The Tatars (, ) are a group of Turkic speaking peoples found across Eastern Europe and Northern Asia who bear the name "Tatar".
Initially, the ethnonym Tatar possibly referred to the Tatar confederation. That confederation was eventually incorporated into the Mongol Empire when Genghis Khan unified the various steppe tribes. Historically, the term Tatar (or Tartar) was applied by western cartographers to anyone from the vast Northern and Central Asian landmass then known as Tartary, a term that was falsely conflated with the Mongol Empire. More recently, the term has come to refer more narrowly to related ethnic groups who call themselves Tatars.
By far the largest group amongst the Tatars are the Volga Tatars, native to the Volga-Ural region (Tatarstan and Bashkortostan) of European Russia, who for this reason are often also known as Tatars in Russian. They compose 53% of Tatarstan's population. Their language is known as the Tatar language. , there were an estimated 5.3 million ethnic Tatars in Russia.
While also speaking languages belonging to different Kipchak sub-groups, genetic studies have shown that the three main groups of Tatars (Volga, Crimean, and Siberian) are apparently unrelated, and thus their formation occurred independently of one another, but it is possible that at least one of the Tatar groups had cultural influence mainly from the times of the Golden Horde.
Many noble families in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire had Tatar origins.Thomas Riha, Readings in Russian Civilization, Volume 1: Russia Before Peter the Great, 900–1700, University of Chicago Press (2009), p. 186Baskakov: Русские фамилии тюркского происхождения (Russian surnames of Turkic origin) (1979)
Etymology
Tatar became a name for populations of the former Golden Horde in Europe, such as those of the former Kazan, Crimean, Astrakhan, Qasim, and Siberian Khanates. The form Tartar has its origins in either Latin or French, coming to Western European languages from Turkish and the Persian (, "mounted messenger"). From the beginning, the extra r was present in the Western forms and according to the Oxford English Dictionary this was most likely due to an association with Tartarus.
The Persian word is first recorded in the 13th century in reference to the hordes of Genghis Khan and is of unknown origin; according to the Oxford English Dictionary it is "said to be" ultimately from tata. The Arabic word for Tatars is . Tatars themselves wrote their name as or .
Tatar was also an endonym to a number of peoples of Siberia and Russian Far East, namely Chulyms (татар, tatar), also Khakas, Teleut, and Shor (тадар, tadar).Ушницкий В. В. Средневековые народы Центральной Азии (вопросы происхождения и этнической истории тюрко-монгольских племен). — Казань: Изд-во «Фэн» АН РТ, 2009. — С. 4. — 116 с. — Ochir (2016) states that Siberian Tatars and the Tatars living in the territories between Asia and Europe are of Turkic origin, acquired the appellation Tatar later, and do not possess ancestral connection to the Mongolic Nine Tatars, whose ethnogenesis involved Mongolic people as well as Mongolized Turks who had been ruling over them during the 6–8th centuries. quote (p. 160–161): "Ныне татарами называют этнические группы, имеющие монгольское и тюркское происхождение. Из них так называемые «девять татар» приняли участие в этнокультурном развитии монголов. Татары эти, как племя, сформировались, видимо, в период существования на территории Монголии Тюркского каганата (VI–VIII вв.); помимо монгольского компонента, в процессе этногенеза приняли участие и тюркские, о чем свидетельствует этнический состав татар. В этот период монголами управляли тюрки, которые со временем омонголились. [...] Что же касается сибирских татар и татар, проживающих на территории между Азией и Европой, то они являются выходцами из тюрок. Название татар они получили позднее и не имеют родовой связи с монгольскими («девятью татарами». — А.О.) татарами." Valikhova et al. (2022) states that Siberian Tatars, at least Tom Tatars, have Mongol genetic component, which is in line with their genetic history.https://www.medgen-journal.ru/jour/article/view/2212 The structure of the gene pool of Tomsk Tatars according to Y-chromosome markers
Pow (2019) proposes that Turkic-speaking peoples of Cumania (i.e. PolovtsiansГаркавец А. Н. Кыпчакские языки. — Алма-Ата: Наука, 1987. — С. 18.), as a sign of political allegiance, adopted the endonym Tatar of their Mongol conquerors, before ultimately subsuming the latter culturally and linguistically in the Golden Horde;quote (p 563): "Regarding the Volga Tatar people of today, it appears they took on the endonym of their Mongol conquerors when they overran the Dasht-i-Kipchak. It was preserved as the prevailing ethnonym in the subsequent synthesis of the Mongols and their more numerous Turkic subjects who ultimately subsumed their conquerors culturally and linguistically as al-Umari noted by the fourteenth century [32, p. 141]. I argue that the name 'Tatar' was adopted by the Turkic peoples in the region as a sign of having joined the Tatar conquerors – a practice which Friar Julian reported in the 1230s as the conquest unfolded. The name stands as a testament to the survivability and adaptability of both peoples and ethnonyms. It became, as Sh. Marjani stated, their 'proud Tatar name.'" therefore, the term Tatar was originally not just an exonym.
