The appearance of the Bashkirs. Bashkir people: culture, traditions and customs

Bashkirs.
Illustrated encyclopedia of the peoples of Russia. St. Petersburg, 1877.

Bashkirs, Bashkort (self-name), people in Russia, indigenous people Bashkiria (Bashkortostan).

Bashkirs (LG.E, 2013)

BASHKIRS, Bashkorttar - the people of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The Bashkirs are an autochthonous people of the Southern Urals and the Urals. The number in the world is 2 million people. The Bashkirs are mentioned in the work of Herodotus (5th century BC). The Bashkirs are mentioned by Gumilev in connection with the history of the Mongol-Bashkir war, which lasted 14 years. The Bashkirs repeatedly won battles and finally concluded a treaty of friendship and alliance, after which they united with the Mongols. The war went on, according to Gumilev, from 1220 to 1234, after which the Mongol-Bashkir army in 1235 conquered “five countries”: Sascia (Saksin), Fulgaria (Kama Bulgaria), Merovia (the country north of the Volga, between Vetluga and Unzha) , Wedin (north of Merovia to the Sukhona River), Poydovia and the “kingdom of the Mordans” (“Ancient Russia and the Great Steppe”)...

Belitser V.N. Bashkirs

BASHKIRS (self-name - Bashkort) - nation. They constitute the indigenous population of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. They also live in the Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Saratov, Kuibyshev regions of the RSFSR and the Tatar ASSR. Number - 989 thousand people (1959). The Bashkir language belongs to the Turkic languages. Believing Bashkirs are Sunni Muslims. The question of the origin of the Bashkirs and the formation of the Bashkir people is very complex and not fully resolved in modern historical science. Being the oldest inhabitants Southern Urals, the Bashkirs were formed mainly on the basis of local tribes, but also adopted heterogeneous ethnic components into their midst, which penetrated into the territory of modern Bashkiria from different places and at different times. Judging by the monuments of the Ananino culture and the Pyanobor culture, the northwestern part of Bashkiria was inhabited by sedentary tribes who were engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding and hunting. In the southwestern and southern regions lived other tribes (see Andronovo culture), similar in culture to the Scythian-Sarmatians. Their main occupations were: horseback steppe hunting, pastoral cattle breeding and only partly fallow farming. Since the Early Iron Age, the tribes of the Southern Urals have had intensive ties with Siberia, which influenced the ethnic composition and culture of the local population. In the 1st and early 2nd millennia, the Southern Urals were penetrated Turkic-speaking tribes from Altai and Southern Siberia...

Popov N.S. Religious beliefs of the peoples of the Volga and Urals regions

In the Volga-Ural region, Finno-Ugric (Mordovians, Mari, Udmurts), Turkic (Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvash), Slavic (Russians, Ukrainians) and other peoples live in close contact. The ancient settlers of the region are Finno-Ugric peoples. They were formed in the second half of the 1st millennium BC. - in the 1st millennium AD e. The culture of the ancient Finno-Ugric peoples is influenced by the traditions of the Ugrians, Scythian-Sarmatians, and the ancestors of the Balto-Slavs. In the 2nd-4th centuries AD. e. The Volga region is settled by Turks who migrated from Central Asia and Southern Siberia.

Yarlykapov A.A. Bashkir beliefs

Bashkirs (1345.3 thousand people - 1989) - Sunni Muslims (see. Sunnism) Hanafi persuasion. Islam began to penetrate the Bashkirs from the 10th century, ended, and became established with its adoption as the state religion in the Golden Horde under Uzbek Khan (1312). The accession of the Bashkirs in the mid-16th century to To the Russian state did not have such serious consequences for them as for the Tatars: they stipulated their right to freely practice the Muslim religion and thereby avoided forced Christianization.

Yuldashbaev A. Bashkir - a hidden Tatar?

At one time, the President of Tatarstan M. Shaimiev compared the relationship between the two peoples - Tatars and Bashkirs - to two wings of one bird. A wonderful image of our common history, it is no coincidence that it arose in the soul (by the President himself at the Second World Kurultai of the Bashkirs) of the Teptya - a representative of a socio-ethnic community that, in terms of language and culture, occupies exactly the middle position between our peoples.

Bikbulatov N.V., Pimenov V.V. Bashkirs: description of the ethnonym.

Bashkirs, Bashkort (self-name), people in Russia, indigenous population of Bashkiria (Bashkortostan). The population in Russia is 1345.3 thousand people, including 863.8 thousand people in Bashkiria. They also live in the Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Perm, Sverdlovsk, Kurgan, and Tyumen regions. In addition, in Kazakhstan (41.8 thousand people), Uzbekistan (34.8 thousand people), Kyrgyzstan (4.0 thousand people), Tajikistan (6.8 thousand people), Turkmenistan (4.7 thousand . people), in Ukraine (7.4 thousand people). Total number 1449.2 thousand people. They speak the Bashkir language of the Turkic group of the Altaic family; dialects: southern, eastern, the northwestern group of dialects stands out. Russian and Tatar languages ​​are widespread. Writing based on the Russian alphabet. Believing Bashkirs are Sunni Muslims.

Adutov Rafael. Tatars and Bashkirs in the land of the samurai.

Japan, closed to foreigners for centuries, was forced to open its borders only at the end of the 19th century - after the bombing of a number of its ports by the cannons of American dreadnoughts. The Japanese, who for the most part had never seen foreigners, were surprised at the tall Tatars and Bashkirs in comparison with them, at their unusual appearance and behavior.

Everyone was amazed by peddlers from the Volga region and the Urals dressed in robes who rode bicycles into the streets of Japanese villages and were immediately surrounded by a crowd of its inhabitants.

The origin of the Bashkirs still remains an unsolved mystery.

This problem is of interest both here and in other countries. Historians in Europe, Asia and America are scratching their heads over it. This is, of course, not imagination. The Bashkir question, which lies in the desperately fighting history of the people, in its (the people’s) incomparable character, original culture, in a unique national face different from its neighbors, in its history, especially in ancient history, as it dives into which it takes on the form of a mysterious riddle, where each solved riddle gives rise to a new one - all this, in turn, gives rise to a question common to many peoples.

The written monument, in which the name of the Bashkir people was mentioned for the first time, is said to have been left by the traveler Ibn Fadlan. In 922, he, as the secretary of the envoys of the Baghdad caliph Al-Muqtadir, passed through the southwestern part of ancient Bashkortostan - through the territories of the present Orenburg, Saratov and Samara regions, where on the banks of the river. Irgiz was inhabited by Bashkirs. According to Ibn Fadlan, the Bashkirs are a Turkic people who live on the slopes of the Southern Urals, inhabiting a vast territory from the west to the banks of the Volga; their southeastern neighbors are refugees (Pechenegs).

As we see, Ibn Fadlan already in that distant era established the values Bashkir lands And Bashkir people. In this case, it would be useful to explain the messages about the Bashkirs as broadly as possible in translation.

Already closer to the Emba River, the missionary begins to be disturbed by the shadows of the Bashkirs, from which it is clear that the caliph’s envoy is traveling through the Bashkir land. Perhaps he had already heard from other neighboring peoples about the warlike nature of the owners of this country. While crossing the Chagan River (Sagan, a river in the Orenburg region, on the banks of which the Bashkirs still live), the Arabs were worried about this:

“It is necessary that a detachment of fighters carrying weapons crosses before anything from the caravan crosses. They are the vanguard for the people (following) them, (for protection) from the Bashkirs, (in case) so that they (i.e., the Bashkirs) do not capture them when they are crossing.”

Trembling with fear of the Bashkirs, they cross the river and continue on their way.

“Then we drove for several days and crossed the Dzhakha River, then after it the Azkhan River, then through the Badzha River, then through Samur, then through Kabal, then through Sukh, then through Ka(n)jalu, and now we arrived in the country of the people Turk, called al-Bashgird." Now we know Ibn Fadlan’s path: already on the banks of the Emba he began to warn against the courageous Bashkirs; these fears haunted him throughout the journey. Having crossed the fast Yaik near the mouth of the Sagan River, it goes straight along the roads Uralsk - Buguruslan - Bugulma, and is crossed in the order indicated by the Saga River ("Zhaga"), which flows into the Byzavlyk River near modern village Andreevka, the Tanalyk (“Azkhan”) river, then Maly Byzavlyk (“Bazha”) near Novoaleksandrovka, Samara (“Samur”) near the city of Byzavlyk, then Borovka (“Cabal” from the word boar), Small Kun-yuly (“Dry”), Bol. Kun-yuly (“Kanjal” from the word Kun-yul, Russians write Kinel), reaches the region densely populated by the people of “Al-Bashgird” of the Bugulma upland with picturesque nature between the rivers Agidel, Kama, Idel (now the territory of the republics of Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and the Orenburg regions and Samara). As is known, specified places constitute the western part of the Ancestral Home of the Bashkir people and called by Arab travelers such geographical names as Eske Bashkort (Inner Bashkortostan). And the other part of the Bashkir Ancestral Homeland, stretching through the Urals to the Irtysh, was named Tyshky Bashkort - External Bashkortostan. Here there is Mount Iremel (Ramil), supposedly originating from the phallus of our deceased Ural Batyr. Known from the myths, the eminence of Em-Uba 'Vagina-Elevation' of our Ese-Khaua - Mother of Heaven, which is a continuation of the southern ridge of the Urals and towers over the Caspian Sea, in common parlance sounds like Mugazhar-Emba, at this place the river still flows. Emba (Ibn Fadlan passed by her).

Outsiders could go to the open international Bashkir city-bazaar of Bulgar along the path made by Ibn Fadlan, along the southern edge of the Interior. Bashkortostan. Penetration into the sacred mountains - “Body of Shulgan-Batyr” and “Body of Ural-Batyr”, etc. - the mountain of the gods - was prohibited by deadly taboos. Those who tried to break it, as Ibn Fadlan warned, were sure to have their heads cut off (this strict law was violated after Tatar-Mongol invasion). Even the strength of a heavily armed 2 thousand caravan could not save the traveler from the impending threat of being deprived of his head:

“We guarded against them with the greatest caution, because they are the worst of the Turks, and ... more than others, they encroach on murder. A man meets a man, cuts off his head, takes it with him, and leaves him (himself).

