Kipchaks

The Kipchaks interpreted their name as meaning "hollow tree" (cf. Middle Turkic: kuv ağaç);[1] according to them, inside a hollow tree, their original human ancestress gave birth to her son.[2] Németh points to the Siberian qıpčaq "angry, quick-tempered" attested only in the Siberian Sağay dialect (a dialect of Khakas language).[3] Klyashtorny links Kipchak to qovı, qovuq "unfortunate, unlucky"; yet Golden sees a better match in qıv "good fortune" and adjectival suffix -čāq. Regardless, Golden notes that the ethnonym's original form and etymology "remain a matter of contention and speculation".[4]

Kipchak portrait in a 12th-century balbal in Luhansk.

In the Kipchak steppe, a complex ethnic assimilation and consolidation process took place between the 11th and 13th centuries.[5] The western Kipchak tribes absorbed people of Oghuz, Pecheneg, ancient Bashkir, Bulgar and other origin; the eastern Kipchak merged with the Kimek, Karluk, Kara-Khitai and others. They were all identified by the ethnonym Kipchak.[5] Groups and tribes of possible Mongolic or para-Mongolic extraction were also incorporated into the eastern Kipchak conglomerate. Peter Golden argues that the Ölberli were pushed westwards due to socio-political changes among the para-Mongolic Khitans, such as the collapse of the Liao dynasty and formation of the Qara Khitai, and attached themselves to the eastern Kipchak confederation where they eventually came to form a part of the ruling strata and elite. Golden identifies the Ölberli with the Qay whom are recorded as the Xi in Chinese sources and Tatabı in Turkic inscriptions, and were of Mongolic or para-Mongolic background - likely stemming from the Xianbei.[6][7]

Chinese histories only mentioned the Kipchaks a few times: for example, Yuan general Tutuha's origin from Kipchak tribe Ölberli,[8] or some information about the Kipchaks' homeland, horses, and the Kipchaks' physiognomy and psychology.[9][10][11]

Kipchak-style helmet, 13th century

The Kipchaks were first unambiguously mentioned in Persian geographer ibn Khordadbeh's Book of Roads and Kingdoms as a northernly Turkic tribe, after Toquz Oghuz, Karluks, Kimeks, Oghuz, J.f.r (either corrupted from Jikil or representing Majfar for Majğar), Pechenegs, Türgesh, Aðkiš, and before Yenisei Kirghiz.[12] Kipchaks possibly appeared in the 8th-century Moyun Chur inscription as Türk-Qïbchaq, mentioned as having been part of the Turkic Khaganate for fifty years;[13] even so, this attestation is uncertain as damages on the inscription leave only -čq (𐰲𐰴) (*-čaq or čiq) readable.[14] It is unclear if the Kipchaks could be identified with, according to Klyashtorny, the [Al]tï Sir in the Orkhon inscriptions (薛延陀; pinyin: Xuè-Yántuó),[15][16][17] or with the Juéyuèshī (厥越失) in Chinese sources;[13][18] however, Zuev (2002) identified 厥越失 Juéyuèshī (< MC *kiwat-jiwat-siet) with toponym Kürüshi in the Ezhim river valley (Ch. Ayan < MCh. 阿豔 *a-iam < OTrk. Ayam) in Tuva Depression.[19] Linguist Bernard Karlgren and some Soviet scholars (e.g. Lev Gumilyov[20]) attempted to connect the Kipchaks to the Qūshé ~ Qūshí (屈射), a people once conquered by the Xiongnu; however, Golden deems this connection unlikely, considering 屈射's Old Chinese pronunciation *khut m-lak and Eastern Han Chinese *kʰut źa ~ kʰut jak/jɑk (as reconstructed by Schuessler, 2009:314,70).[lower-alpha 1][22][23] The relationship between the Kipchaks and Cumans is unclear.[13]

