Kipchaks Kumans. The history of the Kipchaks, whom we call Polovtsians
Many historians studying the history of Russia often write about the internecine wars of the princes and their relations with the Cumans, a people who have many ethnonyms: Kipchaks, Kypchaks, Polovtsians, Cumans. More often they talk about the cruelty of that time, but very rarely they touch upon the issue of the origin of the Polovtsians.
It would be very interesting to know and answer questions such as: where did they come from?; how did they interact with other tribes?; what kind of life did they lead?; what was the reason for their migration to the West and was it related to natural conditions?; how did they coexist with the Russian princes?; why did historians write so negatively about them?; how did they disperse?; Are there any descendants of this interesting people among us? The works of orientalists, historians of Russia, and ethnographers should certainly help us answer these questions, on which we will rely.
In the 8th century, almost during the existence of the Great Turkic Khaganate (Great El), a new ethnic group emerged in the Central and Eastern parts of modern Kazakhstan - the Kipchaks. The Kipchaks, who came from the homeland of all Turks - from the western slopes of Altai - united the Karluks, Kyrgyz, and Kimaks under their rule. All of them received the ethnonym of their new owners. In the 11th century, the Kipchaks gradually moved towards the Syr Darya, where the Oguzes roamed. Fleeing from the warlike Kipchaks, they moved to the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region. Almost the entire territory of modern Kazakhstan becomes the domain of the Kypchak people, which is called the Kypchak Steppe (Dasht-i-Kipchak).
The Kipchaks began to move to the West, for almost the same reason as once the Huns, who began to suffer defeats from the Chinese and Xianbeans only for the reason that a terrible drought began in the eastern steppe, which disrupted the favorable development of the Xiongnu power, created by the great Shanyu Mode . The resettlement to the western steppes turned out to be not so easy, since clashes constantly occurred with the Oguzes and Pechenegs (Kangls). However, the resettlement of the Kipchaks was favorably influenced by the fact that the Khazar Kaganate, as such, no longer existed, because before that, the rise in the level of the Caspian Sea flooded many settlements of the Khazars who settled on the shores of the Caspian Sea, which clearly damaged their economy. The end of this state was defeat from the cavalry Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich. The Kipchaks crossed the Volga and advanced to the mouth of the Danube. It was at this time that the Kipchaks acquired such ethnonyms as Cumans and Polovtsians. The Byzantines called them Cumans. And Polovtsy, Kipchaks began to be called in Rus'.
Let's look at the ethnonym “Polovtsy”, because it is around this name of the ethnic group (ethnonym) that there are so many disputes, since there are a lot of versions. We will highlight the main ones:
So, the first version. The ethnonym “Polovtsy,” according to nomadic scholars, comes from “polov,” that is, straw. Modern historians judge from this name that the Kipchaks were fair-haired, and maybe even blue-eyed. Probably, the Polovtsians were Caucasoid and it was not for nothing that our Russian princes, who came to the Polovtsian kurens, often admired the beauty of the Polovtsian girls, calling them “red Polovtsian girls.” But there is another statement by which we can say that the Kipchaks were a European ethnic group. I appeal to Lev Gumilyov: “Our ancestors were friends with the Polovtsian khans, married “red Polovtsian girls,” (there are suggestions that Alexander Nevskiy was the son of a Polovtsian woman), accepted the baptized Polovtsians into their midst, and the descendants of the latter became Zaporozhye and Sloboda Cossacks, replacing the traditional Slavic suffix “ov” (Ivanov) with the Turkic “enko” (Ivanenko).”
The next version is also somewhat reminiscent of the version mentioned above. The Kipchaks were the descendants of the Sary-Kipchaks, that is, those same Kipchaks who formed in Altai. And “sary” is translated from ancient Turkic as “yellow”. In Old Russian, “polov” means “yellow”. It could be from horse color. The Polovtsians could be called that because they rode poultry horses. The versions, as you can see, diverge.
The first mention of the Polovtsians in Russian chronicles comes down to 1055. Historians like N. M. Karmzin, S. M. Solovyov, V. O. Klyuchevsky, N. I. Kostomarov The Kipchaks were considered terrible, terrible barbarians who had badly battered Rus'. But as Gumilyov said about Kostomarov, that: “It’s more pleasant to blame your neighbor for your own troubles than yourself”.
Russian princes often fought among themselves with such cruelty that one could mistake them for yard dogs that had not shared a piece of meat. Moreover, these bloody civil strife occurred very often and they were more terrible than some small attacks of nomads, say, on the Principality of Pereyaslavl. And here, not everything is as simple as it seems. After all, the princes used the Polovtsy as mercenaries in wars among themselves. Then our historians began to talk about how Rus' allegedly endured the fight against the Polovtsian hordes and defended Europe like a shield from a formidable saber. In short, our compatriots had plenty of fantasies, but they never came to the essence of the matter.
It is interesting that Rus' protected Europeans from the “evil barbarian nomads,” and after that Lithuania, Poland, Swabian Germany, and Hungary began to move to the East, that is, to Rus', to their “defenders.” We really needed to protect the Europeans, but there was no protection at all. Rus', despite its fragmentation, was much stronger than the Polovtsy and those opinions of the historians listed above are unfounded. So we did not protect anyone from nomads and were never the “shield of Europe”, but rather were even a “shield from Europe”.
Let's return to the relationship between Rus' and the Polovtsians. We know that the two dynasties - the Olgovichi and the Monomashichs - became irreconcilable enemies, and the chroniclers, in particular, lean towards the Monomashichs as heroes of the fight against the steppes. However, let's look at this problem objectively. As we know, Vladimir Monomakh concluded “19 peaces” with the Polovtsians, although he cannot be called a “prince peacemaker”. In 1095, he treacherously killed the Polovtsian khans, who agreed to end the war - Itlarya And Kitana. Then the Prince of Kiev demanded that the Prince of Chernigov Oleg Svyatoslavich
either he would have given up his son Itlar, or he would have killed him himself. But Oleg, who would become a good friend of the Polovtsians, refused Vladimir.
Of course, Oleg had enough sins, but still, what could be more disgusting than betrayal? It was from this moment that the confrontation between these two dynasties began - the Olgovichi and Monomashichi.
