Kipchaks

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. Cumania was conquered by the Mongol Empire in the early 13th century and integrated into the Golden Horde, which also went on to become known as Kipchak Khanate and the start of a massive Mongolisation of culture, in which when the Kipchak identity was codified permanently when they started to blur the line of Mongols and Turks to become the modern formation of Turco-Mongol identity.