Migrations of nomadic tribes of Eastern Desht-i Qipchak in the 12th century: the influence of the Qara-Khitay factor

The presented article to some extent summarizes the experience of previous studies conducted by the author regarding the migration of nomadic Turkic tribes of Eastern Desht-i Qipchak in the pre-Mongol period. However, if earlier we focused mainly on specific examples of the movement of a particular tribal association, then in this article we would like to draw attention to the causes of these migration processes in the 12th century. Such issues have been relatively poorly studied by Russian and foreign experts, since Muslim historical and geographical writings contain a very limited amount of information on this subject. Despite this, the author of this study sets out to summarize all the information available in the sources about the migration of the Eastern Desht-i Qipchak nomads in the 12th century and try to indicate what exactly caused the migration in each particular case. In addition to well-researched tribal associations such as Qipchaks, Qarluks and Guzzs, we will also consider the relatively lesser-known Mangyshlaks and Yazyrs. It is worth noting that in the first half of the 12th century, a new state entity was formed within Kashgar and Balasagun – the state of the Qara-Khitay. In this regard, we will try to pay close attention to how this actor interacted with nomadic Turkic tribes and assess the viability of the position that the Qara-Khitay had the most influence on the migration processes in Eastern Desht-i Qipchak in the 12th century.