The exact origin and nature of the is uncertain. The name first appears in the tenth century, when a bishopric of the " or " is mentioned as subject to the diocese of
Thessalonica. The mid-fourteenth century writer
Pseudo-Kodinos calls them "Persians" by race (a typical Byzantine anachronism for "Turks"), and recalls that they were settled in the
Vardar river valley by an unnamed Byzantine emperor of old. In both cases, however, "Turks" probably implies the
Cumans and
Pechenegs, who were called "" by the Byzantines in the tenth–eleventh centuries. Hence it seems that the were Cumans and Pechenegs resettled in
Macedonia in the tenth century, and that they had become
Christians by the end of that century. By the twelfth century, the , their Cuman and Pecheneg identity by now much diluted, were being recruited into the
Byzantine army, and, at the latest during the latter part of the reign of Emperor
Manuel I Komnenos (), they were formed into a distinct palace guard regiment. Their functions, however, at least in the
Palaiologan period, appear to have been more those of a police force than a military unit: Pseudo-Kodinos lists them not with the guards, but with the unarmed palace personnel, and states that their duty was "to keep people orderly" during ceremonies. Unlike the armed members of the
Varangian Guard and the regiment, they were equipped only with a whip (the ) and a staff (the ). Kodinos also records that they wore distinctive red uniforms and a "Persian" hat called (), and that the whip, hanging at their belt, was their symbol. This latter reference has led to the hypothesis that the were the replacement of the older guards corps. The thirteenth-century historian
George Akropolites further states that the accompanied the Byzantine emperor to his military camp whilst on campaign. It is unclear whether and how the , administrative officials of
Thessalonica in the tenth–eleventh centuries, known through their seals, are related to the . ==See also==