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Tatars , often misspelled
Tartar, is a collective name applied to the
Turkic speaking people of
Eastern Europe and
Central Asia. The name is first recorded in the Old Turkic
Orkhon script in Mongolia first translated at the beginning of the 20th century. It was formerly believed to be derived from the name Tartarus, the Greek god of the underworld; this belief led to the frequent spelling and pronunciation of the name with an extra "r", to conform with the classical Greek word. However, this provenance is unlikely since the Tatars use this name for themselves. The name may be related to the old Chinese word "ta-tan" or "da-dan",, and more specifically to the Ta-Ta
Mongols.
The name Tatars was used to describe the Turkic peoples that overran parts of Asia and Europe under Mongol leadership in the
13th century. It was later extended to include almost any Asian nomadic invader, whether from Mongolia or the fringes of Western Asia. Before the
1920s Russians used the name Tatar to designate numerous peoples from the
Azeris to tribes of the
Siberia.
Most current day Tatars live in the central and southern parts of
Russia ,
Ukraine,
Poland and in
Bulgaria,
China,
Kazakhstan,
Romania,
Turkey, and
Uzbekistan. They collectively numbered more than 10 million in the late
20th century. Most Tatars are Sunni
Muslims.
The majority - in European
Russia - are descendants of Eastern European
Volga Bulgars who were conquered by the Mongol invasion of the
13th century and kept the name of their conquerors. Tatars of
Siberia are survivors of the once numerous
Turkic-Mongolian population of the Ural-
Altaic region, mixed to some extent with the speakers of
Uralic languages, as well as with Mongols.
The original Ta-ta
Mongols inhabited the north-eastern
Gobi in the
5th century and, after subjugation in the
9th century by the Khitans, migrated southward, there founding the Mongol empire under
Genghis Khan. Under the leadership of his grandson Batu Khan they moved westwards, driving with them many stems of the
Turkic Ural-Altayans towards the plains of
Russia.
On the
Volga they mingled with remnants of the old Bulgarian empire , and elsewhere with
Finno-Ugric speaking peoples, as well as with remnants of the ancient
Greek colonies in the
Crimea and Caucasians in the
Caucasus.
The name of Tatars, given to the invaders, was afterwards extended so as to include different stems of the same
Turkic-
Mongol branch in Russia, and even the bulk of the inhabitants of the high plateau of Asia and its northwestern slopes, described under the general name of
Tartary. This name has almost disappeared from geographical literature, but the name Tatars, in the above limited sense, remains in full use.
The present Tatar inhabitants of
Eurasia form three large groups:
Due to the vast movements and intermingling of peoples along with the very loose utilization of the name Tatar, current day Tatars comprise a spectrum of ethnic groups that looks Mongoloid at one end and Caucasoid at the other. As to the original Tatars from Mongolia, they most likely shared characteristics with the Mongol invaders from Central Asia.
European Tatars
The discrimination of the separate stems included under the name is still far from complete. The following subdivisions, however, may be regarded as established:
Tatars -
Tatarlar or
????????. In modern English only
Tatar is used to refer to Eurasian Tatars;
Tartar has offensive connotations as a confusion with the Tartarus of Greek mythology, due in part to the popular association of the supposed bloodthirsty ferocity of the Mongol tribes with the Greek sub-underworld. In Europe the term
Tartar is generally only used in the historical context for
Mongolian people who appeared in the 13th century and assimilated into the local population later.
Volga Tatars
Volga Tatars live in the central and Eastern European parts of Russia. In today's Russia the term
Tatars refers to describe
Volga Tatars only. During the census of 2002, Tatars, or Volga Tatars were officially divided into common Tatars, Astrakhan Tatars, Keräsen Tatars. Siberian Tatars were incorporated into the census as Tatars. Other ethnic groups, such as
Crimean Tatars and Chulyms, were not officially recognized as a part of Tatars and were counted separately.
Kazan Tatars
The majority of Volga Tatars are Kazan Tatars. They are the main and indigenious population of
Tatarstan.
During the 11-16th centuries, most
Turkic tribes lived in what is now Russia and Kazakhstan. The Kazan Tatars are descendants of the
Volga Bulgars, who settled on the Volga in the
8th century. There they mingled with
Scythian and Finno-Ugric speaking peoples and partly with descendants of the
Kipchaks, who settled on the Volga in the
13th century. After the Mongol invasion Bulgaria was defeated and ruined. Note that the most of the population of
Volga Bulgaria survived: while they had not kept their language, their old culture and religion -
Islam - remained intact. . There was very little mixing Mongol and Turkic aliens after the conquest of Volga Bulgaria, especially in the northern regions .
