In search of the Sary-Kypchak family in the west of the Great Steppe.
The Don Cossacks and their Turkic origins is a seemingly obvious topic. This theme has been investigated in all known connections with the Turks, starting with the first ataman Sary-Azman, known since 1549, when he, according to M. Karamzin, «being called a subject of John, built fortresses on the Don».
The Turkic name of the ataman is the first ethnic marker mentioned in the historiography of the Don Cossacks. It is the same name marker as the names of the Sary-Azman Cossacks according to the historian A. M. Nekrasov. M. Nekrasov: «Kaban, Tatar, Cherkas, Ermak, Karabai, Oguz, Cherkas, Toka, Lyapush, etc.». We see undoubtedly Turkic names. Where did these Turkic anthroponyms along with their possessors come from?
Undoubtedly, starting from their birth names, they belong to the Turkic culture. Thus, the Don Cossacks came out of the post-Horde Kipchak world, like many other Turkic Cossacks, including the Kazakh people. The same names are belonging to the Turks from birth. Such names could not just appear out of nowhere.
Every person from birth has his name and his homeland. The Dons have it too. According to A. A. Shennikov, Sary-Azman and his Cossacks are Tatars, namely: Chervlen-Yar Tatars, descendants of Polovtsians, i.e. Kipchaks-Hordeans.
So, the name markers of the first Don Cossacks, as well as the military-administrative and other structure, and the basic vocabulary of the Don Cossacks are Turkic. And they themselves are Turks, not without reason they were called by their common name — «Don Tatars».
And although non-Turkic versions of the Cossack origin are still put forward, but they are just as well and still seem less substantiated and often even far-fetched. However, here, as they say, «to the free will». These versions are left to the discretion of their adherents, who put forward any Europeanized origin of the Don Cossacks, just to prevent the Kipchak origin of the Don Cossacks.
Sary-Kypchaks of the Don
Cossack origin remains one of the most popular topics in the historiography of many CIS countries. The demand for this topic is first of all actualized by the Cossacks themselves, trying to understand and realize their origins, to know and respect their ancestors. This topic is no less in demand in Kazakhstan, which is associated with Cossackism as a way of nomadic life by its very ethnonym.
Once upon a time I myself published an article on the subject of Cossack ancestry. However, the article was written in the popular science genre rather than in a research way. The topic seemed to be obvious and it seemed that this article was the end of the Cossack theme for me. But fate itself knows what and when it will happen. And, indeed, I had two seemingly random, but as it turned out, fateful meetings with Don Cossacks.
At the first one, a light-haired and light-eyed Don Cossack, who came to Almaty to visit, said that he knew about his Turkic roots, but complained that he could not confirm them, because kleinodes and land certificates were destroyed during the rekazachization. I also complained, for kleynods have real value. These are regalia, signs of power of Cossack atamans-hetmans and signs of army distinction: banners, bunts, kettledrums…. And only later I complained to myself, and why I did not ask about land certificates and their connection with Turkism? Maybe they contained the names of Türkic ancestors who received a land charter! The question remained open for me to this day…. There was only one hope for the remaining Cossack archives of the Don, which were not destroyed by the Bolsheviks… Thus, the topic seemed to be «closed» for me. It turned out that it only seemed so….
And then there was the second «meeting of fate» with the historian of the Don Cossacks. We talked about their origin literally for a short time, but during the conversation I suddenly heard that their Cossack family came from the Sary-Kypchaks! And since then this question has not let me go. I began to look for the Sary-Kypchak clan among the Turks, even raised this question in the groups for the study of Turkic history. And here is that little that I have found out on Turkic sort Sary-Kypchaks.
Turkic family Sary-Kypchaks
The search for the Sary-Kypchak clans among the Turks, at first glance, did not seem so onerous. There was some certainty that at once there will be found Sary-Kypchak clans in different Turkic peoples. The basis for such confidence was the unconditional thesis of the clan Turan that the Turks have tribal associations connecting them, almost all Turkic peoples have the same clans in the basis. For example, let’s give in alphabetical order the names of those tribes, which are on the ear: Alshyns, Argyns, Kypchaks, Naimans and many-many others, from which medieval and modern Turks are composed.
So, in this case, the search was not so hard, especially since it was narrowed down only to the Kypchak clans. This limitation of the search among only Kipchaks allows not to ask about other Turkic clans with the prefix «sary-«.
So, the search criterion has been set. Among Kipchaks there are different genera: Kara-Kipchaks, Kulan-Kipchaks, Sarai-Kipchaks and others, as well as the searched genus Sary-Kipchak.
And, indeed, the genus Sary-Kypchak was almost immediately found in the Uzbek Kipchaks of the Zeravshan valley, as indicated in 1896 by N. A. Aristov, «Notes on the ethnic composition of Turkic tribes and nationalities». In addition, P. I. Rychkov indicates the Sarysh-Kipchat clan as part of the Bashkir Kipchaks.
However, no other documented data were found. Only, there are undocumented reports that there is a Kypchak-Sary clan in the Kazakh Kipchaks of the Shieli region of the Kyzylorda oblast. As we see, the clan is named in reverse order, but nevertheless, we have both names: both Kypchak and Sary. To this we should cite the words of Dobrodomov I.G.: «… the word Sary, sometimes went ahead of the words Cumans or Kuman», which in our case means that both orders of word arrangement in the ethnonym were correct.
Thus, at this point in the study, the list of Sary-Kypchaks among the Turks is exhausted. It turned out that these three Sary-Kypchak clans were all that could be found.
And it is also surprising that all three Sary-Kypchak clans are recorded only in the Eastern Volga region. And what, in this connection, surprised really, is that in the composition of the Western Volga Turks information about such a genus was not found! And there is an unwritten, but firm ethnographic rule: if all Turkic peoples consist, in fact, of the same clans, then the Western Kipchaks should also have this clan in their composition. Nevertheless, however, no information about the Western Sary-Kypchaks was found neither in the past, nor in the present! And here I thought, but everything fits, and then the Don Cossacks are Sary-Kypchaks.
After all, how it turns out: there are Sary-Kypchaks in the east of the Great Steppe, and in the west they are no more! And if the scientific and even network search did not find the genus Sary-Kipchaks in western Desht, then the simplest method of exclusion should be used. If among western Polovtsians Sary-Kypchaks are not found now, but they had to be, then they are there, but they have changed their name. Then the simplest conclusion follows — the Don Cossacks are those western Sary-Kypchaks!
It would seem that the question is closed! But no. After all, there is a primary question — were there any Sary-Kypchaks in the west of the Great Steppe at all? The answer is that there were. They were called Polovtsians.
Pletneva S.A. says about them that Sary-Kypchaks, being still under the power of the Irtysh kagan Kimaks, created «feudal state «yellow Kipchaks» under the control of their khan — «Malik» Kipchaks, that «Shary — «yellow» Kipchaks … became that powerful nucleus around which united all the scattered and scattered on the steppe hordes» of the Dnieper left bank.
So, the Sary-Kipchaks are recorded in Kazakhstan and later in Pol Polovetsky, but where are they there now? Most likely, we will have to search more deeply for this genus-tribe among the Western Volga Türks of the Kipchak group of languages: Nogais, Kumyks, Karachais, Balkars, as well as, perhaps, among the Gagauz and hereditary Don Cossacks. In other words, among those peoples who formed as post-Horde ethnoses and who at one time, perhaps, were called in Russian chronicles — Polovtsians.