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The Goths were a Germanic people who descended on Southern Europe. They had a complicated relationship with the Roman Empire. Goths and Romans fought each other many times, but a great number of Goths served in the emperor’s legions as well.

In the end, the Goths played a significant role in the downfall of the Empire in Western Europe. As such, they had a profound impact on the transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages.

This is a short intro from our Medieval Guidebook. Dive deeper into the subject by reading our articles about it.

An ancient stone circle in Poland, associated with the Goths. [photo by Maria Golińska]

The Goths first appeared in history in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. At the time, Roman writers mention them as living near the Vistula river – in present-day Poland. In the following centuries, they moved southeast, towards the Black Sea, where they came into contact with the Roman Empire.

The riches of Rome were tempting. Before long, the Goths took to raiding and plundering the Empire’s wealth. In 238 CE they sacked their first city. By 251 they had already killed a Roman emperor in battle. Famed for their martial skills, Goths were nonetheless recruited heavily into the Roman legions.

By the end of the 4th century, the Gothic tribes came under attack from the east. A nomadic people, the Huns, rushed across the Eurasian Steppe and invaded Europe. They subjugated many Gothic tribes on their way. Other Goths fled across the Roman border in search of safety. Always on the lookout for fresh recruits, the Roman emperors welcomed them warmly.

The Goths migrated from their settlements near the Vistula river (red area) to the western end of the Eurasian Steppe in current-day Ukraine, Romania and Moldavia (orange area). There, they cultivated a sometimes hostile, sometimes cooperative relationship with the Roman Empire (purple area). Ancient authors thought the Goths originally came from Götaland (green) and Gotland (pink). Modern historians have disputed this claim. [map by Wikimedia user Wiglaf] The Sack of Rome, depicted by J-N. Sylvestre [1890]

Once inside the Empire, the Goths were often treated quite badly by their Roman masters. When they rebelled against these conditions, it quickly proved dangerous to have let so many armed “barbarians” in. A great battle followed in 378, the outcome of which shocked the Roman world: the Goths killed another emperor and most of his army. An uneasy truce was concluded that lasted for one generation.

Then, in 408, Roman legions retaliated and massacred a great number of Gothic citizens. Rising in revolt once more, the Goths took to the field under the leadership of Alaric. He had earlier sought Roman recognition of his kingship, but the emperor had rebuffed him. Now, with the atrocious murder of his people, king Alaric had the perfect pretext to strike back.

The Goths marched to Rome and besieged the capital. The emperor promised to buy them off, then didn’t follow through. Further enraged by the double-dealing Romans, Alaric’s army stormed the city and plundered it for three days straight. The wealth of centuries was carried off. The Eternal City had fallen.

Once again, the Goths shook the Roman world to its very core.

“The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken.”

—Contemporary St. Jerome on the Sack of Rome

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The Goths inside the Empire were called Visigoths, meaning “Good” Goths. Despite sacking their ancient capital, they helped the Romans a lot – typical for their difficult relations with the emperor. After the incidents in Italy, the Visigoths moved to Gallia province – roughly modern France. There, they assisted the Roman legions in an epoch-turning battle that marked the beginning of the end of the Hunnic Empire.

Thereafter, the Visigoths had to deal with a second wave of “barbarians” as the Franks swept them out of most of Gallia. Subsequently, they crossed the Pyrenees mountains and entered Hispania province – contemporary Spain and Portugal. There, they established the great Visigothic Kingdom. For a while, it was the most powerful state in Western Europe. It met its end at the hands of a muslim army that crossed over from Northern Africa, inspired by their new religion.

The Visigoths settled in Spain and Southern France. The Ostrogoths tried to found a new kingdom in Italy. [map by Howard Wiseman]

The Goths that had remained outside the Roman Empire, were called Ostrogoths – meaning “Eastern” Goths. They had been subjugated by the invading Huns. When Hunnic rule collapsed, the Ostrogoths broke free. As the Visigoths had settled in the west, it was now the Ostrogoths’ turn to invade Italy. There, they overran Odoacer, a warlord who had earlier deposed the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire.

