G.E. Grumm-Grzhimailo and, following him, L.P. Potapov compared the name of the Kivinskaya volost (KibaKobKoby, as we found out, an ethnonym, which is an intra-Ket dialectal variant of the ethnonym Kyi, see Kostochakov, 1998, 203-207) with the ethnonym of the ancient Tele — Kibi, and suggested the ancient Turkic origin of the former (Grumm-Grzhimailo, 1926, 247; Potapov, 1956, 493). The Kibi tribe was a part of the union of 15 Tele tribes in the VP-VSh centuries (Bichurin, 1950, vol. 1, 301).
It is not clear whether this union of tribes was purely steppe or included mountain-taiga tribes (which is more probable). It is only known that in the beginning of the 7th century the Kibi tribe lived on the northern slopes of the eastern Tien Shan, where together with the Seyanto tribe, which lived on the southern slopes of the Altain-nuru range, in 606, during a two-year war, they communicated with the Kibi tribe in the south of the Tien Shan. In the course of a two-year war, they jointly defeated the Western Turks (Türgesh) and on the territory of present-day South Kazakhstan and Chinese Xinjian formed an independent Telessian state, headed by the prince of the Kibi tribe — Gelen, who took the title Mohe-khan (Bichurin, 1950, vol. 1, 280).
In 745 the Kibi tribe became one of the six influential Teles tribes, equal in rights and duties to the Toguzoguz or Uigurs — the leading tribe of the newly formed Uigur Kaganate (Gumilev, 1993, 370).
We do not allow the possibility of the existence of tribes or unions of tribes — absolute namesakes — at about the same time in territorially close regions; there must certainly be either kinship or some distant kinship ties between them. Therefore, we cannot agree with the point of view of G.E. Grumm-Grzhimailo and L.P. Potapov. Indeed, there is no doubt that there was one ethnonymic source for the name of the medieval Turkic tribe Kibi and the name of the tribe in the middle reaches of the Mrassu — Kiba.
In our opinion, this source was the Yeniseiskoket tribe of the Bear (in their native language the name of their tribe sounded as Kiba Kiba. However, as we found out, it was one of the intra-Ket dialect phonetic variants of the tribe’s names).
Consequently, it is possible to assume that the area of residence of this Yeniseiskoket tribe was not limited by the borders of the river basin of the Mrassu, even judging by the place of residence of the Kiba tribe in the 5th century — by the borders of Sayano-Altai.
However, Sayano-Altai can be recognized as the place of predominant residence of the named Yeniseiskoket tribe, especially before the period of active Turkic expansion, i.e. before the VI c. It was, most likely, the Northern Altai and the spurs of the Western Sayans.
Apparently, after the 6th century. The Yeniseiskoket tribe of Bear-Kiba, having entered the Tele confederation as a tribal unit equal with others (it was, as we are sure, not a homogeneous tribe, but a union of small tribes or factions, which was typical for steppe peoples of that time, and for taiga and forest-steppe peoples in particular), could be freely or forcibly, partially or completely settled within the Turkic Kaganate and other subsequent state formations, to which this tribe belonged.
That is why, as it seems to us, the ethnonym in question is found in the northern slopes of the Eastern Tien Shan in the 7th century (tribe Kibi). At that time, according to the logic and laws of steppe ethno-formation, this ethnonym united not only (or rather, not so much) ethnic Yenisei Kets, by that time already thoroughly weaned, but also other ethnic elements (originally Turkic and Mongolian). The latter is also evidenced by the title of the tribal leader Kibi Gelen (a name, apparently, of Ket language origin), which he adopted after the formation of an independent Telessian state on the territory of modern Dzungaria in 606 — Mohe-khan: Mohe is a Mongolian word denoting a strongman-giant (cf. Mohe-durbokhe-durrus. bogatyrshor. maatyr-moke).
In the IX-X centuries the ethnonym in question (Kibi), as it seems to us, appears again in the historical space (after the disappearance in 840 of the (Ancient) Uigur Kaganate, where the Kibi tribe was equal to the Uigurs), when the Kimak state was formed on the Irtysh. The Kimaks, discouraged by internecine strife and defeat to the Kyrgyz, settled out of North-Eastern Mongolia (Sayano-Altai region — K.G.) and were known as Kumosi and Urankhai (Akhinzhanov, 1989, 286). It is clear with the Urankhai, they came out of the areas of present-day Tuva. The Kumosi, who eventually became Kimaks (along with the Urankai), must have originally lived in the same places or close to those places.
