Kipchak
▪ people
Russian Polovtsy , Byzantine Kuman , or Cuman
a loosely organized Turkic tribal confederation that by the mid-11th century occupied a vast, sprawling territory in the Eurasian steppe, stretching from north of the Aral Sea westward to the region north of the Black Sea. Some tribes of the Kipchak confederation probably originated near the Chinese borders and, after having moved into western Siberia by the 9th century, migrated further west into the trans-Volga region (now western Kazakhstan) and then, in the 11th century, to the steppe area north of the Black Sea (now in Ukraine and southwestern Russia). The western grouping of this confederation was known as the Polovtsy, or Kuman, or by other names, most of which have the meaning “pale,” or “sallow.”
The Kipchak were nomadic pastoralists and warriors who lived in yurts (movable tents). In the late 11th and early 12th centuries they became involved in various conflicts with the Byzantines, Kievan Rus, the Hungarians, and the Pechenegs, allying themselves with one or the other side at different times.
The Kipchak remained masters of the steppe north of the Black Sea until the Mongol invasions. During the first Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus (1221–23), the Kipchak sided at different times with the invaders and with the local Slavic princes. In 1237 the Mongols penetrated for the second time into Kipchak territory and killed Bachman, the khan of the eastern Kipchak tribes. The Kipchak confederation was destroyed, and most of its lands and people were incorporated into the Golden Horde, the westernmost division of the Mongol empire.
The Kuman, or western Kipchak tribes, fled to Hungary, and some of their warriors became mercenaries for the Latin crusaders and the Byzantines. The defeated Kipchaks also became a major source of slaves for parts of the Islāmic world. Kipchak slaves—called Mamlūks (Mamlūk)—serving in the Ayyūbid dynasty's armies came to play important roles in the history of Egypt and Syria, where they formed the Mamlūk state, the remnants of which survived until the 19th century.
The Kipchak spoke a Turkic language whose most important surviving record is the Codex Cumanicus, a late 13th-century dictionary of words in Kipchak, Latin, and Persian. The presence in Egypt of Turkic-speaking Mamlūks also stimulated the compilation of Kipchak-Arabic dictionaries and grammars that are important in the study of several old Turkic languages.
Golden Horde
▪ ancient division, Mongol Empire
also called Kipchak Khanate
Russian designation for the Ulus Juchi, the western part of the Mongol Empire, which flourished from the mid-13th century to the end of the 14th century. The people of the Golden Horde were a mixture of Turks and Mongols, with the latter generally constituting the aristocracy.
The ill-defined western portion of the empire of Genghis Khan formed the territorial endowment of his oldest son, Juchi. Juchi predeceased his father in 1227, but his son Batu (q.v.) expanded their domain in a series of brilliant campaigns that included the sacking and burning of the city of Kiev in 1240. At its peak the Golden Horde's territory included most of European Russia from the Urals to the Carpathian Mountains, extending east deep into Siberia. On the south the Horde's lands bordered on the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, and the Iranian territories of the Mongol dynasty known as the Il-Khans.
Batu founded his capital, Sarai Batu, on the lower stretch of the Volga River. The capital was later moved upstream to Sarai Berke, which at its peak held perhaps 600,000 inhabitants. The Horde was gradually Turkified and Islāmized, especially under their greatest khan, Öz Beg (1313–41). The Turkic tribes concentrated on animal husbandry in the steppes, while their subject peoples, Russians, Mordvinians, Greeks, Georgians, and Armenians, contributed tribute. The Russian princes, particularly those of Muscovy, soon obtained responsibility for collecting the Russian tribute. The Horde carried on an extensive trade with Mediterranean peoples, particularly their allies in Mamlūk Egypt and the Genoese.
The Black Death, which struck in 1346–47, and the murder of Öz Beg's successor marked the beginning of the Golden Horde's decline and disintegration. The Russian princes won a signal victory over the Horde general Mamai at the Battle of Kulikovo (q.v.) in 1380. Mamai's successor and rival, Tokhtamysh, sacked and burned Moscow in retaliation in 1382 and reestablished the Horde's dominion over the Russians. Tokhtamysh had his own power broken, however, by his former ally Timur, who invaded the Horde's territory in 1395, destroyed Sarai Berke, and deported most of the region's skilled craftsmen to Central Asia, thus depriving the Horde of its technological edge over resurgent Muscovy.
In the 15th century the Horde disintegrated into several smaller khanates, the most important being those of the Crimea, Astrakhan, and Kazan. The last surviving remnant of the Golden Horde was destroyed by the Crimean Khan in 1502.
Batu
▪ Mongol ruler
died c. 1255, , Russia
grandson of Genghis Khan and founder of the Khanate of Kipchak, or the Golden Horde.
In 1235 Batu was elected commander in chief of the western part of the Mongol empire and was given responsibility for the invasion of Europe. By 1240 he had conquered all of Russia. In the campaign in central Europe, one Mongol army defeated Henry II, Duke of Silesia (now in Poland), on April 9, 1241; another army led by Batu himself defeated the Hungarians two days later.
With Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, and the Danube valley under his control, Batu was poised for the invasion of western Europe when he received news of the death of the head of the Mongol empire, the great khan Ögödei (December 1241). In order to participate in the choice of a successor, Batu withdrew his army, saving Europe from probable devastation. He established the state of the Golden Horde in southern Russia, which was ruled by his successors for the next 200 years. In 1240 Batu's army sacked and burned Kiev, then the major city in Russia. Under the Golden Horde, the centre of Russian national life gradually moved from Kiev to Moscow.
Alexander Nevsky, Saint
▪ prince of Russia
Russian Aleksandr Nevsky, original name Aleksandr Yaroslavich
born c. 1220, , Vladimir, Grand Principality of Vladimir
died Nov. 14, 1263, Gorodets; canonized in Russian Church 1547; feast days November 23, August 30
prince of Novgorod (1236–52) and of Kiev (1246–52) and grand prince of Vladimir (1252–63), who halted the eastward drive of the Germans and Swedes but collaborated with the Mongols in imposing their rule on Russia. By defeating a Swedish invasion force at the confluence of the Rivers Izhora and Neva (1240), he won the name Nevsky, “of the Neva.”
Alexander was the son of Yaroslav II Vsevolodovich, grand prince of Vladimir, the foremost among the Russian rulers. In 1236 Alexander was elected prince—a figure who functioned as little more than military commander—of the city of Novgorod. In 1239 he married the daughter of the Prince of Polotsk.
When in 1240 the Swedes invaded Russia to punish the Novgorodians for encroaching on Finnish tribes and to bar Russia's access to the sea, Alexander defeated the Swedes at the confluence of the Rivers Izhora and Neva. His standing enhanced by his victory, he apparently began to intervene in the affairs of the city and was expelled a few months later.