Where did the Tatars live in ancient times? Tatars - interesting customs, features of life

The ancestors of the Tatars are the Huns and Bulgars.

The Huns are often considered to be some mythical nomads who came from Mongolia. This is wrong. The Huns are a religious-military formation that arose as a response to the disintegration of the ancient world in the monasteries of Sarmatia on the middle Volga and Kama. The ideology of the Huns was based on a return to the original traditions of the Vedic philosophy of the ancient world and the code of honor. It was they who became the basis of the code of knightly honor in Europe. By race, they were blond and red-haired giants with blue eyes, descendants of the ancient Aryans, who from time immemorial lived in the space from the Dnieper to the Urals. Actually, “Tata-Ars” is from Sanskrit, the language of our ancestors, and is translated as “fathers of the Aryans.” After the departure of the Hunnic army from Southern Rus' to Western Europe, the remaining Sarmatian-Scythian population of the lower Don and Dnieper began to call themselves Bulgars.

Byzantine historians do not distinguish between the Bulgars and the Huns. This suggests that the Bulgars and other tribes of the Huns were similar in customs, languages, and race. The Bulgars belonged to the Aryan race and spoke one of the Russian military jargons (a variant of the Turkic languages). Although it is possible that the military groups of the Huns also included people of the Mongoloid type as mercenaries.
As for the earliest mentions of the Bulgars, this is the year 354, “Roman Chronicles” by an unknown author (Th. Mommsen Chronographus Anni CCCLIV, MAN, AA, IX, Liber Generations,), as well as the work of Moise de Khorene.
According to these records, already before the Huns appeared in Western Europe in the middle of the 4th century, the presence of Bulgars was observed in the North Caucasus. In the 2nd half of the 4th century, some of the Bulgars penetrated into Armenia. It can be assumed that the Bulgars are not exactly Huns. According to our version, the Huns are a religious-military formation similar to today’s Taliban in Afghanistan. The only difference is that this phenomenon then arose in the Aryan Vedic monasteries of Sarmatia on the banks of the Volga, Northern Dvina and Don. Blue Rus' (or Sarmatia), after numerous periods of decline and rise in the fourth century AD, began a new rebirth into Great Bulgaria, which occupied the territory from the Caucasus to the Northern Urals. So the appearance of the Bulgars in the middle of the 4th century in the North Caucasus region is more than possible. And the reason that they were not called Huns is obviously that at that time the Bulgars did not call themselves Huns. A certain class of military monks called themselves Huns, who were the guardians of the special Vedic philosophy and religion, experts in martial arts and bearers of a special code of honor, which later formed the basis of the code of honor of the knightly orders of Europe. All Hunnic tribes came to Western Europe along the same route; it is obvious that they did not come at the same time, but in batches. The appearance of the Huns is a natural process, as a reaction to the degradation of the ancient world. Just as today the Taliban are a response to the processes of degradation of the Western world, so at the beginning of the era the Huns became a response to the decomposition of Rome and Byzantium. It seems that this process is an objective pattern of development of social systems.

At the beginning of the 5th century, wars broke out twice in the northwestern Carpathian region between the Bulgars (Vulgars) and Langobards. At that time all the Carpathians and Pannonia were under the rule of the Huns. But this indicates that the Bulgars were part of the union of Hunnic tribes and that they came to Europe together with the Huns. The Carpathian Vulgars of the early 5th century are the same Bulgars from the Caucasus of the mid-4th century. The homeland of these Bulgars is the Volga region, the Kama and Don rivers. Actually, the Bulgars are fragments of the Hunnic Empire, which at one time destroyed the ancient world, which remained in the steppes of Rus'. Most of the “men of long will,” religious warriors who formed the invincible religious spirit of the Huns, went to the West and, after the emergence of medieval Europe, disappeared into knightly castles and orders. But the communities that gave birth to them remained on the banks of the Don and Dnieper.
By the end of the 5th century, two main Bulgar tribes were known: the Kutrigurs and the Utigurs. The latter settle along the shores of the Azov Sea in the Taman Peninsula area. The Kutrigurs lived between the bend of the lower Dnieper and the Sea of Azov, controlling the Crimean steppes right up to the walls of Greek cities.
They periodically (in alliance with Slavic tribes) raid the borders of the Byzantine Empire. So, in 539-540, the Bulgars carried out raids across Thrace and Illyria to the Adriatic Sea. At the same time, many Bulgars entered the service of the Byzantine emperor. In 537, a detachment of Bulgars fought on the side of besieged Rome against the Goths. There are known cases of enmity between the Bulgar tribes, which was skillfully incited by Byzantine diplomacy.
Around 558, the Bulgars (mainly Kutrigurs), led by Khan Zabergan, invaded Thrace and Macedonia and approached the walls of Constantinople. And only at the cost of great efforts did the Byzantines stop Zabergan. The Bulgars return to the steppes. The main reason was news of the appearance of an unknown warlike horde east of the Don. These were the Avars of Khan Bayan.

Byzantine diplomats immediately use the Avars to fight against the Bulgars. New allies are offered money and land for settlements. Although the Avar army is only about 20 thousand horsemen, it still carries the same invincible spirit of the Vedic monasteries and, naturally, turns out to be stronger than the numerous Bulgars. This is also facilitated by the fact that another horde is moving after them, now the Turks. The Utigurs are the first to be attacked, then the Avars cross the Don and invade the lands of the Kutrigurs. Khan Zabergan becomes a vassal of Khagan Bayan. The further fate of the Kutrigurs is closely connected with the Avars.
In 566, the advanced detachments of the Turks reached the shores of the Black Sea near the mouth of the Kuban. The Utigurs recognize the power of the Turkic Kagan Istemi over themselves.
Having united the army, they captured the most ancient capital of the ancient world, Bosporus, on the shores of the Kerch Strait, and in 581 they appeared under the walls of Chersonesus.

