Origins and area According to
Omeljan Pritsak, the Pechenegs are descendants of the ancient
Kangars who originate from
Tashkent. The
Orkhon inscriptions listed the Kangars among the subject peoples of the
Eastern Turkic Khaganate. Pritsak says that the Pechenegs' homeland was located between the
Aral Sea and the middle course of the
Syr Darya along the important trade routes connecting
Central Asia with
Eastern Europe, and associates them with
Kangars. According to
Constantine Porphyrogenitus writing in c. 950, the Pecheneg realm, or
Patzinakia stretched west as far as the
Siret River (or possibly the Eastern
Carpathian Mountains), and was four days' journey from "Tourkias" (i.e.
Hungary). s,
Paul Pelliot originated the proposal that the
Book of Suia 7th-century Chinese workpreserved the earliest record on the Pechenegs. The book mentioned a people named
Bĕirù, who had settled near the
Ēnqū and
Alan peoples (identified as
Onogurs and
Alans, respectively), to the east of
Fulin (or the
Eastern Roman Empire).
Victor Spinei emphasizes that the Pechenegs' association with the
Bĕirù is "uncertain". He proposes that an 8th-century
Uyghur envoy's report, which survives in
Tibetan translation, contains the first certain reference to the Pechenegs. The report recorded an armed conflict between the
Be-ča-nag and the
Hor (
Uyghurs or
Oghuz Turks) peoples in the region of the Syr Darya.
Ibn Khordadbeh (c. 820 – 912 CE),
Mahmud al-Kashgari (11th century),
Muhammad al-Idrisi (1100–1165), and many other
Muslim scholars agree that the Pechenegs belonged to the Turkic peoples. The
Russian Primary Chronicle stated that the "
Torkmens, Pechenegs,
Torks, and
Polovcians" descended from "the godless sons of
Ishmael, who had been sent as a chastisement to the Christians".
Westward migration The
Turkic Khaganate collapsed in 744, which gave rise to a series of intertribal confrontations in the
Eurasian steppes. The
Karluks attacked the
Oghuz Turks, forcing them to launch a westward migration towards the Pechenegs' lands. The Uyghur envoy's report testifies that the Oghuz and Pecheneg waged war against each other in the 8th century, most probably for the control of trade routes. The Oghuz allied with the Karluks and
Kimaks and defeated the Pechenegs and their allies in a battle near the Aral Sea before 850, according to the 10th-century scholar
Al-Masudi. Most Pechenegs then migrated towards the
Volga River, but some groups were forced to join the Oghuz. The latter formed the 19th tribe of the
Oghuz tribal federation in the 11th century. The Pechenegs who left their homeland settled between the
Ural and the Volga rivers. According to
Gardizi and other Muslim scholars who based their works on 9th-century sources, the Pechenegs' new territory was quite large, with a 30-day-walk extension, and were bordered by the
Cumans,
Khazars, Oghuz Turks and
Slavs. of Pecheneg tribe as per
Abul-Ghazi's «
Genealogy of Turkmens» The same sources also narrate that the Pechenegs made regular raids against their neighbors, in particular against the Khazars and their vassals, the
Burtas, and sold their captives into slavery. The Khazars allied with the Oghuz against the Pechenegs and attacked them from two directions. Outnumbered by the enemy, the Pechenegs were forced into a new westward migration. They marched across the Khazar Khaganate, invaded the dwelling places of the
Hungarians, and
expelled them from the lands along the
Kuban River and the upper course of the river
Donets. There is no consensual date for this second migration of the Pechenegs: Pritsak argues that it took place around 830, but Kristó suggests that it could hardly have occurred before the 850s. The Pechenegs settled along the rivers
Donets and
Kuban. It is plausible that the distinction between the "Turkic Pechenegs" and "Khazar Pechenegs" mentioned in the 10th-century ''
Hudud al-'alam had its origin in this period. The Hudud al-'Alam''a late 10th-century Persian geographydistinguished two Pecheneg groups, referring to those who lived along the Donets as "Turkic Pechenegs", and to those along the Kuban as "Khazarian Pechenegs". Spinei proposes that the latter denomination most probably refers to Pecheneg groups accepting Khazar suzerainty, implies that some Pecheneg tribes had been forced to acknowledge the Khazars supremacy. In addition to these two branches, a third group of Pechenegs existed in this period:
Constantine Porphyrogenitus and
Ibn Fadlan mention that those who decided not to leave their homeland were incorporated into the Oghuz federation of Turkic tribes. However, it is uncertain whether this group's formation is connected to the Pechenegs' first or second migration (as it is proposed by Pritsak and Golden, respectively). According to Mahmud al-Kashgari, one of the Üçok clans of the Oghuz Turks was still formed by Pechenegs in the 1060s.
