Tatars

• 1. Etymological Origins And Evolution

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  The word Tatar first appeared in Western European languages as Tartar, a form derived from Latin or French that likely emerged from Turkish and Persian roots. The Oxford English Dictionary notes the extra r was probably due to an association with Tartarus, the underworld of Greek mythology. In the 13th century, Persian sources recorded the term referring to the hordes of Genghis Khan, though its ultimate origin remains unknown. Some scholars suggest it derives from the word tata, meaning mounted messenger. Arabic texts use a different script for the same people, while Tatars themselves historically wrote their name using various scripts depending on the era. Ochir (2016) states that Siberian Tatars and those living between Asia and Europe acquired the appellation later and do not possess ancestral connection to the Mongolic Nine Tatars. Pow (2019) proposes that Turkic-speaking peoples of Cumania adopted the endonym Tatar as a sign of political allegiance before subsuming their conquerors culturally and linguistically. This name became a testament to the survivability and adaptability of both peoples and ethnonyms. By the 14th century, Al-Umari noted how the Cumans moved to the position of subjects within the Golden Horde. The term eventually came to refer more narrowly to related ethnic groups who call themselves Tatars.

• 2. Volga Tatar Historical Formation

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  In the 7th century AD, Volga Bulgars settled on the territory of the Volga-Kama region where Finno-Ugrians lived compactly at that time. After Batu Khan invaded in 1223, 1236, the Golden Horde destroyed Volga Bulgaria. A Russian annalist recorded that in 1236 godless Tatars sacked the city of Bolgar and killed everyone from old to young. Most of the Bulgar population survived and crossed to the right bank of the Volga, displacing the Mountain Mari from inhabited territories. During events between 1438 and 1445 associated with the formation of the Kazan Khanate, about 40 thousand Tatars arrived together with Khan Uluk-Muhammad. Subsequently, Tatars from Astrakhan, Azov, Crimea, Akhtubinsk and other places moved to the Kazan Khanate. The Arab historian Al-Omari wrote that after several generations, the Tatars began to look like Polovtsy because they lived on their lands. By the end of the 19th century, most identified simply as Muslims speaking the language of the Kipchaks while invaders eventually converted to Sunni Islam in the 14th century. As the Golden Horde disintegrated in the 15th century, the area became the territory of the Kazan khanate which Russia ultimately conquered in the 16th century.

• 3. Crimean Khanate And Deportation

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  In 1441, an embassy from representatives of strong clans including Shırın, Barın, and Kıpçak went to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to invite Hacı Giray to rule in Crimea. He became the founder of the Giray dynasty which ruled until the annexation of the Crimean Khanate by Russia in 1783. In 1502, during the reign of Meñli I Giray, the Crimean Khanate defeated the Great Horde and captured Sarai. The Khanate was formally a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire with great autonomy after 1580. A major source of prosperity were frequent raids into Eastern Europe for slaves. In 1711, Peter I of Russia went on campaign with all his troops numbering 80,000 but was surrounded by the army of Crimean Khan Devlet II Giray. Only the betrayal of Ottoman vizier Baltacı Mehmet Pasha allowed Peter to escape encirclement. In 1736, Russian general Münnich invaded Crimea, devastated the peninsula, killed civilians, destroyed cities, occupied Bakhchisaray, and burnt the Khan's palace before leaving due to epidemic. From 1783 until the beginning of the 20th century, at least 800 thousand Tatars left Crimea due to oppression by Russian administration. In May 1944, the USSR State Defense Committee ordered total deportation of all Crimean Tatars from Crimea. Deportees were transported in cattle trains to Central Asia primarily to Uzbekistan. During the deportation and first years of exile, 46% of Crimean Tatars died.

• 4. Lipka Tatar Diaspora In Europe

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  The Lipka Tatars originally settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the beginning of the 14th century. The first settlers tried to preserve their shamanistic religion and sought asylum amongst non-Christian Lithuanians. Towards the end of the 14th century, Grand Duke Vytautas the Great invited another wave of Muslim Tatars into the Grand Duchy. These Tatars first settled around Vilnius, Trakai, Hrodna and Kaunas before spreading to other parts that later became part of the Polish, Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569. Various estimates place the number of Tatars in the Commonwealth during the 17th century at about 15,000 persons across 60 villages with mosques. The Tatar settlers were all granted szlachta nobility status, a tradition surviving until the end of the Commonwealth in the late 18th century. Such migrants included Lipka Tatars from the 13th, 14th centuries as well as Crimean and Nogay Tatars from the 15th, 16th centuries. The May Constitution of 1791 gave the Tatars representation in the Polish Sejm parliament. Although by the 18th century the Tatars had adopted the local language, Islamic religion and many traditions survived including sacrifice of bulls in mosques during main religious festivals. About 5,500 Tatars lived within inter-war boundaries of Poland between 1920 and 1939, and a Tatar cavalry unit fought for country's independence.

• 5. Siberian Tatar Genetic Diversity

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  The Siberian Tatars occupy three distinct regions: a strip running west to east from Tobolsk to Tomsk, the Altay and its spurs, and South Yeniseisk. They originated in agglomerations of various indigenous North Asian groups which reached some degree of culture between the 4th and 5th centuries but were subdued and enslaved by Mongols. The 2010 census recorded 6,779 Siberian Tatars in Russia. According to the 2002 census there are 500,000 Tatars in Siberia, but 400,000 of them are Volga Tatars who settled in Siberia during periods of colonization. Valikhova et al. (2022) states that Siberian Tatars at least Tom Tatars have Mongol genetic component, which is in line with their genetic history. The structure of the gene pool of Tomsk Tatars according to Y-chromosome markers shows distinct patterns compared to western populations. The Siberian Tatar language is independent of Volga, Ural Tatar with dialects quite remote from Standard Tatar and from each other often preventing mutual comprehension. The claim that Siberian Tatar is part of modern Tatar language is typically supported by linguists in Kazan and denounced by Siberian Tatars themselves.

• 6. Linguistic Dialects And Classifications

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  Eleventh-century Kara-khanid scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari noted historical Tatars were bilingual speaking other Turkic languages besides their own. The modern Tatar language together with Bashkir language forms the Kypchak-Volga-Ural group within Kipchak languages also known as Northwestern Turkic. There are two main Tatar dialects: Central and Western. The Western dialect Mishar is spoken mostly by Mishärs while Central dialect is spoken by Kazan and Astrakhan Tatars. Both dialects have subdialects with Central Tatar furnishing base of literary Tatar. The Siberian Tatar language is independent of Volga, Ural Tatar with dialects quite remote from Standard Tatar and from each other often preventing mutual comprehension. Crimean Tatar is indigenous language of Crimean Tatar people sometimes mistakenly seen in Russia as dialect of Kazan Tatar. Although these languages are related as both are Turkic, Kypchak languages closest to Crimean Tatar are Kumyk and Karachay-Balkar not Kazan Tatar. Still there exists opinion according to which Kazan Tatar language is included in same Kipchak-Cuman group as Crimean Tatar.