Könchek (also spelled Konchak, Könchek, Končak;

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

/ Ukrainian: Кончак; died 1187) was a Polovtsian khan of the 12th century.

Biography

He was a son of Otrok and a grandson of Sharukan. In the second half of the 12th century, Könchek unified the Polovtsian tribes. Taking advantage of divisions among Russian princes, he made war against them in 1170 and 1180 by attacking the principalities of

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, Pereyaslavl, and

Chernigov Chernihiv (, ; , ) is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within the oblast. Chernihiv's population is The city was designated as a Hero City of Ukrain ...

. His raids were particularly destructive along the Sula River. In 1171, Könchek allied with Oleg II Svyatoslavich, the prince of Novgorod-Seversk, in fighting the other Russian princes, but in 1184, during an attack led against the principality of Kiev, his troops were beaten near the Khorol river by the prince Sviatoslav III. The following year, Könchek defeated the prince Igor Svyatoslavich, who was taken prisoner near the Kaiala River (possibly the modern

Kalmius The Kalmius (, ) is a river flowing through Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. Its source is near the Ukrainian city of Yasynuvata, and its mouth is in Mariupol. The Kalmius is one of two rivers flowing through Mariupol. The other is the Kalchyk, which f ...

River). Igor's campaign against Könchek became the subject of an epic poem, ''

The Tale of Igor's Campaign ''The Tale of Igor's Campaign'' or ''The Tale of Ihor's Campaign'' () is an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language. The title is occasionally translated as ''The Tale of the Campaign of Igor'', ''The Song of Igor's Campaign'' ...

''. Könchek died in 1187. His daughter Svoboda ("Liberty" in Russian) married Vladimir III Igorevich, son of Igor, in 1188. In 1203, his son Yuri took

as an ally of the prince

Rurik Rostislavich Rurik Rostislavich, also spelt Riurik, ({{circa, 1140 - 19 April 1212{{efn, Other sources state the date of Rurik's death as 1211,1214 or 1215) was Prince of Novgorod (1170–1171), Belgorod (1173–1194), Grand Prince of Kiev (1173;{{sfn, Mar ...

who, chased from Kiev, recruited from the Polovts tribes to regain power. According to some arguments, Köten and Somogur were his sons, and he changed the old Cuman system of government whereby rulership went to the most senior tribal leader; he instead passed it on to his son Köten.

Legacy

Konchek appears as a character in the opera ''

Prince Igor ''Prince Igor'' (, ) is an opera in four acts with a prologue, written and composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the early Russian epic '' The Lay of Igor's Host'', which recounts the campaign of the 12th-centur ...

'', by

Alexander Borodin Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin (12 November 183327 February 1887) was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was one of the prominent 19th-century composers known as " The Five", a group dedicated to prod ...

(1890). He appears in the

Polovtsian Dances The Polovtsian Dances, or Polovetsian Dances (), form an exotic scene at the end of act 2 of Alexander Borodin's opera '' Prince Igor''. The opera remained unfinished when the composer died in 1887, although he had worked on it for more than a d ...

in that work.

References

Bibliography

* Martin Dimnik, ''The Dynasty of Chernigov, 1146–1246'', Cambridge University Press, 2003. * Boris Grekov, Aleksandr Yakubovsky, ''The Golden Horde and Russia: Tatar rule in the XIII and XIV of the Yellow Sea to the Black Sea'. Translated from Russian by François Thuret, Payot, 1961.'' *

Novgorod First Chronicle The Novgorod First Chronicle ( rus, Новгоро́дская пе́рвая ле́топись, Novgoródskaya pérvaya létopisʹ, nəvɡɐˈrot͡skəjə ˈpʲervəjə ˈlʲetəpʲɪsʲ, commonly abbreviated as NPL), also known by its 1914 Eng ...

External links

"Konchak"
''Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine '', vol. 2, 1989. {{DEFAULTSORT:Konchak 12th-century Kipchaks Cumans 1187 deaths