Cumana (Het)

Part of the Sanjak of Cumana, the Cumana Het is the most populated of the sanjak's four regions. The north part of the het, particularly between Mutrakan and Valki, also represents the best growing land in Cumana.

The het covers an area of 37 hexes, 1 of which is pure cropland and 14 are mixed cropland and hinterland. There are 22 arable hexes. Cumana Het is bordered on the south east by the Donbass; on the southwest and west by three hets of Zaporozhia (the Zaporizhian Sich, Ltava and Severia); and on the north by Sumi and Kursk (part of the Grand Duchy of Moscovy). It has a population of 229,041.

History

Cumana Het expanded chiefly in the 13th and 14th centuries. Peace was brought to the region by the Mongols, who established themselves by founding the city of Mutrakan on upper Donets valley in 1241. Mutrakan quickly became the center of Mongol power throughout the steppe between the Dneiper and Don rivers, becoming both a military and religious center throughout the 1300s.

Following the collapse of the Tatars in the 1490s, the Zolozi tribe began to consolidate the six existing tribes of Cumana at that time (the Yetabeshi would appear later), forming the Cumana Sanjak. As an entity, the Cumana Het suffered heavily from raids originating from Crimea, where the surviving Tatars north of the Black Sea were allowed to settle, inside lands occupied by the Ottoman Empire. The organization of the Zaporozhians has largely put an end to this threat, though small groups of raiders still use the hills in south Cumana in the summer season.

Mutrakan withstood a seige in 1648 from Don Cossacks, who also attacked Moscovy and Polish lands to the east.

Population

Production

References for goods produced in Cumana Het are as follows:

Vegetation

See sheet map D 04 - Don & Volga Rivers

World