Renaissance

After the Avar army left for Pannonia and the beginning of civil strife in the Turkic Khaganate, the Bulgar tribes united again under the rule of Khan Kubrat. Kurbatovo station in the Voronezh region is the ancient headquarters of the legendary Khan. This ruler, who led the Onnogurov tribe, was raised as a child at the imperial court in Constantinople and was baptized at the age of 12. In 632, he declared independence from the Avars and stood at the head of the association, which in Byzantine sources received the name Great Bulgaria.
It occupied the south of modern Ukraine and Russia from the Dnieper to the Kuban. In 634-641, the Christian Khan Kubrat entered into an alliance with the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius.

The emergence of Bulgaria and the settlement of the Bulgars around the world

However, after the death of Kubrat (665), his empire disintegrated, as it was divided between his sons. The eldest son Batbayan began to live in the Azov region as a tributary of the Khazars. Another son, Kotrag, moved to the right bank of the Don and also came under the rule of Jews from Khazaria. The third son, Asparukh, under Khazar pressure, went to the Danube, where, having subjugated the Slavic population, he laid the foundation for modern Bulgaria.
In 865, the Bulgarian Khan Boris converted to Christianity. The mixing of the Bulgars with the Slavs led to the emergence of modern Bulgarians.
Two more sons of Kubrat - Kuver (Kuber) and Altsekom (Altsekom) - went to Pannonia to join the Avars. During the formation of Danube Bulgaria, Kuver rebelled and went over to the side of Byzantium, settling in Macedonia. Subsequently, this group became part of the Danube Bulgarians. Another group, led by Alzek, intervened in the struggle for succession to the throne in the Avar Khaganate, after which they were forced to flee and seek refuge with the Frankish king Dagobert (629-639) in Bavaria, and then settle in Italy near Ravenna.

A large group of Bulgars returned to their historical homeland - the Volga region and the Kama region, from where their ancestors had once been carried away by the whirlwind of the passionate impulse of the Huns. However, the population they met here was not much different from themselves.
At the end of the 8th century. Bulgar tribes in the Middle Volga created the state of Volga Bulgaria. Based on these tribes, the Kazan Khanate subsequently arose in these places.
In 922, the ruler of the Volga Bulgars, Almas, converted to Islam. By that time, life in the Vedic monasteries, once located in these places, had practically died out. The descendants of the Volga Bulgars, in the formation of which a number of other Turkic and Finno-Ugric tribes took part, are the Chuvash and Kazan Tatars. From the very beginning, Islam took hold only in cities. The son of King Almus went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and stopped in Baghdad. After this, an alliance arose between Bulgaria and Bagdat. The subjects of Bulgaria paid the king taxes in horses, leather, etc. There was a customs office. The royal treasury also received duties (a tenth of the goods) from merchant ships. Of the kings of Bulgaria, Arab writers mention only Silk and Almus; Frehn was able to read three more names on the coins: Ahmed, Taleb and Mumen. The oldest of them, with the name of King Taleb, dates back to 338.
In addition, Byzantine-Russian treaties of the 20th century. mention a horde of black Bulgarians living near Crimea.

Volga Bulgaria

BULGARIA VOLGA-KAMA, state of the Volga-Kama, Finno-Ugric peoples in the XX-XV centuries. Capitals: the city of Bulgar, and from the 12th century. city of Bilyar. By the 20th century, Sarmatia (Blue Rus') was divided into two khaganates - Northern Bulgaria and southern Khazaria.
The largest cities - Bolgar and Bilyar - were larger in area and population than London, Paris, Kyiv, Novgorod, Vladimir of that time.
Bulgaria played an important role in the process of ethnogenesis of modern Kazan Tatars, Chuvash, Mordovians, Udmurts, Mari and Komi, Finns and Estonians.
Bulgaria at the time of the formation of the Bulgar state (beginning of the 20th century), the center of which was the city of Bulgar (now the village of Bolgars of Tatarstan), was dependent on the Khazar Khaganate, ruled by Jews.
The Bulgarian king Almas turned to the Arab Caliphate for support, as a result of which Bulgaria adopted Islam as the state religion. The collapse of the Khazar Kaganate after its defeat by the Russian prince Svyatoslav I Igorevich in 965 secured the actual independence of Bulgaria.
Bulgaria becomes the most powerful state in Blue Rus'. The intersection of trade routes, the abundance of black soils in the absence of wars made this region rapidly prosperous. Bulgaria became the center of production. Wheat, furs, livestock, fish, honey, and handicrafts (hats, boots, known in the East as “bulgari,” leather) were exported from here. But the main income came from trade transit between East and West. Here since the 20th century. minted its own coin - the dirham.
In addition to Bulgar, other cities were known, such as Suvar, Bilyar, Oshel, etc.
Cities were powerful fortresses. There were many fortified estates of the Bulgar nobility.

Literacy among the population was widespread. Lawyers, theologians, doctors, historians, and astronomers live in Bulgaria. The poet Kul-Gali created the poem "Kysa and Yusuf", widely known in the Turkic literature of its time. After the adoption of Islam in 986, some Bulgar preachers visited Kyiv and Ladoga and suggested that the Great Russian Prince Vladimir I Svyatoslavich convert to Islam. Russian chronicles from the 10th century distinguish between the Volga, Silver or Nukrat (according to Kama) Bulgars, Timtyuz, Cheremshan and Khvalis.
Naturally, there was a continuous struggle for leadership in Rus'. Clashes with princes from White Rus' and Kyiv were common. In 969, they were attacked by the Russian prince Svyatoslav, who devastated their lands, according to the legend of the Arab Ibn Haukal, in revenge for the fact that in 913 they helped the Khazars destroy the Russian squad who undertook a campaign on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. In 985, Prince Vladimir also made a campaign against Bulgaria. In the 12th century, with the rise of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, which sought to spread its influence in the Volga region, the struggle between the two parts of Rus' intensified. The military threat forced the Bulgars to move their capital inland - to the city of Bilyar (now the village of Bilyarsk in Tatarstan). But the Bulgar princes did not remain in debt. The Bulgars managed to capture and plunder the city of Ustyug on the Northern Dvina in 1219. This was a fundamental victory, since here from the most primitive times there were ancient libraries of Vedic books and ancient monasteries of patronage
worshiped, as the ancients believed, by the god Hermes. It was in these monasteries that knowledge about the ancient history of the world was hidden. Most likely, it was in them that the military-religious class of the Huns arose and a set of laws of knightly honor was developed. However, the princes of White Rus' soon avenged the defeat. In 1220, Russian troops took Oshel and other Kama cities. Only a rich ransom prevented the ruin of the capital. After this, peace was established, confirmed in 1229 by the exchange of prisoners of war. Military clashes between the White Russians and the Bulgars occurred in 985, 1088, 1120, 1164, 1172, 1184, 1186, 1218, 1220, 1229 and 1236. During the invasions, the Bulgars reached Murom (1088 and 1184) and Ustyug (1218). At the same time, a single people lived in all three parts of Rus', often speaking dialects of the same language and descending from common ancestors. This could not but leave an imprint on the nature of relations between fraternal peoples. Thus, the Russian chronicler preserved under the year 1024 the news that in this
That year, famine was raging in Suzdal and the Bulgars supplied the Russians with a large amount of grain.

Loss of independence

In 1223, the Horde of Genghis Khan, who came from the depths of Eurasia, defeated the army of Red Rus' (Kievan-Polovtsian army) in the south in the Battle of Kalka, but on the way back they were badly beaten by the Bulgars. It is known that Genghis Khan, when he was still an ordinary shepherd, met the Bulgar brawler, a wandering philosopher from Blue Rus', who predicted a great fate for him. It seems that he passed on to Genghis Khan the same philosophy and religion that gave rise to the Huns in his time. Now a new Horde has arisen. This phenomenon occurs in Eurasia with enviable regularity as a response to the degradation of the social structure. And every time, through destruction, it gives birth to new life in Rus' and Europe.

In 1229 and 1232, the Bulgars managed to repel the attacks of the Horde again. In 1236, Genghis Khan's grandson Batu begins a new campaign to the West. In the spring of 1236, the Horde khan Subutai took the capital of the Bulgars. In the autumn of the same year, Bilyar and other cities of Blue Rus' were devastated. Bulgaria was forced to submit; but as soon as the Horde army left, the Bulgars left the alliance. Then Khan Subutai in 1240 was forced to invade a second time, accompanying the campaign with bloodshed and destruction.
In 1243, Batu founded the state of the Golden Horde in the Volga region, one of the provinces of which was Bulgaria. She enjoyed some autonomy, her princes became vassals of the Golden Horde Khan, paid him tribute and supplied soldiers to the Horde army. The high culture of Bulgaria became the most important component of the culture of the Golden Horde.
The end of the war helped revive the economy. It reached its greatest prosperity in this region of Rus' in the first half of the 14th century. By this time, Islam had established itself as the state religion of the Golden Horde. The city of Bulgar becomes the residence of the khan. The city attracted many palaces, mosques, and caravanserais. It had public baths, paved streets, and underground water supply. Here they were the first in Europe to master the smelting of cast iron. Jewelry and ceramics from these places were sold in medieval Europe and Asia.

The death of Volga Bulgaria and the birth of the people of Tatarstan

From the middle of the 14th century. The struggle for the Khan's throne begins, separatist tendencies intensify. In 1361, Prince Bulat-Temir seized a vast territory in the Volga region, including Bulgaria, from the Golden Horde. The khans of the Golden Horde only for a short time manage to reunite the state, where everywhere there is a process of fragmentation and isolation. Bulgaria splits into two virtually independent principalities - Bulgarian and Zhukotinsky - with the center in the city of Zhukotin. After the outbreak of civil strife in the Golden Horde in 1359, the army of the Novgorodians captured Zhukotin. The Russian princes Dmitry Ioannovich and Vasily Dmitrievich took possession of other cities of Bulgaria and stationed their “customs officers” in them.
In the second half of the 14th and early 15th centuries, Bulgaria experienced constant military pressure from White Rus'. Bulgaria finally lost its independence in 1431, when the Moscow army of Prince Fyodor the Motley conquered the southern lands. Only the northern territories, the center of which was Kazan, retained independence. It was on the basis of these lands that the formation of the Kazan Khanate began and the degeneration of the ethnic group of the ancient inhabitants of Blue Rus' (and even earlier, the Aryans of the land of seven lights and lunar cults) into the Kazan Tatars. At this time, Bulgaria had already finally fallen under the rule of the Russian tsars, but exactly when it was impossible to say; in all likelihood, this happened under Ivan the Terrible, simultaneously with the fall of Kazan in 1552. However, the title of “sovereign of Bulgaria” was still borne by his grandfather, Ivan Sh. From this time, it can be considered that the formation of the ethnos of modern Tatars begins, which occurs already in the united Rus'. The Tatar princes form many outstanding clans of the Russian state, becoming
are famous military leaders, statesmen, scientists, and cultural figures. Actually, the history of the Tatars, Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians is the history of one Russian people, whose horses go back to ancient times. Recent studies have shown that all European peoples, in one way or another, come from the Volga-Oka-Don area. Part of the once united people settled around the world, but some peoples always remained in their ancestral lands. The Tatars are just one of these.

We all know that our country is a multinational state. Of course, the bulk of the population is Russian, but, as you know, the Tatars are the second largest ethnic group and the most numerous people of Muslim culture in Russia. We should not forget that the Tatar ethnic group arose in parallel with the Russian one.

Today, Tatars make up just over half the population of their national republic, Tatarstan. At the same time, a considerable number of Tatars live outside the Republic of Tatarstan - in Bashkortostan -1.12 million, in Udmurtia -110.5 thousand, in Mordovia - 47.3 thousand, in Mari El - 43.8 thousand, Chuvashia - 35.7 thousand. In addition, Tatars also live in the regions of the Volga region, the Urals and Siberia.

Where did the name of the ethnic group “Tatars” come from? This question is considered very relevant at the present time, since there are many different interpretations of this ethnonym. We will present the most interesting ones.

Many historians and researchers believe that the name “Tatars” comes from the name of the large influential family “Tata”, from which many Turkic-speaking military leaders of the “Golden Horde” came.