Throughout his journey, Ibn Fadlan tried to ask in more detail about the indigenous people from the Bashkir guide who had already converted to Islam and was fluent in Arabic, who was specially assigned to them, and he even asked: “What do you do with a louse after you catch it? " It seems that the Bashkir turned out to be a rogue, who decided to play a joke on the meticulously curious traveler: “And we cut it up with our fingernails and eat it.” After all, even one and a half thousand years before Ibn Fadlan, the Bashkirs, when asked by the equally curious traveler Greek Herodotus, how you get milk from a mare’s udder, propped it up to a crooked birch tree (in other words: they joked, deceived): “Very simple. We insert a kurai cane into the anus of the mare and together we inflate her belly, under air pressure the milk itself begins to splash from the udder into the bucket. There is. “They shave their beards and eat lice when any of them are caught. One of them examines the seam of his jacket in detail and chews the lice with his teeth. Indeed, one of them was with us, who had already converted to Islam, and who served with us, and then I saw one louse in his clothes, he crushed it with his nail, then ate it.”

These lines are more likely to contain the black stamp of that era than the truth. What can we expect from the servants of Islam, for whom Islam is true faith, and those who profess it are the chosen ones, all the rest are unclean to them; They called the pagan Bashkirs who had not yet accepted Islam “evil spirits,” “eating their lice,” etc. He hangs the same dirty label on his path and on other peoples who did not have time to join righteous Islam. According to the bucket - the lid, according to the era - views (opinions), you cannot be offended by the traveler today. Here is a kind of different definition: “They (Russians - Z.S.) are the dirtiest of Allah’s creatures - (they) do not cleanse themselves from excrement or urine, and do not wash themselves from sexual impurity and do not wash their hands before and after food, they are like wandering donkeys. They come from their country and moor their ships on Attila, which is a large river, and build large houses of wood on its banks, and ten and (or) twenty, less and ( or) more, and each (of them) has a bench on which he sits, and girls (sit) with him - a delight for merchants. And so one (of them) gets married to his girlfriend, and his friend looks at him. Sometimes many of them unite in such a position, one against the other, and a merchant enters to buy a girl from one of them, and (thus) finds him marrying her, and he (Rus) does not leave her, or ( satisfies part of your need. And it is obligatory for them to wash their faces and their heads every day with the dirtiest water that exists, and the most unclean, namely, in such a way that the girl comes every day in the morning, carrying a large tub of water, and offers it to her master. So he washes both his hands and his face and all his hair in it. And he washes them and combs them into a tub with a comb. Then he blows his nose and spits into it and leaves nothing of the dirt, he (all this) puts it into this water. And when he finishes what he needs, the girl carries the tub to the one who (sits) next to him, and (he) does the same as his friend does. And she does not stop transferring it from one to another until she has gone around with it to everyone in (this) house, and each of them blows his nose and spits and washes his face and his hair in it.”

As you can see, the caliph’s envoy, as a devoted son of the era, evaluates the culture of the “kafirs” from the height of the Islamic minaret. He sees only their dirty tub and has no concern for the condemnation of the future generation...

Let's return again to the memories of the Bashkirs. Worried about the “lower” people, deprived of the Islamic faith, he sincerely writes the following lines: “(but) the opinion deviating (from the truth), each of them cuts out a piece of wood the size of a phallus and hangs it on himself, and if he wants to go on a journey or meets an enemy, he kisses him (a piece of wood), worships him and says, “Oh, lord, do this and that for me.” So I said to the translator: “Ask any of them what is their justification (explanation) for this and why did he do this as his lord (god)?” He said: “Because I came from something like this and I don’t know about myself any other creator than this.” Some of them say that he has twelve lords (gods): lord of winter, lord of summer, lord of rain, lord of wind, lord of trees, lord of people, lord of horses, lord of water, lord of night. the lord, the day is the lord, the death is the lord, the earth is the lord, and the lord who is in the sky is the greatest of them, but only he unites with them (the rest of the gods) in agreement, and each of them approves of what his companion does . Allah is above what the wicked say in height and greatness. He (Ibn Fadlan) said: we saw (one) group worshiping snakes, (another) group worshiping fish, (third) group worshiping cranes, and I was informed that they (the enemies) put them (the Bashkirs) to flight and that the cranes screamed behind them (the enemies), so that they (the enemies) were frightened and were themselves put to flight, after they had put the (Bashkirs) to flight, and therefore they (the Bashkirs) worship the cranes and say: “These (cranes) are ours lord, since he put our enemies to flight,” and therefore they worship them (even now).” The monument of worship of the Usyargan-Bashkirs is an identical myth and hymn-like song-melody “Syngrau Torna” - the Ringing Crane.

In the chapter “About the features Turkic languages" of the two-volume dictionary of the Turkic peoples by M. Kashgari (1073-1074), Bashkir is listed among the twenty “main” languages ​​of the Turkic peoples. The Bashkir language is very close to the Kipchak, Oghuz and other Turkic languages.

The prominent Persian historian, official chronicler of Genghis Khan's court, Rashid ad Din (1247-1318), also reports about the Turkic people Bashkirs.

Al-Maqsudi (X century), Al-Balkhi (X century), Idrisi (XII), Ibn Said (XIII), Yakut (XIII), Qazvini (XIV) and many others. everyone claims that the Bashkirs are Turks; only their location is indicated differently - either near the Khazars and Alans (Al-Maqsudi), or near the state of Byzantium (Yakut, Kazvini). Al-Balkhi with Ibn Said - the Urals or some western lands are considered the lands of the Bashkirs.

Western European travelers also wrote a lot about the Bashkirs. As they themselves admit, they do not see the difference between the Bashkirs and the ancestors of the current Hungarians of the Ugr tribe - they consider them to be the same. Another version is directly added to this - a Hungarian story written down in the 12th century by an unknown author. It tells how the Hungarians, i.e. Magyars moved from the Urals to Pannonia - modern Hungary. “In 884,” it says, “seven ancestors, generated by our god, called Hettu Moger, left the west, from the land of Scit. The leader Almus, son of Ugek, from the family of King Magog, with his wife, son Arpad and other allied peoples, also left with them. Having walked through the flat lands for many days, they crossed the Etil in their haste and nowhere did they find any roads between the villages or the villages themselves, they did not eat food prepared by man, however, until Suzdal, before reaching Russia, they ate meat and fish. From Suzdal they headed to Kyiv, then, in order to take possession of the inheritance left by Almus’s ancestor Attila, they came to Pannonia through the Carpathian Mountains.”

As you know, the Magyar tribes who settled in Pannonia for a long time could not forget their ancient homeland of the Urals; in their hearts they kept stories about their pagan fellow tribesmen. With the intention of finding them and helping them get rid of paganism and win them over to Christianity, Otto, Johanna the Hungarian, sets off on a journey to the west. But their trip was a failure. In 1235-1237 For the same purpose, another missionaries arrive to the banks of the Volga under the leadership of the brave Hungarian Julian. After much ordeal and hardship on the way, he finally reached the international trading city of the Bashkirs, the Great Bulgar in Inner Bashkortostan. There he met a woman who was born in the country he is looking for and who married in these parts, from whom he makes inquiries about her homeland. Soon Julian finds his fellow tribesmen on the shore of Greater Itil (Agidel). The chronicle says that “they listened with great attention to what he wanted to talk to them about - about religion, about other things, and he listened to them.”

Plano Carpini, a 13th-century traveler, envoy of Pope Innocent IV to the Mongols, in his work “History of the Mongols” several times calls the country of the Bashkirs “Great Hungary” - Hungaria Major. (It’s also interesting: in Orenburg local history museum a bronze ax was kept, found on the bank of the Sakmara River in the village adjacent to the Senkem-Biktimer village. Major. And “major” - the modified “Bashkort” is represented as follows: Bazhgard - Magyar - Major). And here is what Guillaume de Rubruk, who visited the Golden Horde, writes: “...After we had covered a 12-day journey from Etil, we came to a river called Yasak (Yaik - modern Ural - Z.S.); it flows from the north from the lands of the Pascatirs (that is, the Bashkirs - Z.S.)... the language of the Hungarians and the Pascatirs is the same... their country abuts the Great Bulgar from the west... From the lands of these Pascatirs came the Huns, later the Hungarians, and this is Great Hungary "

After being rich natural resources The Bashkir land “of its own free will” became part of the Moscow state; the popular uprisings that flared up there for centuries forced the tsarist autocracy to look at the Bashkirs differently. Apparently, in search of new opportunities for conducting colonial policy, a thorough study of the life of the indigenous people begins - their economy, history, language, worldview. Official historian of Russia N.M. Karamzin (1766-1820), based on Rubruk’s reports, concludes that initially the Bashkir language was Hungarian; later, presumably, they began to speak “Tatar”: “they adopted it from their conquerors and due to the long coexistence and communication, they forgot their native language.” This is, if you do not take into account the work of M. Kashgari, who lived a century and a half before the invasion of the Tatars and considered the Bashkirs one of the main Turkic peoples. However, there is still ongoing debate among scientists around the world regarding whether the Bashkirs are Turkic or Uyghur in origin. In addition to historians, linguists, ethnographers, archaeologists, anthropologists, etc. also participate in this battle. There are interesting attempts to solve the mystery with the help of a non-rusting key - the ethnonym “Bashkort”.

V.N. Tatishchev:“bashkort” means “bash bure” (“ head wolf") or "thief".

P.I. Rychkov:"bashkort" - "main wolf" or "thief". According to his opinion, the Bashkirs were so named by the Nugais (that is, a fragment of the Usyargan-Bashkirs) because they did not move with them to the Kuban. However, back in 922, Ibn Fadlan wrote down “Bashkirs” according to their own name, the time of resettlement of the Usyargan-Nugai people to the Kuban dates back to the 15th century.

V. Yumatov:“...They call themselves “bash kort” - “beekeepers”, patrimonial owners, owners of bees.”

I. Fisher: this is an ethnonym, called differently in medieval sources “... Paskatir, Bashkort, Bashart, Magyar, all have the same meaning.”

