, native_name_lang = bak , flag = File:Bashkirs of Baymak rayon.jpg , flag_caption = Bashkirs of Baymak in traditional dress , image = , caption = , population = approx. 2 million , popplace = Bashkirs by federal subject 2010

1,584,554
1,172,287 , region2 = , pop2 = 41,000 , ref2 = , region3 = , pop3 = 58,500 , ref3 = , region4 = , pop4 = 4,253 , ref4 = Population by national and/or ethnic group, sex and urban/rural residence: each census, 1985—2003
/ref> , region5 = , pop5 = 1,200 , ref5 = , region6 = , pop6 = 8,000 , ref6 = , region7 = , pop7 = 610 , ref7 = , region8 = , pop8 = 300 , ref8 = , region9 = , pop9 = 400 , ref9 = , region10 = , pop10 = 112 , ref10 = , region11 = , pop11 = 1,111 , ref11 = , region12 = , pop12 = 379 , ref12 = , region13 = , pop13 = 533 , ref13 = , region14 = , pop14 = 145 , ref14 = , region15 = , pop15 = 8,400 , ref15 = , langs = Bashkir, Russian,

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

, rels = Sunni IslamBashkortostan and Bashkirs
, Encyclopedia.com , related =

Volga Tatars The Volga Tatars or simply Tatars ( tt-Cyrl, татарлар, tatarlar) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Volga-Ural region of Russia. They are subdivided into various subgroups. Volga Tatars are Russia's second-largest ethnicity after th ...

Kazakhs The Kazakhs (also spelled Qazaqs; Kazakh: , , , , , ; the English name is transliterated from Russian; russian: казахи) are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to northern parts of Central Asia, chiefly Kazakhstan, but also part ...

Nogais The Nogais ( Nogai: Ногай, , Ногайлар, ) are a Turkic ethnic group who live in the North Caucasus region. Most are found in Northern Dagestan and Stavropol Krai, as well as in Karachay-Cherkessia and Astrakhan Oblast; some als ...

Crimean Tatars , flag = Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg , flag_caption = Flag of Crimean Tatars , image = Love, Peace, Traditions.jpg , caption = Crimean Tatars in traditional clothing in front of the Khan's Palace ...

The Bashkirs ( ba, Башҡорттар, Bashqorttar, ; russian: Башкиры, ) are a Kipchak

Turkic Turkic may refer to: * anything related to the country of Turkey * Turkic languages, a language family of at least thirty-five documented languages ** Turkic alphabets (disambiguation) ** Turkish language, the most widely spoken Turkic language * ...

ethnic group, indigenous to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

. They are concentrated in

Bashkortostan The Republic of Bashkortostan or Bashkortostan ( ba, Башҡортостан Республикаһы, Bashqortostan Respublikahy; russian: Республика Башкортостан, Respublika Bashkortostan),; russian: Респу́блик� ...

, a republic of the Russian Federation and in the broader

historical region Historical regions (or historical areas) are geographical regions which at some point in time had a cultural, ethnic, linguistic or political basis, regardless of latterday borders. They are used as delimitations for studying and analysing soci ...

Badzhgard Badzhgard or Bashkurd, historically Bashkiria ( ba, italic=yes, Башҡортостан/Başqortostan) is a historical and geographical region in the Urals, the traditional border between Northern Asia and Eastern Europe in modern Russia, inhabit ...

, which spans both sides of the

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...

, where

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, wh ...

meets

North Asia North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographical terms and is coextensive with the Asian part of Russia, and consists of three Russian regions east of the Ural Mountai ...

. Smaller communities of Bashkirs also live in the

Republic of Tatarstan The Republic of Tatarstan (russian: Республика Татарстан, Respublika Tatarstan, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə tətɐrˈstan; tt-Cyrl, Татарстан Республикасы), or simply Tatarstan (russian: Татарстан, tt ...

, the

oblasts An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdom ...

Perm Krai Perm Krai (russian: Пе́рмский край, r=Permsky kray, p=ˈpʲɛrmskʲɪj ˈkraj, ''Permsky krai'', , ''Perem lador'') is a federal subject of Russia (a krai) that came into existence on December 1, 2005 as a result of the 2004 re ...

Chelyabinsk Chelyabinsk ( rus, Челя́бинск, p=tɕɪˈlʲæbʲɪnsk, a=Ru-Chelyabinsk.ogg; ba, Силәбе, ''Siläbe'') is the administrative center and largest city of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the seventh-largest city in Russia, with a ...

, Orenburg,

Tyumen Tyumen ( ; rus, Тюмень, p=tʲʉˈmʲenʲ, a=Ru-Tyumen.ogg) is the administrative center and largest city of Tyumen Oblast, Russia. It is situated just east of the Ural Mountains, along the Tura River. Fueled by the Russian oil and gas i ...

, Sverdlovsk and

Kurgan A kurgan is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into much of Central Asi ...

and other regions in

; sizable minorities exist in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental coun ...

and

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...

Most Bashkirs speak the

Bashkir language Bashkir (, ; Bashkir: ''Bashqortsa'', ''Bashqort tele'', ) is a Turkic language belonging to the Kipchak branch. It is co-official with Russian in Bashkortostan. It is spoken by approximately 1.4 million native speakers in Russia, as well a ...

closely related to the

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

and

Kazakh language The Kazakh or simply Qazaq ( Latin: or , Cyrillic: or , Arabic Script: or , , ) is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia by Kazakhs. It is closely related to Nogai, Kyrgyz and Karakalpak. It is the official lang ...

s, which belong to the Kipchak branch of the

Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic l ...

; they share historical and cultural affinities with the broader

Turkic peoples The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West Asia, West, Central Asia, Central, East Asia, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose memb ...

. Bashkirs are mainly

Sunni Muslims Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

of the

Hanafi The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named ...

madhhab A ( ar, مذهب ', , "way to act". pl. مَذَاهِب , ) is a school of thought within ''fiqh'' (Islamic jurisprudence). The major Sunni Mathhab are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali. They emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries CE ...

, or school of jurisprudence, and follow the

Jadid The Jadids were Muslim modernist reformers within the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th century. They normally referred to themselves by the Turkic terms ''Taraqqiparvarlar'' ('progressives'), ''Ziyalilar'' ('intellectuals') or simp ...

doctrine. Previously nomadic and fiercely independent, the Bashkirs gradually came under Russian rule beginning in the 16th century; they have since played a major role through the history of Russia, culminating in their autonomous status within the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia.

