Bashkirs. Bashkirs are a glorious and wise people

The Turkic Khaganate was the cradle of the ancient Bashkir tribes. The first written information about the “Turkic people called Bashkort” was left by Arab authors of the 9th-11th centuries. Having moved to the Urals, the Bashkirs assimilated part of the local Finno-Ugric and Scythian-Sarmatian population.
In the 10th century, the West Bashkir tribes became politically dependent on the Volga Bulgaria. And in 1236, Bashkiria, conquered by the Mongols, became part of the Golden Horde. Under these conditions, the Bashkir people could not create their own public education.
After the capture of Kazan, Ivan the Terrible appealed to the Bashkirs to join the Russian state.
The conditions for entry were preserved in Russian chronicles, as well as in the Bashkir shazher (tribal epic). The Bashkirs pledged to pay yasak in furs and honey, as well as perform military service. The Russian government guaranteed the Bashkirs protection from the claims of the Nogai and Siberian khans; retained the lands they occupied for the Bashkir people; promised not to encroach on the religion of the Bashkirs and pledged not to interfere in the internal life of Bashkir society.
The royal letters, promising peace and tranquility, made a strong impression on the Bashkirs. In the 50s of the 16th century, the Bashkir tribes expressed a desire to switch to Russian citizenship. By the way, our Ivan the Terrible gained unprecedented popularity among the Bashkirs as a kind and merciful “white king”.
At first, the Russian authorities religiously observed the terms of the treaty letters. But from the 17th century, the rights of local khans and biys began to be infringed and tribal lands were seized. The response was a series of uprisings that took a heavy toll on both sides of the conflict. The most difficult for the Bashkirs was the uprising of 1735-1740, during which almost every fourth person is believed to have died.
Last time The Bashkirs took up arms against Russia during the famous “Pugachev war.” Pugachev’s Bashkir associate Salavat Yulaev remains in the memory of the Bashkirs folk hero. But for the Russian population of the Volga region it was a bloody monster. According to contemporaries, the Orthodox world “moaned and cried” from his fanaticism.
Fortunately, these ethnic strife are a thing of the past.

2. Bashkirs in Patriotic War 1812

The hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Sergei Glinka, wrote in his memoirs: “Not only the ancient sons of Russia, but also peoples distinguished by language, morals, faith - and those, along with natural Russians, were ready to die for the Russian land... The Orenburg Bashkirs volunteered themselves and asked the government if their regiments were needed.”
Indeed, Bashkir formations became an important part of the Russian irregular cavalry. In total, the Bashkirs sent 28 cavalry regiments to help the Russian army. Bashkir horsemen were dressed in caftans made of blue or white cloth, wide trousers in the color of the caftan with red wide stripes, a white felt cap and boots.
The weapons of the Bashkir warrior were a pike, a saber, a bow and a quiver of arrows - rifles and pistols were rare among them. Therefore, the French jokingly nicknamed the Bashkirs “Cupids.” But the Bashkirs used their antediluvian weapons masterfully. In one modern document we read: “In battle, the Bashkir moves the quiver from his back to his chest, takes two arrows in his teeth, and puts the other two on his bow and shoots instantly one after the other.” At forty paces, the Bashkir warrior did not miss.
Napoleonic general Marbot wrote in his memoirs about one clash with the Bashkir cavalry: “They rushed at us in countless crowds, but when met with volleys from rifles, they left a significant number of dead at the battle site. These losses, instead of cooling their frenzy, only fueled it. They hovered around our troops like swarms of wasps. It was very difficult to overtake them."
Kutuzov in one of his reports noted the courage with which “the Bashkir regiments defeat the enemy.” After the Battle of Borodino, Kutuzov summoned the commander of one of the Bashkir regiments, Kakhym-tur, and, thanking him for his courage in battle, exclaimed: “Oh, well done, my dear Bashkirs!” Kakhym-turya conveyed the commander’s words to his horsemen, and the Bashkir warriors, inspired by the praise, composed a song, the chorus of which repeated: “Lubezniki, lyubizar, well done, well done!” This song, glorifying the exploits of the Bashkir daredevils, who fought through half of Europe, is still sung in Bashkiria today.