It is unlikely that the names Kibi and Kimak should be absolutely identified, but there is a significant connection and kinship between them.
Let us analyze the linguistic side of the ethnonyms Kibi and Kimak. The latter consists of the root part «kim» and an affix with the meaning (in this case) of diminutiveness «ak» (see Khabichev, 1989, 56). The diminutiveness in this case implies the meaning of a part separated from the whole (i.e. Kimak is only a part of the Kibi people). Kibi has the root «kib», Kimak — «kim». The alternation of p (b)m in the middle of the word-name, characteristic for Turkic languages, is evident. The alternation of consonants in the ethnonym informs us that Kibi and Kimak spoke different dialects or colloquialisms of the Turkic language of that time. The Kimak tribe, which dominated and therefore passed its name to the union of tribes on the Irtysh, is not a direct heir of the Kibi tribe, but it is probably related, including genetic, to the latter.
Some part of the Uigurs (who were part of the Uigur Kaganate tribes) after the fateful year 840 penetrated not only to the west, but also to the north-west, to the Upper Irtysh regions. Important information about the Uigurs on the Irtysh is given by Abul-Gazi, an author of the XVII century, who borrowed it from Rashid-ad-din (the beginning of the ХШ century): «About 3000 years lived Uigurs in the land in question (Mongolia — K.G.), then they fell into decay and dispersed. Some of them stayed in their homeland, others went to the banks of the Irtysh and split into three tribes: one of them went to Bish-Balyk (the capital of the Turfan principality — K.G.), sowed fields there and brought the country into a flourishing state. Another tribe started breeding horses and sheep and began to nomadize near Bish-Balyk. The third tribe settled in the forests on the Irtysh, did not breed cattle, but fished and hunted otters, sables, martens and squirrels, fed on their meat and dressed in their skins…». (Radlov, 1893, 55. — quoted from: Savinov, 1994, 69). Among the representatives of the «third tribe» there was obviously some part of the Kibi tribe (hence the diminutive affix in the ethnonym of their Pri-Irtysh period). And there, on the Irtysh, the Kibi had to meet their genetic relatives.
According to A.P. Dulzon, during this period of time, the Yenisei Ketas of the ikat subgroup lived on the Irtysh, in its upper and middle reaches, who left the very name of this river to history (Dulzon, 1962, 475, 478). The Pri-Irtysh Kets at that time were already split from the ethnopolitical point of view: partly they were separated and included in the system of ethnic and political relations of Turkic peoples, the other part represented a mass of people moving down the Irtysh River to the North from the Sayano-Altai regions, saving their ethnopolitical independence from the expansion of Turkic state formations; the latter, according to A. P. Dulzon. P. Dulzon, in the 18th century from the Irtysh went through the Ob and Tom to the lower reaches of the Yenisei, and managed to preserve their original language to the present day.
The Teles tribe Kibi mixed with Pri-Irtysh Oturechen (more precisely — Turkic) Kets and formed a new union of tribes, in which it was in a dominant position and gave the new union its name, but the name of the new intertribal formation was not stable for a long time, fluctuated, having different phonetic and morphological vowels: Kimak, Kumos, Kuman, Kuman, Kibchak, Kyychak, Kyfchak, Kyvchak, Kypchak. The named oglasovki did not arise simultaneously, but — in different periods of existence of this state.
The reasons for such a number of vowels of one and the same, in fact, ethnonym, in our opinion, are the following:
1. Among the Priirtysh Kets of that time there were clans of the Yeniseiskoket tribe of the Bear. In this we are convinced by the fact that a little later the Kypchaks, who advanced far to the west, are known in Western European sources as «Komans» (Koman), and in Byzantine sources as «Kumans» (Kuman). These terms are not a fiction of historians of that time, but a record of the self-appellations that existed at that time.
Here we see the result of still Ketsk-speaking alternation in the root: «kim» of the Kimak name appears here as «kom» (Koman), and the Turkic-speaking Kipchak vowel narrowing (here — the change of inlautic broad «o» to narrow «u») gave the result -Kuman.
