Kipchak branch
Volga Tatars
The Turk people of the middle Volga, heirs to Volga Bulgaria and the Kazan Khanate, and a centre of modern Turk reform thought.
Tatarlar / Kazan Tatarları
Volga Tatars trace their history to Volga Bulgaria and the Kazan Khanate on the middle Volga. Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, has long been a centre of Tatar scholarship, publishing and education.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Tatar intellectuals played a leading role in the Jadid movement for educational reform among Muslim Turk peoples.
- Language
- Tatar, a Kipchak Turk language written in Cyrillic
- Branch
- Kipchak
- Homeland
- The Republic of Tatarstan (capital Kazan) and the wider Volga–Ural region of Russia
- Also living in
- Across Russia, Turkistan, Türkiye, Finland and wider diaspora
Key dates
10th century
Volga Bulgaria adopts Islam (922).
1438–1552
The Kazan Khanate; Kazan is taken by the forces of Ivan IV in 1552.
Late 19th – early 20th century
Kazan becomes a hub of Jadid reform education and Tatar publishing.
1990
Tatarstan declares state sovereignty within the Russian state structure.
Heritage
- The Kazan Kremlin and the historic Tatar quarters of Kazan
- Sabantuy, the summer festival of the plough
- A large body of modern Tatar literature, including the poet Ğabdulla Tuqay
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Tatar”