Figure 1.-- This photos was taken in 1908 during an expedition among the Bashkirs, in the Bashkiria region of the Tsarist Empire. The Bashkirs are Muslim. The photo was taken in Verkhnie Termy and in Kara-Yakupovo. In the journal of the expedition it is noted that every place where they went, after a while, many children approached the participants of the expedition. Best said that it was the more curious boys who approached them. The journal notes that the girls never played with the boys, but were held apart by the women. All the boys wore headwear: most wore the traditional muslim caps, others straw hats; almost all were barefoot and often the younger boys only wore a shirt. Notice how you see both European and Asian faces.

The Bashkirs/Bashkorts ( Башкиры ) are a Turkic ethnic group with only minor exceptions indigenous to Russia. They are found mostly in Bashkortostan, a republic of the Russian Federation in Central Asia. It is the historical region of Badzhgard, which spans both sides of the southern Ural Mountains. This of course is where Eastern Europe meets western Asia. Very small numbers of Bashkirs in the Russian Republic of Tatarstan, the oblasts of Perm Krai, Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Tyumen, Sverdlovsk and Kurgan and other regions in Russia. There are also some in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Despite the relatively small poplation and part of russia for four centuries now, the Bashkir language has survived. It is similar to Tatar and Kazakh, showing the Bashkir Turkic origins. Bashkir is part of the Kipchak branch of Turkic languages. This shows how the Bashkirs share historical and cultural affinities with the broader Turkic world. DNA has helped reveal the European-Asiatic origins of the Bahkirs. It reveals connections to Hungarians and Huns among others. You can see that in both the European and Asian faces. What we do not understand is that after millennia, an ethnic union has not emerged. We have not noted anyone addressing this. Bashkirs made the transition to Islam during he Mongol era. They are mostly Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi madhhab school of jurisprudence. They follow Jadid doctrine. Before the Soviet era, the Bashkir were nomadic and fiercely independent. As part of the Tsarist advance into Central Asia, the Bashkirs came under Russian control (16th century). It was not as easy process. The Bashkir were constantly revolting and participated in the major rebellions such as the Pugachev Rebellion (1773-75), a real threat to the Tsarist state. They eventually eked out autonomous status within the Russian Empire. Despite a long history of resisting Russian control, the Bashkirs were one of the few Muslim groups which remained loyal when the NAZIs invaded (1941). The Bashkirs retained their autonomous status in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia. Islam was under attack during the Soviet era, but is now experiencing a revival.

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Created: 12:34 AM 1/18/2025
Last updated: 12:34 AM 1/18/2025