In the Qipchāq steppe, a complex ethnic assimilation and consolidation process took place between the 11th and 13th centuries. The western Qipchāq tribes absorbed people of Oghuz, Pecheneg, ancient Bashkir, Bulgar and other origin; the eastern Qipchāq merged with the Kimek, Karluk, Kara-Khitai and others. They were all identified by the ethnonym Qipchāq. Groups and tribes of possible Mongolic or para-Mongolic extraction were also incorporated into the eastern Qipchāq conglomerate.
The most enduring Mamlūk realm was the knightly military class in Egypt in the Middle Ages, which developed from the ranks of slave-soldiers. Originally the Mamlūks were slaves of Qipchāq origin from the Eurasian Steppe, but the institution of military slavery spread to include Circassians, Abkhazians, Georgians, Armenians, Russians, and Hungarians, as well as peoples from the Balkans such as Albanians, Greeks, and South Slavs. The "Mamlūk Phenomenon" dubbed the creation of the specific warrior class was of great political importance; for one thing, it endured throughout the Islamic world for nearly 1,000 years, until the 19th century (Ottoman times).