The Ostrogothic Kingdom that was founded afterward soon came into conflict with the Eastern Roman Empire. Determined to reconquer the west, the Eastern Romans ignited an epic clash of cultures on the Italian peninsula that lasted for nearly twenty years. The struggle exhausted both parties immensely. Consequently, the Ostrogoths were also overwhelmed by “second-wave barbarians” as the Lombards swept into Italy.

By then, the Early Middle Ages were well underway – an era which the Goths greatly helped come about by the Sack of Rome.

As much as they fought each other, most Goths wanted to become Romans. Especially the Visigoths rapidly romanized, latinized and christianized. The Visigothic king converted to Catholicism, which is depicted here. [painting from 1888]

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Featured Image Credit: Gambargin (deviantART)

Grab a short intro on another civilization from our Medieval Guidebook.

The Magyars, by now better known as Hungarians, were in many ways one of a kind. Originally steppe people from Siberia, they condensed into a firm kingdom near the heart of Europe. There, they acted as both buffer between and bridge to the major medieval power blocks back then:

• the Catholic states of the largely Germanic Holy Roman Empire to the west and the Slavic Kingdom of Poland to the north;
• the Orthodox Byzantine Empire to the south-southeast;
• and the initially pagan Lithuanians and Rus’ principalities to the east.

The Magyars thus surrounded themselves with both opportunities and threats by striking so deep into the continental interior. On account of their Asiatic roots, all their neighbors were also culturally as well as linguistically unrelated to the Magyar people. Their adopted home in the Pannonian Basin (where they still live), proved to be a bulwark to their uniqueness but was simultaneously a focal point of hostile military expeditions.

The Magyars probably came from forests west of the Ural Mountains in modern Russia, according to linguists and archeologists. There, they separated from peoples who would eventually settle Finland and Estonia about two millennia ago. These Finno-Ugric roots, as their language family is called, set the Magyars apart: they were neither Slavs nor Huns. Apparently, the Magyars then roamed southwards until they settled in the steppes between the Black and Caspian seas. They spent centuries in these seemingly unending plains.

Map of the spread of the Finno-Ugric language family, also called Uralic – named after the Ural Mountains. Through this “heritage”, the Magyars (Hungarians) are related to the Finnish, Estonians, and so on. On the other hand, this also meant that the Magyars were unrelated – and therefore often hostile – to medieval neighbors: Germanic, Slavic, Hunnic, Turkic and Greek (Byzantine) people.

On the eastern flanks of this Pontic-Caspian steppe, Turkic confederations expanded their influence and thus made enemies. The Magyars fought hard against them but also incorporated many Turkic features, such as their social organization and many words and terms referring to equestrian and military activities. Nevertheless, the Turkic pressure eventually became to much to bear and the Magyars moved west.

They relocated directly east of the Carpathian Mountains, in present-day Western Ukraine. To strengthen their steppe distinctiveness, the Magyars incorporated a tribe from the equally nomadic Khazar confederation. In the meantime, they directed their military attention to the Byzantine Empire and the Rus’ principalities. The Magyars spent the better part of the 9th century CE harassing both. But the Turks were still chasing the Magyar’s tail.

Map of the Magyar migration: from the Ural Mountains to the Pannonian (or Carpathian) Basin over the course of several millennia. [by Wikimedia user Fakirbakir]

The Turkic Pechenegs swept all the way through the Pontic-Caspian steppe, driving the Magyars west once more. They made contact with Western Europe, where they were first mentioned in writing in 862. By the end of the 9th century, the Magyar migration had taken on the form of a full invasion. With the Turks hot on their heels, the Magyars made quick work of conquering the Pannonian Basin. They subdued the Slavic peoples living there and expelled to the east the Wallachians.

