Kypchaks, Kipchaks (in European and Byzantine sources - Cumans, in Russian sources - Cumans, in Arab-Persian sources - Kipchaks; Tat. Kipchak, Bashk. ҡypsak, Azerb. qıpçaq, Kaz. қypshaқ, Uzbek. qipchoq) - an ancient Turkic semi-nomadic people , who came to the Black Sea steppes and the Caucasus from the Volga region in the XI century.

The term "kyueshe" or "juyeshe", mentioned in 201 BC. e., is perceived by many Turkologists as the first mention of the Kypchaks 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 works of Muslim authors: Ibn Khordadbeh (IX century), Gardizi and Mahmud Kashgari (XI c.), Ibn al-Athir (XIII c.), Rashid ad-Din, al-Umari, Ibn Khaldun (XIV c.) and others. Russian chronicles (XI-XIII centuries) call them Polovtsians and Sorochins, Hungarian chronicles - Palocs and Kuns, Byzantine sources and Western European travelers (Rubruk - XIII century, etc.) - Komans (Kumans).

In the first period political history the Kypchaks acted together with the Kimaks, actively acting as part of the Kimak tribal union 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 formed by them in 630 was then destroyed by the Chinese and Uighurs. The remnants of the tribe retreated to the upper reaches of the Irtysh and the steppes of eastern Kazakhstan. They were called 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 came 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 XI century. almost the entire vast territory of Kazakhstan was subordinate to the Kypchaks, with the exception of Semirechye. Their eastern border remains on the Irtysh, western limits reach the Volga, in the south - the region of the Talas River, and forests served as the northern border 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 XI century after the defeat of the Khazars by the prince Kievan Rus Svyatoslav Igorevich (965) and with the weakening of the Oghuz. The Cuman Kipchaks began to move to more fertile and warmer lands, displacing the Pechenegs and part of the northern Oghuz. Subduing these tribes, the Kypchaks crossed the Volga and reached the mouth 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-Kypchak.

The Kipchaks, in particular the Kangly (like the Turkmens), after the middle of the 12th century, inhabited the northern lands of the state of the Khorezmshakhs and were represented in its elite (see Terken-khatun, Kair-khan). Many of the Mamluks who defended the Holy Land from the crusaders were Kipchaks by origin.

Under the onslaught of the Mongol tribes, a group of Western Kypchaks led by Khan Kotyan left for Hungary and Byzantium. Khan Kotyan was killed by the Hungarian nobility, part of the Polovtsy found refuge in the Balkans. But the vast majority of the Kipchaks became part of the Golden Horde. After the 14th century the Kipchaks became part of Crimean Tatars, Kazakhs, Bashkirs, Karachays (Kipchaks of Khan Laipan), Nogais, Kumyks and other peoples.

The Kypchaks were not only nomadic cattle breeders, but also city dwellers. Their domain included a number of major cities: Sygnak, Dzhent, Barchynlykent - on the Syr Darya, Kanglykent - on the Irgiz, Saksin - in the lower reaches of the Volga River, Tamatarkhan (Tmutarakan of Russian chronicles) - on the Taman Peninsula and Sharukan - not far from modern Kharkov.

Origin and race of the Kypchaks.

It should be noted that many questions of the historical past of the Kipchak tribes that inhabited the territory of Kazakhstan are still not fully disclosed. .

Among the many problems in the ethno-political history of the Kipchaks, the most difficult was the question of their origin. According to the legend about the Oguz-kagan given by Rashid-ad-din, the Kipchaks were one of the 24 tribes of the Oghuz. The mythical boy, to whom the Oguz-kagan named Kipchak and after whom his tribe was named, was born during an unsuccessful campaign of the Oghuz against the It-barak tribe. To cross the river, Oguz-kagan ordered to cut down trees and build a raft. During the crossing, he allegedly said to a child just born on a raft made of trees: “Oh, be you also a prince, like me, and let your name will be Kipchak. Abul-Gazi remarks: "In the ancient Turkic language, kipchak means a hollow tree". The obligatory mention of a tree and a forest in the legends may lead to the assumption that the Kipchaks came from the area in which the forest is gradually replaced by the steppe, i.e. in the forest-steppe zone. Some scholars suggest that the southern slopes of the Sayano-Altai Mountains and the steppes adjoining them from the south were the original residence of the Kipchaks.

Specifically, with the name "Kipchak", and probably with the earliest case of fixing this ethnonym, we meet in an inscription carved on a stone stele discovered by Ramsted in Central Mongolia south of the river. Selenga in 1909. In the literature, this epitaph was called "Selengen stone". The text engraved on it is part of the burial complex of Bilge Khagan, one of the founders of the Uighur Khaganate in the Mongolian steppes. In the fourth line on the north side of the stele is engraved: "When the Turkic Kypchaks ruled over us for 50 years ...".

Returning to the context of the inscription, which states “Kipchak Turks ruled…”, we can assume that in this case the two ethnic names act as synonyms. Thus, it seems that the solution of the issue lies on the surface. Kypchaks are ancient Turks (we are talking about the period when this term still had ethnic content, and not political coloring).

