To begin with — Hello, dear readers! I want to put for your judgement my personal interpretation of the origin of the name of the people to which I, the author of this modest article, belong. Here below will be posted only my opinion and it should not reflect the opinion of the reader. And so let’s begin …
Background … A little about the history of the Kipchaks.
Kipchaks created a large tribal union, coming out of another large tribal union — the Kimak, or rather, having ousted the Kimaks from this union, thus making the Kimak union their own, somewhere by the middle of the X century. One famous Kazakh scientist ethnographer Olzhas Suleimenov puts forward the origin of the self-name of the name Kipchak from their clan tamga II as follows — Kipchak — Kypshak — Yeky Pshak — two knives. Tamga is a kind of clan seal of a clan or tribe. Each tribe or clan, regardless of whether they were large or small, they all had their own such seal — tamga. Below I have given a modern tamga, with their battle cry — Oibas!, which I think will not differ much from the more ancient ones and a map of the habitat of the Kipchak tribe, which will be discussed.
The tribal tamga of modern Kipchaks.
The habitat of the Kipchaks at the time of their power.
Initially, the Kipchaks roamed only on the territory of modern Kazakhstan. But with time, when they were able to displace Kimaks, they began to displace Oguzes and Sarmatians. In «pursuit» of them, the Kipchaks began to develop new lands. As a result, the lands from Altai to the Carpathians, from Siberia to the Central Asian Interfluve, became Kipchak and were called Desht-i-Kipchak — Kipchak Steppe, with the meaning of Kipchak State.
And now let’s go to the essence of history….
At Kipchaks, as well as at all peoples and tribes in the Middle Ages had the estates. The upper estate were khans, as Kipchaks is a tribal union, where each large tribe had its own khan. Why so? Because each tribe, when agreeing to obey the hegemony of the Kipchaks, entered the union of the Kipchaks with their khans and kept it. As well as the Kipchaks themselves had their own khan when they entered the Kimak tribal union. The middle class were the so-called feudals — nukers, tulengets, biys, batyrs, etc. The lower estate was the people themselves, who were free by status. It was this status that gave the estate its name — Cossacks — free people. Cossacks were ordinary people who were subordinated to their clan ruler, who differed depending on the size or smallness of the clan or tribe. The tribe itself was already a large clan and had a khan at its head. Medium-sized clans were headed by elders, it could be biys or other persons of power. Small tribes were headed by batyrs, i.e. peculiar military leaders, as a small clan constantly needed protection and such protection could be provided by a person with military skills, i.e. batyrs. And the middle or more numerous clan did not need so much in defence, it was provided by superiority in number of clan, and then wise elders came to the forefront, who wisely managed batyrs, in case of an attack on the clan, at least the clan counted on it in case of danger. This way of life was not broken by Mongols, as they had the same way of life, only with the difference that Mongols called their feudal lords by their own names, and in other things they did not differ from Kipchaks.
When the Mongols came to the lands of Kipchaks, they first of all liquidated the whole top of Kipchaks — khans and feudals. That was natural. It was necessary to lead the conquered peoples? And this was achieved only in one way — by liquidation of the top. It is like lions, who killed lion cubs when capturing another’s pride in order to have their own offspring. It’s the same with nomads and I think with all sedentary peoples. With that difference, the Mongols in the person of Chingizids though headed Turkic tribes, but could not give offspring which could pass them the name of Mongols. The Mongols simply dissolved among the Turks and the ties with their ancestral homeland — Mongolia — were lost.