The change of «Kim» to «KomKum» could not occur on the basis of the Turkic language, it required tribal groups with ethnonyms KobKybKib and the memory that in the Ket language it was the same from the point of view of semantics. Besides, among the phonetic variants of the ethnonym Kypchak there is the ovals «Kypchak», where «Kyp» and «Kyi» semantics can be the same only for Ket who knew his native language. Let us note Ket-speaking alternations of vowels: oyi (Koman, Kypchak, Kibi, Kimak); consonants p(b)y (Kypchak, KybchakKyichak).
2. Kimak-Kypchaks of the IX-X centuries spoke different dialects and colloquialisms of the Turkic language, which is why traces of different alternations of both vowels and consonants appeared in the ovals: p(b)mvf (Kimak, Kuman, Kuman, Kumos, Kibi, Kypchak, Kybchak, Kyvchak, Kyfchak); ou (Koman, Kumos, Kuman). Besides, there is variability in the diminutive affixes of the ethnonym’s vowels: then «ak» (Kimak), then «an» (Koman, Kuman).
3. The tribal composition of the Kimak-Kypchaks was not always the same, and hence the supremacy among the tribes in their union. At first it was the Kimak union (more precisely, Kibako-Kimako-Koman), then it was the Kipchak union (more precisely, Kipchak-Koman). The term «Coman-Coman» is common to these conventionally distinguished periods. It is known that by the middle of the 7th century the Kimaks (more precisely, Kimak-Koman-Kuman-Kuman) occupied the regions of the Upper Priirtysh and Northern Altai, including the spurs of the Western Sayan Mountains. In the second half of the 8th — early 20th centuries, the Kimak tribes moved in two directions: northwestward to the Southern Urals and southwestward to North-Eastern Semirechye. The advance of the Kimaks in Semirechye dates back to the time between 766 and 821, i.e. it precedes the formation of the Kimak federation in the second half of the IХ century. The latter occurred after the remnants of the Uigurs defeated in 840 appeared on the Irtysh.
In the second half of the 1st century, the alliance of Pechenezh tribes centered on the Syr-Darya was defeated by the military alliance of the Oguzes, Kimaks and Karluk, which caused the advance of these tribes, including the Kimaks, far to the west as far as the Aral steppes and the Caspian Sea. In the 10th century, the spread of the Kimaks went mainly to the south, towards Turkestan. In the middle of the 10th century the boundaries of the Kimak state stabilized. Its center was traditionally located on the Irtysh, where caravan routes described in Arab and Persian sources led (see Kumekov, 1972, 54-68, 121-122. — cited in Savinov, 1994, 68-72). At the beginning of the second half of the first millennium A.D. the name of the state was changed, and the Kipchaks (more precisely, Kipchak-Komano-Kumans) entered the historical arena.
The genealogical legend recorded by Gardizi names the Kipchaks as one of the ancestral eponyms of the seven Kimak tribes; however, «Hudud al-Alam» specifically stipulates that the Kipchaks are «wilder than the Kimaks. Their king is appointed by the Kimaks» (Minorskii, 1937,21. — quoted from: Savinov, 1994, 76). Such a contrast indicates a lower stage of development of social relations of the Kipchaks compared to the Kimaks. It is understandable, because the latter once took part in the administration of the Uigur Kaganate and preserved this tradition, whereas for the Kipchaks it was a matter of the future.
The Kypchaks tribe, most likely, was conquered during the creation of the Kimak federation, i.e. Kypchaks were different from the Kimaks. Nevertheless, the Kipchaks gradually gained the upper hand in the state and later on the ethnonym Kypchak is constantly found in the works of Ibn Khordadbakh (IХ century), the anonymous author of «Hudud al-Alam» (X century), Gardizi (XI century), al-Idrisi (XII century) and many Muslim authors (Akhinzhanov, 1989).
The literature has already established an opinion, first expressed by W. Carlgren, according to which the ethnonym Kyipchak (or Kyichak) was identified with the ethnic name Tsuyushe (or Kyushe, Kuche, Kyueshe, Kushi, Kushu or Kuchuk) in Chinese written sources. For the first time Tsuyushe was mentioned among the peoples conquered by Maodun in 201 BC, along with the Geguns, i.e. the ancestors of the Yenisei Kyrgyz. The ethnic name Tsuyushe is once again found in the sources when describing the campaigns of Dulu Khan, who in 641 conquered a number of tribes that were not included in the Dulu and Nushibe, among which Tsuyushe and Gegu, i.e. Kipchaks and Yenisei Kyrgyz, are mentioned again (Grumm-Grzhimailo, 1926, 259, 272). The mentioning of both together speaks about their long (more than 800 years) territorially close residence, according to D.G. Savinov, for the Kipchaks it is the Upper Ob basin (Northern and Central Altai and spurs of the Western Sayans) (Savinov, 1979, 53-55; 1994, 73).
The ethnonym in its original oglasovka was first mentioned in an inscription on a stone pillar known in the literature as «Selenginsky Stone» (see Savinov, 1994, 72-75). The inscription dates back to the middle of the 8th century. At that time the Kypchaks, judging by the inscription, ruled together with the Turkuts; in 744 an alliance between them was concluded against the Uigurs. The Kipchaks lived in the Altai (Northern and Central), i.e. in the same place where the country of Qiüshe is marked.
Later they joined (or were included) in the federation of the Kimaks, soon took a predominant position there, and widely spread their ethnonym. The steppe strip of present Kazakhstan from this people and its ethnonym was called Kypchak steppe (Desht-i-Kypchak). Here the Kipchaks (more precisely, Kipchak-Koman-Kumans) mixed with the Kangli tribe, advanced far to the west, and became known in the east under the name Kipchak, in Europe — Koman, and in Russia — Polovtsy.
Let’s make a linguistic analysis of the ethnonym Kypchak. There are several phonetic variants of it: Kypchak, Kyvchak, Kyfchak, Kyychak. Inlaut «v» and «f» are variants of «p», so only variants Kypchak and Kyychak are fundamentally different. The fact that these two variants came into the Turkic environment from the Yeniseiskoket language, from its dialects, we have already mentioned above.
In our opinion, the onim Kypchak is a complex ethnonym, it consists of two parts: from Kyp (Kyi) and Chak. That the first part is the Ket oglasses of the name of the same tribe Bear, we have already discussed above. Let us dwell on the second part of the oonym.
As it seems to us, it is also Ketian in origin ethnonym Chik.
It is directly related to the medieval Chik people, who lived on the southern side of the Western Sayan Mountains and partly in the Central Altai. It was the state of this people that was conquered by the Turks, i.e. the Tsigu state in 554 (Gumilev, 1993, 30).
However, along with the Tsigu state, there was also the Tsyushe state, which we, following our predecessors, decipher as Kypchak.
So, if the Tsyushe-Kypchak states included two tribes: the Kyp-Ky tribe (the Yeniseiskoket tribe of the Bear) and the Chik tribe (or rather, a part of the tribe that separated from the Tsigu state and united with the Bear tribe). How is the onym Chik etymologized? We compare it with the Ket appellative «chi:k» — «swan» (see Starostin, 1982, 161). The name is also of totemic origin, which was characteristic of the Ket peoples. The Chik tribe is, it turns out, the Yeniseiskoket tribe of the Swan. It turns out that under the name Kypchak there was a union of groups of Ket tribe Bear (Kyp-Ky) and Swan tribe (Chik). The majority of the second tribe remained on the southern slopes of the Western Sayan Mountains and existed for a long time as an independent and separate Chik people. Some part of the first tribe also existed ethnically and territorially isolated, it is known to us as the tribe Kibi, which later became Kimak, as we have already mentioned above.
Initially, apparently, the complex ethnonym sounded (in the space of the Yeniseiskoket language) as Kypchik / Kyichik (the Chinese recorded only one dialectal ovals — Kyichik, transmitting it as Tsyishe). In the space of the Turkic language Kypchik/Kyichik turned into Kypchak/Kyichak, according to the law of palatal vowel harmony the component (ethnonym, which became in the Turkic language just a component) «chik» changed into «chak».
So historically it happened that the Kypchak ethnic part of the Kimak Federation turned out to be genetically not alien to the Kimaks. The common were the Yeniseiskoket substrate basis (moreover, almost a common exit from the Yeniseiskoket tribe of the Bear) and — the substrate Turkic basis. Only dialectal reasons of both Yeniseiskoketian and Turkic languages caused many phonetically different variants of one and essentially the same ethnonym (excluding only the second part of the ethnonym Kypchak).
When Kypchaks (Kimaks, Komans-Kumans), who originated in Sayano-Altai, went irretrievably to the west, nevertheless, their remnants remained in their historical homeland, among which we count Shorian clans Kyi, Koby, Kyzai (Kyzyl-gaya), part of Karga, Khakassian clans Khy, Khoby, Khyzai, also part of Kharga. And also tribal group Koibal, now dissolved in the Khakass people.