3. Bashkir wedding

In the wedding ceremony, national and religious traditions people.
Ancient custom to persuade their children even in the cradle was preserved among the Bashkirs until late XIX century. The boy and girl had to bite each other's ears, and the parents of the bride and groom drank bata, diluted honey or kumis from the same cup as a sign of the marriage contract.
Bashkirs married early: a boy was considered ripe for marriage at 15, a girl at 13. According to the tradition of some Bashkir tribes, it was impossible to take a wife from one’s own clan or volost. But another part of the Bashkirs allowed marriage between relatives in the fifth and sixth generations.
Among Muslim peoples (and the Bashkirs profess Sunni Islam), a marriage is considered valid only when it is performed in compliance with the appropriate rituals and consecrated in the name of Allah. This wedding ceremony is called nikah.
An invited mullah comes to the father-in-law's house and asks if the parties agree to marry. A woman's silence is taken as her consent. Then the mullah reads sayings from the Koran and makes an entry in the register.
The mullah is usually paid one percent of the price of the bride price for the transaction. Nowadays, bride price is considered as an optional, but still desirable condition of marriage.
After paying the entire bride price, the groom and his relatives went to his father-in-law to fetch his wife. Before his arrival, his father-in-law organized a thuja festival, which lasted two or three days. In rich houses these days there were horse races and competitions in national wrestling (karesh).
Upon entering her husband's house, the young woman knelt three times before her husband's parents and was lifted up three times. Then gifts were exchanged. The next day, the young woman was led along the water, with a yoke and buckets. She took with her small silver coin, tied to a thread, and threw it into the water, as if as a sacrifice to the water spirit. On the way back they looked to see if the young water would splash, which was considered an unfavorable sign. And only after this ceremony the wife, no longer embarrassed, revealed her face to her husband.

4. Kumis

The first mention of kumiss belongs to the “father of history” Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century BC. He reported that the favorite drink of the Scythians was mare's milk, prepared using a special method. According to him, the Scythians carefully guarded the secret of making kumis. Those who divulged this secret were blinded.
One of the peoples who preserved for us the recipe for preparing this miraculous drink were the Bashkirs.
In the old days, kumys was prepared in linden or oak tubs. First, we got the starter - it fermented. The Bashkirs serve them with sour cow's milk. The fermented mixture was mixed with mare's milk and allowed to brew.
According to the ripening time, koumiss is divided into weak (one day), medium (two days) and strong (three days). The proportion of alcohol in them is one, one and a half and three percent, respectively.
Natural one-day kumiss has dietary and medicinal properties. It is not for nothing that it is called the drink of longevity and health. The writer Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov, who is well acquainted with the life of the Bashkirs, wrote about the health-improving effect of kumis: “In the spring... the preparation of kumis begins, and everyone who can drink - from an infant to a decrepit old man - drinks a healing, beneficial drink, and all the ailments of the hungry winter miraculously disappear and even in old age, haggard faces become plump, pale, sunken cheeks are covered with blush.” In extreme conditions, the Bashkirs sometimes ate only kumys, going without other food.
Back in the first half of the 19th century, the author of the Explanatory Dictionary, Vladimir Dal, a doctor by training, noticed the anti-scorbutic effect of kumys. Dahl wrote that, once you get used to kumys, you will inevitably prefer it to all drinks without exception. It cools, quenches hunger and thirst at the same time and gives special vivacity, never overfilling the stomach.
By imperial command, in 1868, the Moscow merchant Maretsky opened the first kumiss medical establishment near Moscow (in present-day Sokolniki).
The medicinal properties of kumiss were highly valued by many outstanding medical scientists. For example, Botkin called kumiss “an excellent remedy” and believed that the preparation of this drink should become a common property, like the preparation of cottage cheese or yogurt.
Any Bashkir will confirm that kumiss is great alternative beer and cola.

The Russian Federation is a multinational country. The state is inhabited by various peoples who have their own beliefs, culture, and traditions. There is such a subject of the Russian Federation - the Republic of Bashkortostan. It is part of This subject of the Russian Federation borders Orenburg, Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions, Perm region, Republics within the Russian Federation - Udmurtia and Tatarstan. is the city of Ufa. The republic is the first autonomy based on nationality. It was founded back in 1917. In terms of population (more than four million people), it also ranks first among the autonomies. The republic is inhabited mainly by Bashkirs. Culture, religion, people will be the topic of our article. It should be said that the Bashkirs live not only in the Republic of Bashkortostan. Representatives of this people can be found in other parts of the Russian Federation, as well as in Ukraine and Hungary.

What kind of people are the Bashkirs?

