The medieval Kipchak Khanate is a conglomerate of Polovtsian tribes, who 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 Kama in the north to the Aral Sea in the south. The existence of the Kipchak Khanate - XI - XIII centuries.
Background
Polovtsy (other names: Kipchaks, Polovtsy, Kumans) were a Turkic people with a classic steppe way of life of nomads. In the VIII century, they were fixed on the territory of modern Kazakhstan. Their neighbors were the Khazars and Oguzes. The ancestors of the Polovtsy are considered to be the sirs who wandered in the steppes of the eastern Tien Shan and Mongolia. That is why the first written evidence of this people is Chinese.
In 744, the Polovtsy fell under the rule of the Kimaks and for a long time lived in the Kimak Khaganate. In the 9th century, the situation became just the opposite. The Polovtsy achieved hegemony over the Kimaks. So the Kipchak Khanate arose. At the beginning of the XI century, it replaced the neighboring Oghuz tribe from the lower reaches of the Syr Darya . On the border with Khorezm, near the Polovtsy was the city of Sygnak, where they spent the winter nomad. Now in its place are the ruins of an ancient settlement, of serious archaeological value.
State formation
By 1050, the Kipchak Khanate absorbed the entire territory of modern Kazakhstan (except for the Seven Rivers). In the east, the border of this state reached the Irtysh, and its western borders stopped on the Volga. In the south, Kipchaks reached Talas, in the north - Siberian forests.
The ethnic composition of these nomads was formed as a result of merging with many other peoples. Historians distinguish two key Kipchak tribes: yanto and se. In addition, the Polovtsy mingled with their conquered neighbors (Turks and Oguzes). In total, researchers count up to 16 Kipchak tribes. These are boril, toxoba, durut, caraboricles, bijanac, etc.
In the middle of the XI century, the Kipchak Khanate reached the peak of its expansion. Nomads stopped in the Black Sea and Russian steppes, reaching the border of the Byzantine Empire. As a result of this mass migration, the Kipchaks community disintegrated into two conventional parts: western and eastern. The border between them ran along the Volga (Polovtsy called it Itil).
Social structure
The Kipchak society was class and socially unequal. The main property guaranteeing welfare was livestock and horses. It was their number in the household that was considered an indicator of a person’s place on the social ladder. Part of the cattle was in community ownership. Such animals were marked with tamgas (special marks). Pastures, by tradition, belonged to the aristocracy.
Most of the Kypchaks consisted of ordinary pastoralists and community members. They were considered free, although they often came under the protection of more influential relatives. With the loss of his cattle, a man was deprived of the opportunity to wander and became a yatuk - a settled resident. The most disenfranchised 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 Russo-Polovtsian wars began. The nomads did not try to conquer the Eastern Slavic principalities, but came to foreign lands for the sake of robbery and new slaves. The steppemen took away property and livestock and devastated agricultural land. Their attacks were unexpected and swift. As a rule, the nomads managed to disappear long before the princely squads arrived at the place of their invasion.
Most often, the lands around Kiev, Ryazan, Pereyaslavl, as well as Porosie and Severshchina suffered. It was on their rich lands and cities that the Kipchak Khanate aimed its merciless attacks. 11 - the beginning of the 13th century - a period of regular clashes between the steppes 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 Vladimir Principality.
Chronicle of raids
When the Kipchak Khanate, whose territory expanded significantly, came into contact with Russia, the Slavic state, on the contrary, entered a period of crisis caused by feudal fragmentation and internal internecine 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 Prince Pereyaslavl Vsevolod Yaroslavich in 1061. Seven years later, the steppes defeated the army of the Russian coalition of three Rurikovich on the Alta River. In 1078, the Kiev prince Izyaslav Yaroslavich died in the battle on the Nezhatina Niva. All these tragedies fell upon Russia, largely due to the inability of the specific monarchs to agree among themselves for the common good.
Victory Rurikovich
The medieval Kipchak Khanate, whose political system and external relations resemble the classic example of the horde, successfully terrorized the Russian lands for a long time. Nevertheless, the defeat of the Eastern Slavs could not last forever. The personification of a new round of the fight against the Polovtsy was Vladimir Monomakh.