Comparing different sources, scientists came to the conclusion that the Kipchaks, or at least a certain part of the Kipchaks, had specific features that differed from most of the peoples surrounding them. The Kipchaks carried the traits of a Caucasoid admixture, manifested primarily in the color of their eyes (blue, green, but not black) and hair - yellow, light red, blond, sexual. Therefore, when the Kipchaks in the middle of the 11th c. appeared on the borders ancient Russian principalities, they became known in Russian chronicles under the name Polovtsy, having received it, most likely because of their appearance. The word "Polovtsy" is derived from the Old Slavonic "plav - straw, and hence" sexual "- a whitish-straw color."

The Russian scientist Grumm-Grzhimailo argued that the Kipchaks are the western branch of the Dinlins, a people who lived in Asia in ancient times and had features of the Caucasoid race. The western branch of the Dinlins mixed with the nomadic population of Kazakhstan and began to be called under the name of the Kipchak. But not only Russian chronicles designated the Kypchaks with a name reflecting their appearance. In Western European, Byzantine, Armenian, they are called in their own way - komans, kumans, valans, swimmers, hardyash. All these names, referring to the same people, are translated mainly as "yellow, pale yellow, fair-haired." Probably, the appearance of the tribe was so different from other nomadic peoples that all the informants who came across them give the same name, indicating their unusual appearance, hair color. The anthropological type of the Kipchak-Polovtsy was formed as a result of the successive mixing of the ancient Caucasoid type with racial types of Mongoloid Central Asian origin. Back in the 19th century. a certain group of Kipchak tribal divisions in various regions of their habitat as part of large Turkic-speaking peoples retained some features that are usually attributed to Caucasoid physical appearance. So among the Bashkir Kipchaks there were "approximately 50% of dark blond and red subjects." The descendants of the Kipchaks, who, after the defeat perpetrated by the Mongols, left for Hungary, were characterized by researchers as a people who had hair like flax, often with a reddish tint, and blue eyes.

The resettlement of the Kipchaks.

At the beginning of 2 thousand AD. In the medieval written tradition of the Muslim historiography of the East and the chroniclers of Ancient Rus', an adequate designation appeared for the vast belt of the Eurasian steppes from the spurs of the Altai Mountains in the east to the wooded slopes of the Carpathians in the west, which received its name from the name of the main people moving across its expanses - Desht-i Kipchak.

Desht-i Kipchak in Persian means steppe of the Kipchaks. That is exactly what happened in the 11th century. the Persian-speaking author Nasir-i Khisrau in his "Divan" named the steppes adjacent to the northeastern borders of Khorezm. The rapid expansion of the limits of the Kipchak possessions is explained by a combination of internal and external reasons. Internal reasons were due to the growth of livestock. In the same period, the rapid growth of the Syr Darya cities continued, which increased intensive trade with the steppe tribes. There was another, external, reason for the movement of the Kipchak tribes, although in this case the increase in population and livestock remained the main reason, which inevitably led to the development of new pastures.

The rapid development of nomadic pastoralism, the growth of livestock, which required extensive pastures, stimulated the unification of disparate tribes into a single union, directed primarily against the Oguzes. Huge steppe spaces from the Irtysh in the east to the Black Sea steppes gradually become the property of the Kipchak-Polovtsian khans.

Forms of economy among the Kipchaks.

The nomadic lifestyle of the Kipchaks inexorably left a deep imprint on their psychology and worldview. In this regard, one of the vivid examples can be cited as an example, testifying to the extremely deep penetration into the consciousness of the nomad of the features of their economic and cultural activities, and, consequently, the awareness of their own difference from the life of other peoples, which finds its concentrated expression in the opposition: “We - steppe dwellers. We have neither rare nor expensive things, nor goods, our main wealth lies in horses: their meat and skin serve us as the best food and clothing, and the most pleasant drink for us is their milk and what is prepared from it, in our land there are no gardens, no buildings; places of our entertainment are pastures of cattle and herds of horses, and we go to the herds to admire the spectacles of horses. The main wealth of the nomads - their cattle of four types (horses, sheep, camels, cattle) - is sung in the epic of various Turkic-Mongolian peoples. Probably, cattle were bred only in places suitable for their keeping. Camels were of secondary importance and were not bred everywhere (they were not known in the north of their range). Sheep played one of the primary roles in the life of a nomad. But the love of the Kipchaks, like most of the nomads, was caused by horses - "pearl cattle", the most valuable and prestigious part of the cattle. In the steppes of Kazakhstan in the Middle Ages, "the best horses were sacrificed." The skull and hooves of the horses served as a talisman ... they worshiped the rock carvings of the horse's hooves.

Despite the classical nomadic way of life of the Kipchaks, there is no need to talk about the complete absence of non-pastoral activities in the life of the Desht-i Kipchak tribes. Class, property differentiation among the Kipchaks to a certain extent contributed to the transition to settled life and, ultimately, to agriculture. The impoverished nomads were called Yatuks. “Those,” wrote Mahmud of Kashgar, “who live in their cities, do not move (do not wander) to other places and do not fight, are called yatuk, i.e. abandoned, lazy. Yatukov can be compared with historical and ethnographic data about the Kazakh "zhataks". This name was given to all those who lived in winter quarters and motionless dwellings.

Beliefs and customs

The most common form of religion in Desht-i Kipchak was shamanism. Elements of this religion were manifested in the worship of stone statues, the veneration of natural phenomena, in the deification of the sky (Tengri), the Sun, and fire.

Throughout the steppe, where the Kipchaks roamed, there were stone sculptures depicting people.

In the steppes of Central Kazakhstan on the slopes of Ulutau, and in the basins of the river. Kara was met with a type of stone statue, which has not yet been found anywhere except in these places. These statues, clearly female, lack the drawing of eyes, nose, and mouth. In the poem "Iskander-name" by the great poet of the Middle Ages Nizami, who lived in the 12th century, there are interesting data that he received, possibly from his wife Appak, a Kipchak by origin. By interpreting these data, one can get an answer when and why some stone statues of Central Kazakhstan began to be depicted without certain facial features.

Although the hero of Nizami's poem is Alexander the Great, the actions described took place in the Kipchak steppes of Kazakhstan. In the distant steppes behind Ceyhan (Syrdarya) numerous tribes of Kipchaks roamed, among whom women had the custom not to cover their faces. Kipchak women were “fiery and tender, they were the sun and the likeness of the moon…”. They, of course, embarrassed the harsh army of the conqueror. Then Alexander began to convince the elders to introduce the custom of Muslims, in which women covered their faces with a veil. Having been refused, Macedonian ordered one of his masters to carve a stone statue of a woman and "hid her face with a white marble veil." Proud Kipchak wives, "seeing that she was stricter than all wives, ashamed, covered her face too."

The lines cited by Nizami are full of legendary details. It is clear that the commander statesman 4th c. BC. Alexander the Great had nothing to do with the Kipchaks who lived at the beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. It is difficult to say for sure what works Nizami used when recreating the real situation of Alexander's fictional campaign in Desht-i Kipchak. But this suggests that in the 12th century. a certain part of the Kipchaks, namely the Sygnak group, professed the Muslim religion.

Developing and existing class relations insistently demanded a different form of ideology, corresponding to the peculiarities of the economic and political structure of the Kipchak society, and already in the 11-12 centuries. the ruling nobility was the first to move away from polytheism and adopt a monotheistic faith (Islam in areas adjacent to the Muslim world, and Christianity in the southern Russian steppes).

Consequently, the religious ideology of the Kipchaks was associated with paganism and developed in conjunction with Islam, Christianity, and even Judaism (Russian chronicles report that some part of the Kipchaks practice this religion, borrowed from the Khazars).

Literature. "Code Cumanicus"

The Codex Cumanicus is a dictionary created in the 13th century, although title page his manuscript, discovered in 1363 in Venice in the library of St. Mark, has a different date: 1303, June 11th. This dictionary came to the library as a gift from the great Italian poet Francesco Petrarch. The "code ..." is written in the Latin alphabet in the Oguz-Kipchak dialect. It contains Kipchak calendars and folklore materials, as well as Latin-Presidential-Kipchak and Kipchak-German-Latin dictionaries. This unique monument is considered by the Italians, Germans, and Hungarians, the French and the British turn to it. The Codex Cumanicus consists of two parts. The first part is a dictionary. The second part includes excerpts from the religious works of Christians, secular texts, as well as translations of many phrases, proverbs and sayings of the Kipchaks.

For example, a few riddles:

First it is necessary to find, having found, it is necessary to raise, and then it is necessary to close.

This is the entrance to the yurt.

An ambassador comes from the sun - scatters silver coins,

An ambassador rides from the moon - scatters gold coins.

These are the rays of the sun and moon.

Here he went - and there is no trace.

This is a ship.

Sultan Baybars.

Baybars, Kalauyn, Lashin, Sanzhar... The golden pages of the history of the Mamluks (translated from Arabic as slaves) were written by the Kypchaks. Thanks to Sultan Baybars, Egypt and Syria were protected from the Mongol invasion and the Crusades. The Mamluk state prospered, which was not the case before and after Baybars.

The fate of the fourth sultan of the Mamluk state - Sultan Baibars - is very interesting and controversial. Baybars is a man who was able to rise from a slave to the ruler of a vast territory, which included the lands of Egypt, Sham (modern Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Iraq to the Euphrates), Mediterranean fortresses to Rum (modern Turkey).

Beibars was born presumably in 1225 in the Kypchak family of Elbarly or Bersh in the interfluve of the Yedil (Volga) and Zhaiyk (Urals). His father Zhamak and his mother Ainek were from a noble family. The name given at birth is Mahmuddin. He will become Sultan Baybars in his mature years. During the migration due to the Mongol invasion, the Beibars tribe was captured, he was about fourteen years old. The captives were driven to the slave market and sold into slavery. Having bought a new slave in the Damascus market, the buyer soon returned him back. It turned out that Baybars had a defect (a small thorn in his eye). So the boy was sold at the lowest, almost bargain price - for 800 dirhams. In 1242, Emir Aytegin bought Baibars, who became his teacher, adviser and even friend. The Kipchak bought by Aitegin was noticed by the Sultan of Egypt Ayubi and soon became his nuker. After the purchase, the ruler of Egypt granted Baybars freedom and appointed him head of the guard. Together with his mentor, Baybars participated in the Dumiyat battle with the crusaders. In combat, he proved himself to be a skilled strategist. After this battle, Baybars was awarded the title of Emir.