Ethnonym

The etymology and indeed meaning of the

endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, o ...

''Bashqort'' has been for a long time under discussion. The name Bashqort has been known since the 10th century, most researchers etymologize the name as "main/leader/head" (bash) + "wolf" (qort being an archaic name for the animal), thus "''wolf-leader''" (from the totemic hero ancestor). This prevailing

folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...

relates to a legend regarding the migration of the first seven Bashkir tribes from the

Syr Darya The Syr Darya (, ),, , ; rus, Сырдарья́, Syrdarjja, p=sɨrdɐˈrʲja; fa, سيردريا, Sirdaryâ; tg, Сирдарё, Sirdaryo; tr, Seyhun, Siri Derya; ar, سيحون, Seyḥūn; uz, Sirdaryo, script-Latn/. historically known ...

valley to the Volga-Ural region. The legend relates that the Bashkirs were given a green and fertile land by the fertility goddess of

Tengrism Tengrism (also known as Tengriism, Tengerism, or Tengrianism) is an ethnic and old state Turko- Mongolic religion originating in the Eurasian steppes, based on folk shamanism, animism and generally centered around the titular sky god Tengri. ...

Umay Umay (also known as Umai; otk, 𐰆𐰢𐰖; kk, Ұмай ана, ''Umay ana''; ky, Умай эне, ''Umay ene''; russian: Ума́й / Ымай, ''Umáj / Ymaj'', tr, Umay (Ana)) is the goddess of fertility in Turkic mythology and Tengri ...

(known locally also as ''Omay-äsa''), protected by the legendary Ural mountains (in alignment with the famous Bashkir epic poem "Ural-Batyr"). A wolf was sent to guide these tribes to their promised land, hence ''bash-qort, "leading wolf"''. The

ethnographers Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

V. N. Tatishchev, P. I. Richkov, and

Johann Gottlieb Georgi Johann Gottlieb Georgi (31 December 1729 – 27 October 1802) was a German botanist, naturalist and geographer. A native of Pomerania, Georgi accompanied both Johan Peter Falk and Peter Simon Pallas on their respective journeys through Siberia ...

provided similar etymologies in the 18th century. Although this is the prevailing theory for an etymology of the term ''bashqort'', other theories have been formulated: * In 1847, the historian V. S. Yumatov speculated the original meaning to have been "

beekeeper A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees. Beekeepers are also called honey farmers, apiarists, or less commonly, apiculturists (both from the Latin ''apis'', bee; cf. apiary). The term beekeeper refers to a person who keeps honey bees i ...

or beemaster". *

Douglas Morton Dunlop Douglas Morton Dunlop (1909–1987) was a renowned British orientalist and scholar of Islamic and Eurasian history. Early life and education Born in England, Dunlop studied at Bonn and Oxford under the historian Paul Ernst Kahle (1875–1965). H ...

proposed ''bashkort'' being derived from the forms ''beshgur'', ''bashgur'', which means "five

oghurs The Onoğurs or Oğurs (Ὀνόγουροι, Οὔρωγοι, Οὔγωροι; Onογurs, Ογurs; "ten tribes", "tribes"), were Turkic nomadic equestrians who flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region between 5th and 7th centu ...

". Since modern ''sh'' corresponds to ''l'' in

Bulgar language Bulgar (also known as Bulghar, Bolgar, or Bolghar) is an extinct Oghur Turkic language spoken by the Bulgars. The name is derived from the Bulgars, a tribal association that established the Bulgar state known as Old Great Bulgaria in the mi ...

. Therefore, Dunlop proposes the ethnonyms Bashkort and Bulgar are equivalent. * Historian and

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

A. E. Alektorov has suggested that ''Bashqort'' meant "distinct

nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...

". * Anthropologist R. M. Yusupov considered ''Bashqort'' may originally have been an

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

compound word In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or sign) that consists of more than one stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs wh ...

meaning "wolf-children" or "

descendant Descendant(s) or descendent(s) may refer to: * Lineal descendant, a consanguinous (i.e. biological) relative directly related to a person ** Collateral descendant, a relative descended from a brother or sister of an ancestor Books * "The Descen ...

s of heroes", on the basis of the words ''bacha'' "descendant, child" and ''gurd'' "hero" or ''gurg'' "wolf". * Historian and archaeologist Mikhail Artamonov suggested that the word is a

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

of the name of the Bušxk' (or ''Bwsxk''), a tribe of

Scythia Scythia ( Scythian: ; Old Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) or Scythica (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), also known as Pontic Scythia, was a kingdom created by the Scythians during the 6th to 3rd centuries BC in the Pontic–Caspian steppe. ...

that lived in the area now known as Bashkortostan.Peter B. Golden, Haggai Ben-Shammai & András Róna-Tas, The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives
Leiden/Boston, Brill, 2007, pp. 422. * According to the orientalist

, the ethnonym ''Bashqort'' was derived from ''beshgur'' (or ''bashgur'') which means "five tribes" in the modern Bashkir language. * Ethnologist N. V. Bikbulatov suggested that the term originated from the name of a legendary

Khazar The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...

warlord named Bashgird, who ruled an area along the Yayıq river. * Ethnologist R. G. Kuzeev derived the ethnonym from the morphemes ''bash'' "leader, head" and ''qort'' "tribe". * Historian and

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingui ...

András Róna-Tas András Róna-Tas (born 30 December 1931) is a Hungarian historian and linguist. He was born in 1931 in Budapest. Róna-Tas studied under such preeminent professors as Gyula Ortutay and Lajos Ligeti, and received a degree in folklore and easter ...

argued the ethnonym "Bashkir" to be a

Bulgar Bulgar may refer to: *Bulgars, extinct people of Central Asia *Bulgar language, the extinct language of the Bulgars *Oghur languages Bulgar may also refer to: *Bolghar, the capital city of Volga Bulgaria *Bulgur, a wheat product *Bulgar, an Ashke ...

reflex of the Hungarian endonym '' Magyar'' (or the Old Hungarian ''Majer'').

History

Origins

The Bashkir group was formed by

tribes of South Siberian and Central Asian origin, who, before migrating to the

Southern Urals Southern Ural - the south, the widest part of the Ural Mountains, stretches from the river Ufa (near the village of Lower Ufaley) to the Ural River. From the west and east the Southern Ural is limited to the East European, West Siberian Plain ...

