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.
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