D.A. Khvolson: The ethnonyms “Magyar” and “Bashkort” come from the root word “Bazhgard”. And the “Bazhguards” themselves, in his opinion, lived in the Southern Urals, later decomposed and were used to name the Ugric tribes. According to the assumption of this scientist, one of the branches headed to the west and there formed the ethnonym “Bazhgard”, where the capital “b” is transformed into “m”, and the final “d” is lost. As a result, “Mazhgar” is formed... It, in turn, becomes “mazhar”, which subsequently transforms into “Magyar” (and also into “Mishar”, we add!). This group managed to preserve their language and gave rise to the Magyar people.

The remaining second part of “Bazhguard” turns into “Bashguard” - “Bashkart” - “Bashkort”. This tribe eventually became a Turk and formed the core of the present-day Bashkirs.

F.I. Gordeev: “ The ethnonym “Bashkort” must be restored as “Bashkair”. From this the following is formed: it is quite possible that “Bashkair” was formed from several words:

1) "ir"- means “man”;

2) "ut"- goes back to plural endings -T

(-ta, tә) in Iranian languages, reflected in Scythian-Sarmatian names...

Thus, the ethnonym “Bashkort” in modern language refers to the people inhabiting the banks of the Bashka (us) river in the Urals region.”

H.G. Gabashi: The name of the ethnonym “Bashkort” occurred as a result of the following modification of the words: “Bash Uygyr - Bashgar - Bashkort”. Gabashi’s observations are interesting, but modifications in the reverse order are closer to the truth (Bashkort - Bashgyr, Bashuygyr - Uighur), because, according to history, the ancient Uyghurs are neither modern Uyghurs, nor Ugric peoples (since they are ancient Uysargans).

Determining the time of formation of the Bashkirs as a people in the history of the Bashkirs themselves still remains, like an untied Gordian knot, an unraveled tangle, and everyone is trying to unravel it from the heights of their minaret.

Recently, in the study of this problem, there has been a desire to penetrate deeper into the layers of history. Let us note some thoughts regarding this sacrament.

S.I.Rudenko, ethnographer, author of the monograph “Bashkirs”. From the ethnic side of the “ancient Bashkirs, relative to the north-west. Bashkiria, can be associated with the Herodotus Massagetae and, relatively eastern. territory - with the Sauromatians and Iiriks. Consequently, history has been known about the Bashkir tribes since the time of Herodotus in the 15th century. BC"

R.G.Kuzeev, ethnographer. “We can say that almost all researchers in their assumptions do not take into account the last stages in the ethnic history of the Bashkirs, but they are actually important in the formation of the main ethnic characteristics of the Bashkir people.” Apparently, R. Kuzeev himself is guided by this point of view on the issue of the origin of the Bashkirs. According to his main idea, the Burzyn, Tungaur, and Usyargan tribes form the basis for the formation of the Bashkir people. He claims that in the process of complex self-education of the Bashkir people, numerous tribal groups of the Bulgar, Finno-Ugric, and Kipchak associations participated. To this ethnogenesis in the XIII-XIV centuries. the Tatar-Mongol horde is added with those who came to Southern Urals Turkic and Mongolian elements. According to R. Kuzeev, only in the XV-XVI centuries. the ethnic composition is fully visible and ethnic characteristics Bashkir people.

As we see, although the scientist openly indicates that the basis of the Bashkir people, its backbone is made up of the most ancient strong tribes Burzyn, Tungaur, Usyargan, yet in the course of his reasoning he somehow evades them. The scientist somehow loses sight of, ignores the glaring reality that the above-mentioned tribes existed even before our era, and already “from the time of the prophet Nuh” they were Turkic-speaking. It is especially important here that the tribes Burzyan, Tungaur, Usyargan still form the core, the center of the nation, moreover, in all monuments of the 9th-10th centuries. Bashkort is clearly designated as Bashkort, the land is Bashkir land, the language is Turkic. For reasons unknown to us, the conclusion is made that only in the XV-XVI centuries. Bashkirs formed as a people. These eye-piercing XV-XVI are worthy of attention!

The famous scientist apparently forgets that all the main languages ​​of our continent (Turkic, Slavic, Finno-Ugric) in ancient times were a single proto-language, developed from one stem and one root and then formed different languages. The times of the proto-language could not in any way relate, as he thinks, to the 15th-16th centuries, but to very distant, ancient times BC.

Another scientist’s opinion is directly opposite to these statements of his. On page 200 of his book “Bashkir shezheres” it is said that Muitan Bey, son of Toksoba, is considered the great-grandfather not of all Bashkirs, but of the Bashkir family Usyargan. The mention in the shezher of Muitan (the great-grandfather of the Bashkirs) is of interest in relation to the ancient ethnic ties of the Usyargan Bashkirs. The Bashkir clan Usyargan, according to Kuzeev, in the second half of the first millennium was ethnically connected with the most ancient stratum of the Muitan tribe as part of the Karakalpak people.

As we see, here the main root of the Bashkir people, through Usyargan-Muitan, is transferred from the period assumed by the scientist (XV-XVI centuries) one thousand years earlier (deeper).

Consequently, we grabbed hold of the deep roots of the Bashkirs under the name Usyargan and got the opportunity to trace its continuation to the end. I wonder to what depth the fertile soil that gave birth to Usyargan will take us? Undoubtedly, this mysterious layer extends from the ancestral home of the ancestors from the Urals to the Pamirs. The path to it may be laid through the Bashkir tribe Usyargan and the Karakalpa Muitan. According to the statements of the famous Karakalpak scientist L.S. Tolstoy, perhaps already at the beginning of our era, the historical ancestors of the Muitans, who make up the bulk of the modern Karakalpak people, having entered into a confederation with the Massaget tribes, lived in the Aral Sea. The ethnogenetic connections of the Muitans, the scientist continues, on the one hand, lead to Iran, Transcaucasia and Middle Asia, on the other hand, to the northwest to the shores of the Volga, the Black Sea and the North. Caucasus. Further, as Tolstoy writes, the Karakalpak clan Muitan is one of the most ancient clans of the Karakalpak people, its roots go deep into distant centuries, and goes beyond the scope of the study of ethnographic science. The problem of the most ancient roots of this genus is very complex and controversial.

In this regard, two things became clear to us:

firstly, the ancient roots of the Muitan clan (we will assume that the Usyargansogo) lead us to Iran (we should take into account the widespread Iranian elements in the hydrotoponymy of the Bashkir language), in Transcaucasia and the countries of Middle Asia, to the Black Sea in the North. Caucasus (meaning related Turkic peoples living in these areas) and to the banks of the Volga (hence, to the Urals). In a word, entirely to our ancient ancestors - to the world of the Sak-Scythian-Massagets! If we examine more deeply (from the point of view of language), then the intuitive thread of the Iranian line of this branch stretches all the way to India. Now the main root of one amazingly huge “Tree” - “Tirek” - looms before us: its strong branches spread out in different directions from the south cover the river. Ganges, from the north the Idel River, from the west the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea, from the east – the sandy Uyghur steppes. If we assume that this is so, then where is the trunk that unites these splayed mighty branches into one center? All sources first of all lead us to the Amu Darya, Syr Darya, and then to the junction of the roots and the trunk - to the lands between the Urals and Idel...

Secondly, as L.S. Tosloy says, it becomes clear that the Usyargan - Muitan tribes have their roots going back centuries (before the creation of the world), go beyond the scope of ethnographic research, the problem is very complex and controversial. All this confirms our first conclusions; the controversy and complexity of the problem only doubled the inspiration in his research.

Was it really true that the people living on the Orkhon, Yenisei, and Irtysh, according to Bashkir shezhera and legends, were “Bashkorts”? Or are those scientists right who argued that the ethnonym Bashkort originated in the 15th-16th centuries? However, if the time of origin of the Bashkirs belonged to this period, then there would be no need to waste words and effort. Therefore, you should turn to scientists who have eaten more than one dog in studying this problem:

N.A. Mazhitov: mid-first millennium AD - the threshold of the emergence of the Bashkir people in the historical arena. Archaeological materials indicate that at the end of the first. thousand AD there was a group of related tribes in the Southern Urals, we have the right to assert in a broad sense the words that they were the people of the country of Bashkirs. According to the scientist, only when the question is posed in this way can one understand the records of M. Kashgari and other later authors who speak of the Bashkirs as a people inhabiting both slopes of the Southern Urals.

Mazhitov approaches the problem very carefully, but still, regarding Usyargan, he confirms the date given by R. Kuzeev. Moreover, he confirms the periods indicated by the last scientist in relation to other tribes of the Bashkir people. And this means a shift in the study of the problem two steps forward.

Now let us turn to learned anthropologists who study the typical structural features of human body, about their similarities and differences among peoples.

M.S. Akimova: according to the studied chain of characteristics, the Bashkirs stand between Caucasoid and Mongoloid races... According to some signs, the Usyargan people are closer to the Chelyabinsk Bashkirs ...

According to the scientist, the Trans-Ural Bashkirs and Usyargans in their individual qualities are closer to their southeastern neighbors - the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz. However, their similarities are determined only by two characteristics - facial height and height. According to other important characteristics, the Bashkirs of Trans-Urals and southern regions Bashkortostan, on the one hand, stand in the middle between the Kazakhs, on the other hand, between the Tatars, Udmurts and Mari. Thus, even the most Mongoloid group of Bashkirs differs to a greater extent from the Kazakhs with a pronounced Mongoloid complex, especially from the Kirghiz.

The Bashkirs, according to the scientist, also differ from the Ugrians.

And as a result of the research of the Moscow scientist, the following was revealed: at the end of the first millennium BC. and at the beginning of AD The northern part of present-day Bashkortostan was inhabited by people with the least amount of Mongoloid mixture, and the people of the southern part belonged to the Caucasoid type with a low face.

Consequently, firstly, the Bashkir people, being the most ancient both in their modern characteristics and in their anthropological type, occupy one of the leading positions among other peoples; secondly, according to all paleoanthropological features, their roots go back to the interval between the end of the first millennium BC. and the beginning of AD That is, to the annual rings of the trunk cut, which determines the age of the world Tree-Tirek, another ring of the first millennium is added. And this is another – the third – step in moving our problem forward. After the third step, the real journey begins for the traveler.

On our route there are no straight roads with distance indicators, bright traffic lights or other road signs and devices: we must grope ourselves in the dark to find the right road.

Our first searches stopped by touch at the line Usyargan - Muitan - Karakalpak.

