Bashkirs
Encyclopedia
The Bashkirs are a Turkic people indigenous to Bashkortostan
extending on both parts of the Ural mountains
, on the place where Europe
meets Asia
. Groups of Bashkirs also live in the republic of Tatarstan, Perm Krai
, Chelyabinsk
, Orenburg
, Tyumen
, Sverdlovsk
, Kurgan
, Samara
and Saratov Oblast
s of Russia
, as well as in Kazakhstan
, Ukraine
, Uzbekistan
and other countries. They speak the Kypchak
-based Bashkir language
. The Bashkirs are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi
madhhab
.
is defined by the presence of SNP
marker M73. It has been found at generally low frequencies throughout central Eurasia
, but has been found with relatively high frequency among particular populations there including the Bashkirs in Bashkortostan
(62/471 = 13.2%), 44 of these being found among the 80 tested Bashkirs of the Abzelilovsky District
in the Republic of Bashkortostan
(55.0%).)
Ibn-Ruste, a contemporary of Al Balkhi, observed that Bashkirs were an independent people, occupying territories on both sides of the Ural mountain ridge between Volga, Kama
, Tobol and upstream of the Yaik river.
Achmed ibn-Fadlan visited Volga Bulgaria as a staff member in the embassy of Calif of Baghdad in 922CE. He described them as a belligerent Turk nation. Ibn-Fadlane described the Bashkirs as nature worshipers, identifying their deities as various forces of nature, birds and animals. He also described the religion of acculturated Bashkirs as a variant of Tengrism, the national religion of the Mongol empire, including 12 'gods' and naming Tengri – lord of the endless blue sky.
The first European sources to mention the Bashkirs are the works of Joannes de Plano Carpini and William of Rubruquis
. These travelers, encountering Bashkir tribes in the upper parts of the Ural River
, called them Pascatir
or Bastarci, and asserted that they spoke the same language as the Hungarians.
During the tenth century (CE) Islam
spread among the Bashkirs. By the fourteenth century Islam had become the dominant religious force in Bashkir society.
By 1236, lands of Bashkortostan were incorporated into the empire of Genghis Khan.
By the XII-XIV centuries (CE) all of Bashkortostan was in a of the Golden Horde. The brother of Batu-Khan, Sheibani, received the Bashkir lands to the east of the Ural Mountains, at that time inhabited by the ancestors of contemporary Kurgan Bashkirs.
During the period of Mongolian-Tatar dominion the features of Kipchacks a part of Bashkirs. Under the Golden Horde, separate Mongolian elements. During the XVII-XVIII centuries (CE) – a part of the Kalmyks and Middle Asian Sarts During the XVI-XX centuries (CE) various groups of Tatars.
After the breakup of the Mongol Empire, Bashkirs appeared separated between Nogay horde and Kazan and Siberian khanates, founded in the XV century. Trans-Ural Bashkirs subordinated to Siberian khanate.
In the late XVI and early XIX centuries (CE) Bashkirs occupied the territory from the left bank of the Volga on the south-west to the riverheads of Tobol in the east, from the river Sylva in the north, to the middle stream of the Yaik in the south, in the Middle and Southern Urals, in Cis-Urals, including Volga territory and Trans-Urals.
In the middle of the XVI century (CE) Bashkirs joined the Russian state. Previously they formed parts of the Nogayskaya, Kazan, Siberian, and partly, Astrakhan khanates. Charters of Ivan the Terrible to Bashkir tribes became the basis of their contractual relationship with the tsar’s government. Primary documents pertaining to the Bashkirs during this period have been lost, some are mentioned in the (shezhere)the family trees of the Bashkir.
The Bashkirs rebelled in 1662-64 and 1675–83 and 1705-11. In 1676, the Bashkirs rebelled under a leader named Seyid Sadir or 'Seit Sadurov', and the Russian army
had great difficulties in ending the rebellion. The Bashkirs rose again in 1707, under Aldar and Kûsyom, on account of ill-treatment by the Russian officials.