Vladimir Monomakh was able to carry out a series of campaigns against the Polovtsian nomads and ousted some of the Kipchaks beyond the Don. This part began to serve the Georgian king. The Kipchaks did not lose their Turkic valor. They stopped the onslaught of the Seljuk Turks in Kavakaz. By the way, when the Seljuks captured the Polovtsian kurens, they took physically developed boys and then sold them to the Egyptian Sultan, who raised them to become elite fighters of the caliphate - the Mamluks. In addition to the descendants of the Kipchaks, the descendants of the Circassians, who were also Mamluks, served the Sultan in the Egyptian Caliphate. However, these were completely different units. The Polovtsian Mamluks were called al-Bahr or Bakhrits, and Circassian Mamluks al-Burj. Later, these Mamluks, namely the Bahrits (descendants of the Cumans), would seize power in Egypt under the leadership of Baybars and Kutuza, and then they will be able to repel the attacks of the Mongols of Kitbugi-noyon (Hulaguid state)
Let us return to those Polovtsians who were still able to remain in the North Caucasus steppes, in the northern Black Sea region. In the 1190s, some of the Polovtsian nobility adopted Christianity. In 1223, the commanders of the Mongol army of two tumens (20 thousand people), Jabe And Subedey, made a sudden raid into the rear of the Polovtsians, bypassing the Caucasus ridge. In this regard, the Polovtsians asked for help in Rus', and the princes decided to help them. It is interesting that, according to many historians who had a negative attitude towards the steppe inhabitants, if the Polovtsians are eternal enemies of Rus', then how will they explain such quick, almost allied, help from the Russian princes? However, as you know, the joint troops of the Russians and the Polovtsians were defeated, and not because of, let’s say, the superiority of the enemy, which was not there, but because of their disorganization (the Russians and the Polovtsians numbered 80 thousand people, and the Mongols were only 20 thousand. people). Then followed the complete defeat of the Polovtsians from the temnik Batu. After this, the Kipchaks dispersed and practically ceased to be considered an ethnic group. Some of them dissolved in the Golden Horde, some converted to Christianity and later entered the Principality of Moscow, some, as we said, began to rule in Mamluk Egypt, and some went to Europe (Hungary, Bulgaria, Byzantium). This is where the history of the Kipchaks ends. All that remains is to describe the social system and culture of this ethnic group.
The Polovtsians had a military-democratic system, practically like many other nomadic peoples. Their only problem was that they never submitted to centralized authority. Their kurens were separate, so if they gathered a common army, it happened rarely. Often several kurens united into a small horde, the leader of which was the khan. When some khans united, the kagan was at the head.
Khan occupied the highest position in the horde, and the word “kan” was traditionally added to the names of the Cumans who held this position. After him came the aristocrats who gave orders to the community members. Then the heads who led the ordinary warriors. The lowest social position was occupied by women - servants and convicts - prisoners of war who performed the functions of slaves. As was written above, the horde included a certain number of kurens, which consisted of aul families. A koshevoy was appointed to own the kuren (Turkic “kosh”, “koshu” - nomad, to roam).
“The main occupation of the Cumans was cattle breeding. The main food of simple nomads was meat, milk and millet, and their favorite drink was kumiss. The Polovtsians sewed clothes according to their own steppe patterns. The everyday clothing of the Polovtsians were shirts, caftans and leather trousers. Household chores, reportedly Plano Carpini And Rubruk, usually done by women. The position of women among the Polovtsians was quite high. The norms of behavior of the Cumans were regulated by “customary law.” Blood feud occupied an important place in the system of Polovtsian customs.
For the most part, if we exclude the aristocracy, which began to accept Christianity, then the Polovtsians professed Tengrism
. Just like the Turkuts, the Polovtsians revered wolf
. Of course, shamans called “bashams” also served in their society, who communicated with spirits and treated the sick. In principle, they were no different from the shamans of other nomadic peoples. The Polovtsians developed a funeral cult, as well as a cult of ancestors, which gradually grew into the cult of “hero leaders.” They built mounds over the ashes of their dead and erected the famous Kipchak balbals (“stone women”), erected, as in the Turkic Kaganate, in honor of the warriors who died in the fight for their land. These are wonderful monuments of material culture, reflecting the rich spiritual world of their creators.
The Polovtsians often fought, and military affairs came first for them. In addition to excellent bows and sabers, they also had darts and spears. Most of the troops were light cavalry, consisting of horse archers. Also, the army had heavily armed cavalry, whose warriors wore lamellar armor, plate armor, chain mail, and helmets. In their free time, warriors hunted to hone their skills.
Again, stepophobic historians argued that the Polovtsians did not build cities, but in their lands the cities of Sharukan, Sugrov, Cheshuev, founded by the Polovtsians, are mentioned. In addition, Sharukan (now the city of Kharkov) was the capital of the Western Cumans. According to the historian-traveler Rubruk, the Polovtsians owned Tmutarakan for a long time (according to another version, at that time it belonged to Byzantium). They were probably paid tribute by the Greek Crimean colonies.
Our story about the Polovtsians ends, however, despite the fact that this article does not have enough data about this interesting ethnic group and therefore needs to be supplemented.
Alexander Belyaev, Eurasian Integration Club MGIMO (U).
Bibliography:
- 1. Gumilev L.N. “Ancient Rus' and the Great Steppe.” Moscow. 2010
- 2. Gumilyov L.N. “A millennium around the Caspian Sea.” Moscow. 2009
- 3. Karamzin N. M. “History of the Russian State.” Saint Petersburg. 2008
- 4. Popov A.I. “Kypchaks and Rus'.” Leningrad. 1949
- 5. Grushevsky M. S. “Essay on the history of the Kyiv land from the death of Yaroslav toXIVcenturies." Kyiv. 1891
- 6. Pletnyova S. A. “Polovtsy.” Moscow. 1990
- 7. Golubovsky P.V. « Pechenegs, Torques and Cumans before the Tatar invasion.” Kyiv. 1884
- 8. Plano Carpini J. “History of the Mongols, whom we call Tatars.” 2009 //
- 9. Rubruk G. “Travel to Eastern Countries.” 2011 //
Head (Mongoloid features) of a female statue, 12th century.
Stone sculptures of a woman (left) and a man in the Northern Black Sea region. XII century.
Preface
In the distant past, the vast territory of Eurasia from the lower Danube to the upper reaches of the Irtysh and further through Dzungaria to Mongolia was a steppe expanse, crossed in different directions by mighty rivers and inhabited by numerous nomadic tribes very different in appearance and language but very similar in lifestyle, economy and material culture.
