Köten

Köten (Russian: Котян, Hungarian: Kötöny, Arabic: Kutan‎; fl. 1223–41) was a Cuman–Kipchak chieftain (khan) and military commander active in the mid-13th century. He forged the important alliance with the Kievan Rus against the Mongols but was ultimately defeated by them at the Kalka River. After the Mongol victory in 1238, Köten led 40,000 "huts" to Hungary, where he became an ally of the Hungarian king and accepted Catholicism, but was nonetheless assassinated by the Hungarian nobility.

Name

Köten, known as Kötöny in Hungarian and Kotjan (or Kotyan) in Russian,^[1] had his name spelt variously as Kutan (in Arabic), Kuthen, Kuthens, Koteny and Kuethan. In the Russian annals, his name is rendered Котян Сутоевич (Kotyan Sutoevich, Kotjan Sutoevič). In a charter of Béla IV, a Cuman chieftain Zayhan or Seyhan is mentioned, assumed to have been Köten.^[2]

Life

An Arabic source calls his people Kipchaks; Kutan is mentioned as belonging to the Durut tribe of the Kipchaks.^[3] According to Pritsak, "Durut" was the Terter tribe of the Cumans.^[3] According to Timothy May, Köten was one of the khans of the Kipchaks.^[4] István Vásáry identified him as Cuman.^[1] In either case, the two peoples were part of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation, known as Cumania in Latin, Desht-i Qipchaq in Islamic sources (from Turkic), and Polovtsy in East Slavic.

Köten forged an alliance with the Kievan Rus against the Mongols (also called Tatars) after a defeat in 1222. The Cuman–Kipchak confederation under Köten and a Rus army of 80,000 men under his father-in-law Mstislav the Bold fought a battle at the Kalka River (Kalchik, near Mariupol) against a Mongol contingent commanded by Jebe and Sübötäi. The Rus-Cuman army was routed and had to retreat on 31 May 1223. Köten was deposed from power in that year, but he remained leader of the Terteroba clan.

In the early spring of 1237, the Mongols attacked the Cuman-Kipchaks. Some of the Cuman-Kipchaks surrendered; it was this element that was later to form the ethnic and geographic basis of the Mongol khanate known to the former lords of the country as the "Kipchak khanate". Known also as the Golden Horde, the Kipchak khanate belonged to one of the branches of Jochi's house -Genghis Khan's eldest son. The Kipchak leader Bačman was captured in 1236–37 on the Volga banks by Möngke, and then executed.

According to Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, Berke led a third campaign in 1238 which inflicted final defeat on the Cumans-Kipchaks. Ukrainian sources claim that it was Batu Khan that defeated Köten on the Astrakhan steppes.^[5] Afterwards, Köten led 40,000 "huts" (families, around 70-80,000 people) to Hungary fleeing the Mongols.

In Hungary, Köten allied himself with Bela IV of Hungary, who gave the Cuman–Kipchak refugees asylum. Köten converted to Roman Catholicism, being baptised in 1239 as Jonas, while his daughter Elizabeth married Bela's son, the future Stephen V. The Hungarian nobles, however, distrusted the Cuman-Kipchaks (possibly believing they were Mongol spies) and just prior to the disastruous Mongol invasion which led to the rout of Mohi, they had Köten assassinated in Pest. The Cumans then left Hungary, pillaging along the way and emigrated to the Second Bulgarian Empire. Some of the Cumans were later called back to Hungary.

Terter dynasty

The enraged Cuman-Kipchak masses began to plunder the countryside, and moved southwards in the country. They crossed the Danube and reached Syrmia (called Marchia by Rogerius). After causing much destruction and havoc in Hungary, they left the country for Bulgaria. There is a hypothesis that the Terter dynasty, which eventually ruled Bulgaria, descended from Köten's clan.

Family

• Maria who married Mstislav Mstislavich, who led uprising against Hungarians and became a ruler of the Galicia–Volhynia (r. 1220)
• A daughter who married Narjot III de Toucy (–1241). She became a nun after his death.
• Elizabeth the Cuman who married Stephen V of Hungary, King of Hungary

See also

• Cumans
• Kipchaks
• George I of Bulgaria
• Dobrotitsa
• Shishmanids
• Asen dynasty
• Cumania
• Battle of Kalka River
• Mongol invasion of Rus'

References

• Павлов, Пламен (2005). ""Авантюристът-скит" Алдимир и Теодор Светослав". Бунтари и авантюристи в средновековна България (in Bulgarian). Варна: LiterNet.
• Rene Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes, 1970, Rutgers University Press
• Cumans and Tatars, István Vásáry, 2005, Cambridge University Press

Notes