But the famous Turkologist D.E. Eremev believes that the origin of the word “Tatars” is somehow connected with the ancient Turkic word and people. “Tat”, according to the ancient Turkic chronicler Mahmud Kashgari, is the name of an ancient Iranian family. Kashgari said that the Turks called “tatam” those who spoke Farsi, that is, the Iranian language. Thus, it turns out that the original meaning of the word “tat” was probably “Persian,” but then in Rus' this word began to designate all eastern and Asian peoples.

Despite their disagreements, historians agree on one thing - the ethnonym “Tatars” is certainly of ancient origin, but it was adopted as the name of modern Tatars only in the 19th century. The current Tatars (Kazan, Western, Siberian, Crimean) are not direct descendants of the ancient Tatars who came to Europe along with the troops of Genghis Khan. They formed into a single nation only after European peoples gave them the name “Tatars”.

Thus, it turns out that a complete deciphering of the ethnonym “Tatars” is still waiting for its researcher. Who knows, maybe you will one day give an accurate explanation of the origin of this ethnonym. Well, for now let's talk about the culture of the Tatars.

It is impossible to ignore the fact that the Tatar ethnic group has an ancient and colorful history.
The original culture of the Tatars, without a doubt, has entered the treasury of world culture and civilization. Judge for yourself, we find traces of this culture in the traditions and language of the Russians, Mordovians, Mari, Udmurts, Bashkirs, Chuvashs, and the national Tatar culture synthesizes all the best achievements of the Turkic, Finno-Ugric, Indo-Iranian peoples. How did this happen?

The thing is that the Tatars are one of the most mobile peoples. Lack of land, frequent crop failures in their homeland and the traditional desire for trade led to the fact that even before 1917 they began to move to various regions of the Russian Empire. During the years of Soviet rule, this migration process only intensified. That is why, at present, there is practically no federal subject in Russia where representatives of the Tatar ethnic group live.

Tatar diasporas have formed in many countries around the world. In the pre-revolutionary period, Tatar national communities were formed in countries such as Finland, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and China. After the collapse of the USSR, Tatars who lived in the former union republics also ended up abroad - in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and the Baltic countries. Later, in the middle of the 20th century, Tatar national diasporas were formed in the USA, Japan, Australia, and Sweden.

According to most historians, the Tatar people themselves, with a single literary and practically common spoken language, emerged during the period of the existence of such a Turkic state as the Golden Horde. The literary language in this state was the so-called “idel terkise”, that is, Old Tatar, based on the Kipchak-Bulgar language and incorporating elements of Central Asian literary languages. The modern literary language arose in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries on the basis of the middle dialect.

The development of writing among the Tatars was also gradual. Archaeological finds in the Urals and Middle Volga region indicate that in ancient times the Turkic ancestors of the Tatars used runic writing. From the moment of the voluntary adoption of Islam by the Volga-Kama Bulgars - the Tatars - they used Arabic writing, later, in 1929 - 1939 - Latin script, and since 1939 they have used the traditional Cyrillic alphabet with additional characters.

The modern Tatar language belongs to the Kipchak-Bulgar subgroup of the Kipchak group of the Turkic language family. It is divided into four main dialects: middle (Kazan Tatar), western (Mishar), eastern (language of the Siberian Tatars) and Crimean (language of the Crimean Tatars). Don’t forget that almost every district, every village has its own special mini-dialect. Nevertheless, despite dialectal and territorial differences, the Tatars are a single nation with a single literary language, a single culture - folklore, literature, music, religion, national spirit, traditions and rituals. It is noteworthy that the Tatar nation occupied one of the leading places in the Russian Empire in terms of literacy even before the 1917 coup. I would like to believe that the traditional thirst for knowledge has been preserved in the current generation.

Tatars are an ethnic group living on the territory of Russia and neighboring states. The main areas of settlement are the Volga region, Crimea, Southern Urals, Western and Eastern Siberia, Kazakhstan, the Far East and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. The language of the people belongs to the Turkic family along with Turkish, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Bashkir and others. The majority of Tatars profess Sunni Islam.
Genetically, the people are very diverse. Research conducted by anthropologists indicates differences in the origins of different groups within the Tatar ethnic group. The dominant external types were pontic and sublapanoid, with shares of 38.2 and 22.9%, respectively. Slightly less common are the light Caucasian species and the South Siberian Mongoloid, accounting for 19.4% each. Where did such a diversity of genes come from, and under what conditions did the people form? There are several theories describing the ethnogenesis of the Tatars: Turkic-Tatar, Bulgaro-Tatar and Tatar-Mongolian.

Brief description of the main theories

The most supported for a long time in the historical and scientific environment was the Bulgaro-Tatar concept, the foundations of which were laid by N. N. Firsov and M. G. Khudyakov. The essence of the hypothesis is that the complete formation of the Tatars as an ethnic group occurred during the existence of the Volga Bulgaria state in the 10th–13th centuries, subsequent historical events, the aggressive campaigns of the Mongols and the inclusion of the Volga region into Russia did not have a serious impact on the nation, moreover, during During the period of isolation of the Kazan Khanate, the Bulgar genetic and cultural component was able to gain a stronger foothold.
The theory of the Tatar-Mongol origins considers the Golden Horde and the migration of nomadic peoples of Asia to the steppes of Eastern Europe as the source of the origin of the Tatars. This view originated in foreign Europe; in the Russian Empire, the concept began to be developed during missionary activity that took place in the second half of the 19th century. Kazan orientalist scientist and missionary N. I. Ilminsky, relying on the works of the Tatar historian Kh. Feiskhanov, gives new life to the Tatar-Mongol theory. The key point beneficial for missionary activity is the assumption of the different origins of the Chuvash and Tatars, the former are considered the descendants of the indigenous population, and the latter are the descendants of the conquering Mongols. Another name for the theory is the Bulgaro-Chuvash concept.
The most complex, taking into account the influence of different peoples and historical events on the history of the Tatars, is the Turkic-Tatar theory. Currently, it finds the greatest confirmation and favor of the scientific community. For the first time, M. G. Safargaliev pointed out the complex nature of the ethnogenesis of the Tatars and their origin from the mixture of several ethnic groups. Subsequently, his undertakings were developed in the works of other authors, including N. A. Baskakov, G. S. Gubaidullin, R. G. Kuzeev, N. Davlet.