Some Turkic peoples living within the Russian Empire were named Tatar, although not all Turkic peoples of Russian Empire were referred to as Tatars (for instance, this name was never used in relation to the Yakuts, Chuvashes, Sarts and some others). Some of these populations used and keep using Tatar as a self-designation, others do not.«Алфавитный список народов, обитающих в Российской Империи» Демоскоп Weekly
Oghur branch Chuvash: Chuvash Tatars Kipchak groups Kipchak–Bulgar branch or "Tatar" in the narrow sense Volga Tatars Astrakhan Tatars Lipka Tatars Kipchak–Cuman branch Crimean Tatars Karachays and Balkars: Mountain Tatars Kumyks: Daghestan Tatars Kipchak–Nogai branch: Dobrujan Tatars Nogais: Nogai Tatars Tobol-Irtysh group of Siberian Tatars Kipchak-Kyrgyz branch Baraba group of Siberian Tatars Tom group of Siberian Tatars Southern Altaians (Altai-Kizhi) Siberian branch: Northern Altaians: Altai Tatars, including the Tubalar or Chernevo Tatars Chulyms or Chulym Tatars Khakas: Yenisei Tatars (also Abakan Tatars or Achin Tatars), still use the Tatar designation Shors: Kuznetsk Tatars Oghuz branch Azerbaijanis: Caucasus Tatars (also Transcaucasia Tatars or Azerbaijan Tatars) Turkmen TatarsТуркмены на Юге Украины в конце XVIII – середине XIX вв.
Languages
Eleventh-century Kara-khanid scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari noted that the historical Tatars were bilingual, speaking other Turkic languages besides their own.Maħmūd al-Kašğari. "Dīwān Luğāt al-Turk". Edited & translated by Robert Dankoff in collaboration with James Kelly. In Sources of Oriental Languages and Literature. Part I. (1982). pp. 82–83
The modern Tatar language, together with the Bashkir language, forms the Kypchak-Volga-Ural group within the Kipchak languages (also known as Northwestern Turkic).
There are two Tatar dialects—Central and Western.Akhatov G. "Tatar dialectology". Kazan, 1984. (Tatar language) The Western dialect (Misher) is spoken mostly by Mishärs, the Central dialect is spoken by Kazan and Astrakhan Tatars. Both dialects have subdialects. Central Tatar furnishes the base of literary Tatar.
The Siberian Tatar language is independent of Volga–Ural Tatar. The dialects are quite remote from Standard Tatar and from each other, often preventing mutual comprehension. The claim that Siberian Tatar is part of the modern Tatar language is typically supported by linguists in Kazan and denounced by Siberian Tatars.
Crimean Tatar is the indigenous language of the Crimean Tatar people. Because of its common name, Crimean Tatar is sometimes mistakenly seen in Russia as a dialect of Kazan Tatar. Although these languages are related (as both are Turkic), the Kypchak languages closest to Crimean Tatar are (as mentioned above) Kumyk and Karachay-Balkar, not Kazan Tatar. Still, there exists an opinion (E. R. Tenishev), according to which the Kazan Tatar language is included in the same Kipchak-Cuman group as Crimean Tatar.Сравнительно-историческая грамматика тюркских языков. Региональные реконструкции/Отв. ред. Э.Р. Тенишев. – М. Наука. 2002. – 767 с. стр. 732, 736–737
Contemporary groups and nations The largest Tatar populations are the Volga Tatars, native to the Idel-Ural (Volga-Ural) region of European Russia, and the Crimean Tatars of Crimea. Smaller groups of Lipka Tatars and Astrakhan Tatars also live in Europe and the Siberian Tatars in Asia.
Volga Tatars
In the 7th century AD, the Volga Bulgars settled on the territory of the Volga-Kama region, where Finno-Ugrians lived compactly at that time. Bulgars inhabited part of the modern territory of Tatarstan, Udmurtia, Ulyanovsk region, Samara region and Chuvashia. After the invasion of Batu Khan in 1223–1236, the Golden Horde destroyed Volga Bulgaria. Most of the population of the Bulgars survived and crossed to the right bank of the Volga, displacing the Mountain Mari (cheremis) from the inhabited territories to the meadow side. In the year 1236, according to a Russian annalist: "there came from the countries of the East into the Bulgar lands the godless Tatars and sacked the good city of Bolgar and killed everyone from the old to the young and the tiniest suckling". It is likely the first time that the name Tatar was used in connection with the region.
After a while, Tatars from all the outskirts of the Golden Horde began to arrive in the Kazan Khanate, and consisted mainly of Kipchak peoples: Nogais and Crimean Tatars.Kazan was built by the Perekop fugitives from Taurida during the reign of Vasily Vasilyevich in Moscow. Vasily Ivanovich forced her to take tsars from him for herself. And then, when she was indignant, he embarrassed her with the hardships of a dangerous war, but he did not conquer her. But in 7061 (1552), his son Ivan IV took the city of Kazan after a six-month siege together with the Cheremis. However, in the form of a reward for the offense, he subdued neighboring Bulgaria, which he could not stand for frequent rebellions.
— The journey to Muscovy of Baron Augustine Mayerberg and Horace Wilhelm Calvucci, ambassadors of the August Roman Emperor Leopold to the Tsar and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich in 1661, described by Baron Mayerberg himselfKazan Tatars are descendants of the Tatars of the Kazan Kingdom of the Kipchak Horde. — "Alphabetical list of peoples living in the Russian Empire in 1895"Kazan Tatars got their name from the main city of Kazan—and it is so called from the Tatar word Kazan, the cauldron, which was omitted by the servant of the founder of this city, Khan Altyn Bek, not on purpose, when he scooped water for his master to wash, in the river now called Kazanka. In other respects, according to their own legends, they were not of a special tribe, but descended from the fighters who remained here [in Kazan] on the settlement of different generations and from foreigners attracted to Kazan, but especially Nogai Tatars, who all through their union into a single society formed a special people.
— Carl Wilhelm Müller. "Description of all the peoples living in the Russian state,.." Part Two. About the peoples of the Tatar tribe. S-P, 1776, Translated from German.