesenyS (now Be¥enov, CCoechoslovakia), a village of Pecheneg, court officals for which ‘we have documentary references fom 1209 and 1214. The graves of Pecheneg noblemen buried in the heathen manner were discovered at the farmstead of Tin6d, Fejér County, atthe ‘end of the last century; the grave-goods included a bridle-bit, asticrup and two sabres. ‘The use of nomad-style soft-soled boots may be deduced from the narrow, rounded stirrup, similar examples of which have been unearthed elsewhere along the Sérviz (Kolesd- Itatohegy). A stirrup of the same type fom the thirteenth or fourteenth century was also among the medieval artefacts unearthed at Csabrendek, in the vicinity of a group of former Pecheneg settlements around the Marcal river. It may be con- \jectured that it was the Pechenegs themselves who introduced ‘the Magyar peasantry to this form ofstirup. ‘The sight of the silver-inlaid snaffle from Tin6d, with its finely damascened cheek-pieces unusual even forthe bridle-bits favoured by Magyar noblemen of the Conguest period, evokes Gardez's lines about the splendour of the Pecheneg dignitacies. ‘The design of the cheek-pieces and the way that the compo- nents of the bit are oined put this among the later types than the ‘Magyar specimens that were in use up to the end of the tenth century. ‘The sabre was a weapon of the élite troops of nomad armies 4 and could only be taken by noblemen to the other world. The hilt and cross-guard of one of the Tinéd sabres are decorated with bronze inlays. The shape of the sword reflects develop~ ments in steppe weaponry during the eleventh century: the more widespread use of helmets and armour and greater emphasis on close combat led to a lengthening, greater curva- ‘ture and increased weight of the sabre, Several other swords that have been unearthed in Hungary belong to this same developmental stage, but unfortanately their exact provenance isnotknown. ‘The star-sheped bronze or iron mace, which originated in Central Asia, appeared on the steppe in the Pecheneg era and ‘was the main close-combat weapon of the common soldier, soon becoming wide-spread in East Europe, above all in the light and transitional types of cavalry. The Hungarian word for mace, buzogény, is a Kipchak-Turkic loan-word (buzgan ‘eeusher, destroyer’) and thus might equally have come from either the Pecheneg or Cumanian dialect. From research by ‘Lisdl6 Kovics, however, we know that the implement was present in Hungary before the Cumans, and thus it was rather Pecheneg warriors who were responsible for its dissemination. Te seems that steppe peoples of the period seldom placed this ‘weapon in the grave with the body. Most of the quite large number of maces which have come to light in Hungary are sporadic finds. Several examples from areas of Pecheneg settle- ment (Nagykajdacs, Ficinkert-Kajmidi-sziget, Fizesabony, tc, are preserved in museums, ‘A glimpse into the settlement history of the Pechenegs is afforded by investigations that have been conducted in the Séx- ‘vie region, where the largest group of settlements was located, 20 Pechencg simp: (rom sketchbook of Géza Nagy): 1) Tin, ) Kélesi-Latshegy2 Sabre from Tindd A total of 4 Pecheneg sites can be documented from written sources. The Sérviz, which flows into the Danube, cuts across the plain of the Mez6f®ld from north to south; its marshy val- ley, dotted with oak trees, is flanked on both sides by bluffs of| loess beyond which extends a dry plateau-phain. Neither valley nor plain was more densely afforested in historical times. The region was ocoupied by the Magyars during the Conquest period, around A.D. 900, when it became patt of the lands of the ruling can, Burial grounds for leading clansmen and com- moner-freemen, in roughly equal proportion, have been uncovered in large numbers. Most scholars date the arrival of the Pechenegs in the region, which lies near to Satkesfehérvér, the seat of the Magyar’ princes and subsequently their kings, to the end of the tenth century. However, some observations on the setelement history indicate a date closer to the middle ofthe eleventh certury. The chain of Pecheneg encampments was interspersed with Magyar villages, and a mixed population is also suggested by the place-names. ‘Some of the former Pecheneg villages preserve a Kipchak- Turkic landowner's personal name (T8bércsbk, Alap, Cece, ‘Vajta, Taba, Kajdacs, etc.), whereas another large group were probably sites of early Magyar settlement and in existence before they came into Pecheneg possession (Ors, Besenyé-Sép, | Kaa, Seere, etc). This, t00, is evidence that the Pechenegs | only entered Hungary in large numbers after the Magyar vil- * lage-system had been already established. The names for water~ | courses and pathways were taken over from the Magyar popu | lation; none of these is of Pecheneg origin. Csaba Csorba has shown that the sites of these small villages from the Arpédian era, most of them only one or two hectares in area, are packed together very densely on the ground. From this he has conjec- tured that, atleast in some instances, we are dealing not so much ‘with temporally coexisting settlements but rather with a pro- cess of the shift of villages to new sites after a furly brief exist- ence. From this we may deduce a semi-sedentary mode of life ‘with an emphasis on animal husbandry, although on domains that were strrounded by Magyars, permanent settlements of Pechenegs had already begun to arise in the twelfth century. By the thirteenth century, when large numbers of Pecheneg settle- ments are mentioned in our sources, it is likely that their popu- lations had been more or less fully assimilated, also linguis- tically. 6 Fora while during the eleventh century Hungarians were still able to witness the pagan burial rites of the Pechenegs who had settled amongst them, The deed of foundation for the abbey at Seizd, dated 1067, mentions a road leading to the graves of the Pechenegs (ad sepulturas Bissenonent) at the boundary of Szihalom (Borsod County). At the time that this document was drawn up, twenty Hungarian and ten Pecheneg equestrian ser- vvants lived on the property in question. Why would a Pecheneg cemetery have been mentioned as a landmark? On the eastern steppes the Pechenegs, like other nomadic peoples in the Middle Ages, had raised tumuli over their graves, or else buried their dead into the sides of an existing kurgan. ‘Thus their ‘cemeteries consisted of clusters of mounds, cavering quite extensive areas, that would be visible from a considerable dis- tance. The Turkic word kurgan, meaning burial mound, which is discernible in the toponym Korhény, especially common on the Hungarian Plain (AlfSld), was transmitted to Hungary via cone of the Kipchak-Turkic languages (Pecheneg or Cumanian). Géa Nagy, an outstanding scholar of the tum of this cen- tury, perspicaciously recognized that several horse burials, with (Oriental weapons and hamess, which date from after the period when the Magyars had settled and converted to Christianity could be regarded as relics of the nomads—mainly Pechenegs and Cumans—who entered Hungary in medieval times. Since then there have been many attempts, largely in vain, to identify the archaeological heritage of the Pechenegs. It has not proved possible, s yet, to demonstrate any significant group of finds in the archaeological material of the tenth to twelfth centuries, ‘whether based on cultural aspects (artefact types, burial cus- toms) or on settlement pattems, that is attributable to the Pechenegs. Certain scholars have speculated that Pecheneg contingents ‘were among the Oriental ethnic groups that entered Hungary together with the Magyars at the end of the ninth century. However, integration of these postulated groups into Magyar society would surely have been complete by the time that mass settlement of the Pechenegs began, so there is no way by which they can be linked with the privileged Pechenegs of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. According to Istvin Béna, a treasure trove which was buried around the middle of the eleventh