PETCHENEGS or PATZINAKS [Latin Bisseni], a na tion which played a considerable part in the mediaeval history of Eastern Europe. The Petchenegs were a Turkish race, akin to the Cumans (q.v.), whose language, according to Anna Comnena, they spoke. They were probably a federation formed of the earlier Bukuk and Kangaris. In the 9th century A.D. they were living between the Volga and the Urals, having as their neighbours the Burtas on the west, the Khasars south-west, and the Ghuz south-east. About 86o the Khasars and Ghuz combined and drove them west, a remnant only remaining in their old territory, which was now occupied by the Ghuz. The remainder drove the Mag yars, who were the western neighbours of the Khasars, over the Dnieper, themselves settling near the Don. In the year 889 they again drove the Magyars westward into Moldavia, arriving on the Dnieper 895. In this or the following year they allied themselves with Khan Symeon of the Bulgars, inflicted a third and crushing defeat on the Magyars, and drove them into their present homes in Hungary. The Petchenegs made their own headquarters on the two banks of the Dnieper, where for a century they harassed Kiev and the trade route between that state and Constantinople, lurking near the rapids at which convoys disembarked, then charg ing them on horseback and raining arrows on them. In addition, they ravaged Wallachia, Bulgaria, and the lands of the eastern Roman empire, perhaps the most formidable of their many in cursions being that of 934, when, allied with the Magyars, they destroyed Varander. In 972 they had slain Sviatoslav of Kiev; but in 1036 Prince Yaroslav defeated them so heavily that they ceased to trouble Russian territory. Their incursions westward grew correspondingly more severe. Between 1020-1030 they in vaded Bulgaria almost every year, and from 1048-1056 were at war with Byzantium without intermission. At the close of this campaign the Emperor granted them lands for settlement in north-east Bulgaria, but their depredations continued. The great westward raid of the Ghuz in 1064 passed clean through their territory, and many Petchenegs were probably then slain or ab sorbed by the Ghuz. Others fled into Hungary, where King Ladis
laus defeated them in 1067. Colonies of the survivors were settled as guards on Hungary's western frontiers. In 108o the emperor Alexius again defeated them, and their power was finally broken in 1091 by the crushing defeat which they suffered at Lebunien. Remnants of them, however, still lurked about the Balkans, and one band, imitating their old tactics on the Dnieper, attacked Peter the Hermit's party of Crusaders north of Belgrade in 1096. After this they fade out of history; but the "Sops" in the plain of Sofia to-day are believed to be their descendants.
The Petchenegs were ruled by a Khan and organised in 8 hordes and 4o minor units, each under its khan of lower degree. They were purely nomadic ; on their raids they took their women and children with them, forming their camps out of rings of wagons. They wore long beards and moustachios, and were dressed in long kaftans. The food of the wealthy was blood and mares' milk; of the poor, millet and mead. They were originally "magicians," i.e., fire-worshippers; but a form of Islam early be came current among them and the nation was temporarily con verted to Christianity in 1007-1008. They were the most dreaded and detested of all the nomads ; Matthew of Edessa calls them "the carrion-eaters, the godless, unclean folk, the wicked, blood-drink ing beasts." Other anecdotes are current of their shamelessness, and many of their cruelty; they invariably slew all male prisoners who fell into their hands. The modern Sops are despised by the other inhabitants of Bulgaria for their bestiality and stupidity but dreaded for their savagery. They are a singularly repellent race, short-legged, yellow-skinned, with slanting eyes and project ing cheek-bones. Their villages are generally filthy, but the women's costumes show a barbaric profusion of gold lace.
See J. Marquart, Osteuropaische used Ostasiatische Streifzüge (1903), where the main original sources are given. See also under Russm,