Tatars

Tatars (Tatar: Tatarlar/????????) is a collective name applied to the Turkic people of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The name is derived from Ta-ta or Dada, a Mongolian tribe that inhabited present Northeast Mongolia in the 5th cent A.D. First used to describe the peoples that overran parts of Asia and Europe under Mongol leadership in the 13th century A.D., it was later extended to include almost any Asian nomadic invader, whether from Mongolia or the fringes of Western Asia. Before the 1920s Russians used the name Tatar to designate a numerous peoples from the Azerbaijani Turks to tribes of the Siberia.

Siberian Tatars

The main article is Siberian Tatars

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Siberian Tatars were estimated (1895) at 80,000 of Turkic stock, and about 40,000 of mixed Finnic stock. They occupy three distinct regions - a strip running west to east from Tobolsk to Tomsk, the Altai and its spurs, and South Yeniseisk. They originated in the agglomerations of Turkic stems which in the region north of the Altai reached some degree of culture between the 4th and the 5th centuries, but were subdued and enslaved by the Mongols. They are difficult to classify, for they are the result of somewhat recent minglings of races and customs, and they are all more or less in process of being assimilated by the Russians, but the following subdivisions may be accepted provisionally.

Related Topics:
Siberia - 1895 - Finnic - Tobolsk - Tomsk - Altai - Mongols

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Baraba Tatars

The Baraba Tatars take their name from one of their stems (Barama) and number about 50,000 in the government of Tobolsk and about 5000 in Tomsk. After a strenuous resistance to Russian conquest, and much suffering at a later period from Kirghiz and Kalmuck raids, they now live by agriculture, either in separate villages or along with Russians.

Related Topics:
Tobolsk - Tomsk - Kirghiz

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After colonisation of Siberia by Russian and Kazan Tatars, Baraba Tatars used to call themselves people of Tomsk, then Moslems, and became to call themselves Tatars only in 20th century.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Cholym Tatars

Main article if Chulyms

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Cholym or Chulym Tatars on the Cholym and both the rivers Yus speak a Turkic language with many Mongol and Yakut words, and are more like Mongols than Turks. In the 19th century they paid a tribute for 2550 arbaletes, but they now are rapidly becoming fused with Russians.

Related Topics:
Cholym - Yus - Turks

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

See: Cholym language

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Abakan Tatars

The Abakan or Minusinsk Tatars occupied the steppes on the Abakan and Yus in the 17th century, after the withdrawal of the Kirghizes, and represent a mixture with Kaibals (whom Castren considers as partly of Ostiak and partly Samoyedic origin) and Beltirs — also of Finnic origin. Their language is also mixed. They are known under the name of Sagais, who numbered 11,720 in 1864, and are the purer Turkic stem of the Minusinsk Tatars, Kaibals, and Kizil or Red Tatars. Formerly shamanists, they now are, nominally at least, adherents of the Greek Orthodox Church, and support themselves mostly by cattle-breeding. Agriculture is spreading, but slowly, among them; they still prefer to plunder the stores of bulbs of Lilium martagon, Paeonia, and Erythronium dens-canis laid up by the steppe mouse (Mus socialis). The Soyotes, or Soyons, of the Sayan mountains (estimated at 8000), who are Finns mixed with Turks, the Uryankhes of north-west Mongolia, who are of Turkic origin but follow Buddhism, and the Karagasses, also of Turkic origin and much like the Kirghizes, but reduced now to a few hundreds, are akin to the above.

Related Topics:
Abakan - Kirghiz - Kaibals - Castren - Ostiak - Samoyed - Beltirs - 1864 - Erythronium - Buddhism - Kirghizes

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Today Abakan Tatars of Kirghiz terms are extinct, used own names only.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

See more: Khakass, Tuvans, Altays

Related Topics:
Khakas - Tuvans - Altay

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Northern Altai Tatars

The Tatars of the northern slopes of the Altai (nearly 20,000 in number) are of Finnish origin. They comprise some hundreds of Kumandintses, the Lebed Tatars, the Chernevyie or Black-Forest Tatars and the Shors (11,000), descendants of the Kuznetsk or Iron-Smith Tatars. They are chiefly hunters, passionately loving their taiga, or wild forests, and have maintained their shaman religion and tribal organization into suoks. They live partly also on pine nuts and honey collected in the forests. Their dress is that of their former rulers, the Kalmucks, and their language contains many Mongol words.

Related Topics:
Altai - Pine nut - Honey

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Altaians

The Altai Tatars, or Altaians, comprise

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• the Mountain Kalmucks (12,000), to whom this name has been given by mistake, and who have nothing in common with the Kalmucks except their dress and mode of life. They speak a Turkic dialect.
• the Teleutes, or Telenghites (5800), a remainder of a formerly numerous and warlike nation, who have migrated from the mountains to the lowlands, where they now live along with Russian peasants.

Term Tatars is also extinct for this peoples.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Although Turkestan and Central Asia were formerly known as Independent Tartary, it is not now usual to call the Sarts, Kirghiz and other inhabitants of those countries Tatars, nor is the name usually given to the Yakuts of Eastern Siberia.

Related Topics:
Turkestan - Yakuts

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~