cen- tury and unearthed in 1902 at Darufalva (Drassburg, Austria) may have belonged to a chieftain's wife from a Pecheneg or ” 22 Sabre2 fiom Tinéd. The arose and hilt bear races of ‘copper overlaysRussian ethnic group that was carrying out frontier-guard duties at Hungary's westem gateway. The treasure contains jewellery that was made in the Kievan region and Volhynia at the turn of the tenth and eleventh centuries and thus did not originate from the steppes. In Hungary, then, there are very few archaeological traces indeed of the Pechenegs’ original steppe culture. The relatively small number of settlers provides only a partial explanation for this; a further factor which militated against the survival of ‘more artefacts of their culture was the historical situation. The first Pecheneg groups to arrive settled into an environment that « was still pagan, but it was as a subject people and as the military retainers of the Hungarian prince; the time soon came, there~ fore, when they were obliged to accept Christianity along with the Magyar nobility and warrior class. This happened in the ‘Tomaj dan as well. Thonuzoba and his wife still remained ppagan but their son, Uround, was baptized and “he lives with ‘Christ for eternity”, as Anonymus recorded. The later settlers arrived during the ‘period when Christianity was becoming firmly rooted in Hungary, when the practice of pagan customs, including the ancient burial rituals, a their camps—interspersed as they were among the Hungarians—was increasingly inop- portune. Despite the constant re-affirmation of their privileges, the Pechenegs, like the other early immigrant peoples of the Kingdom of Hungary, quickly set off down the road to assitni- lation. Cumans and Iasians Aheaduntothessing sun, ‘Totherightunto the noon-dzy sun, ‘Behind unto thesetsng sun, ‘To thenorthuntothe middle of night, ‘Every peoplelooks upon me, (Partofinseription on memorial stele tothe “TurkicprinceKil-tegin) From Central Asia to the Danube Basin ‘The Armenian chronicler, Matthew of Edessa, makes the fol- owing remark for the year A.D. 1050-51: ‘The Snake-people marched into the land of the Yellow- men, and they smashed and routed them; whereupon the ‘Yellow-men fell upon the Ghuzz. and the Pechenegs; and all these peoples, united, irrupted with blood-curdling anger upon the Romans. This intelligence, encapsulating as it does the events of several decades, admirably brings out the interconnectedness of the movements of nations that took place on the Eurasian steppe during the eleventh century. The Pechenegs who’ swooped down upon the “Romans”—that is to say, the Byzantines —were pressurized westwards by the Ghuzz, whose ephemeral rule on the steppe was brought to an end by the "Yellow-men”, or Cumans, behind whom yet other, previously unknown peoples were on theascendancy in the Far East. ‘Where did these Cumans come from? How did their mighty tribal confederation come into being? For the answers to these questions we must tum to Sharaf al-Zaman Tahir Marvazi, ‘court physician to the Seljuk sultan, whose treatise The nature of animals, written around A.D. 1120, also deals with the races of ‘mankind and with certain nations, He wrote in detail about the ‘great steppe migration that had happened just a few generations earlier:23 Eastem Europe in the early 413th century 1) Eastem and southers frontiers ofthe Russian ‘Prinipalitiesin 1055. 2) Location of the Chemye “Klobuk "Black Cap! federation 3) Thecentral setlement area of the Cumans and main site of ddstribution fr their stone ancestorfigures jaa I Sunda ole’ Great-Viadimir © Teutonic?) ‘7 of vr i Pee ( a aN 4 MORDVINS “5. seo? POLAND ;“ — RUSSIAN PRINCIPALITIES t . yedimir “ —— pS CAEAN \ ~ Sag: 7 o ZON_ 7 7 eveire “sero‘To them [to the Turks] belong the Qin; these came from the land of Qitiy, fearing the Qiti-khan. They [were] Nestorian Christians, and had migrated from their Ihabitat, being pressed for pastures. Of their numbers [is? ‘or was] Akinji b. Qochgar the Khwarzmshah. The Qin were followed [or pursued] by a people called the Qay, ‘who being numerous and stronger than they were drove them out of these [new] pasture-lands. They then moved cn to the territory of the Shir, and the Shari migrated to the land of the Tiirkmins who in their tur shifted to the eastern parts of the Ghuzz territory. The Ghuzz Turks then moved to the tertitory of the Bajénak near the shores ofthe Armenian Sea. (Taba’ral-hayawén, IX. 3. transl. by V. Minorsky) Some of Marvazi’s information was certainly gained from ‘bn Qochgar, who was of Cuman descent and from 1094 until his death in 1097 governed Khwarizm within the Seljuk ‘Turkic Empire. Another source may have been the account of ‘an ambassador from Qitéy (Khitay or Chtan) who had visited the Seljuk court almost a century eatlier and had been minutely interrogated by Islamic scholars. tis clear from the quoted passage that the series of move- ments was set off by the Mongolian-speaking Chtans, who founded their empire in North China at the beginning of the tenth century and around 986 conquered the region lying to the north-west of Peking. It was then that the Cumans began the westward trek out oftheir ancestral homeland in the great east- em bend of the Huang-ho (Yellow) river. In the region of the Nan-shan mountains they were joined by another Turkic speaking nation, the Shiri, who were of Indo-European origin (they are the same as the peoples known as the Yellow or White Uighurs and may have received their name with reference to their light hair-colour). They proceeded together around the northem fringes of the Tien-shan mountains and around 1012 passed through the Dzungarian Gate into the territory of the Mohammedan Karluks and Oghuz. In the succeeding years, a strong tribal confederation was formed in the region to the north-west ofthe Syr-Darya river, the Cumans and Shari being Joined by a third ethnic group, the Kipchaks of West Siberia, In the tenth century the Kipchak tribes had inhabited the grassy steppe between the Tobol and Ishim rivers as part of the 2 = Kimak State tt spread westwards from the Altai mountains. The Cuman-Shari] federation soon extended its authority to the European side of the Urals, then around 1050 it pushed the Ghuzz still farther westwards. In 1054, following the Ghuzz, the Cumans, too, made their frst appearance on the southem frontier of the Russian Principalities. Seven years later they tumed up again, though Prince Vsevolod of Pereiaslavi managed to conclude a peace treaty with them. The military ‘might of the Ghuzz was sapped by an abortive campaign in the Balkans, which nally left rhe way open to the Cumans. In 1068 they overcame three Russian princes and during the next few years took over the entire region from west of the Dnieper to thelower Danube. ‘Arabic and Persian writers named the enormous territory that the Cumans now held under their sway the Kipchake Desert. This control extended as far as the West Siberian steppes, which were inhabited by related Turkic-speaking tribes. It seems likely that there was a rapid linguistic and cul- tural equalization among the populations of diverse origins. ‘The Cumans’ dialect is known to have been Kipchak-Turkish, presumably due to the numerical superiority of Kipchak tribes within the federation. However, the federation was most often referred to by the collective name of the Cuman-Shiri hordes human, mearing “ight yellow, pallid’, or its equivalents in vvatious foreign languages (Byzantine Komanoi, Kiumanoi; Latin ‘Cumani, Comani; Russian Polovec (Polovtsy}; German Falben; ‘Armenian Kharies, etc.). The Hungarian language has pre~ served the name of the ethnic group that originally set out from. the Far East: ku (Latin Cuni). Gyula Németh derives both this and the name kuman, or koman, from the root qu-‘pale’, which ‘canbe found ineastern Turkic languages. We do not know the names and dispositions of all the ‘Cuman-Kipchsk tribes that settled on the grassy steppe to the north of the Blick Sea. The sites of some of the tribal centres can bbe determined from information provided