Stages of formation of the Tatar nation.

The era of Bulgar dominance

In the 4th century. n. e. During the Great Migration of Peoples, the Bulgars came to the Caspian steppes along with the Huns. They were one of the first Turkic peoples to come to Europe. The Bulgar tribes settled in a wide area near the Sea of Azov. Here they managed to found their first state - Old Great Bulgaria. In addition to the titular nation, Sarmatian tribes, including Alans, lived on the territory of the state. After the death of the leader of the Bulgars, Kubrat and defeat from the Khazars. Most of the tribe was forced to emigrate. Resettlement took place in several directions: to the Balkans, where Bulgaria would later emerge, to Central Europe and the Middle Volga region, including to the territory of present-day Tatarstan.
The Bulgar Turks who retreated to the north assimilate the local Finno-Ugric and, possibly, Slavic-Baltic population. The union of tribes that gradually emerged began to transform into a new state. It will become known in history as Volga Bulgaria. In 922, Baltavar Almush, looking for allies to confront the Khazar Kaganate, established contacts with the Arab Abbasid dynasty. Scientists and preachers arrive from the caliphate to the Volga, and Islam becomes the state religion of Volga Bulgaria. These events are reflected in the records of one of the learned men who arrived in the country, Ahmad Ibn Fadlan. At the time of the formation of Islam, part of the Bulgars chose to remain pagans and moved west to the lands of the ancient Mari tribes, from whom the Chuvash ethnic group originates. Having received allies and, importantly, trading partners, Volga Bulgaria is rapidly developing, its young cities are becoming centers of trade and crafts.

Time of the Golden Horde

The Mongols put an end to the existence of the state. The population of the country heroically resisted aggression; the war of Batu's hordes against the Bulgars lasted from 1223 to 1236. The cities were devastated, and people who managed to escape moved closer to the outskirts of the former state and to its immediate surroundings, including the lands of the Udmurts and Bashkirs. The Middle Volga region became part of the Golden Horde for hundreds of years.
The steppe, stretching from the banks of the Dniester to the Irtysh in Western Siberia, was occupied by nomadic Kipchaks, also known as Cumans or Cumans. When the Mongols conquered these lands and founded a new ulus of the Mongol Empire, that is, an inheritance, a part called the Golden Horde, they quickly found a common language with the local steppe inhabitants. Due to their relative small numbers, the newcomers were unable to impose their language and culture on the Horde; on the contrary, they absorbed them from those around them, and soon Kipchak became the language of international communication in the vastness of their state.
The perception of Ulus Jochi as a country devoid of a settled population and cities is also erroneous. In fact, Batu Khan and his successors sought to receive as much profit as possible from the lands they conquered. They understood the profitability of commerce and the benefits of controlling the main trade routes, so they supported existing cities and were quite active in founding new ones. People from Khorezm, Russian principalities, Italian city-states and the Byzantine Empire came here for the purpose of trade and handicrafts. Naturally, farmers also lived on the territory of the horde.
Initially, the Mongols were pagans and adhered to their original religion, where Tengri was at the head of many deities. In new lands, the Mongols needed to constantly interact with representatives of other faiths. In 1257, after the death of Batu, Khan Berke became the ruler. Even before his accession, he converted to Islam, which would ultimately help him receive support from the Bulgarian and Central Asian cities. The new faith began to gradually spread throughout the Horde and was finally established as a state faith during the reign of Uzbek (1313–1341). This strengthened intertribal and interethnic ties in the state and led to the formation of a new community, called by historians the “medieval Golden Horde ethnos.”

Khanate crisis and subsequent collapse

Major problems began in the Tatar state in 1359 with the death of the last legitimate khan from the descendants of Batu. As usually happens in such cases, related families began to challenge each other for supremacy in the state. Distant fiefs and tributaries begin to leave the control of the central government. The Principality of Moscow also made an attempt to achieve independence, defeating the Tatar commander Mamai on the Kulikovo Field in 1380. True, Khan Tokhtamysh, who came to power after this, captured Moscow within two years and again forced people to start paying taxes. Luck finally turns away from the Golden Horde during the war with Tamerlane. The troops of this Central Asian ruler destroyed many cities in the Golden Horde and undermined the economic foundations of the state.
During this period of instability and wars, the outflow of population to neighboring countries increased. Some of the Tatars settled in the lands of Lithuania and Poland. They are now known as stickies. Separatist sentiments developed in the outskirts. At the beginning of 1420 in the east the Siberian Khanate is separated, then the Uzbek (1428), Kazan (1438), Crimean (1441), Nogai (1440) and Kazakh (1465). From the capital, Sarai, a small, compared to the original, territory in the lower reaches of the Volga was now governed; historians call it the Greater or Great Horde. Despite the status of successor to the Golden Horde, the rulers of this state no longer had the strength to dictate their will to nominal vassals and tributaries.

Absorption of fragments of the Golden Horde by Russia

In the 16th century, the young Russian state made successful campaigns of conquest in the Volga region and Western Siberia, eliminating the threat of raids on the most developed and populated region in the center of the kingdom.
Russian chroniclers note the heterogeneous ethnic composition of the annexed territories; they write about Kazan that in addition to Tatar, they speak five more languages: Mordovian, Chuvash, Cheremis, Udmurt and Bashkir. After the capture of this city by the army of Ivan the Terrible, the central part of the present Republic of Tatarstan began to be developed by Russian settlers. 100 years earlier, the Middle Volga Tatars staged a campaign against Rus' and founded the Kasimov Khanate, where the Kasimov Tatars began to live, who eventually became allies of Moscow and helped take Kazan.
The remnants of the Great Horde were defeated by the Crimeans. After this, many Tatars moved to Meshchera and became Russian subjects. Nowadays their descendants are called Mishars, this is the largest group of Volga Tatars after the Kazan Tatars. Another wave of resettlement from the Great Horde moved south towards Astrakhan. Now they are known as Karagash and form one of the groups of Astrakhan Tatars.
The Crimean Khanate became a state dependent on Turkey, as a result of which it was subjected to its cultural influence. For this reason, as well as the large genetic distance, it is customary to speak of the Crimean Tatars as an ethnic group separate from the Kazan Tatars.
In 1585, at the time of the conquest of the Siberian Khanate, in addition to the Tatars, many immigrants from Central Asia, in particular from Bukhara, lived on its lands, and the process of assimilation of local aboriginal tribes, Khanty, Mansi and others was actively underway.

