Erciyes University, Kayseri, Türkiye
[ilhanaslan@erciyes.edu.tr], ORCID: 0000-0002-8838-244X
Byzantine-Pecheneg Conflicts in the Balkans
Abstract: Pechenegs, a Turkic tribe, entered Byzantine territory in 944 as auxiliary troops of Prince Igor of Kiev. For a time, they maintained contact with Byzantium as mercenaries of the Rus. Later, relations between the Pechenegs and the Rus princes worsened. Pechenegs then began to raid Byzantine lands on their own. Since the 1030s, the Cumans had become active near the Don River. Their pressure forced the Pechenegs to move into Byzantine lands in the Balkans. As a nomadic people, Pechenegs lived by raiding and plundering. Their advance into the Balkans made Byzantine territories a direct target. They even carried out threatening actions near Constantinople. The Byzantine emperors had to develop new policies to defend the empire. This article aims to examine the Byzantine-Pecheneg conflicts in the Balkans from military and political perspectives based on primary sources from the period, with a particular focus on demonstrating the strategic importance of the Balkans for the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Alexius Comnenus.
Keywords: Balkans; Pechenegs; Byzantium; Cumans.
Reference
Attaleiates, M. (2012). The History. (A. Kaldellis-D. Krallis, transl.). Harvard University Press.
Bryennio, N. (1975). Histoire. (P. Gautier, transl.): Imprimerie Universa.
Cedrenus, G. (1838). Corpus scriptorum historiae byzantinae. (I. Bekker, Ed.). vol. II. Impensis Ed. Weberi.
Chalandon, F. (1900). Essai sur le règne d’Alexis Ier Comnène (1081-1118). A Picard.
Comnena, A. (1969). The Alexiad. (E. R. A. Sewter, transl.). Penguin Books Publishing.
Günaydın, T. (2020). Bizans ve Balkanlar (976-1076). Post Yayınevi.
Kozlov, S. A. (2014). More than enemies. The description of nomads in the Byzantine literature of the epoch of the first Pecheneg incursions into Byzantium. Rules and Violence/Regeln und Gewalt, 83-99.
Kurat, A. N. (2016). Peçenekler. Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları.
Melnyk, M. (2022). Byzantium and Pechenegs. (Y. Prykhodko, transl.). Brill.
Meško, M. (2023). Alexios I Komnenos in the Balkans, 1081–1095. Springer International Publishing.
Ostrogorski, G. (2006). Bizans devleti tarihi. (F. Işıltan, transl.). Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları.
Paroń, A. (2021). The Pechenegs: nomads in the political and cultural landscape of medieval Europe. Brill.
Skylitzes, J. (2010). A synopsis of Byzantine history (811-1057). (J. Wortley, transl.). Cambridge University Press.
Sümer, F. (2007). Peçenekler. Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslam Ansiklopedisi, vol. 34, 213-214.
Vasilyevskiy, V.G. (1872). Vizantiya i pechenegi (1048‒1094). Zhurnal ministerstva narodnogo prosveshcheniya, vol. II, 116-165, 243-332.
Yücel, M. U. (2020a). İlk Rus yıllıklarına göre Türkler. Doğu Kütüphanesi Yayınları.
Yücel, M. U. (2020b). Türkistan’dan Tuna’ya Peçenekler. Doğu Kütüphanesi Yayıınları.
Zonaras, İ. (2008). Tarihlerin özeti. (B. Umar, transl.). Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayınları.