Kimek
Encyclopedia
The Kimek or Kimak were one of the Turkic
tribes known from Arab
and Persian medieval geographers as one of the seven tribes in the Kimek Khanate
in the period of 743-1050 AD. The other six constituent tribes, according to Abu Said Gardizi
(d. 1061), were the Yamak, Kipchaks
, Tatars
, Bayandur
, Lanikaz
, and Ajlad
.
("Silver") river, a tributary of the Amur. Marquart suggested a Turkic
etymology as Kimäk Iki Imäk (Two Imeks). No separate tribe was self-described as "Kimek", they were always mentioned as a pair. Medieval Chinese geographers did not know the ethnonym
Kimaks, always referring to them as Yueban.
organized a state, and took over the lands of the Xiongnu
empire. After that, the Dingling
, the future Kipchaks, were pushed into the Sayan Mountains
. The strongest tribes of the Xiongnu confederacy, known by the Chines as "Strong Huns", moved westward. With new Tocharian
, Iranian
, Ugrian
and Caucasian allies they eventually reached Europe as the Huns
, where they dominated the Alans
and the Goths
.
In the 2nd century AD the Chuban or "Weak Huns" settled in Tarbagatai
, and later spread to Zhetysu. The Chuban remained in Zhetysu and established a princedom that existed until the 5th century AD. They were also known as the Central Asian Huns.
In the 5th century the Chuban were conquered by the Uyghurs
, and separated into four tribes: Chuüe, Chumi, Chumugun, and Chuban. After 436 AD the Central Asian Huns sent an embassy to China to seek an alliance against the Rouran
.
A part of the Chuüe tribe intermixed with the Göktürks
and formed a tribe called Shato, which lived in southern Dzungaria
, to the west of Lake Baikal
. In the Western Turkic Khaganate
the Chuy tribes occupied a privileged position of being voting members of the confederation, same as the Nushibi
(Ch. 弩失畢, left wing) tribes. The Shato separated from the Chuüe in the middle of the 7th century, and presently are a well known ethnic group, listed in censuses taken in Tzarist Russia and in the 20th century.
After the disintegration in 743 AD of the Western Turkic Kaganate, a part of the Chuy tribes remained in its successor, the Uyghur Kaganate (740-840), and another part retained their independence. During the Uyghur period, the Chuy tribes consolidated into the nucleus of the tribes known as Kimaks in the Arab and Persian sources. The head of the Kimek confederation was titled Shad Tutuk, i.e. "Prince Governing, or Ruling”. By the middle of the eighth century, the Kimeks occupied territory between the Ural River
and Emba River
, and from the Aral sea
and Caspian
steppes, to the Zhetysu area.
(d. 1061) wrote that the Kimak federation consisted of seven tribes: Kimeks (Imak, Imek, Yemek), Imi, Tatars
, Bayandur
, Kipchak, Lanikaz
and Ajlad
. Later, an expanded Kimek Kaganate partially controlled the territories of the Oguz
, Kangly, and Bagjanak tribes, and in the west bordered the Khazar
and Bulgar
territories. The Kimaks led a semi-settled life, while the Kipchaks were predominantly nomadic herders.
In the beginning of the eleventh century the Kipchak Khanlyk moved west, occupying lands that had earlier belonged to the Oguz. After seizing the Oguz lands, the Kipchaks grew considerably stronger, and the Kimeks became dependents of the Kipchaks. The fall of the Kimek Kaganate in the middle of the 11th century was caused by the migration of Central Asian Mongolian-speaking nomads, displaced by the Mongolian-speaking Khitan
state of Liao
, which formed in 916 AD in Northern China. The Khitan nomads occupied the Kimek and Kipchak lands west of the Irtysh. In the eleventh to twelfth centuries a Mongol-speaking Naiman tribe displaced the Kimeks and Kipchaks from the Mongolian Altai and Upper Irtysh as it moved west.
Between the ninth and thirteenth centuries Kimek nomadic tribes were coaching in the steppes of the modern Astrakhan Oblast
of Russia. A portion of the Kimeks that left the Ob
-Irtysh
interfluvial region joined the Kipchak confederation that survived until the Mongol invasion, and later united with the Nogai confederation of the Kipchak descendents. The last organized tribes of the Nogai in Russian sources were dispersed with the Russian construction of zaseka
bulwarks in the Don
and Volga regions in the 17th-18th centuries, which separated the cattle breeding populations from their summer pastures. Another part of the Nogai were deported from the Budjak
steppes after Russian conquest of Western Ukraine and Moldova in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century.
