On crimes and punishments in the kypchak community (XI–XIV centuries)

Abstract

The article is aimed at identifying and analyzing crimes and punishments that were used among the Kypchaks. The study showed that the Kypchaks’ system of punishment was quite developed. Despite the fact that a considerable part of the researchers believe that the Kypchaks were guided not by law (customary law), but by customs, the question remains open and the denial of the existence of customary law among the Kypchaks is not entirely correct. Some scientists take the position that law can exist without the state in the classical sense of the word and give their arguments.

One of the grave crimes in Kypchak society, in addition to murder, was considered horse theft and cattle stealing, adultery, etc., for which the most severe punishments were imposed. Of the punishments, one can name the death penalty, imprisonment, custody, corporal punishment, etc. The death penalty for crimes could be dispensed with compositions; buy off from the injured party with material means. For horse stealing, for example, the thief must give the victim nine horses, except for the stolen one. If there was no money from the thief, children were taken away, but if there were no children, he was subject to death.

Despite the lack of historical sources, some clues can be provided by monuments of folk art of a general Turkic character and historical and ethnographic materials of the Turkic peoples.