1735 War: The third insurrection occurred in 1735, at the time of the foundation of Orenburg
, and it lasted for six years. From at least the time of Peter the Great there had been talk of pushing southeast toward Persia and India. Ivan Kirillov drew up a plan to build a fort to be called Orenburg at Orsk
at the confluence of the Or River
and the Ural River
southeast of the Urals where the Bashkir, Kalmyk and Kazakh lands join. Work was started at Orsk in 1735, but by 1743 'Orenburg
' was moved about 250 km west to its present location. The next planned step was to build a fort on the Aral Sea
. This would involve crossing the Bashkir country and then the lands of the Kazakh Lesser Horde, some of whom had recently offered a nominal submission. Kirillov's plan was approved on May 1, 1734 and he was placed in command. He was warned that this would provoke a Bashkir rebellion, but the warnings were ignored. He left Ufa with 2,500 men in 1735 and fighting started on the first of July. The war consisted of many small raids and complex troop movements, so it cannot be easily summarized. For example: In the spring of 1736 Kirillov burned 200 villages, killed 700 in battle and executed 158. An expedition of 773 men left Orenburg in November and lost 500 from cold and hunger. During, at Seiantusa the Bashkir planned to massacre sleeping Russian. The ambush failed. One thousand villagers, including women and children, were put to the sword and another 500 driven into a storehouse and burned to death. Raiding parties then went out and burned about 50 villages and killed another 2,000. Eight thousand Bashkirs attacked a Russian camp and killed 158, losing 40 killed and three prisoners who were promptly hanged. Rebellious Bashkirs raided loyal Bashkirs. Leaders who submitted were sometimes fined one horse per household and sometimes hanged. And so on. Bashkirs fought on both sides (40% of 'Russian' troops in 1740). Numerous leaders rose and fell. The oddest was Karasakal or Blackbeard who pretended to have 82,000 men on the Aral Sea and had his followers proclaim him 'Khan of Bashkiria'. His nose had been partly cut off and he had only one ear. Such mutilations are standard Imperial punishments. The Kazakhs of the Little Horde intervened on the Russian side, then switched to the Bashkirs and then withdrew. Kirillov died of disease during the war and there were several changes of commander. All this was at the time of Empress Elizabeth of Russia and the Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739).
Although the history of the 1735 Bashkir War cannot be easily summarized, its results can be.
Later, 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. Residual land ownership disputes continued.
-based Bashkir language
. Most Bashkirs also speak Russian: some as a second language, and some as their first language, regarding Bashkir as a language spoken by their grandparents.
. The Bashkirs are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi
madhhab
.
s, herding cattle.
Bashkir national dishes include a kind of gruel
called öyrä and a cheese
named qorot.
Wild-hive beekeeping can be named as a separate component of the most ancient culture which is practiced in the same Burzyansky District
near to the Shulgan-Tash cave.
The Bashkir experts relate the ancient epic legends «Ural-batyr
» and «Akbuzat» to the most original and valuable national monuments. Their plot concerns struggle of heroes against demonic forces. The peculiarity of them is that events and ceremonies described there can be addressed to a specific geographical and historical object –the Shulgan-Tash cave and its vicinities.
Bashkortostan
The Republic of Bashkortostan , also known as Bashkiria is a federal subject of Russia . It is located between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains. Its capital is the city of Ufa...
extending on both parts of the Ural mountains
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
, on the place where Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
meets Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. Groups of Bashkirs also live in the republic of Tatarstan, Perm Krai
Perm Krai
Perm Krai is a federal subject of Russia that came into existence on December 1, 2005 as a result of the 2004 referendum on the merger of Perm Oblast and Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug. The city of Perm became the administrative center of the new federal subject...
, Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk Oblast
-External links:*...
, Orenburg
Orenburg Oblast
Orenburg Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Orenburg. From 1938 to 1957, it bore the name Chkalov Oblast in honor of Valery Chkalov...
, Tyumen
Tyumen Oblast
Tyumen Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Tyumen. The oblast has administrative jurisdiction over two autonomous okrugs—Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Tyumen is the largest city, with over half a million inhabitants...
, Sverdlovsk
Sverdlovsk Oblast
Sverdlovsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia located in the Urals Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Yekaterinburg formerly known as Sverdlovsk. Population: -Geography:...
, Kurgan
Kurgan Oblast
Kurgan Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kurgan. Population: -History:The oblast was formed on February 6, 1943, just when the Soviet Army decisively defeated Hitler's forces near Stalingrad...
