The oldest news about the Kimek State had been obtained from the Arabian envoy.In the course of the collapse of Emevi State and the emergence of Abbasi State, Bahroğlu Temîm (Temîm b. Bahr el-Muttavvi'î) was sent as an envoy to Toguz-Oguz Khan by the caliph. This envoy had arranged a report. In his report, he stated that he had seen the Kimek people and he dealt about their rulers and the nomadic life that they led in that period (760-800?). In the last quarter of this century, we have learned that the Oguz people moved from their places in the Selenge region of the Eastern Turkestan towards the west. Therefore, they had been the neighbours of Kimek people in Kara (Black) and Ak (White) Irtish regions for a specific period. We have learned about this information from the news pertaining to the period of Abbasi Caliph Mehdi (775-785) in the Arabian resources. The Arabian historian, Ali el-Mes'ûdî had mentioned about the collaboration of Oguz, Karluk and Kimek people and their struggle against the Pecenek people.
According to him, the aforesaid tribes had attacked to Pecenek people that lived between the north of the Lake Aral and the Caspian Sea and the tribes named as Peçni, Bacgird (Bashkurd) and Nugerde. There were Kipchak and Oguz people who lived in the east of these Pecenek people. As a result of this cruel steppe fights, Pecenek people were defeated. Then, they would abandon their pastures (and homelands) and retreat towards the west. Therefore, we will observe the Pecenek people in the region among the Eastern Europe, the Northern Caucasus and the Caspian Sea in the further periods.
As it can be understood from this news, the Oguz people who had come to the west had united with the tribes that were their old relatives. Then, they started struggles and fights against the aforesaid tribes in order to find a settle in a homeland. This steppe fights came to an end when the Oguz people settled in their new regions in the end of the century VIII or in the beginning of the century IX. Most of the Pecenek people started to immigrate towards Europe. However, the small tribes that stayed in their old paces would join to the Oguz nation that newly penetrated into this region. We have observed these people within the 24 tribal order pertaining to Oguz people in the further periods.
In the Century IX
In the course of this century, the great Kimek State survived in the banks of the Irtish River and in the northeastern provinces of today's Kazakhstan in a much more dispersed manner. While the Islamic geographers compiled the first information from the Central Asia, there were various Turkish nomadic tribes that had not adopted the religion of Islam and that lived in the northeast of the Western Turkestan. The geographers stated that there was a great Turkish nation called as Kimek that lived in the banks of the Irtish River and in the vast steppe lands that were located in the north east of Oguz (Guz) people. They also indicated that Kimek people had established dominion over the regions that extended towards Idyll and Kama Rivers in the west. Under these circumstances, it has been understood that, Oguz State, Kimek State and Khirghiz Bey Principality was located in the north of Turkestan within the direction from the west towards the east respectively.
The Czech scholar, D.A. Rasovsky that studied upon the issue of Kuman-Kipchak also alleged that the Kimek tribe that lived between Irtish and Ural in the centuries IX and X were Kuman people in origin. He also alleged that Kipchak people constituted one of their tribes and the name of Kipchak was generally used as the name of Kimek people since the century X. This issue will be discussed in details below. I will state in brief that this allegation pertaining to the aforesaid scholar is not coherent.
In the Century X:
In the tenth century, the Kimek Khanate maintained its existence in the form of a great nation in the Southern half of the Western Siberia. Kipchak people that constituted one of the tribes in this union had expanded in the region extending towards Yayik (Ural) River in the western section of Kimek country. Their neighbours included Khirghiz people in the east, Karluk people in the southeast, and Oguz people in the southwest. In the second half of the century, the borders of the Kimek State had expanded towards the district of Savran located on the banks of Seyhun River in the south and the springs of the White Idyll River in the west.
In the beginning of the century, Kitan people (K'itan, Kitay, Khitay), a Mongolian tribe that came out of the northeastern China established a state (916). As a result of this event, some of the Turkish tribes started to withdraw towards the west. Kitan hordes invaded the basin of Selenge River in the year of 924 and they also penetrated into the city of Karabalik (Kara-Balsagun). In the course of their raids, Khirghiz people that had been in those regions since the year of 840 were exiled and repulsed from those places. Khirghiz people who went to the steppe lands of Upper Kem (Yenisey River) and Kobdo region repulsed the Turkish tribes in those regions towards the west.
The expansion of Kimek people towards the west continued in the middle of the century. The tribes in the western sections established dominion in the southwestern regions of Ural Mountain Range and in the valleys of Çim (Emba) and Yayik (Ural) Rivers. Meanwhile, they reached to the coasts of the Caspian Sea. According to the Geographer, Istahri (933-51), Isil (Atil, Idyll?) River constituted the border between Kimek and Guz (Oguz) people. V. Minorsky had alleged that this river was today's Kama River. According to this incomprehensible allegation, where will we place Oguz people in the Eastern Europe? Actually, Turks have named the places that they newly encountered with the names resembling their former homelands. Therefore, Atil/Itel was one of these places and it must have been one of the rivers in the Western Siberia.
According to the recent researches, the Turkish tribes that lived in the Central Asia in the century X were distributed as follows: Sari-(Uighur) people in the region of Nahşan in the most east, Karahanli Khanate in the west of Sari Uighur people and in the region that extended towards Kashgar, Turkmen and Karluk people in the basin of Isik, Kimek people in the region extending towards Altay Mountains in the north, Khirghiz people in the east of Kimek people and Kipchak people in the west of Kimek people and in the basin of Tobol-Isim, and Oguz people in the south of Kipchak people and in the region between Irtish-Seyhun-Yayik.
