Beauty of Kazan Tatar Culture

Kazan Tatar people Branch of the Altaic family: Turkic Tatars (Tatar: Tatarlar/Татарлар), sometimes spelled Tartar (more about the name), are a Turkic ethnic group or a couple of ethnic groups. Most current day Tatars live in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, Lithuania, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Kazakhstan, Romania, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. They collectively numbered more than 10 million in the late 20th century. The original Ta-ta inhabited the north-eastern Gobi in the 5th century and, after subjugation in the 9th century by the Khitans, migrated southward. In the 12th century, they were subjugated by the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan. Under the leadership of his grandson Batu Khan, they moved westwards, driving with them many stems of the Turkic Ural-Altayans towards the plains of Russia. In Europe, they were assimilated by the local Turkic populations or their name spread to the conquered peoples: Kipchaks, Volga Bulgars, Alans, Kimaks and others; and elsewhere with Finno-Ugric speaking peoples, as well as with remnants of the ancient Greek colonies in the Crimea and Caucasians in the Caucasus. Tatars of Siberia are survivors of the Turkic population of the Ural-Altaic region, mixed to some extent with the speakers of Uralic languages, as well as with Mongols. Later, each group adopted Turkic languages and many adopted Islam. At the beginning of 20th century, most of those groups, except the Volga Tatars and Crimean Tatars adopted their own ethnic names and now are not referred to as Tatars, being Tatars or Tartars only in historical context. Now the name Tatars is generally applied to two ethnic groups: Volga Tatars (or simply Tatars) and Crimean Tatars. However, some indigenous peoples of Siberia are also traditionally named Tatars, such as Chulym Tatars. The present Tatar inhabitants of Eurasia form three large groups: those of Crimea, Bulgaria, European Russia and Western Siberia, Lithuania, Moldova, Belarus, Poland, Romania and Turkey. those of the Caucasus (in historical context), and those of Eastern Siberia (in historical context). Due to the vast movements and intermingling of peoples along with the very loose utilization of the name Tatar, current day Tatars comprise a spectrum of physical appearance. As to the original Tatars from Mongolia, they most likely shared characteristics with the Turkic invaders from Central Asia. Learn more about Kazan Tatars: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatarstan Most pictures from this website: http://tatar-bashkort.narod.ru/kizlar/kizlar1.htm Song Ayrılmagız, a free mp3 can be found here: http://altaiccultureandhistory.blogspot.com/2008/09/free-turkic-folk-music-part-1_580.html