People
Comani
Better known as Cumans
Two travelers wrote about Comani between 1245 and 1255. Here is what each of them saw, in the order they were there.
- 1245–1247
The Voyage of John of Plano Carpini
The Cumans (Kipchaks), the Turkic nomads of the steppe between the Volga and the Danube, broken and absorbed by the Mongol advance. Their grassland, Comania, formed the long middle stretch of Carpini's road east.
When we arrived at the residence of Baatu, in the land of Comania, we were ordered to pitch our tent a full league from his station, and when we were to be…Listen from here · chapter 23, 0:06…not quit us till we were beyond the Tartar bounds; after which the Comanians, who had been ordered by Corrensa to attend us, brought us in six days from the last…Listen from here · chapter 34, 0:59 - 1253–1255
The Journal of William of Rubruck
The Cumans (Kipchaks), the Turkic nomads who ranged the steppe between the Don and the Volga before the Mongol conquest. Their grass plain, Comania, gave Rubruck the first leg of his road; he describes their burial mounds along the way.
…and upon the coming of the Tartars, so vast a multitude of the Comani took refuge in this province, flying to the sea shore, that the living were forced to…Listen from here · chapter 3, 7:12To the north of this province of Comania Russia is situate, which is all over full of wood, and reaches from the north of Poland…Listen from here · chapter 16, 3:23
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