There is a section reserved for Kimek people within the work titled as Hudûdü'l-Âlem (982). In this section, it was stated that their rulers were called as "Hakan" (Ruler). This record indicates clearly the independent state of the Kimek people and the characteristic of this state. This work provides information about the Kimek country and the lifestyle of Kimek people. We have learned from this work that Kimek, Karluk and Yagma people had organised raids against the district of "C.mliketh" that was under the domination of a Yabgu (ruler) from Tokuz-Oguz people in the southeast.
In the Century XI:
Kimek and Kipchak people that continued to advance towards the southwest established dominion in the central and lower banks of Seyhun River. Kipchak people who had been in the basin of Lower Irtish-Isim Tobol had reproduced and expanded to a much wider area. Meanwhile, it can be thought that they entered into the regions of Khazar people that were their neighbours in the west.
In the beginning of the century, Kitan people started to organise their raids towards the west. Meanwhile, the migrations of Kuman people from their first homelands towards the west are attributed to this pressure of Kitan State in the Northern China. As it was quoted by Şerefüzzemân Tâhir Mervezî (1120?), Kun people got afraid of Kitay people and they migrated. Kay people that followed them behind drove them to the farther regions. They repulsed the Sari people, they repulsed Turkmen people, they repulsed Oguz people and they repulsed Pecenek people away from the regions. Then, they captured their homelands. At the same time, Pecenek people that lived in the Aral-Caspian region were surrounded with Khazar people in the north, Kipchak people in the east and Oguz people in the south. The departure of Turks from China in the years of 1012-13 that was described within the work titled as Ibn el-Esir must have been the arrival of these Kun and Sari (Uighur) people into the homeland of Turkmen people.
Actually, Kilan people that concluded a state of peace with China in the year of 1004 turned firstly towards Kora and then Gobi. In the latter region, they advanced against Uighur people in the year of 1009 and they captured the Western Kansu and the cities of Kan-çov and Suçov from Uighur people. In the year of 1017, Kitan hordes penetrated into the Kasghar region and the zone of Isik Lake that were within the borders of the Karahanli State. According to the resources of the period, Kilan people had started to invade the Karahanli State in the form of a community composed of 300 thousands of people (possible total population of nearly two millions). Some of their vanguards approached to the place with the distance of eight-day journey to the capital city of Balasagun that was located in the west of Isik Lake. This slow raid and invasion caused the reappearance of a great tribal migration among the Turkish tribes in the Central Asia. The nomadic Kitan people had attacked to the homelands of the Turkish tribes as best as they could and these attacks caused a terrible depression actually. Therefore, the Turkish people drove one another away from their lands and thus, a great migration occurred.
According to the Hungarian scholar, Karoly Czegledy, Kun and Sari people who came to the southwestern Siberia drove Uz people away to the more west. They joined with some of Kipchak people and they started to use the name of Kuman for the first time in history. However, this tribal name of "Kuman" is still used among some other ethnical communities that lived in small groups in the far east of the aforesaid region. Therefore, doesn't is show that they had survived even before they arrived in this region? The definite issue about the matter of Kuman people is that they had taken some of the Kipchak people on their way that had reproduced for their pastures and they brought them to the vast steppe lands that extended in the north of the Crimea. It has been understood that Kuman and Kipchak people that were seen in the Eastern and Central Europe since the year of 1050 could not blend as a single tribe although they had established a tribal union since there were various different characteristics pertaining to these two communities.
The great tribal migration that took place in the first half of the century XI affected the Kimek community in a negative manner. A terrible depression was observed in the tribal union and the union got dissolved. It has been understood that the struggles and conflicts within the country increased towards the middle of the century and the rebellions against the central government that was on the verge of decline went up. On the other hand, Kipchak people that possessed a high population endeavoured to establish dominion over the neighbouring tribes. Furthermore, some of them started to immigrate towards the west. All these events must have dissolved the Kimek State. The dissolution of the tribal union and the collapse of the central government took place all of a sudden and the name of the Kimek State and nation was on the verge of being forgotten event in the second half of the century. Kipchak people that constituted the most crowded tribe replaced Kimek people. This last issue may be considered as the establishment of dominion by Kipchak people who had stayed in the land over the tribal union through their superior number of population. All of the tribes in the Kimek country were submissive to Kipchak people.
Kasgarli Mahmud Bey from the country of the Karahanli State had completed his work titled as "Dîvanü Lügati't-Türk" in the second half of the century; however, he had not dealt with the Kimek people in his work. In this work, only Yimek (Yemek) people from Kimek tribal union that lived in the banks of Irtish River were introduced and it was stated that these people constituted a "cif" (tribe) of Kipchak people. However, Kasgarli added the following statement to this information: "According to us, they are Kipchak people; however, the Kipchak Turks consider themselves as a different tribe". This brief explication reminds some important issues: Kimek tribal union had been totally dissolved and that uniting name was forgotten at all. Maybe only Kipchak people and Yimek people had stayed in their places. The Kipchak community that was very crowded may have considered themselves as a superior tribe different from the others.
End
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