Bashkirs: religion, traditions, culture

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

The Russian Federation is a multinational country. The state is inhabited by various peoples who have their own beliefs, culture, and traditions. In the Volga Federal District there is such a subject of the Russian Federation - the Republic of Bashkortostan. It is part of the Ural economic region. This subject of the Russian Federation borders on the Orenburg, Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions, the Perm Territory, the Republics within the Russian Federation - Udmurtia and Tatarstan. The capital of Bashkortostan is the city of Ufa. The Republic is the first autonomy on a national basis. It was founded back in 1917. In terms of population (more than four million people), it also ranks first among autonomies. The republic is inhabited mainly by Bashkirs. Culture, religion, traditions of this people will be the topic of our article. It should be said that the Bashkirs live not only in the Republic of Bashkortostan. Representatives of this people can be found in other parts of the Russian Federation, as well as in Ukraine and Hungary.

What kind of people are the Bashkirs?

This is the autochthonous population of the historical region of the same name. If the population of the Republic is more than four million people, then only 1,172,287 people live in the ethnic Bashkirs (according to the latest 2010 census). In the entire Russian Federation, there are one and a half million representatives of this nationality. About a hundred thousand more went abroad. The Bashkir language separated from the Altaic family of the Western Turkic subgroup a long time ago. But until the beginning of the 20th century, their writing was based on Arabic script. In the Soviet Union, “by a decree from above,” it was translated into Latin, and during the years of Stalin’s rule, into Cyrillic. But not only language unites the people. Religion is also a bonding factor that allows you to preserve your identity. The majority of Bashkir believers are Sunni Muslims. We'll take a closer look at their religion below.

History of the people

According to scientists, the ancient Bashkirs were described by Herodotus and Claudius Ptolemy. The "Father of History" called them Argippeians and pointed out that these people dress in Scythian, but speak a special dialect. The Chinese chronicles rank the Bashkirs among the tribes of the Huns. The Book of Sui (seventh century) mentions the Bei-Din and Bo-Khan peoples. They can be identified as Bashkirs and Volga Bulgars. Medieval Arab travelers bring more clarity. Approximately in 840, Sallam at-Tarjuman visited the region, described its limits and the life of the inhabitants. He characterizes the Bashkirs as an independent people living on both slopes of the Ural Range, between the rivers Volga, Kama, Tobol and Yaik. These weresemi-nomadic pastoralists, but very warlike. The Arab traveler also mentions the animism practiced by the ancient Bashkirs. Their religion implied twelve gods: summer and winter, wind and rain, water and earth, day and night, horses and people, death. Chief among them was the Spirit of Heaven. The beliefs of the Bashkirs also included elements of totemism (some tribes revered cranes, fish and snakes) and shamanism.

Great exodus to the Danube

In the ninth century, not only the ancient Magyars left the foothills of the Urals in search of the best pastures. They were joined by some Bashkir tribes - Kese, Yeney, Yurmaty and some others. This nomadic confederation first settled on the territory between the Dnieper and the Don, forming the country of Levedia. And at the beginning of the tenth century, under the leadership of Arpad, she began to move further to the west. Crossing the Carpathians, the nomadic tribes conquered Pannonia and founded Hungary. But one should not think that the Bashkirs quickly assimilated with the ancient Magyars. The tribes divided and began to live on both banks of the Danube. The beliefs of the Bashkirs, who managed to become Islamized in the Urals, gradually began to be replaced by monotheism. The Arabic chronicles of the twelfth century mention that Khunkar Christians live on the northern bank of the Danube. And in the south of the Hungarian kingdom live Muslim Bashgirds. Their main city was Kerat. Of course, Islam in the heart of Europe could not last long. Already in the thirteenth century, most of the Bashkirs converted to Christianity. And in the fourteenth, there were no Muslims in Hungary at all.

Tengrianism

But back to the early times, before the exodus of part of the nomadic tribes from the Urals. Let us consider in more detail the beliefs that the Bashkirs then professed. This religion was called Tengri - after the name of the Father of all things and the god of heaven. In the universe, according to the ancient Bashkirs, there are three zones: the earth, on it and under it. And in each of them there was a clear and invisible part. The sky was divided into several tiers. Tengri Khan lived at the highest. The Bashkirs, who did not know statehood, nevertheless had a clear concept of the vertical of power. All other gods were responsible for the elements or natural phenomena (change of seasons, thunderstorm, rain, wind, etc.) and unconditionally obeyed Tengri Khan. The ancient Bashkirs did not believe in the resurrection of the soul. But they believed that the day would come, and they would come to life in the body, and would continue to live on earth in the established worldly way.