, Samara
Samara Oblast
Samara Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Samara. Population: In 1936–1990, it was known as Kuybyshev Oblast , after the Soviet name of Samara .-Demographics:Population:...
and Saratov Oblast
Saratov Oblast
Saratov Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , located in the Volga Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Saratov. Population: -Demographics:Population:...
s of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, as well as in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
and other countries. They speak the Kypchak
Kypchak languages
The Kypchak languages , are a major branch of the Turkic language family spoken by more than 12 million people in an area spanning from Lithuania to China....
-based Bashkir language
Bashkir language
The Bashkir language is a Turkic language, and is the language of the Bashkirs. It is co-official with Russian in the Republic of Bashkortostan.-Speakers:...
. The Bashkirs are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi
Hanafi
The Hanafi school is one of the four Madhhab in jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. The Hanafi madhhab is named after the Persian scholar Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit , a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani...
madhhab
Madhhab
is a Muslim school of law or fiqh . In the first 150 years of Islam, there were many such "schools". In fact, several of the Sahābah, or contemporary "companions" of Muhammad, are credited with founding their own...
.
Etymology
There is no universally accepted etymology of the word "Bashqort". Several suggested theories are:- Ethnologist R. G. Kuzeev defines ethnonym as "bash" — "main, head" and "qort" — " clan, tribe".
- According to theory of XVIII century ethnographers (V. N. TatishchevVasily TatishchevVasily Nikitich Tatishchev was a prominent Russian statesman, and ethnographer, best remembered as the author of the first full-scale Russian history...
, P. I. Richkov, Johann Gottlieb GeorgiJohann Gottlieb GeorgiJohann Gottlieb Georgi was a German geographer and chemist.Georgi was professor of chemistry at St Petersburg. He accompanied both Johann Peter Falck and Peter Simon Pallas on their respective journeys through Siberia. Gergi was particularly interested in Lake Baikal...
) the word "Bashqort" means "wolf-leader of the pack" (bash — "main",qort — "wolf"). - In 1847 historian V. S. Yumatov suggested meaning of this ethnonym as "beekeeper, beemaster".
- Another Russian historian and ethnologist A. E. Alektorov in 1885 in his theory suggested that "Bashqort" means "distinct nation"
- Famous Turkologist N. A. BaskakovNikolay BaskakovNikolay Aleksandrovich Baskakov was a Russian Turkologist, linguist, and ethnologist. He created a systematization model of the Turkic language family , and studied Turkic-Russian contacts in the 10-11th centuries CE. During 64 years of scientific work , N.A.Baskakov published almost 640 works...
believed that the word "Bashqort" consists of two parts: "badz(a)" - brother-in-law" and "(o)gur" and means "UgricsFinno-Ugric peoplesThe Finno-Ugric peoples are any of several peoples of Europe who speak languages of the proposed Finno-Ugric language family, such as the Finns, Estonians, Mordvins, and Hungarians...
' brother-in-law". - Ethnologist N. V. Bikbulatov's theory states that ethnonym originates from the name of legendary Khazar warlord Bashgird, who was dwelling with two thousands of his warriors in the area of the Jayıq riverUral RiverThe Ural or Jayıq/Zhayyq , known as Yaik before 1775, is a river flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan. It arises in the southern Ural Mountains and ends at the Caspian Sea. Its total length is 1,511 mi making it the third longest river in Europe after the Volga and the Danube...
. - According to Douglas Morton DunlopDouglas Morton DunlopDouglas Morton Dunlop 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 Eric Kahle...
the word "Bashqort" comes from "beshgur, bashgur" which means "five tribes, five Ugrics". Since "SH" in the modern language complies with "L" in Bulgar ethnonyms "Bashqort(bashgur)" and "Bulgar" are equivalent. - Historian and linguist András Róna-TasAndrás Róna-TasAndrás Róna-Tas is a Hungarian historian and linguist. He was born in 1931 in Budapest. Róna-Tas studied under such preeminent professors as Gyula Ortutay, István Tálasi, Gyula Németh and Lajos Ligeti and received a degree in folklore and eastern linguistics In 1957 and 1958 he conducted...
believes the ethonym "Bashkir", is a Bulgar TurkicTurkic languagesThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
reflex of the HungarianHungarian languageHungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
self-denomination "Magyar" (Old Hungarian: "Majer")
Ethnogenesis
Ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs are extremely complicated. Southern Urals and adjacent steppes, where there was shaping people, has long been an arena of active interaction between different tribes and cultures. The literature on the ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs, you can see that there are three hypotheses about the origin of the Bashkir people:- TurkianTurkic peoplesThe Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
theory, - UgrianFinno-Ugric peoplesThe Finno-Ugric peoples are any of several peoples of Europe who speak languages of the proposed Finno-Ugric language family, such as the Finns, Estonians, Mordvins, and Hungarians...
theory, - IranianAryanAryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
theory.
