Thocomerius, also Tihomir, was the father of

Basarab The House of Basarab (also Bazarab or Bazaraad, ro, Basarab ) was a ruling family of debated Cuman origin, Terterids and Shishmanids) and the Wallachian dynasty (Basarabids). They also played an active role in Byzantium, Hungary and Serbia, wi ...

, who would become the first independent ''

voivode Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the ...

'' of

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and s ...

. Many

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...

historians, such as

Vlad Georgescu Vlad Georgescu (October 20, 1937–November 13, 1988), was a Romanian historian and the director of the Romanian-language department of Radio Free Europe between 1983 and 1988. Biography Born in Bucharest, Georgescu studied history at the Uni ...

and Marcel Popa, believe that Thocomerius was a ''voivode'' in Wallachia who succeeded Bărbat, who ruled around 1278; others, such as Tudor Sălăgean, refer to him as a local potentate whose status cannot be specified.

Name

Thocomerius' name is only known from a diploma issued by King

Charles I of Hungary Charles I, also known as Charles Robert ( hu, Károly Róbert; hr, Karlo Robert; sk, Karol Róbert; 128816 July 1342) was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1308 to his death. He was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou and the only son of ...

on 26 November 1332. The diploma refers to "the

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

atic Basarab, son of Thocomerius, our disloyal Vlach." (''"Basarab, filium Thocomerii'', ''scismaticum, infidelis Olahus Nostris").'' The Hungarian László Rásonyi derives the name from a

Cuman The Cumans (or Kumans), also known as Polovtsians or Polovtsy (plural only, from the Russian exonym ), were a Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation. After the Mongol invasion (1237), many sou ...

and

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

name, ''Toq-tämir'' (‘hardened steel’), and refers to a

Chingisid A Borjigin, ; ; russian: Борджигин, Bordžigin; English plural: Borjigins or Borjigid (from Middle Mongolian);''Histoire des campagnes de Gengis Khan'', p. 119. Manchu plural: is a member of the Mongol sub-clan, which started with Bo ...

prince, ''Toktomer'', mentioned in the Russian annals in 1295 as abiding in the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a p ...

. According to István Vásáry, even if Basarab’s father bore a

Turkic Turkic may refer to: * anything related to the country of Turkey * Turkic languages, a language family of at least thirty-five documented languages ** Turkic alphabets (disambiguation) ** Turkish language, the most widely spoken Turkic language * ...

name, this person can by no means be identified with a Chingisid prince, because being descended from

Genghis Khan ''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr /> Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan'' , birth_name = Temüjin , successor = Tolui (as regent) Ögedei Khan , spouse = , issue = , house = Borjigin ...

was a matter of such significance that no one could, or would have wanted, to conceal it.

References

Sources

*Djuvara, Neagu: ''Thocomerius – Negru Vodă. Un voivod de origine cumană la începuturile Țării Românești'' / Thocomerius – Negru Vodă: A Voivode of Cuman Origin at the Beginnings of Wallachia, Humanitas, 2007 *Georgescu, Vlad ''(Author)'' – Călinescu, Matei ''(Editor)'' – Bley-Vroman, Alexandra ''(Translator)'': ''The Romanians – A History''; Ohio State University Press, 1991, Columbus; *Sălăgean, Tudor: ''Romanian Society in the Early Middle Ages (9th-10th Centuries)''; ''in:'' Ioan-Aurel Pop – Ioan Bolovan ''(Editors)'': ''History of Romania: Compendium''; Romanian Cultural Institute (Center for Transylvanian Studies), 2006, Cluj-Napoca; *Treptow, Kurt W. – Popa, Marcel: ''Historical Dictionary of Romania'' (table ''‘Rulers of Romania - Wallachia’''); The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1996, Lanham (Maryland, USA) & Folkestone (UK); *Vásáry, István: ''Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185-1365''; Cambridge University Press, 2005, Cambridge; {{authority control Rulers of Wallachia 14th-century Hungarian people 14th-century Romanian people Medieval Romanian nobility Medieval Hungarian nobility