The etymology of the word “Karakalpak” appears to us as follows. At first it was “punishment ak alp-an.” In ancient times, instead of the current “punishment” - “punishment ak”. “Alp” still exists in the meaning of giant, “an” is the ending in the instrumental case. This is where the name "karakalpan" - "karakalpak" - comes from.

"Karakalpan" - "Karakalpak" - "Karaban". Wait! Certainly! We met him in the book “Ancient Khorezm” by S.P. Tolstoy. It talked about dual-tribal organizations and secret primitive associations in Central Asia. “Karaban” is just one of these associations. In the fragmentary records of ancient authors that have reached us, one can find very meager information about the Karabans - about their customs, traditions and legends. Among them, we are interested in holding the New Year holiday - Nowruz in Firgana. In the Chinese monument "History of the Tang Dynasty" this holiday is described as follows: at the beginning of each new year, the kings and leaders are divided into two parts (or separated). Each side chooses one person who, dressed in military clothing, begins to fight with the opposite side. Supporters supply him with stones and cobblestones. After the destruction of one of the parties, they stop and looking at this (each of the parties) determine whether the next year will be bad or good.

This, of course, is the custom of primitive peoples - a struggle between two phratries.

The well-known Arab author Ahman-at-Taksim fi-Marifat al-Akalim al Maqdisi (10th century) reports in his notes how on the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea in the city of Gurgan (the name is from a variant pronunciation of the Usyargan ethnonym Uhurgan>Kurgan>Gurgan ) Usyargans carried out a ritual of struggle on the occasion of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, when “in the capital Gurgan you can see how two sides fight for the head of a camel, for which they wound and beat each other... In matters of divination in Gurgan, fights often arise among themselves and among the people of Bakrabad : on a holiday, fights arise for the camel’s head.”

Here we are talking about a brawl between residents of the urban settlements of Shakharistan and Bakrabad (between the Usyargans and Bashkirs), located on both sides of the river in the city of Gurgan and connected by bridges. In many sources, there are often lines telling about the hostility and brutal fights that have become commonplace, breaking out between the two sides of the townspeople of Central Asia (by the way, in the fights in early spring between the Bashkir boys of the upper and lower parts of the village, you can see echoes of this ancient custom. – Y.S.).

In the previously mentioned history of the Tang dynasty there is valuable information about the people of the city - the state of Kuxia, who in New Year They have fun for seven days in a row, watching the battles of rams, horses, and camels. This is done in order to find out whether the year will be good or bad. And this is a valuable find on our journey: here the mentioned custom of “fighting for a camel’s head” and “Firgana Nowruz” are directly connected by a bridge!

Close to these customs is also the annual horse sacrifice ceremony held in ancient Rome, which begins with a chariot competition. The horse harnessed to the right, which came first in one shaft paired with the other, is killed on the spot with a blow from a spear. Then the inhabitants of both parts of Rome - the Sacred Road (the Kun-Ufa road?) and Subarami (is Asa-ba-er related to the name of the city and tribe of Suvar in the Urals?) - began to fight for the right to own the severed head of a slaughtered horse. If the people from the Sacred Road won, the head was hung on the fence of the royal palace, and if the Subarovites won, then it was displayed on the Malimat minaret (Malym-at? - literally in Russian it sounds like “my cattle is a horse”). And the casting of horse blood on the royal palace threshold, and storing it until spring, and mixing this horse blood with the calf that was sacrificed, then for the purpose of protection by putting this mixture on fire (the Bashkirs also preserved the custom of protection from misfortunes and misfortunes by wiping off horse blood blood and skin!) - all this, as S.P. says. Tolstoy, is included in the circle of rituals and customs associated with land and water in ancient Firgan, Khorosan and Kus. And according to the traditions of Central Asia, and according to the traditions ancient Rome the king always occupied an important place. As we see, the scientist continues, the complete similarity makes it possible to assume that ancient Roman customs help to unravel the mysteries of the very sparsely described traditions of ancient Central Asia.

Now in science it is indisputable that there was a close connection between the states of Central Asia, ancient Rome and Greece and there is a lot of factual material proving their comprehensive relationships (culture, art, science). It is known that the capital of Greece, Athens, was founded by the ancestors of the Usyargans, who worshiped the She-Wolf Bure-Asak (Bele-Asak). Moreover, it is indisputable that the ancient legend about the founders of Rome Romulus and Remus sucking Bure-Asak (Fig. 39) was transferred to ancient Italy from the East; and the twin boys (Ural and Shulgan) and the She-Wolf Bure-Asak, who nursed the ancestor Usyargan, are the central ligament Bashkir myth(in our opinion, in the ancient original of the epic “Ural Batyr” the brothers are twins. - Y.S.).

In the ruins of the destroyed city of Kalai-Kahkakha of the ancient state of Bactria, now the territory of Wed. Asia, a painted wall was discovered depicting twins sucking Bure-asak - a girl (Shulgan) and a boy (Ural) (Fig. 40) - exactly like in the famous sculpture in Rome!. The distance between the two monuments from Bure-Asak is a distance of so many peoples and years, a distance of thousands of kilometers, but what an amazing similarity!.. The similarity of the traditions described above only strengthens this amazing community.

A pertinent question arises: is there any influence of those ancient customs today, and if so, which people have them?

Yes, I have. Their direct “heir” is the custom of “kozader” (“blue wolf”), which exists today in different forms and under different names among the peoples of Central Asia among the Kazakhs, Turkmens, Uzbeks, and Karakalpaks. And among the Bashkirs at the end of the 19th century, P.S. Nazarov came across him. “Both before and now in some places the “cozadera” ritual prevails. It consists of the following: Bashkir horsemen gather in a certain place, one of them drags a refreshed goat. At a certain sign, the Bashkir who brought the goat starts galloping on his horse, and others must catch up with him and take his burden from him. Children's game "Come back, geese-geese!" is an echo of this ancient custom. Moreover, we can give examples that prove the connection between the Bashkir custom and the ancient Roman ones:

1) the Romans sacrificed a horse immediately after the race; the Bashkirs also had a tradition, before slaughtering the cattle, they first forced it to gallop (it was believed that this improved the taste of the meat);

2) the Romans smeared the palace threshold with the blood of a sacrificed horse (healing, sacred blood), but today the Bashkirs have a custom when, immediately after steaming the skin of the cattle, they smeared the face with steamed fat (protects against various diseases);

3) the Romans solemnly hung the head of a killed sacrificial horse on the palace wall or on the bell tower; the Bashkirs still have the custom of hanging horse skulls on external fences (from the street side) (protects against all sorts of misfortunes).

Are these similarities an accident or do they indicate the kinship and unity of the ancient Romans and Bashkirs?!

History itself seems to clarify this.

We have already talked about the unity of the twins raised by the She-Wolf Bure-Asak. How two drops are similar to each other, and the enmity between them lies in the destruction of each other (Romulus - Remus, and Shulgan - Ural). Consequently, there is some reason hidden here that requires clarification of things that have hitherto been a mystery.

It is known that it was founded by the legendary Romulus and Remus before 754-753. BC. The “eternal city of Rome” stood on the banks of the Tiber River. It also became known that this river in the time of the two brothers was called Albala (k). This is not Latin. But then what kind of language is this? Latin-language authors translated it from the language of Romulus and Remus as “pink-scarlet river.” Consequently, the word consists of two words (a two-part word), “Al-bula(k)”, in addition, exactly in our way, in Bashkir, where “al” is a pink color, “bulak” is a river, like a river Dogwood, that in the Urals!.. It should be remembered that the modified word “bulak” as a result of the modification of “r” into “l” in its original form was “burak” (“bure” ‘wolf’) and after the modification retained its meaning (bulak - volak - wolf - Volga!). As a result of the action of the linguistic law, the name “Bureg-er” (i.e. “Bure-ir” - Usyargan wolves) turned into “Burgar>Bulgar”.

Thus, it turns out that the founders of the city of Rome, Romulus and Remus, spoke our language. And the ancient Roman historians all unanimously wrote that they were not actually Indo-Europeans (that means - Ural-Altai Turks!), that they came from Scythia, located in the north of the Black Sea, that in their tribal affiliations they were "Oenotras, Auzones, Pelasgians." Based on the indicated similarities between the Bashkirs and the ancient Romans, we can correctly read the names of the clans distorted in a foreign (Latin) language: Bashkirs-Oguz (Oguz - from the word ugez 'bull'), worshiping "enotra" - Ine-tor (Cow-goddess) ; “Avzons” - Abaz-an - Bezheneks-Bashkirs; "Pelasgians" - Pele-eseki - bure-asaki (she-wolves), i.e. usyargan-bilyars.

The government structure of Rome during the reign of Romulus is also instructive: the people of Rome consisted of 300 “oruga” (clans); they were divided into 30 “curies” (cow-circles), each of which consisted of 10 clans; 30 clans branched into 3 “tribes” (Bashk. “turba” - “tirma” - “yurt”) of 10 cows each (Bashk. k’or - community). Each clan was headed by a “pater” (Bashk. batyr), these 300 batyrs made up the senate of aksakals near King Romulus. Elections of the tsar, declaration of war, inter-clan disputes were decided on nationwide kors - yiyyns - on “koir” (hence the Bashkir kurultai - korolltai!) by voting (each kor - one vote). There were special places for holding kurultai and meetings of elders. The royal title sounds like “(e)rex”, which in our language corresponds to “Er-Kys” (Ir-Kyz - Man-Woman - a prototype of Ymir the hermaphrodite, i.e. his own master and mistress), combines both wings of the clan (man, woman – Bashkort, Usyargan). After the death of a king, until a new one was elected, representatives of 5-10 cows (communities) temporarily stayed on the throne and ruled the state. These kors, elected by the Senate (in Bashkir Khanat) elders, were the very heads of 10 cows. Romulus had a powerful foot and horse army, and his personal guard (300 people), who saddled the best horses, were called “celer” (Bashk. eler - fleet-footed horses).

The rituals and traditions of the people of Romulus also have many similarities with the Bashkir ones: everyone should know the genealogy (shezhere) of their ancestors up to the 7th generation; marriage could only be with strangers, passing seven generations. Sacrificial cattle in honor of the gods were slaughtered not with an iron knife, but with a stone one - this custom existed among the Ural Bashkirs: which is confirmed by stone finds discovered by local historian Ilbuldin Faskhetdin in the Usyargan village of Bakatar - instruments of sacrifice.