Genetics
R1b1a1 (2011 name)Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA)
The point of origin of R1b is thought to lie in Eurasia, most likely in Western Asia. T. Karafet et al. estimated the age of R1, the parent of R1b, as 18,500 years before present....
is defined by the presence of SNP
SNP
-Companies:* Standard & Poor's, a financial ratings company* Sinopec's , New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol-Science:* Single-nucleotide polymorphism, a DNA sequence variation...
marker M73. It has been found at generally low frequencies throughout central Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
, but has been found with relatively high frequency among particular populations there including the Bashkirs in Bashkortostan
Bashkortostan
The Republic of Bashkortostan , also known as Bashkiria is a federal subject of Russia . It is located between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains. Its capital is the city of Ufa...
(62/471 = 13.2%), 44 of these being found among the 80 tested Bashkirs of the Abzelilovsky District
Abzelilovsky District
Abzelilovsky District is an administrative and municipal district , one of the fifty-four in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia. Its administrative center is the rural locality of Askarovo...
in the Republic of Bashkortostan
Bashkortostan
The Republic of Bashkortostan , also known as Bashkiria is a federal subject of Russia . It is located between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains. Its capital is the city of Ufa...
(55.0%).)
History
Valuable information about the Bashkirs is contained in works by Sallam Tardzheman (IX cent.) and Ibn-Fadlan (X cent.). Al-Balkhi (X cent.) described Bashkirs as a people divided into two groups, one inhabited the Southern Urals, the second group lived on the Danube plain near the boundaries of Byzantium.Ibn-Ruste, a contemporary of Al Balkhi, observed that Bashkirs were an independent people, occupying territories on both sides of the Ural mountain ridge between Volga, Kama
Kama
Kāma is often translated from Sanskrit as sexual desire, sexual pleasure, sensual gratification, sexual fulfillment, or eros54654564+more broadly mean desire, wish, passion, longing, pleasure of the senses, the aesthetic enjoyment of life, affection, or love, without sexual connotations.-Kama in...
, Tobol and upstream of the Yaik river.
Achmed ibn-Fadlan visited Volga Bulgaria as a staff member in the embassy of Calif of Baghdad in 922CE. He described them as a belligerent Turk nation. Ibn-Fadlane described the Bashkirs as nature worshipers, identifying their deities as various forces of nature, birds and animals. He also described the religion of acculturated Bashkirs as a variant of Tengrism, the national religion of the Mongol empire, including 12 'gods' and naming Tengri – lord of the endless blue sky.
The first European sources to mention the Bashkirs are the works of Joannes de Plano Carpini and William of Rubruquis
William of Rubruck
William of Rubruck was a Flemish Franciscan missionary and explorer. His account is one of the masterpieces of medieval geographical literature comparable to that of Marco Polo....
. These travelers, encountering Bashkir tribes in the upper parts of the Ural River
Ural River
The Ural or Jayıq/Zhayyq , known as Yaik before 1775, is a river flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan. It arises in the southern Ural Mountains and ends at the Caspian Sea. Its total length is 1,511 mi making it the third longest river in Europe after the Volga and the Danube...
, called them Pascatir
Pascatir
Pascatir is a historical land, corresponding to modern Bashkortostan. Pascatirs were the ancestors of Bashkirs....
or Bastarci, and asserted that they spoke the same language as the Hungarians.
During the tenth century (CE) Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
spread among the Bashkirs. By the fourteenth century Islam had become the dominant religious force in Bashkir society.
By the XII-XIV centuries (CE) all of Bashkortostan was in a of the Golden Horde. The brother of Batu-Khan, Sheibani, received the Bashkir lands to the east of the Ural Mountains, at that time inhabited by the ancestors of contemporary Kurgan Bashkirs.
During the period of Mongolian-Tatar dominion the features of Kipchacks a part of Bashkirs. Under the Golden Horde, separate Mongolian elements. During the XVII-XVIII centuries (CE) – a part of the Kalmyks and Middle Asian Sarts During the XVI-XX centuries (CE) various groups of Tatars.