And so, as a result of the arrival of the Mongols, the simple people, i.e. the Cossacks, were left on their land, as the Mongols needed to replenish their army. And simply, who to lead, if to destroy the people itself? Nobody. Gradually there were changes among the Cossacks, there were their bai, bi, batyrs, who were called black bone — kara suyek. The white bone — ak sүyek were the Chingizids themselves — tөre, descendants of Chingiz khan. The whole life in the steppe was woven by belonging to their bone — either to the white bone or to the black one. The confrontation between representatives of the two camps of power was constant. Emirs, atabeks, who sometimes usurped the power in the steppe, became temporaries and managed their protégés in the person of some representative of the Chingizids — Nogai, Mamai, Yedige, or created their own states and managed them — Timur, etc., came out of the black bone. And all of them were Cossacks, as other Turkic tribes as well as Kipchaks had the same division into estates with the same names. Therefore, when Chingizids weakened and nominally headed the power in the steppe, the name of the lower class of Turks began to come to the fore. This name could not yet give, or rather become the name of the people, which would be accepted by these or those tribes. The name could only unite clans and tribes as a way of life and as an image of resistance to an alien element in their steppe, such as the Chingizids. Yes, Nogai, Mamai, Yedige, Timur and others, did not call themselves Cossacks, were not them as representatives of the people with this name. No, of course. But they came out of that environment, which used to be a class of Kipchaks and other Turkic tribes and clans or other nomadic tribes (mainly Mongolian tribes). Cossacks as a people with such name became after, the speech about which I will lead below.
In the steppe nomadic peoples had such a law. Each person had the right to accept this or that religion, to accept belief in this or that god. It was not considered shameful, it was not considered a betrayal towards the faith of ancestors — Tengrianism. Everyone was free to believe in whomever or whatever they wanted. Betrayal began when a person began to force others to accept his religion. Such a man could rightly be called a traitor. This is the law of the Great Steppe. This law was preserved by Kazakhs as the wisdom of people in understanding that we are all people and that everyone is free to do what he wants, only if he does not bring harm and misfortune to other people. And this law would become one of the decisive elements of the emergence of the Cossacks as a nation.
Kipchak Wars.
This law, which I described above, could be one of the reasons why such religions as Orthodoxy and Islam came to Central Asia, namely to the Golden Horde (1224 — 1483). But not the only one. The Chingizids had such a foreign policy. They began to accept this or that religion. In Muslim countries additional tax — zyakat did not pay only Muslims. In Christian countries being a Christian you could trade freely. These reasons and became reasons why Chingizids began to accept Orthodoxy or Islam. Islam is clear, but why Orthodoxy? The answer is simple. The nearest Christian neighbours were Orthodox countries, at first in the person of Kievan Rus, and then Moscovia and Great Lithuanian Principality at the dawn of its development being Orthodox. Proximity and promoted closer contacts between neighbours. Such events and took place in the Golden Horde. As well as in any country, in Golden Horde there were such events which can be characterised, as internecine strife. All the fault was power, and more precisely desire to be exalted on a white koshma and planted on khan’s takhtu. And religion was a reason to unleash a struggle for this takhta. The struggle for power began between representatives of one or another religion. Uzbek Khan (1313-1341) was the reason for this. He was a Muslim, not just a Muslim, but a fanatical one. He began to impose Islam by force. This began to be resisted by the Chingizids of other religions, both Orthodox and Tengrians. After Uzbek Khan was able to execute 120 of his Chingizid kinsmen who did not want to convert to Islam, the rebellious Chingizids began to leave Uzbek Khan in protest. Orthodox Chingizids began to depart to the west from Yedil (Volga). And there they declared that from now on they were Cossacks — free people, free from the power of Uzbek khan, free from the power of the Golden Horde. So Uzbek Khan put the event that the class, which the Mongols did not destroy, turned into a people who said that they henceforth found their Freedom. Of course, the orthodox Chingizids themselves are not a people yet, but they made a beginning. Since they were the representatives of power in the steppe, representatives of the top, then naturally those Cossacks, those ordinary people, who should follow them, because nominally they were their people, went after them. It is like a landlord taking his peasants with him to a new place. At least, those Cossacks followed the Orthodox Chingizids who were not considered alien to the adoption of Orthodoxy. So gradually the Cossacks became a numerous people who could be said to be the first to declare their Independence.
The second who began to separate from the Golden Horde were Tatars. More precisely those Turkic tribes who accepted Islam, but did not want to recognise the power of the Golden Horde over themselves. They have accepted the name which have given neighbours to people of Golden Horde. This name was — Tatars. But the people of Golden Horde did not call themselves so. They were called by that clan and tribe to which they belonged. Having separated they began to be called Tatars and have created the states — Kazan Khanate, Crimean Khanate and Astrakhan Khanate. Why not one unified state? Well several factors contributed to it. The multiplicity of tribes, which I don’t think would have wanted to obey one ruler. The second factor could be the same as in the first case. Only in the difference that these were Chingizids, and they were already so numerous, and they moreover did not begin to obey the representative of one of their branches. And so three branches of Chingizids achieved power according to the number of states. And the rest were either forced to obey or were destroyed as a threat.
It was different for the Orthodox Cossacks. Cossacks, like any Turkic people, had divisions into tribes and clans. But it was so at first. And each tribe and clan had its own head. In the beginning it was Chingizids according to their old tradition of the Steppe. By accepting Orthodoxy the Cossacks initiated changes in their environment. The traditions and manners of the nomads were alien to Orthodoxy — starting from the name of the head, ending with trifles in everyday life. Khanate was done away with. Other names of heads of tribe began to take the place of khan. But only one — ataman — was able to establish itself and thus to be preserved. But Orthodoxy could not get rid of everything from the environment of the former nomads, from whom the Cossacks began to gradually move away. Orthodoxy could not get rid of the way of life and combat structure of nomads — the Horde. Horde at nomads it was everything — and a way of life, and a fighting structure, and a political structure, and the most important state structure. All this was the Horde. For a simple explanation people drew two circles — one big, inside a small one. The big and small circles in the explanation had different meanings, depending on the scale of the device. If it was just a way of life, it was an explanation of the nomad’s dwelling — yurt, the small circle is a shanyrak, the big circle is a karege or the hulk of the yurt. In the meaning of political structure — the small circle is khan, and the big circle is an environment of khan in the person of feudal lords of steppe and khan’s army. And in the meaning of the state structure — the small circle is the same khan, and the big circle is the people united by their khan in the state. All this is called by one word Horde. Orthodoxy was able to change only the name of the chapter and the name of the society of Cossacks, but not the Cossacks themselves. The tribe became a community, the khan became an ataman. In everything else the structure, both political and state, did not change, though with only one exception — the Horde became the Circle. But it was promoted not by religion itself, and gradual transition to Russian language. Somewhere before the middle of the XVI century the native language of the Orthodox Cossacks was Kipchak. Kipchak language could not become the Cossack language for one reason, the Cossacks themselves switched to the Russian language, at least the Cossack language as the language of the separated Cossacks could not for this reason to be established to be preserved.
Batu Khan himself.
At Batu khan there were three brothers — one senior — Orda-Ekche (Orda-Ezhen) and two younger — Shaybani (Sheibani) and Tokai (Tukay).
And in the east the Golden Horde has exhausted itself. Two states — Ak Horde (ruled by descendants of Orda-Yekche) and Kok Horde (ruled by descendants of Shaybani) were formed on the remnants of its territory. Kok Orda was eventually absorbed by Ak Orda. Islam finally established itself in these countries, which gave rise to a new nation — the Uzbeks. Uzbeks began to be called tribes that obeyed the demand of Uzbek Khan to convert to Islam and remained faithful to the authority of the Golden Horde. It is believed that the name Uzbeks came just from Uzbek Khan. But it is not quite accurate. Uzbek Khan gave only the name itself, but the reason for the emergence of such a people as Uzbeks was quite different. Uzbek is a calque, an antonym of the word Cossack. Cossack, as I have already said, means a free man, and Uzbek means a bey himself, a master himself. That’s right, only a free man could be his own bek, his own master. In contrast to the Orthodox Cossacks, in the east Muslim relatives were called Uzbeks. This opposition is the main reason for the appearance of the name Uzbek. Uzbek Khan, in his person gave only an example of a name, but not the name of the whole nation.
Let me give you an example. We Kazakhs have such a tradition. We answer the question «Who are you?» in such a way — «I am a Muslim.», although the question did not ask what religion we belong to. But we answer like that. It’s silly in one way. But this tradition has its own history. The matter is that, as I have already told people of Golden Horde neighbours called Tatars, though it is not true at all. The people themselves called their tribe or clan. With appearance and acceptance of Orthodoxy and Islam tribes and clans began to accept this or that religion. And sometimes even in one tribe accepted different religions. This factor I think and has put the beginning of such answer. This is purely my opinion, and I think it differs from the opinion of scientists. I did not study to be a historian, so I am not a scientist, I am only a lover of History, it is my hobby, History is my passion. So I can only modestly offer my guess. And these assumptions are many, about them I and lead my speech in this article. So with the appearance of Orthodoxy and Islam there was a confusion, or rather the name of a person’s tribe or family has ceased to be a definition of belonging and distinction. «Who are you?» — «I am a Cossack.», «I am a Tatar.», «I am an Uzbek.», «I am a Tengrian.». But with the advent of the Cossacks, who were Orthodox this tradition was broken. Cossack became the definition of belonging to Orthodoxy, Tatar became the definition of disobedience to the central authority and the definition of belonging to Islam, and Uzbek became the definition of obedience to the central authority and the definition of belonging to Islam. And Tengrianism has completely disappeared and gave way to Islam.
Let’s return now to the East. And what is there in the east? There the Khan of Ak Horde Barak Khan (1423-1426 and 1427-1428), he was a descendant of Orda-Ekche, and went to war against the Sultan of Mogulistan — Mahmudoglan, and died in 1428 during the battle. By that time Ak Horde was getting a different name — the State of Nomadic Uzbeks or Uzbek Horde. Abulkhair Khan (1428-1468) took advantage of this, he was a descendant of Sheibani. The power of Abulkhair Khan was not recognised by Barak Khan’s sons — Zhanibek and Kerey sultans. They migrated to Moghulistan and there announced that they were now Cossacks — free people, free from the authority of Abulkhair Khan, free from Uzbeks. So a new nation with the same name as the Orthodox Cossacks appeared east of Edil (Volga). More precisely, the notion of belonging to the Cossacks in the east could not assert itself as an independent entity, and the definition of Uzbek came out as a counterbalance to the Orthodox Cossacks. But the Cossacks in the east did not give up their attempts to separate. It was possible to do it under Abulkhair Khan. To be more precise, during his reign the sons of Barak Khan, Zhanibek and Kerey Sultans, in order to get a reason to gain power under the then strong Abulkhair Khan, led the Cossacks in their endeavour to find their freedom at last. From that moment Muslim Cossacks appeared.
Thus, the old tradition of answering the famous question was revived again. Now Cossack is no longer a definition of belonging to Orthodoxy, now there are already Cossacks who profess Islam. From that moment on there was a reason to specify who is what kind of Cossack — Orthodox Cossack or Muslim Cossack. «Who are you?» — «I’m Orthodox.», «I’m Muslim.».
And so Zhanibek and Kerey sultans created their state and called the Kazakh Khanate (1465-1822/1847) or as it will be correctly — Kazak Horde (Cossack Horde), and became khans in it, and each in his own time. Gradually, having strengthened Kazak Horde forced the Uzbeks from the Kipchak steppe to the south, where they were able to conquer the Timurid state, which had weakened by that time, on the territory of this state and the core of the future Uzbekistan was laid. But, as it always happens, where there is power, there is a struggle for it. In constant feuds Kazak Horde became weaker, only some strong khans brought to their senses, the last of which was Tauke Khan (1680-1715), after his death Kazak Horde split into zhuzes, whose khans only nominally recognised the common khan. And after Tauke khan they stopped recognising them altogether. This contributed to the successful campaigns of Dzungars on the lands of Muslim Cossacks.