by the Russian chronides, and by comparing these with the distribution of archaeological finds, a rough picture of the areas of settlement emerges. At the end of the eleventh century and the beginning of the twelfth century, political leadership was in the hands of the tribes living to the west of the Dnieper. Written sources ‘mention the names of a number of Cuman chieftains, amongst ‘whom Bének (or Boniak) Khan was the most significant per~ “a24 Stawe ofa Cuan ‘noblewoman sonality. It was he who, together with Tugorkan, in 1091 led the army which gave the Byzantines assistance against the Pechenegs and of which a part, after the victory at Mount ‘Levunion, tumed towards Hungary, laying waste Transyl- vania and the Tisza regior. King (St.) Ladisas routed them neaz ‘Temesvér (now Timisoara, Rumania) and again, at the lower Danube, tiumphed over the fresh Cuman force that was thrown against Flungary in retaliation. In 1099, sil with Bének atits head, a Cumanian army appeared at Praemysl on the invi- tation of the Russians and, by the successfll application of nomadic tactics, managed to ambush and annihilate a Hunga- tian force commanded by King Coloman Beauclerc. The maili- tary activities ofthe westem Cumans during this period were of great importance, their marauding expeditions into the ter- ritories of Byzantium, Hungary, Russia and Poland causing considerable disturbance, ‘Breakaway attempts by individual tribes and the growth of the tribal chieftains’ power at the expense of their Khan explain why, during the frst half of the twelfth century, the Cuman federation split into western and easter. branches between ‘which the Russian Principilities succeeded in driving a wedge at the line ofthe Dnieper. Tre territories referred to as ‘White’ and ‘Black’ Cumania by the Arabic geographer Idris in the middle ‘of the twelfth century can probably be identified with these two tribal groupings. ‘The easter Cumanian federation had a much larger territory for itself, and the evidence of archaeological finds also suggests that it was the more densely populated by Cumans. Groups of settlements have been identified by the lower reaches of the Dnieper, on the northem shore of the Sea of Azov, in the Donets Basin, by the lower Don, and in the region of the River ‘Kuban. In the south, the steppes of the Crimean peninsula and the rich trading ports of the Black Sea that had formerly bbeen under Byzantine suzerainty fell to Cuman domination. ‘Towards the north, in the Volga region, Cumanian domains stretched as far as the lands of the Burtis and Volga Bulgaria. “Their khans, residing ata site on the left bank of the Donets that ‘was well protected against Russian attack, sought to increase their wealth not just by plundering raids but also by systematic collection of tributes from the cities and sedentary peoples that had come under their sway, by supervising the trade that passed along the steppe routes—with guarantees of freedom of move- “ ‘ment for merchants even in times of war—and by employing a large body of craftsmen at their headquarters, Both the con- temporary written sources and the archaeological evidence ‘point to huge differences in the distribution of wealth and sharp social divisions. The power of the tribal and clan aristocracies ‘was backed by retinues of the warrior-class, called ndgers or niikérs by the Cumans, members of which also turned up 2s ‘mercenaries in foreign lands, including the courts of Georgia, ‘Serbia, Bulgaria and, later on, Hungary itself. ‘By the end of the twelfth century, when K8nchek Khan, at the head of the eastern tribes, re-united the two branches, ‘Cuman society seemed ripe for the creation of a central author- ity. Kénchek broke with the principle of succession by seniority (@fter his death the khanate passed to his son) and strove to rein force his dynastic position, among other ways, by matrimonial ties with the Russian Principalities, As subsequent events showed, however, Kénchek and his successors did not take the decisive step towards a state organization since they did nothing to break the power of the tribal and clan chieftains or eliminate the tribal structure and thus were never able to concentrate suf ficient military strength with which they might establish a sys- tem of personal vassalage. The continued independent develop- ment of Cumanian society was, marenver, interrupted by the ‘Mongol invasion; thus, not only did a state organization fail to emerge, but the very survival of the Cumanian nation hung in thebalance forseveral decades. ‘After his victorious campaign in northern China, Genghis Khan tumed westwards. His attack began in 1219 and within the space ofa few years he had overrun the vast Khwarizmian ‘Empire that had united the Islamic world and thereby brought the high civilizations of Central Asia under his control. ‘Although the conquest was brought to a temporary halt at the (Caspian Sea, Mongol horsemen soon made their appearance o0 the steppes of the Black Sea region. At the end of his campaign in Turkestan, Genghis dispatched his two most trasted war- lords, Jebe and Sibedei, to reconnoitre the Cumans’ lands. A Mongol army of about two simens (approximately 20,000 ‘men) crossed the Caucasus. With neither the Georgians, nor the CCherkes (Circassians), nor the Cumans’ allies, the Alans, man- aging to obstruct them, they annihilated the larger Cumanian force that was ranged against them. Thus winning possession of the lands of the eastern Cumanian tribes, the Mongols pro- 6 25 Statueofa Cuman nobleman Thedaving hws ‘eked tthe oleh metal Ireact-pate gave addtional proteion26 Earrings of 12th and 130h- Century steppe costume 27 Bronze couldron with suspending chain ceeded to sack the town of Saksin on the Velga and the wealthy ‘Genoese trading post of Sudak (Soldaia) on the Crimean penin- sula, With his people now driven back into the Dnieper region, Kéten Khan put together a new Cuman army and, through the mediation of his son-in-law, Prince Mstislav of Galich, entered into an alliance with the Russian Principalits. The decisive encounter took place on the 16th June 1223 atthe River Kalka, near the Sea of Azov. Due to the absence of tactical co-ordina~ tion, the badly disordered Russian and Cuman troops suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the iron-disciplined Mongol amy. The Mongols did not immediately fallow up this opera- tion, which was exploratory and preparatory in nature, by sub- jugation of the Cumans but instead withdrew to their head- quarters in Central Asia. After they had departed, according to the Arab chronicler Ibn al-Athir, those inhabitants who were still alive returned to their lands and it was notlong before pelts from the fox, grey squirrel and beaver were again reaching the ‘centres of commerce in the Crimea to be bartered for textiles and clothing brought by sea from the Islamic world. ‘The Mongols, of course, had not the slightest intention of abandoning their conquests. In 1229, after the death of Genghis, an army that was again led by Sabedei reappeared with the aim of bringing the Cumans, Volga Bulgars and other Wester peoples under their yoke. The Mongols inflicted a defeat on the Cumans who were mobilized against them at the River Ural (Yaik), but Kéten Khan triumphed over them near the Black Sea, forcing them to retreat to behind the Uri river, the then frontier of the Mongolian Empire. The new great Khan, Ogedei, nominated Batu, one of Genghis Khan's grandsons, as lord of the westem parts of the Empire and sent him atthe head 6 ‘of'a massive army into Europe. The ranks of these troops were swelled even further by formations of slaves who were cap~ tured in the course ofthe campaign. Having obtained the sub- mission of Volga Bulgaria and Bashkiria (‘Magna Hungaria’), homeland of the eastern Magyar tribes, Batu and Siibedei began | their great campaign in the West in 1237. After taking and sack- | jing a chain of Russian cities (Ryazan, Moscow, Vladimir, Suz dal, Yaroslavl, etc.) before swinging southwards, in 1238 they ‘once more advanced against the Cumans. | ‘On this occasion Kéten Khan was no longer able to raise an adequate army as the steppe inhabitants had fled en masse to the ‘West, and so, without even any pretence at serious resistance, hhe and his kindred sought asylum in Hungary from King Béla IV. Kéten offered to embrace the Catholic faith but the ‘Hungarian king vouchsafed their freedom and, after terms had been agreed between their envoys, the Cumans entered Hun- gary through the Radna Pass at Easter 1239. The welcoming. 25 s.r, part ofa woman's ‘ceremony that was befitting to such a prince was described by ccesonier ‘Rogerius, Canon of Nagyvirad in Transylvania (now Oradea, Rumania), an eye-witness and chronicler of the Mongol inva~ sion of Hungary, as follows: ‘The king set out in truly marvellous pomp to the very frontier of his country to meet him [Kéten] and bestowed ‘upon him and his people so many privileges and honours that the country’s inhabitants conld not recall the like 29 Bronze mirror being done or seen within living memory. Then, since Dutch tne [the Cumans] could not stay in comfort at that place fimerary statues, Cunan women ae of their great multitude, and because their people “eee te ‘hisanpented were hard and crude and did not know subordination, so that they should not offend the Hungarians, nor they themselves take offence from them, he (King Béla IV] nominated one of his own leaders to guide them into the centre ofhis country... (Rogerius: Carmen Miserabile) Flight was, indeed, the only realistic option available to Kten Khan. Since the battle of the River Kalka, the Mongols already regarded Gumania as their rightfal possession and the Cumans as their subjects. After a decade and a half of combatting the aggressors, the Cumanian chieftain’s fate would have been hopeless even if he had surrendered. The Mongols were invari- a30. Arow-heads and tip from 4 Curman grave in the Don region (Ostrogozhsk) ably merciless in exacting retribution for opposition against them and would pursue rulers to the bitter end, using any ‘means to capture them, to prevent their person serving 3s a focus for resurgence of resistance by a subjugated people. ‘Mongol intentions towards K&ten would have been no differ- ent, for only a part of the Cuman population had fled with him. Those inhabitants who had remained and survived the devastation would have been numerous enough that, when combined with the other Kipchak-speaking elements of the Golden Horde, the new state that the Mongols had formed from the territories of West Siberia and Eastem Europe, they ‘would soon have gained ascendancy over other ethnic groups, including the thinly spread stratum of the conquerors them= selves Links between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Cumans had already become closer as a result of the Mongol attack in 1223. It was in this period that fritrs of the Dominican Order commenced an evangelizing mission on Cuman soil. After in itial set-backs and persecution by the heathens, they made ‘a great breakthrough when, in 1227, Bortz (boré‘debt’), Khan of the Cumans who lived to the west of the Dnieper, decided to have himself and his people baptized and to give allegiance to the Hungarian king. In all probability what happened is that one ofthe Cuman tribes broke away from the crumbling confeder~ ation under the Mongol threat, Rébert, Archbishop of Eszter- ‘gom, personally performed the mass baptism in Moldavia one source having it that he thereby won 15,000 souls for the ‘Christian faith—with King Andrew II (1205-1235) being rep- resented at the ceremony by his eldest son, Duke Béla, who, a5, rex junior, or “Younger King’, was the govemor of Hungary's astern territories and the newly ceded part of Cumania, Not Jong after this, ree Cumaniae was added to the list of other tiles of the Hungarian crown. The Hungarian Church, too, enlarged its jurisdiction with the formation, in 1229, of the new bishopric of Cumania covering the trans-Carpathian ternitory between the Olt, the Danube and the Sereth Its seat was t Milk6, beside the river of the same name that flows into the Sereth, From ‘letter sent by Batu Khan to Béla IV, we know that the Mon- ‘gols were aware of these events, and for them the very fact that the Hungarian king had placed these Cumans under his protec tion was sufficient pretext to attack Hungary; his harbouring of Katen’s people served merely to increase still farther their desire for revenge. The Cumans, with their nomadic way oflife, were not able to accommodate to the conventions of feudal Hungary from one day to the next, inevitably, conflicts between Hunga~ rians and Cumans were commonplace: But when the king of the Cumans, with his nobles and commoners, began to roam about Hungary, since they had innumerable herds of cattle, caused serious damage to the pastures, sown lands, gardens, orchards, vineyards and other property of the Hungarians, (Rogerius: Carmen Miserabile) Already by the first half of the thirteenth century a dense net- work of villages had developed within Hungary and the interior ofthe country no longer contained any single stretch of uninhabited but usable land, where room might have been found for the Camans en bloc. A Great Council, or general assembly of Hungary's dignitaries, that was convoked at Kémonostor, in Szerém County, therefore decided that, in ‘order to bring an end to the complaints, the Cumans should be dispersed to various parts of the country. Nothing is known about the pattem of this dispersal of settlements except that the Khan's own clan received properties in Pest County, close to the royal court. Béla IV (1235-1270) saw the Cumans as mili- tary allies to strengthen his central authority and bestowed on ” 31 Flecing group of Cumans. ‘Thewomenfolk are being caried ina waggon covered with afele canopy orient 32 Frontsadlesbow with palmettcut-outend carved bone decorations of interlaced vb and ‘dovard-cird’ design, and «strip fim: the edge oe ear sadile-low, algo with dot-and- circle’ otf 12th or 13th-centary _grave inthe River Rosregion) ‘A reconstruction based onthe surviving lagen would suggest that he saddle hada high, osc, fot bow ike hose ofthe ‘Khitayer-Mongol type Ht43. Russanstyleelmetand leaf shaped aroe-tips fom a Curman rave in Moldavia them the privileges and respect that were proper to guests $0 that they would become an armed support loyal to the crown. ‘The Hungarian aristocracy, whose own rights had recently been curtailed, looked on jealously at the growth of Cumanian influence—a situation that was to have catastrophic conse- Tn March 1241, the Mongols, having taken Galich, were poised at the gateway to Hungary. The main body of their amny, led by Batu and Sabedei, tore down the frontier barriers at the Verecke Pass, obliterating the Palatine's forces that were {garrisoned there, and poured into the country. Whilst the king conferred day and night with his councillors to seek methods of defence, the public mood swung sharply against the Cumans, whose presence in the country was viewed as the source of all their troubles. The Cumans had earlier been suspected of enter- ing into a secret alliance with the Russians to destroy Hungary; now they were seen as spies since the scout patrols that the 30 ‘Mongols had sent ahead as far as the city of Pest were said to include Cumans in their ranks. In response to this suspicion, King Béla was compelled to bring Kéten and his family under the protection of his court, housing him at one of the royal palaces in Pest, where he him- self was quartered together with his assembled army. In an atmosphere that was by now strained to fever pitch, a group of ‘Hungarian and German soldiers, probably instigated by Duke Frederick Babenberg of Austria, mounted an assault on the palace and massacred the Cuman royal guests, who were left haplessly to defend themselves with bows and arrows since [Béla could not send them assistance in time, ‘On hearing this news, the Cumans who had been called to arms against the Mongols, held a council and decided to Jeave Hungary. They rode out southwards, through the Danube~Tisza Interfluve, ravaging the countryside that fell in their path and exacting cruel revenge on the Hungarians for the murder of their chieftain, The Hungarian kingdom thereby lost, at the worst possible moment, a major portion of its light cavalry forces. ‘The Hungarian army was almost completely annihilated by the Mongols on 12 April 1241 near the village of Muhi on the River Saj6; the king himself managed to escape only with the greatest difficulty. Eastern Hungary fell to the Mongol in~ vasion. On 1 February 1242 the Mongols crossed over the at 34. Miniature from the ‘Chronicon Piceum (Tthuminated Chronicle) shoving "Tatar* warrior in Cuumansion attirefrozen Danube to set about the destruction of the country’s ‘westem part, whilst a timen was sent off to Dalmatia in pursuit of Béla. Hungary was only saved from total devastation be- cause the Mongo forces, on hearing news of the death of their Great Khan, Ogedei, turned back and abandoned the country, so that Batu Khan and the dukes who were taking part in the campaign could travel to Karakorum to be present at the elec- tion of thenew supreme Khan. In the years that followed, Béla IV's policies were dictated principally by the need to bolster his country's defensive ‘capabilites in the face of an expected resumption of the Mongol attack, He embarked on an extensive programme of castle building and initiated a whole series of measures to assist both baronial and ecclesiastical landowners to construct stone for- tresses that would withstand the Mongols. He pushed ahead ‘with the fortification of towns and also settlements that were situated in well-protected places. The army was re-organized and decrees were issued to increase the proportion of soldiers equipped with modem armour. The barons were also given ‘more latitude to build up their private garrisons. Defence of the southem marches along the Danube was entrusted to the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. Closer links were forged with the Russian Pringpalities, under an alliance with Galich a courier service was instituted to ensure that timely ‘waming of Mongol military preparations would be received. In order to augment his own forces, Béla in 1246 made a renewed appeal to the Cumans who, since leaving Hungary, hhad been encamped somewhere on the lower Danubian plain in ‘Bulgaria. Events in that country may have been a farther factor influencing the Cumans to return, for their position in Bulgaria had become uncertain in the confusion that followed the death of Tsar Coloman Asen I (1241-1246), who had been paying, annual tribute to the Mongols and was murdered by his con- spiring boyars. In 1247 Baa IV's ambassadors to the court of the recently lected Mongol Khan returned with the information that Giyik, immediately after his accession to the tile, had ‘announced a resumption of the campaign against the peoples of the West, though it seems likely that the king had already learnt this alarming news through the couriers from Galich, In order to win the Cumans over to himself and his country’s side, Béla arranged a marriage between his eldest son, Stephen V, and the 32 new Cuman Khan's daughter, who received the name Elizabeth on her baptism: At this wedding-feast, ten of the Cumans came together and made an oath according to their custom, with their swords on a dog that had been sundered in two, that they would defend the lands of the Magyars as would the king’s ‘own supporters against the Tartars and barbarian peoples. (john of Plano Carpini: inerarium et Historia Mongolorum, Appendix. toLuxemburg MS.)Cumanian settlement areas in Hungary ‘Béla IV designated the most desolate flatland areas of Hungary, in the vicinity of the Danube, Tisza, Kérés, Maros and Temes rivers, as areas for settlement by the Cumans on their return to the country. Gyérgy GySrffy has estimated that 50-80 per cent Of the villages in this region were totally abandoned during the Mongol invasion, even though in the first haf ofthe thirteenth century it had been as densely populated as other areas in Hun- «gary. In the law of 1279 which definitively set out the localities ‘or setdement, based on the de facto situation, the Cumans were permitted to camp on crown properties and lands that had been left vacant by noblemen or castle retainers, but lands with usti- fructuary rights—those with fishing places or woods—and inhabited villages remained in the possession of the private landowner, whilst any interspersed church lands also had to be respected. The Hungarian state did not intervene in the dis- tribution of these territories, the Cumans being allowed to look after their own internal affairs for a long time. From the begin ning they were placed under the Palatine's jurisdiction, though, jn accordance with their autonomy, civil law-suits between ‘Cumans were settied before a judge of the defendant's clan. If litigant Cumanian noblemen were unable to reach agreement, they had the right of appeal to the king, who would in tur also have to pass down judgement in the presence of a judge from thedefendant’s dan. ‘The social segmentation of the Cumans, whose clan struc- ture was already breaking up by the time of their entry into Hungary, is described in some detail by our written sources. The noble cass (prindpales) were the Cumans’ ‘masters, which is to say the clan chieftains who represented the tribal aristocracy and who were called beg, or bey, in the Cumanian tongue. It was they who served as the military commanders (capitaneus) and elected judges (index) of each dan. This politi- cally active ruling class represented the interests of the Cuma- nian people in matters relating to their nation’s afuirs, and it was they who were the earliest to benefit from grants of land ‘outside the clan territories; we also find them as participants in other major historical events of the latter half of the thirteenth century. ‘The Cumanian duke Zeyhan (Zeyhanus), who is mentioned jn 1255 and whose domains may have lain near the Tisza, and 4 Arbuz (arbus ‘water-melon’) who, together with the chiefs Tur- tel (Tor-oyul ‘Fivesons') and. Kemence (kiminée ‘tle bow), is said by the chronicles to have been the murderer of King Ladisias IV in 1290, may have been related to the House of Arpad through the Cuman-born queen, Elizabeth. The Cuman. ‘woops that Béla TV sent in 1264 to fight his own son, Duke Stephen, were led by a chiefiain by the name of Menk (mi ‘birth-mark’). The supreme commander of the Gumans during the 12605 and 1270s was Alpra (Altura ‘tawny-coloured camel), who with Uzur took part in the Great Council at Tétény which worked out the provisions of the law of 1279 regarding the settlement of the Cumans. In the preparatory dis cussions for this, Cuman interests were represented by Uzur and Tolor (tour ‘fll moon’) ‘The aristocrats and the more or Jess wealthy middle nobility (nobles) enjoyed exactly the same rights as their Hungarian counterparts and were also under the same obligation of knight- service to the king. Collective freedom and liability to military service also applied initially to the middle dass of femen who comprised the greater part of Cuman society (universias Cumanorum), but as feudalism became more firmly established this class slowly sank to the status of villins and sees (rurale). ‘There was also a numerous servant class comprising, among others, those freemen who had lost their livestock and wealth as well as captives—most of them Christians—who had been taken during Cuman raids and were needed as a workforce for the nomadic pastoral economy or to boost the ranks of serfs able to cultivate the land in the Cuman settlement areas. This social structure was similar to that amongst the other two mili- tary colonist peoples of the Arpidian era, the Pechenegs and Szeklers, and more archaic than that prevailing elsewhere in ‘hietcenth-century Hungary. The Cumans’ leaders, following ancient Turkic practice, organized their refugee people into seven units called kindreds or clans (generatio, grus) by the Hungarian sources. The sette- sent area of each of these clans has been determined by