Russian empire. The final formation of the Tatar nation

With the assistance of the Russians, two more groups emerged from the Tatars. The Kryashens are descendants of the inhabitants of the Kazan Khanate who converted to Orthodoxy. Separation from Muslims led to the formation of their own linguistic dialect and local customs. The Tiptyari, on the contrary, fled away from the missionaries, to the lands of Bashkiria, where they joined the Cossack class.
Oddly enough, the presence of the Tatars as part of the Russian state contributed to the formation of a single ethnic group. Now territorially distant groups, united by a common religion and language, have the opportunity for broader cultural interaction. The process ends during the reign of Catherine the Great, when the first stone mosque, al-Marjani, is built in Kazan, and the Tatars receive trade privileges. A national bourgeoisie is emerging in Tatarstan.

History of the origin of the name

An attentive reader may wonder where the name of this people came from. The talk was about Mongols, Kipchaks, Bulgars, Alans, etc., but it was not said when the term “Tatars” first began to be used. This story is also directly connected with the Mongols.
In the steppes north of China, at the beginning of the 13th century, a large tribe of Tatars roamed; they were one of Genghis Khan’s worst opponents at the dawn of the formation of his empire. After defeating them, Temujin ordered the killing of all men, except for young children, who became part of the united Mongol horde. Having matured, these warriors, brought up in devotion to the khan, were given control of detachments recruited from among the conquered peoples, and the name “Tatars” was assigned to this part. It soon became dominant in numbers in the Mongol army.
There is another version. The word “Tatars” in China meant wild strangers from the north, steppe dwellers; this concept spread far to the west along trade routes and with the help of travelers.
The history of the Tatar ethnic group is very complex and fascinating. He had a great influence on the formation of many modern nations and states, and also constantly experienced the influence of numerous neighbors. He absorbed many ethnic groups and tribes that lived on the lands of the Golden Horde, accepted Islam and developed a single synthetic culture.

I am often asked to tell the history of this or that people. Among other things, people often ask questions about the Tatars. Probably, both the Tatars themselves and other peoples feel that school history lied about them, lied something to please the political situation.
The most difficult thing when describing the history of peoples is to determine the point from which to begin. It is clear that everyone ultimately descends from Adam and Eve and all peoples are relatives. But still... The history of the Tatars should probably begin in 375, when a great war broke out in the southern steppes of Rus' between the Huns and Slavs on the one hand and the Goths on the other. In the end, the Huns won and, on the shoulders of the retreating Goths, left for Western Europe, where they disappeared into the knightly castles of the emerging medieval Europe.

The ancestors of the Tatars are the Huns and Bulgars.

The Huns are often considered to be some mythical nomads who came from Mongolia. This is wrong. The Huns are a religious-military formation that arose as a response to the disintegration of the ancient world in the monasteries of Sarmatia on the middle Volga and Kama. The ideology of the Huns was based on a return to the original traditions of the Vedic philosophy of the ancient world and the code of honor. It was they who became the basis of the code of knightly honor in Europe. By race, they were blond and red-haired giants with blue eyes, descendants of the ancient Aryans, who from time immemorial lived in the space from the Dnieper to the Urals. Actually, “Tata-Ars” is from Sanskrit, the language of our ancestors, and is translated as “fathers of the Aryans.” After the departure of the Hunnic army from Southern Rus' to Western Europe, the remaining Sarmatian-Scythian population of the lower Don and Dnieper began to call themselves Bulgars.

Renaissance

The emergence of Bulgaria and the settlement of the Bulgars around the world

Volga Bulgaria

BULGARIA VOLGA-KAMA, state of the Volga-Kama, Finno-Ugric peoples in the XX-XV centuries. Capitals: the city of Bulgar, and from the 12th century. city of Bilyar. By the 20th century, Sarmatia (Blue Rus') was divided into two khaganates - Northern Bulgaria and southern Khazaria.
The largest cities - Bolgar and Bilyar - were larger in area and population than London, Paris, Kyiv, Novgorod, Vladimir of that time.
Bulgaria played an important role in the process of ethnogenesis of modern Kazan Tatars, Chuvash, Mordovians, Udmurts, Mari and Komi, Finns and Estonians.
Bulgaria at the time of the formation of the Bulgar state (beginning of the 20th century), the center of which was the city of Bulgar (now the village of Bolgars of Tatarstan), was dependent on the Khazar Khaganate, ruled by Jews.
The Bulgarian king Almas turned to the Arab Caliphate for support, as a result of which Bulgaria adopted Islam as the state religion. The collapse of the Khazar Kaganate after its defeat by the Russian prince Svyatoslav I Igorevich in 965 secured the actual independence of Bulgaria.
Bulgaria becomes the most powerful state in Blue Rus'. The intersection of trade routes, the abundance of black soils in the absence of wars made this region rapidly prosperous. Bulgaria became the center of production. Wheat, furs, livestock, fish, honey, and handicrafts (hats, boots, known in the East as “bulgari,” leather) were exported from here. But the main income came from trade transit between East and West. Here since the 20th century. minted its own coin - the dirham.
In addition to Bulgar, other cities were known, such as Suvar, Bilyar, Oshel, etc.
Cities were powerful fortresses. There were many fortified estates of the Bulgar nobility.

Loss of independence

In 1223, the Horde of Genghis Khan, who came from the depths of Eurasia, defeated the army of Red Rus' (Kievan-Polovtsian army) in the south in the Battle of Kalka, but on the way back they were badly beaten by the Bulgars. It is known that Genghis Khan, when he was still an ordinary shepherd, met the Bulgar brawler, a wandering philosopher from Blue Rus', who predicted a great fate for him. It seems that he passed on to Genghis Khan the same philosophy and religion that gave rise to the Huns in his time. Now a new Horde has arisen. This phenomenon occurs in Eurasia with enviable regularity as a response to the degradation of the social structure. And every time, through destruction, it gives birth to new life in Rus' and Europe.