As for the land issue, King Romulus allocated each clan with land called “pagos” (Bashk. bagysh, baksa - garden, vegetable garden), and the head of the plot (bak, bey, bai) was called pag-at-dir - bahadir, i.e. . hero. The significance of the partial division of state land and the protection of the territory was as follows. When the need arose for a god, who is the god of crushing the earth, as a way of grinding grain, this god was called “Termin” (Bashk. Tirman - Mill)... As we see, the life of the ancient Romans and Bashkirs is similar and therefore understandable. In addition, we should not forget about the perpetuation of the name of our ancestor Romulus in the Urals of Bashkortostan in the form of Mount Iremel (I-Remel - E-Romulus!)...

The Italians of the mid-first millennium AD may have recognized the historical unity of the Bashkirs and the ancient Romans, as well as the right of the Bashkirs to the lands. Because after the treacherous defeat in 631 in Bavaria of the Usyargan-Burzyan rearguard under the leadership of Alsak Khan by the Frankish allies, the surviving part of the army fled to Italy and to the Duchy of Benevento (this city still exists) near Rome, where it laid the foundation cities Bashkort , known by the same name in the 12th century. The Byzantine historian Paul the Deacon (IX century) knew those Usyargan-Bashkirs well and wrote that they spoke Latin well, but they had not forgotten their native language. Considering that the images of winged horses, common in the myths and epics of the Greeks, as well as the peoples of Wed. Asia in the form of Akbuzat and Kukbuzat, form the central link in the Bashkir folk epics, then it remains to recognize that these similarities are not an accident, we see a connection with the ancient Junos (Greece) in one of the main shezhers of the Bashkirs in “Tavarikh name-i Bulgar” Tazhetdina Yalsygula al-Bashkurdi(1767-1838):

“From our father Adam... to Kasur Shah there are thirty-five generations. And he, having lived on the land of Samarkand for ninety years, died adhering to the religion of Jesus. Kasur Shah gave birth to a ruler named Socrates. This Socrates came to the region of the Greeks. At the end of his life, being a ruler under Alexander the Great, the Roman, expanding the borders of his possession, came to the northern lands. The country of Bolgars was founded. Then the ruler Socrates married a girl from the Bulgarians. She and Alexander the Great stayed in Bolgar for nine months. Then they went into the unknown towards Darius I (Iran). Before leaving the country of the unknown of Darius I, the ruler Socrates died in the country of the unknown of Darius I. A son was born from the named girl. And his name is known”...

If we eliminate one inaccuracy in the names by inserting instead of the ruler Socrates the name of the successor of his teachings, Aristotle, then the mentioned information in the Bashkir shezher will coincide with the records of historians of the old world. Since the ruler Socrates (470/469) - 399) died before the birth of Alexander the Great (356-326), he could not possibly have been the second’s teacher, and it is known from history that his teacher was Aristotle (384-322). It is known that Aristotle was born in the city of Stagira on the outskirts of Thrace in Scythia (the country of our ancestors!) and, like Socrates from the Bashkir shezhere, in search of teachings (education) he went to the capital of Juno in Athens. Also, history is silent about the fact that Alexander’s teacher married a Bulgar girl and that Alexander himself was married to Rukhsana, the daughter of Oxyart, the Usyargan-Burzyan bek of Bactria he conquered. There is also information that from this marriage he had a son, Alexander. And in the further campaign, Macedonian died his own death, and not Socrates or Aristotle. The statement “They made the Bulgars the homeland” may also be true if we are not talking about a city on the Kama-Volga, but the city of Belkher (now Belkh) on the banks of the Belkh River in Bactria (northern Afghanistan). Consequently, it turns out that Alexander the Great married the Usyargan-Burzyan girl Rukhsana and from their marriage a son, Alexander, was born... All cities and states called in different times Belkher, Balkar, Bulgar, Bulgaria, founded the Bashkir Usyargan-Burzyan (or Bulgarian) tribes, because the cities just mentioned mean “Wolf Man” (“Usyargan-Burzyan”).

Meanwhile, the origin of the Bashkir people and the ethnonym Bashkor/Bashkort (Bashkirs) is very clearly “recorded” by our ancestors in the main tamga of the Usyargan clan (Fig. 41), where it is encrypted main myth about the origin of humanity:

Fig.41. Tamga of the Usyargan clan - the origin of the Bashkirs (the first ancestors of humanity).

Explanation of the picture, where the thick (solid) line indicates the tamga of the Usyargan clan, and the dotted lines indicate the path of resettlement of the first ancestors to the place of the first tirma (yurt):

1. Mount Kush (Umai/Imai) 'mother's breast of Ymir'.

2. Mount Yurak (Khier-ak) 'Milk Cow' - the nipple of the northern breast, the Wolf-nurse was born there, and the Cow-nurse brought there the newborn ancestor of the Bashkirs and all humanity, the Ural Pater.

3. Mount Shake 'Mother-Wolf-nurse' (destroyed by the Sterlitamak Soda Plant) - the nipple of the southern breast, the Cow-nurse was born there, and the Wolf-nurse brought there the newborn first ancestor of the Bashkirs and all humanity Shulgan-mother.

4. Mount Nara ‘the testis of the male half of the great-ancestor Imir’, there, with the help of the “midwife” Cow-nurse, the Ural Pater was born and was brought to Mount Yurak (their path is shown in dotted lines).

5. Mount Mashak ‘the scrambled egg of the female half of the great-ancestor Imir’, there, with the help of the “midwife” the Wolf-nurse, Shulgan the mother was born and was brought to Mount Shake (their path is shown in dotted lines).

6. Atal-Asak ‘Father-Fire and Mother-Water’, the place of combination (marriage) of the first ancestor Ural-Pater (Father-Fire) with Shulgan-mother (Mother-Water) for life together(the original Korok/Circle), forming the original (bash) circle of people (kor), which by adding these two words “bash” and “kor” became known as bash-kor>bashkor/bashkir, that is the beginning of the beginnings of human society. Term Bashkor by adding to it the plural indicator “t” took the form Bashkor-t>Bashkort 'a person from the original circle of people'. In this place, where the first round tirma (yurt) of the first family supposedly stood, there is now the ancient village of Talas (the name is from the word A[ tal-As] aka 'Father-Fire - Mother-Water'), from the same word comes the name of the great Bashkir river Atal/Atil/Idel (Agidel-White).

7. Agidel River.

8. The intersection point (knot) of sacred roads is Mount Tukan (the word toukan>tuin means “knot”).

Routes 3 – 8 – 4 –2 – 6 are the Korova and Ural Pater roads; 2 – 8 –5 –3 –6 – She-wolves and Shulgan mothers.

This version of the origin of the national ethnonym “Bashkort/Bashkir” reflects the last stage in the development of world mythology, however, the version based on data from the first stage also remains valid. In short, in the first stage of the formation of world mythology, the formation of the main two ethnonyms, it seems to me, was associated with the names of the totems of the two phratries, since the primary association of people was understood as “people of the bison-cow tribe” and “people of the she-wolf tribe.” And so, in the second (last) stage of the development of world mythology, the origin of the main two ethnonyms was rethought in a new way:

1. Name of the totem animal: boz-anak 'ice cow (buffalo)'> Bazhanak/Pecheneg ; from the shortened version of the same name “boz-an” the word was formed: bozan>bison 'ice cow'. A variant name for the same totem gives: boz-kar-aba 'ice-snow-air' (bison) > boz-cow 'ice cow (bison)'; which in abbreviated form gives: boz-car> Bashkor/Bashkir , and in the plural: Bashkor+t> bashkort .

2. Name of the totem: asa-bure-kan 'mother-wolf-water'>asaurgan> usyargan . Over time, the ethnonym-term asa-bure-kan began to be perceived simplistically as es-er-ken (water-earth-sun), but this does not change the previous content, because according to Bashkir mythology, Kan/Kyun (Sun) could descend to the bottom and run on water-earth (es-er) in the form of the same she-wolf es-ere>sere (gray)>soro/zorro (she-wolf). Consequently, the authors of the Orkhon - Selenga runic monuments used the term “er-su” to mean earth-water in the form of a she-wolf.

When you drive along the main road from the city of Sterlitamak to the city of Ufa (the mythical “abode of the gods”), on the right side along the right bank of the river. Agidel's magnificent shihan mountains turn blue: the sacred Tora-tau, Shake-tau (barbarously destroyed by the Sterlitamak Soda Plant), the two-headed Kush-tau, Yuryak-tau - there are only five peaks. We, the Usyargan-Bashkirs, have passed down from generation to generation a sad myth associated with these five peaks and every year in the first ten days of April with the severe snowstorm “Bish Kunak”, “five guests”, which is repeated in our country: supposedly from the far side five followed us guests (bish kunak) and, not reaching the goal, were subjected to the named seasonal snowstorm, everyone became numb from the cold, turning into snow-white mountains - therefore this storm was called “Bish kunak”. Obviously, before us is a fragment of some epic legend, which was preserved in a more complete version in Iranian-Indian mythology (from the book G.M. Bongard-Levin, E.A. Grantovsky. From Scythia to India, M. - 1983, pp. 59):

The bloody war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas ended in victory for the Pandavas, but it led to the extermination of entire tribes and the death of many heroes. Everything around was empty, the mighty Ganga flowed quietly, “but the appearance of those great waters was joyless, dull.” The time has come for sad doubts, deep disappointments in the fruits of aimless enmity. “Tormented by grief,” the righteous king Yudhisthira mourned for the dead. He decided to abdicate the throne, transferred the throne to another ruler, “and began to think about his own journey, that of his brothers.” “I threw off my jewelry in the house, my wrists, and dressed in matting. Bhima, Arjuna, the Twins (Nakula and Sahadeva), the glorious Draupadi - all also put on mats... and set off on the road.” The path of the wanderers lay to the north (to the land of the gods - Bashkortostan. - Z.S.)... Terrible difficulties and trials befell Yudhishthira and his five companions. Moving north, they passed mountain ranges and finally saw ahead a sandy sea and “the best of peaks - great mountain Meru. They headed towards this mountain, but soon Draupadi's strength left. Yudhishthira, the best of the Bharatas, did not even look at her, and silently continued on his way. Then, one after another, courageous, strong knights, righteous people and sages fell to the ground. Finally, the “tiger-man” fell - the mighty Bhima.

