The Kimek–Kipchak confederation was a medieval Turkic state formed by seven peoples, including the Yemeks and Kipchaks, in the area between the Ob and Irtysh rivers.

Name

Minorsky, citing Marquart, Barthold, Semenov and other sources, proposes that the name Kīmāk (pronounced Kimäk) is derived from Iki-Imäk, "the two Imäk", probably referring to the first two clans (Īmī and Īmāk) of the federation.

On the other hand, Pritsak attempted to connect the Kimek with the Proto-Mongolic Kumo of the Kumo Xi confederation (庫莫奚; Middle Chinese: kʰuo<sup>H</sup>-mɑk̚-ɦei; *qu(o)mâġ-ġay, from *quo "yellowish" plus denominal suffix *-mAk); Golden judges Pritsak's reconstruction "highly problematic", as Pritsak did not explain how Quomâġ might have produced Kimek; still, Golden considers the connection with the Proto-Mongolic world seriously.

Mahmud al-Kashgari does not mention any Kimek, but Yamāk; Kashgari further remarked that Kara-Khanids like him considered Yemeks to be "a tribe of the Kipchaks", though contemporary Kipchaks considered themselves a different party. The ethnonym Yemäk might have been transcribed in the mid 7th century by Chinese authors as 鹽莫 Yánmò < Middle Chinese *jiäm-mâk, referring to a Tiele group who initially inhabited northwestern Mongolia before migrating to north of Altay Mountains and Irtysh zone.

Initially, Golden (1992:202, 227, 263) accepted the identification of Kimeks with Imeks/Yimeks/Yemeks, because the /k/ > ∅, resulting in Kimek > İmek, was indeed attested in several Medieval Kipchak dialects; Golden also thought Yemeks unlikely to be 鹽莫 *jiäm-mâk > Yánmò in Chinese source. However, Golden later changed his mind, reasoning that, as the Medieval Kipchak dialectal sound-change /k/ > ∅ had not yet happened in the mid-7th century Old Turkic, the identification of Yemeks with Kimeks is disputed. As a result, Golden (2002:660-665) later abandons the Kimeks > Yemeks identification and becomes more amenable to the identification of 鹽莫 Yánmò with Yemeks, by scholars such as Hambis, Zuev, and Kumekov, cited in Golden (1992:202).

According to Tishin (2018), Yemeks were simply the most important of the seven constituent tribes whose representatives met at the Irtysh valley, where the diverse Kimek tribal union emerged, as related by Gardizi.

Origin

The Kimek confederation originated as a tribal union of seven tribes or clans. These tribes originated in the steppes of eastern Central Asia. The bulk of these migrated to present-day Kazakhstan after the destruction of the Uyghur Khaganate (840). The Kimek state was formed at the end of the 9th and beginning of the 10th century composed out of tribal domains, ruled by a khagan who was the supreme among subject leaders.

Historical background

The 10 century geographical treaty Hudud al-Alam gave a description of the cultures and ways of life of Kimeks and Kipchaks. The Kimaks led a semi-settled life, as the Hudūd mentioned many wandering tribal grazers as well as a town named *Yimäkiya (> Yamakkiyya > ms. Namakiyya); while the Kipchaks, in some customs, resembled the contemporary Oghuzes, who were nomadic herders. The southern neighbors of Kimaks were Karluks, who preserved their independence for another 200 years. The Kimak Khakan's residence was in the city Imakia (Pavlodar, Kazakhstan) on the Irtysh. and another part retained their independence.

During that period a nucleus of the Kimak confederation's tribes was consolidated. Kimeks were known to Chinese as 庫莫 Kumo < MC kʰuoH-mɑk̚ < *qu(o)mâġ associated with the Xi < *ɦei < *Ġay, a people whom Islamic writers knew as Qay and whose ethnonym is often linked to Mongolic *mogaï "snake" (Khalkha могой mogoj). Pletnyova proposed that "A snake has seven heads"/"A dragon with seven heads", recorded by Kashgari reflects the consolidation of the Kimek confederation. Golden, following Klyashtorny, contended that the Qays' identification as the "People of the Snake", or rather "People of the Chieftain named Snake/Dragon", actually resulted from Qays' participation in an anti-Karakhanid coalition led by Yabaku chieftain Budrach, whose epithet Böke means "Great Dragon / Great Snake".