This is the autochthonous population of the historical region of the same name. If it is more than four million people, then there are only 1,172,287 ethnic Bashkirs living in it (according to the latest 2010 census). There are one and a half million representatives of this nationality throughout the Russian Federation. About a hundred thousand more went abroad. The Bashkir language separated from the Altai family of the Western Turkic subgroup a long time ago. But until the beginning of the twentieth century, their writing was based on Arabic script. IN Soviet Union“by decree from above” it was translated into the Latin alphabet, and during the reign of Stalin - into the Cyrillic alphabet. But it is not only language that unites people. Religion is also a binding factor that allows people to maintain their identity. The majority of Bashkir believers are Sunni Muslims. Below we will take a closer look at their religion.

History of the people

According to scientists, the ancient Bashkirs were described by Herodotus and Claudius Ptolemy. The “Father of History” called them Argippaeans and pointed out that these people dress like Scythians, but speak a special dialect. Chinese chronicles classify the Bashkirs as a tribe of the Huns. The Book of Sui (seventh century) mentions the Bei Din and Bo Han peoples. They can be identified as Bashkirs and Volga Bulgars. Medieval Arab travelers provide more clarity. Around 840, Sallam at-Tarjuman visited the region, described its borders and the life of its inhabitants. He characterizes the Bashkirs as an independent people living on both slopes of the Ural ridge, between the Volga, Kama, Tobol and Yaik rivers. They were semi-nomadic pastoralists, but very warlike. The Arab traveler also mentions animism, which was professed by the ancient Bashkirs. Their religion implied twelve gods: summer and winter, wind and rain, water and earth, day and night, horses and people, death. The main thing above them was the Spirit of Heaven. The beliefs of the Bashkirs also included elements of totemism (some tribes revered cranes, fish and snakes) and shamanism.

Great exodus to the Danube

In the ninth century, not only the ancient Magyars left the foothills of the Urals in search of better pastures. They were joined by some Bashkir tribes - Kese, Yeney, Yurmatians and some others. This nomadic confederation first settled in the territory between the Dnieper and Don, forming the country of Levedia. And at the beginning of the tenth century, under the leadership of Arpad, she began to advance further to the west. Having crossed the Carpathians, the nomadic tribes conquered Pannonia and founded Hungary. But one should not think that the Bashkirs quickly assimilated with the ancient Magyars. The tribes split up and began to live on both banks of the Danube. The beliefs of the Bashkirs, who managed to Islamize back in the Urals, began to gradually be replaced by monotheism. Arab chronicles of the twelfth century mention that Christian Hunkars live on the northern bank of the Danube. And in the south of the Hungarian kingdom live the Muslim Bashgirds. Their main city was Kerat. Of course, Islam could not exist in the heart of Europe for long. Already in the thirteenth century, the majority of Bashkirs converted to Christianity. And in 1414 there were no Muslims in Hungary at all.

Tengrism

But let's go back to the early times, before the exodus of some of the nomadic tribes from the Urals. Let us consider in more detail the beliefs that the Bashkirs then professed. This religion was called Tengri - after the name of the Father of all things and the god of heaven. In the Universe, according to the ancient Bashkirs, there are three zones: the earth, on it and under it. And each of them had a visible and an invisible part. The sky was divided into several tiers. Tengri Khan lived on the highest one. The Bashkirs, who did not know statehood, nevertheless had a clear concept of All other gods were responsible for the elements or natural phenomena (change of seasons, thunderstorms, rain, wind, etc.) and unconditionally obeyed Tengri Khan. The ancient Bashkirs did not believe in the resurrection of the soul. But they believed that the day would come when they would come to life in the body, and would continue to live on earth according to the established worldly way.

Connection with Islam

In the tenth century, Muslim missionaries began to penetrate into the territories inhabited by the Bashkirs and Volga Bulgars. Unlike the baptism of Rus', which met fierce resistance from the pagan people, the nomadic Tengriists accepted Islam without incident. The concept of the religion of the Bashkirs ideally combined with the idea of ​​one God, which the Bible gives. They began to associate Tengri with Allah. Nevertheless, the “lower gods”, responsible for the elements and natural phenomena, were held in high esteem for a long time. Even now, traces of ancient beliefs can be traced in proverbs, rites and rituals. We can say that Tengrism was refracted into mass consciousness people, creating a unique cultural phenomenon.

