Arikah Map

Kipchaks

Kipchaks:Map of Asia and Europe circa 1200 C.E.
Enlarge
Map of Asia and Europe circa 1200 C.E.

Kipchaks (also spelled as Kypchaks, Qipchaqs, Qypchaqs) (Crimean Tatar: Qıpçaq, Karachay-Balkar: Къыпчакъ, Uzbek: Qipchoq, Қипчоқ, Kazakh: Қыпшақ, Kumyk: Къыпчакъ, Nogai: Кыпчак, Chinese: 钦察, Qīnchá, Turkish: Kıpçak) are an ancient Turkic people, first mentioned in the historical chronicles of Central Asia in the 1st millennium BC. Their language was also known as Kipchak. The western Kipchaks are also known as Cumans (Kumans, Kuns) in western Europe, and Polovtsi (Polovtsians) in Russia and Ukraine.


Contents

History

Nomadic Turkic people, known in Russian as Polovtsi, coming from the region of the River Irtysh, conquered what is present day southern Ukraine and Russia in the 11th century and founded a nomadic state in the steppes along the Black Sea (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 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 were part of the khanate comprising present-day Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, called the Golden Horde.

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.

Modern Times

Kipchaks:Kipchak steppe art, as exhibited in Dnepropetrovsk.
Enlarge
Kipchak steppe art, as exhibited in Dnepropetrovsk.

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.

Other

The word "kypchak" is found in traditional Oghuz Turks Khan Epics [citation needed].

See also

Sources

Categories


Articles with unsourced statements | Kipchaks | Turkic peoples | Eurasian nomads

Find

Find

Find