Kimek Khaganate

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

One reconstruction of the Kimek state’s rise begins in 840. After that year some Uyghurs fled to the Kimek, and in the struggles with their Turkic neighbours a Kimek state came into being. The same reconstruction also explains the title yabgu.^[1] Gardizi gives the chief the title Yinal yabgu. The Hudud al-Alam, by contrast, calls the king of the Kimek a khagan. It describes summer quarters at Namakiyya, eleven lieutenants in the country and fiefs passed down to their children.^[2] No other source confirms these details.^[3] The catalyst was probably the trade in sable and ermine furs. The Islamic lands bought these furs from the Kimek, who drew them from the Uralic trappers of the Siberian forests. By the late ninth and early tenth century, the Yaiq, the Ural of today, formed the border between the Oghuz and the Kimek.^[1] The Kimek khagan named the Kipchak king. Between 1018 and 1050, the Kipchak replaced the Kimek as the leading element of the union.^[4] The state left no grand political tradition and no deep roots.^[5]