In the XII - early XIII centuries. the main part of the great steppe - from the Dniester to the middle Irtysh - was inhabited by Turkic tribes, known in the written sources of neighboring countries under various ethnonyms (ethnicons): in the Arab-Persian and other eastern countries under the name of the Kipchaks, in Rus' - the Polovtsians, in Byzantium and through its mediation in Western Europe - the Cumans. Moreover, the Kipchaks are not known in Europe, and in the countries of Islam and China they did not know the Cumans and Cumans, in Rus' the Cumans were identified with the Cumans, and in Georgia, the Polovtsians of Khan Atrak, known in Rus', are called Kipchaks (1118). In accordance with ethnonyms, there were geographical designations of the steppe: Desht-i Kipchak in the countries of the East, the Polovtsian Field in Rus' and Kumania in the countries of the West.
Eurasian steppes of the period XI–XIII centuries. well studied by archaeologists and historians, the historical ethnology of the very tribes that inhabited them, whose ethnonyms are reflected in written sources in many countries of Europe and Asia, and which laid the ethnic foundation of many modern peoples, is less studied.
Much remains unclear: whether these tribes constituted a single ethnic group or not, whether they belonged to a single racial type or not, whether they spoke the same language or not. What is the ethnic continuity of these tribes and their supposed biological descendants.
This book is an attempt to answer the questions posed above.
Enjoy reading! I hope that it will be interesting and useful.
Sirs [seyanto] – Kipchaks
Sources: ancient Turkic inscriptions of Tonyukuk and on the monument of Bilge Kagan, 7th century, Chinese dynastic chronicles / “histories” (IV–VIII centuries).
Literature: Klyashtorny S.G. Rock runic monuments of Mongolia.// Turkological collection 1975. M., 1975; Klyashtorny S.G. Kipchaks in runic monuments.// Turcologica. To the 80th anniversary of Academician A.N. Kononova. L., 1986.
Introduction
Until recently, the opinion of A.N. was firmly established in Turkic studies. Bernshtam that the ethnonym “Kypchak” is the original name of the corresponding ethnic group (tribal group) and was first mentioned in the Chinese dynastic chronicle in 201 BC. e. called “kyueshe” (Bernstam, 1951). Currently, the opinion of S.G. is accepted. Klyashtorny that the original ethnonym of the Kipchaks was their ancient Turkic name “Sira”, mentioned in runic inscriptions of the 6th–8th centuries. and known in Chinese sources of the 4th–8th centuries. under the name “se”, and then - “seyanto” (in the 5th century, when the sirs were named together with the Yamtar or Yanto tribes they conquered). The Sirs/Seyantos became Kipchaks later.
In the first centuries of the new era, numerous tribes roamed the steppes from Altai to Khingan, called in Chinese sources the descendants of the Xiongnu and known under the common name “tele” (tegreg - “cart”, i.e. cart makers) or gaogyui (“high carts”) and wandering on peculiar carts. The bodies themselves called themselves “Oguz” (“tribes”) and specific tribes: thus, in the chronicle of the Sui dynasty (581–618) 15 tribal groups were named (Yuange, Seyanto, Dubo, Guligan, Pugu, Kibi, Dolange, bayegu, tunlo, hun (kun), sygye, husye, adye, higye, baysi), at the beginning of the 7th century. a confederation of 10 tribes stands out, not Tele, but Oghuz, including Seyanto, Khoikhu, Kibi, Kun, Sygye, Adye, Tunlo, Baysi, Bayegu, Pugu. After the formation of the First Turkic Khaganate (552), the Tele tribes became part of it, forming the basis of its population and military power. The collapse of the Kaganate into Western and Eastern (603) divided the Tele tribes (and some specific tribal groups, for example, Seyanto) into two parts. Already in 605, the Seyanto, nomadic in the Eastern Tien Shan, rebelled against the Western Turkic Khaganate and migrated to their relatives in Otyuken (Khangai), Eastern Turkic Khaganate, forming a special district there (619) led by Shad, the brother of the Khagan. In 628, an uprising of the Tele (Oghuz) tribes, led by the Seyanto (Sirs) and Khoikhu (Uighurs), broke out against the Eastern Turkic El-Kagan. The Kagan fled to the south, leaving Otuken in rebellion. Taking advantage of the Oghuz uprising, the Tang Emperor Taizong defeated the army of El Kagan and liquidated the Eastern Turkic Khaganate (630). After the fall of the Khaganate, the struggle for power in Khangai between the Seyanto and the Uighurs, which began after the flight of the Khagan, ended with the victory of the Seyanto: the Sirian Khaganate, led by the Ilter dynasty, appeared in Northern Mongolia. The Kaganate included the territory from Altai to Khingan, from the headwaters of the Yenisei to the Gobi, with its headquarters on the northern bank of the Tola River. Administratively, the new khaganate repeated the old (Turkic) khaganate, for example, the division into the western (tardush) and eastern (telis) wings, headed by the shads, the sons of the khagan. In 641, a war broke out between the Syrian Yenchu Bilge Kagan and a relative of the deceased Turkic El Kagan, and after the Sirs defeated this protege of China, they had to fight the Chinese themselves. In 646, the Tokuz-Oghuzs, led by the Uyghurs, rebelled against the Sires. They turned to the Chinese for help and together they defeated the Sires. The Sirian Khaganate (630–646) ceased to exist; an attempt by the Sirians to restore it was suppressed by China in 668. The Sirs, together with their recent rivals the ancient Turks, came under the rule of Tang China and in 679 they launched an anti-Chinese uprising. For two years, the Sirs and Turks fought together against the imperial troops and after the victory (681), they shared power in the restored (second) Turkic Khaganate: in the Tonyukuk inscription (726) they are named together (Turks and Sirs) as the dominant tribes ( Tokuz-Oguz and other tribes were subordinate tribes). In the monument to Bilge Kagan (735), the Turks were called the dominant tribe, the Sirs (“six Sirs” in the source) were the second tribe in the hierarchy of power, the Oghuz and Ediz remained subordinate. However, the power of the Turks and Sirs in the second Turkic Kaganate was tested by a powerful tribal alliance - the Tokuz-Oguz (“nine tribes”) led by the Uyghurs in 687–691, in 714–715. and 723–724, until the next uprising of the Tokuz-Oghuzs ended with the defeat of the second Turkic Kaganate (in 744). The defeated Turks disappeared as an ethnic group, but their ethnonym became the name of a group of languages (Turkic) and the self-name of a completely new people - the Turks. The defeated sire tribes fled from the banks of the Tola and Orkhon to the Northern Altai and Eastern Tien Shan. After 735, when they are mentioned for the last time, their ethnonym disappears, but not their ethnic group, which only changes one name, quite worthy, to another with a derogatory meaning (“unfortunate”) - kybchak (kypchak, kipchak). The history of sirs/seyantos has ended (S.G. Klyashtorny, T.P. Sultanov, 2004, pp. 121–129).
