Bashkirs
The Bashkirs or Bashkurts (Bashkir: Башҡорттар, romanized: Başqorttar, IPA: [bɑʂ.qʊɾt.ˈtaɾ]; Russian: Башкиры, pronounced [bɐʂˈkʲirɨ]) are a Kipchak Turkic ethnic group indigenous to Russia. They are concentrated in Bashkortostan, a republic of the Russian Federation and in the broader historical region of Badzhgard, which spans both sides of the Ural Mountains, where Eastern Europe meets North Asia. Smaller communities of Bashkirs also live in the Republic of Tatarstan, the oblasts of Perm Krai, Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Tyumen, Sverdlovsk and Kurgan and other regions in Russia; sizable minorities exist in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Bashkirs of Baymak in traditional dress | |
| Total population | |
| approx. 2 million | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|
Russia 1,584,554 • Bashkortostan 1,268,806 | |
| Kazakhstan | 41,000 |
| Uzbekistan | 58,500 |
| Ukraine | 4,253 |
| Belarus | 1,200 |
| Turkmenistan | 8,000 |
| Moldova | 610 |
| Latvia | 177-205 |
| Lithuania | 400 |
| Estonia | 112 |
| Kyrgyzstan | 1,111 |
| Georgia | 379 |
| Azerbaijan | 533 |
| Armenia | 145 |
| Tajikistan | 8,400 |
| Languages | |
| Bashkir, Russian, Tatar | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Sunni Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Volga Tatars, Kazakhs, Nogais, Crimean Tatars | |
Most Bashkirs speak the Bashkir language, closely related to the Tatar and Kazakh languages, which belong to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic languages; they share historical and cultural affinities with the broader Turkic peoples. Bashkirs are mainly Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi madhhab, or school of jurisprudence, and follow the Jadid doctrine. Previously nomadic and fiercely independent, the Bashkirs gradually came under Russian rule beginning in the 16th century; they have since played a major role through the history of Russia, culminating in their autonomous status within the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia.