Kimek Khanate

The Yemek were a Turkic tribe constituting the Kimek-Kipchak confederation, whose other six constituent tribes, according to Abu Said Gardizi (d. 1061), were the Imur (or Imi), Tatars, Bayandur, Kipchaks, Lanikaz, and Ajlad.

Ethnonym

Minorsky, citing Marquart, Barthold, Semenov and other sources, proposes that the name ''Kīmāk'' (pronounced ''Kimäk'') is derived from ''Iki-Imäk'', "the two Imäk", probably referring to the first two clans (''Īmī'' and ''Īmāk'') of the federation.

On the other hand, Pritsak attempted to connect the Kimek with the Proto-Mongolic Kumo of the Kumo Xi confederation (庫莫奚; Middle Chinese: kʰuo^H-mɑk̚-ɦei; *''qu(o)mâġ-ġay'', from *''quo'' "yellowish" plus denominal suffix *''-mAk''); Golden judges Pritsak's reconstruction "highly problematic", as Pritsak did not explain how ''Quomâġ'' might have produced ''Kimek''; still, Golden considers the connection with the Proto-Mongolic world seriously.

Mahmud al-Kashgari does not mention any Kimek, but Yamāk; Kashgari further remarked that Kara-Khanids like him considered Yemeks to be "a tribe of the Kipchaks", though contemporary Kipchaks considered themselves a different party. The ethnonym ''Yemäk'' might have been transcribed in the mid 7th century by Chinese authors as 鹽莫 ''Yánmò'' < Middle Chinese *''jiäm-mâk'', referring a Tiele group who initially inhabited northwestern Mongolia before migrating to north of Altay Mountains and Irtysh zone.

Initially, Golden (1992:202, 227, 263) accepted the identification of Kimeks with Imeks/Yimeks/Yemeks, because the /k/ > ∅, resulting in ''Kimek'' > ''İmek'', was indeed attested in several Medieval Kipchak dialects; Golden also thought Yemeks unlikely to be 鹽莫 *''jiäm-mâk'' > ''Yánmò'' in Chinese source. However, Golden later changed his mind, reasoning that, as the Medieval Kipchak dialectal sound-change /k/ > ∅ had not yet happened in the mid-7th century Old Turkic, the identification of Yemeks with Kimeks is disputed. As a result, Golden (2002:660-665) later abandons the Kimeks > Yemeks identification and becomes more amenable to the identification of 鹽莫 Yánmò with Yemeks, by scholars such as Hambis, Zuev, and Kumekov, cited in Golden (1992:202). According to Tishin (2018), Yemeks were simply the most important of the seven constituent tribes whose representatives met at the Irtysh valley, where the diverse Kimek tribal union emerged, as related by Gardizi.

History

In the Western Turkic Khaganate two Chuy tribes, Chumukun and Chuban, occupied a privileged position of being voting members of the confederation's Onoq elite, but not their kins Chuyue and Chumi. A part of the Chuyue tribe intermixed with the Göktürks' remnants and formed a tribe called Shatuo, which lived in southern Dzungaria, to the west of Lake Barkol. The Shatuo separated from the Chuyue in the middle of the 7th century. Until very recently, Chigils are a well known ethnic group, listed in censuses taken in Tsarist Russia and in the 20th century.

After the disintegration in 743 AD of the Western Turkic Kaganate, a part of the Chuy tribes remained in its successor, the Uyghur Kaganate (740-840), and another part retained their independence. During the Uyghur period, the Chuy tribes consolidated into the nucleus of the tribes known as Kimaks in the Arab and Persian sources. Lev Gumilyov associated one Duolu Chuy tribe, ''Chumukun'' 處木昆 (< *''čomuqun'' "immersed in water, drowned") with the Kimeks as both coincidentally occupied the same territory, i.e. Semirechye, and that Chumukun were known only to Chinese and Kimek only to Persians and Arabs. The head of the Kimek confederation was titled '' Shad Tutuq'', "Prince Governor" (''tutuk'' being from Middle Chinese ''tuo-tuok'' 都督 "military governor"); as well as ''Yinal Yabghu'', according to Gardizi. By the middle of the eighth century, the Kimeks occupied territory between the Ural River and Emba River, and from the Aral sea and Caspian steppes, to the Zhetysu area.

Kimek Khanate

After the 840 AD breakup of the Uyghur Khaganate, the Yemeks headed a new political tribal union, creating a new Kimek state. Abu Said Gardizi (d. 1061) wrote that the Kimak federation consisted of seven tribes: Yemeks (Ar. ''Yamāk'' < MTrk *''Yemǟk'' or *''(Y)imēk''), Eymür, Tatars, Bayandur, Kipchak, Lanikaz and Ajlad. Later, an expanded Kimek Kaganate partially controlled the territories of the Oguz, Kangly