In conclusion about the Sirs/Seyanto, we can add that according to the Chinese chronicles, in particular the Tangshu, the Seyanto were the strongest of the Tele tribes; in their customs, they are similar to the ancient Turks. In any case, the burial rites in the Srostkin archaeological culture, which is considered typical of the Kipchaks, are improved (complicated) of the ancient Turkic rites of corpses with a horse (especially in its development of the second and third stages, IX-XII centuries). Like the ancient Turks, the Seyanto, and after them the Kipchaks, practiced the installation of anthropomorphic monuments to the deceased on mounds...
Kipchaks
Sources: monument to Elitmish Bilge Kagan (Selengit stone, 760), archaeological materials, including paleoanthropology, Chinese chronicles, starting with “Tangshu”; works of Muslim, mainly Arab-Persian authors, especially the works of Ibn Khordadbeh (820-913), “The Boundaries of the World” (Hudud al-Alam) by anonymous (983), Abu-l-Fadl Beyhaki (906-1077), Nasir-i Khosrow (1004–1072), Abu Said Gardizi (11th century, years of life unknown), Mahmud al Kashgari (11th century, years of life unknown), Abu l-Hasan Ali Ibn al Asir ( 1160–1233), Ala al-Din Juwayni (1226–1283), Fazlallah Rashid al-Din (1248–1318).
Main literature: research by S.M. Akhinzhanova, O. Ismagulova, S.G. Klyashtorny, B.E. Kumekova, K.Sh. Shaniyazova.
760 - the inscription on the Elitmish Bilge Kagan monument that the Turks and Kybchaks ruled for fifty years over the Tokuz-Oghuzs, led by the Uyghurs, became the starting date for the appearance of a new ethnonym, which over time became very common in the historiography of the medieval East and outlived the ethnos itself, the bearer this ethnonym...
In the 8th century More than a hundred years passed from the year of the first mention in a narrative source of the name “Kybchak” to their names in the list of Turkic tribes: by this time, when the head of the postal service of one of the regions of Iran during the reign of the Arab caliph al Mutamid (870–892) In his “Book of Ways and Countries” (9th century), Abu-l Kasim Ubaidallah ibn Abdallah Ibn Khordadbeh named a number of Turkic tribes - Toguz-Guzz, Karluk, Guzzi, Kimaks, and including Kipchaks (in Arabic pronunciation Khifchak). It is obvious that after the flight from Otuken (Khangai, modern Mongolia), caused by the defeat of the Second (Eastern) Turkic Khaganate (in 744), and the settlement of the Seyanto in the Northern Altai (in the Tien Shan, northwest of the city of Kashgar in the 11th century Mahmud al Kashgari notes the “neighbors” of the Kipchaks (Nasilov, 2009, p. 290), where they were “discovered” by archaeologists according to a characteristic burial rite, the fugitives settled already on the territory of modern Kazakhstan, where they came to the attention of an official of the Arab Caliphate.Abu Said Gardizi , who lived much later than Ibn Khordadbeh, based on earlier sources in his work “Ornament of News” (c. 1050, when the Kimak state no longer existed) provided interesting data about the origin of the Kimaks, believed to be related to the Kipchaks, about the Kimak state, ethnic composition of its population. The Kipchaks occupied a special region in Kimakia - Andar-az-Khifchak, enjoyed a certain autonomy, but the king was appointed to them by the Kagan of the Kimaks, the Kimaks themselves occupied the Irtysh region and were called Yemeks, the Eymurs (them) and the Bayandurs settled along the Syr-Darya River along in the vicinity of the Oguzes, in which later sources place them. The habitats of the Tatars, Ajlad and Lanikaz are unknown. After the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate (840), new settlers followed to the country of the Kimaks, and they were followed by more after the Khitans, who strengthened in the 10th century, began to displace the Eastern Turks from their ancestral territory. The degree of stability of the nomadic power of the Kimaks was subject to the autonomy of subordinate tribes ruled by “their” kings; it could not withstand the pressure of new migrants, and the “master” changed in the steppe north of Khorezm. This was reported by the Iranian poet and traveler (hence, he knew what he was writing about) Nasir-i Khosrow al Marwazi in his “Collection” (“Divan”, 1030). Traveling through Central Asia, Nasir-i Khosrow knew well the situation in the steppe in the north near the borders of Khorezm, which at that time (11th century) was part of the Seljuk state, so his reports are trustworthy. Nasir-i Khosrow was the first and for a long time to call the vast lands north of the Syr Darya in Persian Desht-i Kipchak, i.e. “Steppe of the Kipchak”, instead of their name by Arab geographers in the 10th century. Maffazat al-guzz (“Oguz steppe”). This meant that: 1) the Oghuz no longer dominated on the borders of Khorezm; later, under pressure from new migrants from the east, they went to the Northern Black Sea region; 2) there was no longer a Kimak state; 3) in the territory from the Irtysh to the Volga, the Kipchaks became the strongest. Those same sirs (seyanto), who after a series of defeats received the name kypchak, i.e. “ill-fated, ill-fated” (Ancient Turkic Dictionary, 1969, p. 449). It is not entirely clear: either the Sirs themselves changed their ethnonym so as not to attract evil spirits, or that is what they were called by their enemies - the Tokuz-Oguz led by the Uyghurs, who defeated the Sirs in 647 and 744. It seems that the second is more likely, since for the first time the sires were so named in the inscription in the monument Uyghur Eletmish-Bilge Kagan (“Kybchak”, 760), and in the list of tribes of Desht-i Kipchak in the writings of Arab-Persian authors the ethnonym Kipchak is absent. Perhaps the semantics of the ethnonym “Kypchak” (“ill-fated”) had not yet been forgotten, like the fate of the Sir Kaganate, and therefore the Kipchaks did not create a single state similar to the Sir or Kimak Kaganates? But having strengthened, they very quickly, according to the testimony of the Khorasan Abu-l-Fazl Beykhaki in his work “The History of Masud” (1035), penetrated into Khorezm and acquired great influence in it. The role of the Kipchaks in the history of Khorezm has been well studied by the Kazakh historian S.M. Akhinzhanov in his work “Kypchaks in the history of medieval Kazakhstan” (Alma-ata, 1989), which became the basis of this study (the involvement of other authors will be specifically discussed with references to their works).