Acceptance of Islam

The first Muslim burials on the territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan date back to the eighth century. But, judging by the objects found in the burial ground, it can be judged that the deceased were most likely strangers. On early stage The conversion of the local population to Islam (tenth century) was played by missionaries of such brotherhoods as Naqshbandiyya and Yasawiyya. They arrived from the cities of Central Asia, mainly from Bukhara. This predetermined what religion the Bashkirs profess now. After all, the Bukhara kingdom adhered to Sunni Islam, in which Sufi ideas and Hanafi interpretations of the Koran were closely intertwined. But for our Western neighbors, all these nuances of Islam were incomprehensible. The Franciscans John the Hungarian and William, who lived continuously for six years in Bashkiria, sent the following report to the General of their order in 1320: “We found the Sovereign of Bascardia and almost all of his household completely infected with Saracen delusions.” And this allows us to say that in the first half of the fourteenth century, the majority of the region’s population converted to Islam.

Joining Russia

In 1552, after the fall, Bashkiria became part of the Moscow kingdom. But local elders have negotiated rights to some autonomy. Thus, the Bashkirs could continue to own their lands, practice their religion and live in the same way of life. Local cavalry took part in the battles of the Russian army against the Livonian Order. Religion among the Tatars and Bashkirs had slightly different meanings. The latter converted to Islam much earlier. And religion became a factor in the self-identification of the people. With the annexation of Bashkiria to Russia, dogmatic Muslim cults began to penetrate into the region. The state, wanting to keep all believers in the country under control, established a muftiate in Ufa in 1782. Such spiritual dominance led to the fact that in the nineteenth century the believing regions split. A traditionalist wing (Kadimism), a reformist wing (Jadidism) and ishanism (Sufism, which had lost its sacred basis) emerged.

What religion do the Bashkirs have now?

Since the seventeenth century, there have been constant uprisings in the region against its powerful northwestern neighbor. They became especially frequent in the eighteenth century. These uprisings were brutally suppressed. But the Bashkirs, whose religion was the unifying element of the self-identification of the people, managed to preserve their rights to beliefs. They continue to profess Sunni Islam with elements of Sufism. At the same time, Bashkortostan is a spiritual center for all Muslims of the Russian Federation. There are more than three hundred mosques, an Islamic Institute, and several madrassas in the Republic. The Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation is located in Ufa.

The people also retained early pre-Islamic beliefs. Studying the rituals of the Bashkirs, you can see that they display amazing syncretism. Thus, Tengri turned in the consciousness of the people into one God, Allah. Other idols began to be associated with Muslim spirits - evil demons or genies favorably disposed towards people. Special place among them are yort eyyahe (analogous to the Slavic brownie), hyu eyyahe (water) and shurale (goblin). An excellent illustration of religious syncretism are amulets, where, along with the teeth and claws of animals, sayings from the Koran written on birch bark help against the evil eye. The rook festival Kargatuy bears traces of the cult of ancestors, when ritual porridge was left on the field. Many rituals practiced during childbirth, funerals and funerals also testify to the pagan past of the people.

Other religions in Bashkortostan

Considering that ethnic Bashkirs make up only a quarter of the total population of the Republic, other religions should also be mentioned. First of all, this is Orthodoxy, which penetrated here with the first Russian settlers (late 16th century). Later, Old Believers also settled here. In the 19th century, German and Jewish craftsmen came to the region. Lutheran churches and synagogues appeared. When Poland and Lithuania became part Russian Empire, military and exiled Catholics began to settle in the region. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a colony of Baptists from the Kharkov region moved to Ufa. The multinationality of the population of the Republic also served as the reason for the diversity of beliefs, to which the indigenous Bashkirs are very tolerant. The religion of this people, with its inherent syncretism, still remains an element of self-identification of the ethnic group.

Results for 1076 representatives of 30 groups living from the Baltic Sea to Lake Baikal. BioMed Central (BMC), a publication specializing in publications on research in the field of biology, medicine, oncology and other sciences, published material on DNA research of these peoples, with a special emphasis on the Idel-Ural region. "Idel.Realities" decided to study the material and tell its readers about the main conclusions of scientists about the ethnogenesis of the peoples of the Volga region.

Scientists have discovered an unusually high level of similarity at the genetic level between representatives of several ethnic groups of Siberia, such as the Khanty and Kets, with carriers large quantity different languages ​​over vast geographical areas. It turned out that there is a significant genetic relationship between the Khanty and the Turkic-speaking inhabitants of the Urals, that is, the Bashkirs. This discovery strengthens the arguments of supporters in favor of the “Finno-Ugric” origin of the Bashkirs. The study also showed that the Bashkir genetic series lacks the main “core” gene of any group, and it is a mixture of Turkic, Ugric, Finnish and Indo-European genes. This indicates a complex interweaving of the genetic series of the Turkic and Uralic population groups.
A comparison with the genetic structures of the peoples of Siberia and the geography of the region they inhabit shows that there was a “Great Migration of the Peoples of Siberia”, which led to mutual “genetic exchange” in Siberia and part of Asia.