The death of Volga Bulgaria and the birth of the people of Tatarstan

Gennady Klimov

More details in my LiveJournal

Posted Fri, 06/04/2012 - 08:15 by Cap

Tatars (self-name - Tat. Tatar, tatar, plural Tatarlar, tatarlar) - a Turkic people living in the central regions of the European part of Russia, in the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Xinjiang, Afghanistan and the Far East.

The population in Russia is 5310.6 thousand people (2010 census) - 3.72% of the Russian population. They are the second largest people in the Russian Federation after the Russians. They are divided into three main ethno-territorial groups: Volga-Ural, Siberian and Astrakhan Tatars, sometimes Polish-Lithuanian Tatars are also distinguished. Tatars make up more than half of the population of the Republic of Tatarstan (53.15% according to the 2010 census). Tatar language belongs to the Kipchak subgroup of the Turkic group of the Altai family of languages and is divided into three dialects: Western (Mishar), Middle (Kazan-Tatar) and Eastern (Siberian-Tatar). Believing Tatars (with the exception of a small group of Kryashens who profess Orthodoxy) are Sunni Muslims.

LIST OF TOURIST OBJECTS, HISTORICAL MONUMENTS AND NOTABLE PLACES IN KAZAN AND AROUND THE CITY FOR EXCURSIONS AND VISITS, AS WELL AS ARTICLES ABOUT THE TATAR PEOPLE:

Bulgar warrior

Hero of the Soviet Union and Tatar poet - Musa Jalil

History of the ethnonym

First the ethnonym “Tatars” appeared among the Turkic tribes that wandered in the 6th-9th centuries to the southeast of Lake Baikal. In the 13th century, with the Mongol-Tatar invasion, the name “Tatars” became known in Europe. In the XIII-XIV centuries it was extended to some peoples of Eurasia that were part of the Golden Horde.

TUKAY MUSEUM IN THE VILLAGE OF KOSHLAUCH - IN THE HOMELAND OF THE GREAT POET

Early history

The beginning of the penetration of Turkic-speaking tribes into the Urals and Volga region dates back to the 3rd-4th centuries AD. e. and is associated with the era of the invasion of Eastern Europe by the Huns and other nomadic tribes. Settled in the Urals and Volga region, they perceived elements of the culture of the local Finno-Ugric peoples, and partially mixed with them. In the 5th-7th centuries, there was a second wave of advance of Turkic-speaking tribes into the forest and forest-steppe regions of Western Siberia, the Urals and the Volga region, associated with the expansion of the Turkic Kaganate. In the 7th-8th centuries, Bulgar tribes came to the Volga region from the Azov region, who conquered the Finno-Ugric-speaking and Turkic-speaking tribes that were there (including, possibly, the ancestors of the Bashkirs) and in the 9th-10th centuries they created a state - Volga-Kama Bulgaria. After the defeat of the Volga Bulgaria in 1236, and a series of uprisings (the uprising of Bayan and Dzhiku, the Bachman uprising), the Volga Bulgaria was finally captured by the Mongols. The Bulgarian population was forced out to the north (modern Tatarstan), replaced and partially assimilated.

In the XIII-XV centuries, when the majority of Turkic-speaking tribes were part of the Golden Horde, some transformation of the language and culture of the Bulgars took place.

Formation

In the XV-XVI centuries, the formation of separate groups of Tatars took place - the Middle Volga region and the Urals (Kazan Tatars, Mishars, Kasimov Tatars, as well as the sub-confessional community of Kryashens (baptized Tatars), Astrakhan, Siberian, Crimean and others). The Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals, the most numerous and having a more developed economy and culture, by the end of the 19th century had developed into a bourgeois nation. The bulk of the Tatars were engaged in agriculture; in the economy of the Astrakhan Tatars, cattle breeding and fishing played a major role. A significant part of the Tatars were employed in various handicraft industries. The material culture of the Tatars, which was formed over a long time from elements of the culture of a number of Turkic and local tribes, was also influenced by the cultures of the peoples of Central Asia and other regions, and from the end of the 16th century - by Russian culture.

Gayaz Ishaki

Ethnogenesis of the Tatars

There are several theories of the ethnogenesis of the Tatars. Three of them are described in the most detail in the scientific literature:

Bulgaro-Tatar theory

Tatar-Mongol theory

Turkic-Tatar theory.

For a long time, the Bulgaro-Tatar theory was considered the most recognized.

Currently, the Turkic-Tatar theory is gaining greater recognition.

PRESIDENT OF THE RF MEDVEDEV AND PRESIDENT OF THE RT MINNIKHANOV

I. SHARIPOVA - REPRESENTED RUSSIA AT MISS WORLD - 2010

Subethnic groups

The Tatars consist of several subethnic groups - the largest of them are:

Kazan Tatars (Tat. Kazanly) are one of the main groups of Tatars, whose ethnogenesis is inextricably linked with the territory of the Kazan Khanate. They speak the middle dialect of the Tatar language.

(GENERAL ARTICLE ABOUT KAZAN - HERE).

Mishari Tatars (Tat. Mishar) are one of the main groups of Tatars, whose ethnogenesis took place in the territory of the Middle Volga, Wild Field and the Urals. They speak the Western dialect of the Tatar language.

Kasimov Tatars (tat. Kәchim) are one of the groups of Tatars, whose ethnogenesis is inextricably linked with the territory of the Kasimov Khanate. They speak the middle dialect of the Tatar language.

Siberian Tatars (Tat. Seber) are one of the groups of Tatars, whose ethnogenesis is inextricably linked with the territory of the Siberian Khanate. They speak the eastern dialect of the Tatar language.

Astrakhan Tatars (tat. Әsterkhan) are an ethno-territorial group of Tatars, whose ethnogenesis is inextricably linked with the territory of the Astrakhan Khanate.

