The Pechenegs: Nomads in the Political and Cultural Landscape of Medieval Europe

✍ Scribed by Aleksander Paroń

• Publisher: Brill
• Year: 2021
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 480
• Series: East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450, 74
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Translated by Thomas Anessi.

In 'The Pechenegs: Nomads in the Political and Cultural Landscape of Medieval Europe', Aleksander Paroń offers a reflection on the history of the Pechenegs, a nomadic people which came to control the Black Sea steppe by the end of the ninth century. Nomadic peoples have often been presented in European historiography as aggressors and destroyers whose appearance led to only chaotic decline and economic stagnation. Making use of historical and archaeological sources along with abundant comparative material, Aleksander Paroń offers here a multifaceted and cogent image of the nomads’ relations with neighboring political and cultural communities in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

✦ Table of Contents

Russian/Bulgarian/Ukrainian Transliteration
Maps
Abbreviations
Introduction
1 Written Sources
2 Archaeological Sources
3 The State of Research. Proposed Research Procedure
Chapter 1. Black Sea-Caspian Steppe: Natural Conditions
1.1 The Great Steppe. General Comments
1.2 Black Sea-Caspian Steppe. Physical Geography
1.3 The Landscape of the Black Sea-Caspian Steppe in the Accounts of Travellers and Geographers. From Herodotus to Jan Potocki
Chapter 2. Black Sea-Caspian Steppe: Outline of Ethnic and Political Relations to the End of the Ninth Century
2.1 Era of the Dominance of Iranian Nomads
2.2 Gothic Episode
2.3 Period of Dominance of Turkic Nomads
Chapter 3. The Earliest History of the Pechenegs
3.1 The Problem of Ethnogenesis
3.2 Pechenegs on the Transvolgan Steppe
3.3 The Pechenegs’ Wars with Magyars. Migration to the Black Sea Steppe
Chapter 4. Structures and Forms of Existence
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Political and Social Organization
4.3 Economy
4.4 Military
4.5 The Pechenegs’ Ethnic Identity and Value System
Chapter 5. The Apex of the Pechenegs’ Political Importance
5.1 Borders and Internal Territorial Divisions of the Newly-Created Patzinacia
5.2 Political Relations between the Pechenegs and Their Neighbours
5.3 The History of the Pechenegs before 945. At a Political Crossroads
5.4 The Pechenegs as Allies of the Byzantine Empire
Chapter 6. Decline of the Pechenegs’ Power on the Black Sea Steppe
6.1 The Rus’, Pechenegs and Uzes (972–1036)
6.2 The Byzantine Empire and the Pechenegs on the Eve of Their Migration to the Balkans
6.3 Pecheneg Migration to the Balkans
Chapter 7. The Pechenegs on the Territories of the States Neighbouring the Steppe
7.1 The Pechenegs in Byzantium: 1047–1091
7.2 The Pechenegs in the Arpadian Kingdom
7.3 The Pechenegs in Rus’
7.4 The Pechenegs under Piast Dynasty Rule (?)
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index