The Lendians (Polish: Lędzianie) were a Lechitic tribe who lived in the area of East Lesser Poland and Cherven Cities between the 7th and 11th centuries. Since they were documented primarily by foreign authors whose knowledge of Central and East Europe geography was often vague, they were recorded by different names, which include Lendzanenoi, Lendzaninoi, Lz’njn, Lachy, Lyakhs, Landzaneh, Lendizi, Licicaviki and Litziki.
Map showing an approximation location of Polish tribes according to the Polish historiography — Lendians (Lędzianie) are found at the bottom-right corner
The name『Lędzianie』(*lęd-jan-inъ) derives from the Proto-Slavic and Old Polish word "lęda", meaning "field".[1][2] In modern Polish, the word『ląd』means "land". The Lędzianie tribe's name comes from their use of slash-and-burn agriculture, which involved cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields.[3] Accordingly, in this meaning Lendians were woodland-burning farmers,[4] or "inhabitants of fields".[5] Several European nations source their ethnonym for Poles, and hence Poland, from the name of Lendians: Lithuanians (lenkai, Lenkija) and Hungarians (Lengyelország).[6][7]
Gerard Labuda notes that the Rus' originally called a specific tribal group settled around the Vistula river as the Lendians and only later in the 11th and 12th century started to apply the name of the tribe to the entire populace of the "Piast realm" because of their common language.[8]
Bavarian Geographer (843) – Lendizi – (33) on the map Josippon (Jewish chronicler), 890–953) – Lz’njn Constantine VII (912–959) – Lendzanenoi, Lendzaninoi, Litziki Al-Masudi (Arabian chronicler, c. 940) – Landzaneh Widukind of Corvey (Saxon chronicler, 10th century) – Licicaviki Nestor the Chronicler (Kievan Rus' chronicler, 11th century under the date of 981) – Lachy Kinamos (Byzantine chronicler, 11th century) – Lechoi
In Latin historiography the Bavarian Geographer (generally dated to the mid-9th century) attests that Lendizi habent civitates XCVIII, that is, that the "Lendizi" had 98 gords, or settlements.[7] The Lendians are mentioned, among others, by De administrando imperio (c. 959, as Λενζανηνοί), by Josippon (c. 953, as Lz’njn), by the Primary Chronicle (c. 981, as ляхи), by Ali al-Masudi (c. 940, as Landzaneh).
Cherven Cities as part of Bohemian lands during the reign of Boleslaus II, Duke of Bohemia (967/972–999).Cherven Cities, partly inhabited by the Lendians, as part of Poland under the rule of Mieszko I until 981 AD according to the Polish historiography.
The West Slavs (Lendians and Vistulans) moved into the area of present-day south-eastern Poland, during the early 6th century AD. Around 833, the region inhabited by the Lendians was incorporated into the Great Moravian state. Upon the invasion of the Hungarian tribes into the heart of Central Europe around 899, the Lendians submitted to their authority (Masudi). In the first half of the 10th century, they alongside Krivichs and other Slavic people paid tribute to Igor I of Kiev (DAI).[7]
From the mid-950s onward, the Lendians were politically anchored in the Bohemian sphere of influence.[6]Cosmas of Prague relates that the land of Kraków was controlled by the PřemyslidsofBohemia until 999.[18] His report is buttressed by the foundation charter of the Archdiocese of Prague (1086), which traces the eastern border of the archdiocese, as established in 973, along the Bug and Styr (orStryi) rivers.[6][19]Abraham ben Jacob, who travelled in Eastern Europe in 965, remarks that Boleslaus II of Bohemia ruled the country "stretching from the city of Prague to the city of Kraków".[20]
In the 970s, it is assumed that Mieszko I of Poland took over the region: the Primary Chronicle infers this when reporting that Volodymyr the Great conquered the Cherven Cities from the Lyakhs in 981: "Volodymyr marched upon the Lyakhs and took their cities: Peremyshl (Przemyśl), Cherven (Czermno), and other towns".[21] Historian Leontii Voitovych speculates that if the lands were under control of the Duchy of Poland then the Kievan Rus' conquest would have been an open call for war between the principalities with an inevitable long struggle, but such a thing did not happen according to Voitovych, possibly indicating in Voitovych's view that the lands and its population weren't Polish, but an independent political-tribal union with some vassalage to Bohemia.[22][23]: 142–143
Polish historians Wojciech Kętrzyński, Stefan Maria Kuczyński, Janusz Kotlarczyk, and Jerzy Nalepa, among others, generally locate the Lendians in Upper San and Upper Dniester.[22] Krzysztof Fokt advanced a viewpoint which claims that Lendians inhabited the whole of Western Ukraine (partly shared by D. E. Alimov[29]), moving White Croats much further to the East in the direction of Vyatichi.[22]
Henryk Łowmiański argued that the Lendians lived between Sandomierz and Lublin, and that with Vistulans even were tribal groups of White Croats.[6][30][31]Leontii Voitovych also argues that the Lendians lived east of Vistulans and south of Mazovians, more specifically, in the area between Sandomierz and Lublin.[32][23] Janusz Kotlarczyk considered that Red Ruthenia extended over a vast territory between Carpathian Mountains and Przemyśl on the south (inhabited by White Croats) and Volhinia on the north (partly inhabited by Lendians).[33]Alexander Nazarenko considers that uncertainty of extant 10th-century descriptions of the upper Dniester and Bug River region makes it plausible to infer that the Lendians, White Croats and probably some other peoples shared this vast territory along the border of modern-day Ukraine and Poland.[25]
According to Mykhailo Kuchynko, archaeological sources conclude that Prykarpattian region of Western Ukraine was not settled by West Slavic Lendians but East Slavic Croats, while the elements of material culture in early medieval sites alongside Upper San River in present-day Subcarpathian Voivodeship in Southeastern Poland show they belonged to East Slavic ethno-tribal affiliation. The early medieval sites near Dukla Pass, and villages Trzcinica and Przeczyca indicate that West Slavic material tradition started only at river Wisłoka, the right tributary of Upper Vistula.[23]
^Łowmiański, Henryk (2004) [1964]. Nosić, Milan (ed.). Hrvatska pradomovina (Chorwacja Nadwiślańska in Początki Polski) [Croatian ancient homeland] (in Croatian). Translated by Kryżan-Stanojević, Barbara. Maveda. p. 33. OCLC831099194.
