Table Of ContentByzantium and the Pechenegs
Mykola Melnyk - 978-90-04-50522-3
East Central and Eastern Europe
in the Middle Ages, 450–1450
General Editors
Florin Curta and Dušan Zupka
volume 79
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ecee
Mykola Melnyk - 978-90-04-50522-3
Byzantium and the
Pechenegs
The Historiography of the Problem
By
Mykola Melnyk
Translated by
Yaroslav Prykhodko
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Mykola Melnyk - 978-90-04-50522-3
Cover illustration: Emperor in pursuit of a wolf. Illustration from the Codex Græcus Matritensis Ioannis
Skyllitzes, Fol. 86r. Courtesy Biblioteca Nacional de España.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Melnyk, Mykola, 1976– author. | Prykhodko, Yaroslav, translator.
Title: Byzantium and the Pechenegs : the historiography of the problem / by
Mykola Melnyk ; translated by Yaroslav Prykhodko.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2022] | Series: East Central and
Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450, 1872-8103 ; volume 79 |
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021061750 (print) | LCCN 2021061751 (ebook) | ISBN
9789004280465 (hardback) | ISBN 9789004505223 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Turkic peoples—Byzantine Empire. | Pecheneg (Turkic
people)—History—To 1500. | Nomads—Europe, Eastern—History—To 1500.
| Pecheneg (Turkic people—Historiography. | Nomads—Europe,
Eastern—Historiography. | Byzantine Empire—History—527-1081. |
Byzantine Empire—History—1081-1453. | Byzantine Empire—Ethnic
relations. | Byzantine Empire—Historiography.
Classification: LCC DF542.4.T87 M45 2022 (print) | LCC DF542.4.T87
(ebook) | DDC 949.500494/35—dc23/eng/20220128
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021061750
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021061751
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
ISSN 1872-8103
ISBN 978-90-04-28046-5 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-50522-3 (e-book)
Copyright 2022 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Hotei, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink,
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Mykola Melnyk - 978-90-04-50522-3
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Abbreviations viii
Introduction 1
1 Byzantium and the Pechenegs
Vasilievskiĭ to Moravcsik 7
1 Byzantium, the Pechenegs, and the Black Sea Straits 7
2 Byzantium and the Nomads of the North Pontic Steppes in European
Historiography, Mid-19th to Mid-20th Centuries 20
2.1 Historical Writing in the Russian Empire before 1917 21
2.2 European Oriental Studies and the History and Languages of the
Medieval Nomads of the Western Eurasian Steppes. Hungarian
and Turkish Historiography 28
2.3 “The Battle for History”: Romanian Historiography, Bulgarian
Historiography, and the Lower Danube in the 10th to 12th
Centuries 41
2.4 Russian and Ukrainian Historiography in the 1920s–1940s 53
2.5 10th- to 11th-Century Relations between Byzantium and
Trans-Danubian Nomads in International Byzantine Studies 62
2 “Poised Perception”
Trans-Danubian Turks in the Historiography of the
Balkan-Danubian Countries 73
1 Preconditions 73
2 The Pechenegs and Cumans and Their Relations with Byzantium
in Hungarian Historiography, Mid-20th to Early 21st Centuries 76
2.1 Hungarian Oriental Studies 76
2.2 Medieval Studies 83
2.3 Archaeology 88
3 Romanian Historiography 96
4 Bulgarian Historiography 136
4.1 Archaeology 138
4.2 Medieval and Byzantine Studies 159
5 Historiography of Other Countries in the Region 176
Mykola Melnyk - 978-90-04-50522-3
vi Contents
3 Eastern European Historiography since 1945 190
1 Soviet and Post-Soviet Archaeology 190
1.1 Interpreting the Archaeological Record of the Late Nomads of the
North Pontic Steppe 191
1.2 11th- to 12th-Century Nomadic Archaeological Remains in the
Prut-Dniester Region 207
1.3 The Pechenegs and the North Crimean Canal: Exploring Nomadic
Archaeological Remains in Crimea 222
2 Soviet and Post-Soviet Medieval Studies 236
3 Oriental Studies 252
4 International Byzantine and Oriental Studies 265
1 Congresses of Byzantine Studies 265
2 Publication of Major Sources 276
3 Visions 287
4 Selected Problems in the History of Byzantium’s Relations
with Steppe Dwellers and Attempts to Solve Them 298
5 Oriental Studies 310
Conclusions 323
1 Periodization 323
2 Source Base and Methodology 325
3 Byzantium, Nomads, and National Historiographies 326
4 Byzantine-Nomadic Relations and International Byzantine and
Oriental Studies 327
Selected Bibliography 329
Index of Geographic and Ethnic Names 380
Index of Persons 389
Index of Modern Authors 392
Mykola Melnyk - 978-90-04-50522-3
Acknowledgements
This book is an outcome of my interest in the history of non-historic peoples –
peoples that no longer exist. The ever-growing demand for grain in Europe,
advances in firearms and artillery, and improvement of the heavy plow for the
cultivation of steppe soils left the nomadic peoples of the lands north of the
Black Sea with no chance to survive. Having dissolved among the plowmen,
the steppe peoples were deprived of their history. I hope that my work, among
many others, will help to right this injustice.