After the breakup of the Mongol Empire, Bashkirs appeared separated between Nogay horde and Kazan and Siberian khanates, founded in the XV century. Trans-Ural Bashkirs subordinated to Siberian khanate.
In the middle of the XVI century (CE) Bashkirs joined the Russian state. Previously they formed parts of the Nogayskaya, Kazan, Siberian, and partly, Astrakhan khanates. Charters of Ivan the Terrible to Bashkir tribes became the basis of their contractual relationship with the tsar’s government. Primary documents pertaining to the Bashkirs during this period have been lost, some are mentioned in the (shezhere)the family trees of the Bashkir.
The Bashkirs rebelled in 1662-64 and 1675–83 and 1705-11. In 1676, the Bashkirs rebelled under a leader named Seyid Sadir or 'Seit Sadurov', and the Russian army
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...
had great difficulties in ending the rebellion. The Bashkirs rose again in 1707, under Aldar and Kûsyom, on account of ill-treatment by the Russian officials.
1735 War: The third insurrection occurred in 1735, at the time of the foundation of Orenburg
Orenburg
Orenburg is a city on the Ural River and the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies southeast of Moscow, very close to the border with Kazakhstan. Population: 546,987 ; 549,361 ; Highest point: 154.4 m...
, and it lasted for six years. From at least the time of Peter the Great there had been talk of pushing southeast toward Persia and India. Ivan Kirillov drew up a plan to build a fort to be called Orenburg at Orsk
Orsk
Orsk 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. Since this river is considered a boundary between Europe and Asia, Orsk can be said to lie in two continents. It is...
at the confluence of the Or River
Or River
Or is a river in Orenburg Oblast of Russia and Aktobe Province of Kazakhstan. It is a left tributary of the Ural River, and is 332 km long, with a drainage basin of 18 600 km². The river is formed by the confluence of the Shiyli and Terisbutak Rivers, which have their sources on the...
and the Ural River
Ural River
The Ural or Jayıq/Zhayyq , known as Yaik before 1775, is a river flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan. It arises in the southern Ural Mountains and ends at the Caspian Sea. Its total length is 1,511 mi making it the third longest river in Europe after the Volga and the Danube...
southeast of the Urals where the Bashkir, Kalmyk and Kazakh lands join. Work was started at Orsk in 1735, but by 1743 'Orenburg
Orenburg
Orenburg is a city on the Ural River and the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies southeast of Moscow, very close to the border with Kazakhstan. Population: 546,987 ; 549,361 ; Highest point: 154.4 m...
' was moved about 250 km west to its present location. The next planned step was to build a fort on the Aral Sea
Aral Sea
The Aral Sea was a lake that lay between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south...
. This would involve crossing the Bashkir country and then the lands of the Kazakh Lesser Horde, some of whom had recently offered a nominal submission. Kirillov's plan was approved on May 1, 1734 and he was placed in command. He was warned that this would provoke a Bashkir rebellion, but the warnings were ignored. He left Ufa with 2,500 men in 1735 and fighting started on the first of July. The war consisted of many small raids and complex troop movements, so it cannot be easily summarized. For example: In the spring of 1736 Kirillov burned 200 villages, killed 700 in battle and executed 158. An expedition of 773 men left Orenburg in November and lost 500 from cold and hunger. During, at Seiantusa the Bashkir planned to massacre sleeping Russian. The ambush failed. One thousand villagers, including women and children, were put to the sword and another 500 driven into a storehouse and burned to death. Raiding parties then went out and burned about 50 villages and killed another 2,000. Eight thousand Bashkirs attacked a Russian camp and killed 158, losing 40 killed and three prisoners who were promptly hanged. Rebellious Bashkirs raided loyal Bashkirs. Leaders who submitted were sometimes fined one horse per household and sometimes hanged. And so on. Bashkirs fought on both sides (40% of 'Russian' troops in 1740). Numerous leaders rose and fell. The oddest was Karasakal or Blackbeard who pretended to have 82,000 men on the Aral Sea and had his followers proclaim him 'Khan of Bashkiria'. His nose had been partly cut off and he had only one ear. Such mutilations are standard Imperial punishments. The Kazakhs of the Little Horde intervened on the Russian side, then switched to the Bashkirs and then withdrew. Kirillov died of disease during the war and there were several changes of commander. All this was at the time of Empress Elizabeth of Russia and the Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739).
