Kotian

Kotian (Sutoiovych), b and d ? Khan of the Cumans, father-in-law and ally of Mstyslav Mstyslavych. Kotian is mentioned in the chronicles under the years 1202, 1225, and 1228, when he participated in the internecine power struggles between the princes of Kyivan Rus’. After the defeat of the Cumans by the Mongols in 1222, Kotian left the Dnipro River region and sought the aid of the princes of Kyivan Rus’. They were all defeated, however, by the Mongols at the Battle on the Kalka River in 1223. In 1238 Kotian was again defeated by Batu Khan on the Astrakhan steppes. He settled with the remainder of the Cumans in Hungary, under the protection of the Hungarian king.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1989).]