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Apr. 14, 2005 Kipchaks may have been the first people to develop weapons of mass destruction, this feat having taken place in in the 14th century. The Kipchaks were a Turkic tribe, now assimilated into the Hungarian and other Eastern European national groups. The Turks first appeared in history around 500 AD as nomads who dwelt in Xinjiang (or Sinkiang, in China) and Mongolia. In the 19th century, scholars conceived of an Altaic family of languages and ethnic groups, including Turks, Mongols and Manchus, but today this lumping-together is usually rejected, at least on the basis of available evidence, the three now being considered independent. But the Turkic people are not a single unified whole. There have been many, many tribes, some extinct, others still extant. Included among them are the Turks proper, as well as Azerbaijanis, Turkmens, Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Bashkirs, Uygurs, Karakalpaks, Oghuz, Tatars, Kalmyks, Bulgars, Pechenegs, Khazars (who may be the ancestors of Ashkenazi Jews), Kipchaks and others. Kipchaks were also known as Kuns, Kumans, Cumans and Polovtsi (or Polovtsians). The early Turkic tribes warred incessantly with each other and with the Mongols, with the result that the Kipchaks were gradually driven westward from China and Mongolia, through today's Kazakhstan, and into the region between the Volga and Don Rivers, in today's Russia and Ukraine, a migratory process that lasted for perhaps 500 years. From about 1000 AD on, they had numerous wars with Russians and other peoples in their new homeland. A memorable date in their history is 1185, when Prince Igor, a Russian, conducted an unsuccessful campaign against the Kipchaks, whom the Russians called Polovtsi. An exquisite epic poem, usually called in English, "The Song of Prince Igor's Campaign," was written to chronicle this war. The poem was discovered in 1795, but no one knows who wrote it. The definitive English translation was made by Vladimir Nabokov, of "Lolita" fame. Alekcandr Borodin, the distinguished 19th century Russian composer, based his excellent opera "Prince Igor" on this epic poem. Included in the opera are the famous Polovtsian Dances, and here we are talking about the Kipchaks. But the most memorable, or most infamous, date in the history of the Kipchaks took place in the year 1347, in Crimea, a peninsula on the north shore of the Black Sea. At that time, Italy had not yet been unified, but rather consisted of a number of separate countries, including the Papal States, Sicily, Venice, Naples, Pisa and Genoa. The Italians were excellent sailors, and traded widely around the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. The Genoese had a trading post in Crimea. The Kipchaks, attacking the trading post, catapulted into the compound a human body or bodies infected with bubonic plague. Ships returning to Italy carried with them the plague, which ravaged the whole of Europe and North Africa for several years, recurring five times in the 14th century, with a death toll of 25,000,000. Thus one-third of the Caucasian race was destroyed. I suppose the Kipchaks couldn't have foreseen how devastating this tactic would turn out to be, just as Hitler probably did not understand beforehand the magnitude of the monster he let loose. In 1249, Kipchaks also took over Egypt, and founded the Bahri Dynasty, the first of two Mamluk (or Mameluke) Dynasties that ruled Egypt for 268 years. Their first exploit was to prevent the Mongols from entering Africa. Eventually, in Europe, after several defeats the Kipchaks lost their national identity and merely coalesced with local populations. In Egypt, the last of the Mamluks were poisoned by Mohammad Ali at a banquet he held for them in 1807. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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