The first information about allied relations between Khorezm and the Kipchak tribes has been known since the end of the 11th century. In 1095, the Seljuk Sultan Sanjar appointed his gulam (slave) Akinji ibn Kochkar from the Kun tribe, ethnically related to the ancestors of the Kipchaks - the Sir tribes, as the Khorezmshah under his control in Khorezm (Kuns together with the Sirs/ Seyanto are mentioned in Chinese sources of the 4th-6th centuries. composition of the Tele tribes). Akinji ibn Kochkar died in 1096, his son Togrul-tegin entered into an alliance with the Kipchaks of Mangyshlak and opposed the Shah of Khorezm in order to return power, but unsuccessfully. The further history of the relationship between Khorezm and the Kipchaks is not known until the end of the 12th century. By this time, certain shifts in the movements and regroupings of tribes had occurred in Desht-i Kipchak, some of them went to the Northern Black Sea region, and the outlines of more or less stable possessions were determined. In Khorezm he ascended the throne, first as a vassal of the Seljuk sultan (1172), and from 1194 as an independent country, the Khorezmshah Abul Muzaffar Tekesh (1172–1200).
In 1182, the center of one of the Kipchak possessions, the city of Sygnak, was captured by the Khorezmshah Tekesh; in the same year, the Kipchak khan Alp-Kara Uranus came to Jend with an expression of humility, possibly caused by the loss of Sygnak. He brought with him his son Kyran, the leader of the “sons of the Yughurs” (apparently the descendants of a group of Uyghurs who fled after the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840 to the Kimaks and recognized the “patronage” of the son of the khan of the dynastic tribe). Khan and his son converted to Islam, and Khorezmshah Tekesh himself married the daughter of Kadyr Khan, the granddaughter of Alp-Kara Khan Uran Terken-Khatun. The Uran tribe, according to S.M. Akhinzhanov, was from the Yemeks, who were descendants of the Mongolian, according to Nesevi, the Kayi tribe. This tribe, having become one of the dynastic ones, enjoyed great influence under Tekesh’s son Khorezmshah Muhammad II (1200–1220), who was under the great influence of his mother, who was from the Uran tribe (according to other authors, she was from the Kangly tribe). People from the Uran tribe occupied important government positions, in particular, the cousin of Khorezmshah Muhammad (his mother's nephew) was appointed governor of the city of Otrar. Already under the reign of the Khorezmshahs Il-Arslan (ruled 1156–1172) and his son Alaeddin Tekesh (1172–1200), mercenaries from among the Kipchaks became the main parts of the Khorezm army. On the eve of the Mongol invasion, the Kipchaks literally flooded the country, forming the basis of the army in peacetime (for example, Terken Khanum had a 10,000-strong detachment of her fellow tribesmen as her personal guard) and armed garrisons of many cities. Struggling with the willfulness of his domineering mother and the insubordination of the “Kipchak relatives” (for example, in 1210 he suppressed the Kipchak uprising near Jend, in 1216 he made a campaign against Kadyr Khan in Desht-i Kipchak, where he met with a Mongol detachment that was pursuing the Merkits) , Muhammad II did not trust the Kipchaks in his troops, this largely explains his avoidance of a decisive battle with the Mongols in 1218–1220. And indeed, only Kair Khan Inalchik, the governor of Otrar and the culprit of the “Otrar tragedy” (the murder of ambassadors and merchants of the Mongol caravan in 1218), feeling the “reckoning” of the desperate defended the city, and then the citadel of the city from superior Mongol forces. Muhammad's son Jalal ad-din was married to a woman of the same tribe as Terken-Khatun, his son was married to the daughter of the khan of the Kangly tribe. Jalal ad-din fought for a long time with the Mongols (and with the peoples of the South Caucasus). Perhaps the Kipchak tribes, related by kinship to the Khorezmshah dynasty, desperately resisted the Mongols, feeling their unenviable fate (Muslim authors, describing the Mongol conquest of Khorezm, do not note the “heroic exploits” of its Kipchak defenders, noting only the merciless destruction of Kangly by the Mongols, perhaps as the most organized and therefore dangerous tribe).
The remaining Kipchak tribes, with the exception of those living in Desht-i Kipchak, fled from Khorezm or went over to the side of the conquerors. Even in Desht-i Kipchak, not all local tribes resisted the Mongols, although written sources do not give an accurate picture of the political situation in Desht-i Kipchak on the eve of and during the Mongol invasion in 1218–1229. Available written sources report only two cases in the position of local tribes in relation to the Mongols. According to the dynasty chronicle “Yuanpi”, one of the military associates of the Mongols, Tutukh, was from the “Qincha” (Kypchak) tribe, whose territory was originally near the Andogan Mountains on the Zhelyanchuan River, from where his tribe migrated to the northwest and settled near the Yuboli Mountains under the “sovereign” » Quyu (c. 1115–1125). According to P. Pellio, the settlers were from the Bayaut tribe (Rashid ad-Dii mentions this tribe on the Selenga River), and the tribe “appropriated” the name “Kipchak” in the new place. According to S. Akhinzhanov, there are two versions similar in that a certain mountain tribe (Andozan) moved near the Yuiliboli mountains (Ural), their leader (Kunan) named his possession Kincha, and the Byauts adopted the ethnonym Yuiliboli (Ilbari, Elbuli, Olburlik); Thus, the Mongolian Bayaut tribe from Selenga became the Turkic “el Burli” (“people of the wolf”). But this is not the main thing. In 1216, it was to this tribe that the Merkits migrated to escape from Genghis Khan. Pursuing the Merkits, the Mongol detachment of Subedei-bagatur was marching; he overtook and defeated the Merkits in the region of the Irgiz River. Whether the Kipchaks allied with them were in the battle with the Merkits - there is no answer in the source. Fearing the Mongols' revenge for the Kipchaks' consent to accept the Merkits, the son of the "guilty" Khan Tutukht sent an ambassador to Genghis Khan with an expression of submission. On the other hand, Rashid ad-din and Juvaini testify that after several battles lost by the Kipchaks to the Mongols, they were resisted only by a detachment of a certain Bachman, from the Kipchaks of the Olburlik tribe (i.e. the same el Burli, Borili), until they died in Volga delta in 1237. A similar situation was in Western Kipchak (see Polovtsy).
