Ancient Bashkirs. Historical information

2) The origin of the Bashkir people.

3) The first information about the Bashkirs.

4) Saks, Scythians, Sarmatians.

5) Ancient Turks.

6) Polovtsy.

7) Genghis Khan.

8) Bashkortostan as part of the Golden Horde.

10) Ivan the Terrible.

11) Accession of the Bashkirs to the Russian state.

12) Bashkir uprisings.

13) Bashkir tribes.

14) The belief of the ancient Bashkirs.

16) Adoption of Islam.

17) Writing among the Bashkirs and the first schools.

17) The emergence of the Bashkir auls.

18) The emergence of cities.

19) Hunting and fishing.

20) Agriculture.

21) Wrestling.

22) The impact of the Civil War on the economic and social life of Bashkiria

1) The origin of the Bashkir people. Formation, the formation of the people does not occur immediately, but gradually. In the eighth century BC, the Ananyin tribes lived in the Southern Urals, who gradually settled in other territories. Scientists believe that the Ananyin tribes are the direct ancestors of the Komi-Permyaks, Udmurts, Mari, and the descendants of the Ananyin took part in the origin of the Chuvash, Volga Tatars, Bashkirs and other peoples of the Urals and the Volga region.
The Bashkirs, as a people, did not migrate from anywhere, but were formed as a result of a very complex and long historical development in the places of indigenous tribes, in the process of contacts and crossing them with alien tribes of Turkic origin. These are Savromats, Huns, ancient Turks, Pechenegs, Cumans and Mongolian tribes.
The entire process of the formation of the Bashkir people ends at the end of the 15th - in the first half of the 16th century.

2) The first information about the Bashkirs.

The first written evidence about the Bashkirs dates back to the 9th - 10th centuries. Especially important are the testimonies of the Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan. According to his description, the embassy traveled for a long time through the country of the Oguz-Kypchaks (the steppes of the Aral Sea), and then, in the area of ​​​​the present city of Uralsk, it crossed the Yaik River and immediately entered the “country of the Bashkirs from among the Turks.”
In it, the Arabs crossed such rivers as the Kinel, Tok, Sarai, and beyond the Bolshoi Cheremshan river, the borders of the state of Volga Bulgaria began.
The closest neighbors of the Bashkirs in the west were the Bulgars, and in the south and east - the formidable nomadic tribes of the Guz and Kypchaks. The Bashkirs were actively trading with China, with the states of Southern Siberia, Central Asia and Iran. They sold their furs, iron products, livestock and honey to merchants. In exchange, they received silks, silver and gold jewelry, dishes. Merchants and diplomats passing through the country of the Bashkirs left stories about her. These stories mention that the cities of the Bashkirs consisted of ground log houses. The Bashkir settlements were frequently raided by the neighbors of the Bulgars. But the warlike Bashkirs tried to meet the enemies at the border and did not let them close to their villages.

3) Saks, Scythians, Sarmatians.

2800 - 2900 years ago, a strong powerful people appeared in the Southern Urals - the Saks. Horses were their main wealth. The famous Saka cavalry captured fertile pastures for their numerous herds with swift throws. Gradually, the steppes of Eastern Europe from the Southern Urals to the shores of the Caspian and Aral Seas and the south of Kazakhstan became Saka.
Among the Sakas were especially wealthy families who had several thousand horses in their herds. Wealthy families subjugated poor relatives and chose a king. This is how the Saka state arose.

All Sakas were considered slaves of the king, and all their wealth was his property. It was believed that even after death, he becomes the King, but only in another world. The kings were buried in large deep graves. Log cabins were lowered into the pits - at home, weapons, dishes with food, expensive clothes and other things were put inside. Everything was made of gold and silver, so that in the underworld no one doubted the royal origin of the buried.
For a whole millennium, the Sakas and their descendants dominated the wide expanses of the steppe. Then they split into several separate groups of tribes and began to live separately.

The Scythians were a nomadic people of the steppes, vast pasture lands stretching across Asia from Manchuria to Russia. The Scythians existed by breeding animals (sheep, cattle and horses) and partly engaged in hunting. The Chinese and Greeks described the Scythians as ferocious warriors who were one with their swift, short horses. Armed with bows and arrows, the Scythians fought on horseback. According to one description, they took scalps from enemies and kept them as a trophy.
Wealthy Scythians were covered in elaborate tattoos. The tattoo was evidence of a person's belonging to a noble family, and its absence was a sign of a commoner. A person with patterns applied to the body turned into a “walking” work of art.
When a leader died, his wife and servants were killed and buried with him. Together with the leader, his horses were also buried. Many very beautiful gold items found in the burials speak of the wealth of the Scythians.

Wandering along the borders of the trans-Ural steppe of the forest-steppe, the Saks come into contact with the semi-nomadic tribes who lived there. According to many modern researchers, these were Finno-Ugric tribes - the ancestors of the Mari, Udmurts, Komi-Permyaks and, possibly, Magyar-Hungarians. The interaction of the Saks and Ugrians ended in the 4th century BC with the appearance of the Sarmatians on the historical arena.
In the second century BC, the Sarmatians conquered Scythia and devastated it. Some of the Scythians were exterminated or captured, others were subjugated and merged with the Saks.
The famous historian N. M. Karamzin wrote about the Sarmatians. "Rome was not ashamed to buy the friendship of the Sarmatians with gold."
The Scythians, Sakas and Sarmatians spoke Iranian. The Bashkir language has ancient Iranianisms, that is, words that entered the vocabulary of the Bashkirs from the Iranian language: kyyar (cucumber), kamyr (dough), tact (board), byyala (glass), bakta (wool - molt), hike (bunks) , shishme (spring, stream).

4) Ancient Turks.

In the 6th-7th centuries, new hordes of nomads gradually moved westward from the steppes of Central Asia. The Turks created a huge empire from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the northern Caucasus in the west, from the forest-steppe regions of Siberia in the north to the borders of China and Central Asia in the south. In 558, the Southern Urals was already part of the state of the Turks.

The supreme deity among the Turks was the Sun (according to other versions - the sky) He was called Tengre. Tengre was subject to the gods of water, wind, forests, mountains and other deities. Fire, as the ancient Turks believed, cleansed a person from all sins and bad thoughts. Around the khan's yurt, bonfires burned day and night. No one dared to approach the khan until they passed through the fiery corridor.
The Turks left a deep mark in the history of the peoples of the Southern Urals. Under their influence, new tribal unions were formed, which gradually switched to a settled way of life.

5) In the second half of the 9th century, a new wave of Turkic-speaking nomads, the Pechenegs, passed through the steppes of the Southern Urals and the Volga region. They were ousted from Central Asia and the Aral Sea region, having suffered defeat in the wars for the possession of the oases of the Syr Darya and the Northern Aral Sea region. At the end of the 9th century, the Pechenegs and related tribes became the actual owners of the steppes of Eastern Europe. The Pechenegs, who lived in the steppes of the Trans-Volga and Southern Urals, also included Bashkir tribes. Being an organic part of the Trans-Volga Pechenegs, the Bashkirs of the 9th - 11th centuries apparently did not differ from the Pechenegs in their way of life or culture.

The Polovtsians are nomadic Turks who appeared in the middle of the 11th century in the steppes of the Urals and the Volga. The Polovtsians themselves called themselves Kypchaks. They approached the borders of Rus'. With the time of their domination, the steppe became known as Deshti-Kypchak, the Polovtsian steppe. About the times of the domination of the Polovtsy sculptures - stone "women" standing on the steppe barrows. Although these statues are called "women", images of warrior-heroes - the founders of the Polovtsian tribes - predominate among them.
The Polovtsy acted as allies of Byzantium against the Pechenegs, expelled them from the Black Sea region. The Polovtsy were both allies and enemies of the Russian tribes. Many of the Polovtsians became relatives of Russian princes. So, Andrey Bogolyubsky was the son of a Polovtsy, the daughter of Khan Aepa. Prince Igor, the hero of The Tale of Igor's Campaign, before his 1185 campaign against the Polovtsy, himself invited the Polovtsy to take part in military raids on Rus'.
In the XIII - XIV centuries, the territory of the Urals and Trans-Urals was inhabited by the Kypchaks. They entered into family ties with other tribes inhabiting the area.

6) Genghis Khan was the son of the leader of a small Mongol tribe. At the age of eight he was left an orphan. When Genghis Khan's father saw a large birthmark on the baby's palm, he considered it a sign that his son would become a great warrior.
The real name of Genghis Khan is Temujin. His merit was that he united nomadic tribes little connected with each other into one intertribal union. He dedicated his entire life to building an empire. War was the instrument of this construction. There were no foot soldiers in the Mongol army: each had two horses, one for himself, the other for luggage. They lived, feeding on the conquered population.

Cities, if their population resisted, were mercilessly destroyed along with all the inhabitants. True, if they surrendered without a fight, they could have been spared. Genghis Khan and his army became so famous for their brutality that many preferred to surrender to him without a fight.
The troops of Genghis Khan overcame the Great Wall of China and soon captured all of China. In 1215, Beijing was captured and all of China became part of the great Mongol Empire.
In the 20s of the XIII century, Genghis Khan with his horde approached the outlying cities of Rus'. Although the Russian cities were well fortified, they could not hold back the onslaught of the Mongols. Having defeated the combined forces of the Russian and Polovtsian princes in 1223 at the Battle of the Kalka, the Mongol army devastated the territory between the Don and the Dnieper north of the Sea of ​​Azov.

In the thirteenth century, numerous troops of the formidable Genghis Khan approached the Southern Urals. The forces were unequal, in several battles the Bashkirs were defeated. As a sign of reconciliation, the Bashkir leader Muitan Khan, the son of Tuksob Khan, arrived at the headquarters of the Mongol Khan. He brought with him expensive gifts, including thousands of cattle. Genghis Khan was satisfied with expensive gifts and awarded the Khan with a letter of eternal possession of him and his descendants of the lands through which the Belaya River flows. The vast lands given under the rule of Muitan Khan completely coincide with the territory of the settlement of the Bashkir tribes of the 9th - 12th centuries.

