KipchakArticle Free Pass Kipchak, Russian Polovtsy, Byzantine
Kuman, or Cuman, a loosely organized Turkic tribal confederation
that by the mid-11th century occupied a vast, sprawling
territory in the Eurasian steppe, stretching from north of the
Aral Sea westward to the region north of the Black Sea. Some
tribes of the Kipchak confederation probably originated near the
Chinese borders and, after having moved into western Siberia by
the 9th century, migrated further west into the trans-Volga
region (now western Kazakhstan) and then, in the 11th century,
to the steppe area north of the Black Sea (now in Ukraine and
southwestern Russia). The western grouping of this confederation
was known as the Polovtsy, or Kuman, or by other names, most of
which have the meaning “pale,” or “sallow.” The Kipchak were
nomadic pastoralists and warriors who lived in yurts (movable
tents). In the late 11th and early 12th centuries they became
involved in various conflicts with the Byzantines, Kievan Rus,
the Hungarians, and the Pe