Although the history of the 1735 Bashkir War cannot be easily summarized, its results can be.
- The Russian Imperial goal of expansion into Central Asia was delayed to deal with the Bashkir problem.
- Bashkiria was pacified in 1735-1740.
- Orenburg was established.
- The southern side of Bashkiria was fenced off by the Orenburg Line of forts. It ran from SamaraSamara, RussiaSamara , is the sixth largest city in Russia. It is situated in the southeastern part of European Russia at the confluence of the Volga and Samara Rivers. Samara is the administrative center of Samara Oblast. Population: . The metropolitan area of Samara-Tolyatti-Syzran within Samara Oblast...
on the Volga east up the Samara RiverSamara RiverThe Samara is a river in Russia, left tributary of Volga. The city of Samara is located at the confluence of Volga and Samara. It rises southwest of the southern end of the Ural Mountains close to the middle Ural River near the town of Orenburg. It then flows west or west northwest to meet the...
to its headwaters, crossed to the middle Ural RiverUral RiverThe Ural or Jayıq/Zhayyq , known as Yaik before 1775, is a river flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan. It arises in the southern Ural Mountains and ends at the Caspian Sea. Its total length is 1,511 mi making it the third longest river in Europe after the Volga and the Danube...
and followed it east and then north on the east side of the Urals and went east down the Uy RiverUy River (Tobol basin)The Uy River is a river in Chelyabinsk Oblast in Russia with its upper reaches in Bashkiria. It partially flows along the borders of Chelyabinsk and Kurgan Oblasts with Kazakhstan. The Uy is a left tributary of the Tobol River. The length of the river is 462 km. The area of its basin is 34,400...
to Ust-Uisk on the Tobol RiverTobol RiverTobol is a river in Kurgan and Tyumen Oblasts in Russia and Kazakhstan, left tributary of the Irtysh. The length of the Tobol River is 1591 km. The area of its drainage basin is 426,000 km². Average discharge at mouth is 805 m³/s. The lower reaches of the river freeze up in late October -...
where it connected to the ill-defined 'Siberian Line' along the forest-steppe boundary. - In 1740 a report was made of Bashkir loses. It gave: Killed:16,893, Sent to Baltic regiments and fleet: 3,236, Women and children distributed (presumably as serfs): 8,382, Grand Total: 28,511. Fines: Horses: 12,283, Cattle and Sheep: 6,076, Money: 9,828 rubles. Villages destroyed: 696. As this was compiled from army reports it excludes losses from irregular raiding, hunger, disease and cold. All this was from an estimated Bashkir population of 100,000.
Later, in 1774, the Bashkirs, under the leadership of Salavat Yulayev
Salawat Yulayev
Salawat Yulayev , Shaytan-Kudeevsky volost, Ufa province, Orenburg Governorate, Russia – 26 September 1800, Paldiski) is a Bashkir national hero who participated in Pugachev's rebellion.- Biography :...
, supported Pugachev's rebellion. In 1786, the Bashkirs achieved tax-free status; and in 1798 Russia formed an irregular Bashkir army from among them. Residual land ownership disputes continued.
Language
Bashkirs speak the KypchakKypchak languages
The Kypchak languages , are a major branch of the Turkic language family spoken by more than 12 million people in an area spanning from Lithuania to China....
-based Bashkir language
Bashkir language
The Bashkir language is a Turkic language, and is the language of the Bashkirs. It is co-official with Russian in the Republic of Bashkortostan.-Speakers:...
. Most Bashkirs also speak Russian: some as a second language, and some as their first language, regarding Bashkir as a language spoken by their grandparents.
Religion
During the period, since 10 till 14—15 centuries, Bashkirs converted to IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. The Bashkirs are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi
Hanafi
The Hanafi school is one of the four Madhhab in jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. The Hanafi madhhab is named after the Persian scholar Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit , a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani...
madhhab
Madhhab
is a Muslim school of law or fiqh . In the first 150 years of Islam, there were many such "schools". In fact, several of the Sahābah, or contemporary "companions" of Muhammad, are credited with founding their own...
.
Culture
Some Bashkirs traditionally practiced agriculture, cattle-rearing and bee-keeping. The half-nomadic Bashkirs wandered either the mountains or the steppeSteppe
In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...
s, herding cattle.