In 1250, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, Fatima and her husband Gali-Arystan, after years of strife and disputes between the heirs of the prophet, created the Mamluk state. It was a disturbing and turbulent time for the Arab world, repelling attacks from both the east and the west. To protect their state, they, fearing military coups, attracted not the local population, but strong and young mercenaries.

On September 3, 1260, near Nablus, the Mamluks under the leadership of Baibars defeated the Mongol-Tatars, their dominion in Syria ended, and Egypt was saved from invasion. This victory aroused universal rejoicing and strengthened the opinion of contemporaries that the Islamic world owes salvation from disaster to the talent of Baibars.

With the help of a conspiracy, Baybars eliminated the former ruler of the Kutuz state, and later he was proclaimed a sultan. For seventeen years Baybars ruled a territory that was not native to him, leaving a bright mark in the history and memory of the people. Taking power, Baybars put an end once and for all to the civil strife that took place in the palace. He fortified each city in its own territory and kept a standing army in each of them. Bridges and dams were built on all rivers. At least one mosque and a bazaar appeared in each city. A sewerage system has been introduced.

This man covered his name with great glory, having defeated the crusaders at Damietta (Dumiyat) and captured the French king Louis IX in the battle of Mansur, putting the last point on the crusades.

Baybars showed himself with equal success in different fields of activity. The empire begins to rise historical literature encyclopedias are created. There was also a historical work devoted to the biography of Sultan Baybars, written by his secretary, countryman Abd-az-Zahir. The development of handicrafts and trade reaches its highest peak. Merchants from all over the world began to visit the Mamluks.

In 1277, Baibars was poisoned by his Kipchak vizier Kalauyn, who poured poison into koumiss. According to the last request of the Sultan, he was buried in the city of Daria (now part of Damascus). According to his biographers, Baybars wanted to end his days in his homeland, where he came from. But buried in Syria, this Kipchak, Mamluk, Sultan - in a foreign land managed to do more than the Arabs themselves.

He did a lot for the flourishing of Cairo. It was he who moved here from Baghdad the capital of the Arab Caliphate.

The seal of the Sultan depicted a proud leopard. Baybars has become one of those heroes whose names have long been recognized by the whole world. In Kazakhstan, it is generally accepted that he was a native of the Caspian steppes, a monument to Beibars adorns the central square of the city of Atyrau.

Many historians studying the history of Russia often write about the internecine wars of the princes and their relations with the Polovtsy, a people with many ethnonyms: Kipchaks, Kypchaks, Polovtsy, Cumans. More often they talk about the cruelty of that time, but very rarely touch on the question of the origin of the Polovtsians.

It would be very interesting to know and answer such questions 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 resettlement to the West and is it connected with natural conditions?; how did they coexist with the Russian princes?; why have historians written so negatively about them?; how did they disperse?; Are there any descendants of this interesting people among us? These questions should certainly be answered by the works of orientalists, Russian historians, ethnographers, on which we will rely.

In the 8th century, almost during the existence of the Great Turkic Khaganate (Great El), a new ethnic group, the Kypchaks, was formed in the Central and Eastern parts of modern Kazakhstan. The Kipchaks, who came from the homeland of all the Turks - from the western slopes of the Altai - united the Karluks, Kyrgyz, Kimaks under their rule. All of them received the ethnonym of their new owners. In the 11th century, the Kypchaks gradually move towards the Syr Darya, where the Oghuz roam. Fleeing from the warlike Kipchaks, they move to the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region. Almost the entire territory of modern Kazakhstan becomes the domain of the Kipchaks, which is called the Kypchak Steppe (Dasht-i-Kipchak).

The Kypchaks began to move to the West, almost for the same reason as once the Huns, who began to suffer defeats from the Chinese and Xianbeis only because a terrible drought began in the eastern steppe, which disrupted the favorable development of the Xiongnu state, created by the great Shanyu Mode . Relocation to the western steppes was not so easy, as there were constant clashes with the Oguzes and Pechenegs (Kangls). However, the resettlement of the Kipchaks was favorably influenced by the fact that Khazar Khaganate, as such, no longer existed, because before that, the rise in the level of the Caspian flooded many settlements of the Khazars, who settled on the shores of the Caspian Sea, which clearly battered their economy. The end of this state was the defeat of the cavalry Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich. The Kypchaks crossed the Volga and advanced to the mouth of the Danube. It was at this time that the Kypchaks appeared such ethnonyms as Cumans and Polovtsy. The Byzantines called them Cumans. And the Polovtsy, the Kypchaks 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 is so much controversy, since there are a lot of versions. We highlight the main ones:

So, the first version. The ethnonym "Polovtsy", according to nomads, came from "polov", that is, it is straw. Modern historians judge by this name that the Kipchaks were fair-haired, and maybe even blue-eyed. Probably, the Polovtsy 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 "Polovtsian red girls." But there is one more statement, according to which we can say that the Kypchaks were a Caucasoid ethnic group. I turn 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 Polovtsy), accepted the baptized Polovtsy 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 somewhat similar to the version above. The Kypchaks were the descendants of the Sary-Kypchaks, that is, those same Kypchaks that formed in Altai. And "sary" is translated from ancient Turkic as "yellow". In Old Russian, “polov” means “yellow”. It may be from the horse's suit. The Polovtsy could be called that because they rode sex horses. Versions, as you can see, diverge.