Alliance with Byzantium In the 9th century, the
Byzantines allied with the Pechenegs, using them to fend off other, more dangerous, tribes such as
Kievan Rus' and the
Magyars (Hungarians). The Uzes, another
Turkic steppe people, eventually expelled the Pechenegs from their homeland; in the process, they also seized most of their livestock and other goods. An alliance of
Oghuz,
Kimeks, and
Karluks was also pressing the Pechenegs, but another group, the
Samanids, defeated that alliance. Driven further west by the
Khazars and
Cumans by 889, the Pechenegs in turn drove the Magyars west of the
Dnieper River by 892. Tsar
Simeon I of Bulgaria employed the Pechenegs to help fend off the Magyars. The Pechenegs were so successful that they drove out the Magyars remaining in
Etelköz and the
Pontic steppes, forcing them westward in
Battle of Southern Buh and making them leave
Etelköz forever and settle in
Pannonia where they later founded the
Hungarian state. Late history and decline By the 9th and 10th centuries, Pechenegs controlled much of the steppes of southeast
Europe and the
Crimean Peninsula. Although an important factor in the region at the time, like most nomadic tribes, their concept of statecraft failed to go beyond random attacks on neighbours and spells as mercenaries for other powers. In the 9th century, the Pechenegs began a period of wars against
Kievan Rus'. For more than two centuries, they had launched raids into the lands of Rus', which sometimes escalated into full-scale wars (like the 920 war on the Pechenegs by
Igor of Kiev, reported in the
Primary Chronicle). The Pecheneg wars against Kievan Rus' caused the Slavs from Walachian territories to gradually migrate north of the Dniestr in the 10th and 11th centuries. Rus'/Pecheneg temporary military alliances also occurred however, as during the Byzantine campaign in 943 led by Igor. . In 968 the Pechenegs
attacked and besieged Kiev; some joined the Prince of Kiev,
Sviatoslav I, in his Byzantine campaign of 970–971, though eventually they ambushed and killed the Kievan prince in 972. According to the
Primary Chronicle, the Pecheneg
Khan Kurya made a
chalice from Sviatoslav's skull, in accordance with the custom of
steppe nomads. The fortunes of the Rus'-Pecheneg confrontation swung during the reign of
Vladimir I of Kiev (990–995), who founded the town of
Pereyaslav upon the site of his victory over the Pechenegs, followed by the defeat of the Pechenegs during the reign of
Yaroslav I the Wise in 1036. Shortly thereafter, other nomadic peoples replaced the weakened Pechenegs in the
Pontic steppe: the
Cumans and the
Torks. According to
Mykhailo Hrushevsky (
History of Ukraine-Ruthenia), after its defeat near Kiev, the Pecheneg Horde moved towards the
Danube, crossed the river, and disappeared out of the
Pontic steppes. Pecheneg mercenaries served under the Byzantines at the
Battle of Manzikert. After centuries of fighting involving all their neighbours—the Byzantine Empire,
Bulgaria, Kievan Rus', Khazaria, and the Magyars—the Pechenegs were annihilated as an independent force in 1091 at the
Battle of Levounion by a combined Byzantine and Cuman army under Byzantine Emperor
Alexios I Komnenos. Alexios I recruited the defeated Pechenegs, whom he settled in the district of
Moglena (today in
Macedonia) into a
tagma "of the Moglena Pechenegs". Attacked again in 1094 by the Cumans, many Pechenegs were slain or absorbed. The Byzantines defeated the Pechenegs again at the
Battle of Beroia in 1122, on the territory of modern-day
Bulgaria. With time, the Pechenegs south of the
Danube lost their national identity and became fully assimilated, mostly with
Romanians and
Bulgarians. Significant communities settled in the
Hungarian kingdom, around 150 villages. In 1105 or 1106, Pecheneg troops were deployed to Italy in an unsuccessful effort to capture Otranto and prevent Bohemond's invasion of the Byzantine Balkans.
Anna Komnene erroneously reports that Bohemond dragged Pecheneg prisoners in chains before Pope Paschal II to gain support for his invasion, although the respective itineraries of the two men clearly indicate that they did not meet on this occasion. According to the Byzantine historian
John Kinnamos, the Pechenegs fought as
mercenaries for the
Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos in
southern Italy against the
Norman king of Sicily,
William the Bad. A group of Pechenegs was present at the Battle of
Andria in 1155. The Pechenegs as a group were last mentioned in 1168 as members of Turkic tribes known in the chronicles as the "
Chorni Klobuky (Black Hats)". The Pecheneg population of Hungary was likely decimated by the
Mongol invasion of Hungary, but names of Pecheneg origin continue to be reported in official documents. The title of "Comes Bissenorum" (Count of the Pechenegs) lasted for at least another 200 years. In 15th-century Hungary, some people adopted the surname
Besenyö (
Hungarian for "Pecheneg"); they were most numerous in the
county of Tolna. One of the earliest introductions of
Islam into
Eastern Europe came about through the work of an early 11th-century Muslim prisoner who was captured by the Byzantines. The Muslim prisoner was brought into the Besenyő territory of the Pechenegs, where he taught and converted individuals to Islam. In the late 12th century,
Abu Hamid al-Gharnati referred to Hungarian Pechenegs – probably Muslims – living disguised as Christians. There is a village in southeast
Serbia called
Pečenjevce that was founded by Pechenegs. After the war with Byzantium, the remnants of the tribes found refuge in the area and settled there. ==Settlements bearing the name Pecheneg==