Physical appearance of the Desht-i Kipchak tribes
The anthropological study of ancient Turkic nomads was carried out by G.F. Debets (1948), V.V. Ginzburg (1946, 1954, 1956), V.P. Alekseev (1961), N.N. Miklashevskaya (1956, 1959), B.V. Firshtein (1967), O. Ismagulov (1982) and others.
From their published materials it is clearly seen that in the extreme east of settlement the Turkic tribes had a well-defined Mongoloid racial type. In Southern Siberia, Altai and Kazakhstan, the anthropological type of the Turkic nomads of the Middle Ages was characterized by varying degrees of mixing of the Mongoloid and Caucasoid races, and the ratio of Mongoloid and Caucasoid traits in the racial types of individual tribes does not follow strictly sequentially from east to west, as one might assume.
The burials of the Turks are very similar throughout the territory of their settlement, differing only in details. Their mounds are small earthen or stone mounds. Burials were carried out in a ground pit, sometimes in a lining, sometimes in a wooden box. The body (since 634) was laid in an extended position on the back, with the head to the west (Bulgars, Khazars, Pechenegs, Obuzes) or northeast (Kimaks, Kipchaks and other Eastern Turkic tribes). The grave goods included horse harnesses, weapons, dishes, and bones of domestic animals; in the burials of women, scissors, awls, jewelry, and mirrors were found. A feature of the ancient Turks, Sirs, Kimaks and Kipchaks was burials with a horse (a whole carcass or head and limbs); in addition, stone anthropomorphic statues were placed on the mounds in a sitting or standing position, male and female, facing east.
The physical appearance of the Seyanto is not known; one can only assume that it was not too different from the racial traits of the ancient Turkic ethnos, which, judging by the stone sculptures, possessed the traits of the Mongoloid race. Having moved to the Northern Altai, the Seyanto, that is, the Kipchaks, subjugated the local tribes and mixed with them, acquiring slightly different racial traits. According to G.F. Debets population of Northern Altai in the 8th–10th centuries. (Srostkin archaeological culture) was characterized by mesocrania (Gol. index 78.2), a somewhat flattened wide face (cheekbones, diameter - 140.4 mm), a moderately protruding nose (nose protrusion angle - 25.1). In general, these were people of a racially mixed (Caucasoid-Mongoloid race) type. From the Northern Altai, the Kipchaks moved to the territory of modern Kazakhstan, where they continued to mix with local tribes, who also belonged to various variants of the types mixed between the Caucasoid and Mongoloid races.
The racial identity of the Desht-i Kipchak tribes was studied by the Kazakh anthropologist O. Ismagulov. According to his data, the Kimaks (Irtysh region and Eastern Kazakhstan) are characterized by a large head, brachycrania (a.d. 81.0), a moderately inclined forehead, a wide face (a.d. 134–140 mm), a significantly, although not very sharply protruding nose . Women's heads were longer than men's, within the mesocranium (length 78.5), medium-wide faces (length 126–129 mm), and a weaker protruding nose. In general, the Kimak type is characterized by a mixed (Mongoloid-Caucasoid) type, but with a predominance (especially in the Irtysh region) of Caucasoid characteristics. The Kipchaks are more Mongoloid: men are characterized by a larger brachycranium (gauge 84.2-85.8), a wider face (gauge 142.3-143.2 mm), a slightly protruding nose (protrusion angle - 22.0- 22.9) are characteristic features of the South Siberian (Caucasoid-Mongoloid) race. The Kypchaks of the Ural River region turned out to be somewhat more Mongoloid. The data shown is an average; individual (according to certain characteristics) have some deviations towards Caucasian or Mongoloid. In addition to the steppe nomads, people from the southern regions - Khorezm, Sogd, as well as slaves of different ethnic origins lived in cities and rural settlements. In general, the Desht-i Kipchak tribes were characterized by a softened version of the South Siberian race, in which a combination of Caucasoid and Mongoloid features was present in the 12th century. approximately equally (50:50, Ismagulov, 1982). If we compare historical Kipchaks with modern peoples, then in terms of physical appearance (somatologically) the southeastern Bashkirs and Kazakhs of Western Kazakhstan will be closest to them.
Opinions about the fair hair and Caucasoid character of the Kipchaks, based on dubious Chinese and other (Arab, Georgian) written sources and authoritative studies (L.N. Gumilyov), can currently be considered incorrect. Of course, some individuals among them could have an appearance atypical for the physical appearance of people of the South Siberian race with a fair share of Mongoloid features, but for the most part they were dark-skinned, black-haired and brown-eyed people, slightly high-cheeked and narrow-eyed with straight, coarse hair braided in braids (judging by stone statues).
Sources from works written by people carry the subjective opinions of their authors depending on their likes or dislikes. The data of paleoanthropology are more objective.
The medieval Kipchak Khanate was a conglomerate of Polovtsian tribes that owned the vast steppe territories of Eurasia. Their lands extended from the mouth of the Danube in the west to the Irtysh in the east and from the Kama in the north to the Aral Sea in the south. The period of existence of the Kipchak Khanate was the 11th - 13th centuries.
Background
The Polovtsians (other names: Kipchaks, Polovtsians, Cumans) were a Turkic people with a classic steppe nomadic lifestyle. In the 8th century they established themselves on the territory of modern Kazakhstan. Their neighbors were the Khazars and Oghuzs. The ancestors of the Cumans are considered to be the Sires, who roamed the steppes of the eastern Tien Shan and Mongolia. That is why the first written evidence about this people is Chinese.