Yudhishthira was the only one left, “he left without looking, burned with grief.” And then the god Indra appeared before him, he lifted the hero to a mountain monastery (to the Urals - to the land of the gods Bashkortostan - Z.S.), to the kingdom of bliss, to where “the gods of the Gandharvas, Adityas, Apsaras... you, Yudhishthira , they wait in shining clothes”, where “thurs-people, heroes, detached from anger, abide.” This is how the last books of the Mahabharata tell it - “The Great Exodus” and “Ascension to Heaven”.

Pay attention to the five companions of the king - frozen in a snowstorm and turned into five peaks of the sacred mountains-shihans along the road leading to the abode of the gods of Ufu: Tora-tau (Bhima), Shake-tau (Arjuna), Kush-tau/Twins (Nakula and Sahadeva), Yuryak-tau (Draupadi)...

The Russian Federative Republic is multinational state, representatives of many nations live, work and honor their traditions here, one of which is the Bashkirs living in the Republic of Bashkortostan (capital Ufa) on the territory of the Volga Federal District. It must be said that the Bashkirs live not only in this territory, they can be found everywhere in all corners of the Russian Federation, as well as in Ukraine, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The Bashkirs, or as they call themselves the Bashkorts, are the indigenous Turkic population of Bashkiria; according to statistics, about 1.6 million people of this nationality live on the territory of the autonomous republic; a significant number of Bashkirs live in the territory of Chelyabinsk (166 thousand), Orenburg (52.8 thousand) , about 100 thousand representatives of this nationality are located in the Perm region, Tyumen, Sverdlovsk and Kurgan regions. Their religion is Islamic Sunnism. Bashkir traditions, their way of life and customs are very interesting and differ from other traditions of the peoples of Turkic nationality.

Culture and life of the Bashkir people

Until the end of the 19th century, the Bashkirs led a semi-nomadic lifestyle, but gradually became sedentary and mastered agriculture, the eastern Bashkirs for some time practiced going on summer nomads and in the summer they preferred to live in yurts, over time, and they began to live in wooden log houses or adobe huts, and then in more modern buildings.

Family life and the celebration of folk holidays of the Bashkirs almost until the end of the 19th century was subject to strict patriarchal foundations, which in addition included the customs of Muslim Sharia. The kinship system was influenced by Arab traditions, which implied a clear division of the line of kinship into maternal and paternal parts; this was subsequently necessary to determine the status of each family member in matters of inheritance. The right of minority was in effect (predominance of the rights of the youngest son), when the house and all the property in it, after the death of the father, passed to the youngest son, the older brothers had to receive their share of the inheritance during the life of the father, when they got married, and the daughters when they got married. Previously, the Bashkirs married off their daughters quite early, optimal age for this, 13-14 years were considered (bride), 15-16 years (groom).

(Painting by F. Roubaud "Bashkirs hunting with falcons in the presence of Emperor Alexander II" 1880s)

The rich Bashkorts practiced polygamy, because Islam allows up to 4 wives at the same time, and there was a custom of conspiring with children while still in their cradles, the parents drank bata (kumiss or diluted honey from one bowl) and thus entered into a wedding union. When marrying a bride, it was customary to give a bride price, which depended on the financial status of the newlyweds’ parents. It could be 2-3 horses, cows, several outfits, pairs of shoes, a painted scarf or robe; the mother of the bride was given a fox fur coat. In marriage relations, ancient traditions were respected, the levirate rule was in effect ( younger brother must marry the wife of the elder), sororate (a widower marries the younger sister of his late wife). Islam plays a huge role in all spheres of public life, hence the special position of women in the family circle, in the process of marriage and divorce, as well as in inheritance relations.

Traditions and customs of the Bashkir people

The Bashkir people hold their main festivals in spring and summer. The people of Bashkortostan celebrate the Kargatuy “rook holiday” at the time when the rooks arrive in the spring, the meaning of the holiday is to celebrate the moment of nature’s awakening from winter sleep and also a reason to turn to the forces of nature (by the way, the Bashkirs believe that rooks are closely connected with them) with a request for the well-being and fertility of the coming agricultural season. Previously, only women and the younger generation could participate in the festivities; now these restrictions have been lifted, and men can also dance in circles, eat ritual porridge and leave its remains on special boulders for rooks.

The plow festival Sabantuy is dedicated to the beginning of work in the fields; all residents of the village came to the open area and participated in various competitions, they wrestled, competed in running, raced horses and pulled each other on ropes. After the winners were determined and awarded, a common table was set with various dishes and treats, usually a traditional beshbarmak (a dish of crumbled boiled meat and noodles). Previously, this custom was carried out with the goal of appeasing the spirits of nature so that they would make the land fertile and it would produce a good harvest, and over time it became a regular spring holiday, marking the beginning of hard agricultural work. Residents Samara region revived the traditions of both the Rook's holiday and Sabantuy, which they celebrate every year.

An important holiday for the Bashkirs is called Jiin (Yiyyn), residents of several villages took part in it, during it various trade operations were carried out, parents agreed on the marriage of their children, and fair sales took place.

Bashkirs also honor and celebrate all Muslim holidays, traditional for all adherents of Islam: these are Eid al-Fitr (the end of fasting), and Kurban Bayram (the holiday of the end of the Hajj, on which it is necessary to sacrifice a ram, a camel or a cow), and Maulid Bayram (famous for the Prophet Muhammad).

The Bashkirs or Bashkirs are a people of the Turkic tribe who live mainly on the western slopes and foothills of the Urals and in the surrounding plains. But in the second half of the 16th century, with a few exceptions, they owned all the land between the Kama and Volga to Samara, Orenburg and Orsk (which did not yet exist) and east along Miass, Iset, Pyshma, Tobol and Irtysh to the Ob.

The Bashkirs cannot be considered the aborigines of this vast country; There is no doubt that they are aliens who have replaced some other people, perhaps of Finnish origin. This is indicated by the fossil monuments of the country, the names of rivers, mountains and tracts, which are usually preserved in the country, despite the change of tribes that lived in it; This is confirmed by the legends of the Bashkirs themselves. In the names of rivers, lakes, mountains, and tracts of the Orenburg region there are many words of non-Turkic roots, for example, Samara, Sakmara, Ufa, Ik, Miyas, Izer, Ilmen and others. On the contrary, rivers, lakes and tracts of the southern Orenburg and Kyrgyz steppes often bear Tatar names or, for example, Ilek (sieve), Yaik (from yaikmak - to expand), Irtysh (ir - husband, tysh - appearance), etc.

According to the legends of the Bashkirs themselves, they moved to their current possessions over 16-17 generations, that is, over 1000 years. The testimony of Arab and Persian travelers of the 9th-13th centuries agrees with this, who mention the Bashkirs as an independent people who occupied almost the same territory, as at present, namely, on both sides of the Ural ridge, between the Volga, Kama, Tobol and the upper reaches of the Yaik (Ural).

A. Masudi, a writer of the early 10th century, speaking about the European Bashkirs, also mentions the tribe of this people living in Asia, that is, remaining in their homeland. The question of the tribal origin of the Bashkirs is very controversial in science. Some (Stralenberg, Humboldt, Uifalvi) recognize them as the people of the Finno-Ugric tribe, who only later adopted the type; The Kirghiz call them istyak (Ostyak), from which they also conclude that they are of Finnish origin; some historians derive them from the Bulgars. D. A. Khvolson produces Bashkirs from the Vogul tribe, which forms a branch of the Ugric group of peoples or part of a large Altai family and considers them the ancestors of the Magyars.

Having occupied the new region, the Bashkirs divided the land according to clans. Some got mountains and forests, others free steppes. Passionate hunters of horses, they also kept countless herds of cattle, and the steppe also kept camels. In addition, forest Bashkirs were engaged in both hunting and beekeeping. Dashing riders, they were distinguished by their courage and boundless daring; They placed personal freedom and independence above all else; they were proud and quick-tempered. They had princes, but with very limited power and importance. All important matters were decided only in the people's assembly (jiin), where every Bashkir enjoyed the right to vote; in case of war or raid, the Jiin did not force anyone, and everyone went of their own free will.

The Bashkirs were like this before Batu, and they remained like this after him. Having found fellow tribesmen in Bashkiria, Batu gave them tamgas (signs) and various advantages. Soon, under Khan Uzbek (1313-1326), Islam established itself in Bashkiria, which had penetrated here even earlier. Later, when the Golden Horde broke up into separate kingdoms, the Bashkirs paid yasak to various rulers: some who lived along the Belaya and Iku rivers - to the Kazan kings, others who roamed along the river. Uzen, - the kings of Astrakhan, and still others, the inhabitants of the mountains and forests of the Urals, - the khans of Siberia. The Horde’s relationship with the Bashkirs was limited to the collection of one yasak; internal life and self-government remained inviolable.

The mountain Bashkirs further developed their strength and fully retained their independence; the steppe people turned into peaceful nomads: and those of them who intermarried with the Bulgarians (Volga) who survived the Tatar pogrom even began to get used to settled life. The Bashkirs came into contact with the Russians long before the conquest of Kazan. There is no doubt that the enterprising Novgorodians established trade relations with the Bashkirs, since the neighboring Vyatka country began to be settled by Novgorod natives back in the 12th century, and the Vyatka, Kama and Belaya rivers served as the best natural route for relations between the peoples who lived along them. But it is doubtful that the Novgorodians would have permanent settlements on the banks of the Kama.

Then there is news that in 1468, during the reign of John III, his governors, “fighting Kazan places,” went to fight in Belaya Volozhka, that is, they penetrated to the river. White. After the campaign of 1468, there are no indications that the Russians invaded Bashkiria, and only in 1553, after the conquest of Kazan, the Russian army pacified the peoples dependent on the Kazan kingdom and ravaged Tatar dwellings to the distant borders of the Bashkir. It was then, probably, that the Bashkirs, pressed by the raids of the Kyrgyz-Kaisaks, on the one hand, and on the other, seeing the growing power of the Moscow Tsar, voluntarily accepted Russian citizenship. But there is no exact historical data that they came to Moscow with a petition, as the Orsk people and the Meadow Cheremis did. Be that as it may, in 1557 the Bashkirs were already paying yasak, and Ivan the Terrible, in his will, written in 1572, entrusts his son with the Kazan kingdom “with Bashkird”.
Soon after accepting Russian citizenship, the Bashkirs, finding it burdensome to deliver yasak and suffering from raids from neighboring tribes, asked the tsar to build a city on their land. In 1586, voivode Ivan Nagoy began to found the city of Ufa, which was the first Russian settlement in Bashkiria, except for Elabuga, built on the very border of the Bashkir lands. In the same 1586, despite the opposition of Prince Urus, Samara was built. The voivodeship order of 1645 mentions the fort of Menzelinsk; in 1658 a city was built to cover the settlements located along the river. Iset; in 1663, the previously existing Birsk was erected into a fortified fort, occupying the middle of the road from the Kama to Ufa.

