Origins The Bashkir group was formed by
Turkic tribes of South Siberian and Central Asian origin, who, before migrating to the
Southern Urals, wandered for a considerable time in the
Aral-Syr Darya steppes (modern day central-southern
Kazakhstan), coming into contact with the
Pecheneg-Oghuz and
Kimak-Kipchak tribes. Therefore, it is possible to note that the Bashkir people originates from the same tribes which compose the modern
Kazakhs,
Kyrgyz and
Nogais, but there has been a considerable cultural and a small ethnic exchange with
Oghuz tribes. The migration to the valley of the Southern Urals took place between the end of the 9th century and the beginning of the 10th century, in parallel to the Kipchak migration to the north.
Middle Ages in traditional dress The first report about Bashkirs may have been in the
Chinese chronicle
Book of Sui (636 AD). Around 40 Turkic
Tiele tribes were named in the section "A Narration about the Tiele people"; Bashkirs might have been included within that narration, if the tribal name 比干 (
Mandarin Bǐgān ←
Middle Chinese ZS: *
piɪX-kɑn) (in
Book of Wei) were a scribal error for 比千 (
Bĭqiān ← *
piɪXt͡sʰen) (in
History of the Northern Dynasties), the latter reading being favored by Chinese scholar Rui Chuanming. In the 7th century, Bashkirs were also mentioned in the Armenian
Ashkharatsuyts. However, these mentions may refer to the precursors of the
Kipchak Bashkir tribes who travelled in the Aral-Syr Darya region before the migration. The
Book of Sui may have mentioned "Bashkirs" when the Turkic peoples were still travelling through
southern Siberia. In the 9th century, during the migration of the Bashkirs to the Volga-Ural region, the first
Arabic and
Persian-written reports about Bashkirs are attested. These include reports by Sallam al-Tardjuman who around 850 travelled to the Bashkir territories and outlined their borders. In the 10th century, the Persian historian and polymath
Abu Zayd al-Balkhi described Bashkirs as a people divided into two groups: one inhabiting the Southern Urals, the other living on the
Wallachian Plain–
Danubian Plain near the boundaries of
Byzantium.
Ibn Rustah, a contemporary of
Abu Zayd al-Balkhi, observed that Bashkirs were an independent people occupying territories on both sides of the
Ural Mountains ridge between
Volga,
Kama, and
Tobol Rivers and upstream of the
Yaik river.
Ahmad ibn Fadlan, ambassador of the Baghdad Caliph
Al-Muqtadir to the governor of
Volga Bulgaria, wrote the first ethnographic description of the Bashkir in 922. The Bashkirs, according to Ibn Fadlan, were a warlike and powerful people, which he and his companions (a total of five thousand people, including military protection) "bewared... with the greatest threat". They were described as engaged in cattle breeding. According to ibn Fadlan, the Bashkirs worshipped twelve gods: winter, summer, rain, wind, trees, people, horses, water, night, day, death, heaven and earth, and the most prominent, the sky god. Apparently, Islam had already begun to spread among the Bashkirs, as one of the ambassadors was a Muslim Bashkir. According to the testimony of Ibn Fadlan, the Bashkirs were
Turks, living on the southern slopes of the
Urals, and occupying a vast territory up to the river
Volga. They were bordered by
Oghuz Turks on the south,
Pechenegs to the south-east and
Bulgars on the west. The earliest source to give a geographical description of Bashkir territory,
Mahmud al-Kashgari's ''Divanu Lugat'it Turk
(1072–1074), includes a map with a charted region called Fiyafi Bashqyrt'' (the Bashkir steppes). Despite a lack of much geographic detail, the sketch map does indicate that the Bashkirs inhabited a territory bordering on the
Caspian Sea and the
Volga valley in the west, the Ural Mountains in the north-west, and the
Irtysh valley in the east, thus giving a rough outline of the area.