Kazakh Khanate, aka Kazak Horde, aka Cossack Horde.
One factor contributed to the invasion of the Dzungars — the desire to escape from the power of China, simply speaking from the desire of self-preservation. Muslim Cossacks because of their weakness helped the Dzungars to turn their eyes on them. If the Muslim Cossacks were a strong state, the Dzungars would not have launched their invasions against them. The Dzungars knew of the weakness of the Muslim Cossacks, thanks to the first wave of Oirats, to whom they belonged to the lands west of the Yedil (Volga). The successful passage of the Oirats through the lands of the Muslim Cossacks, which they realised by 1630. These Oirats began to be called Kalmyks by the Turks — kalmak — separated, remaining, as some part of them decided to return to their ancestral lands. If the first wave of Oirats was able to pass through the lands of Muslim Cossacks, then it would be easy for Dzungars to conquer these lands. But they met fierce resistance of Muslim Cossacks. And only the disunity of the eastern Cossacks became a promise to the successful beginning of the Dzungars’ conquest. And only the destruction of the Dzungar Khanate (Oirat Khanate) by China saved the Cossack Horde from death. And with what ease it did China and prompted the khans of some zhuzes to seek support from others. Khorezm, Bukhara and Khiva could not provide such support, as they themselves sought to enslave the Kazak Horde. Then the khans turned their eyes towards Russia, then already strong. The desire to preserve themselves from the invasion of China prompted the khans of the Kazak Horde zhuzes to turn to Russia with the question of accession. This process began in 1730 and was completed by 1822.
So in one state there were two people with the same name — Cossack. And this event was not much liked by the Orthodox Cossacks, as they had in their blood that vague memory, how their Muslim relatives spilled the blood of their ancestors. By this time, they did not remember it all, but something at the level of instincts they were hostile to Muslim Cossacks. A vivid example of this is the historical fact that so-called Russian Cossacks together with Bashkirs and Kalmyks raided the lands of Muslim Cossacks. Yes, these raids were mutual, and it is impossible to answer exactly who started these mutual raids. But these raids on each other originate from the times when the Golden Horde still existed, and with the weakening power the raids on each other took place with enviable regularity. Differences of religion did not contribute to the end of such raids, but on the contrary intensified them. Thus mutual hatred towards each other was consolidated. And it was already in the times when Muslim Cossacks became part of Russia. Another consequence of that enmity was the non-recognition of the name of Muslim Cossacks. They began to be called Kirghiz or Kirghiz-Kaisaks, thus belittling their kin. At first the tsars and then the emperors of Russia were in favour of the Orthodox Cossacks as thanks for their faithful service and conquest of Siberia for Moscow. And only with the establishment of Soviet power Moscow went for name recognition. But even here Moscow went on a trick — distorted the name of Muslim Cossacks, ostensibly because of the distinction in the same name. Cossack in the name of Muslim Cossacks turned into Kazakh. In justification Moscow cites the rules of grammar of spelling of the Russian language — қ supposedly sounds like x, and therefore it should be written that way. If we follow this rule, the name of Muslim Cossacks should be written as Khazakh. But Moscow did not confront the Muslim Cossacks, as it sought to establish a new power in the lands of Central Asia, which were also inhabited by Muslim Cossacks. Moscow then personified in its person the capital of the power of peasants and workers. And since the power of landlords and capitalists was ended throughout the territory of the former Russian Empire, it means that the opinion of the nomadic poor should be on the side of the new power — the Soviet power. And only one thing could contribute to this — the recognition of the name of the Muslim poor. After all, in fact, the Muslim Cossacks returned to the state when they were the only ones left after the Mongols liquidated the top of the Kipchaks. The Cossack again in the east became the personification of the poor, the personification of the common people deprived of their rulers. And from this environment again began to appear their representatives, who began to take on themselves the functions of governing their people. History repeated itself again, the process of renewal of power of the Cossacks, who had become Muslim Cossacks by that time.
