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Kipchak




Kipchaks (also spelled as ''Kypchaks'', ''Qipchaqs'', ''Qypchaqs'') ( (polovtsy), , , 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 Ukraine and Russia , or by other names, most of which have the meaning "pale", or "sallow". Their language was also known as Kipchak .


HISTORY


Kipchaks were a confederation of pastoralists and warriors of Turkic origin who lived in yurts (movable tents), known in Ukrainian and Russian as ''Polovtsy'', 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 Nomad ic 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 Knyaz of Kyiv Rus Vladimir Monomakh in the 12th Century , and finally crushed by the Mongol s 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 .


LANGUAGE & CULTURE

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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 Language s 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 .
Kipchak is also the name of a Kyrgyz Tribe within modern-day Kyrgyzstan .

There is also a village named 'Kipchak' existent in Crimea .

The word "kypchak" is found in traditional Oghuz Turks Khan Epics .


SEE ALSO



SOURCES AND NOTES

  • "Kipchak". Encyclopædia Britannica, Academic Edition. 2006.

  • "Polovtsi". The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05.



FURTHER READING

  • Csáki, E. (2006). ''Middle Mongolian loan words in Volga Kipchak languages''. Turcologica, Bd. 67. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 344705381X



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