Bashkir people

The Bashkirs (Bashkorts), Kipchak Turks of the Urals, people Bashkortostan and the old Badzhgard astride Europe and Asia, with kin in Tatarstan, the Urals oblasts and Kazakhstan. Their tongue stands near Tatar, Kazakh and Kyrgyz; they are Sunni Hanafi Muslims of the Jadid reform school. Once nomadic and fiercely free, they herded, hunted wild bees for honey, forged iron and played the kurai flute; clan elders and batyrs ordered the steppe. Russian ostrogs, Pugachev's revolt that Bashkirs joined, Soviet republic-making and oil derricks layered over Badzhgard. Ufa theatres, Salawat Yulayev monuments, kurai contests and the honey festivals keep the Ural Turks Turkic. Tatarstan and Perm kin keep the dialects. Chelyabinsk, Orenburg and Tyumen workshops employ Bashkirs. Sverdlovsk, Kurgan and Kazakh kin share the festivals. Hanafi mosques still call every Friday. Jadid schools still teach the reform curriculum. Tatar, Kazakh and Kyrgyz cousins understand the songs. Badzhgard's name still marks the southern Urals.