Before the middle of the 8th century, the Kimaks bordered the Karluks and Tokuz-Oguzes on the south, and the Yenisei Kyrgyz on the east. After the dissolution of the Western Turkic Khaganate in 743, the main body of the Kimaks remained in the Irtysh area. In the late 8th or early 9th century, part of the Kimak tribes migrated in two directions, northwest to the Urals and southwest to the northern Zhetysu. The migration changed the ethnic composition of the Middle Volga and Lower Kama areas in the west. Spreading from the Irtysh area, Kimaks occupied territory between the rivers Yaik and Emba, and between the Aral and Caspian steppes, to the Zhetysu area.

Between the 9th and 11th century the Kimek were concentrated in the middle Irtysh basin and northeastern Semirechye.

History

9th and 10th century

After the breakup of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840, the Central Asian tribes found themselves unattached. Portions of the Turkic Eymür, Bayandur, and Shiwei Tatar tribes joined the core of the Kimak tribes. The Tatar tribes were already members of the Kimak confederation — some had already participated in the initial formation of the Kimak Kaganate. The Kipchaks also had their Khanlyk, but politically they were dependent on the Kimaks. The dominating Kimak tribe mostly lived on the banks of the Irtysh. The Kipchaks, described by Hudud al-Alam, occupied a separate territory located to the west, approximately in the southeastern part of the Southern Urals. Chinese chroniclers wrote about the mountains of the Kipchak land—in the chronicle Yuanshi, these mountains are named Yùlǐbólǐ (玉里伯里), and the Kipchaks are called Qīnchá 欽察. North of the Kipchaks and the Kimaks lay endless forest. The Kimaks were originally Tengrians, with possibly some Nestorian Christian communities. In the 11th century, Islam made some inroads.

Arab and Persian geographers, travelers, and historians provide an abundance of information about the Kimaks.

In the 9th century, the Kimaks allied with the Oguz.

At the end of the 10th century, not only were the Caliphate writers and scientists knowledgeable about them, but in the Central Asian states, journeys to the Kimak country were well known and discussed in the markets and chaihanas (tea houses). Later they appear to have been ruled by the Ilbari clan.

During the 10th century the Kipchaks became independent within the Kaganate (if they were ever dependent in the first place) and began migrating westward. The zenith of Kimak power came under the Ilburi rulers near the end of the 12th century. In 1183, the Kimaks attacked Volga Bulgaria, and they twice sacked Khwarezm in 1152 and 1197.

Decline

The Kimak federation occupied a huge territory from the Tobol and Irtysh rivers to the Caspian Sea and Syr-Darya. The northern border of the Kimak federation was the Siberian taiga, the eastern border was the Altai Mountains and the southern border was the lifeless steppe of Bet Pak. The borders naturally protecting them from their enemies, the Kimaks lived undisturbed. Their neighbors were Karluks, Oguzes and Kyrgyz. Kimaks, Kipchaks, Oguzes, Petchenegs, Ugrians and other peoples and ethnic groups of the multi-ethnic Kimak Kaganate lived peacefully and prosperously.

At the beginning of the 11th century, the Kimaks and Kipchaks pushed the Oguzes to the south, the Petchenegs to the west, the Karluks to the southeast and the Ugrians to the north into the Siberian taiga, and became owners of the ancient Kangju. Individual Khanlyks of the Kimak Kaganate grew stronger, separatist forces increased, undermining central authority. The Khakan became only a militia leader; there was no central army, and each subject Khan had his small army.

The Kimaks and then Khitay pressed the Kipchaks to move west, occupying lands that earlier belonged to Oguzes. After seizing the Oguz lands, the Kipchaks grew considerably stronger, and the Kimaks became their dependents. The Kipchak migration was a planned invasion, a capture of richer pastures. Part of the Kimaks remained in the ancient land along the Irtysh, and a part left with the Kipchaks to the west. A larger portion of the Kimak Kaganate tribes, the Kimaks, Kipchaks, Pechenegs, and the Oguzes migrated to the west, to beyond the Ural, Volga, Don and Dniepr, changing the ethnic map of Eastern Europe. The southern Karluks joined the Karakhanid state.