Bashkir national dishes include a kind of gruel
Gruel
Gruel is a food preparation consisting of some type of cereal—oat, wheat or rye flour, or rice—boiled in water or milk. It is a thinner version of porridge that may be more often drunk than eaten and need not even be cooked...
called öyrä and a cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
named qorot.
Wild-hive beekeeping can be named as a separate component of the most ancient culture which is practiced in the same Burzyansky District
Burzyansky District
Burzyansky District is an administrative and municipal district , one of the fifty-four in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia. It is located in the southern part of the republic and borders with Beloretsky District in the north, Abzelilovsky District in the east, Baymaksky District in the...
near to the Shulgan-Tash cave.
The Bashkir experts relate the ancient epic legends «Ural-batyr
Ural-batyr
Ural-batır or Ural-batyr is the most famous kubair of the Bashkirs narrating, like many similar epics about heroic deeds and legendary creatures, formation of natural phenomena, etc...
» and «Akbuzat» to the most original and valuable national monuments. Their plot concerns struggle of heroes against demonic forces. The peculiarity of them is that events and ceremonies described there can be addressed to a specific geographical and historical object –the Shulgan-Tash cave and its vicinities.
Famous Bashkirs
- Salawat YulayevSalawat YulayevSalawat Yulayev , Shaytan-Kudeevsky volost, Ufa province, Orenburg Governorate, Russia – 26 September 1800, Paldiski) is a Bashkir national hero who participated in Pugachev's rebellion.- Biography :...
, Bashkir national hero. - Zeki Velidi ToganZeki Velidi ToganZeki Velidi Togan was a historian, Turkologist, and leader of the Bashkir revolutionary and liberation movement.-Biography:He was born in Koedhoen village of Sterlitamak uyezd, today Bashkortostan....
, historian, turkologist, and leader of the Bashkir revolutionary and liberation movement. - Rudolf NureyevRudolf NureyevRudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.In 1961 he...
, dancer. - Murtaza RakhimovMurtaza RakhimovMurtaza Gubaydullovich Rakhimov is a Russian politician of Bashkir ethnicity, who served as the first President of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia.- Biography :...
, first president of Bashkortostan. - Rustem KhamitovRustem KhamitovRustem Zakievich Khamitov is the second President of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, , who succeeded the long-time ruler Murtaza Rakhimov after his apparent resignation in 2010.- Biography :...
, president of Bashkortostan. - Irek ZaripovIrek ZaripovIrek Zaripov is a Russian biathlete and cross-country skier.He lost his legs in a car accident in 2000. He started to practice skiing in 2005....
, biathlete and cross-country skier. - ZemfiraZemfiraZemfira, officially Zemfira Talgatovna Ramazanova ; born 26 August 1976 in Ufa, Bashkortostan) is a Russian rock artist of Bashkir descent...
, rock artist. - Ildar Abdrazakov, operatic singer (bass-baritone).
Sources
- Frhn, "De Baskiris", in Mrn. de l'Acad. de St-Pitersbourg, 1822.
- J. P. Carpini, "Liber Tartarorum", edited under the title "Relations des Mongols ou Tartares", by d'Avezac (Paris, 1838).
- Semenoff, "Geographical-statistic Dictionary of Russian Empire", 1863.
- Florinsky, in "Vestnik Evropy" magazine, 1874.
- Katarinskij, "Dictionnaire Bashkir-Russe", 1900.
- Gulielmus de RubruquisWilliam of RubruckWilliam of Rubruck was a Flemish Franciscan missionary and explorer. His account is one of the masterpieces of medieval geographical literature comparable to that of Marco Polo....
, "The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World", translated by V.W. Rockhill (London, 1900). - William of Rubruck's "Account of the Mongols", 1900..
- Alton S. Donnelly, "The Russian Conquest of Bashkiria 1552-1740": Yale Univ. Press, 1968.
- Summerfield, Stephen Cossack Hurrah: Russian Irregular Cavalry Organisation and Uniforms during the Napoleonic Wars, Partizan Press, 2005 ISBN 1-85818-513-0
External links
- Bashkir folk dance "Kahim Tura"
- Culture of Bashkirs
- Bashkir folk-tales and legends
- The Bashkir nation: history pages
- 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)