Elmи мяъмуяси

 Gökçe Yükselen Abdurrazak Peler 

424 

claims that the Uighurs, who regarded themselves as the ‘forest people’ saw 

the Eastern Turk, who dwelled in the steppe as ‘the desert people’

13

. 

Pristsak (1982: 328-331) puts forth a similar etymology for the 

appellatives Cuman and Qun as well. He relates both names to the Khakas – 

Altai word quba

14

 ‘pale, pallid yellowish’ and bases his claim on Menges’ 

assertion that an uncontracted and a contracted form as quba and qū  co-

existed. He believes (like Menges) that from these forms the derivatives 

Quman

15

 and Qun were established with the collective suffix –an / -än. The 

Byzantine authors used the more ancient and therefore the ‘correct’ form, i.e. 

the uncontracted form, whereas in Hungary and Central Asia, where many 

Turkic peoples resided in, the more natural and colloquial, i.e. the contracted 

form was used.  

He also relates the meanings of these two appellatives to the steppe 

rather than to the complexion of the people, since he claims, distinguishing 

people on racial basis was a common practise in sedentary societies but was 

not applied among the nomadic societies. Additionally quoting Radloff’s 

Wörterbuch he notes that the word quba exists in Teleut with the meaning 

‘grey steppe’. Therefore Quman and Qun meant ‘the people of the steppe’ 

rather than ‘the pale people’.  

On the other hand he agrees with the tradition that Pallidi,  Valven and 

Xartesh meant ‘pallid, pale or blond people’ (1982: 331). 

2. The Origin of the Cuman – Qipchaqs 

The Cuman – Qipchaqs have a very complicated and problematic early 

history. Their origin has been a matter of discussion since the beginning of 

the twentieth century; however an agreed origin for them is still to be 

established. In spite of all the controversy on their origin, most of the 

                                                                                                                   

notes that Ramstedt interpreted the line as “... when the Turk Qipchaq ruled over us for fifty 

years...” in the Russian translation of the inscription. Pritsak also is making a reference to 

this Russian version. 

13

 In an earlier work Pritsak (1968: 161) claims that the name šar- is given to the same Turkic 

group, i.e. Eastern Turk by the Mongolian Kitans living in the Manchurian forest region. 

This word is also to do with the yellow colour and is linked to the steppe by Pritsak. 

14

 This word exists in Kashgari as quba at ‘horse with a colour between red and yellow’ 

(Atalay ibid. v. 3: 217). 

15

 The b > m change is a common occurrence before a nasal in many Turkic languages. For 

detail see Räsänen 1949: 170.  

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Some Notes on the History, the Culture and the Language of the Medieval Qipchaq - Cuman Turks 

425 

discussions circulate around the Kimek, the Qun, the Qay and the Shari 

people. 

Kafesoğlu (1984: 187) as an exception tries to link them with the Wu-

suns (or U-suns) of the 2

nd

 century B.C., who resided on the northern slopes 

of the T’ien Shan Mountains and around Lake Issiq. The reason, which led 

Kafesoğlu to come to this conclusion, is the racial features of the Wu-suns 

mentioned in the Chinese sources. Eberhard (1942: 104-105) notes that Wu-

suns had red hair and blue – green eyes

16

. 

Togan (1970: 159-160) regards Qipchaq, Qangli, Kimek and Qun to be 

all sub-divisions of a wider Qipchaq group. He also notes that Cuman 

derived from Qun with the -man particle, like Turk and Turkmen, and must 

have designated the two groups of the same tribe. He regards the steppes 

between the Altai and the Ural Mountains to be their natural habitats but 

referring to Plinius he also notes that the Kimeks, the Cumans and the 

Qanglis together with the Pechenegs used to live in Transoxiana during the 

early periods of the Christian era

17

. Togan considers the Coamani mentioned 

by Pomponius Melae living between the Sogdians and the Dahea as well to 

be Cumans. He also like Kafesoğlu mentions the Wu-sun rulers called Qun-

bak (or Qun-bi) but unlike him he thinks only the ruling class of the Wu-

suns was from the Quns. He takes K’ang-chü

18

, which was the Chinese name 

                                                 

16

   Kafesoğlu also notes that Wu-suns had a ruler named Kun-mo or Kun-mi, which he tries to 

translate as Kun-beg or Kun-bi. Kafesoğlu additionally emphasizes that they belonged to 

the Hsiung-nu race and cultural sphere and had the wolf legend, which was exclusive to the 

Turkic peoples. Kafesoğlu’s emphasis on the Turkic or Hsiung-nu features of the Wu-suns 

must be because Wu-suns are regarded to be from Indo-European origin by some Western 

scholars. For instance recently Fryre (1996: 123 and 165) has claimed them to be a part of 

the Sarmatian Confederacy and the same people as the As and Alans of the Western 

sources, therefore the ancestors of the modern Ossetians and from Iranian stock. However, 

interestingly they sided with the Hsiung-nu against both the Yueh-chih (Frye 1996: 122) 

and the Chinese (Yu 1990: 131-133). In the race to win over the Wu-suns, the Chinese sent 

a Han ‘princess’ to marry the Wu-sun ruler Kun-mo in 195 B.C. The Hsiung-nu ruler sent 

his own daughter as a response. Kun-mo made the Han princess the Right-princess and the 

Hsiung-nu princess the Left-princess. The Wu-suns like the Hsiung-nu sanctified the left 

(Yu 1990: 133). 

17

 Togan translates the Pasiak as Pecheneg, Camac as Kimek, Coman as Cuman, Cam as 

Qang(li), Khun of Eastern Europe and Phun of Central Asia as Qun. 

18

   The region named K’ang-chü  by the Chinese sources of the pre-Christian (from 2nd c. 

B.C.) and the Early Christian eras laid north of the Middle Sir Darya, i.e. the Oxus, on the 

southern border of the Kazakh Steppe and in the Chu Valley. Its inhabitants were the Āsi 

people until the first century A.D. The region was settled by the Hsiung-nus twice. First 

 

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