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
tribes known from Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
and Persian medieval geographers as one of the seven tribes in the Kimek Khanate
Kimek Khanate
The Kimek Khanate, also spelled Kimäk Khanate and Kimak Kaganate was a prominent medieval Turkic state formed by the Kimek and Kipchak people in the area between the Ob-Irtysh....
in the period of 743-1050 AD. The other six constituent tribes, according to Abu Said Gardizi
Abu Said Gardizi
Abu Saʿīd Abdul-Hay ibn Dhaḥḥāk ibn Maḥmūd Gardēzī, Gardīzī or Gurdēzī was a Persian Muslim geographer and historian of the early 11th century from Gardēz who wrote the book Zayn al-Akhbār...
(d. 1061), were the Yamak, Kipchaks
Kipchaks
Kipchaks were a Turkic tribal confederation...
, Tatars
Tatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
, Bayandur
Bayandur
Bayandur is one of Turkic tribes known from Arab and Persian Middle Age geographers and writers as being one of the seven tribes in the Kimak Kaganate in the period of 743-1050 AD. The other six constituent tribes per Abu Said Gardizi were Kimaks, Yamaks, Kipchaks, Tatars, Lanikaz, and Ajlad...
, Lanikaz
Lanikaz
Lanikaz is one of supposedly Turkic tribes known from Arab and Persian Middle Age geographers and writers as being one of the seven tribes in the Kimak Kaganate in the period of 743-1050 AD...
, and Ajlad
Ajlad
Ajlad is one of supposedly Turkic tribes known from Arab and Persian Middle Age geographers and writers as being one of the seven tribes in the Kimak Kaganate in the period of 743-1050 AD. The other six constituent tribes per Abu Said Gardizi were Kimaks, Yamak, Kipchaks, Tatars, Bayandur, and...
.
Name
The name Kimek arose from the union of the twin tribes Imi and Imek, named after the river Imi in the valley of the ArgunArgun River
Argun River may refer to*Argun River , in Georgia and Russia*Argun River , part of the Russia–China border...
("Silver") river, a tributary of the Amur. Marquart suggested a Turkic
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
etymology as Kimäk Iki Imäk (Two Imeks). No separate tribe was self-described as "Kimek", they were always mentioned as a pair. Medieval Chinese geographers did not know the ethnonym
Ethnonym
An ethnonym is the name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms and autonyms or endonyms .As an example, the ethnonym for...
Kimaks, always referring to them as Yueban.
History
From 155 to 166 AD the XianbeiXianbei
The Xianbei were a significant Mongolic nomadic people residing in Manchuria, Inner Mongolia and eastern Mongolia. The title “Khan” was first used among the Xianbei.-Origins:...
organized a state, and took over the lands of the Xiongnu
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu were ancient nomadic-based people that formed a state or confederation north of the agriculture-based empire of the Han Dynasty. Most of the information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources...
empire. After that, the Dingling
Dingling
The Dingling were an ancient Siberian people. They originally lived on the bank of the Lena River in the area west of Lake Baikal, gradually moving southward to Mongolia and northern China...
, the future Kipchaks, were pushed into the Sayan Mountains
Sayan Mountains
The Sayan Mountains are a mountain range between northwestern Mongolia and southern Siberia, Russia.The Eastern Sayan extends from the Yenisei River at 92° E to the southwest end of Lake Baikal at 106° E...
. The strongest tribes of the Xiongnu confederacy, known by the Chines as "Strong Huns", moved westward. With new Tocharian
Tocharians
The Tocharians were the Tocharian-speaking inhabitants of the Tarim Basin, making them the easternmost speakers of Indo-European languages in antiquity. They were known as, or at least closely related to, the Yuezhi of Chinese sources...
, Iranian
Iranian peoples
The Iranian peoples are an Indo-European ethnic-linguistic group, consisting of the speakers of Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, as such forming a branch of Indo-European-speaking peoples...
, Ugrian
Yugra
Yugra was the name of the lands between the Pechora River and Northern Urals in the Russian annals of the 12th–17th centuries, as well as the name of the Khanty and partly Mansi tribes inhabiting these territories, later known as VogulsThe Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug of Russia is also...
and Caucasian allies they eventually reached Europe as the Huns
Huns
The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...
, where they dominated the Alans
Alans
The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...
and the Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
.
In the 2nd century AD the Chuban or "Weak Huns" settled in Tarbagatai
Tarbagatai
Tarbagatai or Tarbagatay may refer to:Mountain ranges:*The Tarbagatai Mountains between Xinjiang, China and Kazakhstan*In Mongolia, a part of the Khangai range along the border of Zavkhan, Arkhangai, and Khövsgöl Province aimags is called Tarvagatai...
, and later spread to Zhetysu. The Chuban remained in Zhetysu and established a princedom that existed until the 5th century AD. They were also known as the Central Asian Huns.