While part of the Turkic Khaganate, they most likely inhabited the Altai region.[13] When the Khaganate collapsed, they became part of the Kimek confederation, with which they expanded to the Irtysh, Ishim and Tobol rivers.[13] They then appeared in Islamic sources.[13] In the 9th century Ibn Khordadbeh indicated that they held autonomy within the Kimek confederation.[13] They entered the Kimek in the 8th- or beginning of 9th century, and were one of seven original tribes.[24] In the 10th-century Hudud al-'Alam it is said that the Kimek appointed the Kipchak king.[13] The Kimek confederation, probably spearheaded by the Kipchaks, moved into Oghuz lands, and Sighnaq in Syr Darya became the Kipchak urban centre.[13] Kipchak remnants remained in Siberia, while others pushed westwards in the Qun migration.[13] As a result, three Kipchak groups emerged:[25]

• Kipchaks of the Pontic–Caspian steppe.
• Kipchaks of the Syr Darya, associated with the Khwarazmian dynasty.
• Kipchaks of Siberia, later composing the Siberian Tatars.

The early 11th century saw a massive Turkic nomadic migration towards the Islamic world.[26] The first waves were recorded in the Kara-Khanid Khanate in 1017–18.[26] It is unknown whether the Cumans conquered the Kipchaks or were simply the leaders of the confederacy of the Kipchak–Turkic tribes.[26] What is certain is that the two peoples gradually mingled politically and that, from the second half of the 12th century onwards, the names Cumans and Kipchaks became interchangeable to refer to the whole confederacy.[27]

Cumania in c. 1200.

The Mongols defeated the Alans after convincing the Kipchaks to desert them through pointing at their likeness in language and culture.[28] Nonetheless, the Kipchaks were defeated next.[28] Under khan Köten, Kipchaks fled to the Principality of Kiev (the Ruthenians), where the Kipchaks had several marriage relations, one of which was Köten's son-in-law Mstislav Mstislavich of Galicia.[28] The Ruthenians and Kipchaks forged an alliance against the Mongols, and met at the Dnieper to locate them.[28] After an eight-day pursuit, they met at the Kalka River (1223).[28] The Kipchaks, who were horse archers like the Mongols, served as the vanguard and scouts.[28] The Mongols, who appeared to retreat, tricked the Ruthenian–Kipchak force into a trap after suddenly emerging behind the hills and surrounding them.[28] The fleeing Kipchaks were closely pursued, and the Ruthenian camp was massacred.[28]

The nomadic Kipchaks were the main targets of the Mongols when they crossed the Volga in 1236.[29] The defeated Kipchaks mainly entered the Mongol ranks, while others fled westward.[29] Köten led 40,000 families into Hungary, where King Bela IV granted them refuge in return for their Christianization.[29] The refugee Kipchaks fled Hungary after Köten was murdered.[29]

After their fall, Kipchaks and Cumans were known to have become mercenaries in Europe and taken as slave warriors. In Egypt, the Mamluks were in part drawn from Kipchaks and Cumans.[30]

In 1239-1240, a large group of Kipchaks fleeing from the Mongols crossed the Danube. This group, which has an estimated population of over 10 thousand, wandered for a long time to find a suitable place to settle in Thrace. John III Doukas Vatatzes, who wanted to prevent Kipchaks invasion of Byzantine lands and to benefit from their military capabilities, invited Kipchaks in Byzantine service. He settled some of them in Anatolia (what is now Turkey), to protect Byzantine from foreign invasions.[31][32][33] When the Ottomans conquered the lands they lived in, these Kipchaks intermixed with the Turkmen and were assimilated among Turks.[34][35][36][37] It is thought that some of the Kipchaks who settled in Western Anatolia during the reign of Nicea Emperor III. John Doukas Vatatzes are the ancestors of a part of a community called Manav living in Northwest Anatolia today.[38][39][40][41][42][43]

Another Kipchak migration in Anatolia dates back to the period of the Chobanids Beylik, which ruled around Kastamonu (a city in Anatolia). Hüsameddin Emir Çoban, one of the Seljuk emirs, crossed the Black Sea and made an expedition to the Kipchak steppes and returned with countless booty and slaves. As a result of the expedition, a few Kipchak families in Crimea were brought to Sinop by sea via Sudak and settled in the Western Black Sea region. In addition, maritime trade intensified with the Crimea and Kipchak regions in the Isfendiyarids Beylik.[35]

The Kipchak–Cuman confederation spoke a Turkic language.[26] Mongolian linguistic elements in the Kipchak–Kimek confederation remain "unproven."[26] though that confederation's constituent Tatar tribe were possibly Turkified Mongolic speakers.[44]

Kipchaks and Cumans spoke a Turkic language (Kipchak language, Cuman language) whose most important surviving record is the Codex Cumanicus, a late 13th-century dictionary of words in Kipchak, Cuman, and Latin. The presence in Egypt of Turkic-speaking Mamluks also stimulated the compilation of Kipchak/Cuman-Arabic dictionaries and grammars that are important in the study of several old Turkic languages.