7) In the thirteenth century, numerous troops of the formidable Genghis Khan approached the Southern Urals. The forces were unequal, in several battles the Bashkirs were defeated. As a sign of reconciliation, the Bashkir leader Muitan Khan, the son of Tuksob Khan, arrived at the headquarters of the Mongol Khan. He brought with him expensive gifts, including thousands of cattle. Genghis Khan was satisfied with expensive gifts and awarded the Khan with a letter of eternal possession of him and his descendants of the lands through which the Belaya River flows. The vast lands given under the rule of Muitan Khan completely coincide with the territory of the settlement of the Bashkir tribes of the 9th - 12th centuries.
But the broad masses of the Bashkirs did not reconcile themselves to the loss of independence and repeatedly rose to war against the new masters. The theme of the struggle of the Bashkirs against the Mongols is most fully reflected in the legend “The Last of the Sartay clan”, which tells about the tragic fate of the Bashkir Khan Jalyk, who lost two of his sons and his entire family in the war against the Mongols, but remained unconquered to the end.

8) The formidable Tsar Timur left his mark on the history of Bashkortostan. Timur (sometimes called Tamerlane) was the ruler of a large state, and his capital was the beautiful city of Samarkand. He constantly waged wars against neighboring countries, taking young men and women prisoner, stealing cattle.
In June 1391, near the Kundurcha River in Bashkortostan, Timur defeated the Mongol king Tokhtamysh. On the rights of the winner, Timur's soldiers began to plunder. They took away clothes, weapons, horses from the prisoners, ruined and destroyed hundreds of Bashkir villages, dozens of cities in the Ural-Volga region. The robbery continued for 20 days.
Timur left a bad memory of himself. Here is one of the legends of the Bashkirs, which explains the origin of the village of Uchaly: “Once a khan named Aksak Timur came to the Bashkir land. He came and asked the Bashkirs to marry their girlfriend to him. They decided to give him a girl of their kind. Khan generously paid for it and left. After some time, he came again to pick up his bride. But now the Bashkirs unexpectedly opposed his desire. They didn't give the girl away. Khan became very angry. Revenging for his honor, he ruined and burned all the camps and yurts of the local Bashkir clans. The people suffered greatly from this destruction. For a long time they did not forget the cruel khan, they remembered with curses. Later, these places began to be called Us aldy - revenged. They say that the name of the village Uchaly came from this word.

9) On January 16, 1547, Metropolitan of All Rus' Macarius in the Assumption Cathedral solemnly crowned Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich for the first time in Russian history.
The king's head was crowned with the Cap of Monomakh. With the cap of Monomakh, after Ivan the Terrible, all Russian tsars will be crowned as a crown. The boyars in those days flaunted in front of each other with high fur hats. It was believed that the higher the hat, the more noble the family. Ordinary people did not have the right to wear such luxurious hats. Needless to say: according to Senka and a hat.
Under Ivan the Terrible, the territory of the Russian state increased significantly, but the state itself was on the verge of disaster. The time of his reign, on the one hand, was marked by success, and on the other hand, by the bloody war of the king against his people. To fight the enemies that seemed to him at every step, Ivan the Terrible came up with the oprichnina. The name "oprichnina" comes from the old Russian word "oprich" - besides, besides. Oprichniki wore a special uniform. They searched everywhere for the enemies of the king. Together with a person, they seized all members of his family, servants, often even peasants. After severe torture, the unfortunate were executed, and the survivors were exiled.

10) In the middle of the 15th century, the Golden Horde collapsed. Smaller states arose on its territory: the Nogai Horde, the Kazan, Siberian and Astrakhan khanates. The Bashkirs were under their domination. All this further worsened the position of the Bashkirs.
In the middle of the 16th century, after the liberation from the Mongol yoke, the power of the Russian state began to grow rapidly. However, the East was not yet calm. The Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, with their constant raids, ravaged the Russian lands, took many into captivity. Only in Kazan in 1551 more than a hundred thousand Russian prisoners languished. The interests of the further development of the Russian state required decisive measures against Kazan. And Tsar Ivan the Terrible organized a military campaign. With the capture of Kazan on October 2, 1952, the existence of the Kazan Khanate ceased.
Ivan the Terrible addressed the peoples of the former Kazan Khanate with letters. In them, he urged to voluntarily accept Russian citizenship and pay yasak (tribute). He promised not to touch their lands, religion and customs, that is, to leave everything as it was before the Mongol invasion. In addition, he promised protection and patronage from all enemies.
The flexible diplomacy of the White Tsar, as the Bashkirs called the Terrible, gave its results: the Bashkirs met his proposal with approval. The first to accept Russian citizenship at the end of 1554 were the tribes of Western Bashkortostan, which were previously part of the Kazan Khanate. In the spring of 1557, the process of entry of the bulk of the Bashkirs into the Russian state was completed.

When the annexation was legalized, the conditions were stipulated: the Bashkirs were obliged to perform military service - to protect the eastern borders, participate in military campaigns along with the Russians and pay yasak.
Accession as a whole was of progressive importance for the Bashkirs. It was finished with the domination of the Nogai, Kazan and Siberian khanates, with endless internecine wars. All this had a positive effect on the development of the economy of the region. The Bashkirs began to adopt agricultural and craft skills from the Russian peasants, and the Russians from the Bashkirs - some methods of cattle breeding and beekeeping. Bashkirs, Russians and other peoples jointly developed the natural resources of the region.
Accession to the Russian state was accompanied by the construction of fortresses and cities. Birsk was founded by the Bashkirs themselves in 1555. In 1766, Sterlitamak was founded as a pier. In 1762, the construction of the Beloretsk plant began, in 1781 Belebey received the status of a city.

11) An important place in the history of Bashkortostan is occupied by uprisings of indigenous people against the colonial oppression of tsarism. This oppression was expressed in the forcible seizure of the Bashkir lands, in the persecution of national culture. The situation of the Bashkirs worsened by the fact that the tsarist officials abused the collection of yasak, violated the conditions for joining the Bashkirs to Rus'.
The Bashkirs had nowhere to complain, so they expressed their protest with weapons in their hands. The Bashkirs organized 89 armed uprisings against the Russian colonizers.
Major armed uprisings of the Bashkirs: 1662 - 1664 (leaders Sarah Mergen and Ishmukhamet Davletbaev); 1681 - 1683 (Seit Sadir); 1704 - 1711 (Aldar Isyangildin and Kusyum Tyulekeev); 1735 - 1740 (Kilmyak abyz Nurushev, Akai Kusyumov, Bepenya Trupberdin, Karasakal); 1755 (Batyrsha Aliyev); the participation of the Bashkirs in the Peasant War of Emelyan Pugachev in 1773 - 1775 (Salavat Yulaev, Kinzya Arslanov, Bazargul Yunaev).
About the defenders of the people, about the brave leaders of armed uprisings, the people composed songs, kubairas, legends. Salavat Yulaev became the national hero of the Bashkir people. Salavat Yulaev combined the talent of a poet, the gift of a commander, the fearlessness of a warrior. These qualities reflect the spiritual image of the Bashkirs. Bashkirs, Russians, Tatars, Mishars, Chuvashs, and Mari gathered under the banner of Pugachev. But the first place among them in terms of the number of participants belonged to the Bashkirs. The first of the Bashkir commanders appeared in the camp of the rebels Kinzya Arslanov. He led a detachment of 500 men. Being a highly educated person, he was immediately accepted into the Pugachev headquarters.
The authorities decided to use the Bashkirs to fight the rebels, in the city of Sterlitamak, by order of the governor of Orenburg, many armed Bashkirs gathered. Among them was Salavat Yulaev. Salavat enjoyed great confidence among his subordinates. Even then he was known as a poet-improviser. With a fiery speech, he speaks to the soldiers, urging them to join Pugachev. All unanimously supported Salavat. He becomes the leader of the entire Bashkir cavalry.
After the departure of Pugachev from Bashkortostan, the leadership of the uprising completely passes into the hands of Salavat. He continues the fight even when the traitorous Cossacks extradite Pugachev to the authorities.
But the forces were unequal, the uprising began to wane, Salavat's detachments were defeated. They seized the batyr on November 25, 1774. After lengthy interrogations and severe torture, on October 3, 1775, he and his father were sent to eternal hard labor in Rogervik. Here, along with other rebels, Salavat and his father Yulai Aznalin worked on the construction of the Rogervik port. It was exhausting work, but they steadfastly endured all the hardships. History knows this fact. Somehow the Swedes attacked the garrison. They killed all the guards and began to rob everything. Then the convicts attacked them. They put the Swedes to flight and captured their ships. After all that had happened, the Pugachevites could go to the open sea. But they raised the St. Andrew's flag and waited for the authorities. The convicts hoped that they would be pardoned for such a patriotic act. However, the authorities decided in their own way: everything remained unchanged. Yulai died in 1797. On September 26, 1800, Salavat also died.

12) Each Bashkir tribe included several clans. The number of births in the tribes was different. At the head of the clan was a biy - a tribal leader. In the 9th-12th centuries, the power of the biys became hereditary. Biy relied on the people's assembly (yiyin) and the council of elders (korltai). Issues of war and peace, the clarification of borders were decided in the course of people's assemblies. People's meetings ended with festivities: horse races were organized, storytellers competed in poetic skills, kuraists and singers performed.
Each tribe had four distinctive features: a brand (tamga), a tree, a bird and a cry (oran). For example, among the Burzians, the stigma was an arrow, a tree - an oak, a bird - an eagle, a cry - baysungar.
The name of the Bashkir people is Bashkort. What does this word mean? There are more than thirty explanations in science. The most common are the following: The word "bashkort" is composed of two words "bash" means "head, chief", and "court" - "wolf". Such an explanation is connected with the ancient beliefs of the Bashkirs. The wolf was one of the totems of the Bashkirs. A totem is an animal, less often a natural phenomenon, a plant that ancient people worshiped as a god, considering him the Ancestor of the tribe. The Bashkirs have legends about the wolf-savior, the wolf-guide, the progenitor wolf. The word "bashkort" according to another explanation also consists of two words "bash" means "head, chief", and "kort" - "bee". Bashkirs have long been engaged in beekeeping, and then beekeeping. It is possible that the bee was the totem of the Bashkirs, and eventually became their name.

