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BASHKIRS

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 466 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BASHKIRS , a See also:

people inhabiting the See also:Russian governments of See also:Ufa, See also:Orenburg, See also:Perm and See also:Samara, and parts of See also:Vyatka, especially on the slopes and confines of the Ural, and in the neighbourfiig'plains. They speak a Tatar See also:language, but some authorities think that they are ethnically a Finnish tribe transformed by Tatar See also:influence. The name Bashkir or Bash-kart appears for the first See also:time in the beginning of the loth See also:century in the writings of See also:Ibn-Foslan, who, describing his travels among the VoIga-Bulgarians, mentions the Bashkirs- as a warlike and idolatrous See also:race. The name was not used by the people themselves in the loth century, but is a See also:mere See also:nickname. Of See also:European writers, the first to mention the Bashkirs are Joannes de Plano See also:Carpini (c. r 200-1260) and See also:William of See also:Rubruquis (1220-1293). These travellers, who See also:fell in with them in the upper parts of the See also:river Ural, See also:call them Pascatir, and assert that they spoke at that time the same language as the Hungarians. Till the arrival of the Mongolians, about the See also:middle of the 13th century, the Bashkirs were a strong and See also:independent people and troublesome to their neighbours, the Bulgarians and See also:Petchenegs. At the time of the downfall of the Kazan See also:kingdom they were in a weak See also:state. In 1556 they voluntarily recognized the supremacy of See also:Russia, and, in consequence, the See also:city of Ufa was founded to defend them from the See also:Kirghiz, and they were subjected to a See also:fur-tax. In 1676 they rebelled under a See also:leader named Seit, and were with difficulty reduced; and again in 1707, under Aldar and Kfisyom, on See also:account of See also:ill-treatment by the Russian officials. Their third and last insurrection was in 1735, at the time of the See also:foundation of Orenburg, and it lasted for six years. In 1786 they were freed from taxes; and in 1798 an irregular See also:army was formed from among them.

They are now divided into cantons and give little trouble, though some See also:

differences have arisen between them and the See also:government about See also:land questions. By mode of See also:life the Bashkirs are divided into settled and nomadic. The former are engaged in See also:agriculture, See also:cattle-rearing and See also:bee-keeping, and live without want. The nomadic portion is subdivided, according to the districts in which they wander, into those of the mountains and those of the See also:steppes. Almost their See also:sole occupation is the rearing of cattle; and they attend to that in a very negligent manner, not See also:collecting a sufficient See also:store of See also:winter See also:fodder for all their herds, but allowing See also:part of them to perish. The Bashkirs are usually very poor, and in winter live partly on a See also:kind of gruel called yIryu, and badly prepared See also:cheese named skurt. They are hospitable but suspicious, See also:apt to See also:plunder and to the last degree lazy: They have large heads, See also:black See also:hair, eyes narrow and See also:flat, small fore-heads, ears always sticking out and a swarthy skin. In See also:general, they are strong and See also:muscular, and able to endure all kinds of labour and privation. They profess Mahommedanism, but know little of its doctrines. Their intellectual development is See also:low. See J. P.

Carpini, See also:

Liber Tartarorum, edited under the See also:title Relations See also:des See also:Mongols ou Tartares, by d'Avezac (See also:Paris, 1838) ; Gulielmus de Rubruquis, The See also:Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the See also:World, translated by W. W. Rockhill (See also:London, 1900) ; Semenoff, Slovar See also:Ross. See also:Imp., ay.; See also:Frahn, " De Baskiris," in Mein. de l'Acad. de St-Pitersbourg (1822); Florinsky, in Westnik Evropi (1874); and Katarinskij, Dictionnaire Bashkir-Russe (1900).

End of Article: BASHKIRS

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