In some places the Kazan Tatars called themselves
Volga Bulgars. Even today, some Tatars do not recognize the word
Tatar as a name for their nation.
Kazan Tatars form the ethnic majority in Tatarstan , one of the constituent
republics of Russia.
In the
1910s they numbered about half a million in the government of
Kazan , about 400,000 in each of the governments of
Ufa, 100,000 in
Samara and
Simbirsk, and about 30,000 in Vyatka,
Saratov,
Tambov,
Penza,
Nizhny Novgorod,
Perm and
Orenburg. Some 15,000 belonging to the same stem had migrated to
Ryazan, or had been settled as prisoners in the 16th and 17th centuries in
Lithuania . Some 2000 resided in
St. Petersburg, where they were mostly employed as coachmen and waiters in restaurants. In Poland they constituted 1% of the population of the district of
Plock.
The Kazan Tatars speak a
Turkic dialect . They have been described as generally middle-sized, broad-shouldered, and the majority have brown and green eyes, a straight nose and salient cheek bones. Because their ancestors number not only Turkic peoples, but
Slavs and Finno-Ugric as well, many Kazan Tatars tend to have European faces. The population isn't homogeneous, around 33.5% belong to
Southern European subtype, 27.5% to
Northern European , 24.5% to Finno-Ugric and 14.5% to Southern Siberian one . Most Kazan Tatars practice Sunni Islam.
Before 1917 in Russia, polygamy was practised only by the wealthier classes and was a waning institution. The
Bashkirs who live between the
Kama,
Ural and
Volga speak the Bashkir language, which is similar to Tatar, and have converted to Sunni Islam.
Because it is understandable to all groups of Russian Tatars, as well as to the Chuvash and
Bashkirs, the language of the Kazan Tatars became a literary one in the 15th century . The old literary language included a lot of Arabic and Persian words. Nowadays the literary language includes European and Russian words instead of Arabic.
Kazan Tatars number nearly 7 millions, mostly in Russia and the republics of the former
Soviet Union. While the bulk of the population is to be found in
Tatarstan and neighbouring regions, significant numbers of Kazan Tatars live in Central Asia, Siberia and the Caucasus. Outside of Tatarstan, urban Tatars usually speak
Russian as their first language .
A significant number of Tatars emigrated during the
Russian Civil War, mostly to Turkey and
Harbin, China, but resettled to European countries later. Some of them speak Turkish at home. , there are still 51,000 Tatars living in Xinjiang province.
See also:
Tatar languageNoqrat Tatars
Kazan Tatars live in Russia's
Kirov Oblast.
Perm Tatars
Kazan Tatars live in Russia's
Perm Krai. Some of them also have an admixture of Komi blood.
Keräsen Tatars
Some Kazan Tatars were forcibly Christianized by
Ivan the Terrible during the 16th century and later in the 18th century.
Some scientists suppose that Suars were ancestors of the Keräsen Tatars, and they had been converted to Christianity by
Armenians in the
6th century, while they lived in the Caucasus. Suars, like other tribes became
Volga Bulgars and later the modern Chuvash and Kazan Tatars .
Keräsen Tatars live all over
Tatarstan. Now they tend to be assimilated anong
Russians, Chuvash and Tatars with Sunni Muslim self-identification. Eighty years of
atheistic Soviet rule made Tatars of both confessions not as religious as they were. As such, differences between Tatars and Keräsen Tatars now is only that Keräsens have Russian names.
Some Turkic tribes in
Golden Horde were converted to Christianity in the 13th and 14th centuries . Some prayers, written in that time in the
Codex Cumanicus, sound like modern Keräsen prayers, but there is no information about the connection between Christian Kumans and modern Keräsens.
Nagaybäks
Tatars who became
Cossacks .
Russian Orthodox. They live in the
Urals, the Russian border with
Kazakhstan during the 17th-18th century.
The biggest Nagaybäk village is Parizh, Russia, named after
French capital
Paris, due Nagaybäk's participation in
Napoleonic wars.
Tiptär Tatars
Like Nogaybaqs, although they are Sunni Muslims. Some Tiptär Tatars speak Russian or Bashkir. According some scientists, Tiptärs are part of the Misärs.
Kazan Tatar language dialects
There are 3 dialects: Eastern, Central, Western.
The Western dialect is spoken mostly by Mishärs, the Middle dialect is spoken by Tatarstan and Astrakhan Tatars , and the Eastern dialect is spoken by some groups of Tatars in
Russia's
Tyumen Oblast. This latter, which was isolated from other dialects, is related to Chulym, and some scientists believe that the Eastern dialect is an independent language. The Bashkir language, for example, is better understood by Kazan Tatars than is the Eastern dialect of the Siberian Tatars.
