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