CumansThe Cumans or Kumans (kumani; Kumanen; kunok; Połowcy; cumanii; polovtsy; polovtsi) 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. Related to the Pecheneg, they inhabited a shifting area north of the Black Sea and along the Volga River known as Cumania, from which the Cuman–Kipchaks meddled in the politics of the Caucasus and the Khwarazmian Empire.
Turkic peoplesThe Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West, Central, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages. According to historians and linguists, the Proto-Turkic language originated in Central-East Asia, potentially in Altai-Sayan region, Mongolia or Tuva. Initially, Proto-Turkic speakers were potentially both hunter-gatherers and farmers, but later became nomadic pastoralists.
BashkirsThe Bashkirs or Bashkorts (Başqorttar, bɑʃqortˈtɑr; Башкиры, bɐʂˈkjirɨ) are a Kipchak Turkic ethnic group indigenous to Russia. They are concentrated in Bashkortostan, a republic of the Russian Federation and in the broader historical region of Badzhgard, which spans both sides of the Ural Mountains, where Eastern Europe meets North Asia. Smaller communities of Bashkirs also live in the Republic of Tatarstan, the oblasts of Perm Krai, Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Tyumen, Sverdlovsk and Kurgan and other regions in Russia; sizable minorities exist in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
PechenegsThe Pechenegs (ˈpɛtʃənɛɡ) or Patzinaks were a semi-nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia who spoke the Pecheneg language. The Pechenegs were mentioned as Bjnak, Bjanak or Bajanak in medieval Arabic and Persian texts, as Be-ča-nag in Classical Tibetan documents, and as Pačanak-i in works written in Georgian. Anna Komnene and other Byzantine authors referred to them as Patzinakoi or Patzinakitai. In medieval Latin texts, the Pechenegs were referred to as Pizenaci, Bisseni or Bessi.
TengrismTengrism (also known as Tengriism, Tengerism, or Tengrianism) is an ethnic Turkic, Yeniseian, Mongolic religion originating in the Eurasian steppes based on shamanism and animism. It generally involves the titular sky god Tengri, who is not considered a deity in the usual sense, but a personification of the universe. According to some scholars, adherents of Tengrism view the purpose of life, to be in harmony with the universe.
Eurasian SteppeThe Eurasian Steppe, also simply called the Great Steppe or the steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, western Russia, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Xinjiang, Mongolia and Manchuria, with one major exclave, the Pannonian steppe, located mostly in Hungary. Since the Paleolithic age, the Steppe Route has connected Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Asia, Central Asia, East Asia and South Asia economically, politically and culturally through overland trade routes.
FeodosiaFeodosia (Феодо́сія, Теодо́сія, Feodosiia, Teodosiia; Феодосия, Feodosiya), also called in English Theodosia (from Θεοδοσία), is a town of regional significance on the Crimean coast of the Black Sea. Feodosia serves as the administrative center of Feodosia Municipality, one of the regions into which Crimea is divided. During much of its history, the city was known as Caffa (Ligurian: Cafà; Crimean Tatar and Kefe) or Kaffa. According to the 2014 census, its population was 69,145.
TurkeyTurkey (Türkiye, ˈtyɾcije), officially the Republic of Türkiye (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti ˈtyɾcije dʒumˈhuːɾijeti), is a country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in West Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest. Cyprus is off the south coast.
Mongol EmpireThe Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous land empire in history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Europe, extending northward into parts of the Arctic; eastward and southward into parts of the Indian subcontinent, attempted invasions of Southeast Asia, and conquered the Iranian Plateau; and westward as far as the Levant and the Carpathian Mountains.
KarluksThe Karluks (also Qarluqs, Qarluks, Karluqs, 𐰴𐰺𐰞𐰸, Qarluq, Para-Mongol: Harluut, Géluólù ; customary phonetic: Gelu, Khololo, Khorlo, خَلُّخ, Khallokh, قارلوق Qarluq) were a prominent nomadic Turkic tribal confederacy residing in the regions of Kara-Irtysh (Black Irtysh) and the Tarbagatai Mountains west of the Altay Mountains in Central Asia. Karluks gave their name to the distinct Karluk group of the Turkic languages, which also includes the Uzbek, Uyghur and Ili Turki languages.
