What is "lanikaz"

Lanikaz is one of Turkic tribes known from Arab and Persian Middle Age geographers and writers, possibly with a distorted form of Laktan, as being one of the seven tribes in the Kimak Kaganate in the period of 743-1050 AD. The other six constituent tribes per Abu Said Gardizi (died 1061) were Kimaks, Yamak, Kipchaks, Tatars, Bayandur, and Ajlad.

Yu.Zuev calls the spelling "Lanikaz" an "obviously distorted name of the Kimek tribe in the Gardizi list", and corrects it to "Laktan", observing that Chinese annals contain a "number of messages about congratulatory visits of Kimeks-Laktans to Chang'an, attesting to the political importance of this tribe. They do not contain any other information." The location of the Kimek Laktan area, before the Kimek's return to the area of Black Irtysh, in the Chinese annals is described as east from the lake Külün on the northern left bank of the river Argun.