This study would not have been possible without the luminous aca-
demic environment of Lviv, with its towering figure of the late Prof. Yaroslav
Dashkevych, whose ideas have influenced me greatly. Despite all the political
vicissitudes of the 20th century, he ensured the continuity of the tradition of
historical scholarship in the city.
I would like to express my great appreciation to Prof. Florin Curta for his
enthusiastic encouragement of my research.
I owe special thanks to my colleagues and friends Dr. Vasyl′ Kmet′ (Director
of the Academic Library at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv) and
Dr. Darius Baronas (Lithuanian Institute of History), who helped me with
access to scholarly materials.
My thanks are extended to the staff of the Academic Library at the Ivan
Franko National University of Lviv, the Library of the Ukrainian Catholic
University, the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, and the University of
Warsaw Library. Their assistance is greatly appreciated.
I also want to thank Yaroslav Prykhodko for his painstaking work in translat-
ing the manuscript into English, which, given my writing style, must have been
a challenge.
I am grateful to the entire team at Brill for their kind support and patience.
Finally, I would like to thank my wife Mariya Ivanchak, MA in History, for her
professional criticism and linguistic insights.
Mykola Melnyk - 978-90-04-50522-3
Abbreviations
AB Archaeologia Bulgarica (Sofia).
Acta Historica Acta Universitatis Szegediensis de Attila József Nominatae. Acta
Historica (Szeged).
Actes du XIVe Congrès Actes du XIVe Congrès International des Études Byzantines,
3 vols, eds. Mihai Berza and Eugen Stănescu (Bucharest: Editura Academiei
Republicii Socialiste România, 1974–1976).
ADIU Arkheolohiya i Davnya Istoriya Ukrayiny (Kyiv).
AÉ Archaeologiai Értesítő (Budapest).
AECO Archivum Europae Centro-Orientalis (Budapest).
AEMAe Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi (Wiesbaden).
Arkheologicheskiye issledovaniya Arkheologicheskiye issledovaniya srednevekovykh
pamyatnikov v Dnestrovsko-Prutskom mezhdurech′ye, ed. Pavel Byrnâ
(Kishinew: Shtiintsa, 1985).
ASH Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae.
Avars, Bulgars and Magyars Avars, Bulgars and Magyars on the Middle and Lower
Danube. Proceedings of the Bulgarian-Hungarian Meeting, Sofia, May 27-28,
2009, eds. Lyudmila Doncheva-Petkova et al. (Sofia/Piliscsaba, 2014).
BF Byzantinische Forschungen (Amsterdam).
BHR Bulgarian Historical Review (Sofia).
BMGS Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies.
BNJ Byzantinisch-Neugriechische Jahrbücher (Berlin).
BS Byzantinoslavica (Prague).
Byzanz und Ostmitteleuropa 950-1453 Byzanz und Ostmitteleuropa 950-1453: Beiträge
zu einer table-ronde des XIX. International Congress of Byzantine Studies,
Copenhagen 1996, eds. Günter Prinzing and Maciej Salamon (Wiesbaden:
Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 1999).
BZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift (Munich).
CFHB Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae.
CHBE The Cambridge History of Byzantine Empire c.500–1492, ed. Jonathan
Shepard (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
DAI De Administrando Imperio.
Die Keramik der Saltovo-Majaki Die Keramik der Saltovo-Majaki Kultur und ihrer
Varianten, ed. Csanád Bálint (Budapest: Institut für Archäologie der
Ungarischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1990).
DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers (Washington, D.C.).
Mykola Melnyk - 978-90-04-50522-3
Abbreviations ix
ÉB Études Balkaniques (Sofia).
ÉByz Études Byzantines et Post-byzantines (Bucharest).
ECEE East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450 (series).
Entangled Histories of the Balkans Entangled Histories of the Balkans, vol. 3, Shared
Pasts, Disputed Legacies, eds. Roumen D. Daskalov and Tchavdar Marinov
(Balkan Studies Library, 16) (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2015).
EthnOboz Etnograficheskoye Obozreniye (Moscow).
GIBI Grŭtski Izvori za Bŭlgarskata Istoriya.
GSUIF Godishnik na Sofiĭskiya Universitet. Istoricheski Fakultet (Sofia).
INMV Izvestiya na Narodniya Muzeĭ – Varna (Varna).
Istochniki po istorii kochevnikov VII Mezhdunarodnaya konferentsiya “Istochniki po
istorii kochevnikov srednevekovoy Yevrazii” (Moscow: Probel-2000, 2013).
IstPreg Istoricheski Pregled (Sofia).
Izbrani proizvedeniya Zlatarski, Vasil, Izbrani proizvedeniya, 4 vols, ed. Petŭr Petrov
(Sofia: Nauka i izkustvo, 1984).
