Port · The Cumans · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Sudak

Sugdaea is the great port of the Cuman steppe.

Byzantine until the late 11th century (a strategos of "Cherson and Sougdaia" in 1059), it has been under Cuman control since, and stays so until the 13th century. Ibn al-Athir calls it the town of the Kipchaks: ships bring cloth, and the Kipchaks buy it and sell slaves, Burtas furs, beaver and squirrel. It is a Black Sea end of the caravan trade, and the see of an Orthodox archbishop (the see of Sougdaia was joined with Phoulloi in the late 11th century).

Archaeology shows renewed building in the harbour, the hinterland and the citadel in the 11th-14th centuries. Nothing is dated to 1200.

Who holds it

Name
not named (not pinned)
Title
Cuman overlords; Greek notables and archbishop in the town
Since
Cuman control from the end of the 11th century
Born
not applicable
Family
see Sugdaea under the Cumans
Confidence
medium

en.wikipedia (Sudak), after the Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World and the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium.

Lord in 1200

The Cuman khans as overlords (which horde is not pinned); the town run by its Greek notables and its archbishop (Sugdaea under the Cumans).

Allies and rivals

The Cuman khans (overlords); Byzantine and Anatolian merchants; the Seljuks of Rum later.

How things stand that morning

A Greek port town under Cuman overlordship, trading with Byzantium, Asia Minor and the Rus'.

Charter

None: a self-governing Greek town paying tribute to the Cuman khans.

Council

The town's Greek notables (archons) and the archbishop of Sougdaia (names not pinned).

Communities

Greeks; Cumans; Alans and Armenians in the Crimea (not pinned for the town in 1200); merchants from Byzantium and Seljuk Anatolia. en.wikipedia's note that Venetians lived there "since the 12th century" is doubtful: the Polo brothers' house in Soldaia is of the 1250s-1260s.

Fairs and markets

None recorded; the shipping season runs from spring to autumn.

Militia

The townsmen; Cuman protection (no numbers).

Walls and castle

The citadel rock above the harbour, fortified since late antiquity; the great walls standing today are Genoese, of the 14th and 15th centuries.

Trade and crafts

Slaves, furs (Burtas fox, beaver, squirrel), hides and grain out; silk, cotton and linen cloth, spices and wine in (Ibn al-Athir, of 1223). Rus' merchants come by the steppe roads.

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. About 1222 (after this year)The Seljuks of Rum besiege and take Sudak.Depends on: Seljuk sea power
  2. 1223 (after this year)The Mongols raid it.Depends on: the Mongol advance

Where the sources disagree

  • Seljuk attack dated about 1222 (en.wikipedia, Sudak) or before a Rus' and Cuman counter-attack in 1221 (Encyclopedia of Ukraine).

Evidence: Cuman overlordship rests on the reference works; the trade on Ibn al-Athir (writing of 1223).

On the map: Near land a 6 km disc; the valley is drawn with Sugdaea under the Cumans.

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

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia: Sudak (after the Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World and the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium; Ibn al-Athir as quoted there)
  2. Encyclopedia of Ukraine: Cumans
  3. Wikipedia: Cumans

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.