Ecology of Warfare The Seasonal Campaigns of the Cuman-Qïpchaqs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Absztrakt

According to Dmirty Rassovsky, the Cumans never appeared south of the Danube to support the Asenids during the hot time of the year, and if it occurred in the course of a campaign they withdrew. Plamen Pavlov relativizes to a certain extent the too deterministic model introduced by Rassovsky, which is still relevant for the relations between the Cumans and the first rulers of the re-established Bulgarian state. Yet, the question whether this model is valid only for the period of a few decades of intensive military conflicts in the Balkans (at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century) or had broader chronological and geographical implications remains unsolved. On the basis of various cases from the Balkan, Rus’, Khwārazmian, and Mongol history examined in the present paper, it can be concluded that the asymmetric seasonal military activity of the Cuman-Qïpchaqs was by far not a unique feature of their military cooperation with the first Asenids. In fact, this phenomenon can be observed through the entire period of Cuman activities in the Balkans and Central Asia (11th–13th centuries). Yet, the Cuman asymmetric seasonal military activity was also not ubiquitous as it was not characteristic of the intensive contacts of these nomads with the Rus’ principalities. By drawing synchronous and diachronous parallels with the activities of other Eurasian nomads, the author identifies the factors that stood behind these dynamics.