On the vast Pannonian plain, the Magyars could exploit their steppe tactics. The landscape was suited to their style of warfare. Additionally, the Carpathian mountain range to the east shielded them from attacks by other steppe people. After a flight of centuries, the Magyars were finally safe from Turkic assaults. However, having injected themselves into the heart of Europe, they now had to make do with all kinds of new neighbors.

Having maneuvered themselves into Europe, the Magyars (Hungary) ran into all sorts of new enemies. [map by Wikimedia user Slovenski Volk]

The powers surrounding the Magyars were not universally friendly to them, not in the least because the invaders had spared no church or monastery during their conquest. Before long, the Magyars were warring against German principalities to their west, the Kingdom of Moravia in the north, and the Byzantine sphere of influence to their south. The hit-and-run style of combat that the Magyars brought with them from the steppe was initially devastating. But as the 10th century progressed, the European nobility learned how to fight against the lightly armored Magyar horsemen. In 955, the king of Germany – future emperor Otto I – annihilated the eastern invaders by relying on heavy cavalry.

Afterward, Magyar raids declined substantially.

15th-century illustration of the Battle of Lechfeld, where German heavy cavalry defeated the lightly equipped Magyars.

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The Magyars have always been “Hungarians”. In fact, to this very day, the Hungarians call themselves Magyar – the terms are interchangeable. The naming issues related to this civilization caused confusion in the Middle Ages, too. The Byzantines and muslims simply called them Turks or even “Dacians”. The Slavs called them “Ongri”, of which the ultimately popular term Hungarians is a derivative.

Naming issues aside, the Magyars left a deep imprint on European medieval history. They became Catholic in the year 1000, when they also founded the Kingdom of Hungary. It would last nearly a millennium. The Kings of Hungary kept fighting the Holy Roman Emperor. They also expanded their influence into Croatia.

During the High Middle Ages, not even the Carpathians could prevent the nightmare of the Hungarians from continuing. Once again, they were attacked by steppe people from the east. First, the Cumans invaded; then the Mongols rushed west. The Hungarian king even invited Teutonic Knights to protect his eastern border, but it was to no avail: the Mongols duly destroyed the Hungarian army. Fortunately for the Magyars, the Mongol menace disappeared as soon as it had arrived.

This allowed the Kingdom of Hungary to crawl back up during the Late Middle Ages.

Another 15th-century image, this time of the Mongol invasion of Hungary. Even in the Pannonian Basin, the Magyars weren’t safe from eastern attack. However, Hungary was beaten but not subjugated as the Mongols didn’t stay for long.

Signifying their transition from exotic invaders to full participants of European power politics, the Hungarians became ensnared in dynastic struggles. The French House of Anjou laid claim to the title King of Hungary. Through a civil war, it managed to drive out the native Hungarian dynasty. To complicate matters, the Angevin kings also controlled the Polish crown for a while and intermarried with the Holy Roman Emperor’s family. When Hungarian king Louis of Anjou died in 1382, his son-in-law – the emperor – succeeded him.

A Black Army knight. [contemporary illustration]

In 1458, the Hungarians had enough of this foreign “occupation” and installed the native Matthias Corvinus on the throne. Inspired by the writings of Julius Caesar himself, he built a professional standing army. On account of its attire, it was called the Black Army. It was far larger than the army of France, the only other permanent military force in Europe at the time. With his Black Army, Matthias Corvinus scored great victories against the Turks, who had just conquered the Byzantine capital and seemed intent on reigniting their epochal struggle with the Magyars.

At the Battle of Breadfield, in current-day Romania, the Hungarians inflicted a stinging defeat on the Ottomans. With his death in 1490, however, the Hungarian war effort fell apart. At Mohács, in 1526, the Ottoman sultan had his revenge: he annihilated the Hungarians and their king drowned in a creek during the escape. Central authority collapsed after that, as Hungary was ground down between the imperial ambitions of the Ottomans and the Holy Roman Emperor throughout the Early Modern Era.

As if fated to fight one another, Magyars and Turks clashed again during the Battle of Breadfield. The Black Army was victorious and halted the Ottoman advance into Europe – for a while. [19th-century painting by E. Gurk]

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Grab a short intro on another civilization from our Medieval Guidebook.

Olga of Kiev ruled the Rus’ – a medieval people in Ukraine related to the Vikings – for over 15 years. She is primarily known for her christianizing influence on the Rus’ lands during her later years in power. But the start of her regency is just as compelling a story.

She became leader of the Rus’ because her husband, the grand prince, was atrociously killed by the Drevlian tribe while their son was still an infant. Obsessed with revenge, Olga’s early reign was consumed by a systemic and ruthless payback campaign against the Drevlians.

Grab a short intro to Kievan Rus’ from our Medieval Guidebook.

The area that would later become Ukraine was under frequent attack during the 9th and 10th centuries CE. With the Viking Age in full swing, Scandinavian raiders known as Varangians came sailing down the Dnieper river. At first, they only came to trade. But it only took a couple of decades for these mercantile expeditions to grow into aggressive invasions. The Vikings turned on the local Slav population.

By 882, the Varangians had seized Kiev (Kyiv). Their leader proclaimed himself Grand Prince of Kiev and started carving out an empire in Eastern Europe. The state he founded and expanded is called the Kievan Rus’ state – to distinguish it from Russia, which is a much younger country, tracing its stately roots back to the 13th century CE at the earliest.

A meeting between Varangian Vikings (left) and Slavs (right). The former conquered many of the latter during the 9th and 10th centuries CE. [early 20th-century painting by V.M. Vasnetsov]

One of the local tribes, the Drevlians, was among the Slavs subjugated by the Rus’. They even fought for their new overlords, going as far as conducting war against the mighty Byzantine Empire for them. But when the Rus’ grand prince died in 912, the Drevlians stopped cooperating and halted their tribute payments to Kiev.

The new Rus’ grand prince was Olga’s husband, Igor. He spent much of his reign fighting the superpowers of his time. Igor launched another Kievan Rus’ attack against the Byzantines, twice reaching their capital Constantinople but failing to besiege it successfully. Later, he plundered territories of the Abbasid Caliphate around the Caspian Sea. Finally, by 945, he deemed the time was right to settle internal matters: he attacked the Drevlians to extract new tribute payments from them.

Confronted by Igor’s much larger army, the Drevlians gave in. They agreed to resume tribute payments to the Rus’. On the way home, however, Igor felt unsatisfied. He thought there was more to extort from this tribe and turned back to increase his demands, this time accompanied by only a small retinue. The Drevlians were enraged by his oppressive commands and – now unimpressed by his small following – overwhelmed and promptly murdered him in a gruesome manner:

“They had bent down two birch trees to the prince’s feet and tied them to his legs; then they let the trees straighten again, thus tearing the prince’s body apart.”

— Byzantine historian and chronicler Leo the Deacon (10th century CE)

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The son and successor of Igor, Sviatoslav, was only three years old at the time. In need of new leadership, his mother Olga ruled the Kievan Rus’ in his stead, as a regent. She would lead the state for 15 years as Grand Princess.

Her first order of business was to take revenge for the killing of her husband. The Drevlians, on the other hand, emboldened by their seemingly successful uprising, added insult to injury. They sent a delegation to Olga, which proposed that she marry the leader of the Drevlians, prince Mal.

The Drevlians thus hoped to accomplish two things:

1. to prevent a retaliatory counter-strike by Kiev through a marriage alliance;
2. and to improve their status within the Rus’ state, achieving equality with the Varangians rather than remaining their subjects.

Olga, sensing an opportunity, responded to the embassy:

“Your proposal is pleasing to me, indeed, my husband cannot rise again from the dead. But I desire to honor you tomorrow in the presence of my people. Return now to your boat, (…) I shall send for you on the morrow, and you shall say, ‘We will not ride on horses nor go on foot, carry us in our boat.’ And you shall be carried in your boat.”

— Grand Princess Olga’s response to the Drevlian emissaries

On the morrow, Olga met the messengers near the river, as promised. When they repeated the words she had instructed them to speak, the people of Kiev grabbed the Drevlian boats and – with the ambassadors in them – carried them over their heads. As they were paraded across the Rus’ capital, the Drevlians thought Olga was paying them a great honor. That is, until the procession reached her court, where a deep trench had been dug overnight. The Rus’ unceremoniously tipped over the boats, threw their enemies in the ditch, and buried them alive.

While they were being covered with earth and stone, Olga asked them whether “they found the honor to their taste”.

Grand Prince Igor extracts tribute from the Drevlians. His greed became his downfall, inadvertently landing his wife Olga on the Rus’ throne. [early 20th-century painting by K. Lebedev]

Immediately, the grand princess took the next step of her vengeful plan. She sent a message to prince Mal, who was still in the Drevlian homeland. Olga asked him to send his “[most] distinguished men to her in Kiev, so that she might go to their Prince with due honor” to marry Mal.

Unaware of the fate of the first party, prince Mal was elated by Olga’s positive response. He gathered his best men and sent them to the Rus’ capital. When they arrived, the grand princess ordered her people to draw their visitors a nice, hot bath. She asked the Drevlian men to meet her after they had bathed. Weary from the long journey, the emissaries eagerly entered the bathhouse.

Olga now played her next trick. She had her people set fire to the building, starting with the doorways. The ambassadors were burned alive inside.

Olga (to the right) setting fire to the bathhouse containing the Drevlian messengers (to the left). [15th-century image]

Upping the ante, Olga now sent another message to the Drevlian homeland. She ordered prince Mal to “prepare great quantities of mead in the city where you killed my husband, that I may weep over his grave and hold a funeral feast for him.” Olga then finally traveled to Korosten, the capital of the Drevlians.

Prince Mal probably found it pretty suspicious that both his diplomatic parties had not returned. But unwilling to spurn his future wife, he duly threw a funeral feast for her when she arrived. The Drevlians thirsted after all the mead they had gathered and soon engaged in heavy drinking. Olga and her followers played along but went easy on the booze. When all the attending Drevlians were drunk as a lord, the grand princess ordered her relatively sober retinue to kill their hosts, egging them on to avenge the murder of Igor.

It was a downright massacre.

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One could be forgiven for thinking that, by now, the debt of the Drevlians had been paid. But not in the eyes of Olga of Kiev. She returned home and gathered an army posthaste to crush whatever was left of the Drevlian tribe.

The war began extremely favorably for the Kievan Rus’. They won several battles and drove the Drevlians into their cities. However, that’s when problems started to appear for Olga: Korosten in particular withstood her siege for over a year.

Never known to lack creativity, Olga sent the city’s inhabitants another message:

“Why do you persist in holding out? All your cities have surrendered to me and submitted to tribute, so that the inhabitants now cultivate their fields and their lands in peace. But you had rather die of hunger, without submitting to tribute.”

— Olga’s missive to Korosten, the Drevlian capital

The people of Korosten responded that they were willing to pay tribute again, but – not without cause – added that they were afraid that Olga was still intent on taking revenge for her husband’s death. Trying to assuage their fears, Olga answered that the slaughter of the two embassies and the events of the funeral feast were enough for her. She added a seemingly small request: “Give me three pigeons and three sparrows from each house.” The besieged Drevlians, delighted that the grand princess showed her merciful side, did as she asked and sent her the birds.

Olga (to the left) overseeing the Siege of Korosten. [image from the 15th-century Radziwiłł Chronicle]

Inside the city, people were already celebrating the end of the war – and for such a small price at that! But in her camp next to the city, Olga ordered her soldiers to attach sulfur and a piece of cloth to the birds’ feet. At night, they set the cloth on fire and released the birds, who duly flew back to their nests in town. A swarm of burning birds came down on Korosten, which mostly contained wooden buildings. Within moments, the city was ablaze.