The Eastern Slavs turned out to be similar to each other at the genetic level. Speakers of the Slavic languages ​​of Eastern Europe generally have a similar genetic makeup among themselves. Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians have almost the same “proportions” of the genes of the peoples of the Caucasus and Northern Europe, while they have practically no Asian influence.

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In Central Asia, speakers of Turkic languages, including Kazakh and Uzbek, have a dominant Central Asian gene (>35%). The Bashkirs had less of it (~20%). The Chuvash and Volga Tatars have an even smaller Central Asian component (~ 5%).

The dominant gene among the peoples of Western and Central Siberia (Khanty, Mansi, Kets and Selkups) is also represented in the western part of the Ural Mountains. Thus, it was identified in the Komi (16%), Udmurts (27%), who belong to the Perm branch of the Uralic languages. The same component is represented among the Chuvash (20%) and Bashkirs (17%), while among the Tatars its share is much lower (10%). Interestingly, the same gene is present at a low level in the Turkic peoples of Central Asia (5%).

The East Siberian component is represented among the speakers of the Turkic and Samoyed languages ​​of the Central Siberian Plain: among the Yakuts, Dolgans and Nganasans. The same component was found among speakers of Mongolian and Turkic languages ​​in the Baikal region and Central Asia (5-15%), to a lesser extent (1-5%) - among speakers of Turkic languages ​​in the Idel-Ural region.

DIFFERENT IDEL-URAL

The Idel-Ural region is populated, as is known, mainly by three groups of peoples: Uralic, Turkic and Slavic. Bashkirs and Tatars are representatives of the main Turkic-speaking ethnic groups in the region. Despite the fact that these peoples live in the same region and have mutually intelligible languages, genetically they are significantly different. The Tatars have much in common genetically with neighboring peoples, while the Bashkirs have much in common with those living in other regions. Therefore, this gives reason to say that the Bashkirs were not originally Turks, but an ethnic group that switched to the Turkic language.

There are three main versions of the origin of the Bashkirs: Turkic, Finno-Ugric and Iranian. According to the Turkic version, most of the ancestors of the Bashkirs were formed from Turkic tribes that migrated from Central Asia in the first millennium AD. The Finno-Ugric version is based on the assumption that the Bashkirs descended from the Magyars (Hungarians), and were then assimilated by the Turks. According to the Iranian version, the Bashkirs are descendants of the Sarmatians from the Southern Urals.

Overall, the study strengthens the argument in favor of the Finno-Ugric origin of the Bashkirs. Many components in the genetic series of the Bashkirs coincide with those of the Khanty, ethnic group related to the Hungarians. It is also interesting that some researchers point to the use of the ethnonym “Bashkirs” in relation to the Hungarians of the 13th century. It is known that the Magyars (Hungarians) formed between the Volga region and the Ural Mountains. In the 6th century, they moved to the steppes of the Don-Kuban, leaving the proto-Bulgars, and then moved to the places where they still live.

The Bashkirs, despite their Turkic-speaking nature, were influenced by the ancient northern Euro-Asian peoples. Thus, the genetic series and culture of the Bashkirs are different. In turn, the peoples of Eastern Europe who speak Uralic languages ​​are genetically related to the Khanty and Ketts.

It should be noted that the genome of the linguistically similar Bashkirs and Tatars of the Volga region has little in common with their “ancestors” from East Asia or Central Siberia. The Volga Tatars are genetically a mixture of Bulgars, who have a significant Finno-Ugric component, Pechenegs, Cumans, Khazars, local Finno-Ugric peoples and Alans. Thus, the Volga Tatars are mainly a European people with a slight influence of the East Asian component. The genetic kinship of the Tatars with various Turkic and Uralic peoples of the Idel-Ural region is obvious. After conquering the region Turkic peoples the ancestors of the Tatars and Chuvash experienced a significant influence on the language, while retaining their original genetic sequence. Most likely, these events occurred in the 8th century AD, after the resettlement of the Bulgars in the lower reaches of the Volga and Kama and the expansion of Turkic tribes.

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The authors of the study suggest that the Bashkirs, Tatars, Chuvash and speakers of Finno-Ugric languages ​​have a common Turkic gene, which in Idel-Ural arose as a result of Turkic expansion into the region. However, the Finno-Ugric substrate was not homogeneous: among the Tatars and Chuvash, the Finno-Ugric substrate consists mainly of a “Finno-Permian” component, while among the Bashkirs it is “Magyar” (Hungarian). The Turkic component of the Bashkirs is undoubtedly quite significant, and it differs from the Turkic component of the Tatars and Chuvash. The Bashkir Turkic component indicates influence on this ethnic group from Southern Siberia. Thus, the Turkic genes of the Bashkirs make them closer to the Altaians, Kyrgyz, Tuvans and Kazakhs.