13) Religion among ancient people was born in an attempt to explain the world around us. No one could explain why cold or hunger suddenly sets in, an unsuccessful hunt happens.
Natural forces: the sun, rain, thunder and lightning, and so on, aroused special reverence among people. All peoples in their early development worshiped the forces of nature and the idols that represented them. For example, the main god of the ancient Greeks and Slavs was the Thunderer, who struck the disobedient with lightning. The Greeks called him Zeus, the Slavs - Perun. And the ancient Bashkirs especially revered the sun and the moon. They represented the sun as a woman, the moon as a man. In the myth of the heavenly bodies, the sun appears in the form of a red water maiden emerging from the sea, with long white hair. She takes out the stars with her hands and decorates her hair with them. The moon is drawn in the form of a handsome jigit, looking merrily or sadly from the sky at people.
The earth, the ancient Bashkirs thought, rests on a huge bull and a big pike, and their body movements cause earthquakes. Trees and stones, earth and water, like a person, the ancient Bashkirs believed, experience pain, resentment, anger and can avenge themselves and their neighbors, harm or, on the contrary, help a person. Birds and animals were also endowed with intelligence. The ancient Bashkirs believed that birds and animals can talk to each other, and in relation to a person behave the way he deserves it. And fire, according to popular notions, was the source of two principles - evil in the form of ubyra and good - as a power of purification from evil spirits and as a source of heat.
Therefore, the Bashkirs behaved carefully in relation to the outside world, so as not to cause anger and discontent from nature.

Approximately 1400 years ago, a new prophet appeared on the Arabian Peninsula. Mahomet (Mohammed) was born in 570 BC. At the age of six, he was orphaned and raised by foster parents.
In those days, the Arabs worshiped many gods. Like other peoples at an early stage of development, they worshiped various idols. The tribes of Arab nomads lived very poorly and in constant enmity with each other. In order to unite, a common faith was needed. Islam became such a faith.
Islam was a new religion, at the same time it borrowed a lot from Judaism and Christianity. Mohammed declared himself a prophet of Allah, who, through the archangel Gabriel (Jabrail), revealed to him the truths of the new faith, later collected in the Koran.
The word "Islam" in Arabic means "submission". “Muslim” means “one who obeys”. The new faith proclaimed Allah the only god who is kind to people, but, however, takes revenge on those who are not devoted to Islam. It should be said that there are many legends about the prophets in the Koran, which are mentioned in the sacred Jewish and Christian books. According to the Koran, Moses (Musa), Jesus (Isa) and many others are prophets.
Mohammed, preaching in the name of Allah, forced the warring tribes to unite into a single people, which subsequently led to the creation of an Arab empire. Mohammed and his followers created a new Islamic society that combined strict religious precepts with the commandment to protect the weak - women, orphans and slaves. Europeans often believe that Islam is a militant religion. But it's not. Side by side with Muslims, Jews, Christians and Buddhists lived in the world for centuries.
The conquests of the Arabs led to the fact that Islam spread throughout the world. Islam has played a very important role in the development of mankind. The new religion contributed to the development of science, architecture, crafts, and trade. For example, having decided to conquer the countries with which they were separated by the sea, the Arabs became excellent sailors. Today, more than 840 million people are Muslims.

15) Adoption of Islam.

Islam began to penetrate into Bashkir society in the 10th-11th centuries through Bulgarian and Central Asian merchants, as well as preachers. The Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan met one of the Bashkirs who professed Islam back in 922.
Already in the XIV century, Islam became the dominant religion in Bashkiria, as evidenced by the mausoleums and Muslim burials.
The spread of the Muslim religion everywhere was accompanied by the construction of prayer buildings and mausoleums over the "graves of saints", which are now examples of ancient Bashkir architectural architecture. These monuments of art are called “keshene” by the Bashkirs. On the modern territory of the republic there are three mausoleums built in the XIII-XIV centuries, two of which are in the Chishminsky, and the third - in the Kugarchinsky districts.
One of them, the mausoleum-keshene of Khusain-bek, is located on the left bank of the Dema River, on the outskirts of the Chishma station. Keshene was built over the grave of Khusain-bek, one of the active Muslim preachers.
The building in its original form has not survived to this day. The base of the keshene is built of large unhewn stones, and for the construction of the dome, specially processed and well-fitted stones were used.
The whole appearance of the building resembles the “tirme” form, it is an architectural image that at that time dominated the steppes of Bashkortostan.

16) The Bashkirs, like many Turkic peoples, used runic writing before the adoption of Islam. Ancient runes resembled Bashkir tribal tamgas. In ancient times, the Bashkirs used stone, sometimes birch bark, as the material for writing.
With the adoption of Islam, they began to use the Arabic script. The letters of the Arabic alphabet were used to write verses and poems, appeals of batyrs, genealogies, letters, tombstones.
Since 1927, the Bashkirs have switched to Latin, and in 1940 to Russian graphics.
The modern alphabet of the Bashkir language consists of 42 letters. In addition to 33 letters common with Russian, 9 more letters have been adopted to designate specific sounds of the Bashkir language.
The first schools in Bashkiria appeared in the second half of the 16th century. They copied the traditional religious school of Islam - the madrasah (from the Arabic "Madras" - "the place where they teach").
In the madrasah, the main attention was paid to the religious and moral education of children. Students also received some knowledge in mathematics, astronomy, classical Arabic literature.
Since the end of the 18th century, the network of mektebs (elementary schools) and madrasahs in Bashkiria has been expanding rapidly. And in the first half of the 19th century, Bashkiria turned into one of the centers of education in the Russian east. Especially famous were the madrasahs in the village of Sterlibash (Sterlitamak district), Seitov Posad (Orenburg district), Troitsk (Trinity district).
The madrasah was founded by wealthy entrepreneurs who perfectly understood how important education is for the people. In 1889, the Khusainia madrasah was opened, which was maintained at the expense of the Khusainov brothers. Other well-known Ufa madrasahs: "Humania" (1887, now the building of school No. 14), "Gali" (1906).

17) Many Bashkir villages have a beautiful and convenient location. Baddkirs were very attentive to the choice of a place for wintering (kyshlau) and summer-wok (yaylau).
Bashkir auls have grown and developed from winter quarters. When the economic basis of life was nomadic cattle breeding, the choice of a place for wintering was determined primarily by the presence of a sufficient amount of fodder for keeping livestock. The river valleys met all the requirements of the Bashkirs. Their wide floodplains, plentifully irrigated during the spring flood, were covered with tall lush grass during the summer and were beautiful winter pastures, later - haylands. The surrounding mountains protected the pools from the winds, and their slopes were used as pastures.
The location of winter quarters near the water was also convenient because rivers and lakes served as a source of auxiliary, and for part of the population and the main occupation - fishing.
Bashkir auls mostly bear the names of their founders: Umitbai, Aznam, Yanybai and others.

18) UFA
The division of labor is one of the greatest achievements of man. How was labor divided? It's very simple: someone was skilled in making pottery and other utensils from clay, someone had a blacksmith's heart, and someone most of all loved to work the land. This is how the first artisans appeared.
The potter, blacksmith and farmer had to exchange or sell what they produced. You also need to defend yourself from enemies. This is how the first settlements of people appeared, which eventually grew, became the center of trade and civilization.
The first cities of which there is information were built by the Sumerians about five and a half thousand years ago. The land of the Sumerians was located on the territory of modern Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It was called Mesopotamia, which in Greek means "country between the rivers."
In the Southern Urals, the first cities appeared about 3 thousand years ago. One of these cities - Arkaim - is located 60 kilometers from the city of Sibay. The ancient settlement was surrounded by three rows of powerful walls made of mud brick, wood and turf. Semi-dugout houses measuring 4x12 meters were planned so that the walls served as walls for two other neighboring dwellings. Each house had two exits - to the courtyard and to the street. The city had a common sewer system for water flow. Such fortresses-fortifications are the most ancient in Russia. Merchants from distant countries stopped here, bought metals and products from them, and traded in imported goods. But the main task of such fortress cities was to protect the mines from the capture and destruction of their hostile neighbors. About a thousand years ago BC, man learned to make tools from iron. With the discovery of iron, both culture and society changed. At that time, two ways of life were developing in the Southern Urals - nomadic pastoralism in the steppe part and settled pastoralism and agriculture in the forest-steppe part. A major event in the history of the Bashkirs was the founding of the city of Ufa. The city got its name from the name of the river Ufa, but neither the Slavic, nor the Turkic, nor the Finno-Ugric languages ​​​​give us an answer what the name of the river itself means and what its origin is. In 1574 the Ufa fortress was founded. The fortress allowed the Bashkirs to facilitate the observance of the burdensome duty of surrendering yasak, since from the time their land was annexed to the Russian state, they were forced to carry yasak to distant Kazan, which was unsafe. But the Moscow tsars, agreeing to the construction of the fortress, thought not only about the conveniences of the indigenous population of the region, but also about their own benefit. The Ufa fortress was for them that stronghold, from where a favorable opportunity was created to extend the dominion of the Moscow sovereigns further and further to the southeast.
For many years, the fortress lived a wary, but, in general, relatively quiet and peaceful life. There were few inhabitants: by the beginning of the 17th century, only 230 people. But the number of inhabitants grew from year to year. Within 30 - 40 years the population of the city reached 700 - 800 people.
In the second half of the 17th century, the Ufa Fortress inscribed its page in the history of the great Peasants' War led by Emelyan Pugachev. Bashkiria was the area of ​​the most active operations of the rebels. From the first days, the Pugachev freemen tried to take possession of Ufa, but random raids by the rebel Cossack detachments and the Bashkirs who joined them did not reach their goal. After the terrible events of the peasant war, its significance as a defensive fortification finally wanes. The government order was to "sell the cast-iron cannons, and send the copper ones to Orenburg."
Modern Ufa consists of several isolated massifs, stretched from the southwest to the northeast for more than 50 kilometers and covers an area of ​​468.4 square kilometers. It is a city with more than a million inhabitants.

Beloretsk

In the picturesque valley of the Belaya River, surrounded by the mountains of the Southern Urals, the city of Beloretsk has grown - the oldest in the Urals and the only center of ferrous metallurgy in Bashkiria. Beloretsk is located in the central part of the Southern Urals, in the mountain-forest region of Bashkiria, rich in iron ore, refractory clays, magnesites, dolomites, crystalline schists, limestones, including marble-like ones, which can be used as a facing stone. The mountain ranges surrounding the city were in the past covered with dense coniferous forests, mostly pine. All this created conditions for the construction of a metallurgical plant, when cast iron was smelted on charcoal. The emergence of Beloretsk dates back to the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1747, with the help of local Bashkir residents, the famous Magnetic Mountain was discovered. But there was no forest in the region of this mountain and the plant was built at a considerable distance from it, on the Belaya River. It was the Beloretsk cast iron foundry. The Tverdyshev brothers founded the plant on a plot of land of 200 thousand acres, for which they paid the Bashkirs only 300 rubles. In 1923 Beloretsk received the status of a city. Externally, Beloretsk has much in common with the old mining settlements of the Urals: in its center there is a vast pond with a dam across the Belaya River and a metallurgical plant with blast furnaces, cowpers and smoking chimneys protruding against the sky. The city is divided into three parts by the Belaya River and its tributary. The lower village on the right bank is the historical center of the city. An iron foundry and ironworks were built here, and later a steel wire and mechanical plant. The streets of the lower village stretch along the banks of the pond and the Belaya River and perpendicular to them. The old quarters are built up with small one-story buildings with white shutters typical of mountainous Ural cities.