As one source put it:

“There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was impossible to extinguish the flames, because all the houses caught fire at once.”

— The Primary Chronicle, a 12th-century compilation of Kievan Rus’ history

As the Drevlians fled their burning capital, Olga had thousands of them slaughtered. Others she gave as slaves to her followers. Whoever remained was left to pay tribute to the Rus’ once more.

Although the repression of the Drevlian uprising may paint a picture of Olga as a vindictive widow, her historical reputation is altogether different. She spent her later years strengthening and centralizing the young Rus’ state. Significantly, she transferred power to her son Sviatoslav when he reached maturity, continuing Igor’s dynasty.

But what really established Olga’s positive image for ages to come were her religious endeavors. Whilst visiting Constantinople – the Byzantine capital – in the 950s, she converted to Christianity. And she did much to spread her new religion to the Kievan Rus’.

The usual way to depict Olga of Kiev: as a devout saint. Her crackdown on the Drevlians, however, tells a completely different story indeed. [1892 painting by M. Nesterov]

They were at first downright hostile to the idea. Her son Sviatoslav even refused to be baptized. But Olga carried on regardless and had several churches constructed throughout the Rus’ lands.

Most of her subjects nevertheless remained pagan while she lived. But, after she passed away, Olga’s mission turned out to be a great success. Twenty years after her death, her grandson Grand Prince Vladimir the Great famously converted to Christianity.

Because of her proselytizing influence, Olga of Kiev is venerated as a saint in both the Roman Catholic Church as well as the Russian Orthodox Church. The latter even honorifically calls her “Equal to the Apostles”. But the vicious slaughter of most of the Drevlian tribe during her early regency probably makes Olga the most genocidal saint who ever lived.

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Many civilizations and empires rose and fell during the Middle Ages. Explore them all here.

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Our Medieval Guidebook offers short intros to a lot of subjects.
Dive deeper into the Middle Ages by reading our in-depth articles.

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The Middle Ages saw the rise and fall of many civilizations. Medieval people organized themselves in states ranging from simple clans and small city-states to vast, expansive empires and sprawling steppe confederations.

Alphabetically sorted, explore Western Eurasian medieval civilizations and empires using the links below.

The Anglo-Saxons migrated to Roman Britain. They fought the Celts, the Vikings, and the Normans – but above all else, they fought each other.

The Burgundians settled in the heart of Western Europe. They played a pivotal role between Franks, Goths, French and the emperor.

The English were one of the prime powers of the European Middle Ages but had to fight tooth and nail to retain that position.

The Franks created the largest European state of the Early Middle Ages. They had a profound impact on Western civilization.

The French rose to prominence during the High and Late Middle Ages through many long, devastating but – ultimately – mostly successful wars.

The Goths grew into a major threat to the Roman Empire. They played a significant role in the transition to the Middle Ages.

The Empire was simultaneously Europe’s most extensive, complex and fragmented state – mighty and weak at the same time.

Italy was invaded many times over during the Middle Ages. It nonetheless managed to remain a cornerstone of European history throughout.

The Leónese were the primary power of christian Spain for centuries. León initially led the Reconquista, but fought fellow christians just as fervently.

The Magyars invaded Europe from the east but – contrary to many others that did so – they stayed. We know them today by the name of Hungarians.

True to their Viking spirit, Normans established wealthy and influential realms in England, Sicily, the Levant, and naturally, Normandy.

Saxons left a deep imprint on early medieval Germany – mainly by fighting Franks and founding the Holy Roman Empire.

Vikings sailed from Persia to America and from Iceland to Sicily. They raided and traded all throughout the known world.

Alphabetically sorted, explore Central Eurasian medieval civilizations and empires using the links below.

The Byzantines were an economic, military and cultural powerhouse. Their empire survived for over a thousand years.

The empire of Islam, called “the Caliphate”, was a major medieval power. Its military and its science made it the center of the known world.

The Cumans built a confederation with the Qipchaqs that dominated the Eurasian Steppe. The Mongols eventually swept them into Hungary and Bulgaria.

