Origins '' in
Luhansk. On the
Kipchak steppe, a complex ethnic assimilation and consolidation process took place between the 11th and 13th centuries. The western Kipchak tribes absorbed people of
Oghuz,
Pecheneg, ancient
Bashkir,
Bulgar and other origin; the eastern Kipchak merged with the
Kimek,
Karluk,
Kara-Khitai and others. They were all identified by the ethnonym
Kipchak. Groups and tribes of possible
Mongolic or
para-Mongolic extraction were also incorporated into the eastern Kipchak conglomerate. Peter Golden argues that the Ölberli were pushed westwards due to socio-political changes among the para-Mongolic
Khitans, such as the collapse of the
Liao dynasty and formation of the Qara Khitai, and attached themselves to the eastern Kipchak confederation where they eventually came to form a part of the ruling strata and elite. Golden identifies the Ölberli with the Qay whom are recorded as the
Xi in Chinese sources and
Tatabı in Turkic inscriptions, and were of Mongolic or para-Mongolic background – likely stemming from the
Xianbei. Chinese histories only mentioned the Kipchaks a few times: for example,
during Yuan dynasty Mongolian general
Tutuha's origin from Kipchak tribe Ölberli, or some information about the Kipchaks' homeland, horses, and the Kipchaks' physiognomy and psychology. The Kipchaks were first unambiguously mentioned in Persian geographer
ibn Khordadbeh's
Book of Roads and Kingdoms as a northernly Turkic tribe, after
Toquz Oghuz,
Karluks,
Kimeks,
Oghuz,
J.f.r (either corrupted from
Jikil or representing
Majfar for
Majğar),
Pechenegs,
Türgesh, Aðkiš, and before
Yenisei Kirghiz. Kipchaks possibly appeared in the 8th-century Moyun Chur inscription as
Türk-Qïbchaq, mentioned as having been part of the
Turkic Khaganate for fifty years; even so, this attestation is uncertain as damages on the inscription leave only
-čq (𐰲𐰴) (*
-čaq or
čiq) readable. It is unclear if the Kipchaks could be identified with, according to Klyashtorny, the [
Al]
tï Sir in the
Orkhon inscriptions (薛延陀; pinyin:
Xuè-Yántuó), or with the
Juéyuèshī (厥越失) in Chinese sources; however,
Zuev (2002) identified 厥越失
Juéyuèshī ("In ancient times, this state (the
Golden Horde) was the land of the
Kipchaks, but when it was conquered by the Tatars, the Kipchaks became their subjects. Later, as the Tatars intermingled and intermarried with them, the land itself overcame the original qualities and racial characteristics of the Tatars. All of them became exactly like Kipchaks, as if they were of the same stock. The Mongols settled in the land of the Kipchaks and remained there among them. Thus, long habitation in a land alters human nature and changes one's inherent features according to the nature of the country, as we said before." At the same time, the
Mamluk Sultanate, founded in 1250, was first started by the very Kipchak
Bahri Mamluks, who emerged from slaves and refugees fleeing Mongol conquest to dominate from the heartland in Egypt; the state was once referred as "State of the Turks" due to the ruling class did sometimes express its Kipchak Turkic identity and did attempt to preserve this root. However, the Kipchak ruling class was not able to preserve their Kipchak origins, as they got heavily
Arabised and, by the time of the dynasty's downfall in 1382 and replaced by the Circassian-led
Burji Mamluks, the Arabisation ran deep among Kipchaks that they only carried few memories of their Kipchak heritages left as they became Arabs culturally and socially. Outside the Golden Horde and Mamluk Sultanate, Kipchaks also served under the
Yuan dynasty, the Sino-Mongol dynasty of
Imperial China, fought in numerous wars, and established a very significant position within the Mongol realm before eventual assimilation to the much larger
Han Chinese and Mongolian societies. ==Language==