Sterlitamak

Sterlitamak is the second largest city in Bashkortostan. It is located 140 kilometers south of Ufa, at the confluence of the Belaya and Ashkadar rivers, at the mouth of the Sterli River. The city was founded in 1766 as a pier for the alloy of Iletsk salt, which was brought to the pier by carts. Then it was loaded onto barges and floated along the Belaya, Kama and Volga rivers to Nizhny Novgorod and other Russian cities. Since 1781 Sterlitamak has become a city and county center. The city was given a coat of arms: three silver swans on the unfolded banner. Until 1917, 20 thousand inhabitants lived in it, 5 small sawmills, 4 mills, a distillery and several tanneries worked. From whichever side you drive up to the city, a chain of solitary mountains, called shikhans, appears in front of you. Mountains give the landscape a peculiar harsh beauty.
The bowels near Sterlitamak are rich in minerals: oil, limestone, marl, rock salt, clay. Sterlitamak is now a modern industrial and cultural center. The city is being built and continues to develop. He has great prospects. All of it is in the future.

19) Rich steppes and forests made it possible to catch and shoot game and animals, keep birds of prey, and fish with various gear. The battue hunting on horseback took place mostly in the autumn. Groups of people, covering wide spaces, looked for wolves, foxes and hares, shot at them from a bow, or, having caught up on a horse, killed them with clubs and flails.
Collective hunting played a big role in teaching young people the art of war - archery, skills with a spear and flail, horse riding.
Hunting prey was a great help for the Bashkirs. The skins were used to make clothes. Fur furs were exchanged for other food products, and also went to pay taxes. The skin of a squirrel was a monetary unit that gave the name of a penny in the Bashkir language. The emblem of Ufa depicts a marten, and the wolf was one of the totem animals. Fishing was not as common as hunting. However, in forest and mountainous areas, fishing played a significant role. In dry years, as well as during periods of military ruin, and in the steppe zone, the population resorted to fishing.

20) No one can say exactly when people started farming, but it is reliably known that 9 thousand years ago people grew wheat, barley, peas and lentils.
Initially, agriculture developed in the Middle East, on the territory of modern Iran, Iraq and Turkey. About 6 thousand years ago, the Egyptians plowed the earth with a sharpened piece of hard wood. It was pulled by bulls or slaves. The ancient Greeks and Romans attached a metal tip - a plowshare - to the cutting part of the plow. The plow, made entirely of iron, appeared around 1800.
Like most Eurasian nomads, the Bashkirs sowed small fields with millet and barley. For crops, areas free of forest were used. In forest areas, the forest chosen for arable land was cut down and burned. The ashes of the burned trees served as fertilizer for the soil. This method of farming was used by the neighboring Finno-Ugric tribes, as well as the Slavs. Until the 20th century, in Bashkiria and throughout the Russian Empire, during the harvest, the harvest was harvested using iron sickles and scythes. Ears in the field were tied into sheaves and taken to the threshing floor or the current, where the sheaves were threshed with wooden chains to separate the grain from the straw. They also threshed with horses, driving them in a circle on evenly spread bread on the current. The crops of the Bashkirs were insignificant, since their demand for bread was satisfied by exchanging other products with their neighbors. But the respectful attitude of the Bashkirs to bread and the work of the farmer is reflected in folk proverbs and sayings. Here are some of them: “If you don’t sing in the field, you will moan on the current”, “Even if you go on the run, plant seeds - there will be food by the return”, “Land to those who know its value; who does not know is the grave.”

21) In the forest and mountain-forest regions, beekeeping was important in the economy of the Bashkirs, apparently adopted from the Bulgars and the Finno-Ugric population of the region. The Bashkirs had two forms of beekeeping. The first boiled down to the fact that the beekeeper looked for a hollow tree in the forest in which wild bees settled, carved his family or family tamga on it, widened the hole leading to the hollow and inserted blocks into it to collect honey. The side tree became his property. Another form is associated with the manufacture of artificial boards. To do this, a straight tree with a thickness of at least 60 centimeters was chosen in the forest, and at a height of 6-8 meters a voluminous hollow with holes for the entry of bees was hollowed out. Enterprising beekeepers in the first half of the summer tried to make as many bees as possible in places attractive to bees. In the middle of summer, during swarming, new colonies of bees moved into almost all boards. The practice of making artificial fences made it possible to regulate the resettlement of bee colonies and concentrate the border holdings of individuals and tribal communities in limited areas that are most favorable for collecting honey and protecting the fences from bears.

22) The imperialist and civil wars inflicted enormous material damage on the industry and agriculture of Bashkortostan. As a result of hostilities, requisitions of food, horses, carts, livestock carried out by the "whites" and "reds", punitive expeditions, the actions of various bands, the peasantry of the Ufa province and Lesser Bashkiria found itself in a distressed situation. Only in three cantons of Lesser Bashkiria (Tabynsky, Tamyan-Kataysky and Yurmatynsky) 650 villages were destroyed, 7 thousand peasant farms were ruined. In Malaya Bashkiria, more than 157 thousand people turned out to be homeless, hungry and shoeless. In the Belebeevsky district of the Ufa province alone, more than 1,000 households were destroyed and burned, 10,000 heads of horses and cattle were taken from the population, etc.
The productive forces of agriculture fell into complete decline. According to the 1920 census, in the Ufa province, the sown area decreased by 43% compared to the pre-war period, and by 51% in Malaya Bashkiria.
Industry has been hit hard. Equipment, raw materials and vehicles were removed from many factories and plants, mines were destroyed and flooded. In 1920, 1,055 large, medium and small enterprises were inactive in Malaya Bashkiria and the Ufa province. Cotton production was thrown back to the level of the middle of the 19th century, metallurgy - even further. Plants and factories were depopulated. Part of the skilled workers and engineering and technical workers left with the "whites", the other parted, fleeing hunger, terror, and banditry.
During the hostilities, bridges, railway tracks, station and track facilities, rolling stock, and telegraph lines were destroyed. Large losses in transport were due to the fact that the advance of troops was carried out mainly along the railway lines. Many economic infrastructures and traditional economic ties were destroyed. The natural exchange of raw materials, foodstuffs, industrial products has ceased.
After the end of the Civil War, an even more terrible disaster fell upon the inhabitants of Bashkortostan - hunger. The first reason that gave rise to malt was the destruction of the productive forces as a result of the World War and the Civil War, in addition to the drought of 1921. The second reason for the famine was the food policy of the Bolshevik government. In 1920, the kras was undergrowing. Despite this, the grain allocation was set at 16.8 million poods. It was decided to fulfill it at any cost. The whole crop was taken by force, not even leaving it for seeds. By the beginning of February 1921, 13 million poods of bread and grain fodder, 12,000 poods of butter, 12 million eggs and other products were requisitioned in the province. In Malaya Bashkiria, 2.2 million poods of grain, 6.2 thousand poods of butter, 121 thousand heads of livestock, 2.2 thousand poods of chalk, etc. were taken away. As a result, the peasants were left without seeds and food supplies. The third reason for the famine was the underestimation of the scale of the disaster by the central Soviet institutions and the sluggishness of local authorities.
As a result of the famine, the population of the Bashkir Republic and the Ufa province decreased by 650 thousand people (by 22%). At the same time, the number of Bashkirs and Tatars decreased by 29%, Russians - by 16%. It was a famine unprecedented in the history of the region, which remained in the memory of the people as the Great Famine (Zur aslyk). Only during the famine of 1891-1892. there was a decrease in the population by 0.5% percent, and in the remaining famine years, only a decrease in population growth was observed. In two years, 82.9 thousand peasant farms (16.5% of the total) disappeared from the face of the earth, the number of working horses decreased by 53%, cows - by 37.7, sheep - by 59.5%. The sown area decreased by 917.3 thousand dess. (by 51.6%). The effects of this famine were felt for many years to come.
Industry has been hit hard. By the beginning of 1923, the share of operating enterprises in the factory industry amounted to only 39%, workers - 46.4% of the pre-war level. Due to the lack of labor force, raw materials and fuel, some enterprises suspended their work for an indefinite period, while others worked part-time.
In these difficult conditions, later than in other regions of the country, the revival of the national economy of the republic began. It took place on the basis of the New Economic Policy adopted by the Tenth Congress of the RCP(b) in March 1921.

The southern Urals and the adjacent steppes, where the formation of the people took place, have long been an arena of active interaction between different tribes and cultures. In the literature on the ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs, various theories of the origin of the Bashkir people are considered: Turkic (V.V. Velyaminov-Zernov, V.N. Vitevsky, P .S. Nazarov, D.N. Sokolov and others) Finno-Ugric (V.N. Tatishchev, S.A. Tokarev, and others), Iranian. There is also an intermediate theory, singled out as a separate R.Z. Yanguzin. 1. The Turkic theory is that the main core of the ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs was the Turkic ancient Bashkir tribes. It is based on the fact that Arab, Persian and Central Asian authors write about the Bashkirs as Turks. Among them, Ahmet ibn Fadlan and Mahmud Kashgari. In the scientific literature, the Turkic theory was adhered to by P. I. Rychkov, T. Mullery, etc. Later, the theory was developed by S. I. Rudenko, N. V. Bikbulatov, N. A. Mazhitov, R G. Kuzeev. Stages of formation according to R. G. Kuzeev:

From the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. until the turn of the VIII-IX centuries. -- separation from the early medieval tribal communities and the formation on the basis of their interaction and mixing of the main components of the ancient Bashkir ethnos. A group of ancient Bashkir tribes (Burzyan, Usergan, Baylar, Surash, Tangaur, Yagalbay, Tamyan, Un, Bishul, Kudey) is formed on the Syr Darya and in the Aral Sea.

In the VIII - early IX century. in the central region of the Bugulma Upland in the VIII - early IX centuries. the Bulgaro-Magyar tribal group is formed

The interaction of local Finno-Ugric tribes with alien tribal groups of Sarmatian-Alanian origin (syzgy, upey, tersyak, uvanysh, etc.)

Migration of the ancient Bashkir tribes in the Urals and their interaction in the 9th-10th centuries. with the Bulgaro-Magyar and Turkicized Finno-Ugric tribes - the basis for the formation of the ancient Bashkir ethnos.

