Cuman laws

The Cuman laws were two provisions, issued on 23 June 1279 and 5 or 10 August 1279, regulating the social status and lifestyle of the Cumans, a nomadic people in the 13th-century Kingdom of Hungary.

Since the mid-13th century, the Cumans were a significant element of the Hungarian military organization, but their lifestyle and pagan religion gave rise to numerous conflicts with the majority Christian society. The half-Cuman monarch Ladislaus IV could not restore royal power in Hungary amid a civil war between rival baronial factions. A papal legate, Philip, bishop of Fermo, came to Hungary to help Ladislaus consolidate his authority, but the prelate was shocked at the presence of thousands of pagan Cumans in Hungary. Under his supervision, the Diet of Hungary adopted the Cuman laws in the summer of 1279. The authenticity of the second document is questioned by some historians.

Ladislaus IV hesitated to enforce the law, which only increased the tension. Ladislaus promised that he would force them to adopt a Christian lifestyle, but they refused to obey the legate's demands. Ladislaus decided to support the Cumans, for which Philip of Fermo excommunicated him. The Cumans imprisoned the legate, and the legate's partisans captured Ladislaus. In early 1280, Ladislaus agreed to persuade the Cumans to submit to the legate, but many Cumans preferred to leave Hungary. Ladislaus vanquished a Cuman army that invaded Hungary in 1282. Their defeat marked the beginning of the "feudalization" (i.e. social integration) of the Cuman subjects to the political, social and cultural structure of majority society, which lasted throughout the 14th century.