Said Al-Andalusi and
Muhammad al-Idrisi mention the Bashkir in the 12th century. The 13th-century authors
Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi,
Yaqut al-Hamawi and
Qazvini and the 14th-century authors
Al-Dimashqi and
Abu'l-Fida also wrote about Bashkirs. The first European sources to mention the Bashkirs were the works of
Joannes de Plano Carpini and
William of Rubruquis of the 13th century. By 1226,
Genghis Khan had incorporated the lands of Bashkortostan into his empire. During the 13th and 14th centuries, all of Bashkortostan was a component of the
Golden Horde. The brother of
Batu-Khan, Sheibani, received the Bashkir lands east of the
Ural Mountains. After the disintegration of the
Mongol Empire, the Bashkirs were divided among the
Nogai Horde, the
Khanate of Kazan and the
Khanate of Sibir, founded in the 15th century.
Early modern period ,
Netherlands, 1814, 1814 In the middle of the 16th century, Bashkirs were gradually conquered by the
Tsardom of Russia. Primary documents pertaining to the Bashkirs during this period have been lost, although some are mentioned in the
shezhere (family trees) of the Bashkir. During the Russian Imperial period, Russians and Tatars began to migrate to Bashkortostan which led to eventual demographic changes in the region. The recruitment of Bashkirs into the Russian army and having to pay steep taxes pressured many Bashkirs to adopt a more settled lifestyle and to slowly abandon their ancient nomadic pastoralist past. At the founding of
Orenburg in 1735, the
fourth insurrection occurred and lasted six years. Ivan Kirillov formed a plan to build the fort to be called Orenburg at
Orsk at the confluence of the
Or River and the
Ural River, south-east of the Urals where the Bashkir, Kalmyk and Kazakh lands met. Work on Fort Orenburg commenced at Orsk in 1735. However, by 1743 the site of
Orenburg was moved a further 250 km west to its current location. The next planned construction was to be a fort on the
Aral Sea. The consequence of the Aral Sea fort would involve crossing Bashkir and the
Kazakh Lesser Horde lands, some of whom had recently offered a nominal submission to the Russian Crown. The southern side of Bashkiria was partitioned by the Orenburg Line of forts. The forts ran from
Samara on the Volga east as far as the
Samara River headwaters. It then crossed to the middle of the
Ural River and following the river course east and then north on the eastern side of the Urals. It then went east along the
Uy River to Ust-Uisk on the
Tobol River where it connected to the ill-defined 'Siberian Line' along the forest-steppe boundary. In 1774, the Bashkirs, under the leadership of
Salavat Yulayev, supported
Pugachev's Rebellion. In 1786, the Bashkirs achieved tax-free status; and in 1798 Russia formed an
irregular Bashkir army from among them.
Napoleonic Wars During the
Napoleonic Wars, many Bashkirs served as mercenaries in the Russian army to defend from the
French invaders during
Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Subsequently, the Bashkir battalions were the most notable fighters during the Napoleonic wars on the north German and Dutch plateau. The Dutch and the Germans called the Bashkirs "Northern Amurs", probably because the population was not aware of who the Bashkirs actually were or where they came from, therefore the usage of "
Amurs" in the name may be an approximation; these battalions were considered as the liberators from the
French, however modern Russian military sources do not credit the Bashkirs with these accomplishments. These regiments also served in the
Battle of Paris and the subsequent
occupation of France by the coalition forces.
Idel-Ural, and
Azerbaijan.
Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic In March 1919, the
Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed based on agreements of the Russian Government.
World War II (
Ufa Governorate).
Kumis cooking, the beginning of the 20th century , at the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the victory in the
Patriotic War of 1812, 1913 During
World War II, Bashkir soldiers served in the
Red Army to defend the
Soviet Union and fought against the Germans during the
German invasion of the Soviet Union.
Second declaration of independence On October 11, 1990, Declaration of State Sovereignty by the Supreme Council of the Republic was proclaimed. On March 31, 1992
Bashkortostan signed a federal agreement on the delimitation of powers and areas of jurisdiction and the nature of contractual relations between the authorities of the
Russian Federation and the authorities of the sovereign republics in its composition including the
Republic of Bashkortostan. ==Bashkir tribes==