, wandered for a considerable time in the Aral-Syr Darya steppes (modern day central-southern

), coming into contact with the Pecheneg-Oghuz and Kimak-Kipchak tribes. Therefore, it is possible to note that the Bashkir people originates from the same tribes which compose the modern

Kyrgyzes The Kyrgyz people (also spelled Kyrghyz, Kirgiz, and Kirghiz; ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is the nation state of the Kyrgyz people and significant diaspora can be found in China, Russia, and Uzbekistan. T ...

and

, but there has been a considerable cultural and a small ethnic exchange with Oghuz tribes. The migration to the valley of the Southern Urals took place between the end of the 9th century and the beginning of the 10th century, in parallel to the Kipchak migration to the north.

Middle Ages

The first report about Bashkirs may have been in the Chinese chronicle

Book of Sui The ''Book of Sui'' (''Suí Shū'') is the official history of the Sui dynasty. It ranks among the official Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written by Yan Shigu, Kong Yingda, and Zhangsun Wuji, with Wei Zheng as the lead au ...

(636 AD). Around 40 Turkic Tiele tribes were named in the section "A Narration about the Tiele people"; Bashkirs might have been included within that narration, if the tribal name 比干 (

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

''Bǐgān'' <

Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the ''Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...

ZS: *''piɪ^X-kɑn'') were read as 比千 (''Bĭqiān'' < *''piɪ^Xt͡sʰen''), according to Chinese scholar Rui Chuanming. In the 7th century, Bashkirs were also mentioned in the Armenian

Ashkharatsuyts ''Ashkharatsuyts'' or ''Ašxarhac′oyc′'' (Աշխարհացոյց (traditional); Աշխարհացույց (reformed)), often translated as ''Geography'' in English sources, is an early Medieval Armenian illustrated book by Anania Shirakatsi. ...

. However, these mentions may refer to the precursors of the Kipchak Bashkir tribes who travelled in the Aral-Syr Darya region before the migration. The

may have mentioned "Bashkirs" when the Turkic peoples were still travelling through southern Siberia. In the 9th century, during the migration of the Bashkirs to the Volga-Ural region, the first

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...

and Persian written reports about Bashkirs are attested. These include reports by Sallam al-Tardjuman who around 850 travelled to the Bashkir territories and outlined their borders. In the 10th century, the Persian historian and polymath

Abu Zayd al-Balkhi Abu Zayd Ahmed ibn Sahl Balkhi ( fa, ابو زید احمد بن سهل بلخی) was a Persian Muslim polymath: a geographer, mathematician, physician, psychologist and scientist. Born in 850 CE in Shamistiyan, in the province of Balkh, Greate ...

described Bashkirs as a people divided into two groups: one inhabiting the Southern Urals, the other living on the Danube plain near the boundaries of Byzantium.These sources may have confused Bashkirs with

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Ural ...

, since the area of Modern Bashkortostan is often referred as " Magna Hungaria", the zone where the

Magyar tribes The Magyar tribes ( , hu, magyar törzsek) or Hungarian clans were the fundamental political units within whose framework the Hungarians (Magyars) lived, before the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin and the subsequent established the P ...

dwelled before their migration to Europe; it is believed that Bashkirs may have come into contact with these Magyar tribes, since some of the Northern Tribes of the modern Bashkirs do have genetic correspondence with Hungarians

Ibn Rustah Ahmad ibn Rustah Isfahani ( fa, احمد ابن رسته اصفهانی ''Aḥmad ibn Rusta Iṣfahānī''), more commonly known as Ibn Rustah (, also spelled ''Ibn Rusta'' and ''Ibn Ruste''), was a tenth-century Persian explorer and geographer ...

, a contemporary of

, observed that Bashkirs were an independent people occupying territories on both sides of the

Ural mountains The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...

ridge between

Volga The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchm ...

Kama ''Kama'' (Sanskrit ) means "desire, wish, longing" in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh literature.Monier Williamsकाम, kāmaMonier-Williams Sanskrit English Dictionary, pp 271, see 3rd column Kama often connotes sensual pleasure, se ...

, and

Tobol River The Tobol (russian: Тобол, kk, Тобыл ''Tobyl'') is a river in Western Siberia (in Kazakhstan and Russia) and the main (left) tributary of the Irtysh. Its length is , and the area of its drainage basin is . History The Tobol River wa ...

s and upstream of the Yaik river.

Ahmad ibn Fadlan Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Rāšid ibn Ḥammād, ( ar, أحمد بن فضلان بن العباس بن راشد بن حماد; ) commonly known as Ahmad ibn Fadlan, was a 10th-century Muslim traveler, famous for his account of hi ...

, ambassador of the Baghdad Caliph

Al-Muqtadir Abu’l-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Ahmad al-Muʿtaḍid ( ar, أبو الفضل جعفر بن أحمد المعتضد) (895 – 31 October 932 AD), better known by his regnal name Al-Muqtadir bi-llāh ( ar, المقتدر بالله, "Mighty in God"), wa ...

to the governor of

Volga Bulgaria Volga Bulgaria or Volga–Kama Bulgaria, was a historic Bulgar state that existed between the 7th and 13th centuries around the confluence of the Volga and Kama River, in what is now European Russia. Volga Bulgaria was a multi-ethnic state ...

, wrote the first ethnographic description of the Bashkir in 922. The Bashkirs, according to Ibn Fadlan, were a warlike and powerful people, which he and his companions (a total of five thousand people, including military protection) "bewared... with the greatest threat". They were described as engaged in cattle breeding. According to ibn Fadlan, the Bashkirs worshipped twelve gods: winter, summer, rain, wind, trees, people, horses, water, night, day, death, heaven and earth, and the most prominent, the sky god. Apparently, Islam had already begun to spread among the Bashkirs, as one of the ambassadors was a Muslim Bashkir. According to the testimony of Ibn Fadlan, the Bashkirs were

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic ...

, living on the southern slopes of the

Urals The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...

