Kimaki

Kimaki

 

a Turkic tribe, the nucleus of which lived in the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries in western Siberia along the middle course of the Irtysh River, their nomadic territory extending southwest as far as the lower reaches of the Syr Dar’ia. The basic occupations of the Kimaki were nomadic livestock-raising and hunting. The chief of the Kimaki was the kagan (iamal-peigu); he was served by tax collectors whose positions were hereditary. The western branch of the Kimaki became known as the Kipchaks (or Polovtsians); by the 11th century the name “Kimaki” had disappeared.