The Khazars built a wealthy empire on the Eurasian steppe. But their balancing act between Christianity and Islam ultimately proved too challenging.

The Persians were overrun by the Caliphate but then transformed Islam from the inside, leading the way in science, philosophy and art.

The Rus’ were the Eastern Viking success story — what began as an ambitious enterprise culminated in the creation of an European great power.

The Seljuqs hailed from Central Asia. They stormed into the Middle East and overran Persia, Syria, the Levant, and Anatolia in the process.

Timur tried to restore the Mongol Empire to its former glory. So his followers – the Timurids – built one of the last semi-nomadic empires in Asia.

Alphabetically sorted, explore Eastern Eurasian medieval civilizations and empires using the links below.

The Chinese were around for the entire Middle Ages. Four mighty dynasties managed to unite the country into a medieval Asian great power.

The Indians were divided throughout the Middle Ages but this didn’t matter. Their economy was so abundant that were was enough wealth to go around.

Factions frequently threatened the Korean state, but when army and administration managed to cooperate, the Koreans soared to great heights.

The Mongols conquered most of the medieval world. They formed the largest land empire the world has ever seen.

Wedged in between the Chinese, the Khmer, and the Champa, the Vietnamese fought for centuries to carve out their own state in Southeast Asia.

The Incas built a great empire, stretching from Colombia to Argentina – all without using the wheel, steel, or writing.

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The Cumans lived in an area stretching from Romania, Hungary and Moldavia in Eastern Europe to Mongolia in Inner Asia. This was a steppe area, flat and devoid of major mountain ranges. Horses were therefore central to the Cuman culture.

Over time, the Cumans fused with the famous Turkic tribe of the Qipchaqs. The confederation that they created thus had many Asian-looking inhabitants, but the Cumans themselves were famed for being blond, blue-eyed and fair-skinned.

The Mongols eventually scattered them to the wind. Many Cumans fled into Eastern Europe and settled there, whilst others seized power in Egypt.

Evidently, as with most nomadic peoples, the Cuman story was a tale of travels.

This is a short intro from our Medieval Guidebook. Dive deeper into the subject by reading our articles about it.

The Cumans-Qipchaqs enjoyed a nomadic lifestyle, moving their herds from one pasture to another – wherever the grass was greenest. They thus moved all the way up and down the Great Eurasian Steppe from the 10th to the 13th century CE. Therefore, the frontiers of their confederation were not as solid as modern, national borders. The Cuman-Qipchaq state was not territorial; rather, wherever they roamed, that’s where their state was. The lack of political unification by a strong central power was exactly why they could “occupy” such vast lands: the realm consisted of loosely connected tribal units that represented a dominant military force, led by khans who acted on their own initiative.

[HD version] – Cumania (in yellow), around 1200 CE. Note that this wasn’t actual “territory” in a modern sense, but roughly the area that they moved around in. [map by Wikimedia user Cumanian]

Cumania was, in fact, a loose term, used by Western European, Rus’, Byzantine, Islamic, and Chinese chroniclers – all from sedentary civilizations – who never even traversed the area. In practice, Cumania comprehended the Black Sea’s northern shores and anything north of the Jaxartes. Its northern “border” was the dense forestland of present-day Belarus and Russia, which didn’t lend themselves to a pastoralist lifestyle. To the south and west, the Cumans-Qipchaqs ranged as far as Persia, Hungary and the Caucasus Mountains. Consequently, Cuman commercial interests stretched from Central Asia through Crimean harbors to markets as far away as Venice.

The Arab emissary Ahmad ibn Fadlan, who actually traveled to the region, already mentioned the Qipchaqs in the 9th century CE. A few centuries later, Italian merchant Marco Polo equated Cumania with the Pontic-Caspian steppe. But a Berber scholar probably best described the Cuman lands:

“This wilderness is green and grassy with no trees, nor hills, high or low.”

