Cumans of Moldavia and the Bugeac

Who holds it

Name

No khan or chief is named here for 1199-1200

Title

Cuman khans and clan chiefs, with no single khan known over them

Since

Cumans east of the Carpathians since the late 11th century

Family

Cuman (Kipchak) clans; whether these are the same clans as the Cumans of the Wallachian plain, or kin of the hordes beyond the Dniester, is not known.

Confidence

low

No source names a chief between the Siret and the Dniester for 1199-1200. Kotian (Koten) and Somogur appear with Rurik of Kiev about 1205 (an entry dated 1202), and Kotian later led the western Cumans into Hungary (1239); their range in 1200 is not pinned. Bortz, baptised at Milcov in 1227, ruled in the lands just west of the lower Siret (later).

What it holds

• Winter grounds in the Bugeac steppe by the Danube mouths, the lagoons and the Dniester liman
• Summer pastures on the Moldavian plain (the Jijia and Bahlui country) and the Balti steppe
• The wooded Codri hills between them, thinly peopled
• The Danube delta north of the St George arm, drawn with the Bugeac: reed marsh and fishing grounds with no recorded lord or settlement in 1200

How it was acquired

The Cumans took the lands between the Carpathians and the Dniester in the 1070s and 1080s.

Allies and rivals

Kin and allies of the Cumans of the Wallachian plain and, beyond the Dniester, of the seashore hordes (Rus' sheet). Enemies of Galicia under Roman Mstislavich (from 1201, later); enemies of Byzantium, whose Thracian towns the western Cumans raided in 1199.

How things stand that morning

The clans are in their winter grounds in the Bugeac and by the Danube; no raid into Galicia or Transylvania is recorded for the winter of 1199-1200. Across the borders: north, Galicia's Ponyzia on the Dniester and the Prut round Khotyn and the Chernivtsi country (outside: Rus' sheet, hal); east across the Dniester, the seashore Cumans between the Dniester and the Dnieper (outside: Rus' sheet, cum); west across the Siret, the Vlach communities of the Moldavian hills (Vlachs of the Moldavian hills) and beyond the crest the Szekely marches of Transylvania (outside); south-west, the Brodnik land on the lower Prut and lower Siret (Brodniki); south, across the Danube, Dobruja (Bulgaria record).

Wealth

Herds and horses; captives; fish and salt of the lagoons and the liman (not attested for 1200).

Military

Mounted archers; no numbers in the sources.

Threats

• Roman Mstislavich of Galicia: campaigns into the steppe in 1201-1202 and 1203-1204 (later)
• Feuds with the hordes beyond the Dniester or among themselves

Customs and assemblies

As for the Cumans of the plain: clans under their own chiefs, seasonal movement with tents and wagons, oaths, hostages and marriages for peace, captives ransomed or sold. Not pinned for these hordes.

Overlord claims

None recorded. Galicia's princes had used the lower Danube and the Dniester road in the 12th century (the Berladniki of 1159-1161, record Berlad), but no Galician lordship south of the Ponyzia is attested for 1200.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. 1200 (no event dated)Seasonal move north to the summer pastures; western clans may join the Danube Cumans in raids on Thrace.Depends on: Peace with Galicia Stopped by: A Galician attack

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201-1202 (later)Roman of Galicia invades the Cuman lands and takes their camps (Choniates; Spinei 2009 dates it 1201/1202, the Rus' sheet gives the winter of 1201-1202).Depends on: Roman free of war with Rurik of Kiev Stopped by: War among the Rus' princes

Places of note

• Isaccea ford, north landing: The old crossing from the Bugeac into Dobruja (record Isaccea ford)
• Asprokastron (Cetatea Alba): Site at the Dniester liman (record Asprokastron)

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: No contemporary source describes these hordes in 1199-1200; the outline follows the steppe and forest-steppe and the later notices of Cumania and the Brodniki.

On the map: One outline for all the hordes east of the Siret, because no inner division is recorded. The northern edge against Galicia's Ponyzia is a guess along the line Darabani, Lipcani, Otaci. The Danube delta north of the St George arm is drawn with the Bugeac because no other holder is recorded; the Bulgaria record draws Dobruja to the St George arm as Kaloyan's claim.

Primary sources for The Cumans

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Hypatian Chronicle (the Kievan Chronicle compiled about 1200 at the Vydubichi monastery; the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle in the 13th century). The southern record. Read online
• The Laurentian Chronicle (the Suzdal continuation kept in the late 12th and 13th centuries; manuscript 1377). The court record of Vsevolod III of Vladimir. Read online
• History of Niketas Choniates, Niketas Choniates (about 1185 to 1217, in stages, with a final revision in exile at Nicaea after 1204). The central narrative for the Byzantine Empire under Alexios III Angelos: the Bulgarian and Vlach war under Kaloyan, the breakaway of Ivanko in the Rhodopes and his capture by treachery in 1200, Dobromir Chrysos at Prosek and Strumica and the emperor's campaign and settlement with him, the Cuman raids into Thrace, John Komnenos the Fat's one-day revolt at Constantinople on 31 July 1200, the loosening of imperial control in the provinces and the rise of Leo Sgouros, and the court's fiscal abuses. Read online
• The Deeds of the Hungarians, by the Anonymous Notary of King Béla, Anonymus (P. magister) (about 1200 to 1210, the date disputed). Not a record of events but a picture of the kingdom's nobility and geography as a courtier of about 1200 wished to see it: the clans and their lands, the castles and counties, the Vlachs, Cumans and other peoples of the Carpathian basin, all projected back onto the conquest. Read online
• The Georgian Chronicles: the Histories and Eulogies of the Sovereigns, and the Life of Queen Tamar, Anonymous, attributed to the chancellor Theodore of Chqondidi and to Basili, master of the court (about 1210 to 1225). Two court histories of Queen Tamar written within a generation. Read online
• The Tale of Igor's Campaign (about 1187 to 1200 (disputed)). A poem on Igor Sviatoslavich's defeat by the Polovtsians in 1185 that addresses the princes of the day by name: Vsevolod of Vladimir, Rurik and David Rostislavich, Yaroslav of Galich, Roman of Volhynia and the Olgovichi of Chernigov, of whom Igor himself was prince from 1198. Read online