Prut-region settlements during the 11th and . According to the Hypatian Codex, Ivan Rostislavich—who claimed the Principality of Halych (or Galicia)—"did harm to the Galician fishermen" on the Lower Danube (implying that portions of the lands between the Eastern Carpathians and the river were controlled by the princes of Halych). The Cumans were pagans who worshipped the sky, the earth and other natural elements. According to Niketas Choniates's chronicle, "the Vlachs, who had heard rumors" of the escape of Andronikos Komnenus (a rebellious cousin of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I), captured him in 1164 at the borders of Halych. Choniates reported that Vlachs, Slavs and Cumans also inhabited the lands between the Carpathians and the Lower Danube, and the Vlachs' cooperation with the Cumans against the Byzantine Empire is well-documented. According to Anna Comnena, local Vlachs showed "the way through the passes" of the Balkan Mountains to Cumans who invaded the Byzantine lands south of the Lower Danube in 1094. Peter and Asen, leaders of the 1186 rebellion of the Bulgarians and Vlachs against Byzantine rule, crossed the lower Danube to seek assistance from the Cumans in the summer of 1186 and returned "with their Cuman auxiliaries" to continue the fight. "Cumans, with a division of Vlachs, crossed" the lower Danube and invaded Thrace in 1199. However, conflicts between the Cumans and the Vlachs were also recorded. According to a 1250 royal charter, King Andrew I of Hungary dispatched Joachim, Count of Hermannstadt, to lead an army of Saxon, Vlach, Székely and Pecheneg warriors to assist Boril in Bulgaria after "three chieftains from Cumania" rebelled against Boril of Bulgaria in the early 1210s. The reference to the Vlachs' participation in Joachim's campaign is some of the earliest evidence of Vlach communities subjected to Hungarian rule. The Vlachs had a special status, distinct from other commoners in the Kingdom of Hungary. They paid in-kind taxes, such as a quinquagesima (one-fiftieth) on their herds; Orthodox, they were exempt from the tithes paid by Catholic peasants. Conversion of Cuman tribes (1211–1228) King Andrew II of Hungary granted Burzenland in southeastern Transylvania to the Teutonic Knights in 1211, tasking them with defending his kingdom's borders and converting the neighboring Cumans. The king also authorized the Knights to erect wooden fortresses and expand their authority over the Carpathians. The Knights were allowed to invite colonists to their lands, and settlers were exempted from church tithes.