In 744, the Cumans fell under the rule of the Kimaks and lived for a long time in the Kimak Khaganate. In the 9th century the situation became exactly the opposite. The Polovtsians achieved hegemony over the Kimaks. This is how the Kipchak Khanate arose. At the beginning of the 11th century, it ousted the neighboring Oghuz tribe from the lower reaches. On the border with Khorezm, the Polovtsians had the city of Sygnak, where they spent the winter nomads. Now in its place are the ruins of an ancient settlement, which are of serious archaeological value.
Formation of the state
By 1050, the Kipchak Khanate absorbed the entire territory of modern Kazakhstan (except for Semirechye). In the east, the border of this state reached the Irtysh, and its western borders stopped at the Volga. In the south, the Kipchaks reached Talas, in the north - the Siberian forests.
The ethnic composition of these nomads was formed as a result of merger with many other peoples. Historians identify two key Kipchak tribes: Yanto and Se. In addition, the Cumans mixed with their conquered neighbors (Turks and Oguzes). In total, researchers count up to 16 Kipchak tribes. These were borili, toksoba, durut, karaborikly, bizhanak, etc.
In the middle of the 11th century, the Kipchak Khanate reached the peak of its expansion. The nomads stopped in the Black Sea and Russian steppes, reaching the border of the Byzantine Empire. As a result of this mass migration, the Kipchak community disintegrated into two conventional parts: western and eastern. The border between them ran along the Volga (the Polovtsians called it “Itil”).
Social structure
Kipchak society was class-based and socially unequal. The main property that guaranteed prosperity was cattle and horses. It was their number in the household that was considered an indicator of a person’s place on the social ladder. Some of the livestock was communally owned. Such animals were marked with tamgas (special marks). Pastures traditionally belonged to the aristocracy.
Most of the Kipchaks consisted of ordinary cattle breeders and community members. They were considered free, although they often came under the protection of more influential relatives. If a man lost his livestock, he was deprived of the opportunity to roam and became a yatuk - a sedentary resident. The most powerless people in Polovtsian society were slaves. The Kipchak Khanate, whose economy was largely based on forced labor, increased the number of slaves at the expense of prisoners of war.
Relations with Russia
In the first half of the 11th century, the Russian-Polovtsian wars began. The nomads did not try to conquer the East Slavic principalities, but came to foreign lands for the sake of robbery and new slaves. The steppe inhabitants took away property and livestock and devastated agricultural lands. Their attacks were unexpected and swift. As a rule, the nomads managed to disappear long before the princely squads arrived at the site of their invasion.
Most often, the lands around Kyiv, Ryazan, Pereyaslavl, as well as Porosye and Severshchina suffered. It was on their rich lands and cities that the Kipchak Khanate aimed its merciless attacks. 11th - early 13th centuries - a period of regular clashes between steppe inhabitants and Russian squads. Because of the danger in the south, people tried to move closer to the forests, which significantly stimulated the migration of the East Slavic population to the Principality of Vladimir.
Chronicle of raids
When the Kipchak Khanate, whose territory had increased significantly, came into contact with Russia, the Slavic state, on the contrary, entered a period of crisis caused by feudal fragmentation and internal civil wars. Against the backdrop of these events, the danger of nomads increased significantly.
The Polovtsy, led by Khan Iskal, inflicted the first serious defeat on the Pereyaslavl prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich in 1061. Seven years later, the steppe inhabitants defeated the army of the Russian coalition of three Rurikovichs on the Alta River. In 1078, the Kiev prince Izyaslav Yaroslavich died in the battle on Nezhatina Niva. All these tragedies befell Rus' largely due to the inability of the appanage monarchs to come to an agreement among themselves for the common good.
Victories of the Rurikovichs
The medieval Kipchak Khanate, whose political system and external relations resembled a classic example of a horde, successfully terrorized the Russian lands for a long time. Nevertheless, the defeats of the Eastern Slavs could not last forever. The personification of the new round of struggle against the Polovtsians was Vladimir Monomakh.
In 1096, this prince defeated the Kipchaks. The leader of the nomads, Tugorkan, died in the battle. It is interesting that the founder of the Kipchak Khanate is unknown to historians for certain. Information remains only about those rulers who declared war on neighboring powers or entered into diplomatic relations with them. Khan Tugorkan was one of them.
Dangerous neighborhood
Thanks to the tenacity of the Slavic squads, the expansion that the Kipchak Khanate continued for many decades stopped. In short, the resources of the Cumans were not enough to shake the sovereignty of Rus'. The Rurikovichs tried to fight the uninvited guests by any available means. The princes built border fortifications and settled peaceful sedentary Turks - black hoods - in them. They lived in the south of the Kyiv land and for a significant time served as the shield of Rus'.
Vladimir Monomakh was the first to not only defeat the Kipchaks, but also made an attempt to launch an offensive into the endless steppe. His campaign of 1111, in which other Rurikovichs joined, was organized following the example of the Crusade, in which Western knights recaptured Jerusalem from the Muslims. Subsequently, the practice of offensive wars in the steppe became a tradition. The most famous campaign in Russian folklore was the campaign of the Seversk prince Igor Svyatoslavovich, the events of which formed the basis of the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign.”
Cumans and Byzantium
Rus' was not the only European state with which the Kipchak Khanate was in contact. A brief summary of the relationship between the steppe inhabitants and is known from medieval Greek chronicles. In 1091, the Polovtsians entered into a brief alliance with the Russian prince Vasilko Rostislavich. The goal of the coalition was to defeat other nomads - the Pechenegs. In the 11th century, they were forced out by the Cumans from the Black Sea steppes and now also threatened the borders of the Byzantine Empire.
Not wanting to tolerate the presence of the horde at their borders, the Greeks entered into an alliance with Vasilko and the Kipchaks. In 1091, their united army, led by Emperor Alexius I Komnenos, defeated the Pecheneg army at the Battle of Leburn. However, the Greeks did not develop friendship with the Polovtsians. Already in 1092, the Khanate supported the impostor and contender for power in Constantinople, False Diogenes. The Polovtsians invaded the territory of the empire. The Byzantines defeated the uninvited guests in 1095, after which they did not try to leave the borders of their native steppe for a long time.
Allies of the Bulgarians
If the Kipchaks were at enmity with the Greeks, then they almost always had allied relations with the Bulgarians from the same Balkans. The first time these two peoples fought on the same side was in 1186. At that time, the Bulgarians crossed the Danube and prevented Emperor Isaac II Angel from suppressing the uprising of their compatriots in the Balkans. The Polovtsian hordes actively helped the Slavs in their campaign. It was their swift attacks that terrified the Greeks, who were not accustomed to fighting such an enemy.