An analysis based on the principle of genetic kinship is not sufficient to categorically assert the Finno-Ugric origin of the Bashkirs, but it indicates the separation of the genetic components of the Bashkirs by period. In their study, scientists showed that the genotype of the Bashkirs is multifaceted, multi-component, and this ethnic group does not have any dominant genotype. As noted, the Bashkir genotype includes Turkic, Ugric, Finnish and Indo-European genes. In this mosaic it is impossible to say for sure about any main component. The Bashkirs are the only people in the Idel-Ural region with such a diverse set of genes.

Earlier, "Idel.Realii" wrote that the Russian media (including Tatarstan) disseminated the news that the Crimean, Kazan and Siberian Tatars are genetically different groups, and therefore cannot in any way be parts of a single Tatar ethnic group that was formed in the Middle Ages.

People's memory__________________________________________2

Traditions and legends_________________________________7

Classification of traditions and legends_____________________10

Legends

1. Cosmogonic.
2. Toponymic.
3. Etymological.

Legends.

History of the Bashkir people in traditions and legends.____14

Ethnonym “Bashkort”_________________________________19

Traditions and legends about the origin of the Bashkirs.__________19

Conclusion.__________________________________________21

References.________________________________________________22

PEOPLE'S MEMORY.

The Bashkir people have brought to our time wonderful works of various genres of oral creativity, the traditions of which go back to the distant past. Priceless cultural heritage are legends, traditions and other oral narratives that reflect ancient poetic views of nature, historical ideas, worldly wisdom, psychology, moral ideals, social aspirations and creative imagination of the Bashkirs.

The first written information about Bashkir folk non-fairy prose dates back to the 10th century. The travel notes of the Arab traveler Ahmed Ibn Fadlan, who visited the Bashkir lands in 922, characterize the archaic beliefs of the Bashkirs and outline a version of their legend about the cranes.

Genealogical chronicles (shezhere) - unique historical and literary monuments of old times - are saturated with motifs of legends and traditions. Information about ancestors in some cases is connected here with stories about events that took place during their lifetime. Mythological legends are often cited. Superstitious stories. For example, in the shezher of the Yurmati tribe (composition began in the 16th century): “... in ancient times, Nogais lived on this land... They roamed in all directions of the lands along the lengths of the Zey and Shishma rivers. Then a dragon suddenly appeared on this earth. It was one day and one night's walk away. Many years have passed since then, they fought against him. Many people died. After that the dragon disappeared. The people remained calm...” The story about the grave of the saint (avliya) included in this shezher develops the traditional motifs of mythological legends. The main part of the shezhere, dedicated to the history of the Yurmaty people, echoes the historical legends that existed among the people until recently. In another shezher of the Karagay-Kypsak clan of the Kypsak tribe, the content of the epic “Babsak and Kusyak” is stated in the form of a legend. Some shezheres included fragments of legends, complete stories widespread among Turkic-speaking peoples, and legendary stories about the origin of Turkic tribes. It is no coincidence that the authors of ethnographic essays and articles of the last century called Bashkir shezheres differently: legends, chronicles, historical records. The Soviet ethnographer R. G. Kuzeev, studying the Bashkir genealogical chronicles, established the wide nature of the use of folk legends in them and used these legends as a source for explaining historical and ethnic processes. G. B. Khusainov, drawing attention to the presence of valuable folklore, ethnographic material, as well as artistic elements in the Bashkir shezhers, rightly called these genealogical records historical and literary monuments, pointed out their connection with some printed and handwritten works that became famous in the Turkic-Mongolian the world and beyond (works by Javani, Rashid ed-Din, Abulgazi, etc.). Based on comparative analysis folklore motives and the ethnographic information contained in the Bashkir shezheres, with data from other written sources, the scientist made important conclusions not only about the antiquity of the described legendary stories, but also about the presence of long-standing written traditions of compiling shezheres as historical and genealogical stories.

