Tymar I. The image of the Cumans in Polish historical thought of the XIth–XVth centuries.

The dissertation is devoted to the research on the image of the Cumans formed in Polish sources of the XIth–XVth centuries. All recorded mentions of the Cumans in Polish sources of the XIth–XVth centuries are collected and analysed. A comparative analysis of them and the sources of other countries is carried out. The analysis of Polish narratives shows that in Poland during the XIth–XVth centuries nomads from the East were not of much interest, they were mentioned sporadically, albeit with the certain frequency. 46 mentions of the Polovtsy-Cumans in J. Długosz’s Annales are analysed separately. The origin of each of these mentions is determined and compared with the original source, on the basis of which borrowings, errors, distortions, as well as the late medieval author’s own systematised vision of the image of the nomads are identified. In order to understand the origins of forming the image of the Cumans, an attention is focused on the various interactions of the nomads with the lands of the Piast dynasty. The military and political relations between the Poles and the Cumans at the intersection of regular ties with Rus’, Hungary, and the Czech are analysed. The genealogies of the Piasts and the Rurikids, the marital relations of the latter ones with the Cumans, are studied. In this way, four cases of marriages of the representatives of the Piast dynasty to the descendants of the Cumans and Rus’ marriages in the second and third generations are identified. Polish toponymy is analysed, the names of Turkic origin in the territory of the Piast state are systematised and cartographically recorded.