XI - the beginning of the XIII century. -- the stage of further consolidation of the components of the ancient Bashkir ethnos while maintaining the leading cultural and linguistic role of the newly arrived Bashkir nomads. The steppe culture and the Turkic language of the emerging community developed due to the influx of new groups of Turkic-speaking nomads (Ai, Tyrnakly, Karatavly, Tau, Sart, Murzalar, Kumly, Istyak, etc.) from the east. The migration of the ancient Bashkir tribes to the Southern Urals and to the basin of the river begins. White.

In the XIII-XIV centuries. a powerful influx of Kypchakized tribes into Historical Bashkortostan (Kypchak group - Kypchak, Kanly, Gere, Sars, Koshs, Turkmen, Bushman, Jete-Uru, Bayuly, Karmysh, Kirghiz, Elan, Kazanchi; Katai group - Katai, Naiman, Balga, maskar, salute, bore, balyks; tabyn group - tabyn, uishin, suyunduk, duvan, kuvakan, syrzy, telau, baryn, badrak, taz; min group - min, kyrk-uile, kul, subi, mirkit). The Kypchaks form the modern ethnic image of the Bashkirs.

In the XV - the first half of the XVI century. -- deepening and stabilization of the ethnic processes of the previous era. The mixing of the Bashkirs with the Nogais (Nogai-Burzyan, Nogai-Yurmats) and the Finno-Ugrians, although it had a certain influence on the formation of regional ethnographic groups of the emerging people, did not change the general direction of development of the ethnic consolidation of the Bashkir people.

Z. Validi noted, in addition to the above, later ethnic interaction with the peoples and ethnic groups of the Volga-Ural region and Central Asia (Tatars, Mishars, Teptyars, Kazakhs, Kalmyks, Karakalpaks, Sarts, etc.), which, however, did not change the general direction of development ethnic processes. In Soviet historiography of the late 1980s. The Turkic theory of the origin of the Bashkirs was considered the most popular. At the present stage of the study, a number of still unresolved questions remain, in particular, about the time of the formation of the Bashkir people, what factors of the ethnic history of the Bashkirs should be considered the main ones, etc. First of all, the Yurmats and Yeneys were the core of the formation of the Bashkir ethnos. Subsequently, they switched to the Turkic language of the assimilated tribes. It is based on the fact that both the Bashkirs and the Magyars included the tribes of the Yurmats and the Yeneys and others, who retained the memory of each other after the Hungarians moved to Pannonia. In Europe, the Bashkirs were considered related to the Hungarians back in the 13th century . Travelers Julian, Plano Carpini and Guillaume de Rubruk, who wrote about the identity of the Bashkir language with the Magyar. That is why they called the country of the Bashkirs "Great Hungary". In European scientific literature, the Ugric theory was described first (Philip-Johann Stralenberg (1676--1747), V. N. Tatishchev (1686--1750), N. M. Karamzin ( 1766--1829), D. A. Khvolson). N. M. Karamzin in the first volume of the “History of the Russian State” wrote that “in the beginning, their language (the Bashkirs) was Hungarian. Then they became Turkic.” The theory was developed by M Umetbaev, Jalil Kiekbaev, N. P. Shastina; among Hungarian scientists, Dr. D. Gyorffi. Currently, the Ugric theory of the origin of the Bashkirs is considered obsolete by most scientists. M. Garipov and R. G. Kuzeev wrote that “the existence in historical science of a special “Bashkir-Magyar” problem, as a reflection of certain views that interpret the kinship and even the identity of these actually different peoples, is devoid of scientific meaning and is

sort of an anachronism." However, R. Z. Yanguzin believes that "comprehensive studies in ethnography, linguistics, archeology, anthropology and other sciences prove that the Ugric theory of the origin of the Bashkir people has the right to exist." Iranian theory: S. A. Gallyamov, relying on archaeological materials and on the research of Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Philology Nikolai Dmitriev, who pointed out the presence of Iranian phonetics in the modern language of the Bashkirs of the Southern Urals, considers the Iranian theory of the origin of the Bashkirs within the framework of the Indo-Iranian, Indo-European hypothesis, according to which the ancient ancestors of the modern Bashkirs in the VI millennium BC lived on the territory of Mesopotamia. Then some of them moved to Central Asia on the territory of modern Turkmenistan, and further to the South Urals, where they formed the basis of the Bashkir ethnos. At present, the hypothesis of S. A. Gallyamov is considered unscientific. The Iranian theory of the origin of the Bashkirs refers to the Sako-Sarmatian, Dakho-Massaget tribes of the Southern Urals and the Caspian region, which (in modern historical science) are usually referred to as Iranian-speaking tribes.

Self-name - Bashkort, people in Russia, the indigenous population of Bashkiria (Bashkortostan). In Russia, according to the All-Russian Population Census of 2010, there are 1,584,554 Bashkirs, including 7,290 people in the Samara region. They live in the south-east of the Samara region, mainly in the Bolshechernigov and Bolsheglushitsky districts. Due to the fact that the main area of ​​traditional settlement of local Bashkirs is located in the valley of the Bolshoi Irgiz River, they are often referred to in historiography as "Irgiz Bashkirs". Part of the Bashkirs settled in the cities of the Samara region, primarily in Samara and Togliatti.

They speak the Bashkir language of the Turkic group of the Altai family. Russian and Tatar languages ​​are widespread. Writing based on the Russian alphabet. Believing Bashkirs are Sunni Muslims.

The decisive role in the formation of the Bashkirs was played by the Turkic cattle-breeding tribes of South Siberian-Central Asian origin, who, before coming to the South Urals, wandered for a considerable time in the Aral-Syrdarya steppes, coming into contact with the Pecheneg-Oghuz and Kimak-Kypchak tribes; here they are recorded in the 9th century by written sources. From the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th centuries. lived in the Southern Urals and adjacent steppe and forest-steppe spaces.

In the X - early XIII centuries. the Bashkirs were under the political influence of the Volga-Kama Bulgaria. In 1236 they were conquered by the Mongol-Tatars and annexed to the Golden Horde. Islam was adopted in the 14th century. After the fall of Kazan (1552), the Bashkirs accepted Russian citizenship (1552-1557) and stipulated the right to own their lands on a patrimonial basis, to live according to their customs and religion.

The traditional type of economy of the Bashkirs is semi-nomadic cattle breeding (mainly horses, as well as sheep, cattle, camels in the southern and eastern regions). They were also engaged in hunting and fishing, beekeeping, collecting fruits and roots of plants. There was agriculture (millet, barley, spelt, wheat, hemp). Agricultural tools - a wooden plow (saban) on wheels, later a plow (huka), a frame harrow (tyrma).

Since the 17th century, semi-nomadic cattle breeding has gradually lost its importance, the role of agriculture has increased, beekeeping has developed on the basis of beekeeping. At the beginning of the 20th century, the transition of the Bashkirs to integrated agriculture was completed, and semi-nomadic cattle breeding gave way to pastoral. Gardening appears.

Home processing of animal raw materials, hand weaving, and wood processing were developed. The Bashkirs knew blacksmithing, smelted cast iron and iron, and in some places developed silver ore; jewelry was made from silver.

After joining the Russian state, the social structure of the Bashkirs was determined by the interweaving of commodity-money relations with the remnants of the patriarchal tribal way of life. Based on the tribal division (there were about 40 tribes and tribal groups: Burzyan, Usergan, Tamyan, Yurmaty, Tabyn, Kipchak, Katai, Ming, Elan, Enei, Bulyar, Salyut, etc., many of which were fragments of ancient tribal and ethno-political associations of the steppes of Eurasia), volosts were formed, which were divided into tribal divisions, uniting groups of kindred families (aimak, tyuba, ara), inheriting from the tribal community the customs of exogamy, mutual assistance, etc.

The ancient Bashkirs had a large family community. In the 16th-19th centuries, both large and small families existed in parallel, the latter gradually establishing themselves as predominant. The family life of the Bashkirs was built on respect for the elders.

The traditional type of settlement is an aul, located on the banks of a river or lake. In the conditions of nomadic life, each aul had several places of settlement: winter, spring, summer, autumn. Permanent settlements arose with the transition to settled life, as a rule, in the places of winter roads.

The traditional dwelling of the Bashkirs is a felt yurt with a prefabricated lattice frame. In the steppe zone, adobe, plast, adobe houses were set up, in the forest and forest-steppe zone - log huts with a canopy. The construction technique of the Bashkirs was greatly influenced by the Russians and neighboring peoples of the Ural-Volga region.

The folk clothes of the Bashkirs combine the traditions of the steppe nomads and local settled tribes. The basis of women's clothing was a long dress cut off at the waist with frills, an apron, a camisole, decorated with a braid and silver coins. Young women wore chest ornaments made of coral and coins. The women's headdress is a cap made of coral mesh with silver pendants and coins, with a long blade going down the back, embroidered with beads and cowrie shells; girlish - a helmet-shaped cap, also covered with coins, they also wore caps, handkerchiefs. Young women wore colorful head coverings. Outerwear - open caftans and chekmens made of colored cloth, trimmed with braid, embroidery, coins. Jewelry - various kinds of earrings, bracelets, rings, braids, clasps - were made of silver, corals, beads, silver coins, with inserts of turquoise, carnelian, colored glass.

Men's clothing - shirts and trousers with a wide step, light dressing gowns (straight-back and flared), camisoles, sheepskin coats. Hats - skullcaps, round fur hats, malachai, covering the ears and neck, hats. Women also wore hats made of animal fur. Boots, leather boots, ichigi, shoe covers, and in the Urals - and bast shoes were widely used.

The diet was dominated by meat and dairy food, they used products of hunting, fishing, honey, berries and herbs. Traditional dishes are finely chopped horse meat or lamb with broth (bishbarmak, kullama), dried sausage from horse meat and fat (kazy), various types of cottage cheese, cheese (korot), millet porridge, barley, spelled and wheat groats, oatmeal. Noodles on meat or milk broth, cereal soups are popular. Bread (cakes) was used unleavened, in the XVIII-XIX centuries. sour bread spread, potatoes and vegetables were included in the diet. Low-alcohol drinks: koumiss (from mare's milk), buza (from sprouted grains of barley, spelt), ball (a relatively strong drink made from honey and sugar); they also drank diluted sour milk - ayran. For dessert, strong tea with milk or cream is most often served, and to it - honey, chak-chak, brushwood, baursaks, urami, koshtel.