When members of the Armenian diaspora moved from the Crimean peninsula to the Polish-Ukrainian borderland, at the end of the 13th century, they brought Kipchak, their adopted Turkic language, with them.[45] During the 16th and the 17th centuries, the Turkic language among the Armenian communities of the Kipchak people was Armeno-Kipchak. They were settled in the Lviv and Kamianets-Podilskyi areas of what is now Ukraine.[46]

The literary form of the Cuman language became extinct in the 18th century in the region of Cumania in Hungary. Cuman in Crimea, however, became the ancestor of the central dialect of Crimean Tatar.[47]

The Kipchaks practiced Tengrism.[48] Muslim conversion occurred near Islamic centres.[48] Some Kipchaks and Cumans were known to have converted to Christianity around the 11th century, at the suggestion of the Georgians, as they allied in their conflicts against the Muslims. A great number were baptized at the request of Georgian King David IV, who also married a daughter of Kipchak Khan Otrok. From 1120, there was a Kipchak national Christian church and an important clergy.[49] Following the Mongol conquest, Islam rose in popularity among the Kipchaks of the Golden Horde.[50]

An early description of the physical appearance of Kipchaks comes from the Great Ming Code, the supreme legal code of the Ming dynasty of China, which was finalized in the year 1397 AD. The Great Ming Code enforced consentual marriage between Chinese, Mongol and semu ren people.[53] However, the law made an exemption stating that the Kipchaks and Han Chinese were not required to marry each other.[54]

The Kipchaks are described as having blond or red hair, blue or green eyes[9][55][56] and an overall appearance that was considered "vile" and just too foreign. Han Chinese were not attracted to those features.

Thus, Kipchaks were not obligated to marry Chinese:

"if Chinese persons do not wish to marry Qincha [Kipchak] or Hui Muslims, the latter may marry among their own race."[57]

"...Kipchaks have light hair and blue eyes. Their appearance is vile and peculiar, so there are those who do not wish to marry them."[58][59]

— (Da Ming lü jijie fuli 6.36b)

The 17th century Chinese author Xu Qianxue, wrote of the Kipchaks:

They customarily sleep armed and armored; they are courageous, fierce, firm, and vehement; [they are] blue/green-eyed and red-haired.[9][60]

— Zizhi Tongjian Houbian

Russian anthropologist Oshanin (1964: 24, 32) notes that the ‘Mongoloid’ phenotype, characteristic of modern Kipchak-speaking Kazakhs and Qirghiz, prevails among the skulls of the historical Qipchaq and Pecheneg nomads found across Central Asia and Ukraine; Lee & Kuang (2017) propose that Oshanin's discovery is explainable by assuming that the historical Kipchaks' modern descendants are Kazakhs, whose men possess a high frequency of haplogroup C2's subclade C2b1b1 (59.7 to 78%).

Lee and Kuang also suggest that the high frequency (63.9%) of the Y-DNA haplogroup R-M73 among Karakypshaks (a tribe within the Kipchaks) allows inference about the genetics of Karakypshaks' medieval ancestors, thus explaining why some medieval Kipchaks were described as possessing "blue [or green] eyes and red hair.[61]

A genetic study published in Nature in May 2018 examined the remains of two Kipchak males buried between c. 1000 AD and 1200 AD.[62] One male was found to be a carrier of the paternal haplogroup C[63] and the maternal haplogroup F1b1b,[64] and displayed "increased East Asian ancestry".[65] The other male was found to be a carrier of the maternal haplogroup D4[66] and displayed "pronounced European ancestry".[65]

