The Image of the Cumans in Medieval Chronicles
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Caroline Gurevich THE IMAGE OF THE CUMANS IN MEDIEVAL CHRONICLES: OLD RUSSIAN AND GEORGIAN SOURCES IN THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES MA Thesis in Medieval Studies CEU eTD Collection Central European University Budapest May 2017 THE IMAGE OF THE CUMANS IN MEDIEVAL CHRONICLES: OLD RUSSIAN AND GEORGIAN SOURCES IN THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES by Caroline Gurevich (Russia) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ Chair, Examination Committee ____________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________________ Examiner ____________________________________________ CEU eTD Collection Examiner Budapest May 2017 THE IMAGE OF THE CUMANS IN MEDIEVAL CHRONICLES: OLD RUSSIAN AND GEORGIAN SOURCES IN THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES by Caroline Gurevich (Russia) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Reader CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2017 THE IMAGE OF THE CUMANS IN MEDIEVAL CHRONICLES: OLD RUSSIAN AND GEORGIAN SOURCES IN THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES by Caroline Gurevich (Russia) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Supervisor CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2017 I, the undersigned, Caroline Gurevich, candidate for the MA degree in Medieval Studies, declare herewith that the present thesis is exclusively my own work, based on my research and only such external information as properly credited in notes and bibliography. I declare that no unidentified and illegitimate use was made of the work of others, and no part of the thesis infringes on any person’s or institution’s copyright. I also declare that no part of the thesis has been submitted in this form to any other institution of higher education for an academic degree. Budapest, 17 May 2017 __________________________ Signature CEU eTD Collection Abstract Being the most numerous and military active people of the Eurasian steppe, the Cumans closely interacted with various medieval societies. In my MA thesis I move away from the historical accounts of the numerous sedentary-nomadic interactions to the consideration of the ways of their representation. Using contextual and comparative analysis of Old Russian and Georgian sources, I examine the perspective of medieval Christian authors who tend to ascribe certain features and behavior to the Cumans thereby creating an image of the Cumans. In my work I make an attempt to understand the main elements of this image and its stability in different periods and different sources. CEU eTD Collection i Acknowledgements First, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the academic community of the Medieval Studies Department at CEU for the incomparable atmosphere of inspiration reigning at this place. My special thanks should be given to my supervisors, Prof. Katalin Szende and Prof. József Laszlovszky, for their patient guidance, encouragement and constructive comments throughout the writing process. I would also like to thank Prof. János Bak and Prof. Felicitas Schmieder for their advice and valuable suggestions at the initial stages of this research. I am particularly grateful to Prof. Anna Litivina and Prof. Fiodor Uspenskij from the Higher School of Economics for their recommendations concerning the Old Russian sources. My thanks are also extended to Sandro Nikolaishvili for his great assistance with the Georgian materials. I would like to express my particular appreciation to Eszter Timár and Zsuzsanna Reed who helped me to articulate my ideas in a correct and clear manner. Finally, I wish to thank my boyfriend, my family and my friends for their endless support and understanding throughout this memorable academic year. CEU eTD Collection ii Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Previous scholarship ................................................................................................................... 4 Research Questions ..................................................................................................................... 8 Primary Sources .......................................................................................................................... 8 Russian Sources ...................................................................................................................... 8 Georgian Sources .................................................................................................................. 11 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 14 Chapter 1 – The Image of the Enemy ....................................................................................... 17 The Image of the Enemy in the Russian Sources ..................................................................... 19 The stable characteristics ...................................................................................................... 20 Rhetorical devices ................................................................................................................. 23 The ideological and religious functions of the image of the enemy ..................................... 28 The Image of the Enemy in the Georgian Sources ................................................................... 30 Prehistory of the Cuman-Georgian interactions ................................................................... 30 King David and the Cumans: connection of the images ....................................................... 34 CEU eTD Collection The allies of the enemy ......................................................................................................... 36 The internal enemies ............................................................................................................. 37 Chapter 2 – The Image of the Ally ............................................................................................ 40 iii The Image of the Ally in the Russian sources .......................................................................... 40 Early contacts and their development (eleventh-twelfth centuries) ...................................... 42 Later interactions .................................................................................................................. 45 The Image of the Ally in the Georgian Sources ....................................................................... 55 The list of Cuman qualities ................................................................................................... 55 Comparison of the Georgian and Old Russian sources ........................................................ 61 Chapter 3 – Visual Images of the Cumans: Comparative Analysis of the Chronicle Miniatures .................................................................................................................................... 65 The medieval miniatures ........................................................................................................... 65 The Cumans in the miniatures of the Radziwiłł Chronicle ....................................................... 67 The similarities of representations ........................................................................................ 69 The distinctions in representations........................................................................................ 75 The Cumans in the miniatures of the Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle .................................. 81 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 87 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 91 CEU eTD Collection iv List of Figures Figure 1 Cuman migration in the Eurasian steppe, 10th -11th centuries.. ...................................... 1 Figure 2 The Mongols and Russia, 1223-1304.. ............................................................................. 3 Figure 3 Rus’ Principalities and Territories in the Early 13 Century. .......................................... 47 Figure 4 The Mongols and Russia, 1223-1304. ............................................................................ 51 Figure 5 Medieval Caucasia.......................................................................................................... 32 Figure6 Ad annum 1093: The Cumans bring the local population to captivity ............................ 71 Figure8 Ad annum 1103: A bearded Cuman warrior is taken as captive ..................................... 71 Figure9 Ad annum 1067: The defeat of the triumvirate of the Russian princes