Cumans

The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsians (Polovtsy) in Rus' chronicles, as "Cumans" in Western sources, and as "Kipchaks" in Eastern sources.

Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari (; 1223/1228 – 30 June 1277), commonly known as Baibars or Baybars () and nicknamed Abu al-Futuh (, ), was the fourth Mamluk sultan of Egypt and Syria, of Turkic Kipchak origin, in the Bahri dynasty, succeeding Qutuz. He was one of the commanders of the Muslim forces that inflicted a defeat on the Seventh Crusade of King Louis IX of France. He also led the vanguard of the Mamluk army at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, which marked the first substantial defeat of the Mongol army that is considered a turning point in history.

The name Cumania originated as the Latin exonym for the Cuman–Kipchak confederation, which was a tribal confederation in the western part of the Eurasian Steppe, between the 10th and 13th centuries. The confederation was dominated by two Turkic nomadic tribes: the Cumans (also known as the Polovtsians or Folban) and the Kipchaks. Cumania was known in Islamic sources as Dasht-i Qipchaq (دشت قپچاق) which means "Steppe of the Kipchaks" or "Kipchak Plains" in Persian, and al-Qumāniyīn (القمانيين) which means "The Cumans" or "The Cuman people" in Arabic. Russian sources have referred to Cumania as

medieval Catholic manual

Hungarian queen consort

Köten (; ; ; 1205–1241) was a Cuman–Kipchak chieftain (khan) and military commander active in the mid-13th century. He forged an important alliance with the Kievan Rus' against the Mongols but was ultimately defeated by them at the Kalka River in 1223. After the Mongol victory, Köten led 40,000 "huts" to Hungary, where he became an ally of the Hungarian king and accepted Catholicism, but was nonetheless assassinated by the Hungarian nobility.

Byzantine general and governor

Bulgarian despot and semi-independent ruler

Boniak, Bonyak or Maniac, also known as Boniak the Mangy (Old Church Slavonic: Бонякъ Шолудивый; ; ), was "one of the most prominent Cuman chieftains" in the late and the early . He headed a powerful Cuman tribe or clan that inhabited the steppes to west of the Dnieper River. He supported the Byzantines against the Pechenegs in the Battle of Levounion in 1091. He defeated Coloman, King of Hungary in 1097 or 1099.

250px|thumb|Little Cumania in the 18th century within the Kingdom of Hungary

polovtsian khan

Aepa (; ) is the name of at least two early 12th-century Cuman (Polovtsi) princes mentioned in Rus' chronicles.

Kunság (; ), later also known as Jászkunság or Jászkun kerület (lit. "Jassic–Cuman District"), is a historical, ethnographic and geographical region in Hungary, corresponding to a former political entity created by and for the Cumans or Kuns. It is currently divided between the counties of Bács-Kiskun and Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok; these correspond roughly to two distinct traditional entities, Little Cumania and Greater Cumania, which are longitudinally separated by the Tisza. Kunság and its subdivisions were first organized by the Kingdom of Hungary to accommodate semi-nomadic Cumans escaping from

250px|thumb|Greater Cumania in the 18th century within the Kingdom of Hungary thumb|250px|Location of present-day Greater Kumania within physical subdivisions of Hungary Nagykunság ("Greater Cumania", ) is a historical and geographical region in Hungary situated in the current Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county between Szolnok and Debrecen. Like other historical European regions called Cumania, it is named for the Cumans, a nomadic tribe of pagan Kipchaks that settled the area. Its territory is 1,196 km2.

Anna, known in Bulgarian historiography as Kumankata (, "the Cuman [woman]") (fl. 1207), was the Empress consort of Bulgaria by marriage to Kaloyan of Bulgaria and Boril of Bulgaria.

The Terter or Terteroba (Bulgarian and ) was a Cuman–Kipchak tribe or clan that took refuge in Hungary and then Bulgaria in the mid-13th century and may have produced the Terter dynasty that eventually ruled Bulgaria.