Middle Tatar is the base of literary Kazan Tatar Language. The Middle dialect also has subdivisions.
Misär Tatars
Misär Tatars are a group of Tatars speaking a dialect of the
Kazan Tatar language. They are descendants of
Kipchaks in the Middle Oka and Meschiora where they mixed with the local Finno-Ugric tribes and Russians. Nowadays they live in
Tambov,
Penza,
Ryazan oblasts of Russia and in
Mordovia. They lived near and along the Volga River, in Tatarstan.
Qasím Tatars
Western Tatars capital is the town of Qasím in
Ryazan Oblast with Tatar population of 500. See "Qasim Khanate" for their history.
Astrakhan Tatars
Astrakhan Tatars is a group of Tatars, descanders of
Astrakhan Khanate's agricultural population, living mostly in
Astrakhan Oblast. During the cenus 2000 of Russia, most of Astrakhan Tatars determined themselves as common Tatars and few determined themselves as Astrakhan Tatars. A large number of common Volga Tatars are living in Astrakhan Oblast and differences between them tend to disappear.
Text from Britannica 1911:
- The Astrakhan Tatars number about 10,000 and are, with the Mongol Kalmyks, all that now remains of the once so powerful Astrakhan empire. They also are agriculturists and gardeners; while some 12,000 Kundrovsk Tatars still continue the nomadic life of their ancestors.
While Astrakhan Tatar is a mixed dialect, around 43,000 have assimilated to the Middle dialect. Their ancestors are
Khazars,
Kipchaks and some
Volga Bulgars.
Volga Tatars in the world
Places where Volga Tatars live include:
- Ural and Upper Kama 15th century - colonization, 16th - 17th century - re-settled by Russians, 17th - 19th century - exploring of Ural, working in the plants
- West Siberia : 16th - from Russian repressions after conquering of Khanate of Kazan by Russians, 17th - 19th century - exploring of West Siberia, end of 19th - first half of 20th - industrialization, railways constructing, 1930s - Stalin's repressions, 1970s - 1990s oil workers
- Moscow : Tatar feudals in the service of Russia, tradesmen, since 18th - Saint-Petersburg
- Kazakhstan : 18th – 19th centuries - Russian army officers and soldiers, 1930s – industrialization, since 1950s - settlers on virgin lands - re-emigration in 1990s
- Finland : - 19th - from a group of some 20 villages in the Sergatch region on the Volga River. See Finnish Tatars.
- Central Asia - 19th Russian officers and soldiers, tradesmen, religious emigrants, 1920-1930s - industrialization, Soviet education program for Central Asia peoples, 1948, 1960 - help for Ashgabat and Tashkent ruined by earthquakes - re-emigration in 1980s
- Caucasus, especially Azerbaijan - oil workers , bread tradesmen
- Northern China - railway builders - re-emigrated in 1950s
- East Siberia - resettled farmers , railroad builders , exiled by the Soviet government in 1930s
- Germany and Austria - 1914, 1941 - prisoners of war, 1990s - emigration
- Turkey, Japan, Iran, China, Egypt - emigration
- England, USA, Australia, Canada, Argentina, Mexico - re-emigration from Germany, Turkey, Japan, China and others. 1950s - prisoners of war from Germany, which did not go back to the USSR, 1990s - emigration after the break up of USSR
- Sakhalin, Kaliningrad, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Karelia - after 1944-45 builders, Soviet military personnel
- Murmansk Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, Northern Poland and Northern Germany - Soviet military personnel
- Israel - wives or husbands of Jews
Tatars of Crimea, Ukraine and Poland
Crimean Tatars
The
Crimean Tatars constituted the
Crimean Khanate which was annexed by Russia in 1783. The war of 1853 and the laws of 1860-63 and 1874 caused an exodus of the
Crimean Tatars.
Those of the south coast, mixed with Scyth, Greeks and Italians, were well known for their skill in gardening, their honesty, and their work habits, as well as for their fine features, presenting the Tatar type at its best. The mountain Tatars closely resemble those of Caucasus, while those of the
steppes - the Nogais - are decidedly of a mixed origin with Turks and Mongols.
During
World War II, the entire Tatar population in Crimea fell victims to
Stalin's oppressive policies. In 1944 they were accused of being Nazi collaborators and deported en masse to
Central Asia and other lands of the Soviet Union. Many died of disease and malnutrition. Since the 1980s late, about 250,000 Crimean Tatars have returned to their homeland in the Crimea .
