Kipchak branch
Bashkirs
A Turk people of the southern Urals, with a heroic epic tradition, the quray flute and a long history of beekeeping and horse culture.
Bashqorttar / Başkurtlar
The Bashkirs are a Turk people of the southern Ural Mountains and the steppe and forest lands around them. They appear in written sources from the 10th century, and over the following centuries lived under the Volga Bulgars, the Golden Horde, the Nogai Horde and the Kazan Khanate. Islam spread widely among them from the 14th century.
After the fall of Kazan in 1552, Bashkir groups accepted the suzerainty of the Russian tsar; whether this was a voluntary union or a conquest is still debated by historians. Russian settlement and taxation provoked a series of Bashkir uprisings in the 17th and 18th centuries. Salawat Yulayev, a Bashkir leader in the Pugachev rebellion of 1773–1775 and a poet, is remembered as a national hero.
In 1919 a Bashkir autonomous republic was established, among the first in Soviet Russia. Today the Republic of Bashkortostan, with its capital Ufa, is a constituent republic of the Russian Federation.
- Language
- Bashkir, a Kipchak Turk language closely related to Tatar, written in Cyrillic
- Branch
- Kipchak
- Homeland
- The Republic of Bashkortostan (capital Ufa) in the southern Ural Mountains and the adjoining steppe (Russia)
- Also living in
- Neighbouring regions of Russia and wider diaspora
Key dates
10th century
The Bashkirs are first mentioned in written sources.
1550s
After the fall of the Kazan Khanate (1552), Bashkir groups accept Russian suzerainty.
1773–1775
Salawat Yulayev leads Bashkir forces in the Pugachev rebellion.
1919
A Bashkir autonomous republic is established, one of the first in Soviet Russia.
11 October 1990
The Supreme Soviet of the Bashkir republic adopts a declaration of state sovereignty.
Heritage
- Ural-batyr and other heroic epics, and a tradition of throat singing
- The quray, a reed flute central to Bashkir music
- Beekeeping and honey, horse breeding and kumys (fermented mare’s milk)
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Bashkir”
- C. Steinwedel, Threads of Empire: Loyalty and Tsarist Authority in Bashkiria, 1552–1917 (Indiana University Press, 2016)
- Minority Rights Group International, World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, “Russian Federation: Bashkirs”