The first mention of the Polovtsy in Russian chronicles comes down to 1055. Historians such as N. M. Karmzin, S. M. Solovyov, V. O. Klyuchevsky, N. I. Kostomarov they considered the Kypchaks to be terrible terrible barbarians, who 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 who did not share a piece of meat. Moreover, these bloody civil strife occurred very often and they were more terrible than some small attacks of nomads, for example, on the Principality of Pereyaslavl. And here everything is not as simple as it seems. After all, the princes used the Polovtsians as mercenaries in wars among themselves. Then our historians began to talk about the fact that Rus' allegedly endured the struggle with 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 point.

It is interesting that Rus' defended the Europeans from the "evil barbarian nomads", and after that Lithuania, Poland, Swabian Germany, Hungary began to move to the East, that is, to Rus', to their "defenders". It was painfully necessary for us to protect the Europeans, and 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 the nomads and have never been a “shield of Europe”, but rather were even a “shield from Europe”.

Let us return to the relations of Rus' with the Polovtsians. We know that the two dynasties, the Olgovichi and the Monomashichi, became irreconcilable enemies, and the chroniclers, in particular, lean towards the side of the Monomashichi, as heroes of the struggle against the steppes. However, let's take an objective look at this problem. As we know, Vladimir Monomakh concluded “19 worlds” with the Polovtsy, although you can’t call him a “peacemaker prince”. In 1095, he treacherously killed the Polovtsian khans, who agreed to end the war - Itlar And Kitana. Then the prince of Kiev demanded that the prince of Chernigov Oleg Svyatoslavich either he gave his son Itlar, or he himself would have killed him. But Oleg, a future good friend of the Polovtsy, refused Vladimir.

Of course, Oleg had enough sins, but still, what could be more disgusting than betrayal? It was from that moment that the confrontation between these two dynasties began - the Olgovichi and the Monomashichi.

Vladimir Monomakh was able to make a number of campaigns against the Polovtsian nomad camps and forced out part of the Kypchaks beyond the Don. This part began to serve the Georgian king. The Kypchaks did not lose their Turkic prowess. They stopped the onslaught of the Seljuk Turks on 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 as 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, they were completely different units. The Polovtsian Mamluks were called al-Bahr or Bahrits, and Circassian Mamluks al-Burj. Later, these Mamluks, namely the Bahrits (descendants of the Cumans) seized power in Egypt under the leadership of Baibars and Kutuza, and then they will be able to repel the attacks of the Mongols of Kitbugi-noyon (the state of the Khulaguids)

We return to those Polovtsians who nevertheless managed to stay in the North Caucasian steppes, in the northern Black Sea region. In the 1190s, the Polovtsian nobility partly accepted Christianity. In 1223, the commanders of the Mongol army in two tumens (20 thousand people), Jebe And subday, made a sudden raid in the rear of the Polovtsy, bypassing the Caucasus Range. In this regard, the Polovtsy 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 steppes, if the Polovtsy are the eternal enemies of Rus', then how will they explain such a 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, say, the superiority of the enemy, which was not there, but because of their disorganization (there were 80 thousand Russians with the Polovtsy, and only 20 thousand Mongols. pers.). Then followed the complete defeat of the Polovtsy from the temnik Batu. After that, 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 Moscow principality, some, as we said, began to rule in Mamluk Egypt, and some went to Europe (Hungary, Bulgaria, Byzantium). This is where the story of the Kipchaks ends. It remains only to describe the social structure 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 a central authority. Their kurens were separate, so if they were collected general army, this rarely happened. Often several kurens united in 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 Polovtsians holding this position. After him came the aristocrats, who disposed of the community members. Then the heads who led the rank and file soldiers. The lowest social position was occupied by women - servants and convicts - prisoners of war who performed the functions of slaves. As it was written above, the horde included a certain number of kurens, which consisted of aul families. A koshevoi was appointed to own a kuren (Turkic “kosh”, “koshu” - nomadic, nomadic).

“The main occupation of the Polovtsy was cattle breeding. The main food of ordinary nomads was meat, milk and millet, and koumiss was their favorite drink. The Polovtsy sewed clothes according to their own steppe patterns. casual wear Shirts, caftans and leather pants served the Polovtsy. Housework reportedly Plano Carpini And Rubruk usually done by women. The position of women among the Polovtsy was quite high. The norms of behavior of the Polovtsians were regulated by "customary law". An important place in the system of customs of the Polovtsians was occupied by blood feud.

In the majority, if we exclude the aristocracy, which began to accept Christianity, then the Polovtsy professed tengrism . Just like the Turks, the Polovtsy revered wolf . Of course, shamans called “bashams” also served in their society, who communicated with spirits and treated the sick. In principle, they did not differ in anything from the shamans of other nomadic peoples. The Polovtsians developed a funeral cult, as well as the cult of ancestors, which gradually grew into the cult of "hero-leaders". Over the ashes of their dead, they poured mounds and placed the famous Kipchak balbals (“stone women”), erected, as in the Turkic Khaganate, in honor of the soldiers who fell in the struggle for their land. These are wonderful monuments of material culture, reflecting the rich spiritual world their creators.

The Polovtsians often fought, and their military affairs were in the first place. In addition to excellent bows and sabers, they also had javelins and spears. Most of the troops were light cavalry, consisting of mounted archers. Also, the army had heavily armed cavalry, whose warriors wore lamellar shells, plate shells, chain mail, and helmets. In their free time, the warriors were engaged in hunting to hone their skills.

