Kipchaks
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kipchaks (also spelled as Kypchaks, Qipchaqs, Qypchaqs) (Crimean Tatar: Qıpçaq, Karachay-Balkar: Къыпчакъ, Uzbek: Qipchoq, Қипчоқ, Kazakh: Қыпшақ, Kumyk: Къыпчакъ, Nogai: Кыпчак, Chinese: 欽察/钦察, Qīnchá, Turkish: Kıpçak) were an ancient Turkic people, first mentioned in the historical chronicles of Central Asia in the 1st millennium BC. The western Kipchaks were known as Cumans (Kuman, Kuns) in Western Europe and Polovtsy (Polovtsians) in Russia and Ukraine, or by other names, most of which have the meaning "pale", or "sallow". Their language was also known as Kipchak.
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[edit] History
Kipchaks were a confederation of pastoralists and warriors of Turkic origin who lived in yurts (movable tents), known in Russian as Polovtsi, coming from the region of the River Irtysh. Some tribes of the Kipchak confederation probably originated near the Chinese borders and, after having moved into western Siberia by the 9th century, migrated further west into the trans-Volga region (now western Kazakstan).
They occupied a vast, sprawling territory in the Eurasian steppe, stretching from north of the Aral Sea westward to the region north of the Black Sea (now in Ukraine and southwestern Russia) and founded a nomadic state (Desht-i Qipchaq). They invaded the territory of Moldavia, Wallachia and part of Transylvania in the 11th century, and from there they continued their plundering of the Byzantine Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary.
In the late 11th and early 12th centuries they became involved in various conflicts with the Byzantines, Kievan Rus, the Hungarians, and the Pechenegs, allying themselves with one or the other side at different times. In 1089, they were defeated by Ladislaus I of Hungary, again by Russian Prince Vladimir Monomakh in the 12th century, and finally crushed by the Mongols in 1241. After the breakup of the Mongol empire, the Kipchaks became the part of the khanate comprising present-day Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, called the Golden Horde, the westernmost division of the Mongol empire.
The Kuman, or western Kipchak tribes, fled to Hungary, and some of their warriors became mercenaries for the Latin crusaders and the Byzantines. Members of the Bahri dynasty, the first dynasty of Mamelukes in Egypt, were Kipchaks, one of the most prominent examples being Sultan Baybars, born in Solhat, Crimea.
[edit] Language & Culture
The Kipchak spoke a Turkic language whose most important surviving record is the Codex Cumanicus, a late 13th-century dictionary of words in Kipchak and Latin. The presence in Egypt of Turkic-speaking Mamluks also stimulated the compilation of Kipchak-Arabic dictionaries and grammars that are important in the study of several old Turkic languages.
The modern Northwestern Turkic languages are named after the Kipchaks. Some of the descendants of the Kipchaks are now known as Siberian Tatars, Nogays, Kazakhs, Tatars (partly), Crimean Tatars (partly), Karachays (partly), Krymchaks, Karaims (partly), Kumyks (partly).
According to some accounts, Kipchaks have somewhat descended into modern Kyrgyz and Kazakh ethnic populations.
Kipchak is also the name of a Kazakh tribe within modern-day Kazakhstan.
There is also a village named 'Kipchak' existent in Crimea.
The word "kypchak" is found in traditional Oghuz Turks Khan Epics[citation needed].
[edit] See also
- Bahri dynasty
- Battle of the Stugna River
- Battle of the Kalka River
- Codex Cumanicus
- Cumans
- Khazars
- Kipchaks in Georgia
- Mamelukes
- Pechenegs
- Tale of Igor's Campaign
[edit] Sources and notes
- "Kipchak". Encyclopædia Britannica, Academic Edition. 2006.
- "Polovtsi". The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05.