In the traditions and legends passed down from generation to generation, the history of the people, their way of life, customs, and customs are illuminated, and at the same time their views are revealed. Therefore, this unique area of ​​folklore attracted the attention of a number of scientists and travelers. V.N. Tatishchev in “Russian History,” touching on issues of history and ethnography of the Bashkirs, relied partly on their oral traditions. Traditions and legends also attracted the attention of another famous scientist of the 18th century - P. I. Rychkov. In his “Typography of the Orenburg Province” he turns to folk stories explaining the origin of toponymic names. The Bashkir folklore material used in this case receives different genre designations from Rychkov: legend, tale, story, belief, fables. The travel notes of scientists traveling around the Urals in the second half of the 18th century also contain Bashkir ethnogenetic legends and traditions. For example, academician P.S. Pallas, along with some information about the ethnic tribal composition of the Bashkirs, cites a folk legend about the Shaitan-Kudei clan; Academician I. I. Lepekhin retells the content of Bashkir toponymic legends about Turatau, Yylantau.

Interest in Bashkir folk art grew steadily in the 19th century. In the first half of the century, ethnographic essays and articles by Kudryashov, Dahl, Yumatov and other Russian writers, local historians, devoted to the description of Bashkir life, customs, and beliefs, were published. The folklore material used in these works, despite all its fragmentation, gives a certain idea of ​​the legends and traditions then widespread among the Bashkirs. The articles of the Decembrist poet Kudryashov are valuable for their rather detailed presentation of cosmogonic and other legendary ideas that no longer exist today. Kudryashov, for example, noted that the Bashkirs believe that “stars hang in the air and are attached to the sky with thick iron chains; that the globe is supported by three huge large fish, the bottom of which has already died, which serves as proof of the imminent end of the world, and so on and so forth.” Dahl's essays retell local Bashkir legends that have a mythological basis: “Horse Exit” (“ Ylkysykkan kol" - "The lake where the horses came from"), " Shulgen", "Ettash"("The Dog's Stone"), "Tirmen-tau"(“The mountain where the mill stood”), “Sanay-sary and Shaitan-sary" The article by Ufa local historian Yumatov provides an excerpt from an ethnonymic legend about the origin of the name of the Indian clan (menle yryuy), notes interesting historical legends about the feuds between the Nagai Murzas Aksak-Kilembet and Karakilimbet, who lived in Bashkiria, about the innumerable disasters of the Bashkirs and their appeals to Tsar Ivan the Terrible .

In the second half of the 19th century, due to the rise of the social movement, especially under the influence of its revolutionary-democratic direction, the interest of Russian scientists in the spiritual culture of the peoples of Russia, including the Bashkirs, intensified. I became newly interested in their history and customs of the freedom-loving people, their musical, oral and poetic creativity. Appeal from Lossievsky, Ignatiev, Nefedov to historical image Salavat Yulaev, a faithful associate of Emelyan Pugachev, was by no means accidental. In their essays and articles about Salavat Yulaev they were based on historical documents and on the works of Pugachev folklore, primarily on traditions and legends.

Of the Russian scientists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Rybakov, Bessonov, and Rudenko played a particularly significant role in the scientific collection and study of Bashkir folklore.

Rybakov, in his book “Music and Songs of the Ural Muslims with an Outline of Their Life,” placed more than a hundred samples of Bashkir folk songs in musical notation. Among them there are songs-legends, songs-traditions: “Crane Song” (“Syrau Torna”), “Buranbai”, “Inekai and Yuldykai” and others. Unfortunately, some of them are given in significant abbreviation (“Ashkadar”, “Abdrakhman”, “Sibay”). Nevertheless, Rybakov’s book gives a rich idea of ​​the song repertoire of the Bashkir people in the last century, of many of their songs-legends, existing in a kind of “mixed” form - partly song, partly narrative.

Bessonov at the end of the last century, traveling through the Ufa and Orenburg provinces, collected rich material of Bashkir narrative folklore. His collection of fairy tales, which was published after the death of the collector, contains several legends of historical content (“Bashkir Antiquity”, “Yanuzak-Batyr” and others) of significant scientific interest.

Rudenko, author basic research about the Bashkirs, recorded in 1906-1907, 1912 whole line stories, beliefs, legends. Some of them were published in 1908 on French, but most of his folklore materials were published during Soviet times.

Examples of Bashkir traditions and legends are found in the records of pre-revolutionary Bashkir collectors - M. Umetbaev, writer-educator, local historians B. Yuluev, A. Alimgulov.

Thus, even in pre-revolutionary times, writers and ethnographers-local historians recorded samples of Bashkir folk non-fairy prose. However, many of these records are not accurate, as they have been subjected to literary processing, for example, the Bashkir legend “Shaitan’s Flies” published by Lossievsky and Ignatiev.

