The Great Town – Man Kermen in The Secret History of the Mongols Cover Image

The Great Town – Man Kermen in The Secret History of the Mongols
The Great Town – Man Kermen in The Secret History of the Mongols

Author(s): István Zimonyi
Subject(s): 13th to 14th Centuries
Published by: Akadémiai Kiadó
Keywords: Volga Bulghars; The Secret History of the Mongols; Man Kermen; Kiev; Mongol invasions; Cumans

Summary/Abstract: The city name Man Kermen in The Secret History of the Mongols is identified with Kiev in the chapters concerning the great western Mongol campaign against Eastern Europe. It is based on the datum of Rashīd al-Dīn: ‘the great city of the Rus, which was called Man-Kermen.’ It is beyond doubt that the Cumans called Kiev as Man Kermen meaning Great Town in Turkic as the spiritual and ecclesiastic center of Kievan Rus. However, there is another possibility. The capital of the Volga Bulghars in the first decades of the 13th century has been excavated near to village Biljarsk. It is called by the contemporary sources as Velikij Gorod in the Russian annals, magna civitas in the work of the Hungarian friar, Julian both meaning Great Town.

  • Issue Year: 74/2021
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 145-157
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: English