The Kipchaks, known by different names across various sources—such as Kipchak or Kifchak in Turkish sources, Kun, Cuman, Cumanus, or Komani in European sources, and Kuvmıx, Kuvsak, and Polovets in Eastern sources—were referred to by different names in the vast territories they inhabited. After the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840, they gathered under the Kimek Khaganate. Being one of the main tribes of the Kimek Khaganate, the Kipchaks were considered its successors after the Khaganate’s collapse. With the fall of the Kimek Khaganate, which bordered Kyrgyz lands in the east and South Siberia, the Kipchaks spread to the central parts of Syr Darya, the Volga basin, Kazakhstan, and the northern and western regions of the Aral Sea. With the Mongol invasion, they expanded across the Desht-i Kipchak, which they had named, integrating into Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Uyghur, Karakalpak, Tatar, Bashkir, Kumyk, Karachay, Balkar, Uzbek, Konurat, Katagan, and Lakai groups. Some groups of Kipchaks settled in the Kyrgyz territories and, in later centuries, merged ethnically with the Kyrgyz, eventually becoming part of the Ichkilik branch of the Kyrgyz. This study will provide information on the presence of the Kipchak clan within the Kyrgyz people in Kyrgyzstan, as well as their sub-clan structures.
Keywords: Kyrgyz, Kipchak Tribe, Kimek, Social, Cultural