Kimek–Kipchak confederation

The Kimek-Kipchak confederation was a union of Turkic peoples on the steppes of what is now Kazakhstan and south-western Siberia, from the eighth century to the early thirteenth. Its two leading peoples, the Kimeks and the Kipchaks, gave rise to one of the great nomadic groupings of medieval Eurasia, whose descendants include many of today's Turkic peoples.

In the eighth and ninth centuries, the great Turkic and Uyghur khaganates of Mongolia collapsed, and Turkic groups moved west across the steppe. The Kimeks settled along the Irtysh river, in today's eastern Kazakhstan and south-western Siberia. According to the eleventh-century Persian historian Gardizi, the Kimek confederation was formed by seven tribes: the Imi, Imak, Tatar, Bayandur, Kipchak, Lanikaz and Ajlad. Some scholars link the Kimeks to the Yemeks mentioned in other sources.

Arab and Persian geographers of the ninth to eleventh centuries, such as Ibn Khordadbeh, al-Idrisi and the anonymous author of the Hudud al-Alam, describe the Kimeks. They had a ruler with the title khagan, and towns along the Irtysh, including the khagan's residence, Imakia. Most Kimeks were herders, moving with their horses, sheep and cattle between summer pastures in the north and winter pastures in the south. Some farmed, fished and hunted fur-bearing animals. They traded furs, sable and slaves with Central Asian merchants. Their religion involved worship of the sky god Tengri, ancestors and nature spirits, with shamans; some converted to Manichaeism and Islam.

The Kipchaks, originally one of the Kimek tribes living in the western part of the confederation, became the dominant group by the eleventh century. They moved west across the Kazakh steppe, pushing the Oghuz Turks, who moved into Iran and Anatolia as the Seljuks, and the Pechenegs, who moved towards Byzantium. In the west, the Kipchaks merged with or allied with the Cumans, and the steppe from the Irtysh to the Danube came to be called the Dasht-i Kipchak, "the Kipchak steppe", by Persian writers. The Kimek state itself seems to have broken up in the eleventh century, though Kimek and Kipchak tribes remained.

The Kipchaks were neighbours of the Kara-Khanids, the Khwarazm Shahs and the Volga Bulgars. The Khwarazm Shahs married Kipchak princesses and hired Kipchak soldiers, who became powerful at their court; Terken Khatun, the mother of Muhammad II, was a Kipchak princess with great influence.

In the early thirteenth century, the Mongols conquered the Kipchaks of the east, and in 1236–1241 those of the west. The Kipchaks made up much of the population of the Golden Horde, and their language became its main spoken language.

Many Kipchaks were sold as slaves to Egypt, where they became mamluk soldiers; the first Mamluk sultans, including Baybars, were Kipchaks. Kipchaks also settled in Georgia, Hungary and Bulgaria. The Kipchak branch of the Turkic languages includes modern Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Bashkir, Karakalpak, Nogai and Crimean Tatar. The Kazakh people are partly descended from the Kipchaks, and the Kipchak tribe remains one of the Kazakh clans.

Our maps show the confederation on the 1000 map, with an outline of about 3 million square kilometres, half in today's Kazakhstan and most of the rest in Russia. Novosibirsk's site lies inside it. On the 1100 map the steppe belongs to the Cuman-Kipchak confederation, shown on this site as Cumania.