Bashkirs

Bashkirs

Башҡорттар (Bashkir)
Bashkirs of Baymak in traditional dress
Total population
approx. 2 million[1]
Regions with significant populations
Russia  1,584,554[2] •  Bashkortostan 1,268,806
Kazakhstan	41,000[3]
Uzbekistan	58,500[4]
Ukraine	4,253[5]
Belarus	1,200[citation needed]
Turkmenistan	8,000[6]
Moldova	610[7]
Latvia	177-205[8][9]
Lithuania	400[citation needed]
Estonia	112[10]
Kyrgyzstan	1,111[11]
Georgia	379[12]
Azerbaijan	533[13]
Armenia	145[14]
Tajikistan	8,400[citation needed]
Languages
Bashkir, Russian, Tatar[15]
Religion
Predominantly Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Volga Tatars, Kazakhs,[16] Nogais,[17][18] Crimean Tatars,[19] Hungarians[20]

The Bashkirs or Bashkurts (

Most Bashkirs speak the

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

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The etymology and indeed meaning of the

endonym

Bashqurt has been for a long time under discussion.

The name Bashqurt has been known since the 10th century, most researchers etymologize the name as "main/leader/head" (bash) + "wolf" (qurt being an archaic name for the animal), thus "wolf-leader" (from the totemic hero ancestor).

This prevailing

• In 1847, the historian V. S. Yumatov speculated the original meaning to have been "beekeeper or beemaster".^[22]
• oghurs". Since modern sh corresponds to l in Bulgar language. Therefore, Dunlop proposes the ethnonyms Bashqurt and Bulgar are equivalent.^[23] Zeki Velidi Togan also suggested this.^[24]
• Historian and
  ethnologist A. E. Alektorov has suggested that Bashqurt meant "distinct nation".^{[citation needed}
  ]
• compound word meaning "wolf-children" or "descendants
  of heroes", on the basis of the words bacha "descendant, child" and gurd "hero" or gurg "wolf".
• Historian and
  corruption of the name of the Bušxk' (or Bwsxk), a tribe of Scythia that lived in the area now known as Bashkortostan.^[25]
• According to the orientalist Douglas Morton Dunlop, the ethnonym Bashqort was derived from beshgur (or bashgur) which means "five tribes" in the modern Bashkir language.^{[citation needed]}
• Ethnologist N. V. Bikbulatov suggested that the term originated from the name of a legendary
  Yayıq
  river.
• Ethnologist R. G. Kuzeev derived the ethnonym from the morphemes bash "leader, head" and qurt "tribe".^{[citation needed]}
• Historian and
  Old Hungarian Majer).^[26]

Origins

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The Bashkir group was formed by

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Bashkirs" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The first report about Bashkirs may have been in the Chinese chronicle Book of Sui (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 Bǐgān ← Middle Chinese ZS: *piɪ^X-kɑn) (in Book of Wei) were a scribal error for 比千 (Bĭqiān ← *piɪ^Xt͡sʰen) (in History of the Northern Dynasties), the latter reading being favored by Chinese scholar Rui Chuanming.^[27]

In the 7th century, Bashkirs were also mentioned in the Armenian

However, these mentions may refer to the precursors of the

In the 9th century, during the migration of the Bashkirs to the Volga-Ural region, the first

By 1226, Genghis Khan 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 brother of Batu-Khan, Sheibani, received the Bashkir lands east of the Ural Mountains.

After the disintegration of the Mongol Empire, the Bashkirs were divided among the Nogai Horde, the Khanate of Kazan and the Khanate of Sibir, founded in the 15th century.

Early modern period

In the middle of the 16th century, Bashkirs were gradually conquered by the Tsardom of Russia.^[28] Primary documents pertaining to the Bashkirs during this period have been lost, although some are mentioned in the shezhere (family trees) of the Bashkir.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[28]

In the late 16th and early 19th centuries, Bashkirs occupied the territory from the river

]

Bashkir rebellions of the 17th–18th centuries

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The Bashkirs participated in the

In 1774, the Bashkirs, under the leadership of Salavat Yulayev, supported Pugachev's Rebellion. In 1786, the Bashkirs achieved tax-free status; and in 1798 Russia formed an irregular Bashkir army from among them.

Napoleonic Wars

During the

After the

In March 1919, the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed based on agreements of the Russian Government.

World War II

During World War II, Bashkir soldiers served in the Red Army to defend the Soviet Union and fought against the Germans during the German invasion of the Soviet Union.^[32]

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

Bashkir tribes

North-eastern group: Aile, Badrak, Bikatin, Bishul, Duvan, Kalmak, Katai, Kossy, Kuvakan, Kudey, Kumruk, Murzy, Salyut, Syzgy, Synryan, Syrzy, Tabyn, Tersyak, Upey.^{[citation needed]}

Northwest group: Baylar, Balyksy, Bulyar, Gaina, Gere, Duvaney, Elan, Adyak, Adey, Irekte, Kanly, Karshin, Kirghiz, Taz, Tanyp, Uvanysh, Un, Uran, Jurmi.^{[citation needed]}

South-eastern group: Burzyan, Kypsak, Tamyan, Tangaur, Usergan, Jurmaty.^{[citation needed]}

Southwest group: Ming.^{[citation needed]}

Genetics

Haplogroups

Maternal haplogroups

Mitochondrial (

In some specific regions and clans of ethnic Bashkir, the North Asian and Eastern Siberian haplogroup (N3) range from moderate to high frequencies (29 to 90%).[37]

Archaeogenetic analyses show a similarity between historical Hungarians, whose homeland is around the Ural Mountains, and Bashkirs; analysis of haplogroup N3a4-Z1936 which is still found in very rare frequencies in modern Hungarians, and showed that Hungarian "sub-clade [N-B539/Y13850] splits 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.^[38]

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 (60%) carried Y-DNA of West Eurasian origin, but at least 40% of East 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 modern 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. A wide variety of phenotypes were observed, with several individuals having blond hair and blue eyes, but also East Asian traits. 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 elements.^[39][40] A group of Bashkirs from the Burzyansky and Abzelilovsky districts of the Republic of Bashkortostan in the Volga-Ural region who belong to the R1a subclade R1a-SUR51 are the closest kin to the Hungarian Árpád dynasty, from which they got separated 2000 years ago.^[41][42]

Autosomal DNA

According to Suslova, et al. (2012) the Bashkir population shared immune genes with both West and Eastern Eurasian populations.^[43]

A genetic study by Yunusbayev et al. 2015 found that the Bashkirs display a significant amount of

A full genome study by Triska et al. 2017 found that the Bashkir genepool is best described as a multi-layered amalgamation of Turkic, Uralic, and Indo-European contributions. They further argue that "this disparity between cultural and genetic affinities of Tatar and Bashkir can be attributed to a phenomenon of cultural dominance: the population ancestral to Bashkir adopted the Turkic language during Turkic expansion from the east (language replacement event)".^[47]

A genetic analysis on genetic data of Hun, Avar and Magyar conqueror samples by Maroti et al. 2022, revealed high genetic affinity between Magyar conquerors and modern day Bashkirs. They can be modeled as ~50% Mansi-like, ~35% Sarmatian-like, and ~15% Hun/Xiongnu-like. The admixture event is suggested to have taken place in the Southern Ural region at 643–431 BC.^[48]

Language

The

The first appearance of a "Bashkir" language is dated back to the 9th century AD, in the form of stone inscription using a Runic alphabet, most likely, this alphabet derives from the Yenisei 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 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

For example, the dialects spoken by Bashkirs, tend to have an accent which mostly resembles other Kipchak languages, like Kyrgyz, Kazakh, 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

The Cyrillic alphabet is the official alphabet used to write Bashkir.

Demographics

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

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

Epic poems and mythology

The Bashkirs have a rich folklore referencing the genesis and early history of the people. Through the works of their oral folk art, the views of ancient Bashkirs on nature, their wisdom, psychology, and moral ideals are preserved. The genre composition of the Bashkir oral tradition is diverse: epic and fairy tales, legends 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, 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", which tells the tale of the legendary hero Ural, is the origin of the name of the Ural mountains. 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", and "Uzaq Tuzaq".

The Ural-Batyr and its impact

The poem

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 Turkic mythology, 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 Ural Mountains; 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;

kurai, a national instrument. This technique of vocalizing into a flute can also be found in folk music as far west as the Balkans and Hungary

.

Mentality

The Bashkirs give rise to the following essential characteristics of the Bashkir mentality: philosophical, poetic thinking, hospitality and courage, serenity, simplicity, modesty, tolerance, pride, a keen sense of justice and competitiveness. The fundamental value of the Bashkir mentality is humanism, it is this idea that runs through the entire axis of the culture of the people.^[citation needed]

Religion

In the pre-Islamic period the Bashkirs practised animism and shamanism, and incorporated the cosmogony of Tengrism.^[49][50]

Bashkirs began converting to Islam in the 10th century.

Ibn Fadlan in 921 met some of the Bashkirs, who were already Muslims.^[52] The final assertion of Islam among the Bashkirs occurred in the 1320s and 1330s during the Golden Horde period. The Mausoleum of Hussein-Bek, 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

, which was the first Muslim administrative center in Russia.

Religious revival among the Bashkirs began in the early 1990s.[53] According to Talgat Tadzhuddin there were more than 1,000 mosques in Bashkortostan in 2010.^[54]

The Bashkirs are predominantly

Hanafi madhhab.^[55]

Notable Bashkirs

• See List of Bashkirs

See also

• Bashkir horse
• Karayakupovo culture
• Bashkir mentality
• National Liberation Struggle of the Bashkir People

Notes

1. ^ These sources may have confused Bashkirs with Hungarians, since the area of Modern Bashkortostan is often referred as "Magna Hungaria", the zone where the Magyar tribes 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

References

Further reading

• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bashkirs" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 466.
• Rudenko, S. I. (2006). Башкиры: историко-этнографические очерки [The Bashkirs: historical and ethnographic essays] (in Russian). Ufa: Kitap.
  ISBN 5-295-03899-8
  .
• Kuzeev, R. G. (2010). Происхождение башкирского народа. Этнический состав, история расселения [The origin of the Bashkir people. Ethnic composition, history of settlement] (in Russian). Ufa: DizainPoligrafServis.
  ISBN 978-5-94423-212-0
  .
• Bermisheva, M. A.; Ivanov, V. A.; Kinyabaeva, G. A.; et al. (2011). Антропология башкир [Anthropology of the Bashkirs] (in Russian). Saint-Petersburg: Aleteya.
  ISBN 978-5-91419-386-4
  .
• Kulsharipov, M. M., ed. (2009). История башкирского народа: в 7 т. Т. I [History of the Bashkir people: 7 vol. Vol. I] (in Russian). Moscow: Nauka.
  ISBN 978-5-02-037010-4. Archived from the original
  on 2017-03-06. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
• Kulsharipov, M. M., ed. (2012). История башкирского народа: в 7 т. Т. II [History of the Bashkir people: 7 vol. Vol. II] (in Russian). Ufa: Gilem.
  ISBN 978-5-91608-100-8. Archived from the original
  on 2017-03-21. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
• Kulsharipov, M. M., ed. (2011). История башкирского народа: в 7 т. Т. III [History of the Bashkir people: 7 vol. Vol. III] (in Russian). Ufa: Gilem.
  ISBN 978-5-7501-1301-9
  .
• Kulsharipov, M. M., ed. (2011). История башкирского народа: в 7 т. Т. IV [History of the Bashkir people: 7 vol. Vol. IV] (in Russian). Moscow: Nauka.
  ISBN 978-5-02-038276-3
  .
• Kulsharipov, M. M., ed. (2009). История башкирского народа: в 7 т. Т. V [History of the Bashkir people: 7 vol. Vol. V] (in Russian). Ufa: Gilem.
  ISBN 978-5-7501-1199-2. Archived from the original
  on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
• Kulsharipov, M. M., ed. (2009). История башкирского народа: в 7 т. Т. VI [History of the Bashkir people: 7 vol. Vol. VI] (in Russian). Moscow: Nauka.
  ISBN 978-5-02-036494-3. Archived from the original
  on 2017-01-15. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
• Kulsharipov, M. M., ed. (2012). История башкирского народа: в 7 т. Т. VII [History of the Bashkir people: 7 vol. Vol. VII] (in Russian). Ufa: Gilem.
  ISBN 978-5-4466-0040-3. Archived from the original
  on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
• Asfandiyarov, A. Z., ed. (2013). Военная история башкир: энциклопедия [Military history of Bashkirs: Encyclopedia] (in Russian). Ufa: Bashkir encyclopedia.
  ISBN 978-5-8818-5076-0
  .
• Kuzeev, R. G.; Danilko, E. S., eds. (2015). Башкиры [The Bashkirs] (in Russian). Moscow: Nauka.
  ISBN 978-5-02-039182-6
  .
• Ilgamov, M.A., ed. (2015–2016). Башкирская энциклопедия: в 7 томах [Bashkir encyclopedia: 7 vol.] (in Russian). Ufa: Bashkir encyclopedia.
  ISBN 978-5-88185-306-8. Archived from the original
  on 2020-01-22. Retrieved 2017-02-19.
• Karagöz, Erkan (2021). İdil-Ural (Tatar ve Başkurt) sihirli masalları üzerine karşılaştırmalı motif çalışması: Aktarma – motif tespiti (motif - İndex of Folk-Literature’a göre) – motif dizini (in Turkish). Vol. 1. Ankara: Atatürk Kültür Merkezi Başkanlığı. pp. 587–950 (Bashkir tales).
  ISBN 978-975-17-4742-6
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bashkir people.

• 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) (archived 18 November 2016)