KAZAKH HISTORIAN PROF MURAD ADJI(ISKENDEROV)PECHENEGS

The Pechenegs or Becheneks are nomadic Turkish people who, with the fall of the Gokturk State, left their homeland, Western Siberia, and settled in the region between the Volga and Ural Rivers, where they came from, and from there they Decamped to the North Caucasus, the Black Sea, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans.

Origin

The Pechenegs[1] are one of the 24 tribes of the Oguz Turks according to the Oguz Khagan Epic and, according to Mahmud of Kashgar, one of the twenty-two Oguz divisions in the Divan-ı Lügati't-Türk"... The nineteenth is the "بآجانآك Becenek". Their document is the following : Affectionate.svg"[1] is a Turkish stature of the Three main branches of the Oguzes, which it defines as. 10. istahri, who lived in the XVIII century, refers to the Pechenegs as a community of Turkic peoples, while Rashiduddin shows the Pechenegs from the generation of Gok Khan in his work Cami'ut-Tevarih. Anna Komnini of Byzantium stated that the Pechenegs spoke the same language as the Cumans.[2]

The Pechenegs, which are thought to be composed of the Onoks that make up the western flank of the Göktürks, 6. it is observed that it was settled around the lakes of Issyk and Lake Balkash in the XII century. 8. in the XVIII century, they migrated to the west under the pressure of the Oghuzs and settled around the Seyhun river. Then, continuing their movement, they spread to the lands in the northern region of Lake Aral and the Caspian Sea.

Names

8. in the reports of the ambassadors of the century Khor (the Tibetan name of the Uyghurs), they were also mentioned by the name Becanag.[3] the Hudud al-'alam min al-mashriq Al-maghrib (Arabic: حدود العالم The المشرق الی المغرب) by an unknown author in 982 my summer ending, then gurlu the ruler of Abu al-Harith Muhammad ibn Ahmad pecheneks bachanak available in this book written in Arabic-and Turkish Turkan-I-i Bachanaki was named.[4] In the epics of Dede Korkut, the name "Bechenek" was used for the Pechenegs who collided with the Salur boy of the Oguzes. The Pechenegs mentioned here are a mass subject to the Oguzes, apart from the main Pechenegs mass migrating to the west. In the work of Abu'l ghazi Bahadur Khan, Genealogy-i Terakime, he mentioned the Pechenegs by the name of "Becene".

Hungarian scholar Zoltán Gombocz, an expert in Finno-Ugric and Turkic languages, stated that the name was "Beche" and later pronounced "Becenek". The word "Beçe" is a name in Turkish, and this name is also seen in Arab sources that provide information about Turks. In Western sources, the Pechenegs were first mentioned by the name of “Pecenaci” in the chronicles of 899, which Regino, the chief monk of the Prüm monastery in Western Poland, wrote based on what he had heard. Nestor, one of the Russian cases, mentioned this people as “Pechenegs” and in the plural as “Pechenegs”. The German missionary Bruno, who personally contacted the Pechenegs in 1007, called them “Pezengi”. The Byzantines, on the other hand, called this people Patzinag (Πετσενέγοι). The Hungarians, on the other hand, used the names “Bessenöyö”, “Bisseni”, “Bessi” or “Besseneu” when referring to this people. In Western sources, the names ”Pacinaci“, ”Pacinacae“, ”Patzinacite" were used.[5]

History

The Pecheneg stamp

The homeland of the Pechenegs and their migration to the west

Although it is known that the Pechenegs were one of the Turkic peoples, there is not enough information about their place of residence before they arrived near the Yayik River and the Idil River. The earliest prediction about the Pechenegs is that the Western Göktürk Khan Işbara, in his organization of a new height after 634, this neck appeared on the historical stage.[6]

Based on some historical accounts, it is believed that some of the tribes that make up the Pechenegs lived around Lake Issik and the Ili River. After the Battle of Talas, it is seen that the Karluks began to dominate Talas with the strengthening of the region and the destruction of the Türgişler in 766. between 791 and 812, when the Karluks were Decimated by the Uyghurs after a long-lasting war, the Pechenegs were forced to move further west along with other peoples by the pressure of the Karluks who migrated to the west.[6] The Japanese scientist Toru Senga, on the other hand, suggests that the Uighurs expelled the Pechenegs from their country in the Upper Irtysh region no later than 821.[7]

