Petchenègues
The Petchenègues are wandering people of Turkish origin which appear at the border of the empire khazar at the 8th century. They settle at the 10th century in the north of the Caspian Sea. According to the legend, they constitute the tribe Peçenek Oghouzes, resulting from Dağ Han (" prince Mountain ").
Nomadisant first of all in the North-West of the modern Kazakhstan, in the east of the the Volga, they form little by little an increasingly significant part of the army of Khazars. At the beginning of the 9th century, they are used by those to repress revolts in the state khazar. Finally in 889, they cross the Volga and settle between the Dniepr and the Don; then in 895, they cross Dniepr and take possession of the Magyar kingdom of the Atelkosou. A share important of the Magyars from go away and settle in Pannonia where they found the modern Hungary.
Starting from 915, they arrive on septentrional banks of the Black Sea then at the south of the large Ukrainian plains. The prince of Kiev, Igor, tries in 945 to divert them towards the Byzantine Empire but his/her son Sviatoslav is killed in 972 while fighting against them.
They convert with the Islam towards 980. In 1008, the bishop German missionary Bruno de Querfurt personally takes the head of a mission of evangelization of Petchenègues, in the territories ranging between the Volga and the Ural.
Between 1036 and 1053, overcome and badgered by the Russians, they cross the the Danube and progress inside the empire. Thus in 1086 they seize the Thrace and beat the Byzantine troops with Silistrie in 1090.
At the autumn of the same year Petchenègues put the seat in front of Constantinople and try an alliance with the Seldjoukides. This alliance had been mortal for the Empire so only Alexis I {{er}} Comnène had not reacted while being combined to the Coumans. Those crush Petchenègues the April 29th 1091 with the Bataille of the hill of Lebounion. In 1122 they are definitively beaten by Jean II Comnène and disperse in the Balkans especially in Transylvania.
The Byzantine writers and certain more modern historians indicate them under the name of Patzinaces .
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