, and occupying a vast territory up to the river

. They were bordered by

Oghuz Turks The Oghuz or Ghuzz Turks (Middle Turkic: ٱغُز, ''Oγuz'', ota, اوغوز, Oġuz) were a western Turkic people that spoke the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family. In the 8th century, they formed a tribal confederation conven ...

on the south,

Pechenegs The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks tr, Peçenek(ler), Middle Turkic: , ro, Pecenegi, russian: Печенег(и), uk, Печеніг(и), hu, Besenyő(k), gr, Πατζινάκοι, Πετσενέγοι, Πατζινακίται, ka, პაჭ ...

to the south-east and

Bulgars The Bulgars (also Bulghars, Bulgari, Bolgars, Bolghars, Bolgari, Proto-Bulgarians) were Turkic semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region during the 7th century. They became known as nomad ...

on the west. The earliest source to give a geographical description of Bashkir territory,

Mahmud al-Kashgari Mahmud ibn Husayn ibn Muhammed al-Kashgari, ''Maḥmūd ibnu 'l-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Kāšġarī'', , tr, Kaşgarlı Mahmûd, ug, مەھمۇد قەشقىرى, ''Mehmud Qeshqiri'' / Мәһмуд Қәшқири uz, Mahmud Qashg'ariy / М ...

's ''Divanu Lugat’it Turk'' (1072–1074), includes a map with a charted region called ''Fiyafi Bashqyrt'' (the Bashkir steppes). Despite a lack of much geographic detail, the sketch map does indicate that the Bashkirs inhabited a territory bordering on the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad s ...

and the

valley in the west, the Ural Mountains in the north-west, and the

Irtysh The Irtysh ( otk, 𐰼𐱅𐰾:𐰇𐰏𐰕𐰏, Ertis ügüzüg, mn, Эрчис мөрөн, ''Erchis mörön'', "erchleh", "twirl"; russian: Иртыш; kk, Ертіс, Ertis, ; Chinese: 额尔齐斯河, pinyin: ''É'ěrqísī hé'', Xiao'er ...

valley in the east, thus giving a rough outline of the area.

Said Al-Andalusi Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī (); he was Abū al-Qāsim Ṣāʿid ibn Abū al-Walīd Aḥmad ibn Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṣāʿid ibn ʿUthmān al-Taghlibi al-Qūrtūbi () (1029July 6, 1070 AD; 4206 Shawwal, 462 AH); an Arab qadi of Toledo ...

and

Muhammad al-Idrisi Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani as-Sabti, or simply al-Idrisi ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد الإدريسي القرطبي الحسني السبتي; la, Dreses; 1100 – 1165), was a Islamic geography, Muslim geo ...

mention the Bashkir in the 12th century. The 13th-century authors Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi,

Yaqut al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) ( ar, ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine Greek ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th-13th centuries). He is known for ...

and Qazvini and the 14th-century authors

Al-Dimashqi The Arabic ''nisbah'' (attributive title) Al-Dimashqi ( ar, الدمشقي) denotes an origin from Damascus, Syria. Al-Dimashqi may refer to: * Al-Dimashqi (geographer): a medieval Arab geographer. * Abu al-Fadl Ja'far ibn 'Ali al-Dimashqi: 12th ...

and

Abu'l-Fida Ismāʿīl b. ʿAlī b. Maḥmūd b. Muḥammad b. ʿUmar b. Shāhanshāh b. Ayyūb b. Shādī b. Marwān ( ar, إسماعيل بن علي بن محمود بن محمد بن عمر بن شاهنشاه بن أيوب بن شادي بن مروان ...

also wrote about Bashkirs. The first European sources to mention the Bashkirs were the works of Joannes de Plano Carpini and William of Rubruquis of the 13th century. By 1226,

Genghis Khan ''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr /> Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan'' , birth_name = Temüjin , successor = Tolui (as regent) Ögedei Khan , spouse = , issue = , house = Borjigin ...

had incorporated the lands of Bashkortostan into his empire. During the 13th and 14th centuries, all of Bashkortostan was a component of the

Golden Horde The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragment ...

. The brother of Batu-Khan, Sheibani, received the Bashkir lands east of the

. After the disintegration of the

Mongol Empire The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous land empire in history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Europe ...

, the Bashkirs were divided among the

Nogai Horde The Nogai Horde was a confederation founded by the Nogais that occupied the Pontic–Caspian steppe from about 1500 until they were pushed west by the Kalmyks and south by the Russians in the 17th century. The Mongol tribe called the Manghuds c ...

, the

Khanate of Kazan The Khanate of Kazan ( tt, Казан ханлыгы, Kazan xanlıgı; russian: Казанское ханство, Kazanskoye khanstvo) was a medieval Tatar Turkic state that occupied the territory of former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 155 ...

and the

Khanate of Sibir The Khanate of Sibir (also Khanate of Turan, sty, Себер ханлыгы) was a Tatar Khanate located in southwestern Siberia with a Turco-Mongol ruling class. Throughout its history, members of the Shaybanid and Taibugid dynasties often co ...

, founded in the 15th century.

Early modern period

In the middle of the 16th century, Bashkirs were gradually conquered by the

Tsardom of Russia The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally referenced as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter I ...

. Primary documents pertaining to the Bashkirs during this period have been lost, although some are mentioned in the ''shezhere'' (family trees) of the Bashkir. During the Russian Imperial period, Russians and Tatars began to migrate to Bashkortostan which led to eventual demographic changes in the region. The recruitment of Bashkirs into the Russian army and having to pay steep taxes pressured many Bashkirs to adopt a more settled lifestyle and to slowly abandon their ancient nomadic pastoralist past. In the late 16th and early 19th centuries, Bashkirs occupied the territory from the river Sylva in the north, to the river heads of

Tobol The Tobol (russian: Тобол, kk, Тобыл ''Tobyl'') is a river in Western Siberia (in Kazakhstan and Russia) and the main (left) tributary of the Irtysh. Its length is , and the area of its drainage basin is . History The Tobol River was ...

in the east, the mid-stream of the river

Yaik The Ural (russian: Урал, ), known before 1775 as Yaik (russian: Яик, ba, Яйыҡ, translit=Yayıq, ; kk, Жайық, translit=Jaiyq, ), is a river flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan in the continental border between Europe and Asia ...

(Ural) in the south; in the Middle and Southern Urals, the Cis-Urals including Volga territory and Trans-Uralsto, and the eastern bank of the river Volga on the south-west.