Kipchak confederations

• Ayyub Khan (fl. 1117), Kipchak leader
• Bačman (fl. 1229–1236), Kipchak leader in the Lower Volga
• Qačir-üküle (fl. 1236), Kipchak leader in the Lower Volga
• Köten (fl. 1223–1239), Kipchak leader

Kipchak ancestry

• Al-Mansur Qalawun, Mamluk sultan of Egypt (r. 1279–1290)
• Baibars, Mamluk sultan of Egypt (r. 1260–1277)
• El Temür, chancellor of the Chinese-Mongolian Yuan dynasty
• Faris ad-Din Aktai, Mamluk emir
• Nasir ad-Din Qabacha, Mamluk Sultan of Multan

History of the Turkic peoples pre–14th century
Mural of Turkic cavalry, Beshbalik, 10th c.
Turkic peoples Oghuz Turks Karluks Kipchaks Onogurs Kumyks Yakuts Dolgans Krymchaks Sabir people Crimean Karaites
Turkic Languages Turkish Azerbaijani Uzbek Kazakh Uyghur Turkmen Tatar Kyrgyz Bashkir Chuvash Qasgqai Karakalpak Sakha Kumyk Karachay-Balkar Tuvan Gagauz Karaim Krymchak
Turkic Mythology Belief system: Tengrism and Shamanism Chief gods and goddesses: Kayra and Ülgen Epics and heroes: Ergenekon and Asena Major concepts: Sheka and Grey wolf
Pre-14th century Yenisei Kyrgyz People 202 BCE–13th CE Yenisei Kyrgyz Khaganate Dingling 71 BC–?? AD Tiele (Gaoche) Göktürks First Turkic Khaganate 552–581 Western Turkic Khaganate 581–657 (Tokhara Yabghus, Turk Shahis) Eastern Turkic Khaganate 581–650 Second Turkic Khaganate 682–744 Sabiri People Khazar Khaganate 618–1048 Xueyantuo 628–646 Kangar union 659–750 Turk Shahi 665-850 Türgesh Khaganate 699–766 Kimek confederation 743–1035 Uyghur Khaganate 744–840 Oghuz Yabgu State 750–1055 Karluk Yabgu State 756–940 Kara-Khanid Khanate 840–1212 Western Kara-Khanid Eastern Kara-Khanid Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom 848–1036 Qocho 856–1335 Pecheneg Khanates 860–1091 Ghaznavid Empire 963–1186 Seljuk Empire 1037–1194 Sultanate of Rum Cuman–Kipchak confederation 1067–1239 Khwarazmian Empire 1077–1231 Kerait Khanate 11th century–13th century Atabegs of Azerbaijan 1136–1225 Delhi Sultanate 1206–1526 Mamluk dynasty Khalji dynasty Tughlaq dynasty Qarlughid Kingdom 1224–1266 Golden Horde 1242–1502 Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo) 1250–1517 Bahri dynasty Ottoman State 1299–1922

• Manav People
• Kipchaks in Georgia
• Afghan Kypchaks
• Nağaybäk
• History of the central steppe