The main folk holidays were celebrated in the spring and summer. After the arrival of the rooks, they arranged Karga tui (“rook holiday”). On the eve of spring field work, and in some places after them, a plow festival (sabantuy) was held, which included a common meal, wrestling, horse racing, competitions in running, archery, competitions with a humorous effect. The holiday was accompanied by prayers at the local cemetery. In the middle of summer, Yiyin was held, a holiday common to several villages, and in more distant times - volosts, tribes. In the summer, girls' games take place in the bosom of nature, the rite of "cuckoo tea", in which only women participate. In dry times, a rite of calling rain was performed with sacrifices and prayers, pouring water on each other.

The leading place in oral and poetic creativity is occupied by the epic (“Ural-Batyr”, “Akbuzat”, “Idukai and Muradym”, “Kusyak-bi”, “Urdas-bi with a thousand quivers”, “Alpamysha”, “Kuzy-Kurpyas and Mayankhylu", "Zayatulyak and Khyuhylu"). Fairy-tale folklore is represented by magical, heroic, everyday tales, tales about animals.

Song and musical creativity is developed: epic, lyrical and everyday (ritual, satirical, humorous) songs, ditties (takmak). Various dance melodies. The dances are characterized by narrative, many (“Cuckoo”, “Crow pacer”, “Baik”, “Perovsky”) have a complex structure and contain elements of pantomime.

Traditional musical instruments are kurai (a type of flute), domra, koumiss (kobyz, vargan: wooden - in the form of an oblong plate and metal - in the form of a bow with a tongue). In the past, there was a bowed instrument kyl kumyz.

The Bashkirs retained elements of traditional beliefs: veneration of objects (rivers, lakes, mountains, forests, etc.) and phenomena (winds, snowstorms) of nature, heavenly bodies, animals and birds (bear, wolf, horse, dog, snake, swan, crane, golden eagle, falcon, etc., the cult of rooks was associated with the cult of ancestors, dying and reviving nature). Among the numerous host spirits (eye), a special place is occupied by the brownie (yort eyyakhe) and the water spirit (hyu eyyakhe). The supreme heavenly deity Tenre subsequently merged with Muslim Allah. The forest spirit shurale, brownie are endowed with the features of Muslim shaitans, Iblis, jinn. The interweaving of traditional and Muslim beliefs is observed in rituals, and in epic and fairy tales.

Introduction 3

1. Historical outline 4

2. Bashkirs - the peoples of the Southern Urals 8

Conclusion 14

List of used literature 15

Introduction

The Turkic peoples (Turks) of the URAL, settled on both sides of the Middle and Southern Urals from the Volga region to the Ob, constitute the northwestern part of the vast Turkic ethno-cultural space, bounded by the Mediterranean (Turks) and Eastern Siberia (Yakuts).

Along with the Mongolian and Tungus-Manchurian peoples, the Turks belong to the Altaic language family. The languages ​​of the Kypchak branch of the Turkic group are spoken by the Volga-Ural and Siberian Tatars, Bashkirs, Nogais, Kazakhs; the Chuvash language forms the Bulgar branch of the Turkic group. Many researchers consider the foothills of the Altai and Sayan Mountains to be the ancestral home of the ancient Turks. According to an ancient legend (recorded by Chinese sources of the 6th century AD), the Turkic tribe descended from a quartered boy and a she-wolf who sheltered him in an Altai cave. There, 10 sons of a she-wolf were born, one of whom was named Ashina or Turk.

1. Historical outline

Bashkirs (self-name Bashkort) are Turkic-speaking nomads who began their movement to present-day Bashkiria in the 4th century. from the south - steppe strip. The ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs is extremely complex. The Southern Urals and the adjacent steppes, where the formation of the people took place, have long been an arena of active interaction between different cultures and languages. In the 2nd floor. 1st millennium BC e. in the south of Bashkiria lived the Iranian-speaking pastoralists of the Sarmatians, in the north - the agricultural and hunting tribes of the Ananyin culture, the ancestors of the Finno-Ugric peoples. In the 1st mill. e. the penetration of the nomadic Turks into the South Urals begins, towards the end. 1st thousand who occupied the whole of Bashkiria. Having displaced and partly assimilated the natives, the Turk. tribes obviously played a decisive role in the formation of the language, culture and physical appearance of the Bashkirs; -XIV centuries). In Arabic sources, the Bashkirs are mentioned in the IX-X centuries. under the name "bashgird" ("bashgurd"). So, according to Ibn Fadlan, during his journey (922) to Bolgar, having crossed the river. Chagan (right tributary of the Yaik), the embassy ended up "in the country of the Bashgird people." An Arab geographer and diplomat calls them "the worst of the Turks ... more than others encroaching on life." Therefore, having entered their land, the Arabs sent forward an armed cavalry detachment for safety. In the IX-XIII centuries. Bashkirs wandered in separate clans in the Urals, to the South. Ural and between the river. Volga and Yaik (Ural). They were engaged in nomadic cattle breeding, as well as fishing, hunting and beekeeping. In the X-XIII centuries. the Bashkirs began to disintegrate tribal relations, and they began to roam in separate groups of 10-30 families. For a long time they maintained patriarchal slavery. At the end of the XII - the beginning of the XIII centuries. feudal relations are born. In the X-XIII centuries. Western Bashkirs were subordinate to the Volga-Kama Bulgaria. The Bashkirs were idolaters, from the 10th century. Islam begins to penetrate to them from Bulgaria; believing Bashkirs are Cynnite Muslims. In 1229, the Tatar-Mongols invaded the territory of Bashkiria and by 1236 completely subjugated the Bashkirs, who entered with their nomads into the ulus of Sheibani, the brother of Batu Khan. In the 2nd floor. XV century, after the collapse of the Golden Horde, the southern and southeastern territory of the Bashkir nomad camps went to the Nogai Horde, the western part to the Kazan Khanate, and the northeastern part to the Siberian Khanate. With the accession (1552) to Russia of the Kazan Khanate, the Western Bashkirs became subjects of the Russian state. Since 1557, almost all Bashkirs. nomads began to pay yasak to the Russian Tsar. In con. XVI-- beg. 17th century Eastern Bashkirs also came under Russian rule. Since 1586, active colonization of Russian territories by the Bashkirs began from the northeast and the lower reaches of the Yaik. The Bashkirs themselves “considered the descendants of the Nogais, whom they really resembled in some physical features, but the Kyrgyz called them Ostyaks and considered the Bashkirs as fellow tribesmen of this Siberian people mixed with the Tatars. Among the mountain Bashkirs, who probably kept the original type in the greatest purity for the longest time, the head was most often small, but very wide; among them there were tall and strong types with regular features, very similar to the Transylvanian Magyars, which is why they were attributed to Ugric origin for quite a long time. Most Bashkirs have a flat, roundish face, a small, slightly upturned nose, small, gray or brown eyes, large ears, a sparse beard, and a kind and pleasant physiognomy. And indeed, ordinary people were very good-natured, benevolent, affable and received foreigners with the most cordial hospitality, which they often used to harm their owners. Slow in work, they far surpassed the Russians in accuracy and serviceability. Like the Kazan Tatars, the Bashktra had to buy their wives, but the payment of the kalym could be spread over several years, and often the husband took away his living property after paying only half a ven. During the first year, the young wife had no right to talk to her father-in-law and mother-in-law, a custom found on Earth only among the Negroes of Equatorial Africa. Many Bashkirs owned rather large flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, but preference was given to herds of horses, which served them at the same time as riding, draft, and draft; animals gave them meat, milk (from mare's milk they made koumiss - a medicinal and alcoholic drink) and skins, from which they made their own clothes, wagons, bedspreads, belts, bags, or tursuks. It was not uncommon to meet Bashkirs who considered their fortune to be hundreds, even thousands of horses. The Bashkirs (as, indeed, other nomadic peoples and tribes) were unusually dexterous riders; the favorite of their military exercises was horse racing, which was an unusually exciting and picturesque spectacle. Beekeeping was also considered one of the most beloved occupations of the Bashkirs, so some of the ethnographers even tried to derive the name of the people - "Bashkurt" from the word meaning the profession of beekeepers. The Bashkirs quite actively resisted the penetration of Russians into their lands, since they immediately began to plow their pastures and meadows, set up villages on the banks of rivers, dig mines, narrowing the space for pastoral nomads in their centuries-old movement following their flocks and herds. In vain, however, the Bashkirs ravaged and burned Russian villages, dug up even the Russian dead from the graves, so that not a single Moscow person, either alive or dead, would remain in their land. After each such uprising, the Russians came again, and in even greater numbers than before, now by force driving the Bashkirs out of their possessions and building new cities and villages on them. By the middle of the XIX century. The Bashkirs already owned only a third of their former lands. The gradual decrease in pastures forced the Bashkirs to take up farming: at first they gave their land to Russian peasants (the so-called pripuskniki) for rent for an annual or lump-sum payment, and then slowly began to adapt themselves to the work of the farmer. Numerous local khans became the founders of noble and princely families and became part of the Russian. nobility, and the Bashkir princely families of the Aptulovs, Turumbetevs, Devletshins, Kulyukovs and others continued to use, as before, Tarkhanism. During the campaigns, the tarkhans made up special detachments in the Russian army, and the militia, recruited from the draft and yasak Bashkirs, joined them; they were always commanded by Russian heads. Soon after accepting Russian citizenship, the Bashkirs, not wanting to deliver yasak to Kazan and suffering from raids by neighboring tribes, asked the king to build a city on their land that would protect them and where they would take yasak. In 1586, the governor I. Nagoi began the construction of the city of Ufa, which became the first Russian settlement in the Bashkirs, except for Yelabuga, built on the very border of the Bashkirs. lands. In the same 1586, despite the opposition of Nogai. book. Urus, Samara was also built. In the voivodship order (1645) Menzelinsk is mentioned. In 1658, the city of Chelyabinsk was built to cover the settlements that stretched along the river. Iset (in modern Sverdlovsk region). In 1663, Birsk, which already existed before, was transformed into a fortification that stood in the middle of the road from Kama to Ufa. Simultaneously with the construction of Ufa, the colonization of the region began: Tatars, Meshcheryaks, Bobyls, Tepteri, Cheremis, and other nationalities settled with the Bashkirs as pripuskniks (Novobashkirs), took their land for dues, and the Russians first occupied the Siberian settlements (in the modern Chelyabinsk region) , and then they begin to take root in the indigenous lands of Bashkiria Vladimir Boguslavsky. Slavic encyclopedia. XVII century. M., OLMA-PRESS. 2004.