Bashkir rebellions of the 17th–18th centuries

The Bashkirs participated in the 1662–64, 1681–84 and 1704–11 Rebellions. In 1676, the Bashkirs rebelled under a leader named Seyid Sadir or 'Seit Sadurov', and the

Russian army The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска �ВSukhoputnyye voyska V}), also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces ...

had great difficulties in ending the rebellion. The Bashkirs rose again in 1707, under Aldar and Kûsyom, due to perceived ill-treatment by Imperial Russian officials. At the founding of Orenburg in 1735, the fourth insurrection occurred in 1735 and lasted six years. Ivan Kirillov formed a plan to build the fort to be called Orenburg at

Orsk Orsk (russian: Орск) is the second largest city in Orenburg Oblast, Russia, located on the steppe about southeast of the southern tip of the Ural Mountains. The city straddles the Ural River. Population: It lies adjacent to the Kazakhstan– ...

at the confluence of the

Or River The Or (russian: Орь, kk, Ор) is a river in Orenburg Oblast of Russia and Aktobe Province of Kazakhstan. It is a left tributary of the Ural, and is 332 km long, with a drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all f ...

and the

Ural River The Ural (russian: Урал, ), known before 1775 as Yaik (russian: Яик, ba, Яйыҡ, translit=Yayıq, ; kk, Жайық, translit=Jaiyq, ), is a river flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan in the continental border between Europe and Asia ...

, south-east of the Urals where the Bashkir, Kalmyk and Kazakh lands met. Work on Fort Orenburg commenced at Orsk in 1735. However, by 1743 the site of Orenburg was moved a further 250 km west to its current location. The next planned construction was to be a fort on the

Aral Sea The Aral Sea ( ; kk, Арал теңізі, Aral teñızı; uz, Орол денгизи, Orol dengizi; kaa, Арал теңизи, Aral teńizi; russian: Аральское море, Aral'skoye more) was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakh ...

. The consequence of the Aral Sea fort would involve crossing Bashkir and the Kazakh Lesser Horde lands, some of whom had recently offered a nominal submission to the Russian Crown. The southern side of Bashkiria was partitioned by the Orenburg Line of forts. The forts ran from

Samara Samara ( rus, Сама́ра, p=sɐˈmarə), known from 1935 to 1991 as Kuybyshev (; ), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara rivers, with a population ...

on the Volga east as far as the Samara River headwaters. It then crossed to the middle of the

and following the river course east and then north on the eastern side of the Urals. It then went east along the Uy River to Ust-Uisk on the

where it connected to the ill-defined 'Siberian Line' along the forest-steppe boundary. In 1774, the Bashkirs, under the leadership of Salavat Yulayev, supported

Pugachev's Rebellion Pugachev's Rebellion (, ''Vosstaniye Pugachyova''; also called the Peasants' War 1773–1775 or Cossack Rebellion) of 1773–1775 was the principal revolt in a series of popular rebellions that took place in the Russian Empire after Catherine ...

. In 1786, the Bashkirs achieved tax-free status; and in 1798 Russia formed an irregular Bashkir army from among them.

Napoleonic Wars

During the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, many Bashkirs served as mercenaries in the Russian army to defend from the French invaders during

Napoleon's invasion of Russia The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign, the Second Polish War, the Army of Twenty nations, and the Patriotic War of 1812 was launched by Napoleon Bonaparte to force the Russian Empire back into the continental block ...

. Subsequently, the Bashkir battalions were the most notable fighters during the Napoleonic wars on the north German and Dutch plateau. The Dutch and the Germans called the Bashkirs "Northern Amurs", probably because the population was not aware of who the Bashkirs actually were or where they came from, therefore the usage of "

Amur The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China ( Inner Manchuria). The Amur proper is long ...

s" in the name may be an approximation; these battalions were considered as the liberators from the French, however modern Russian military sources do not credit the Bashkirs with these accomplishments. These regiments also served in Battle of Paris and the subsequent

occupation of France The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied ...

by the coalition forces.

Establishment of First Republic of Bashkortostan

After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the All-Bashkir Qoroltays (convention) concluded that it was necessary to form an independent Bashkir republic within Russia. As a result, on 15 November 1917, the Bashkir Regional (central) Shuro (Council), ruled by Äxmätzäki Wälidi Tıwğan proclaimed the establishment of the first independent Bashkir Republic in areas of predominantly Bashkir population: Orenburg, Perm, Samara, Ufa provinces and the autonomous entity Bashkurdistan on November 15, 1917. This effectively made Bashkortostan the first ever

democratic Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

republic in history.

Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

In March 1919, the

Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic The Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic ( ba, Башҡорт Автономиялы Совет Социалистик Республикаhы; russian: Башкирская Автономная Советская Социалистиче� ...

was formed based on agreements of the Russian Government.

World War II

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Bashkir soldiers served in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

to defend the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and fought against the Germans during the

German invasion of the Soviet Union Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

Second declaration of independence

On October 11, 1990, Declaration of State Sovereignty by the Supreme Council of the Republic was proclaimed. On March 31, 1992

signed a federal agreement on the delimitation of powers and areas of jurisdiction and the nature of contractual relations between the authorities of the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographic ...

and the authorities of the sovereign republics in its composition including the

Republic of Bashkortostan The Republic of Bashkortostan or Bashkortostan ( ba, Башҡортостан Республикаһы, Bashqortostan Respublikahy; russian: Республика Башкортостан, Respublika Bashkortostan),; russian: Респу́блик� ...

Genetics

Mitochondrial (

mtDNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondrion, mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mit ...

) analysis of Bashkir populations has shown that approximately 60% of lineages have West Eurasian or

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

an origins, while 40% have a Siberian or

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...

n origin. Genetic studies about

Y-DNA haplogroups In human genetics, a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup is a haplogroup defined by mutations in the non- recombining portions of DNA from the male-specific Y chromosome (called Y-DNA). Many people within a haplogroup share similar numbers of ...

have revealed that the dominant frequency for Bashkir males is the west Eurasian

haplogroup R1b Haplogroup R1b (R-M343), previously known as Hg1 and Eu18, is a human Y-chromosome haplogroup. It is the most frequently occurring paternal lineage in Western Europe, as well as some parts of Russia (e.g. the Bashkirs) and pockets of Central A ...