In 1096, this prince defeated the Kypchaks on the Trubezh River. The leader of the nomads Tugorkan was killed in the battle. Interestingly, the founder of the Kipchak Khanate is not known to historians for certain. Information remained 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 persistence of the Slavic squads, the expansion that the Kipchak Khanate continued for many decades has stopped. In short, the resources of the Polovtsy were not enough to shake the sovereignty of Russia. Rurikovich tried to deal with uninvited guests by any means available. The princes arranged border fortifications and settled in them peaceful settled Turks - black hoods. They lived in the south of Kiev land and for a considerable time served as the shield of Russia.
Vladimir Monomakh was the first to not only defeat the Kypchaks, but also made an attempt to launch an offensive into the boundless steppe. His campaign of 1111, to which other Rurikovich joined, was organized following the example of Krestovoy, in which Western knights conquered Jerusalem from Muslims. In the future, the practice of offensive wars in the steppe became a tradition. The most famous in Russian folklore was the campaign of the Seversky Prince Igor Svyatoslavovich, the events of which formed the basis of the "Word of Igor Igorev."
Polovtsy and Byzantium
Russia was not the only European state with which the Kipchak Khanate had contact. A summary of the relations of the steppes with the Byzantine Empire is known from medieval Greek chronicles. In 1091, the Polovtsy entered into a brief alliance with the Russian prince Vasilko Rostislavich. The purpose of the coalition was the defeat of other nomads - the Pechenegs. In the XI century, they were driven out by the Polovtsy from the Black Sea steppes and now threatened the borders of the Byzantine Empire.
Not wanting to tolerate the presence of a horde at their borders, the Greeks entered into an alliance with Vasilko and the Kypchaks. In 1091, their combined army, led by Emperor Alexei I Komnin, defeated the Pecheneg army at the Battle of Lebourne. However, the friendship with the Polovtsy did not work out among the Greeks. Already in 1092, the khanate supported the impostor and the pretender to power in Constantinople of Lzhediogen. Polovtsy invaded the empire. The Byzantines defeated uninvited guests in 1095, after which they still did not try to go beyond the borders of their native steppe for a long time.
Allies of the Bulgarians
If the Kypchaks were at enmity with the Greeks, then allied relations with the Bulgarians from the same Balkans almost always connected them. For the first time, these two peoples fought on the same side 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. In the campaign, the Slavs were actively helped by the Polovtsian hordes. It was their swift attacks that horrified the Greeks, who were not used to fighting such an enemy.
In 1187 - 1280 years. the ruling dynasty in Bulgaria were Aseni. It was their relationship with the Kypchaks who were an example of a strong alliance. For example, at the beginning of the 13th century, Tsar Kaloyan, along with the steppes, more than once bothered the possessions of his neighbor, the Hungarian king Imre. At that time, a landmark event occurred - the West European knights captured Constantinople, destroyed the Byzantine empire, and built its own - on its ruins - Latin. The Bulgarians immediately became 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 decisive role in the victory was played by the maneuverable cavalry of the Kypchaks.
Conquest of the Mongols
No matter how striking the successes of the Polovtsy in the west, they all faded against the backdrop of the terrible threat that was approaching Europe from the east. At the beginning of the XIII century, the Mongols began to build their own empire. First they conquered China, and then moved west. Having conquered Central Asia without much difficulty, the new conquerors began to crowd out the Polovtsy and the neighboring peoples.
In Europe, the Alans were the first to be hit. The Kipchaks refused to help them. Then came their turn. When it became clear that the invasion of the Mongols could not be avoided, the Polovtsian khans turned to the Russian princes for help. Many Rurikovich really responded. In 1223, the combined Russian-Polovtsian army met with the Mongols in the battle on the Kalka River. It suffered a crushing defeat. After 15 years, the Mongols returned to establish their yoke over Eastern Europe. In the 1240s The Kipchan Khanate was finally destroyed. Polovtsy as a people eventually disappeared, having dissolved among other ethnic groups of the Great Steppe.