“Циганешти князове” and the issue of appearance of Roma people on the lands of Țara Moldovei and Țara Românească

Abstract

Information about „Циганешти князове” was mentioned in a Moldavian medieval document dated 1414 A.D. Th e most appropriate interpretation of these words is the following: Циганешти is an anthroponym-patronym, which denotates several (at least two) people that descended from a man whose name is Цыган. Next, this name, Цыган comes from the ethnonym tsigan (an old ethnonym for Roma people). Following the typical Romanian medieval toponymical model (an early model) the patronymic Цыганешть later gave birth to the oikonym (name of a village) Цыганешть. According to L. L. Polevoi, the formation of the complete form of Romanian oikonyms with the suffi x –ешть needed about 102 +- 29 years. Th us, we have to date the origin of the village „Циганешти князове” earlier than 1400 A.D. Moreover, it is akso possible that this village appeared even in the times of the Golden Hoard (as some other early Moldavian villages (see researches of L.L. Polevoi and N. D. Russev). We can suppose that early groups of Roma (being merchants and craft smen) came to Balkans in the XIII – early XIV centuries A.D., and entered at the same time the Carpathian-Dniester lands that were owned by the Golden Hoard.