The Cumans (Kipchaks) in Hungary

The Cumans (Kipchaks) were the Turkic people of the Dasht-i Qipchaq steppe from north of the Black Sea to the Caspian. In the 13th century Cuman tribes fleeing the Mongols settled in Hungary with the permission of King Béla IV.

They settled on the Great Hungarian Plain, where the regions of Nagykunság ("Greater Cumania") and Kiskunság ("Lesser Cumania") still bear their name. The Cuman princess Elizabeth became queen of Hungary, and her son Ladislaus IV was known as "the Cuman".

Over time the Cumans merged with the Hungarians and became Christian, and their language was forgotten, but their memory lives on in place names, customs and Kiskunság National Park — and in the Kurultáj held at Bugac.