Connect with Islam

In the tenth century, Muslim missionaries began to penetrate into the territories inhabited by Bashkirs and Volga Bulgars. In contrast to the baptism of Russia, which met with fierce resistance from the pagan people, the Tengrian nomads converted to Islam without excesses. The concept of the religion of the Bashkirs was ideally connected with the ideas about the one God, which the Bible gives. They began to associate Tengri with Allah. Nevertheless, the "lower gods", responsible for the elements and natural phenomena, were held in high esteem for a long time. And even now the trace of ancient beliefs can be traced in proverbs, rites and rituals. Canto say that Tengrianism was refracted in the mass consciousness of the people, creating a kind of cultural phenomenon.

Convert to Islam

The first Muslim burials on the territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan date back to the eighth century. But, judging by the objects found in the burial ground, it can be judged that the deceased, most likely, were newcomers. At an early stage in the conversion of the local population to Islam (the tenth century), missionaries from such brotherhoods as Naqshbandiyya and Yasawiyya played a large role. They arrived from the cities of Central Asia, mainly from Bukhara. This predetermined what religion the Bashkirs profess now. After all, the Kingdom of Bukhara adhered to Sunni Islam, in which Sufi ideas and Hanafi interpretations of the Koran were closely intertwined. But for the Western neighbors, all these nuances of Islam were incomprehensible. The Franciscans John the Hungarian and Wilhelm, who lived continuously for six years in Bashkiria, sent the following report to the General of their order in 1320: “We found the Sovereign of Bascardia and almost all of his household completely infected with Saracen delusions.” And this allows us to say that in the first half of the fourteenth century, the majority of the population of the region converted to Islam.

Joining Russia

In 1552, after the fall of the Kazan Khanate, Bashkiria became part of the Moscow kingdom. But local elders negotiated rights to some autonomy. So, the Bashkirs could continue to own their lands, practice their religion and live in the same way. Local cavalry took part in the battlesRussian army against the Livonian Order. Religion among the Tatars and the Bashkirs had somewhat different meanings. The latter converted to Islam much earlier. And religion has become a factor in the self-identification of the people. With the accession of Bashkiria to Russia, dogmatic Muslim cults began to penetrate into the region. The state, wishing to keep under control all the believers of the country, established in 1782 a muftiate in Ufa. Such spiritual dominance led to the fact that in the nineteenth century the believers of the region split. A traditionalist wing (Kadimism), a reformist wing (Jadidism) and Ishanism (Sufism that lost its sacred basis) emerged.

What is the religion of the Bashkirs now?

Starting from the seventeenth century, uprisings against the powerful northwestern neighbor were constantly taking place in the region. They became especially frequent in the eighteenth century. These uprisings were brutally suppressed. But the Bashkirs, whose religion was a rallying element of the self-identification of the people, managed to retain their rights to beliefs. They continue to practice Sunni Islam with elements of Sufism. At the same time, Bashkortostan is the spiritual center for all Muslims of the Russian Federation. More than three hundred mosques, an Islamic institute and several madrasahs operate in the Republic. The Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation is located in Ufa.

Religion of the Bashkirs in cultural studies

The people have preserved the early pre-Islamic beliefs. Studying the rites of the Bashkirs, one can see that amazing syncretism is manifested in them. Yes, Tengriturned into the consciousness of the people in the one God, Allah. Other idols have become associated with Muslim spirits - evil demons or genies favorably disposed towards people. A special place among them is occupied by yort eiyakhe (analogous to the Slavic brownie), hyu eyyakhe (water) and shurale (goblin). Amulets serve as an excellent illustration of religious syncretism, where, along with the teeth and claws of animals, sayings from the Koran written on birch bark help against the evil eye. The rook holiday Kargatuy bears traces of the cult of ancestors, when ritual porridge was left on the field. Many rituals practiced at childbirth, funerals and commemorations also testify to the pagan past of the people.

Other religions in Bashkortostan

Given that ethnic Bashkirs make up only a quarter of the total population of the Republic, other religions should also be mentioned. First of all, this is Orthodoxy, which penetrated here with the first Russian settlers (end of the 16th century). Later, the Old Believers also settled here. In the 19th century, German and Jewish craftsmen came to the region. Lutheran churches and synagogues appeared. When Poland and Lithuania became part of the Russian Empire, military and exiled Catholics began to settle in the region. At the beginning of the 20th century, a colony of Baptists from the Kharkov region moved to Ufa. The multinationality of the population of the Republic was the reason for the diversity of beliefs, to which the indigenous Bashkirs are very tolerant. The religion of this people, with its inherent syncretism, still remains an element of the ethnic group's self-identification.