Kipchak Warrior

The Kipchaks, also spelled Qipchaqs, known as Polovtsians (Polovtsy) in Russian sources, were Turkic nomads and then a confederation that existed in the Middle Ages inhabiting parts of the Eurasian Steppe.

First mentioned in the eighth century as part of the Second Turkic Khaganate, they most likely inhabited the Altai region from where they expanded over the following centuries, first as part of the Kimek–Kipchak confederation and later as part of a confederation with the Cumans. There were groups of Kipchaks in the Pontic–Caspian steppe, China, Syr Darya, and Siberia. Some of the groups traditionally included are the Manavs, Karachays, Balkars, Siberian Tatars, Nogays, Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Volga Tatars, and Crimean Tatars. Qypshaq, which is a development of “Kipchak” in the Kazakh language, is one of the constituent tribes of the Middle Horde confederation of the Kazakh people.