—Ibn Battuta, 14th-century Moroccan scholar

The Cumans conquered, merged, and/or allied with the Turkic Qipchaqs – the details of how this confederation came to be remain elusive. The Qipchaqs (or Kipchaks) were the early inhabitants of eastern Cumania, from the 6th to the 8th century CE. They frequently fought with other Turks – such as the Khazars – and the Persian and Chinese empires. Their martial prowess eventually allowed them to dominate the Kimek Khaganate, which had grown in northern Kazakhstan. The flexibility and fluidity of steppe politics subsequently caused them to mix and mingle with the Cumans.

[HD version] – A modern map of the spread of Qipchaq, a branch of the Turkic language family. [by Wikimedia user GalaxMaps]

Whereas the Qipchaq inhabitants of the Cuman confederation would have looked rather Inner Asian on account of their Turkic heritage, the Cumans were different. Cuman people were reported to have mostly blond hair, pale skin and blue eyes. In Slavic languages, they are called Polovtsians, or Polovtsy – meaning “blond”. Germanic speakers called them Folban, Vallani, or Valwe – all meaning “pale”, compare “fallow” in English. And Armenians referred to the Cumans as “the Blond Ones”.

Both their physical appearance and the martial prowess stemming from their harsh life on the steppe made Cuman people attractive in the eyes of their contemporaries. As neat as that might sound, this was not always a bonus in the medieval world: Cuman women were often abducted as brides-to-be, and men were enslaved to serve as soldiers (mamluks) in armies as far away as Egypt. The Cumans participated in this behavior just as passionately, though. With the Qipchaqs, they spent many centuries doing what most steppe horsemen do: raiding, pillaging, marauding – essentially racketeering – agrarian settlements.

They even took equipment like mangonels and ballistas with them to besiege walled cities – a practice that was soon copied by other Asian riders who spelled the end of Cumania.

Cumans were world-famous for their horseriding skills. In the Islamic world, many served as slave-soldiers called mamluks. [1836 painting by J. Suchodolski]

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As the Mongols stormed west in the 1220s, they targeted Persia first. But as the Persian shah fled across the Caucasus, the Mongols chased him in great number and thus came into conflict with the Cumans. By then, the Cuman-Qipchaq khans had come to an understanding with the Rus’ principalities in the area. Whereas the Cumans had initially fought them over and over again, they now served as cavalry archer mercenaries to many of the Rus’ princes. Now, confronted with the Mongol onslaught, Cumans and Rus’ cooperated and marched east with a force allegedly numbering over 80,000.

Cumans fighting Rus’. They found a common enemy in the Mongols storming west. [from the 13th-century Radziwiłł Chronicle]

Somewhere in modern-day eastern Ukraine, the two armies met. The Mongols showed the Cumans-Qipchaqs who were the better steppe horsemen and killed over half of the allied force – a staggering number. The Cuman confederation imploded straight after. Most of the survivors fled west, into Europe, where they violently forced themselves upon Hungary, Bulgaria and the Balkans. A Byzantine statesman complained that they turned the whole area into a desert.

The Cumans were such a threat to Hungary that the Magyar king invited the Teutonic Knights to watch his eastern border. However, the Teutonic Order grew so powerful in such a short term that, within years, the Hungarians expelled them again. Still on the run for the Mongols, the Cumans quickly resumed migrating towards Hungary. But neither there, nor in Bulgaria, were they safe: the Mongol armies ravaged both countries, killing or enslaving a lot of Cuman refugees. However, after the Mongol threat withdrew around 1250 CE, many Cumans assimilated into a resurgent Magyar society – one woman, Elizabeth ‘the Cuman’, even became Queen of Hungary.

Other Cumans retreated east against their will and were forcibly recruited into the Golden Horde, one of the successor khanates of the Mongol Empire.

The Hungarian king (to the left) giving chase to Cuman cavalry archers in feigned retreat (to the right). [photo of a 14th-century Slovakian mural by Wikimedia user Thaler Tamas]

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