GyBrgy Gyérfly in pare with the knowledge that among the Cumans, a8 among other peoples, the clans evolved socially from kinship- based into terrtorially-based organizations. Thus, although our sources provide no direct information about where the clans were located and the extent of the areas that were settled by them, we know from fifeenth-century documents about 58the sites of the units of public administration, the szék “seats” (edes), that were to emerge later on. By tracing back to the time of the original Cumanian immigration, we can define with some certainty the areas that were settled by four named clans, three of which also figure among the earlier eastern Cuman— Kipchak tribes that had stayed in the Golden Horde under ‘Mongol ule. ‘The Borchol clan, which setded in Temes County between the Maros and Temes rivers, was formed from the remnants of a tribe which had originally inhabited the Donets region, where it was known in the Russian chronicles from the eleventh cen- tury under the name Burteviéi ‘pepper-people’, and whose remaining representatives in the East (the Buréoylu) were among the Kipchak tribes of the Golden Horde. One of the sul- tans of the Egyptian Mamluks at the end of the thirteenth cen- tury was by descent a Cuman of this tribe. An independent administrative unit was not established in the territories granted to this clan because this was one of the localities that was aban doned by the Cumans after the battle of Héd-t6 (Lake Héd). ‘The Cherthan clan, whose name means ‘pike fish’ and who ‘occupied an area on the sandy plateau of the Danube-Tisza Interfluve that was carved out of parts of the Counties of Pest, Fejér, Szolnok, Csongrid and Bodrog, had their counterparts, the Cran, om a lst of Kipchak tribes in the fourteenth century. ‘Their extensive settlement area in the fifteenth century developed into the seat of Halas (Halas-szék), having as its centre the originally Magyar-populated market-town of Halas, which already was serving as headquarters for the clan's head (the equivalent of the Hungarian ispér), Kénchek, by the mid- fourteenth century. ‘The Olas clan (ula ‘achieve, unite’), which settled between. the Rivers Tisza and Kars on lands belonging to Heves-Ujvir and Outer Szolnok Counties, are identifiable with the Ulaieviai of the Russian chronicles, splinter groups from which were to tum up in the sixteenth century among the Tiirkmen tribes and in Anatolia. From the middle of the fifteenth century the Olas clan's territory became the seat of Kolbaz, with its centre at Kol- bbazszallés. We can regard as the immediate forerunner of this seat the network of estates, covering practically the whole of the Greater Cumania district (Nagykunsfg), which belonged to the (Cumanian noble family of Csunegyhae and their kindred and which by the end of the fourteenth century also included Kol- 56 35 Cuman and Ts setioment areas in Husgary: 4) Buriat 1) The Kingdom of Hungary ins therwdele of the Cuman: 1 Kigydspuszta, 2Csblyos, ith century 3Peleszentkil, 4 Baorapuszta, 2) Sutementaressof Cuman clansand asiansin 5 Kishunhals-bnoka, 6Kunszentndron, the th cent 7Hlomok, 8 Bank, 9 Erdétle. ls: 10 fszdsasa 53) Cama and ascents sa’) inthe 15th 5) Other ail ind of Oriel ori: ‘entry 11 Artind-Zomlinpuszie, 12 Demecserbbazszallds itself From this collective ownership of properties in ‘many villages and the degrees of relationship involved it seems reasonable to surmise that these estates did not represent recent acquisitions but hereditary domains, belonging to the clan by right, which had been in the hands of this one family for at least three or four generations. The Koor, or Kool clan (gryur ‘few, slight’), which chose for setement an area south of the Maros river in Csanid ‘County, had no counterpart in the East. Theie territory was later to become theseat of Szentelt. ‘The members of the Cuman “clans” in Hungary were drawn from fragments of the tribal structure that had existed in the East, the memory of which—in the form of the tribal names —could well have been maintained by the warrior class. We ‘may guess that genaine blood links within a can were probably restricted to the aristocratic class, which thus formed “noble clans” rather like those known from other early feudal societies, including the Magyars of the Conquest era and the Mongols in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. ‘The “seat” organization by itself does not provide enough data to identify three farther clans that continued in existence. According to the Second Cumanian Law of 1279, the lands be- tween the Rivers Kérds and Maros also belonged to the (Cumans’ settlement area. This region, at the meeting-point of ‘Békés, Csanid and Zarind Counties, is where we may locate ‘a dan of unknown name which in 1280 sided with the Coman rebels who, after the severe defeat inflicted on them at the battle of Lake Héd, fled to Wallachia to join their eastem kinsmen ‘under Mongol domination. The Borchol clan also left Hungary at this time and thus in neither region could a “seat” organiza- tion develop; subsequently only a few scattered families that stayed behind preserved the memory of the Cumans’ presence inthese districts, ‘The Cumans who settled in Fejér County, on lands between, the Danube and the River Sérviz. which at the beginning of the fifteenth century formed the basis for the independent seat of Hontos, can be regarded as a separate clan. The 16 colonies which made up the seat formed a unitary body of land in this period, but we have no documentary evidence relating to an earlier Cumanian presence in the area. During the fifteenth cen- tury there were a number of law-suits between related Cuman noblemen over some of these estates. From their degrees of kin- 58 ship it can be deduced that division of the lands occurred some- time around the middle of the fourteenth century; in other words, until then the whole territory must have been in the tenure of a single aristocratic family. This dan probably had originally settled between the Danube and the Tisza, since they still retained properties there at a later date, butin the first half of the fourteenth century their settlements were moved further west, to the other bank of the Danube, which is where the feudal seat organization was to arise. ‘A number of possibilities have to be considered in determin- ing the seventh Cuman clan, Apart from those already men- Boned, several other clan-names occur in documents (Itun- chuck, Buthemer, Kumcheg); however, these are not the names of the larger socal units of which we are speaking but rather ancestral names that indicate the pedigree of specific ‘Cuman noble fimniies, the ancestors being historical persons. The ispén (comes) Buthemer, for example, was a typical rep- resentative of the upwardly mobile, wealthy middle dass. In 1343, he declared himself to be of the Honchuk (Ilunchuck little snake’) dan, emphasizing that this descent had nothing to do ‘with his “offical” clan designation; he managed to obtain privileges for his family, extricating himself from the jurisdic- tion of the Cumman clan chiefiains, and already by the generation of his great-grandchildren was being cited as the clan (family) ancestor. ‘The ispén Kurncheg, (Rink trousers’), who in 1347 was head of the Chertan clan, was one of the most powerful Cuman leaders of the period, his family probably being related to the ‘Hungarian crown through Princess Elizabeth, wife of Stephen V. He strove to convert the extensive domains that were under his jurisdiction into a feudal atifundium and thus, understand ably, his descendants regarded him as the founder of a new clan. Feudal land-owning fammles such as these camot, therefore, be the clan that we are seeking. ‘One area that can be considered a prime candidate for this postulated thirteenth-century Cuman clan of unknown name is the land between the Danube and the Tisza as this was the most extensive of the territories available to the Cumans up to the time of the conquest by the Ottoman Turks. Two small administrative units, the seats of Kecskemét and Mizse, sud-

