Pechenegs

in AnatoliaArtuqid dynastySaltuqid dynastyin AzerbaijanAhmadili dynastyIldenizid dynastyin BengalKhalji dynastyBalban dynastyin EgyptTulunid dynastyIkhshidid dynastyin FarsSalghurid dynastyin The LevantBurid dynastyZengid dynastyThe Pechenegs or Patzinaks were a semi-nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia speaking the Pecheneg language which belonged to the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family.Originally, the Pechenegs had their dwelling on the river Atil (Volga), and likewise on the river Geïch, having common frontiers with the Chazars and the so-called Uzes. But fifty years ago the so-called Uzes made common cause with the Chazars and joined battle with the Pechenegs and prevailed over them and expelled them from their country, which the so-called Uzes have occupied till this day. At the time when the Pechenegs were expelled from their country, some of them of their own will and personal decision stayed behind there and united with the so-called Uzes, and even to this day they live among them, and wear such distinguishing marks as separate them off and betray their origin and how it came about that they were split off from their own folk: for their tunics are short, reaching to the knee, and their sleeves are cut off at the shoulder, whereby, you see, they indicate that they have been cut off from their own folk and those of their race.The whole of Patzinakia is divided into eight provinces with the same number of great princes. The provinces are these: the name of the first province is Irtim; of the second, Tzour; of the third, Gyla; of the fourth, Koulpeï; of the fifth, Charaboï; of the sixth, Talmat; of the seventh, Chopon; of the eighth, Tzopon. At the time at which the Pechenegs were expelled from their country, their princes were, in the province of Irtim, Baïtzas; in Tzour, Kouel; in Gyla, Kourkoutai; in Koulpeï, Ipaos; in Charaboï, Kaïdoum; in the province of Talmat, Kostas; in Chopon, Giazis; in the province of Tzopon, Batas. The Pechenegs or Patzinaks were a semi-nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia speaking the Pecheneg language which belonged to the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family. The Pechenegs were mentioned as Bjnak, Bjanak or Bajanak in medieval Arabic and Persian texts, as Be-ča-nag in Classical Tibetan documents, as Pačanak-i in works written in Georgian. Anna Komnene and other Byzantine authors referred to them as Patzinakoi or Patzinakitai. In medieval Latin texts, the Pechenegs were referred to as Pizenaci, Bisseni or Bessi. East Slavic peoples use the terms Pečenegi or Pečenezi, while the Poles mention them as Pieczyngowie or Piecinigi. The Hungarian word for Pecheneg is besenyő; the Romanian term is 'Pecenegi' The ethnonym may have derived from the Old Turkic word for 'brother-in-law” (baja, baja-naq or bajinaq), implying that it initially referred to an 'in-law related clan or tribe'.. Pechenegs are mentioned as one of 24 ancient tribes of Oghuzes by 14th century statesman and historian of Ilkhanate-ruled Iran Rashid-al-Din Hamadani in his work Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh ('Compendium of Chronicles') with the meaning of the ethnonym as 'the one who shows eagerness'. 17th century Khan of Khanate of Khiva and historian Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur mentions the pechenegs as bechene among 24 ancient tribes of Turkmens (or Oghuzes) in his book Shajare-i Tarakime (“Genealogy of the Turkmen') and provides for its meaning as 'the one who makes'. Three of the eight Pecheneg 'provinces' or clans were collectively known as Kangars. According to Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, the Kangars received this denomination because 'they are more valiant and noble than the rest' of the people 'and that is what the title Kangar signifies'. For no Turkic word with similar meaning is known, Ármin Vámbéry connected the ethnonym to the Kirghiz words kangir ('agile'), kangirmak ('to go out riding') and kani-kara ('black-blooded'), while Carlile Aylmer Macartney associated it with the Chagatai word gang ('chariot'). Omeljan Pritsak proposed that the name had initially been a composite term (Kängär As) deriving from the Tocharian word for stone (kank) and the Iranian ethnonym As. If the latter assumption is valid, the Kangars' ethnonym suggests that Iranian elements contributed to the formation of the Pecheneg people. Mahmud al-Kashgari, an 11th-century man of letters specialized in Turkic dialects argued that the language spoken by the Pechenegs was a variant of the Cuman and Oghuz idioms. He suggested that foreign influences on the Pechenegs gave rise to phonetical differences between their tongue and the idiom spoken by other Turkic peoples. Anna Komnene likewise stated that the Pechenegs and the Cumans shared a common language. Although the Pecheneg language itself died out centuries ago, the names of the Pecheneg 'provinces' recorded by Constantine Porphyrogenitus prove that the Pechenegs spoke a Turkic language. The Huns, Khazars and Pechenegs are thought to have belonged to the same proto-Turkic group of languages as the modern Chuvash language (Oghur dialects). Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos lists eight Pecheneg tribal groupings, four on each side of the Dnieper river, reflecting the bipartite left-right Turkic organization. These eight tribes were in turn divided into 40 sub-tribes, probably clans. Constantine VI also records the names of eight former tribal leaders who'd been leading the Pechenegs when they were expelled by the Khazars and Oghuzes. Golden, following Németh and Ligeti, proposes that each tribal name consists of two parts: the first part being an equine coat color, the other the tribal ruler's title. The first three tribes in the list below formed the Qangar/Kenger (Greek: Καγγαρ) and were deemed 'more valiant and noble than the rest'. Paul Pelliot originated the proposal that the Book of Sui—a 7th-century Chinese work—preserved the earliest record on the Pechenegs. The book mentioned the Pei-ju people who had settled near the En-ch'u and A-lan peoples (identified as Onogurs and Alans, respectively), to the east of Fu-lin (or the Eastern Roman Empire). Victor Spinei emphasizes that the Pechenegs' association with the Pei-ju is 'uncertain'. He proposes that an 8th-century Uighur envoy's report, which survives in Tibetan translation, contains the first certain reference to the Pechenegs. The report recorded an armed conflict between the Be-ča-nag and the Hor (or Ouze) peoples in the region of the river Syr Darya. Ibn Khordadbeh (c. 820 – 912 CE), Mahmud al-Kashgari (11th century), Muhammad al-Idrisi (1100–1165), and many other Muslim scholars agree that the Pechenegs belonged to the Turkic peoples. The Russian Primary Chronicle stated that the 'Torkmens, Pechenegs, Torks, and Polovcians' descended from 'the godless sons of Ishmael, who had been sent as a chastisement to the Christians'. Omeljan Pritsak says that the Pechenegs' homeland was located between the Aral Sea and the middle course of the Syr Darya, along the important trade routes connecting Central Asia with Eastern Europe. The Orkhon inscriptions listed the Kangars among the subject peoples of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate. The Turkic Khaganate collapsed in 744 which gave rise to a series of intertribal confrontations in the Eurasian steppes. The Karluks attacked the Oghuz Turks, forcing them to launch a westward migration towards the Pechenegs' lands. The Uighur envoy's report testifies that the Oghuz and Pecheneg waged war against each other already in the 8th century, most probably for the control of the trade routes. The Oghuz made an alliance with the Karluks and Kimaks and defeated the Pechenegs and their allies in a battle near the Lake Aral before 850, according to the 10th-century scholar, Al-Masudi. Most Pechenegs launched a new migration towards the Volga River, but some groups were forced to join the Oghuz. The latter formed the 19th tribe of the Oghuz tribal federation in the 11th century.