This is how the regularity in which History is able to repeat itself, in a constant cyclicity, came into its own. The example of Orthodox Cossacks, their history of existence can serve as a confirmation of this process. Having separated from the Golden Horde, the Orthodox Cossacks went to rapprochement with Moscow, Moscow, as they say is not stupid, demanded submission to itself. Orthodox Cossacks began to resist, all these revolts, all these uprisings of the Cossacks were the resistance to the aggressive desire of Moscow to subjugate the Orthodox Cossacks. Part of the Orthodox Cossacks left because of this to the west towards Romania. And the rest continued to resist. The suppression of rebellions did not stop the Cossacks, they started again. And only when Moscow became interested in the conquest of Siberia, its riches, and only then Moscow was able to put down the rebellions of the Orthodox Cossacks. From that period Cossack rebellions were rare. Orthodox Cossacks became interested in Siberia and for Moscow conquered it. And in their place Moscow began to populate Cossacks from under Voronezh and from Slobodskaya Ukraine (for this reason in modern Ukraine and began to appear false opinions that Kuban is a Ukrainian land). But this subjugation prompted the rapid loss of their native language. The Kipchak language went out of use, its place was taken by the Russian language. It was Moscow’s imposition of the Russian language that was one of the reasons for all these uprisings of the Orthodox Cossacks. It was not Orthodoxy, but the Russian language that changed the Orthodox Cossacks so much. The memory that they were once Turks, or rather still are Turks, Kipchaks, was lost. Because through literature and the imposition of history textbooks in the Russian language and contributed to the loss of this memory. They began to fully personify themselves as Russian, Russian Cossacks.
Orthodox Cossacks
Orthodox Cossacks is the general name of the Cossacks, who are divided into Russian and Ukrainian Cossacks. Russian Cossacks are divided into Kuban Cossacks, Terek Cossacks, Volga Cossacks, Ural Cossacks, Siberian Cossacks and Far Eastern Cossacks. Ukrainian Cossacks are Zaporozhian Cossacks, once Slobodskiye Cossacks belonged to Ukrainian Cossacks, but under Catherine they were moved to Kuban, where they together with Voronezh Cossacks became Kuban Cossacks.
Cossacks, i.e. Kazakhs, who professed Islam.
On the way of Orthodox Cossacks almost passed completely Muslim Cossacks. They started the same process of Russification and subordination to Moscow. And only with the acquisition of Independence of the state by Muslim Cossacks, the process stopped, and the reverse process began — the process of restoration. And this process of restoration promises to be long. And only the preservation of statehood of the Muslim Cossacks will contribute to the completion of this process. Only preservation of statehood can help to understand that if there was no restoration of statehood, the Muslim Cossacks would have completely passed the process of russification. and perhaps in the future, if such a situation was preserved, there was a natural disappearance of the distortion of the name. Why do I think so? It is necessary to explain somehow the existence of two Cossacks, even with different religions, but with the same name. And so they are all Cossacks. After all, it is possible to start the process of conversion to Orthodoxy with promises or threats or something else. It happened once before, in the time of Uzbek khan. And our time and the time of Uzbek Khan are not different — also ticking clocks, also people’s eyes are planted, also legs and arms grow from the same place, also the skull is occupied by the same brains, etc. The technologies of persuasion remain the same — carrot and stick. Nothing in life changes. Muslim Cossacks would not have such a happy prospect if they had not gained statehood. Such a national interest as following only one goal — preservation of the state, should help Muslim Cossacks to defend their Freedom, thanks to which they got their name and the name of their state consonant and similar to their name Cossack.