In 1187 - 1280 The ruling dynasty in Bulgaria were the Asenis. It was their relationship with the Kipchaks that was an example of a strong alliance. For example, at the beginning of the 13th century, Tsar Kaloyan, together with the steppe inhabitants, more than once disturbed the possessions of their neighbor, the Hungarian king Imre. At the same time, an epoch-making event occurred - Western European knights captured Constantinople, destroyed the Byzantine Empire, and on its ruins they built their own - the Latin. The Bulgarians immediately became the sworn enemies of the Franks. In 1205, the famous battle of Adrianople took place, in which the Slavic-Polovtsian army defeated the Latins. The Crusaders suffered a crushing defeat, and their emperor Baldwin was even captured. The maneuverable cavalry of the Kipchaks played a decisive role in the victory.
Conquest by the Mongols
No matter how bright the successes of the Cumans in the west were, they all faded against the background of the terrible threat that was approaching Europe from the east. At the beginning of the 13th century, the Mongols began to build their own empire. They first conquered China and then moved west. Having conquered Central Asia without much difficulty, the new conquerors began to push back the Cumans and their neighboring peoples.
In Europe, the Alans were the first to come under attack. The Kipchaks refused to help them. Then it was their turn. When it became clear that the Mongol invasion could not be avoided, the Polovtsian khans turned to the Russian princes for help. Many Rurikovichs really responded. In 1223, the united Russian-Polovtsian army met the Mongols in the Battle of Ono and suffered a devastating defeat. After 15 years, the Mongols returned to establish their yoke over Eastern Europe. In the 1240s. The Kypchan Khanate was completely destroyed. The Polovtsians as a people disappeared over time, dissolving among other ethnic groups of the Great Steppe.
Kipchaks, Kipchaks (in European and Byzantine sources - Cumans, in Russian sources - Polovtsians, in Arab-Persian - Kipchaks; Tat. Kipchak, Bashk. ҡypsaҡ, Azerbaijani. qıpçaq, Kaz. қыпшақ, Uzb. qipchoq) - ancient Turkic semi-nomadic people , who came to the Black Sea steppes and the Caucasus from the Volga region in the 11th century.
The term "kyueshe" or "jueshe", mentioned in 201 BC. e., is perceived by many Turkologists as the first mention of the Kipchaks in written sources.
However, a more reliable mention of them under the name “kibchak” - in the inscription on the so-called Selenga stone (759) “kypchak”, “kyfchak” - in the writings of Muslim authors: Ibn Khordadbeh (IX century), Gardizi and Mahmud Kashgari (XI century century), Ibn al-Asir (XIII century), Rashid ad-Din, al-Umari, Ibn Khaldun (XIV century) and others. Russian chronicles (XI-XIII centuries) call them Polovtsians and Sorochins, Hungarian chronicles call them palocs and kuns, Byzantine sources and Western European travelers (Rubruk - 13th century, etc.) call them comans (cumans).
In the first period of political history, the Kypchaks acted together with the Kimaks, actively acting as part of the Kimak union of tribes in the struggle for new pastures.
The ancestors of the Kipchaks - the Sirs - wandered in the 4th–7th centuries. in the steppes between the Mongolian Altai and the eastern Tien Shan and were mentioned in Chinese sources as the Seyanto people. The state they formed in 630 was then destroyed by the Chinese and Uyghurs. The remnants of the tribe retreated to the upper reaches of the Irtysh and the steppes of eastern Kazakhstan. They received the name Kipchaks, which, according to legend, meant “ill-fated.”
In the 10th century they lived on the territory of modern northwestern Kazakhstan, bordering the Kimaks in the east, the Oguzes in the south and the Khazars in the west.
By the end of the 10th century, the political situation in the steppes of Kazakhstan was changing. Here the ethnic name “Kimak” disappears. Gradually, political power passes to the Kipchaks. At the beginning of the 11th century, they moved close to the northeastern borders of Khorezm, displacing the Oguzes from the lower reaches of the Syr Darya, and forcing them to move to Central Asia and the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region. By the middle of the 11th century. Almost the entire vast territory of Kazakhstan was subordinate to the Kipchaks, with the exception of Semirechye. Their eastern border remains on the Irtysh, the western borders reach the Volga, in the south - the region of the Talas River, and the northern border was the forests of Western Siberia. During this period, the entire steppe from the Danube to the Volga region is called the Kypchak Steppe or “Dasht-i-Kypchak”.
Their strengthening began in the 11th century after the defeat of the Khazars by the prince of Kievan Rus Svyatoslav Igorevich (965) and with the weakening of the Oguzes. The Kipchaks-Polovtsians began to move to more fertile and warmer lands, displacing the Pechenegs and part of the northern Oguzes. Having subjugated these tribes, the Kipchaks crossed the Volga and reached the mouths of the Danube, thus becoming the masters of the Great Steppe from the Danube to the Irtysh, which went down in history as Desht-i-Kipchak.
The Kipchaks, in particular the Kangles (like the Turkmen), after the middle of the 12th century, inhabited the northern lands of the Khorezmshah state and were represented in its elite (see Terken-Khatun, Cairo Khan). Many of the Mamluks who defended the Holy Land from the Crusaders were Kipchaks by origin.
Under the pressure of the Mongol tribes, a group of Western Kipchaks led by Khan Kotyan went to Hungary and Byzantium. Khan Kotyan was killed by the Hungarian nobility; some of the Cumans found refuge in the Balkans. But the overwhelming majority of the Kipchaks became part of the Golden Horde. After the 14th century The Kipchaks became part of the Crimean Tatars, Kazakhs, Bashkirs, Karachais (Kypchaks of Khan Laipan), Nogais, Kumyks and other peoples.
The Kipchaks were not only nomadic pastoralists, but also city dwellers. In their possessions there were a number of large cities: Sygnak, Dzhent, Barchynlykent - on the Syr Darya, Kanglykent - on the Irgiz, Saksin - in the lower reaches of the Volga River, Tamatarhan (Tmutarakan of Russian chronicles) - on the Taman Peninsula and Sharukan - not far from modern Kharkov.