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2. Bashkirs - the peoples of the Southern Urals

The autoethnonym "bashkort" consists of two parts: "main" (bash) and "wolf" (kort), i.e. "leader wolf" and, possibly, goes back to the totemic ancestor hero.

Main settlement area

Most of the Bashkirs live in the Republic of Bashkortostan - 864 thousand people, which is 21.9% of the population of the republic. Bashkirs also live in the Perm, Sverdlovsk, Kurgan, Tyumen regions. In addition, the Bashkirs live in Kazakhstan - 42 thousand people, Uzbekistan - 35 thousand people, in Ukraine - 7 thousand people.

Ethnic and ethnographic groups

Until the 20th century the Bashkirs retained tribal division, in total there were about 40 tribes and tribal groups: Burzyan, Usergan, Katai, Ming, etc.

Language

Bashkir: In the Bashkir language, the southern - Yurmatyn and eastern - Kuvakan dialects are distinguished, as well as the northwestern group of dialects. Among part of the Bashkirs, the Tatar language is widespread.

Writing

The script for the Bashkir language was first created on the basis of Arabic graphics, in 1929 it was transferred to the Latin alphabet, and since 1939 - to the Russian graphic basis.

Religion

Islam: The script for the Bashkir language was first created on the basis of Arabic graphics, in 1929 it was transferred to the Latin alphabet, and since 1939 - to the Russian graphic basis.

Ethnogenesis and ethnic history

In the formation of the Bashkirs, the main role was played by the Turkic nomadic tribes, who came in waves to the territory of the Southern Urals from the east, starting from the 4th century AD. Here these tribes interacted with the local Finno-Ugric and Iranian-speaking population. Of great importance for the ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs was the movement of the Pecheneg-Oguz population in the southern Urals in the 8th-10th centuries, the appearance of the ethnonym Bashkort is also associated with it. For the first time as "al-bashgird" he is mentioned under 922 in the description of the journey to the Volga of the Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan. The process of ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs was completed by the beginning of the 13th century. The Bashkirs were an integral part of the population of the Volga Bulgaria, and then the Golden Horde and the Kazan Khanate. In the middle of the 16th century the land of the Bashkirs became part of the Russian state. In 1919, the Bashkir ASSR was created as part of the RSFSR. Since 1992, the name of the national statehood of the Bashkir ethnos is the Republic of Bashkortostan.

economy

The traditional occupation of the Bashkirs has long been semi-nomadic cattle breeding, they bred mainly horses, as well as sheep, cattle, and camels. In the warm season, pastures were periodically changed, in winter they returned to the villages, but a significant part of the cattle remained on the tebenevka, using their hooves to get food from under the snow. Other occupations were hunting, fishing, beekeeping. Agriculture at first played a minor role, millet, barley, hemp and other crops were grown. In the forest belt, the slash-and-burn system of agriculture prevailed, in the steppe - shifting. The land was cultivated with a saban plow and various types of harrows. The role of agriculture began to increase from the 17th century, and soon it became the main occupation, but nomadism continued in some areas until the beginning of the 20th century. In agriculture, fallow-fallow and three-field systems began to prevail, among crops - winter rye and flax. An important role in the forest zone was played by beekeeping, and in the mountains beekeeping - collecting honey from wild bees. Hunting for wolves, elks, hares, martens and other game was widespread everywhere. The Bashkirs were engaged in fishing mainly in the northern regions, on the trans-Ural lakes and mountain rivers. Ancillary occupations and crafts were developed - weaving, woodworking, blacksmithing and jewelry. A special role was played by the processing of hides and skins, the manufacture of clothing and footwear from them. Pottery was undeveloped, the use of leather utensils prevailed. The Bashkirs were widely engaged in forestry - logging, tar race, tar smoking and charcoal burning.

traditional clothing

Traditional women's clothing consisted of a long dress cut off at the waist with frills, decorated with ribbons and braid, trousers with a wide step, an apron, a camisole, decorated with a braid and gold coins. Young women wore chest ornaments made of coral and coins. The women's headdress was a coral mesh cap with silver coins and pendants, a blade embroidered with beads and cowrie shells descending down the back. The girls wore helmet-shaped caps covered with coins on their heads. There were other types of women's and girls' headdresses. Women's shoes were leather shoes, boots, bast shoes. Outerwear was oar caftans and chekmeni made of colored cloth with rich trimmings. Women's and girl's jewelry was diverse - rings, rings, bracelets, earrings.

The men's costume was of the same type and consisted of a tunic-shaped shirt, trousers with a wide step, over them they put on a short sleeveless jacket - a camisole, and going out into the street an open caftan - a kazakin or a robe-like beshmet made of dark fabric. In cold weather, a sheepskin coat was worn. Headdresses for men were skullcaps, various kinds of fur hats. On their feet, men wore boots, ichigi, shoe covers, in the Urals - and bast shoes.

Traditional settlements and dwellings

The traditional rural settlement of the Bashkirs was an aul. In the conditions of nomadic life, its location changed, permanent settlements appeared with the transition to settled life, as a rule, on the site of winter roads. At first, they were characterized by a cumulus layout, then it was replaced by a street layout, in which each grouping of related families occupied separate ends, streets or quarters. The number of households varied from a few dozen to 200-300 or more, in settlements there were 10-20 households.

In the conditions of nomadic life, the traditional dwelling of the Bashkirs was a felt yurt with a prefabricated wooden frame of the Turkic (with a hemispherical top) or Mongolian (with a conical top) type. The entrance to the yurt was usually closed with a felt mat. In the center was an open hearth, the smoke came out through a hole in the dome and through the doorway. To the right of the entrance was the female half, where utensils were placed and food was stored, to the left - the male half, there were chests with property, weapons, horse harness. For semi-nomadic groups, the yurt was a summer dwelling. In the mountain-forest regions, burama was built on summer camps - a log hut with an earthen floor without a ceiling and windows, its gable roof was covered with bark. The kibitka - tirme was also known. Stationary dwellings were different: in the steppe zone they were adobe, adobe, layered, in the forest and forest-steppe zone they were log houses, in wealthy families five-walls and crosses, sometimes two-story houses. The dwellings were divided into front and household halves. Bunks were arranged along the walls, they were covered with felt mats or woven rugs, in the corner there was a hearth or a Russian wind stove, a small hearth was attached to it on the side. The structure of the courtyard buildings included stables, a barnyard, barns, a bathhouse, they were not numerous and were located freely.

Food

In the food of the Bashkirs, as the transition to agriculture as the main occupation, the importance of flour and cereal dishes grew, but vegetables were almost not consumed until the 20s of the 20th century. The nomadic groups were dominated by dairy and meat products. One of the favorite dishes was beshbarmak - finely chopped horse meat or lamb with broth. For the future, dried sausage was prepared from horse meat and fat. Dairy dishes were varied - various types of cottage cheese and cheeses. Porridge was cooked from various cereals. Noodles in meat or milk broth, cereal soups were popular. Bread was first consumed unleavened, sour began to be included in the diet from the 18th century. The most common drink was ayran - diluted sour milk, among alcoholic drinks - koumiss based on sour mare's milk, buz from sprouted grains of barley or spelled, ball from honey or sugar.

social organization

The Bashkir tribes included tribal divisions - aimaks, uniting groups of related families - descendants of one ancestor in the male line, they retained the customs of exogamy, mutual assistance, etc. In family relations, a large family gradually gave way to a small one, which became the main form of family in the early 20th century. . In inheritance, they mostly adhered to the minority principle, according to which most of the property went to the youngest son, for which he had to support his elderly parents. Marriage was characterized by polygamy (for wealthy Bashkirs), the low status of women, and marriages for minors. Until the beginning of the 20th century the custom of levirate was preserved - the preferential right to marry the wife's sister.

Spiritual culture and traditional beliefs

The religious beliefs of the Bashkirs were characterized by the interweaving of Islam with pagan pre-Islamic ideas. This is clearly seen in the ritual life cycle. So, during difficult childbirth, in order to alleviate them, they shot from a gun, scratched the woman in labor on the back with a mink foot. Three days after the birth of a child, a celebration of naming was held, it was accompanied by a meal. Marriages were made by matchmaking, but brides were kidnapped, which exempted them from paying bride price. Its size was discussed during the wedding agreement, cattle, money, clothes and other valuables were included in the dowry. The wedding was celebrated after its payment in the house of the girl's parents, wrestling competitions, horse races and other entertainment competitions were organized during it. During the funeral, the body of the deceased, wrapped in a shroud, was brought to the cemetery and placed in a niche arranged in the grave pit. In some areas, log cabins were built over the grave.

Natural objects were revered - lakes, rivers, forests, natural phenomena and some species of animals and birds. There was a belief in lower spirits - brownie, water, goblin, albasty, as well as the supreme deity Tenre. In the minds of the Bashkir Muslims, Tenre merged with Allah, and the lower spirits with Islamic demons - jinn and shaitans. To protect against otherworldly forces, amulets were worn - bones and teeth of animals, cowrie shells, coins, as well as notes sewn into a piece of leather or birch bark with sayings from the Koran.

The calendar holidays of the Bashkirs were numerous: kargatuy (“rook holiday”) in honor of the arrival of rooks, during which they treated themselves to ritual porridge, danced round dances, competed in running, left the remains of porridge with a conspiracy on the field, spring Sabantuy with ritual slaughter of an animal, a common meal, competitions in running, archery, sack fights, a gin festival in the middle of summer, common to the whole district, at which important public issues were resolved with feasts, and all-Bashkir gins were also arranged.

In the spiritual life of the Bashkirs, song and musical creativity played an important role: epic tales, ritual, everyday, lyrical songs were accompanied by playing traditional musical instruments - domra, kumyz, kurai (a kind of flute).

Conclusion

Thus, based on the foregoing, we can conclude that the main role in the formation of the Bashkirs was played by the Turkic nomadic tribes, who came in waves to the territory of the Southern Urals from the east, starting from the 4th century AD. Here these tribes interacted with the local Finno-Ugric and Iranian-speaking population. Of great importance for the ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs was the movement of the Pecheneg-Oguz population in the southern Urals in the 8th-10th centuries, the appearance of the ethnonym Bashkort is also associated with it. For the first time as "al-bashgird" he is mentioned under 922 in the description of the journey to the Volga of the Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan. The process of ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs was completed by the beginning of the 13th century. The Bashkirs were an integral part of the population of the Volga Bulgaria, and then the Golden Horde and the Kazan Khanate. In the middle of the 16th century the land of the Bashkirs became part of the Russian state. In 1919, the Bashkir ASSR was created as part of the RSFSR. Since 1992, the name of the national statehood of the Bashkir ethnos is the Republic of Bashkortostan.