In the 5th century the Chuban were conquered by the Uyghurs
Uyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
, and separated into four tribes: Chuüe, Chumi, Chumugun, and Chuban. After 436 AD the Central Asian Huns sent an embassy to China to seek an alliance against the Rouran
Rouran
Rouran , Mongolia name Jujan or Nirun Ruanruan/Ruru , Tan Tan , Juan-Juan or Zhu-Zhuwas the name of a confederation of nomadic tribes on the northern borders of Inner China from the late 4th century until the middle 6th century...
.
A part of the Chuüe tribe intermixed with the Göktürks
Göktürks
The Göktürks or Kök Türks, were a nomadic confederation of peoples in medieval Inner Asia. Known in Chinese sources as 突厥 , the Göktürks under the leadership of Bumin Qaghan The Göktürks or Kök Türks, (Old Turkic: Türük or Kök Türük or Türük; Celestial Turks) were a nomadic confederation of...
and formed a tribe called Shato, which lived in southern Dzungaria
Dzungaria
Dzungaria, also called Zungaria, is a geographical region in northwest China corresponding to the northern half of Xinjiang. It covers approximately , lying mostly within Xinjiang, and extending into western Mongolia and eastern Kazakhstan...
, to the west of Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is the world's oldest at 30 million years old and deepest lake with an average depth of 744.4 metres.Located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, it is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the...
. In the Western Turkic Khaganate
Western Turkic Khaganate
The Western Turkic Khaganate was formed as a result of the internecine wars in the beginning of the 7th century after the Göktürk Khaganate had splintered into two politiesEastern and Western.The Western Turks initially sought friendly relations with the Byzantine Empire in order to expand their...
the Chuy tribes occupied a privileged position of being voting members of the confederation, same as the Nushibi
Nushibi
Nushibi was a Chinese collective name for five tribes of the right wing in the Western Turkic Kaganate, and members of On oq confederation found in the literature about the Western Turkic Kaganate as Ten arrows Türks...
(Ch. 弩失畢, left wing) tribes. The Shato separated from the Chuüe in the middle of the 7th century, and presently are a well known ethnic group, listed in censuses taken in Tzarist Russia and in the 20th century.
After the disintegration in 743 AD of the Western Turkic Kaganate, a part of the Chuy tribes remained in its successor, the Uyghur Kaganate (740-840), and another part retained their independence. During the Uyghur period, the Chuy tribes consolidated into the nucleus of the tribes known as Kimaks in the Arab and Persian sources. The head of the Kimek confederation was titled Shad Tutuk, i.e. "Prince Governing, or Ruling”. By the middle of the eighth century, the Kimeks occupied territory between the Ural River
Ural River
The Ural or Jayıq/Zhayyq , known as Yaik before 1775, is a river flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan. It arises in the southern Ural Mountains and ends at the Caspian Sea. Its total length is 1,511 mi making it the third longest river in Europe after the Volga and the Danube...
and Emba River
Emba River
The Emba River in west Kazakhstan rises in the Mugodzhar Hills and flows some 400 miles southwest into the Caspian Sea. It flows through the north of the Ust-Urt plateau, and reaches the Caspian by a series of shallow lagoons, which were navigable in the 18th century. The lower course traverses...
, and from the Aral sea
Aral Sea
The Aral Sea was a lake that lay between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south...
and Caspian
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
steppes, to the Zhetysu area.
Kimek Khanate
After the 840 AD breakup of the Uyghur Kaganate, the Kimeks headed a new political tribal union, creating a new Kimek state. Abu Said GardiziAbu Said Gardizi
Abu Saʿīd Abdul-Hay ibn Dhaḥḥāk ibn Maḥmūd Gardēzī, Gardīzī or Gurdēzī was a Persian Muslim geographer and historian of the early 11th century from Gardēz who wrote the book Zayn al-Akhbār...
(d. 1061) wrote that the Kimak federation consisted of seven tribes: Kimeks (Imak, Imek, Yemek), Imi, Tatars
Tatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
, Bayandur
Bayandur
Bayandur is one of Turkic tribes known from Arab and Persian Middle Age geographers and writers as being one of the seven tribes in the Kimak Kaganate in the period of 743-1050 AD. The other six constituent tribes per Abu Said Gardizi were Kimaks, Yamaks, Kipchaks, Tatars, Lanikaz, and Ajlad...
, Kipchak, Lanikaz
Lanikaz
Lanikaz is one of supposedly Turkic tribes known from Arab and Persian Middle Age geographers and writers as being one of the seven tribes in the Kimak Kaganate in the period of 743-1050 AD...
and Ajlad
Ajlad
Ajlad is one of supposedly Turkic tribes known from Arab and Persian Middle Age geographers and writers as being one of the seven tribes in the Kimak Kaganate in the period of 743-1050 AD. The other six constituent tribes per Abu Said Gardizi were Kimaks, Yamak, Kipchaks, Tatars, Bayandur, and...
. Later, an expanded Kimek Kaganate partially controlled the territories of the Oguz
Oguz
Oghuz is a rayon of Azerbaijan. The population of the region consisted of Azerbaijanis....
, Kangly, and Bagjanak tribes, and in the west bordered the Khazar
Khazars
The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...
and Bulgar
Bulgars
The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....
territories. The Kimaks led a semi-settled life, while the Kipchaks were predominantly nomadic herders.
In the beginning of the eleventh century the Kipchak Khanlyk moved west, occupying lands that had earlier belonged to the Oguz. After seizing the Oguz lands, the Kipchaks grew considerably stronger, and the Kimeks became dependents of the Kipchaks. The fall of the Kimek Kaganate in the middle of the 11th century was caused by the migration of Central Asian Mongolian-speaking nomads, displaced by the Mongolian-speaking Khitan
Khitan people
thumb|250px|Khitans [[Eagle hunting|using eagles to hunt]], painted during the Chinese [[Song Dynasty]].The Khitan people , or Khitai, Kitan, or Kidan, were a nomadic Mongolic people, originally located at Mongolia and Manchuria from the 4th century...
state of Liao
Liao Dynasty
The Liao Dynasty , also known as the Khitan Empire was an empire in East Asia that ruled over the regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, and parts of northern China proper between 9071125...
, which formed in 916 AD in Northern China. The Khitan nomads occupied the Kimek and Kipchak lands west of the Irtysh. In the eleventh to twelfth centuries a Mongol-speaking Naiman tribe displaced the Kimeks and Kipchaks from the Mongolian Altai and Upper Irtysh as it moved west.
Between the ninth and thirteenth centuries Kimek nomadic tribes were coaching in the steppes of the modern Astrakhan Oblast
Astrakhan Oblast
Astrakhan Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Astrakhan.-Demographics:Population: Ethnic groups...
of Russia. A portion of the Kimeks that left the Ob
Ob River
The Ob River , also Obi, is a major river in western Siberia, Russia and is the world's seventh longest river. It is the westernmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean .The Gulf of Ob is the world's longest estuary.-Names:The Ob is known to the Khanty people as the...
-Irtysh
Irtysh
The Irtysh River is a river in Siberia and is the chief tributary of the Ob River. Its name means White River. Irtysh's main affluent is the Tobol River...
interfluvial region joined the Kipchak confederation that survived until the Mongol invasion, and later united with the Nogai confederation of the Kipchak descendents. The last organized tribes of the Nogai in Russian sources were dispersed with the Russian construction of zaseka
Cheval de frise
The cheval de frise was a Medieval defensive obstacle consisting of a portable frame covered with many long iron or wooden spikes or even actual spears. They were principally intended as an anti-cavalry obstacle but could also be moved quickly to help block a breach in another barrier...
bulwarks in the Don
Don River (Russia)
The Don River is one of the major rivers of Russia. It rises in the town of Novomoskovsk 60 kilometres southeast from Tula, southeast of Moscow, and flows for a distance of about 1,950 kilometres to the Sea of Azov....
and Volga regions in the 17th-18th centuries, which separated the cattle breeding populations from their summer pastures. Another part of the Nogai were deported from the Budjak
Budjak
Budjak or Budzhak is a historical region in the Odessa Oblast of Ukraine. Lying along the Black Sea between the Danube and Dniester rivers this multiethnic region was the southern part of Bessarabia...
steppes after Russian conquest of Western Ukraine and Moldova in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century.
See also
- Kipchak people
- Kipchaks in GeorgiaKipchaks in GeorgiaKipchaks are an ancient nomadic, Turkic people who occupied large territories from Central Asia to Eastern Europe. They, together with the Cumans played an important role in the history of many nations in the region, Georgia among them...
- History of KyrgyzstanHistory of Kyrgyzstan-Early history:Stone implements found in the Tian Shan mountains indicate the presence of human society in what is now Kyrgyzstan as many as 200,000 to 300,000 years ago...
- History of KazakhstanHistory of KazakhstanThe history of Kazakhstan describes the human past in the Eurasia's largest segment of the steppe belt that was the home and crossroads for numerous human groups starting with extinct Pithecanthropus and Sinanthropus 1 mln - 800,000 in the Karatau Mountains, Caspian and Balkhash areas; Neanderthals...
- History of MongoliaHistory of MongoliaThe area of what is now Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Nirun, the Gökturks, and others. The Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan in 1206. After the collapse of the Yuan Dynasty in 1368, the Mongols returned to their earlier patterns...
- History of ChinaHistory of ChinaChinese civilization originated in various regional centers along both the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valleys in the Neolithic era, but the Yellow River is said to be the Cradle of Chinese Civilization. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world's oldest...
External links
- http://www.ozturkler.com/data_english/0001/0001_16.htm The Kimek People