Again, stepophobic historians claimed that the Polovtsy did not build cities, however, the cities of Sharukan, Sugrov, Cheshuev, founded by the Polovtsy, are mentioned in their lands. In addition, Sharukan (now the city of Kharkov) was the capital of the Western Cumans. According to the travel historian Rubruk, for a long time the Polovtsy owned Tmutarakan (according to another version, at that time it belonged to Byzantium). Probably, the Greek Crimean colonies paid tribute to them.

Our story about the Polovtsy ends, however, despite the fact that this article has insufficient data on this interesting ethnic group and therefore needs to be supplemented.

Alexander Belyaev, MGIMO Eurasian Integration Club (U).

Bibliography:

1. 1. Gumilyov L. N. " Ancient Rus' and the Great Steppe. Moscow. 2010
2. 2. Gumilyov L. N. "A millennium around the Caspian". Moscow. 2009
3. 3. Karamzin N. M. "History of the Russian State." Saint Petersburg. 2008
4. 4. Popov A.I. "Kypchaks and Rus'". Leningrad. 1949
5. 5. Grushevsky M. S. “Essay on the history of the Kyiv land from the death of Yaroslav toXIVcentury." Kyiv. 1891
6. 6. Pletneva S. A. "Polovtsi". Moscow. 1990
7. 7. Golubovsky P.V. « Pechenegs, Torks and Polovtsy before the invasion of the Tatars. Kyiv. 1884
8. 8. Plano Carpini J. "History of the Mongols, whom we call Tatars." 2009 //
9. 9. Rubruk G. "Journey to Eastern Countries". 2011 //

We all know from history that in ancient times the Russians often fought with the Polovtsians. But who are these Polovtsy? After all, now in the world there is no people with such a name. Meanwhile, their blood, perhaps, flows even in ourselves ...

"Unfortunate" people

Where the ethnonym "Polovtsy" came from is not exactly known. At one time there was a version that it was associated with the word "field", because these peoples lived in the field, the steppe. Modern historians, for the most part, believe that the word "Polovtsian" comes from "sexual" - "yellow-white, yellowish, straw." Most likely, the hair of the representatives of this people was light yellow, straw-colored. Although this is strange for the Turkic tribes. The Polovtsy themselves called themselves Kipchaks, Kimaks, Kumans...

It is interesting that the word "Kipchak" (or, as the speakers themselves pronounced it, "Kipchak") in Turkic dialects means "ill-fated". Most likely, the ancestors of the Kipchaks were the tribes of the Sirs, who roamed in the IV-VII centuries in the steppes between the Mongolian Altai and the eastern Tien Shan. There is evidence that in 630 they formed a state called Kipchak, which was subsequently destroyed by the Uighurs and the Chinese.

At the beginning of the 11th century, the Polovtsian tribes came from the Trans-Volga region to the Black Sea steppes, then crossed the Dnieper and reached the lower reaches of the Danube. Thus, they managed to populate the entire territory from the Danube to the Irtysh, which was called the Great Steppe. Eastern sources even call it Desht-i-Kipchak (Kipchak steppe).

From raids to the Golden Horde

Starting from the second half of the 11th century, the Polovtsy continually raided Rus', devastating the lands, taking away livestock and property, and taking local residents into captivity. The border principalities - Pereyaslav, Seversk, Kiev, Ryazan - suffered the most from the Polovtsian attacks.

At the beginning of the 12th century, the troops of princes Svyatopolk Izyaslavich and Vladimir Monomakh managed to push the Polovtsy to the Caucasus, beyond the Volga and the Don. Subsequently, they made up the majority of the population of the Golden Horde. It was from them, according to historians, that the Tatars, Kirghiz, Gagauz, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Karakalpaks, Nogais, Kumyks, Bashkirs, Karachays, Balkars went.

Where to look for the descendants of the Polovtsians?

During the existence of the Golden Horde, Russian princes often married Polovtsian princesses. The beginning of this tradition was laid by the son of Yaroslav the Wise, Prince Vsevolod, who in 1068 married Anna, the daughter of the Polovtsian Khan, who went down in history as Anna Polovtska. His son Vladimir Monomakh also married a Polovtsian. Kiev Prince Svyatopolk Izyaslavich was married to the daughter of the Polovtsian Khan Tugorkan, Yuri Dolgoruky - to the daughter of Khan Aepa, Rurik, the son of the Grand Duke of Kiev Rostislav Mstislavich - to the daughter of Khan Belok, the son of Novgorod-Seversky Prince Igor Svyatoslavich, the hero of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" Vladimir - on the daughter of Khan Konchak, Prince Mstislav Udatny of Galicia - on the daughter of Khan Kotyan, who, by the way, became the grandmother of Alexander Nevsky!

So, the mother of the Vladimir-Suzdal prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, the son of Yuri Dolgoruky, was a Polovtsian. The study of his remains was supposed to serve as a confirmation or refutation of the theory of the Caucasoid appearance of the Polovtsians. It turned out that there was nothing Mongoloid in the appearance of the prince. According to anthropological data, they were typical Europeans. All descriptions indicate that the "Kipchaks" had blond or reddish hair, gray or blue eyes ... Another thing is that in the process of assimilation they could mix, for example, with the Mongols, and their descendants already acquired Mongoloid features.

