The Brutakhi were a Jewish polity of uncertain location and origin during the early 13th century.
Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, a 13th-century papal legate to the court of the Mongol Khan Guyuk, gave a list of the nations the Mongols had conquered in his account. One of them, listed among tribes of the Caucasus, Pontic steppe and the Caspian region, was the "Brutakhi, who are Jews." [1] [2] [3] Nikolay Karamzin pointed to the fact that Carpine meant Burtas by Brutaches. [4]
Some translations read "Comani Brutakhi", (Comani Brutachi, qui sunt Iudii) which seems to indicate an alignment with the Cumans-Kipchaks; however, this reading has been challenged by many historians who have asserted that there should be a comma between the Comani and Brutakhi. However, earlier in the same list Giovanni refers to "Comania", leading some to regard the postulated comma as redundant and therefore highly suspect.
The identity of the Brutakhi is unclear. Giovanni later relates that the Brutakhi shave their heads, a common Turkic custom. [1] Some historians have theorized that the Brutakhi may have been a remnant of the Khazar people, or a result of some sort of missionary efforts. [3] [5] Alternatively, they may have been Cuman-Kipchak converts to Judaism (possibly connected to the Krymchaks or the Karaims). Another possibility is that the Brutakhi are connected to the Mountain Jews of Daghestan, who are believed to have ruled independent states at points in their history. [6] Some scholars have speculated that "Brutakhi" may be a corruption of "Brutas" or "Burtas", a steppe tribe of uncertain ethnic affiliation mentioned by other medieval sources. [7]
The Mongol Empire invaded and conquered much of Kievan Rus' in the mid-13th century, sacking numerous cities including the largest such as Kiev and Chernigov. The Mongol siege and sack of Kiev in 1240 is generally held to mark the end of Kievan Rus' as a distinct, singular polity. Many other Rus' principalities and urban centres in the northwest and southwest escaped destruction or suffered little to no damage from the Mongol invasion, including Galicia-Volhynia, Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, Polotsk, Vitebsk, and probably Rostov and Uglich.
The Alans were an ancient and medieval Iranic nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus – generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the Alans with the Central Asian Yancai of Chinese sources and with the Aorsi of Roman sources. Having migrated westwards and becoming dominant among the Sarmatians on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, the Alans are mentioned by Roman sources in the 1st century CE. At that time they had settled the region north of the Black Sea and frequently raided the Parthian Empire and the Caucasian provinces of the Roman Empire. From 215 to 250 CE the Goths broke their power on the Pontic Steppe.
Batu Khan was a Mongol ruler and founder of the Golden Horde, a constituent of the Mongol Empire. Batu was a son of Jochi, thus a grandson of Genghis Khan. His ulus ruled over the Kievan Rus', Volga Bulgaria, Cumania, and the Caucasus for around 250 years.
The Kipchaks or Qipchaks, also known as Kipchak Turks or Polovtsians, were Turkic nomads and then a confederation that existed in the Middle Ages inhabiting parts of the Eurasian Steppe.
The Pechenegs or Patzinaks were a semi-nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia who spoke the Pecheneg language. In the 9th and 10th centuries, the Pechenegs controlled much of the steppes of southeast Europe and the Crimean Peninsula. In the 9th century the Pechenegs began a period of wars against Kievan Rus', and for more than two centuries launched raids into the lands of Rus', which sometimes escalated into full-scale wars.
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 Polovtsy in Rus', Cumans in Western and Kipchaks in Eastern sources.
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 and the Kipchaks. Cumania was known in Islamic sources as Dasht-i Qibchaq, which means "Steppe of the Kipchaks"; or "Kipchak Plains", in Persian and al-Qumāniyīn in Arabic. Russian sources have referred to Cumania as the "Polovtsian Steppe", or the "Polovtsian Plain".
Burtas were a tribe of uncertain ethnolinguistic affiliation inhabiting the steppe region north of the Caspian Sea in medieval times. They were subject to the Khazars.
The Yemek or Kimek were a Turkic tribe constituting the Kimek-Kipchak confederation, whose other six constituent tribes, according to Abu Said Gardizi, were the Imur, Tatars, Bayandur, Kipchaks, Lanikaz, and Ajlad.
The Kimek–Kipchak confederation was a medieval Turkic state formed by seven peoples, including the Yemeks and Kipchaks, in the area between the Ob and Irtysh rivers.
The Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria lasted from 1223 to 1236. The Bulgar state, centered in lower Volga and Kama, was the center of the fur trade in Eurasia throughout most of its history. Before the Mongol conquest, Russians of Novgorod and Vladimir repeatedly looted and attacked the area, thereby weakening the Bulgar state's economy and military power. The latter ambushed the Mongols in the later 1223 or in 1224. Several clashes occurred between 1229–1234, and the Mongol Empire conquered the Bulgars in 1236.
The Berendei or Berindei were a medieval Turkic tribe, most likely of Kipchak origin. They were part of the tribal confederation of the "peak caps" or the "black hats".
The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire, the Mongol Empire (1206–1368), which by 1260 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastation as one of the deadliest episodes in history.
The Cumans-Kipchaks in Georgia are of an ancient nomadic Turkic people who inhabited large territories from Central Asia to Eastern Europe. They played an important role in the history of many nations in the region, Georgia among them. At the height of this Caucasian power from the 12th to the 13th centuries, Georgian monarchs recruited thousands of Kipchak/Cuman mercenaries and successfully exploited their service against the neighboring Muslim states.
The Battle of Samara Bend, also known as the Battle of Kernek, was the first battle between the Volga Bulgaria and the Mongol Empire, which took place during the autumn of 1223 at the southern border of Volga Bulgaria. It is famous for being the first battle that the Mongol Horde lost. The battle began with the Bulgar forces retreating and the Mongols pursuing them, leading them successfully into a Bulgar ambush. The Bulgars counterattacked the Mongols, and drove them back.
Köten 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.
The Mishar Tatars, previously known as the Meshcheryaki (мещеряки), are the second largest subgroup of the Volga Tatars, after the Kazan Tatars. Traditionally, they have inhabited the middle and western side of Volga, including the nowadays Mordovia, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Ryazan, Penza, Ulyanovsk, Orenburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara regions of Russia. Many have since relocated to Moscow. Mishars also comprise the majority of Finnish Tatars and Tatars living in other Nordic and Baltic countries.
The Terter or Terteroba 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.
The first Mongol invasion of Hungary started in March 1241, and the Mongols started to withdraw in late March 1242.
This is a short History of the central steppe, an area roughly equivalent to modern Kazakhstan. Because the history is complex it is mainly an outline and index to the more detailed articles given in the links. It is a companion to History of the western steppe and History of the eastern steppe and is parallel to the History of Kazakhstan and the History of central Asia.