In our opinion, the ethnonym Koibal consists of two parts: from «koib» and «al». The first part is another keto-lingual dialectal variant of the ethnonym KyiKoyKyibKypKopKob, i.e. the Ket name of their tribe Bear. In this case, the variant Kob is actualized, which brings the ancestors of the Koybals and the ancestors of the Kobiys (Khobiys) closer by dialect. However, where did the inlaut «y» come from?
The point is that in the Ket language there is a phenomenon when two consonants alternating with each other are sometimes present in a word simultaneously in one of the dialects. A particular case of such a general phenomenon is given in one of A.P. Dulzon’s books, where he writes about the alternation of lr — «many Kets pronounce lrlr together instead of ll or rr» (Dulzon, 1968, 39). A similar thing happened in our dialect alternation yb,p. Instead of Koi or Kob, the Koibals pronounced two alternating consonants («y» and «b») together. The result was Koib. The second part of the ethnonym — «al» — is a diminutive affix. However, it can also be the following: Koibal is the name of the village (in Khakassian «aal») Koibov. The meaning in both cases is the same: Koibals is a small separate part of the Kobes (here -koibov), i.e. Kets of the Bear tribe. P.S. Pallas, having recorded a few words from their old inhabitants at the end of the 18th century, proved that they were previously Keto-speaking (see Dulzon, 1961,152). Territorially and dialectally, the Koibals are close to their former tribesmen Kobiys.
G.E. Grumm-Grzhimailo defines the Kipchaks as Caucasoids (1926, 57-59); they were racially very different from the Turkuts, who were distinctly Mongoloids (Gumilev, 1993, 181). This agrees well with the description of the Kipchaks of the pre-Mongolian period as clearly not Mongoloids, from which their Old Russian name «Polovtsy» arose for the light color of their hair (polova — chopped straw) (Gumilev, 1992, 71).
It is true that attempts were made to explain the semantics of the ethnonym Kuman through the appellative «kum» in this connection — forest, yellow (Eremeev, 1970, 136) or the onim Kypchak through the word «kuba» — pale, light (ibid., 136). One can hardly agree with this, since along with the form Kuman, there were dialectal forms Koman, Kuban (cf. the name of the river Kuban), and together with the form Kypchak — Kyychak (yes, the forms Kyp(chak) and kuba on the basis of Turkic languages do not agree). Such folk-etymological view is not acceptable in scientific ethnonymy.
L.N. Gumilev defines the ethno-racial belonging of the Kipchaks of Altai and Sayan as follows: «The Kipchaks are the western branch of the Dinlins, a Caucasoid people who lived in the Minusinsk Basin before our era» (Gumilev, 1992, 71). And one of the descendants of the Dinlins, as is known, were the keto-speaking peoples, which were later renounced and mixed with the Turks.
Summarizing the above, we can say that the Bear tribe of the Yenisei Kets territorially lived in the Northern Altai and the spurs of the Western Sayans. On the Sayans it lived next to the same keto-speaking tribe of the Swan. The expansion of the Geguns (Kyrgyz), Tugyu (Türküt) and other Turkic-speaking peoples in Sayano-Altai in the V-VI centuries BC changed the ethno-political situation of the region, the First Turkic (Türküt) Kaganate emerged due to consolidation with aboriginal peoples, etc. Aboriginal peoples (from Altai in the west to Lake Baikal in the east) in the Turkic Ele formed the confederation Tele (union of aboriginal tribes).
The Bear tribe of the Yenisei Kets joined the Tele union as the Kibi tribe. Later, already in the period of the Uigur Kaganate, a part of the Kibi moved to the Irtysh, where it formed with a part of the Swan tribe and created that tribal backbone, which later grew greatly and revealed to the world the Kypchak tribe, first subordinated to the Kimaks, and then headed and renamed the Kimak state formation.
The waves of ethnic expansion to the west in the IX-XII centuries took the Kimak-Kuman-Kypchaks from their native lands, but their descendants remained in the Sayano-Altai, including the Shor-Khakass clans Kyi (Khyy), Koby (Khoby), Kyzai (Khyzai) and the Khakass tribal group Koibal. Only one Koibals managed to bring the language of their ancestors — Ketian — to the 18th century, which is worthy of surprise and respect.