(This site is still under consruction but should soon have short descriptions and background information on our covenants friendly and not so friendly neighbors)
The Cuman
The Bulgars
Bogomilism
Kievan Rus:
Byzantine Empire:
Hungary, Croatia, Serbia:
The Turks and Mongols:
The Hermetic Geography
Historical Maps
(Also known as Kipchaks in the East, Kuns or Comani in the East, Qipchaq in Turkic and Arabic, and Polovtsi in Kiev) Turkic Nomadic tribes racially related to the Pechenegs. Their territories, known as the Dasht-i-Kipchak (the Cuman Steppe) stretched from Urals to the Danube. They spoke a Turkic language and were known to be a strikingly handsome people with blond hair and blue eyes.
The Cuman have never formed a state or even a common alliance of tribes. They were patriarchal and the basic unit of their society was the family, which consists of blood relatives. Related families formed clans, which lived together in movable settlements of heavy felt tents called ‘Cuman towers’ by Rus’ Chroniclers. The tribes were larger social units that were led by khans. Each tribe had it’s own name and was usually distinguished by the territory they controlled; thus the Dnepr Cumans on the banks of the Dnepr Valley and the Don Cumans that lived in the Don Valley. Although they had a few established cities these were by far the exception to the rule.
Animal husbandry was the main occupation of the Cumans. They raised horses, sheep, goats, camels, and cattle. They lived off milk, cheese and animal flesh. In the summer they moved North with their herds; in the winter, South. A few Cumans also engaged in farming and trading and led a semi settled life. The main exports of the Cumans were animals, particularly horses, and animal products. The Cumans also played the role of middlemen in the trade between Byzantium and the East. Several land routes between Europe and the Near East ran through Cuman territories. They kept slaves from defeated tribes and sold many others to the Arabs. Crafts were poorly developed among the Cuman and served only daily needs. Primitive stone figures called stone babas were closely connected with the Cuman cult of Shamanism and ancestor worship. Like other Turkic tribes, the Cuman tolerated all religions; hence, Muslims and Orthodox Christians can be found among them. As a result of their proximity to the Rus’ principalities, the Cuman khans and prominent families began to Slavicize their names. Ukrainian princely families were often connected through marriage with the Cuman khans, and this tended to dampen political conflicts. Sometimes the princes and khans waged joint campaigns as well with the Cumans given looting and pillaging right while the Princes kept the conquered territory. Cuman mercenaries and auxiliaries were common through out the region and were known for their exceptional use of mounted archery, with cycles of attacks followed by feinted retreats before returning in ambushing again.
Images of Cuman Warriors
(From the ‘Encyclopedia of Ukraine’, ‘The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History’, ‘Ars Magica: Ordo Noblis', and 'Kipchak.com')
Our neighbors to the South, originally the Bulgars were a Turkic nomadic group from the Russian steppe. In 681 their khan Asparuch conquered much of the Eastern Balkans forming the Bulgarian Empire. Over the next three centuries a succession of Bulgar boyars (princes) and khans remained the ruling class in the Empire but their nomadic culture was steadily submerged under that of the agricultural Slavic majority over which they ruled. During this period the Empire became a strong force in the Balkans, for a time rivaling the Byzantine Empire to the south but it eventually began to fall into decline during the later half of the 10th century. Rebellious boyars and a new heresy in the form of the Bogomilism (see below) began to weaken central control of the Empire while nomadic invaders from the North, Croats and other Slavs from the East and the rising influence of the Byzantines to the South, threatened its borders. In 1014 the Byzantine Emperor waged a decisive battle against the Bulgarians. With victory the Greeks blinded all of their enemy’s soldiers except for one out of one hundred that were left with one eye intact so they could lead the remainder of the army home in disgrace. The Byzantines annexed Bulgaria just a few years later in 1018. Under the new reign Greeks and other allied foreigners have replaced many of the older boyar families by imperial appointment. Understandably, resentment remains within the ranks of the conquered Bulgarians over the last century.
By now the original Turkic language of the steppe Bulgars has been forgotten and a dialect of Slavic has prevailed that is very similar to that of other Slavic populations in the Balkan Peninsula. Bulgaria was the first Slavic nation to adopt Christianity (between the 8th to 10th Century) and ever since Old Church Bulgarian (or Slavonic) has become the standard for all Orthodox liturgies in the Slavic speaking world. Although they quickly discarded many of their nomadic and pastoral traits for the agricultural ways of the Slavs the Bulgarians still seem to hold a preference for eating curded cheese and meat, wearing untanned leather boots and sheepskin coats and are said to exhibit the reticence, patience and energy of nomads. There are a few larger towns and cities in this land but by far most of the peasantry are serfs bound to boyar (landed aristocrats), royal or monastic estates.
Bogomilism is heretical form of Eastern Orthodox Christianity that emanated from Bulgaria and Bosnia in the 10th century. Its founder, a priest named Bogomil, sought to answer the question of the existence of Good and Evil and more specifically how a good and loving god can be the creator of an obviously imperfect world. He and his followers held a somewhat dualistic doctrine that the power of the Good (God) and Evil (the Devil) both operate in the world and oppose each other. Unlike most true dualists they believed that the power of the Devil was inferior and subject to God. However they did believe that the Devil and not God, created all material things, and hence the material world is evil. Extreme adherents of Bogomilism shunned social contact, were abstemious in diet and even condemned the physical and material sacramentality of the Church. Their doctrine was used to explain the inequities of social scale and wealth but since they believed the world to be wholly evil most withdrew from political life and the espousal of disobedience to civil and religious authority. When the Byzantines took control of Bulgaria the sects influence began to spread throughout the Eastern Empire gaining more members.
Kievan Rus:
Medieval Russian Life a SCA person's website but still filled with lots of good info on medieval Russian culture and history.
Byzantine Empire:
Hungary, Croatia, Serbia:
The Turks and Mongols:
The Hermetic Geography
The Novgorod Tribunal
The Theban Tribunal
The Transylvannian Tribunal
Historical Maps
Europe in 1100 AD
Europe in 1200 AD
Europe in 1160 AD
South Eastern Europe at 1105 AD
South Eastern Europe at 1180 AD
South Eastern Europe at 1210 AD
Balkin's 1018-1183
Balkin's 1183-1241
Euraisa before the Mongol Invasion
Russia at the time of the Mongol Invasion
Cuman Invasions and Holdings
The Muslim world
Central Europe in 1180 AD
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