The Bashkirs were divided into volosts, which formed 4 roads (parts): Siberian, Kazan, Nogai and Osinsk. Along the Volga, Kama and Ural there was a network of fortified places bearing the names of cities, forts, and winter huts. Some of these cities became centers of district or regional government, to which the foreigners assigned to this district were also subordinate. The Bashkirs became part of the districts of Kazan, Ufa, Kungur and Menzelinsky.

In 1662, an uprising broke out under the leadership of Seit. The ultimate goal of the uprising was the revival of Muslim independence throughout the Kazan region and Siberia. In 1663, Voivode Zelenin suppressed the uprising. The pacification is followed by a strict prohibition to oppress the Bashkirs with the order to “keep them kind and friendly” and “to reassure them with the sovereign’s mercy.” Calm has been restored in the region, but not for long. In 1705, an even more stubborn uprising broke out.

In 1699, they began to build the Nevyansk plant, donated by Peter in 1702 to the enterprising Demidov; then the Uktussky, Kamensky, Alapaevsky, Sysertsky, Tagilsky, Isetsky and others factories appeared; Yekaterinburg arose - the place of the main management of mining plants. By the end of Peter’s reign, there were 5,422 male souls in state factories alone. All these factories lay outside the Bashkir lands, but they were already approaching them. In 1724, the Bashkirs were limited in the right to own forests, which were divided into reserved and non-reserved. In the construction of Orenburg they saw a further measure of deprivation of them land ownership. They decided to resist.

In 1735, an uprising broke out under the leadership of Kilmyak-Abyz. Based on the first rumors of an uprising, Alexander Ivanovich Rumyantsev was appointed to go and pacify it. In June 1736, most of Bashkiria was burned out and devastated. By decree of 1736, the Russians were allowed to acquire Bashkir lands, and the Meshcheryaks, who remained faithful and did not participate in the riots, were given ownership of the lands that they had previously rented from the Bashkir rebels.

In 1742, Iv was appointed commander of the Orenburg expedition, then called the Orenburg Commission. Iv. Neplyuev, statesman of the Peter the Great school. First of all, Neplyuev began to develop military settlements, the importance of which for the pacification of the region was pointed out by Peter. Orenburg was chosen as the center of these settlements, which Neplyuev moved to the river. Ural, where it is currently located. According to his ideas, the Orenburg province was established in 1744, and it included all the lands that were in charge of the Orenburg expedition, and in addition the Iset province with the Trans-Ural Bashkirs, the Ufa province with all its affairs, as well as the Stavropol district and the Kyrgyz steppes.

By 1760, there were already 28 factories operating in Bashkiria, including 15 copper and 13 iron, and their population reached 20,000 male souls. In total, by this time the newcomer population in Bashkiria numbered 200,000 souls of both sexes. The spread of factories, which had the inevitable consequence of occupying lands that the Bashkirs considered their inalienable property, met with strong opposition on their part.

According to the Regulations of February 19, 1861, the Bashkirs do not differ in rights and responsibilities from the other rural population of the empire. For economic matters, the Bashkirs form rural societies that own public land on a communal basis, and for immediate administration and court they unite in volosts (yurts). Rural public administration consists of a village assembly and a village headman, and a volost (yurt) administration consists of a volost (yurt) assembly, a volost (yurt) foreman with a volost board and a volost court. The volost government is formed by: the volost elder, village elders and tax collectors of those rural societies in which they exist.

At the end of the 19th century, the Bashkirs, numbering 575,000 people, lived between 50-57° north. lat. and 70-82° east. duty. in the provinces of Orenburg and Ufa everywhere and in the districts of Bugulminsky and Buzuluksky of the Samara province, Shadrinsky, Krasnoufimsky, Perm and Osinsky of the Perm province. and Glazov and Sarapul, Vyatka provinces.

The beginning of the 20th century is characterized by the rise of education, culture and ethnic identity. After the February Revolution of 1917, the Bashkirs entered into an active struggle for the creation of their statehood. In 1919, the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet was formed Socialist Republic. By the end of 1926, the number of Bashkirs was 714 thousand people. The consequences of the drought and 1932-33, the repressions of the 1930s, heavy losses in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, as well as the assimilation of the Bashkirs by the Tatars and Russians had a negative impact on the number of Bashkirs.

The share of Bashkirs living outside Bashkiria in 1926 was 18%, in 1959 – 25.4%, in 1989 – 40.4%. The proportion of city dwellers among Bashkirs by 1989 was 42.3% (1.8% in 1926 and 5.8% in 1939). Urbanization is accompanied by an increase in the number of workers, engineering and technical workers, creative intelligentsia, increased cultural interaction with other peoples, and an increase in the proportion of interethnic marriages. In October 1990, the Supreme Council of the Republic adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In February 1992, the Republic of Bashkortostan was proclaimed.

Currently, the bulk of the Bashkirs are settled in the valley of the river. Belaya and along its tributaries: Ufa, Bystry Tanyp - in the north; Deme, Ashkadar, Chermasan, Karmasan - in the south and southwest; Sim, Inzer, Zilim, Nugush - in the east and southeast, as well as in the upper reaches of the river. Ural, along the middle reaches of the river. Sakmara and its right tributaries and along the rivers Big and Small Kizil, Tanalyk. The population in Russia is 1345.3 thousand people, incl. in Bashkiria there are 863.8 thousand people.

Bashkirs are a people inhabiting the Bashkortostan region. They are Turkic and are accustomed to the harsh climate of the Urals.

This people has a rather interesting history and culture, and old traditions are still revered.

Story

The Bashkirs believe that their ancestors began to move to the territories occupied by the people today approximately a thousand years ago. The assumption is confirmed by Arab travelers who studied local regions in the 9th–13th century AD Following their records, one can find mention of the people who occupied the Ural ridge. The land of the Bashkirs was divided according to occupation. For example, camel owners took the steppes for themselves, and mountain pastures went to cattle breeders. Hunters preferred to live in forests, where there were a lot of animals and game.
Since the time of the organization of society among the Bashkirs, the main role was played by the people's assembly of Jiin. The princes had limited power; the most important role was played by the voice of the people. With the arrival of Khan Batu, the life of the Bashkirs did not change significantly. The Mongols saw fellow tribesmen in the Bashkirs, so they decided not to touch their settlements. Later, Islam began to spread in Bashkiria, replacing paganism. With the exception of yasak payment, the Mongols did not interfere in the life of the people in any way. The mountain Bashkirs remained completely independent.
The Bashkirs have always had trade relations with Russia. Novgorod merchants spoke flatteringly about the goods, especially wool. During the reign of Ivan the Third, soldiers sent to Belaya Voloshka ravaged the Tatars, but did not touch the Bashkirs. However, the Bashkirs themselves suffered from the Kyrgyz-Kaisaks. These persecutions, combined with the growing power of the Moscow Tsar, prompted the Bashkirs to unite with the Russians.

The Bashkirs did not want to pay the Kazan tax and were still experiencing raids from their neighbors, so after accepting citizenship they decided to ask the king to build the city of Ufa. Later Samara and Chelyabinsk were built.
The Bashkir people began to be divided into volosts with fortified cities and large counties.
Due to the fact that the dominant religion in Rus' was Orthodoxy, the Bashkirs could not feel independence, which became the reason for the uprising, which was led by an adherent of Islam Seit. This uprising was suppressed, but literally half a century later a new one broke out. This aggravated relations with the Russian tsars, who ordered from one country not to oppress the people, and from the other in every possible way limited their right to own territories.
Gradually, the number of uprisings began to decrease, and the development of the region increased. Peter the Great personally pointed out the importance of the development of the Bashkir region, which led to the creation of factories extracting copper and iron. The population grew steadily, also thanks to newcomers. In the provisions of 1861, the rights of the rural population were assigned to the Bashkirs.
In the 20th century, education, culture and ethnic identity began to develop. February Revolution allowed the people to gain statehood, but the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War greatly slowed down progress. Repression, drought and assimilation played a negative role. Currently, the region is called the Republic of Bashkortostan and is characterized by active urbanization.

Life

For a long time, the Bashkirs led a partially nomadic lifestyle, but gradually switched to sedentary life. Yurts, characteristic of nomads, were replaced by log houses and adobe huts. Adherence to Islam has always implied patriarchy, so the man remains in charge. The Bashkirs are also characterized by the following features of their way of life:

1. Kinship is clearly divided into maternal and paternal parts so that inheritance can be determined.
2. Property and house were inherited by younger sons.
3. The eldest sons and daughters received part of the inheritance upon marriage.
4. Guys got married at 16, and girls got married at 14.
5. Islam allowed several wives, although only the rich enjoyed this privilege.
6. To this day, a bride is given a bride price, which always depends on the status of the newlyweds’ parents. Previously, bride price was paid in cattle and horses, outfits, painted scarves, and fox fur coats.

Culture

Holidays

Bashkir holidays are celebrated magnificently and solemnly. Events are celebrated in spring and summer. One of the oldest holidays is the arrival of rooks, which symbolizes the arrival of spring. The Bashkirs ask for the fertility of the land, the harvest, and organize magnificent round dances and festivities. You definitely need to feed the rooks with ritual porridge.
A notable holiday is Sabantuy, which marks the beginning of work in the fields. During this holiday, residents competed with each other, held competitions in wrestling, running, horse racing, and played tug-of-war. The winners were awarded, and afterward the people held a magnificent feast. The main dish on the table was beshbarmak - soup with noodles and boiled meat. Initially, Sabantuy was a holiday where rituals were performed to belittle the gods of the harvest. Now the Bashkirs celebrate it as a tribute to tradition. Significant national holiday is Jiin, where it is customary to hold fairs. This is a great day for profitable purchases and deals.
Bashkirs celebrate Muslim holidays and honor all traditions, following religion.

