Kuns

The Kuns or Kuny was also self referred to as Tatar in Codex Cumanicus[1] are a Turkic ethnic group of Eastern Europe, a branch of Cumans that may have originally known in Hungarian as Kunok. Some regions of Hungary inhabited by Kuns namely Kunság and Kiskunság while Kun communities may be found throughout these regions. They were first described, during the Early Middle Ages, as living in Inner Asia and speaking a Turkic language, many of the Kuny later migrated through Russia to Hungary.

Etymology

In Turkic languages qu, qun, qūn, quman or qoman means "pale, sallow, cream coloured", "pale yellow", or "yellowish grey".[2]: 51 [3] Hungarian exonym for Cumans – i.e. Kun, Kunok – appeared as Cunus, Cuni in the chronicles and was applied to earlier nomads such as Pechenegs or Oghuzes, György Györffy derived Kun from Huns, instead of Qun, which he kept separate from Kun. However, István Vásáry rejected Györffy's hypothesis and contended that "the Hungarian name of the Cumans must go back to one of their self-appellations, i.e. to Qun.[4]: 5  In East Slavic languages and Polish, they are known as the Polovtsy, derived from the Slavic root *polvъ "pale; light yellow; blonde".[5][6] In Germanic languages, the Cumans were called Folban, Vallani or Valwe – all derivatives of Proto-Germanic root *falwa- meaning "pale"[7]: 106  (> English "fallow").[8]

Language

Language of the Kuns or Kuman (also called Kipchak, Qypchaq or Polovtsian, self referred to as Tatar (tatar til) in Codex Cumanicus)[1] was a West Kipchak Turkic language spoken by the Cumans in Eastern Europe. The Cuman language is attested in some medieval documents and is the best-known of the early Turkic languages.[9] Until the 14th century, it was a lingua franca over much of the Eurasian steppes.[10][11]

The literary Cuman language became extinct in the early 18th century in the region of Cumania in Hungary, which was its last stronghold. Tradition holds that the last speaker of the Cuman language in Hungary was István Varró, a resident of Karcag (Hungary) who died in 1770. Cuman language in Crimea, however, managed to survive. Cuman language is considered the direct ancestor of the current language of the Crimean Tatars with possible incorporations of the other languages, like Crimean Gothic.[12][13][14] Notably, Karachay-Balkar, and Kumyk are also believed to be direct descendants of Kun language.

One of the most well-documanted inscriptions about language of Kuns is the Codex Cumanicus, which was written by Italian merchants and German missionaries between 1294 and 1356,[15]: 173  was a linguistic manual for the Turkic Cuman language of the Middle Ages, designed to help Catholic missionaries communicate with the Cumans.[16]It is supposed that the Cumans had their own writing system (mentioned by the historian Gyárfás), which could have been a runic script.

The supposition that the Cumans had a runic script is also suggested by the academic Hakan Aydemir, who mentioned a buckle with runic writing from a Cuman grave[17]: 176  There was also some Khazar linguistic influence upon the Cumans – the Cuman words shabat and shabat kun (meaning Saturday) are related to the Hebrew word Shabbat (meaning Sabbath). These Hebrew influences in the language may have resulted from contact or intermarriage between Khazars and some of the Cumans in the mid-11th century.[18][19]

History

At the beginning of the 7th century trekked north of the Gobi Desert. In the 8th and 9th centuries included in Uyghur Khaganate. Migrated to the upper Yenisei, being adjacent to the Kayi. About subsequent events al-Marwazi reports that Kayi pushed Kuns, and those, in turn, the Sari (i.e. Polovtsians or Kipchaks).[20] In the 11th to 13th centuries, the name Kuns occurs in Hungarian and Russian ancient books along with the Cumans, Kipchaks.[21]

Pechenegs and/or Uz. According to one version, the tribe Toksoba referred to various primary sources, was Kuns, and this period corresponded to the Don Polovtsians. There is also a version of that the Russian name of Polovtsians - Sarochins evolved from two roots - Sari and Kuns.[22] The Kuny are distinguished (possibly erroneously) from the Cumans in some Medieval Hungarian and Russian sources and appear alongside them.[23]

Religion

The Kuns practiced the shamanistic religion of Tengrism. Their belief system had animistic and shamanistic elements; they celebrated their ancestors and provided the dead with objects whose lavishness was considered an indicator to the recipient's social rank. Funerals for important members involved firstly creating a mound, then placing the dead inside, along with various items deemed useful in the afterlife, a horse (like the Bulgars), and sometimes a servant or slave.[24]

Kun divination practices used animals, especially the wolf and dog. The dog "It/Kopec" was sacred to them, to the extent that an individual, tribe, or clan would be named after the dog or type of dog. Kuns had shamans who communicated with the spirit world; they were consulted for questions of outcomes.[25] In late of Middle Ages, the Kuns converted to Christianity and Islam.[26] [27]

