Tatar

The Volga (Kazan) Tatars are the second-largest people of Russia, centred on Tatarstan and the middle Volga and Urals, with about 4.7 million Tatars counted in Russia's 2021 census. They descend from the Volga Bulgars, who accepted Islam in 922, mixed with Kipchak Turks of the Golden Horde; the Kazan Khanate fell to Ivan the Terrible in 1552. Under Russian rule they were pressed to convert, and some became the Christian Kryashens, while others led the Jadid movement of Muslim educational reform in the 19th century. Subgroups include the Kazan Tatars proper, the Mishars of the western Volga and the Kryashens. Tatar merchants and exiles spread to Central Asia, Siberia, China, Japan, Finland and the Ottoman Empire, where Tatar intellectuals helped found Turkish nationalism.

Tatar culture blends Turkic, Islamic and Russian influences. Sabantuy, the spring festival after sowing, brings wrestling (köräş), horse races, sack races and climbing a greased pole. Food includes öçpoçmak (triangle meat pies), peremeç, gubadia (layered pie), bäleş and the honey sweet çäkçäk served at weddings. Wooden houses with carved, painted window frames mark Tatar villages. Kazan has a rich literary tradition led by the poet Ğabdulla Tuqay, and Tatar song uses a pentatonic scale. Families are patrilineal and traditionally close-knit, with weddings marked by the nikah and gifts of embroidered towels.

Tatars are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school, Islamised through Volga Bulgaria in the 10th century. The Jadid reformers of the 19th century made Kazan a centre of modern Muslim learning. Soviet rule closed most mosques, and many Tatars became secular; since 1991 mosques such as Kazan's Qolşärif have been rebuilt, though practice remains moderate and mixed with folk customs (graveside prayers, protective charms, life-cycle rites). The Kryashens follow Russian Orthodoxy.

The Institute for Bible Translation completed the Tatar Bible in 2015, after the New Testament (2001); Kryashen Scripture also exists. The JESUS Film, Global Recordings Network audio and other media are available in Tatar. Small Tatar-speaking evangelical churches exist in Kazan and other cities, and the Kryashens have Orthodox parishes.

Kazan and Ufa Tatars who settled in the Ottoman Empire and early Republic shaped modern Turkish identity. Yusuf Akçura's 'Üç Tarz-ı Siyaset' (1904) set out pan-Turkism; Sadri Maksudi Arsal drafted ideas on Turkish law and national history; Abdurreşid İbrahim was a pan-Islamic traveller and imam; Reşit Rahmeti Arat and Abdülkadir İnan were founding Turkologists; the Bashkir Zeki Velidi Togan led Turkic studies at Istanbul University. Their legacy is why Turkish nationalists regard the Volga Tatars as kin.