(R-M269 and R-M73) which is, on average, 47.6%. The second most dominant haplogroup is

haplogroup R1a Haplogroup R1a, or haplogroup R-M420, is a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup which is distributed in a large region in Eurasia, extending from Scandinavia and Central Europe to southern Siberia and South Asia. While R1a originated c. 22,00 ...

at an average frequency of 26,5%, and the third is haplogroup N1c at 17%. Haplogroups C, O, D1, were found at low incidences and are associated with Far Eastern Asians. East Asia haplogroup C2 * -M217 (xM48) is 0% to 17%. Haplogroup O-M75 0% to 6%.Лобов А. С. Структура генофонда субпопуляций башкир. Диссертация кандидата биологических наук. — Уфа, 2009.- 131 с.
In some specific regions and clans of ethnic Bashkir, north Asian and eastern Siberian haplogroup range from moderate to high frequencies, with clades or N3 ranging from 29 to 90%. Near Eastern haplogroups J2 and G2 range from 0–17%. Archeological mtDNA haplogroups show a similarity between

, whose homeland is around the

, and Bashkirs; analysis of haplogroup N3a4-Z1936 which is still found in very rare frequencies in modern Hungarians, and showed that Hungarian "sub-clade -B539/Y13850splits from its sister-branch N3a4-B535, frequent today among Northeast European Uralic speakers, 4000–5000 ya, which is in the time-frame of the proposed divergence of Ugric languages", while on N-B539/Y13850+ sub-clade level confirmed shared paternal lineages with modern Ugric (Mansis and Khantys via N-B540/L1034) and Turkic speakers (Bashkirs and Volga Tatars via N-B540/L1034 and N-B545/Y24365); these suggest that the Bashkirs are mixture of Turkic, Ugric and Indo-European contributions. According to Suslova, et al. (2012) the Bashkir population shared immune genes with both West and Eastern Eurasian populations. A Finno-Ugric origin of Bashkirs was unsupported by their findings. A 2015 study detected signals of admixture between Western and Eastern Eurasians in several Turkic-speaking ethnic groups, such as the Bashkir and the Kyrgyz. The admixture dates to the 13th century, according to an analysis of the identical-by-descent segments. According to the authors, the admixture thus occurred after the presumed migrations of the ancestral Kipchak Turks from the Irtysh and Ob regions in the 11th century. A genetic study published in ''Scientific Reports'' in November 2019 examined the remains of 29 Hungarian conquerors of the Carpathian Basin. The majority of them carried Y-DNA of West Eurasian origin, but at least 30% of East Eurasian & broadly Eurasian (N1a-M2004, N1a-Z1936, Q1a and R1a-Z2124). They carried a higher amount of West Eurasian paternal ancestry than West Eurasian maternal ancestry. Among modern populations, their paternal ancestry was the most similar to Bashkirs. Haplogroup I2a1a2b was observed among several conquerors of particularly high rank. This haplogroup is of European origin and is today particularly common among

South Slavs South Slavs are Slavic peoples who speak South Slavic languages and inhabit a contiguous region of Southeast Europe comprising the eastern Alps and the Balkan Peninsula. Geographically separated from the West Slavs and East Slavs by Austria, ...

. A wide variety of

phenotype In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological prop ...

s were observed, with several individuals having blond hair and blue eyes, and some had East Asian admixture. The study also analyzed three Hunnic samples from the Carpathian Basin in the 5th century, and these displayed genetic similarities to the conquerors. The Hungarian conquerors appeared to be a recently assembled heterogenous group incorporating both European, Asian and

Eurasian Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

elements. A group of Bashkirs from the Burzyansky and Abzelilovsky districts of the Republic of

in the

Volga-Ural Idel-Ural ( tt-Cyrl, Идел-Урал, translit=Idel-Üral, russian: Идель-Урал), literally Volga-Ural, is a historical region in Eastern Europe, in what is today Russia. The name literally means ''Volga- Urals'' in the Tatar language. ...

region who belong to the R1a subclade R1a-SUR51 are the closest kin to the Hungarian

Árpád dynasty The Árpád dynasty, consisted of the members of the royal House of Árpád (), also known as Árpáds ( hu, Árpádok, hr, Arpadovići). They were the ruling dynasty of the Principality of Hungary in the 9th and 10th centuries and of the Kingd ...

, from which they got separated 2000 years ago. A full genome study by Triska et al. 2017 found that the Bashkirs "''were strongly influenced by

Ancient North Eurasian In archaeogenetics, the term Ancient North Eurasian (generally abbreviated as ANE) is the name given to an ancestral component that represents a lineage ancestral to the people of the Mal'ta–Buret' culture and populations closely related to th ...

s, highlighting a mismatch of their cultural background and genetic ancestry and an intricacy of the historic interface between Turkic and Uralic populations''", and derive slightly more than 20% ancestry from an East Asian source.

Language

is a

Turkic language The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic languag ...

of the Kypchak group. It has three main dialects: Southern, Eastern and North-Western located in the territory of historical Bashkortostan. The Russian census of 2010 recorded 1,152,404 Bashkir speakers in the

. The Bashkir language is native to 1,133,339 Bashkirs (71.7% of the total number of Bashkirs, reporting mother tongue). The Tatar language was reported as the native tongue of 230,846 Bashkirs (14.6%), and Russian as the native tongue of 216,066 Bashkirs (13.7%). Most Bashkirs are

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Eu ...

in Bashkir and Russian. The first appearance of a "Bashkir" language is dated back to the

9th century AD The 9th century was a period from 801 ( DCCCI) through 900 ( CM) in accordance with the Julian calendar. The Carolingian Renaissance and the Viking raids occurred within this period. In the Middle East, the House of Wisdom was founded in Abbasi ...

, in the form of stone inscription using a Runic alphabet, most likely, this alphabet derives from the

Yenisei The Yenisey (russian: Енисе́й, ''Yeniséy''; mn, Горлог мөрөн, ''Gorlog mörön''; Buryat: Горлог мүрэн, ''Gorlog müren''; Tuvan: Улуг-Хем, ''Uluğ-Hem''; Khakas: Ким суғ, ''Kim suğ''; Ket: Ӄук ...

variant of the old Turkic runic script. This archaic version of a Bashkir language would be more or less a dialect of the proto-Kipchak language, however, since then, the Bashkir language has been through a series of vowel and consonant shifts, which are a result of a common literary history shared with the Idel Tatar language since the formation of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation, when the Oghuric Volga Bulgars started to receive Kipchak Turkic influence and became the Idel Tatars, most likely between the 10th and 11th centuries. The Nogai and

Karachay-Balkar Karachay-Balkar (, ), or Mountain Turkic (, ), is a Turkic language spoken by the Karachays and Balkars in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay–Cherkessia, European Russia, as well as by an immigrant population in Afyonkarahisar Province, Turkey ...

languages are most likely the closest-sounding extant languages to the extinct Proto-Kipchak Bashkir language. From an arc of time of roughly 900 years, the Bashkir language and Idel Tatar language, previously being completely different languages, "melded" into a series of dialects of a common "Volga Kipchak" or "Volga Turki" language. The Idel Tatars and Bashkirs are and always were two peoples of completely different origins, cultures and identities, but because of a shared common literary history in an arc of 900 years, the two languages ended up in a common language, spoken in different dialects with features depending on the people which spoke them. For example, the dialects spoken by Bashkirs, tend to have an accent which mostly resembles other Kipchak languages, like

Kyrgyz Kyrgyz, Kirghiz or Kyrgyzstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kyrgyzstan *Kyrgyz people * Kyrgyz national games *Kyrgyz language *Kyrgyz culture *Kyrgyz cuisine *Yenisei Kirghiz *The Fuyü Gïrgïs language in Northeastern China ...

