Kimak and Chu-mu-kun 處木昆: Notes on an Identification
Kimak and Chu-mu-kun 處木昆: Notes on an Identification
DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2018.46.3.107-113
V.V. Tishin
Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Sakhyanovoy 6, Ulan-Ude, 670047, Russia
This study addresses the origin of the Turkic tribe Kimak, known from Muslim sources. In 800–1100 AD, the Kimak lived in Semirechye. In the article, they are associated with the Chu-mu-kun 處木昆 tribe, which resided in the same area in 600–800 AD and was described by Chinese sources. The Kimak genealogical legend related by the 11th century Persian author Gardizi includes the story of the founder of the Kimak tribe’s being immersed in water (the alleged reason why the Kimak worshipped water). This story suggests that the reconstructed Chinese variant of the tribal name Chumukun 處木昆 meant *cumuqun ~ *comuqun *‘immersed in water’, *‘drowned (?)’. On the basis of toponymy in the Chinese sources and of the Old Turkic personal names relating to Altai and Semirechye, it is concluded that the words Chu-mu-kun 處木昆 and Yemak (Yan-mo 鹽莫) were used as early as the mid-7th century, but were parts of personal names, unrelated to the Irtysh valley, where, according to Gardizi, the Kimak tribal union originated. These facts not only document the ethnic diversity of the Kimak tribal union, but suggest that the name, at least, of the dominant tribe derived from a personal name. Like Y.A. Zuev, I am skeptical of the identification of the names of Kimak and Yemak.