Folklore

The spread of Bashkir folklore affected many Russian regions. It is also represented in the Republics of Tatarstan, Sakha and some CIS countries. In many ways, Bashkir folklore is similar to Turkic folklore. But there are many distinctive features. For example, kubair epics, which may have a plot, although sometimes there is no plot as such. Kubairs with plots are usually called epic poems, and those without a plot - odes.
The youngest is the Bayit - it represents lyrical legends, epic songs. Munozhat are considered close in content to bayits - these are poems whose purpose is to glorify the afterlife.
Became especially revered by the Bashkirs folk tales. Often the main characters in them are animals, the stories take the form of legends, and are replete with fantastic meaning.
Characters of Bashkir fairy tales encounter witches, spirits of reservoirs, brownies and other creatures. There are separate genres among fairy tales, for example, kulyamasy. There are many fables filled with clichés and local aphorisms.
Folklore affects family and everyday relationships, which we have already discussed above and will discuss in the sections “Character” and “Traditions”. Thus, as a phenomenon, folklore has absorbed pagan customs and the canons of Islam.

Character

Bashkirs are distinguished by their love of freedom and sincere disposition. They always strive for justice, remain proud and stubborn. People treated newcomers with understanding, never imposed themselves and accepted people as they are. Without exaggeration, we can say that the Bashkirs are absolutely loyal to all people.
Hospitality is prescribed not only by ancient customs, but also by current Sharia norms. Each guest needs to be fed, and the one leaving must be given a gift. If the guests came with infant, which means that he needs to be given a gift. It is believed that this way the baby will be appeased and will not bring a curse on the owners’ house.
The Bashkirs have always had a reverent attitude towards women. Traditionally, the bride was chosen by the parents, who were also responsible for organizing the wedding. Used to be a girl I could not communicate with my husband’s parents during the first year after marriage. However, from ancient times she was revered and respected in the family. The husband was strictly forbidden to raise a hand against his wife, to be greedy and stingy in relation to her. A woman had to remain faithful - betrayal was strictly punished.
Bashkirs are scrupulous towards children. At the birth of a child, a woman became like a queen. All this was necessary for the child to grow up healthy and happy.
Elders played the most important role in the life of the Bashkirs, so the custom of honoring elders has survived to this day. Many Bashkirs consult with elders and ask for blessings on transactions.

Traditions

Customs

It is obvious that the Bashkir people honor not only traditions, but also customs that are associated with past generations and the foundations of Islam. So, it is necessary to bury the dead before sunset. Washing is carried out three times, the deceased is necessarily wrapped in a shroud, prayers are read and the graves are arranged. According to Muslim rites, burial occurs without a coffin. Bashkir custom prescribes that the verse prayer be read.

The wedding traditions and customs that include a whole complex are amazing. Bashkirs believe that a man will not become respectable until he gets married. It is interesting that Bashkirs have been planning their children’s weddings since adolescence. This is due to old tradition It’s too early to marry children. Wedding gifts were given in a special way:

• A saddle horse, an ordinary boy, collected gifts from everyone who came to congratulate the newlyweds;
• Having collected money, scarves, threads and other gifts, he went to the groom;
• It was forbidden to touch gifts;
• The mother-in-law invited guests to the tea ceremony, mostly relatives and friends;
• During the wedding, there was always a struggle for the bride. They tried to kidnap the girl, and forced the groom to fight. Sometimes it got to the point of quite serious fights, and according to tradition, the groom had to cover all the damage.

In connection with marriage, many prohibitions were introduced. Thus, the husband had to be at least 3 years older than his wife, it was forbidden to take women from his own family as wives, only representatives of the 7th and 8th generations could marry.
Now weddings have become more modest, and newlyweds have become more pragmatic. The modern pace of urbanization has led to a different way of life, so it is preferable for Bashkirs to get a car, a computer, or other valuable property. Pompous rituals and payments of dowry are a thing of the past.
The custom of maintaining hygiene has appeared since ancient times. People washed their hands before sitting down to eat. It was imperative to wash your hands after eating meat. Rinsing your mouth was considered a good preparation for eating.
Mutual assistance among the Bashkirs is called kaz umakhe. The custom concerned the preparation of ducks and geese. Usually young girls were invited to it. At the same time, goose feathers were scattered, and the women asked for a bountiful offspring. Then the geese were eaten with pancakes, honey, and chak-chak.

Food

Bashkir cuisine offers the sophisticated gourmet simple dishes. The main thing for a Bashkir is to be well-fed, and delicacies come in second place. A distinctive feature of the cuisine is the absence of pork, and this is not due to Islamic canons, but purely to ancient dietary habits. There were no wild boars in these places, so they ate lamb, beef and horse meat. Bashkir dishes are hearty, nutritious and always prepared from fresh ingredients. Onions, herbs, spices and herbs are often added to the dish. It is the onion that is highly valued by the Bashkirs for beneficial features, because in its fresh form this product helps fight bacteria, provides vitamin C and normalizes blood pressure.
Meat can be eaten boiled, dried, or stewed. Horse meat is used to make kazy horse sausage. It is usually served with the fermented milk drink ayran.
The most important drink was kumys. For nomadic tribes, the drink was indispensable, because even on the hottest day it retained its properties. There are many ways to prepare kumiss, which the Bashkirs preserve and pass on from generation to generation. The positive properties of the drink are strengthening the immune system, improving the functioning of nervous system and maintaining skin elasticity.
Dairy dishes in Bashkir cuisine abound in variety. Bashkirs love baked milk, sour cream, cottage cheese with honey. An important product is karot, a cheese that was stored during the winter to obtain nutrients and fat. It was added to broths and even tea. Bashkir noodles are called salma and can have many forms. It is prepared in the form of balls, squares and shavings. Salma is always made by hand, so there are many options for execution.
Tea drinking is an important tradition, and tea, along with kumiss, is considered a national drink. Bashkirs drink tea with cheesecakes, boiled meat, chak-chak, berry marshmallows and pies. Pastila was prepared from exclusively natural berries, ground through a sieve. The puree was laid out on boards and dried in the sun. In 2–3 days, an exquisite and natural delicacy was obtained. Most often, tea is drunk with milk and currants.
Bashkir honey is a brand of Bashkiria. Many gourmets consider it a reference, because the recipe for making the first honey dates back one and a half thousand years. The people of Bashkiria carefully preserved traditions, so these days the wonderful delicacy turns out great. The storage of honey in ancient times is evidenced by rock paintings found in the Burzyan region. It is forbidden to counterfeit Bashkir honey. This brand produces exclusively national products. It is this that serves as the basis for preparing such a dessert as chak-chak.

Appearance

Cloth

A feature of Bashkir clothing is the use various types weaving arts. For example, the use of appliqués, knitting, embroidering patterns, decorating with coins and corals, applying ornaments to the skin. Often several craftsmen were involved in the creation of one costume. Their task was to obtain a coherent ensemble, united by a single artistic design. Observance of traditions was certainly required in composing the costume. The formation of the costume took place under the influence of cattle breeding craft. For insulation, people used sheepskin coats and sheep's wool coats.
Homemade cloth was quite thick, while holiday cloth, on the contrary, was thin. To make the material as dense as possible, it was dumped and poured with hot water.
Boots were made from leather. Leather could be combined with cloth or felt. To insulate clothes, they used wild animal fur. The squirrel, hare, wolf and lynx were especially in demand. Beaver and otter were used for festive fur coats and hats. Hemp threads, which have increased strength, played a significant role. Shirts were made from linen, decorated with geometric patterns.
The design of the costume varied depending on the region of residence. For example, in the southeastern regions they preferred red, blue and green colors. Northeastern, Chelyabinsk and Kurgan Bashkirs wore dresses with border embroidery.
The hem of the dress was decorated with ornaments, as were the sleeves. In the 13th century, new materials for clothing began to appear, including cloth of Flemish, Dutch and English origin. Bashkirs began to value fine wool, velvet and satin. A common feature female and men's suit pants and a shirt remained (women wore dresses).
Often Bashkirs had to wear a whole set of outerwear. Each was freer than the previous one, which made it possible to move comfortably and escape the cold. The same feature was retained for festive outfits. For example, Bashkirs could wear several robes at the same time, regardless of weather conditions.
In mountainous Bashkiria, men wore a cotton shirt, canvas pants, and a light robe. In winter, the time of cold weather came, and cloth clothing was replaced by cloth. It was made from camel wool. The shirt was not girded, but a belt with a knife was used to secure the robe. An ax served as an additional weapon for hunting or going into the forest.
The robes themselves served casual clothes. Many copies can be seen in museums located in Bashkiria. A striking example of the beauty of women's clothing among the Bashkirs is the beshmet and elyan. They clearly demonstrate the craftsmen's ability to use embroidery, corals, beads and coins to decorate fabrics. To make the outfits as colorful as possible, the craftsmen used cloth of different colors. In combination with gold and silver braid, a unique range was obtained. The sun, stars, animals and anthropomorphic patterns were used as ornaments.
Corals made it possible to lay out triangles and beautiful rhombuses. Fringe was used for a stripe that was made at the waist. Various kinds of tassels, buttons, and decorative details made it possible to produce an even more striking effect.
Men wore fur clothing without fail, but for women it was considered rare. They made do with a quilted coat and used a shawl. With the onset of severe cold, a woman could cover herself with her husband’s fur coat. Fur coats for women began to appear quite late and were used exclusively for rituals.
Only rich Bashkirs could afford jewelry. The most common precious metal was silver, which they liked to combine with coral. These decorations were used to decorate outerwear, shoes and hats.
The Bashkirs are a small people. There are just over one and a half million of them, but thanks to careful attitude In addition to traditions, this people was able to achieve prosperity, acquired a rich culture and became one of the most remarkable on the territory of the Russian Federation. Nowadays, the region is heavily influenced by urbanization, with more and more young people flocking to cities to find permanent work and housing. However, this does not prevent the Bashkirs from observing ancient customs and passing on recipes national dishes from generation to generation and live in peace with each other, as has been the custom from time immemorial.