Kazakh Kazakh, Qazaq or Kazakhstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kazakhstan *Kazakhs, an ethnic group *Kazakh language *The Kazakh Khanate * Kazakh cuisine * Qazakh Rayon, Azerbaijan *Qazax, Azerbaijan *Kazakh Uyezd, administrative dis ...

, Nogai, Karakalpak, and many other languages of the Kipchak sub-group, while the dialects spoken by Idel Tatars, have accents more resembling the original Oghuric Volga-Bulgar language spoken before the Cuman invasion. At the beginning of the 20th century, most notably during the

Russian revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...

, when

and

Tatarstan The Republic of Tatarstan (russian: Республика Татарстан, Respublika Tatarstan, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə tətɐrˈstan; tt-Cyrl, Татарстан Республикасы), or simply Tatarstan (russian: Татарстан, tt ...

became two different republics, the Bashkir and Idel Tatar language were defined as two separate literary languages, each of them based on the most distinct dialects of the Volga Kipchak language spoken by the Bashkir and Idel Tatar people. The Cyrillic alphabet is the official alphabet used to write Bashkir.

Demographics

The ethnic Bashkir population is estimated at 2 million people (2009

SIL Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensi ...

). The 2010 Russian census recorded 1,584,554 ethnic Bashkirs in

, of which 1,172,287 Bashkirs live in

(29.5% of the total population of the republic).

Culture

The Bashkirs traditionally practiced agriculture, cattle-rearing and bee-keeping. The half-nomadic Bashkirs travelled through either the mountains or the steppes, herding cattle. Wild-hive beekeeping is another attested tradition, which is practiced in the same

Burzyansky District Burzyansky District (russian: Бурзя́нский райо́н; ba, Бөрйән районы) is an administrativeConstitution of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Article 64 and municipalLaw #126-z district (raion), one of the fifty-four ...

near the Kapova Cave. Traditional Bashkir dish bishbarmaq is prepared from boiled meat and halma (a type of noodle), sprinkled with herbs and flavored with onions and some qorot (young dry cheese). Dairy is another notable feature of the

Bashkir cuisine Bashkir cuisine ( ba , башҡорт аш-һыуы, başqort aş-hıwı(romanized)) is the traditional cuisine of the Bashkirs. Their way of life, and the predominance of cattle breeding contributed culture, traditions, and cuisine of the Bashk ...

: dishes are often served with dairy products, and few celebrations occur without the serving of qorot or qaymaq (sour cream). Baschkirisches Stickmuster Swastika Linksdrehung

Baschkirisches Stickmuster Swastika Linksdrehung

Epic poems and mythology

The Bashkirs have a rich

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, r ...

referencing the genesis and early history of the people. Through the works of their oral folk art, the views of ancient Bashkirs on

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...

, their wisdom, psychology, and moral ideals are preserved. The genre composition of the Bashkir oral tradition is diverse: epic and fairy tales,

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...

s and traditions, riddles, songs (ritual, epic or lyrical), etc. The Bashkir poems, like the epic creations of other peoples, find origin in the ancient

Turkic mythology Turkic mythology refers to myths and legends told by the Turkic people. It features Tengrist and Shamanist strata of belief along with many other social and cultural constructs related to the nomadic and warrior way of life of Turkic and Mongo ...

, in fact the Bashkir epic tale culture can be considered a more developed and expanded version of old Turkic epic culture. Majority of the poems of Bashkir mythology have been written down and published as books at the beginning of the 20th century, these poems compose a great part of the literature of the Bashkir people and are important examples of further-developed Turkic culture. Some of these poems became important on a continental level, for example the epic poem the "

Ural Batyr ''Ural-batyr'' or ''Ural-batır'' ( ba, Урал батыр, pronounced , from Ural + Turkic ''batır'' 'hero, brave man') is the most famous ''kubair'' (epic poem) of the Bashkirs. It is a telling of heroic deeds and legendary creatures, the f ...

", which tells the tale of the legendary hero Ural, is the origin of the name of the

, the natural border between

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

. Other poems constitute a great part of the Bashkir national identity, other tales apart from the Ural Batyr include " Aqbuzat", "Qara yurga", "Aqhaq qola", "Kongur buga", "Uzaq Tuzaq", and many others.

The Ural-Batyr and its impact

The poem ''

'' is an epic which includes deities of the Tengrist pantheon. It takes basis on the pre-Islamic Bashkir conception of the world. In the ''Ural Batyr'' the world is three-tiered. It includes a heavenly, earthly and undergroundly (underwater) trinity: in the sky, the heavenly king Samrau resides, his wives are the Sun and the Moon, he has two daughters,

and Aikhylu, who are incarnated either in the form of birds or beautiful girls. In the ''Ural Batyr'', Umay is incarnated into a

swan Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometim ...

and later assumes the aspect of a beautiful girl as the story proceeds. People live on the earth, the best of whom pledge honor and respect to the existence of nature. The third world is the underground world, where the ''Devas'' (also singular ''Deva'' or ''Div'') live, incarnated as a snake, the incarnation of the dark forces, who live underground. Through the actions and divisions of the world related in the Ural Batyr, the Bashkirs express a manichaean view of good and evil. The legendary hero Ural, possessing titanic power, overcoming incredible difficulties, destroys the ''deva'', and obtains "living water" (the idea of water in nature, in the pre-Islamic Bashkir pantheon of the

, is considered a spirit of life). Ural thus obtains the "living water" in order to defeat death in the name of the eternal existence of man and nature. Ural does not drink the "living water" to live eternally. Instead, he decides to sparkle it around himself, to die and donate eternity to the world, the withered earth turning green. Ural dies and from his body emerge the

; the name of the Ural mountain range comes from this poem.