Teptyari Tatars (Tat. Tiptar) are an ethnic class group of Tatars, known in Bashkortostan.

clothes of Bulgarian girls

Culture and life

Tatars speak the Tatar language of the Kipchak subgroup of the Turkic group of the Altai family. The languages (dialects) of the Siberian Tatars show a certain closeness to the language of the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals. The literary language of the Tatars was formed on the basis of the middle (Kazan-Tatar) dialect. The most ancient writing is the Turkic runic. From the 10th century to 1927, writing based on Arabic script existed; from 1928 to 1936, Latin script (Yanalif) was used; from 1936 to the present, writing on a Cyrillic graphic basis was used, although there are already plans to transfer Tatar writing to Latin.

The traditional dwelling of the Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals was a log hut, separated from the street by a fence. The external façade was decorated with multicolor paintings. The Astrakhan Tatars, who retained some of their steppe cattle-breeding traditions, used a yurt as a summer home.

Every nation has its own national holidays. Tatar folk holidays delight people with a sense of gratitude and respect for nature, for the customs of their ancestors, for each other.

Religious Muslim holidays are called the word gaet (ayet) (Uraza gaete is a holiday of fasting and Korban gaete is a holiday of sacrifice). And all folk, non-religious holidays are called beyram in Tatar. Scientists believe that this word means “spring beauty”, “spring celebration”.

Religious holidays are called by the word Gayt or Bayram (Eid al-Fitr (Ramazan) - a holiday of fasting and Korban Bayram - a holiday of sacrifice). Muslim holidays among Tatars - Muslims include collective morning prayer, in which all men and boys participate. Then you are supposed to go to the cemetery and pray near the graves of your loved ones. And the women and the girls helping them at this time prepare treats at home. On holidays (and each religious holiday used to last for several days), people went around the houses of relatives and neighbors with congratulations. Particularly important was a visit to my parents' home. During the days of Korban Bayram - the holiday of sacrifice, they tried to treat as many people as possible with meat, the tables remained set for two or three days in a row and everyone entering the house, no matter who he was, had the right to treat himself.

Tatar holidays

Boz karau

According to the old, old tradition, Tatar villages were located on the banks of rivers. Therefore, the first beyram - “spring celebration” for the Tatars is associated with ice drift. This holiday is called boz karau, boz bagu - “watch the ice”, boz ozatma - seeing off the ice, zin kitu - ice drift.

All residents, from old people to children, came to the river bank to watch the ice drift. The youth walked dressed up, with accordion players. Straw was laid out and lit on floating ice floes. In the blue spring twilight these floating torches were visible far away, and songs followed them.

Younger yau

One day in early spring, the children went home to collect cereals, butter, and eggs. With their calls, they expressed good wishes to the owners and... demanded refreshments!

From the collected products on the street or indoors, with the help of one or two elderly women, the children cooked porridge in a huge cauldron. Everyone brought a plate and spoon with them. And after such a feast, the children played and doused themselves with water.

Kyzyl yomorka

After some time, the day came to collect colored eggs. Village residents were warned about such a day in advance and housewives painted eggs in the evening - most often in a decoction of onion skins. The eggs turned out to be multi-colored - from golden yellow to dark brown, and in a decoction of birch leaves - various shades of green. In addition, in each house they baked special dough balls - small buns, pretzels, and also bought candy.

The children were especially looking forward to this day. Mothers sewed bags for them from towels to collect eggs. Some guys went to bed dressed and with shoes on, so as not to waste time getting ready in the morning; they put a log under their pillow so as not to oversleep. Early in the morning, boys and girls began to walk around the houses. The one who came in was the first to bring in wood chips and scatter them on the floor - so that “the yard would not be empty,” that is, so that there would be a lot of living creatures on it.

The children's humorous wishes to the owners are expressed in ancient times - as in the times of great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers. For example, this: “Kyt-kytyk, kyt-kytyk, are grandparents at home? Will they give me an egg? Let you have a lot of chickens, let the roosters trample them. If you don’t give me an egg, there’s a lake in front of your house, and you’ll drown there!” The egg collection lasted two to three hours and was a lot of fun. And then the children gathered in one place on the street and played different games with the collected eggs.

But the spring holiday of the Tatars, Sabantuy, is once again becoming widespread and beloved. This is a very beautiful, kind and wise holiday. It includes various rituals and games.

Literally, “Sabantuy” means “Plow Festival” (saban - plow and tui - holiday). Previously, it was celebrated before the start of spring field work, in April, but now Sabantuy is celebrated in June - after the end of sowing.

In the old days, they prepared for Sabantui for a long time and carefully - the girls wove, sewed, embroidered scarves, towels, and shirts with national patterns; everyone wanted her creation to become a reward for the strongest horseman - the winner in national wrestling or horse racing. And young people went from house to house and collected gifts, sang songs, and joked. Gifts were tied to a long pole; sometimes horsemen tied the collected towels around themselves and did not remove them until the end of the ceremony.

During the Sabantuy, a council of respected elders was elected - all power in the village passed to them, they appointed a jury to award the winners, and kept order during the competitions.

Socio-political movements of the 1980s—1990s

The late 80s of the 20th century saw a period of intensification of socio-political movements in Tatarstan. One can note the creation of the All-Tatar Public Center (VTOC), the first president M. Mulyukov, the branch of the Ittifak party - the first non-communist party in Tatarstan, headed by F. Bayramova.

V.V. PUTIN ALSO CLAIMES THAT THERE WERE TATARS IN HIS FAMILY!!!

SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:

http://www.photosight.ru/photos/

http://www.ethnomuseum.ru/glossary/

http://www.liveinternet.ru/

http://i48.servimg.com/

Wikipedia.

Zakiev M.Z. Part two, Chapter one. History of the study of the ethnogenesis of the Tatars // Origin of the Turks and Tatars. - M.: Insan, 2002.

Tatar Encyclopedia

R.K. Urazmanova. Rituals and holidays of the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals. Historical and ethnographic atlas of the Tatar people. Kazan, House of Printing 2001

Trofimova T. A. Ethnogenesis of the Volga Tatars in the light of anthropological data. - M., Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1949, P.145.

Tatars (Series “Peoples and Cultures” RAS). M.: Nauka, 2001. - P.36.

http://firo04.firo.ru/

http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/

http://www.ljplus.ru/img4/s/a/safiullin/

http://volga.lentaregion.ru/wp-content/

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