When the historical process was followed, the Uighurs defeated the Karluks first, and when the Karluks retreated to the west, they encountered the Oghuz people here and expelled them from their lands, and the Oghuz people who lost their lands went further west and fought with the Seyhun tribes and the Pechenegs living in the Aral steppes. The Pechenegs were subjected to attacks by the Karluks and Kimeks, who were also allied with the Oghuzs, probably especially the attack of the Salur boyars.[8] Although the vast majority of the Pechenegs migrated to the west, it is known that some of them lived in accordance with them, accepting the sovereignty of the Oghuzs, which is considered to be the Pechenegs included in the list of Oghuz tribes mentioned by Mahmud of Kashgar.[6]

The German historian and linguist Josef Markwart wrote that in order to get rid of the oppression of the Karluks, the Pechenegs were forced to move to the 8th. although it is stated that it was found around Seyhun at the beginning of the century, it has not been able to find evidence to support this. In Biruni's work ”Tahdid'u Nihayeti'l-Emakin li Tas-hih-i Hazrat'il-Masakin", it is stated that when Ceyhun deviated from the Pecheneg land between Urgench and Khwarezm on the left coast due to the change in his bed, these places were Decimated for a while, and in later years, when this place was devastated, his people migrated to the coast of the Caspian Sea. However, with the exception of Biruni, there are no other historical records of the settlement of the Pechenegs so far to the southwest. Most likely, these should be the Pechenegs living in accordance with the above-mentioned Oghuzs. In the work of the Persian geographer Ibn Khurdazbih Dec written between 854-874, it is seen that the Pechenegs have not yet crossed the Idil River.[9]

After all these unknowns, perhaps the most detailed source about the Pechenegs is the Byzantine Emperor VII. 10 By Constantine. it is the book De Administrando Imperio, written in the middle of the XIX century. According to this work, Pechenegs, 9. in the middle of the century, they settled on the sides of the Yılık River and the Idil River, consisting of 8 lengths and forty carvings connected to them. The three major tribes (Irtim/Ertim, Çor/Çur, Yula/Güla) mentioned as more noble (noble) at the beginning of these eight necks and referred to as Kangar are Külbey/Kölbeg, Talmat, Karabay/Karıbay, Kopun/Kaban and Çoban/Çopan. According to Byzantine sources, Mayçan, who was the leader of the Ertim boyu, was the leader of this Pecheneg mass. The leader of the Çur boy was Kuel, the leader of the Yula boy was Kurkut, the leader of the Karabay boy was Kaydu, the leader of the Talmat boy was Kostan, the leader of the Kopon boy was Yazi, and the leader of the Shepherd boy was Batan. There are various opinions in the De Administrando Imperio on the statement that the Pechenegs were originally called Kangars. According to the interpretation of this statement, the members of the Kangar Union, which came to the Pechenegs' lands and was formed under the leadership of the Kangs, continued to be defined as Pechenegs by the Byzantines in relation to the Pechenegs who used to live in these lands. However, there are those who believe that this expression is derived from the word “Kingir”, which means “brave” in Central Asia, VII century BC. Konstantinos' assessment that the word Kangar means “noble” in his work also reinforces this claim. Nevertheless, in the work entitled Administrando Imperio, it is stated that the Pechenegs who came around the Yayık River and the Idil River were neighbors with the Khazars and Uzlar, and the Khazars and the Oguzes (recognized as Uzlar) merged and drove the Pechenegs to the west. The Khazars are especially 8th. their struggle with the Arabs (Umayyads and Abbasids) in the XII century, and then in the 9th. in the first half of the century, it was considerably weakened due to the rebellion caused by the Kabars. When the Pechenegs arrived in the Idil River region, as a result of their attacks on the caravan routes leading to Khwarezm, trade on this route began to be blocked, although the Khazars tried to prevent them, they could not resist them and called on the Oguzes, the enemies of the Pechenegs, to help. 10. the century-old Muslim geographer Ibn Rüste also stated that the Pechenegs were at a distance of 10 days from the Khazars, and that the Khazars regularly attacked the Pechenegs every year.[7]

After the defeat against the Oguzes and the Khazars, the Pechenegs, who were pushed around the Don River, defeated the Hungarians living in the lands called “Levedia” near the Black Sea between the Dnieper and the Don, causing them to flee Dec the west. Considering that Constantine of Thessaloniki, appointed by the Byzantine emperor, was attacked by the Hungarians on his way to the Caspian country via Hersonissos in 860/861, it is believed that the Pechenegs had not yet traveled to the west of Idil at these dates. In the chronicles of 899, written based on what Regino, the chief monk of the Prüm monastery in western Poland, heard, the date of the Pechenegs’ expulsion of the Hungarians from the “Levedia” is mentioned as 889. As mentioned earlier, as a result of the Uz pressure, most of the Pechenegs retreated to the west, while some of them became subject to the Oghuzs and continued to live under the rule of the Oghuzs, not leaving their homeland.