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen

• Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race

  

  Von Everand

  Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race

  Margot Lee Shetterly

  Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen

  4/5 (895)
• Intestinal Absorption of Vitamin D 2018

  

  Dokument17 Seiten

  Intestinal Absorption of Vitamin D 2018

  adrip234

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

  

  Von Everand

  The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

  Mark Manson

  Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen

  4/5 (5794)
• • Zeitschriften
  • Podcasts
  • Noten
• Emotional Tears TIMING

  

  Dokument8 Seiten

  Emotional Tears TIMING

  adrip234

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

  

  Von Everand

  Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

  Phil Knight

  Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 Sternen

  4.5/5 (537)
• Hypophosphatasia The Disease in Adults

  

  Dokument6 Seiten

  Hypophosphatasia The Disease in Adults

  adrip234

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

  

  Von Everand

  Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

  Angela Duckworth

  Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen

  4/5 (588)
• DSM 42e 09 DSM Nutrition Award 2009

  

  Dokument2 Seiten

  DSM 42e 09 DSM Nutrition Award 2009

  adrip234

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• The Yellow House: A Memoir (2019 National Book Award Winner)

  

  Von Everand

  The Yellow House: A Memoir (2019 National Book Award Winner)

  Sarah M. Broom

  Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen

  4/5 (98)
• Contents 2017 Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America

  

  Dokument4 Seiten

  Contents 2017 Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America

  adrip234

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• Principles: Life and Work

  

  Von Everand

  Principles: Life and Work

  Ray Dalio

  Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen

  4/5 (599)
• Annex I Summary of Product Characteristics

  

  Dokument182 Seiten

  Annex I Summary of Product Characteristics

  adrip234

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• Yes Please

  

  Von Everand

  Yes Please

  Amy Poehler

  Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen

  4/5 (1891)
• Hyper Homocysteinemia

  

  Dokument4 Seiten

  Hyper Homocysteinemia

  adrip234

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

  

  Von Everand

  The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

  Meik Wiking

  Bewertung: 3.5 von 5 Sternen

  3.5/5 (400)
• Bulgaria in IX-X. Century According To The Hungarian Chronicles

  

  Dokument2 Seiten

  Bulgaria in IX-X. Century According To The Hungarian Chronicles

  Toma

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

  

  Von Everand

  Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

  Chris Voss

  Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 Sternen

  4.5/5 (838)
• The Illuminated Chronicle: Bak, Janos, Veszpémi, Laszlo

  

  Dokument2 Seiten

  The Illuminated Chronicle: Bak, Janos, Veszpémi, Laszlo

  meteayd

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

  

  Von Everand

  Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

  Ashlee Vance

  Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 Sternen

  4.5/5 (474)
• Madgearu A Legend

  

  Dokument3 Seiten

  Madgearu A Legend

  amadgearu

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story

  

  Von Everand

  A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story

  Dave Eggers

  Bewertung: 3.5 von 5 Sternen

  3.5/5 (231)
• D. P. Ruckser - The Coins and Kings of Hungary

  

  Dokument147 Seiten

  D. P. Ruckser - The Coins and Kings of Hungary

  Marin_Maximus

  0% (1)
• Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can't Ignore

  

  Von Everand

  Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can't Ignore

  Jay Sekulow

  Bewertung: 3.5 von 5 Sternen

  3.5/5 (137)
• The Cupor of Monoszlo

  

  Dokument17 Seiten

  The Cupor of Monoszlo

  BeckyShinigami

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

  

  Von Everand

  The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

  Siddhartha Mukherjee

  Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 Sternen

  4.5/5 (271)
• Pechenegs Cumans Iasians Steppe Peoples in Medieval Hungary Hereditas

  

  Dokument92 Seiten

  Pechenegs Cumans Iasians Steppe Peoples in Medieval Hungary Hereditas

  adrip234

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• Fear: Trump in the White House

  

  Von Everand

  Fear: Trump in the White House

  Bob Woodward

  Bewertung: 3.5 von 5 Sternen

  3.5/5 (738)
• Medieval Sources

  

  Dokument64 Seiten

  Medieval Sources

  Anonymous 7isTmailHuse

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

  

  Von Everand

  Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

  Gilbert King

  Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 Sternen

  4.5/5 (266)
• Un Efemer Regat Gepidic in Transilvania PDF

  

  Dokument11 Seiten

  Un Efemer Regat Gepidic in Transilvania PDF

  Alina Goga

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

  

  Von Everand

  The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

  Ben Horowitz

  Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 Sternen

  4.5/5 (345)
• Árpád Dynasty: Country

  

  Dokument5 Seiten

  Árpád Dynasty: Country

  Paul Cernea

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal

  

  Von Everand

  On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal

  Naomi Klein

  Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen

  4/5 (74)
• Chronicon Pictum

  

  Dokument4 Seiten

  Chronicon Pictum

  dzimmer6

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

  

  Von Everand

  The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

  Thomas L. Friedman

  Bewertung: 3.5 von 5 Sternen

  3.5/5 (2259)
• Aba (Genus)

  

  Dokument2 Seiten

  Aba (Genus)

  dzimmer6

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

  

  Von Everand

  Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

  Doris Kearns Goodwin

  Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 Sternen

  4.5/5 (234)
• Madgearu A Legend From The Chronicon Pictum Vindobonense

  

  Dokument3 Seiten

  Madgearu A Legend From The Chronicon Pictum Vindobonense

  amadgearu

  Noch keine Bewertungen
• The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

  

  Von Everand

  The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

  George Packer

  Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen

  4/5 (45)
• The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

  

  Von Everand

  The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

  Brené Brown

  Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen

  4/5 (1090)
• Angela's Ashes: A Memoir

  

  Von Everand

  Angela's Ashes: A Memoir

  Frank McCourt

  Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 Sternen

  4.5/5 (440)
• Steve Jobs

  

  Von Everand

  Steve Jobs

  Walter Isaacson

  Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 Sternen

  4.5/5 (806)
• Bad Feminist: Essays

  

  Von Everand

  Bad Feminist: Essays

  Roxane Gay

  Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen

  4/5 (1016)
• The Glass Castle: A Memoir

  

  Von Everand

  The Glass Castle: A Memoir

  Jeannette Walls

  Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 Sternen

  4.5/5 (1713)
• John Adams

  

  Von Everand

  John Adams

  David McCullough

  Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 Sternen

  4.5/5 (2409)
• The Outsider: A Novel

  

  Von Everand

  The Outsider: A Novel

  Stephen King

  Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen

  4/5 (1839)
• The Light Between Oceans: A Novel

  

  Von Everand

  The Light Between Oceans: A Novel

  M.L. Stedman

  Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 Sternen

  4.5/5 (789)
• Brooklyn: A Novel

  

  Von Everand

  Brooklyn: A Novel

  Colm Tóibín

  Bewertung: 3.5 von 5 Sternen

  3.5/5 (1937)
• The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

  

  Von Everand

  The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

  Viet Thanh Nguyen

  Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 Sternen

  4.5/5 (121)
• The Woman in Cabin 10

  

  Von Everand

  The Woman in Cabin 10

  Ruth Ware

  Bewertung: 3.5 von 5 Sternen

  3.5/5 (2322)
• Little Women

  

  Von Everand

  Little Women

  Louisa May Alcott

  Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen

  4/5 (104)
• A Man Called Ove: A Novel

  

  Von Everand

  A Man Called Ove: A Novel

  Fredrik Backman

  Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 Sternen

  4.5/5 (4610)
• Wolf Hall: A Novel

  

  Von Everand

  Wolf Hall: A Novel

  Hilary Mantel

  Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen

  4/5 (3811)
• Manhattan Beach: A Novel

  

  Von Everand

  Manhattan Beach: A Novel

  Jennifer Egan

  Bewertung: 3.5 von 5 Sternen

  3.5/5 (792)
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower

  

  Von Everand

  The Perks of Being a Wallflower

  Stephen Chbosky

  Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 Sternen

  4.5/5 (2104)
• The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel

  

  Von Everand

  The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel

  Garth Stein

  Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen

  4/5 (4200)
• The Constant Gardener: A Novel

  

  Von Everand

  The Constant Gardener: A Novel

  John le Carré

  Bewertung: 3.5 von 5 Sternen

  3.5/5 (104)
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

  

  Von Everand

  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

  Betty Smith

  Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 Sternen

  4.5/5 (1929)
• Her Body and Other Parties: Stories

  

  Von Everand

  Her Body and Other Parties: Stories

  Carmen Maria Machado

  Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen

  4/5 (821)
• Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel

  

  Von Everand

  Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel

  Jesmyn Ward

  Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen

  4/5 (1103)