Lithuanian Tatars
After
Tokhtamysh was defeated by
Tamerlane, some of his clan sought refuge in
Grand Duchy of Lithuania. They were given land and nobility in return for military service and were known as Lipka Tatars. They are known to have taken part in the
Battle of Grunwald.
Another group appeared in Jagoldai Duchy near modern
Kursk in 1437 and disappeared later.
Belarusian Tatars
Polish Tatars
- Main articles: Lipka Tatars and Islam in Poland
From the 13th to 17th centuries various groups of Tatars settled and/or found refuge within the
Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth.
This was promoted especially by the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, because of their deserved reputation as skilled warriors. The Tatar settlers were all granted with
szlachta status, a tradition that was preserved until the end of the Commonwealth in the 18th century. They included the Lipka Tatars as well as Crimean and
Nogay Tatars , all of which were noticeable in Polish military history, as well as
Kazan Tatars . They all mostly settled in the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania, lands that are now in
Lithuania and
Belarus.
Various estimates of the number of Tatars in the Commonwealth in the 17th century range from 15,000 persons to 60 villages with mosques. Numerous royal privileges, as well as internal autonomy granted by the monarchs allowed the Tatars to preserve their religion, traditions and culture over the centuries. The Tatars were allowed to intermarry with Christians, a thing uncommon in Europe at the time. The May Constitution of 1791 gave the Tatars representation in the Polish
Sejm.
Although by the 18th century the Tatars adopted the local language, the Islamic religion and many Tatar traditions were preserved. This led to formation of a distinctive Muslim culture, in which the elements of Muslim orthodoxy mixed with religious tolerance and a relatively liberal society. For instance, the women in Lipka Tatar society traditionally had the same rights and status as men, and could attend non-segregated schools.
About 5,500 Tatars lived within the inter-war boundaries of Poland , and a Tatar cavalry unit had fought for the country's independence. The Tatars had preserved their cultural identity and sustained a number of Tatar organisations, including a Tatar archives, and a museum in Wilno .
The Tatars suffered serious losses during
World War II and furthermore, after the border change in 1945 a large part of them found themselves in the
Soviet Union. It is estimated that about 3000 Tatars live in present-day Poland, of which about 500 declared Tatar nationality in the 2002 census. There are two Tatar villages in the north-east of present-day Poland, as well as urban Tatar communities in
Warsaw,
Gdansk,
Bialystok, and
Gorzow Wielkopolski. Tatars in Poland sometimes have a Muslim surname with a Polish ending:
Ryzwanowicz, Jakubowicz.
The Tatars were relatively very noticeable in the Commonwealth military as well as in Polish and Lithuanian political and intellectual life for such a small community. In modern-day Poland, their presence is also widely known, due in part to their noticeable role in the historical novels of
Henryk Sienkiewicz, which are universally recognized in Poland. A number of Polish intellectual figures have also been Tatars, e.g. the prominent historian Jerzy Lojek.
A small community of Polish speaking Tartars settled in
Brooklyn, New York in the early 1900s. They established a mosque that is still in use today.
Caucasian Tatars
These are Tatars who inhabit the upper Kuban, the
steppes of the lower Kuma and the
Kura, and the
Araks. In the
19th century they numbered about 1,350,000. This number includes a number of Kazan Tatar oil workers who came to the Caucasus from the Middle Volga in the end of the 19th century.
Now this term is used to describe Volga Tatars, settled in Caucasus. Other explanations, like followers, can be found only in historical context.
Nogais on the Kuma
The
Nogais on the Kuma River show traces of a mixture with
Kalmyks. They are nomads, supporting themselves by cattle-breeding and fishing; a few are agriculturists.
Today Nogais is an independent ethnos, living in the North of
Dagestan, where they lived after Nogai Horde's defeating in was against Russia and settling
Kalmyks in their lands in 17th century. Nogais was replaced to
Black Lands in the North of
Daghestan. Another part merged with
Kazakhs.
In 16th century Nogais supperted
Crimean Khanate and
Ottoman Empire, but sometimes robed
Crimean,
Kazan Tatar and Bashkir lands, even they rulers supported them. In 16th-17th century some defensive walls was constructed in modern
Tatarstan and
Samara Oblast.
One of the Kazan Tatars national heroes, Söyembikä, was ethnically Nogai.
Today
Nogais are not included to
Tatars term,
Nogais are independent ethnos.
Qundra Tatars
Some groups of Nogais emigrated to Middle Volga, where were assimilated by Volga Tatars .
Karachays
The
Karachays who number 18,500 in the upper valleys about
Elburz 