Music

The Bashkirs have a style of overtone singing called ''özläü'' (sometimes spelled ''uzlyau''; Bashkort Өзләү), which has nearly died out. In addition, Bashkorts also sing ''uzlyau'' while playing the kurai, a national instrument. This technique of vocalizing into a flute can also be found in

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

as far west as the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

and

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

Religion

Mosque in the Bashkir village Yakhino (1910)

In the pre-Islamic period the Bashkirs practised

animism Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, Soul, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct Spirituality, spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—Animal, animals, Plant, plants, Ro ...

and

shamanism Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a Spirit world (Spiritualism), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as tranc ...

, and incorporated the cosmogony of

. Bashkirs began converting to Islam in the 10th century. Arab traveler

Ibn Fadlan Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Rāšid ibn Ḥammād, ( ar, أحمد بن فضلان بن العباس بن راشد بن حماد; ) commonly known as Ahmad ibn Fadlan, was a 10th-century Muslim traveler, famous for his account of hi ...

in 921 met some of the Bashkirs, who were already Muslims. The final assertion of Islam among the Bashkirs occurred in the 1320s and 1330s during the

period. The

Mausoleum of Hussein-Bek A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be con ...

, burial place of the first Imam of historical Bashkortostan, is preserved in contemporary Bashkortostan. The mausoleum is a 14th-century building. Catherine the Great established the Orenburg Mohammedan Spiritual Assembly in 1788 in

Ufa Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya and Ufa rivers, in the centre-north of Bashkortostan, on hills forming the ...

, which was the first Muslim administrative center in Russia. Religious revival among the Bashkirs began in the early 1990s. According to Talgat Tadzhuddin there were more than 1,000 mosques in Bashkortostan in 2010.Интерфакс. Говорить о притеснении ислама в России кощунственно, считает Талгат Таджуддин
//

Interfax Interfax (russian: Интерфакс) is a Russian news agency. The agency is owned by Interfax News Agency joint-stock company and is headquartered in Moscow. History As the first non-governmental channel of political and economic informati ...

, 17 December 2010 The Bashkirs are predominantly

of the

Notable Bashkirs

* Ildar Abdrazakov, bass opera singer *

Salawat Yulayev Salawat Yulayev ( ba, Салауат Юлай-улы; russian: Салават Юлаев; 16 June 1756 – 8 October 1800) was a Bashkir national hero who participated in Pugachev's Rebellion, warrior, poet and singer. Biography Salawat Yul ...

, Bashkir national hero * Minigali Shaymuratov, participant in the Civil War for the Red Army and Major General of the Bashkir cavalry in the Great Patriotic War. posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia. * Zeki Velidi Togan, historian, Turkologist and leader of the Bashkir national movement of the early 20th century *

Miftahetdin Akmulla Miftakhetdin Kamaletdinovich Kamaletdinov; ba, Камалетдинов Мифтахетдин Камалетдин улы; kk, Мифтахетдин Камалетдинұлы Мұхамедияров, Miftahetdin Kamaletdinuly Muhamediyarov , ...

, Bashkir poet and philosopher, famous for his patriotic chants and his philosophical publications * Shaikhzada Babich, Bashkir poet, writer and playwright. Member of the Bashkir national liberation movement, one of the members of the Bashkir government (1917–1919) *

Shagit Hudayberdin Shagit Hudayberdin ( ba, Hozaybirzin Şehit Ahmet ulı; born Hudaiberdino, 9 October 1896 – 21 December 1924) was a Bashkir revolutionary active in the Russian Revolution. From 23 November 1921 to March 1922 he was the Responsible Secretary ...

, Communist revolutionary *

Tagir Kusimov Tagir Taipovich Kusimov (russian: Таги́р Таи́пович Куси́мов, ba, Таһир Таип улы Кусимов; 14 February 1909 – 10 May 1986) was a Soviet Union, Soviet military leader of Bashkir people, Bashkir origin. ...

, Soviet military leader *

Mustai Karim Mustai Karim ( ba, Мостай Кәрим; born Mustafa Safich Karimov, ba, Мостафа Сафа улы Кәримов; 20 October 1919 – 21 September 2005), was a Bashkir Soviet poet, writer and playwright. He was named People's Poet of t ...

, Bashkir Soviet poet, writer and playwright. He was named People's Poet of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1963), Hero of Socialist Labour (1979), and winner of the Lenin Prize (1984) and the State Prize of the USSR (1972) *

Zagir Ismagilov Zagir Garipovich Ismagilov (russian: link=no, Загир Гарипович Исмагилов ; ba, Заһир Ғарип улы Исмәғилев; January 8, 1917 — May 30, 2003) was a Soviet Bashkir composer and pedagogue. He was grante ...

, composer and educator *

Rudolf Nureyev Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev ( ; Tatar/ Bashkir: Рудольф Хәмит улы Нуриев; rus, Рудо́льф Хаме́тович Нуре́ев, p=rʊˈdolʲf xɐˈmʲetəvʲɪtɕ nʊˈrʲejɪf; 17 March 19386 January 1993) was a Soviet ...

, ballet dancer and choreographer * Murtaza Rakhimov, first president of Bashkortostan * Lyasan Utiasheva, (Bashkir mother) TV show host, socialite and former rhythmic gymnast *

Alina Ibragimova Alina Rinatovna Ibragimova (russian: link=no, Али́на Рина́товна Ибраги́мова; ba, Алина Ринат ҡыҙы Ибраһимова born 28 September 1985) is a Russian-British violinist. Early life and education ...

, violinist * Morgenshtern, rapper and internet personality

Notes

References

External links

Photos of Bashkirs and their life in funds of the Library of Congress

Photos of Bashkirs and their life in funds of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bashkir Bashkir people History of Ural Ethnic groups in Russia Muslim communities of Russia Turkic peoples of Asia Turkic peoples of Europe Indigenous peoples of Europe Modern nomads Nomadic groups in Eurasia

Ethnonym

History

Origins

Middle Ages

Early modern period

Bashkir rebellions of the 17th–18th centuries

Napoleonic Wars

Establishment of First Republic of Bashkortostan

Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

World War II

Second declaration of independence

Genetics

Language

Demographics

Culture

Epic poems and mythology

The Ural-Batyr and its impact

Music

Religion

Notable Bashkirs

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links