JÖB Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinischen Gesellschaft (Vienna).
KCsA Kőrösi Csoma Archivum (Budapest).
Kiyevskaya Rus′ i kochevniki Mavrodina, Ruslana M. Kiyevskaya Rus′ i kochevniki
(pechenegi, torki, polovtsy). Istoriograficheskiy ocherk (Leningrad: Nauka,
1983).
MAIET Materialy po Arkheologii, Istorii i Etnografii Tavrii (Simferopol).
Manufacturing a Past for the Present Manufacturing a Past for the Present: Forgery
and Authenticity in Medievalist Texts and Objects in Nineteenth-Century
Europe, eds. János M. Bak, Patrick J. Geary and Gábor Klaniczay (National
Cultivation of Culture, 7) (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2014).
MCA Materiale și Cercetări Arheologice (Bucharest).
ODB The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, 3 vols, ed. Alexandr P. Kazhdan (New
York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).
Odŭrtsi, 1 Lyudmila Doncheva-Petkova, Lazar K. Ninov and Veselin Ǐ. Parushev,
Odŭrtsi, vol. 1, Selishte ot Pŭrvoto bŭlgarsko tsarstvo (Sofia: Akademichno
izdatelstvo “Prof. Marin Drinov,” 1999).
Odŭrtsi, 2 Lyudmila Doncheva-Petkova, Odŭrtsi, vol. 2, Nekropoli ot XI vek (Sofia:
Akademichno izdatelstvo “Prof. Marin Drinov,” 2005).
Orientalische Berichte über die Völker Osteuropas Hansgerd Göckenjan and
István Zimonyi, Orientalische Berichte über die Völker Osteuropas und
Zentralasiens im Mittelalter: die Ǧayhani-Tradition (Ibn Rusta, Gardīzī,
Ḥudūdal-ʿĀlam, al-Bakrī und al-Marwazī) (Veröffentlichungen der Societas
Uralo-Altaica, 54) (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag in Kommission, 2001).
Mykola Melnyk - 978-90-04-50522-3
x Abbreviations
Prinos lui Petre Diaconu Prinos lui Petre Diaconu la 80 de ani, eds. Ionel Cândea,
Valeriu Sîrbu and Marian Neagu (Brăila: Istros, 2004).
RAIK Russian Archaeological Institute in Constantinople.
RdI Revista de Istorie (Bucharest).
RÉB Revue des Études Byzantines (Paris).
Relations between the autochthonous population Relations between the Autochthonous
Population and the Migratory Populations on the Territory of Romania, eds.
Miron Constantinescu et al. (Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii
Socialiste România, 1975).
Research on the Prehistory of the Hungarians Research on the Prehistory of the
Hungarians: A Review. Papers presented at the Meetings of the Institute of
Archaeology of the HAS, 2003-2004, ed. Balázs Gusztáv Mende (Budapest:
Archaeological Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2005).
RÉSEE Revue des Études Sud-Est Européennes (Bucharest).
RI Revista Istorică (Bucharest).
RIR Revista Istorică Română (Bucharest).
RO Rocznik Orientalistyczny (Warsaw).
RosArkh Rossiyskaya Arkheologiya (Moscow).
Rossiya mezhdu Yevropoy i Aziyey Rossiya mezhdu Yevropoy i Aziyey: yevraziyskiy
soblazn, eds. Lyudmila Novikova and Irina Sizemskaya (Moscow: Nauka,
1993).
RRH Revue Roumaine d’Histoire (Bucharest).
Rusko-bŭlgarski vrŭzki Rusko-bŭlgarski vrŭzki prez vekovite, ed. Gennadiĭ G. Litavrin
(Sofia: Izdatelstvo na Bŭlgarskata akademiya na naukite, 1986).
SBS Studies in Byzantine Sigillography (Washington, D.C.).
SCIM Studii și Cercetări de Istorie Medie (Bucharest).
SCIV/SCIVA Studii și Cercetări de Istorie Veche/și Arheologie (Bucharest).
SEER The Slavonic and East European Review (London).
Simeonova Bŭlgariya Simeonova Bŭlgariya v istoriyata na Evropeĭskiya Yugoiztok: 1100
godini ot bitkata pri Akheloĭ, eds. Angel Nikolov and Nikolaĭ Kanev (Sofia:
Universitetsko izdatelstvo “Sv. Kliment Okhridski,” 2018).
SK Seminarium Kondakovianum (Prague/Belgrade).
SOF Südost-Forschungen (Regensburg).
SovArkh Sovetskaya Arkheologiya (Moscow).
SovEthn Sovetskaya Ethnographiya (Moscow).
SRdI Studii. Revistă de Istorie (Bucharest).
SSv Skhidnyǐ Svit (Kyiv).
Stepi Yevrazii v epokhu srednevekov′ya Stepi Yevrazii v epokhu srednevekov′ya, ed.
Svetlana A. Pletnyova (Moscow: Nauka, 1981).
Mykola Melnyk - 978-90-04-50522-3
