The Lukomorians

Who he is

Name

Itogly and Akush, named for 1193 (whether they lead on 1 January 1200 is not pinned)

Title

khans of the Lukomorian Cumans

Since

not pinned (named 1193)

Born

not pinned

Family

Not known. The Tale of Igor's Campaign brings Khan Kobiak "from the bend of the sea" (iz luku morya); Kobiak Karlyevich was taken prisoner with his sons on the Orel in 1183, and his son Danila Kobyakovich was killed by the Mongols in 1222 or 1223. Whether Kobiak's people and Itogly's are the same horde is not pinned.

Confidence

low

The Hypatian chronicle under 1193 (6701) and the Tale of Igor's Campaign, from the standard accounts; Encyclopedia of Ukraine (Cumans).

What it holds

• The lower Dnieper below Nikopol, both banks (conventional)
• The shore of the Azov Sea from the Sivash to the Kalmius (conventional)
• The approaches to Oleshye and to the Perekop isthmus

Allies and rivals

They sought peace with Kiev in 1193. Rivals and allies for 1200: not pinned.

How things stand that morning

Unconquered; nothing recorded for 1194-1200. Across its edges: north, the Burchevichi (The Burchevichi) and the seashore Cumans across the Dnieper (Cumans of the Bug and the Dniester); east, Konchak's horde beyond the Kalmius (Konchak's horde (the Don Cumans)); south, the steppe Crimea beyond Perekop (Cumans of the Crimea).

Wealth

Herds; fishing and salt on the coast; tolls and trade with the Rus' of Oleshye and the Greek merchants on the Dnieper road; the salt road to the Crimea.

Military

Its own horde host; no numbers.

Threats

• Kiev and the Black Hoods
• Roman of Galicia (from 1201, later)
• The Mongols (1223, later)

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.

1. During 1200No raid or campaign recorded; the Dnieper trade through Oleshye goes on.Depends on: peace with Kiev Stopped by: a Rus' raid

Places of note

• Khortytsia island and the Protolche ford: The Dnieper crossing below the rapids, where, by the usual reading of the chronicles, Rus' armies crossed on their great campaigns into the steppe (1103) and gathered in 1223; a station of the river trade.
• The Dnieper rapids: Where boats on the Kiev-Constantinople road were portaged and the steppe peoples lay in wait (Sviatoslav of Kiev was killed there in 972); now under the reservoir.
• Oleshye: The Rus' trading station at the Dnieper mouth (Oleshye).

Where the sources disagree

• Placement disputed: the lower Dnieper and the Azov shore (Pletneva) against the coast between the Dnieper and the Dniester (Encyclopedia of Ukraine). The 1193 names come from the standard accounts; the chronicle text could not be checked in this run.

Evidence: One chronicle passage (1193) and one line of the Tale of Igor's Campaign.

On the map: Conventional placement of a horde known from one passage. The seat point only marks the range: the horde had no fixed seat.

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