• Agajanov, S. G. (1992). "The States of the Oghuz, the Kimek and the Kipchak". History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume IV: The Age of Achievement AD 750 to the End of the Fifteenth Century. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 61–76. ISBN 978-81-208-1595-7.
• Damgaard, P. B.; et al. (May 9, 2018). "137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes". Nature. Nature Research. 557 (7705): 369–373. Bibcode:2018Natur.557..369D. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0094-2. hdl:1887/3202709. PMID 29743675. S2CID 13670282. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
• Ergin, Muharrem (1980). Orhun Abideleri (in Turkish). İstanbul: Boğaziçi Yayınları.
• Golden, Peter B. (1990). "The peoples of the south Russian steppes". In Sinor, Denis (ed.). The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge University Press. pp. 256–284. ISBN 978-0-521-24304-9.
• Golden, Peter B. (1992). An Introduction to the History of the Turkic People. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden.
• Golden, Peter B. (2014). Nurettin Demir (ed.). "Qıpčaq". Turcology and Linguistics. Éva Ágnes Csató Festschrift.
• Klyashtorny, Sergey (2005). "The Polovcian Problems (II): Qipčaqs, Comans, and Polovcians". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. Szeged, Hungary: Akadémiai Kiadó. 58 (3): 243–248. doi:10.1556/AOrient.58.2005.5.2. JSTOR 23658648.
• Lee, Joo-Yup; Kuang, Shuntu (2017-10-18). "A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Historical Sources and y-dna Studies with Regard to the Early and Medieval Turkic Peoples". Inner Asia. 19 (2): 197–239. doi:10.1163/22105018-12340089. ISSN 2210-5018.
• May, Timothy (7 November 2016). The Mongol Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 221–. ISBN 978-1-61069-340-0.
• Roux, Jean-Paul (1997). L'Asie Centrale, Histoire et Civilization. Librairie Arthème-Fayard. ISBN 978-2-213-59894-9.
• Vásáry, István (2005). Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185–1365. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-5218-3756-9.
• Zuev, Yury (2002). Rannie tyurki: ocherki istorii i ideologii (in Russian). Almaty: Daik Press.

• "Kipchak" Encyclopædia Britannica, Academic Edition. 2006.
• "Polovtsi" The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001–2005.
• Boswell, A. Bruce. "The Kipchak Turks." The Slavonic Review 6.16 (1927): 68–85.
• Golden, Peter B. (2009). "QEPČĀQ". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
• Győrfi, Dávid. "Khwarezmian: Mapping the Kipchak component of Pre-Chagatai Turkic." Acta Orientalia 67.4 (2014): 383–406.
• Shanijazov, K. "Early Elements in the Ethnogenesis of the Uzbeks." The Nomadic Alternative: Modes and Models of Interaction in the African-Asian Deserts and Steppes (1978): 147.
• Ushntskiy, Vasiliy V. "KIPCHAK COMPONENT IN THE SAKHA ETHNOGENESIS." VESTNIK TOMSKOGO GOSUDARSTVENNOGO UNIVERSITETA-ISTORIYA 3 (2015): 97–101.
• Mukhajanova, T. N., and A. M. Asetilla. "KIPCHAK" ETHNONYM AND THE HISTORY OF ITS ORIGIN." International Scientific and Practical Conference World science. Vol. 3. No. 12. ROST, 2016.
• Baski, Imre. "On the ethnic names of the Cumans of Hungary." Kinship in the Altaic World. Proceedings of the 48th PIAC (2006): 43–54.
• Róna-Tas, András. "The reconstruction of Proto-Turkic and the genetic question." (1998).
• Biro, M. B. "The «Kipchaks» in the Georgian Martyrdom of David and Constantin." Annales. Sectio linguistics 4 (1973).
• Kadyrbaev, Aleksandr. "Turks (Uighurs, Kipchaks and Kanglis) in the history of the Mongols." Acta Orientalia 58.3 (2005): 249–253.
• Halperin, Charles J. "The Kipchak Connection: The Ilkhans, the Mamluks and Ayn Jalut." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 63.2 (2000): 229–245.
• Eckmann, János. "The Mamluk-Kipchak Literature." Central Asiatic Journal (1963): 304–319.
• Csáki, E. (2006). Middle Mongolian loan words in Volga Kipchak languages. Turcologica, Bd. 67. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-05381-X
• Galip Güner (2013), Kıpçak Türkçesi Grameri, Kesit Yayınları, İstanbul.
• Grousset, René (1970). The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-1304-1.
• Hildinger, Erik (1997), Warriors of the Steppe: Military History of Central Asia, 500 BC To 1700 AD. Da Capo Press.
• Howorth, Henry Hoyle (2008) [1880]. History of the Mongols from the 9th to the 19th Century, Part 2: The So-Called Tartars of Russia and Central Asia. Cosimo, Inc. ISBN 978-1-60520-134-4.
• Mustafa Argunşah, Galip Güner (2015), Codex Cumanicus, Kesit Yayınları, İstanbul.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kipchaks.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kipchaks.

• Codex Cumanicus
• Kipchak dateline at the Wayback Machine (archived October 13, 2004)
• Murad ADJI, The Kipchaks