Where did the Caucasoid features come from among the Polovtsians? One of the hypotheses says that they were descendants of the Dinlins, one of the oldest nations in Europe, who, as a result of migration processes, mixed with the Turks.

Today, among the Nogais, Kazakhs, Bashkirs, Tatars, Kirghiz, there are descendants of tribes with generic names "Kipchak", "Kypshak", "Kypsak" with similar genetic haplogroups. Among the Bulgarians, Altaians, Nogais, Bashkirs, Kirghiz there are ethnic groups with the names "Kuman", "Kuban", "Kuba", which some historians refer to as part of the Polovtsian tribes. The Hungarians, in turn, have the "Plavtsy" and "Kunok" ethnic groups, which are descendants of related tribes - the Polovtsians and Kuns.

A number of researchers believe that the distant descendants of the Polovtsy are also found among Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, Bulgarians and even Germans.

Thus, the blood of the Polovtsy can flow in many peoples not only in Asia, but also in Europe, and even Slavic, not excluding, of course, Russians ...

In the eighth century, in the writings of multilingual authors, the name of the tribe appeared, which was called in Rus' - Polovtsy, in Central Europe - Komans, and in the East - Kipchaks. Muslim historians and Russian chroniclers know the Kipchaks-Polovtsy as a numerous, strong tribe, whose name the whole Great Steppe began to be called. For the first time, the ethnonym "Kipchak" was recorded on a stone from the Selenga (759). The Iranian aristocrat Ibn Khordadbek in the Book of Ways and Provinces, written in 846-847, gives the name of Karluks and Kipchaks. Thus, for the first time in Muslim sources there were references to the two largest tribal unions, perhaps the most significant for the subsequent ethnic history of the Kazakh steppes. In the 8th-10th centuries. the predominance of Kimaks and Kipchaks, first in Altai, in the Irtysh region and Eastern Kazakhstan, becomes a determining factor in this vast steppe region. The collapse of the Kimak state at the beginning of the 11th century. and the displacement of part of the Kipchaks to the west in the Aral and Volga regions formed the main content of the new phase of the Kimak-Kipchak settlement. During this period, five main groups of Kipchak tribes are finally formed: - Altaic-Siberian; - Kazakh-Urals (including the so-called "Saxinian", i.e. Itil-Yaik group); - Don (including the Ciscaucasian subgroup); - Dnieper (including the Crimean subgroup); - Danubian (including the Balkan subgroup); Wars of the steppes In addition, separate groups of Kipchaks are also known in Fergana and East Turkestan, Kashgaria. The period under consideration, according to Academician M. Kozybaev, is the time of separation of ethnic groups from Turkic tribes. In relation to the Kazakh history, this period is called the Oguz-Kipchak era. In the 10th century, from the many tribal unions of the Slavs, Romano-Germans, Turks, etc., settling the Eurasian space, the process of separation of ethnic groups begins. Thus, the Russian people appear in the West. According to the above author, at that time the Kipchak people were formed in the Great Steppe. We know the statement of L. Gumilyov that in the 11th century. the Turks, as a superethnos, are coming to their own decline. It was at this moment that the Kipchaks entered the historical arena. Here is what Mashkhur Zhusip Kopeev writes about this in his chronicle: “In the West - the Syrdarya, in the East - the Irtysh, in the South - Semirechie, in the North - the Volga. The space between these four rivers was called Deshti Kipchak, where 92 Kipchak clans settled. The Kipchaks, having removed the combined ethnonym "Turk" from the stage of history, themselves turned into a super-ethnos, into the core of other Turkic tribes. Wars of the Steppes (R. Volga) Deshti Kipchak "Steppe of the Kipchaks". Half a century passed, and the Black Sea steppes became the Polovtsian field of Russian chronicles, and at the beginning of the 14th century. Persian historian Hamdallah Kazvini explained that the Volga-Donetsk steppes, previously called the Khazar steppe, had long ago become the steppe of the Kipchaks. In the 12th century, the Kipchaks turned into a formidable force that terrified the entire Arab, Persian, Slavic, Romano-Germanic world. In 1055, a wave of movements of new steppe tribes rolled up to the borders of Rus'. All of them are connected with the Kipchaks. But in new places this common ethno-political term "Kipchak" did not take root. In Rus', the name balls “yellow”, “sexual” were translated into Slavic, and from here all new aliens received the name Polovtsy, and the steppe began to be called the Polovtsian Field. Then they reached the Volga, Don, Dnieper and Dniester. In 1071, the Kipchaks, having reached Asia Minor, conquered the city of Anatoli, thereby laying the foundation for the Ottoman Turks. In just 30 years, the Kipchaks reached the Carpathians, the Danube and the Balkan Mountains. Those who went beyond the Danube, the Hungarians called them Kuns, but at the same time another name for them appeared. The Polovtsian horseman. 