A significant mass of Kipchaks and Kimaks remained in the Irtysh territories with the ancient Volga Finns of western Siberia. Subsequently, they formed the Siberian Tatars and other Turkic peoples. In the west, the Kipchaks followed the path taken previously by the Pechenegs under pressure of the Oguzes, and later the Oguzes under pressure of the Kimaks and Kipchaks. They crossed the Volga, Don, Dniestr, and Dniepr, and reached the Danube. On their way the Kipchaks were joined by the remains of the Petchenegs and Oguzes. The Rus chronicles under the year 1054 record an appearance near Kyiv of the Oguz people, who were pushed by Kipchaks, a branch of the middle Irtysh and Ob Kimaks. and "the People of the Snake" should be interpreted as "People of the chieftain named Snake-Dragon" and identified with an anti-Karakhanid tribal coalition (including the Qays among others) led by Budrach, a Yabaku chieftain whose epithet was Böke "Great Dragon / Great Snake", following Klyashtorny.

The Kimak Kaganate's fall in the mid-11th century was caused by external factors. The migration of the Central Asian Mongolic-speaking nomads pushed by the Mongolic Khitay state Lyao formed in Northern China in 916 AD. The Khitay nomads occupied the Kimak and Kipchak lands west of the Irtysh. The Kaganate thereafter declined, and the Kimeks were probably at times subjected to Kyrgyz and Kara-Khitai overlordship. In the 11th–12th centuries the Mongolic-speaking Naiman tribe, in its westward move, displaced the Kimaks-Kipchaks from the Mongolian Altai and Upper Irtysh. From the middle of the 12th century, the Mongolic tribes predominated almost in all the territory of modern Mongolia. The key animal was the horse and the main subsistence animal was sheep. As a subsistence animal, fatty-tailed sheep provided meat for food, oil for cooking, and tallow for light. The poorest Kimaks herded cattle. They wintered in the steppe between the Emba and the Ural rivers, but summered near the Irtysh. The summer home of the Kimak Khakans was in the town of Imak, in the middle Irtysh, the winter capital was Tamim on the southern shore of lake Balkhash. Archeology confirms that te Kimaks in the Irtysh area were semi-settled, Al-Idrisi in the 12th century wrote about Kimak cultivated lands as a well-known fact, with wheat crops, millet, barley, legumes, and even rice.

Religion

The Kimak religion was the same as that of the majority of Turks. In the steppes from the Baikal to the Danube, the Turks believed in Tengri. The western neighbors of the Kyrgyz (Kimaks, Kipchaks, Cumans, Oguzes, Pechenegs, Karluks, etc.), who were located closer to the Muslim lands, still professed Tengrianism in the 9th century. The Kimaks had a tradition of ancestor reverence. On the border with the Uyghurs, Kimaks adopted Manichaeism.

Some Kimaks cremated their dead: near the Irtysh, cremation burials have been found.

S. A. Pletneva developed a comparative description of Middle Age N. Pontic burial customs, including Kimaks, Cumans and Kipchaks. The grave gifts are those necessary for a nomad during a trip to the next world: horse harnesses, weapons, less frequently personal decorations and vessels with ritual food. Next to the diseased was laid his true comrade (‘tovarich’), a horse. The belief in the need to supply the diseased with the things necessary on the road and at least for initial life in the other world is described by the 10th-century traveller and writer Ibn Fadlan, describing not a Kimak-Kipchak but an Oguz funeral ceremony. However, from nomadic kurgan excavations we know that the funeral ceremonies of the Turkic peoples was generally similar, meaning the general provisions for the construction of funeral complexes were identical.

  1. Ajlad.

Hudud list

10th century Hudud al-'Alam mentions the "country of Kīmāk", ruled by a khagan (king) who has eleven lieutenants that hold hereditary fiefs. This suggests that there were 11 divisions.

List of known rulers

  • Abar Khan
  • Alip/Alp Derek
  • Alip/Alp Qara Uran
  • Inalchiq

See also

  • Turkic peoples
  • Timeline of Turks (500-1300)
  • Kimek tribe
  • History of Russia
  • History of Kazakhstan
  • History of the central steppe

Notes

References

Literature

  • Ahinjanov S.M. "Kipchaks in history of medieval Kazakhstan", Alma-Ata, 1989, .
  • Faizrakhmanov G., "Ancient Turks in Sibiria and Central Asia" Kazan, 'Master Lain', 2000, .
  • Gumilev L.N., "Ancient Turks", Moscow, "Science", 1967.
  • Kumenkov B. E., "Kimak State of the 9–11th centuries according to Arabic sources", Alma-Ata, "Science", 1972.
  • Pletneva S.A., "Kipchaks", Moscow, 1990, .

tt:Kimäk Qağanlığı