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The Kipchaks or Qipchaqs, also known as Kipchak Turks or Polovtsians, were Turkic nomads and then a confederation that existed in the Middle Ages inhabiting parts of the Eurasian Steppe.

First mentioned in the eighth century as part of the Second Turkic Khaganate, they most likely inhabited the Altai region from where they expanded over the following centuries, first as part of the Kimek–Kipchak confederation and later as part of a confederation with the Cumans. There were groups of Kipchaks in the Pontic–Caspian steppe, China, Syr Darya and Siberia. Cumania was conquered by the Mongol Empire in the early 13th century.

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]

On 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]

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).^[a][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]

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]} The Kipchaks who settled in Western Anatolia during the reign of Nicea Emperor III. John Doukas Vatatzes are the ancestors 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 (Kipchak language, Cuman language)^[26] 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.^[44] 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.^[45]

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.^[46]

Mongolian linguistic elements in the Kipchak–Kimek confederation remain "unproven";^[26] though that confederation's constituent Tatar tribe possibly had been Mongolic speakers who later underwent Turkification.^[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]

The confederation or tribal union which Kipchaks entered in the 8th- or beginning of 9th century as one of seven original tribes is known in historiography as that of the Kimek (or Kimäk).^[24] Turkic inscriptions do not mention the state with that name.^[51] 10th-century Hudud al-'Alam mentions the "country of Kīmāk", ruled by a khagan (king) who has eleven lieutenants that hold hereditary fiefs.^[52] Furthermore, Andar Az Khifchāq is mentioned as a country (nāḥiyat) of the Kīmāk, 'of which inhabitants resemble the Ghūz in some customs'.^[52]

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 the seven original tribes.^[24] In the 10th-century's Hudud al-'Alam it is said that the Kimek appointed the Kipchak king.^[13]

The looks of a typical Kipchak are a matter of debate. This is because in spite of their Eastern origins, several sources point at them being white, blue-eyed, and blond. It is important to elaborate, however, that the full range of available data sketches a more complex picture. While the written sources often emphasize a fair complexion the craniometric and genetic data, as well as some historical descriptions, support the image of a people highly heterogenous in appearance. Skulls with East Asian features are often found in burials associated with the Kipchaks in Central Asia and Europe.^[53]

An early description of the physical appearance of Kipchaks comes from the Great Ming Code (大明律) Article 122,^[54] in which they were described as overall 'vile' and having blonde/red hair and blue/green eyes. Han Chinese were not required to marry with Kipchaks.^[55][56] Fair complexion, e.g. red hair and blue or green eyes, were already noted by the Chinese for some other ancient Turkic tribes, such as the Yenisei Kirghiz, while the Tiele (to whom the Qun belonged) were not described as foreign looking, i.e. they were likely East Asian in appearance.^[57] It is noted that "Chinese histories also depict the Turkic-speaking peoples as typically possessing East/Inner Asian physiognomy, as well as occasionally having West Eurasian physiognomy." Lee and Kuang believe it is likely "early and medieval Turkic peoples themselves did not form a homogeneous entity and that some of them, non-Turkic by origin, had become Turkicised at some point in history."^[58] The Yenisei Kirghiz are among those suggested to be of turkicised or part non-Turkic origin. According to Lee & Kuang, who cite Chinese historical descriptions as well as genetic data, the turcophone "Qirghiz" may have been of non-Turkic origin, and were later Turkified through inter-tribal marriage.^[58] Gardizi believed the red hair and white skin of the Kipchaks was explained by mixing with the "Saqlabs" (Slavs), while Lee & Kuang note the non-Turkic components to be better explained by historical Iranian-speaking nomads.^[58]

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 inferrence about the genetics of Karakypshaks' medieval ancestors, thus explaining why some medieval Kipchaks were described as possessing "blue [or green] eyes and red hair.^[58]

A genetic study published in Nature in May 2018 examined the remains of two Kipchak males buried between c. 1000 AD and 1200 AD.^[59] One male was found to be a carrier of the paternal haplogroup C2^[60] and the maternal haplogroup F1b1b,^[61] and displayed "increased East Asian ancestry".^[62] The other male was found to be a carrier of the maternal haplogroup D4^[63] and displayed "pronounced European ancestry".^[62]

The modern Northwestern branch of the Turkic languages is often referred to as the Kipchak branch. The languages in this branch are mostly considered to be descendants of the Kipchak language, and the people who speak them may likewise be referred to as Kipchak peoples. Some of the groups traditionally included are the Manavs, Karachays, Siberian Tatars, Nogays, Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Volga Tatars, and Crimean Tatars. There is also a village named Kipchak in Crimea. Qypshaq, which is a development of "Kipchak" in the Kazakh language, is one of the constituent tribes of the Middle Horde confederation of the Kazakh people. The name Kipchak also occurs as a surname in Kazakhstan. Some of the descendants of the Kipchaks are the Bashkirian clan Qipsaq.^[64]

Radlov believed that among the current languages Cuman is closest to the Mishar dialect of the Tatar language.^[65] Especially the regional Mishar dialects of Sergachsky district have been named as "faithfully close to original Kipchak".^[66]

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
Turkic peoples Onogurs Oghuz Turks Saragurs Utigurs Bulgars Sabir Kutrigurs Karluks Kimek Kipchaks Cherniye Klobuki Uyghurs Tatars Kumyks Yakuts Dolgans Krymchaks 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–Kipchak 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

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