12th century It is interesting to note that today about a quarter of a million Kipchak-Magyars live in Hungary. According to Istvan Konyr Mandoku, one of the major researchers, they are, according to various socio-political and historical reasons moved from the middle reaches of the Irtysh, the environs of the Aral and other areas of the 9th-13th centuries. In particular, it is known that during the invasion of Genghis Khan, and then Batu, under the leadership of Khan Kodan, part of the Kipchaks moved to Hungary. Today, the Magyars (Hungarian Kipchaks) live in two zones. The eastern ones call themselves the Great Kipchaks, the western ones - the Small Kipchaks. The first includes the clans of ulas, toksaba, zhalaiyr, kereyt, naiman, bayandur, liver, konyruly (hence the name of the researcher Istvan Konyr, who considers himself a descendant of the Great Kipchaks). Smaller Kipchaks include clans: Shortan, Tortuyl, Taz, Zhylanshyk, Buryshuli, Kuyr, etc. It is also important that this scientist specifically focuses on the fact that Kipchak is not the name of any one kind. Kipchak is the name of the peoples that became part of the state of Deshti Kipchak. great poet Magzhan Zhumabaev in his work "Flame" writes that after the Huns the Alpine and Balkan mountains were reached by our ancestors - the Kipchaks. As Mahmud Kashgari proves, the Kipchaks, Oghuz and other tribes that were part of this tribal union spoke an amazingly pure Turkic language. Thus, it has become a common language for all the Turkic tribes that were part of the Kipchak Union. Polovtsy in the captured Russian city. 12th century OV Fedorov There are statements in the literature that the Kipchaks are the core of the future Kazakh ethnos (proto-Kazakhs). However, academician M. Kozybaev considers this understanding to be insufficiently deep. He is of the opinion that in the 11-12 centuries. the Kipchak people were formed. The basis for this, according to the author, can be a single territory of settlement, the Turkic tribes developing together, a common language, a formed nomadic, semi-nomadic life, a single cultural and spiritual attitude to the world, military democracy, common military operations - all this gives rise to a common worldview and basic qualities people. According to the testimony historical sources, the names "Kipchak" and "Kazakh" arose simultaneously. Yes, some authors believe. Nevertheless, the problem of the origin of the Kazakh people has not yet been studied enough, many aspects of the most complex ethnogenetic process in the vast territory of Kazakhstan are not clear. In science, there are different assumptions about the nature of the ethnonym "Kazakh" and about when the Kazakh nationality was formed. It is obvious that the fact of the formation of the Kazakh people is not an accidental or one-time act. The ethnic processes that led to the formation of the Kazakh people go back to antiquity and the Middle Ages, the era of the emergence of statehood on the territory of Kazakhstan. Undoubtedly, the genetic connection of the medieval population of Kazakhstan - from the Turks, Turgeshs, Karluks, Oguzes, Karakhanids, Karakhytays to the Kipchaks, Naimans, Kireites, Usuns and others, who became ethnic components of the Kazakh people. ), Russian name Turkic-speaking nomadic people of Mongoloid origin, who came in the 11th century from the Trans-Volga region to the Black Sea steppes. The main occupation of the Polovtsy was nomadic cattle breeding. By the 12th century, handicraft specialties began to stand out among them: a blacksmith, a furrier, a shoemaker, a saddle maker, an archer, a tailor. The Polovtsy lived in yurts, and in winter they camped on the banks of rivers. They believed in good and evil spirits, they erected monuments to the dead - stone statues. In the 11th century, the Polovtsy were at the stage of decomposition of the primitive system. They singled out separate family clans, the heads of which were called beys. Families united into clans headed by beks. Clans united into hordes, headed by soltans. Several hordes formed a tribe led by a khan. The Polovtsy had the right to blood feud. An important element public life there were predatory raids on the lands of neighboring peoples. The Polovtsian army consisted of light and heavy cavalry and was distinguished by great mobility. Often women also took part in the battles. In 1054, the Russians first encountered the Polovtsy, who repeatedly attacked the Russian lands, inflicting heavy defeats on the troops of the Kyiv princes (in 1068, 1092, 1093, 1096). The Polovtsy made campaigns against Hungary (1070, 1091, 1094) and Byzantium (1087, 1095). In 1091 they helped Byzantine Emperor Alexei Komnin to defeat the Pechenegs in the valley of the river Gebr. Early 12th century Kyiv princes Svyatopolk Izyaslavich and Vladimir Monomakh managed to organize a number of victorious campaigns against the Polovtsy (1103, 1106, 1107, 1109, 1111, 1116), as a result of which only a small horde of Khan Sarchak remained roaming in the Don region. His brother Otrok with 40 thousand Polovtsy went to the Caucasus to the Georgian king David the Builder, who used them in the fight against the Seljuks. The campaign of the Polovtsy against the Volga-Kama Bulgaria in 1117 was not successful. After the death of Vladimir Monomakh (1125), the Polovtsy again consolidated on the Don. Many Russian princes married noble Polovtsy women, settled Polovtsy within Rus' and used them as military force. In the 1170s and 1180s, the onslaught of the Polovtsy against Rus' intensified. However, the campaigns of the troops of the Russian princes undermined their military power. In 1223, the Polovtsy were twice defeated by the Mongols - in the North Caucasus and in the battle on the Kalka River, where the Polovtsy were allies of the Russian princes. As a result of the Mongol-Tatar invasion, part of the Polovtsians became part of the Golden Horde, and part moved to Hungary. The struggle of the Russian people with the Polovtsians is reflected in the annals and in the "Tale of Igor's Campaign". Abdizhapar Abdakimov, Encyclopedia "Cyril and Methodius"