Descendants of ancient Kuns
Kunság (Cumania) within modern Hungary

Currently Kuns - call themselves part of the Hungarians, erecting their genealogy back to medieval Kuns-Toksoba from the Cuman-Kipchak confederation.[28] Kuns in Hungary mainly live in areas Kunshag Small and Large Kunshag. According to official historiography of Hungary known that Kuns consistently settled Danube - two migrations. The first was in the 11th century,[29] the second - at Köten-Khan in the 13th century.[30]

By a preponderance Cumanian population of the Crimea acquired the name "Tatars", the Islamic religion and Turkic language, and the process of consolidating the multi-ethnic conglomerate of the Peninsula began, which has led to the emergence of the Crimean Tatar people.[31]

Some famous Crimean Tatar historians such as Halil Inalcik and Ilber Ortayli refused to use the term Tatar, Crimean Tatars are direct descendants of Cumans who were settled in Pontic Steppes before the Tatar migration.

Descendants of the Toksoba Kuns live in the South Ural - including members of Bashkirian clans such as the Qipsaq, Nughay-Buryjan and Teleu.[32]

See also

Bibliography
  1. Florin Curta (2007). The Other Europe in the Middle Ages: Avars, Bulgars, Khazars and Cumans. p. 406.
  2. Boĭkova, Elena Vladimirovna; Rybakov, R. B. (2006). Kinship in the Altaic World. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-4470-5416-4.
  3. Khazanov, Anatoly M.; Wink, André, eds. (2001). Nomads in the Sedentary World. Psychology Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-7007-1370-7.
  4. Vásáry, István (2005). Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185–1365. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-5218-3756-9.
  5. Dragosani-Brantingham, Justin (19 October 2011) [1999]. "An Illustrated Introduction to the Kipchak Turks" (PDF). kipchak.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2013-09-30. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  6. Nicolle, David; McBride, Angus (1988). Hungary and the Fall of Eastern Europe 1000–1568. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8504-5833-6. Archived from the original on 8 January 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
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  8. Kroonen, Guus (2013). Etymological dictionary of Proto-Germanic. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series. Vol. II. Brill. pp. 126–127.
  9. Spinei, Victor (2009). The Romanians and the Turkic Nomads North of the Danube Delta from the Tenth to the Mid-Thirteenth Century. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-9004175365. Archived from the original on 2016-12-07. Retrieved 2015-10-19.
  10. Yule and Cordier 1916
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  13. Stearns(1979:39–40).
  14. "Crimean Tatar proper, called the 'central dialect', belonged to the West Kipchak subbranch as a descendant of Kuman." (Lars Johanson, Turkic, Cambridge University Press, 2021, pg. 62)
  15. Kincses-Nagy, Éva (2013). A Disappeared People and a Disappeared Language: The Cumans and the Cuman language of Hungary. Szeged University.
  16. Baldick, Julian (2012). Animal and Shaman: Ancient Religions of Central Asia. I.B. Tauris. p. 53. ISBN 978-1-78076-232-6. Archived from the original on 2016-01-08. Retrieved 2015-10-19.
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  19. Brook, Kevin Alan (2006). The Jews of Khazaria. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 181. ISBN 978-1-4422-0302-0.
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  22. Добродомов И.Г. О половецких этнонимах в древнерусской литературе // Тюркологический сборник. 1975 / АН СССР. Ин-т востоковедения; Отв. ред. А.Н. Кононов. – М.: Наука, 1978. – С. 102–129.
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  25. Linehan, Peter; Nelson, Janet Laughland, eds. (2003). The Medieval World. Routledge Worlds Series. Vol. 10. Routledge. pp. 82–83. ISBN 978-0-415-30234-0.
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  27. WOLF, Robert Lee, “The Latın Empire Of Constantinople 1204-1261”, A History Of The Crusaders, Volume II Later Crusades (1189-1311), General ed. Kenneth M. Setton, ed. By. Robert Lee Wolf and Harry W. Hazard, The Unıversıty Of Wısconsın Press, Madıson, Milwaukee and London, 1969, s. 187-233.
  28. Kunok és Jászok - I. rész
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  32. Муратов Б.А., Суюнов Р.Р. ДНК-генеалогия башкирских родов из сако-динлинской подветви R1a+Z2123//Суюнов Р.Р. Гены наших предков (2-е издание). Том 3, серия «Этногеномика и ДНК-генеалогия», ЭИ Проект «Суюн». Vila do Conde, Lidergraf, 2014, — 250 c., илл., Португалия (Portugal), С.15-77 Archived 2014-09-04 at the Wayback Machine.
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