Kimek

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Kmek or Kimak is one of the Turkic tribes known from Arab and Persian Middle Age geographers and writers as being one of the seven tribes in the Kimak Kaganate in the period of 743-1050 AD. The other six constituent tribes per Abu Said Gardizi (d. 1061) were Yamak, Kipchaks, Tatars, Bayandur, Lanikaz, and Ajlad. Medieval Chinese geographers did not know the name Kimaks, just as names Chumuhun and Üeban were not known by Arabian and Persian geographers, all these names refer to the same Kimak tribe^[1].

Chinese annals call Üeban tribes a "Weak Huns" division, listing Chumuhun among them. From 155 to 166 AD Syanbi (Chinese Xianbei, Xiānbēi, Hsien-pei, etc) organized a state, and took over the lands of the Hun empire streaching for 6,5 thousand km from Ussuri to Volga and Urals. After that, future Kipchaks Dinlins were pushed into Sayan mountains and faded from the records, strongest Huns reached Europe, where surrounded with new Ugrian and Caucasian allies they finished with dominance of Alans, Goths and reached Rome. And the "Weak Huns" Üebans remained in Jety-Su and established a princedom that existed till the 5th century AD. While severe defeats from the Huns created them reputation of bandits and robbers among many western European peoples, the Chinese authors characterized them as most cultural people of all "barbarians"^[2].

In the 2nd century AD Üeban Huns settled in Tarbagatai, and later spread to Jety-Su. In the 5th century Üeban Huns were conquered by Uigurs and separated into four tribes: Chuüe, Chumi, Chumugun, Chuban. Not later then in the 436 AD the Central Asian Huns in the Jety-Su formed a possession Üeban, and sent an embassy to China to seek aliance against Jujans. A.N.Bernshtam equated it with the tribal name Chuban, with its related Chuy tribes Chuüe, Chumi, Chumugun, two divisions of Chuban and Shato (descended from Chuüe), all of them are descendants of the Huns^[3]. A part of Chuüe intermixed with Türküts and formed a tribe Shato, which lived in So.Djungaria, to the west from the lake Barkul^[4]. The Chuy tribes are known as a consolidated group from the 6th c. AD. In the Western Turkic Kaganate the Chuy tribes occupied a privileged position of being voting members of the confederation, same as the Nushibi tribes. The Shato Turks in the middle of the 7th century separated from Chuüe, and presently are a well known ethnical group listed in the censuses taken in the Tzarist Russia and in the 20th c.

After the disintegration in the 743 AD of the Western Türkic Kaganate, a part of Chuy tribes remained in its successor Uigur Kaganate state (740-840), and another part retained their independence^[5]. During that period the Chuy tribes consolidated into nucleus of the tribes known as Kimaks in the Arab and Persian sources^[6]. The head of the Kimak confederation had a title "Shad Tutuk", i.e. "Prince Governing, or Ruling”^[7]. By the middle of the 8 c., Kimaks occupied territory between the rivers Yaik and Emba, and the Aral and Caspian steppes, to the Jety-Su area. After the 840 AD breakup of the Uigur Kaganate, Kimaks headed a new political tribal union, creating a new Kimak Kaganate state, a federation of seven tribes, seven Khanlyks. Abu Said Gardizi (d. 1061) wrote that Kimak federation consisted of seven tribes: Kimaks (Imak, Imek, Yemek), Imi, Tatars, Bayandur, Kypchak, Lanikaz and Adjlad. Later, an expanded Kimak Kaganate partially controlled territories of Oguz, Kangly, and Bagjanak tribes, and in the west bordered Khazarian and Bulgarian territories. Kimaks led a semi-settled life, while Kypchaks were predominantly nomadic herders.

In the beginning of the 11 c. the Kypchak Khanlyk moved west, occupying lands that earlier belonged to Oguzes. After seizing Oguz lands, Kypchaks grew considerably stronger, and the Kimaks became dependents of the Kypchaks. Kimak Kaganate fall in the middle of the 11th c. was caused by the migration of the Central Asian Mongolian-speaking nomads pushed by the Mongolian-speaking Kidan state Lyao which formed in the 916 AD in the Northern China. The Kidan nomads occupied Kimak and Kypchak lands west of Irtysh. In the 11th-12th cc. a Mongol-speaking Naiman tribe in its westward move displaced Kimaks-Kypchaks from the Mongolian Altai and Upper Irtysh.

Between the 9th and 13th centuries Kimak nomadic tribes were coaching in the steppes of the modern Astrakhan Oblast of Russia. A portion of the Kimaks that left the Ob-Irtysh interfluvial joined the Kipchak confederation that survived until Mongol invasion, and later united with the Nogay confederation of the Kipchak descendents. The last organized tribes of the called Nogays in the Russian sources were disperced with Russian construction of 'zaseka' bulwarks in the Don and Volga areas in the 17-18 cc., which separated the catlle breeding populations from their summer pastures, and another part of the Nogays were deported from the Budjak steppes after Russian conquest of W. Ukraine and Moldova in the 18th and early 19th c.

[edit] External links

http://www.ozturkler.com/data_english/0001/0001_16.htm The Kimek People

[edit] Literature

Faizrakhmanov G., "Ancient Turks in Sibiria and Central Asia" Kazan, 'Master Lain', 2000, ISBN 5-93139-069-3
Gumilev L.N., "Ancient Turks", Moscow, 'Science', 1967
Gumilev L.N., "Hunnu in China", Moscow, 'Science', 1974
Kimball L., "The Vanished Kimak Empire", Western Washington U., 1994
Pletneva S.A., "Kipchaks", Moscow, 'Science', 1990, ISBN 5-02-009542-7

[edit] References

^ Gumilev L.N. Ancient Turks, Moscow, 'Science', 1967, Ch.27 http://gumilevica.kulichki.net/OT/ot27.htm
^ Gumilev L.N. Ancient Turks, Moscow, 'Science', 1967, Ch.15 http://gumilevica.kulichki.net/OT/ot15.htm
^ Gumilev L.N. Ancient Turks, Moscow, 'Science', 1967, Ch.22 http://gumilevica.kulichki.net/OT/ot22.htm
^ Gumilev L.N. Ancient Turks, Moscow, 'Science', 1967, Ch.20 http://gumilevica.kulichki.net/OT/ot20.htm
^ Faizrakhmanov G. "Ancient Turks in Siberia and Central Asia"
^ S.A.Pletneva, "Kipchaks", p.26
^ Faizrakhmanov G. "Ancient Turks in Sibiria and Central Asia"