2) The origin of the Bashkir people.

3) The first information about the Bashkirs.

4) Saks, Scythians, Sarmatians.

5) Ancient Turks.

6) Polovtsy.

7) Genghis Khan.

8) Bashkortostan as part of the Golden Horde.

10) Ivan the Terrible.

11) Accession of the Bashkirs to the Russian state.

12) Bashkir uprisings.

13) Bashkir tribes.

14) The belief of the ancient Bashkirs.

16) Adoption of Islam.

17) Writing among the Bashkirs and the first schools.

17) The emergence of the Bashkir auls.

18) The emergence of cities.

19) Hunting and fishing.

20) Agriculture.

21) Wrestling.

22) The impact of the Civil War on the economic and social life of Bashkiria

1) The origin of the Bashkir people. Formation, the formation of the people does not occur immediately, but gradually. In the eighth century BC, the Ananyin tribes lived in the Southern Urals, who gradually settled in other territories. Scientists believe that the Ananyin tribes are the direct ancestors of the Komi-Permyaks, Udmurts, Mari, and the descendants of the Ananyin took part in the origin of the Chuvash, Volga Tatars, Bashkirs and other peoples of the Urals and the Volga region.
The Bashkirs, as a people, did not migrate from anywhere, but were formed as a result of a very complex and long historical development in the places of indigenous tribes, in the process of contacts and crossing them with alien tribes of Turkic origin. These are Savromats, Huns, ancient Turks, Pechenegs, Cumans and Mongolian tribes.
The entire process of the formation of the Bashkir people ends at the end of the 15th - in the first half of the 16th century.

2) The first information about the Bashkirs.

The first written evidence about the Bashkirs dates back to the 9th - 10th centuries. Especially important are the testimonies of the Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan. According to his description, the embassy traveled for a long time through the country of the Oguz-Kypchaks (the steppes of the Aral Sea), and then, in the area of ​​​​the present city of Uralsk, it crossed the Yaik River and immediately entered the “country of the Bashkirs from among the Turks.”
In it, the Arabs crossed such rivers as the Kinel, Tok, Sarai, and beyond the Bolshoi Cheremshan river, the borders of the state of Volga Bulgaria began.
The closest neighbors of the Bashkirs in the west were the Bulgars, and in the south and east - the formidable nomadic tribes of the Guz and Kypchaks. The Bashkirs were actively trading with China, with the states of Southern Siberia, Central Asia and Iran. They sold their furs, iron products, livestock and honey to merchants. In exchange, they received silks, silver and gold jewelry, dishes. Merchants and diplomats passing through the country of the Bashkirs left stories about her. These stories mention that the cities of the Bashkirs consisted of ground log houses. The Bashkir settlements were frequently raided by the neighbors of the Bulgars. But the warlike Bashkirs tried to meet the enemies at the border and did not let them close to their villages.

3) Saks, Scythians, Sarmatians.

2800 - 2900 years ago, a strong powerful people appeared in the Southern Urals - the Saks. Horses were their main wealth. The famous Saka cavalry captured fertile pastures for their numerous herds with swift throws. Gradually, the steppes of Eastern Europe from the Southern Urals to the shores of the Caspian and Aral Seas and the south of Kazakhstan became Saka.
Among the Sakas were especially wealthy families who had several thousand horses in their herds. Wealthy families subjugated poor relatives and chose a king. This is how the Saka state arose.

All Sakas were considered slaves of the king, and all their wealth was his property. It was believed that even after death, he becomes the King, but only in another world. The kings were buried in large deep graves. Log cabins were lowered into the pits - at home, weapons, dishes with food, expensive clothes and other things were put inside. Everything was made of gold and silver, so that in the underworld no one doubted the royal origin of the buried.
For a whole millennium, the Sakas and their descendants dominated the wide expanses of the steppe. Then they split into several separate groups of tribes and began to live separately.

The Scythians were a nomadic people of the steppes, vast pasture lands stretching across Asia from Manchuria to Russia. The Scythians existed by breeding animals (sheep, cattle and horses) and partly engaged in hunting. The Chinese and Greeks described the Scythians as ferocious warriors who were one with their swift, short horses. Armed with bows and arrows, the Scythians fought on horseback. According to one description, they took scalps from enemies and kept them as a trophy.
Wealthy Scythians were covered in elaborate tattoos. The tattoo was evidence of a person's belonging to a noble family, and its absence was a sign of a commoner. A person with patterns applied to the body turned into a “walking” work of art.
When a leader died, his wife and servants were killed and buried with him. Together with the leader, his horses were also buried. Many very beautiful gold items found in the burials speak of the wealth of the Scythians.

Wandering along the borders of the trans-Ural steppe of the forest-steppe, the Saks come into contact with the semi-nomadic tribes who lived there. According to many modern researchers, these were Finno-Ugric tribes - the ancestors of the Mari, Udmurts, Komi-Permyaks and, possibly, Magyar-Hungarians. The interaction of the Saks and Ugrians ended in the 4th century BC with the appearance of the Sarmatians on the historical arena.
In the second century BC, the Sarmatians conquered Scythia and devastated it. Some of the Scythians were exterminated or captured, others were subjugated and merged with the Saks.
The famous historian N. M. Karamzin wrote about the Sarmatians. "Rome was not ashamed to buy the friendship of the Sarmatians with gold."
The Scythians, Sakas and Sarmatians spoke Iranian. The Bashkir language has ancient Iranianisms, that is, words that entered the vocabulary of the Bashkirs from the Iranian language: kyyar (cucumber), kamyr (dough), tact (board), byyala (glass), bakta (wool - molt), hike (bunks) , shishme (spring, stream).

4) Ancient Turks.

In the 6th-7th centuries, new hordes of nomads gradually moved westward from the steppes of Central Asia. The Turks created a huge empire from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the northern Caucasus in the west, from the forest-steppe regions of Siberia in the north to the borders of China and Central Asia in the south. In 558, the Southern Urals was already part of the state of the Turks.

The supreme deity among the Turks was the Sun (according to other versions - the sky) He was called Tengre. Tengre was subject to the gods of water, wind, forests, mountains and other deities. Fire, as the ancient Turks believed, cleansed a person from all sins and bad thoughts. Around the khan's yurt, bonfires burned day and night. No one dared to approach the khan until they passed through the fiery corridor.
The Turks left a deep mark in the history of the peoples of the Southern Urals. Under their influence, new tribal unions were formed, which gradually switched to a settled way of life.

5) In the second half of the 9th century, a new wave of Turkic-speaking nomads, the Pechenegs, passed through the steppes of the Southern Urals and the Volga region. They were ousted from Central Asia and the Aral Sea region, having suffered defeat in the wars for the possession of the oases of the Syr Darya and the Northern Aral Sea region. At the end of the 9th century, the Pechenegs and related tribes became the actual owners of the steppes of Eastern Europe. The Pechenegs, who lived in the steppes of the Trans-Volga and Southern Urals, also included Bashkir tribes. Being an organic part of the Trans-Volga Pechenegs, the Bashkirs of the 9th - 11th centuries apparently did not differ from the Pechenegs in their way of life or culture.

The Polovtsians are nomadic Turks who appeared in the middle of the 11th century in the steppes of the Urals and the Volga. The Polovtsians themselves called themselves Kypchaks. They approached the borders of Rus'. With the time of their domination, the steppe became known as Deshti-Kypchak, the Polovtsian steppe. About the times of the domination of the Polovtsy sculptures - stone "women" standing on the steppe barrows. Although these statues are called "women", images of warrior-heroes - the founders of the Polovtsian tribes - predominate among them.
The Polovtsy acted as allies of Byzantium against the Pechenegs, expelled them from the Black Sea region. The Polovtsy were both allies and enemies of the Russian tribes. Many of the Polovtsians became relatives of Russian princes. So, Andrey Bogolyubsky was the son of a Polovtsy, the daughter of Khan Aepa. Prince Igor, the hero of The Tale of Igor's Campaign, before his 1185 campaign against the Polovtsy, himself invited the Polovtsy to take part in military raids on Rus'.
In the XIII - XIV centuries, the territory of the Urals and Trans-Urals was inhabited by the Kypchaks. They entered into family ties with other tribes inhabiting the area.

6) Genghis Khan was the son of the leader of a small Mongol tribe. At the age of eight he was left an orphan. When Genghis Khan's father saw a large birthmark on the baby's palm, he considered it a sign that his son would become a great warrior.
The real name of Genghis Khan is Temujin. His merit was that he united nomadic tribes little connected with each other into one intertribal union. He dedicated his entire life to building an empire. War was the instrument of this construction. There were no foot soldiers in the Mongol army: each had two horses, one for himself, the other for luggage. They lived, feeding on the conquered population.

Cities, if their population resisted, were mercilessly destroyed along with all the inhabitants. True, if they surrendered without a fight, they could have been spared. Genghis Khan and his army became so famous for their brutality that many preferred to surrender to him without a fight.
The troops of Genghis Khan overcame the Great Wall of China and soon captured all of China. In 1215, Beijing was captured and all of China became part of the great Mongol Empire.
In the 20s of the XIII century, Genghis Khan with his horde approached the outlying cities of Rus'. Although the Russian cities were well fortified, they could not hold back the onslaught of the Mongols. Having defeated the combined forces of the Russian and Polovtsian princes in 1223 at the Battle of the Kalka, the Mongol army devastated the territory between the Don and the Dnieper north of the Sea of ​​Azov.

In the thirteenth century, numerous troops of the formidable Genghis Khan approached the Southern Urals. The forces were unequal, in several battles the Bashkirs were defeated. As a sign of reconciliation, the Bashkir leader Muitan Khan, the son of Tuksob Khan, arrived at the headquarters of the Mongol Khan. He brought with him expensive gifts, including thousands of cattle. Genghis Khan was satisfied with expensive gifts and awarded the Khan with a letter of eternal possession of him and his descendants of the lands through which the Belaya River flows. The vast lands given under the rule of Muitan Khan completely coincide with the territory of the settlement of the Bashkir tribes of the 9th - 12th centuries.
But the broad masses of the Bashkirs did not reconcile themselves to the loss of independence and repeatedly rose to war against the new masters. The theme of the struggle of the Bashkirs against the Mongols is most fully reflected in the legend “The Last of the Sartay clan”, which tells about the tragic fate of the Bashkir Khan Jalyk, who lost two of his sons and his entire family in the war against the Mongols, but remained unconquered to the end.