^Gluhak, Alemko (1990), Porijeklo imena Hrvat [Origin of the name Croat] (in Croatian), Zagreb, Čakovec: Alemko Gluhak, p. 130
^Uzelac, Aleksandar (2018). "Prince Michael of Zahumlje – a Serbian ally of Tsar Simeon". In Angel Nikolov; Nikolay Kanev (eds.). Emperor Symeon's Bulgaria in the History of Europe's South-East: 1100 years from the Battle of Achelous. Sofia: Univerzitetsvo izdatelstvo "Sveti Kliment Ohridski". p. 237.
^Die Chronik der Böhmen des Cosmas von Prag. Berlin, 1923 (MGH SS rer. Germ. NS, 2). I, 33–34. p. 60.
^The entire vicinity of Krakow was to be administered from Prague: "...ad orientem hos fluvios habet terminos: Bug scilicet et Ztir cum Cracouua civitate provintiaque cui Uuag nomen est cum omnibus regionibus ad predictam urbem pertinentibus, que Cracouua est".
^Relacja Ibrahima Ibn Ja'kuba z podróży do krajów słowiańskich w przekazie Al-Bekriego. Kraków, 1946 (MPH NS. 1). p. 50.
^ abcKuchynko Mykhailo, "Croats in Manuscripts: Problem of Ethno-tribal Belonging and Political Dependence (Historical Aspects)", РОЗДІЛ ІІІ. Історіографія. Джерелознавство. Архівознавство. Памʼяткознавство. Етнологія. 7, 2015, pp. 141–143, quote: Нарешті стосовно політичного підпорядкування хорватів археолог В. Гупало зазначає, що всередині VII ст. після поразки аварів, які до того тримали у сфері свого впливу слов’янські племена Волині й Прикарпаття, відбуваються кардинальні зміни в житті слов’ян. Зокрема, у VIII–IX ст., починають формуватися територіально-політичні структури на зразок «племінних» княжінь. Прикарпаття, на думку дослідниці, увійшло до складу Хорватського князівства. Вона зауважує, що на території східних хорватів у цей час існували потужні городища, які виконували функції центрів «племінних» княжінь: у Побужжі – Пліснеськ, у Верхньому Подністров’ї – Галич, у Надсянні – Перемишль [4, с. 73–75]. Висловлені вище думки прямо чи опосередковано пов’язуються з проблемою «хорвати чи лендзяни». У світлі новітніх досліджень факт існування племені або союзу племен під назвою «лендзяни» нині вже мало в кого викликає заперечення. Однак щодо території їхнього розселення, то знаний медієвіст Л. Войтович найбільш імовірним ареалом їх проживання вважає Сандомирсько�Люблінську землю [3, с. 26–27].
^ abAlexander Nazarenko. Древняя Русь на международных путях: Междисциплинарные очерки культурных, торговых, политических связей IX-XII веков. Moscow, 2001. ISBN5-7859-0085-8. pp. 401–404.
^Labuda, G. Czechy, Rus i kraj Ledzian w drugiej potowie X wieku. // Labuda G. Studia nad poczatkami panstwa polskiego. Poznan, 1988. T. II. pp. 209–210.
^Łowmiański, Henryk (2004) [1964]. Nosić, Milan (ed.). Hrvatska pradomovina (Chorwacja Nadwiślańska in Początki Polski) [Croatian ancient homeland] (in Croatian). Translated by Kryżan-Stanojević, Barbara. Maveda. p. 51, 57–60, 94, 125–126. OCLC831099194.
^Majorov, Aleksandr Vjačeslavovič (2012), Velika Hrvatska: etnogeneza i rana povijest Slavena prikarpatskoga područja [Great Croatia: ethnogenesis and early history of Slavs in the Carpathian area] (in Croatian), Zagreb, Samobor: Brethren of the Croatian Dragon, Meridijani, pp. 51–52, 56, 59, ISBN978-953-6928-26-2