The systematic collection and study of oral and poetic creativity of the Bashkirs began only after the Great October revolution. The collection and study of folklore was then initiated by scientific institutions, creative organizations, and universities.

In the 1920s-1930s they were published on Bashkir language Artistically valuable texts of Bashkir legends-songs recorded by M. Burangulov appeared in print in the Bashkir language and in translations into Russian social and everyday legends, which expanded scientific ideas about the genre composition and plot repertoire of Bashkir non-fairy prose.

During the Great Patriotic War, works of Bashkir traditional narrative folklore with patriotic and heroic content were released.

With the opening of the Bashkir branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1951) and the Bashkir state university them. The 40th anniversary of October (1957) begins new stage in the development of Soviet Bashkir folkloristics. In a short period of time, the Institute of History, Language and Literature of the BFAS of the USSR prepared and published a number of scientific works, including the three-volume publication “Bashkir Folk Art,” which represents the first systematic collection of monuments of Bashkir folklore.

Since the 60s, the collection, study, and publication of works of folk art and research results has become particularly intensive. Participants in folklore academic expeditions (Kireev, Sagitov, Galin, Vakhitov, Zaripov, Shunkarov, Suleymanov) accumulated a rich folklore fund, the range of genres and problems studied was significantly expanded, and the methodology for collecting material was improved. It was during this period that legends, traditions and other oral stories became the subject of intense interest. Records of works of Bashkir narrative folklore were kept by participants in archaeographic (Khusainov, Sharipova), linguistic (Shakurova, Kamalov), ethnographic (Kuzeev, Sidorov) expeditions of the Bashkir branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Materials from the non-fairy tale prose about Salavat Yulaev were recently systematized in the form of a complete folk-poetic biography of him in Sidorov’s book.

In the collection of publications and study of works of Bashkir folk prose– fabulous and non-fabulous – a significant merit of the scientists of the Bashkir State University: Kireev, who worked at the university in the 70-80s, Braga, Mingazhetdinov, Suleymanov, Akhmetshin.

The book “Bashkir Legends”, published in 1969 as a textbook for students, was the first publication of Bashkir historical folklore prose. Here, along with test material (131 units), there are important observations about the genre nature of legends and their historical basis.

Collections prepared and published by the Department of Russian Literature and Folklore of the Bashkir State University contain interesting materials about interethnic relations of folklore. The legends and stories included in them were largely recorded in Bashkir villages from Bashkir informants. Ph.D. dissertations on Bashkir non-fairy prose were also prepared and defended at Bashkir State University. The authors of these dissertations, Suleymanov and Akhmetshin, published the results of their research in print. The work they began in the 60s to collect and study folk stories continues to this day.

A major role in the popularization of works of folklore, including stories, legends, legends and songs belongs to the republican periodical press. On the pages of the magazines “Agidel”, “Teacher of Bashkiria” (“Bashkortostan ukytyusyhy”), “Daughter of Bashkiria” (“Bashkortostan kyzy”), newspapers “Council of Bashkortostan”, “Leninets” (“Lenins”), “Pioneer of Bashkiria (“Bashkortostan” pioneers"), oral poetic works are often published, as well as articles and notes by folklorists and cultural figures on folk art.

The systematic systematic accumulation and study of material made it possible to publish Bashkir traditions and legends as part of a multi-volume scientific collection.

In 1985, a book of Bashkir traditions and legends in Russian translation was published. Extensive material, systematized and commented on in these books, gives a multifaceted idea of ​​the existence of non-fairy tale genres of oral Bashkir prose in recent centuries, mainly in Soviet times, when most of its known texts were written down. In the monograph “Memory of the People” published in 1986 in the Bashkir language, the still little-studied issues of genre originality and historical development this branch of national folklore.

TRADES AND LEGENDS.

In addition to legends and tales, there are tales that differ significantly in content and in the nature of the information they convey from legends and other narratives. Folklore works were recorded in different regions of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and in Bashkir villages of the Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Perm, Kurgan, Kuibyshev, Saratov regions, and Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The distribution of some stories in different versions is taken into account; In some cases, typical options are given. The vast majority of texts are translations from recordings in the Bashkir language, but along with them there are also texts recorded from Bashkir and Russian storytellers in Russian.

In traditions and legends, the central place is occupied by the narration of events and people of the ancient past, called rivayat in the Bashkir language and also denoted in the popular environment by the term tarikh - history. The past is comprehended and reinterpreted in rivayat - stories influenced by the era of their origin and subsequent traditional oral existence as a folk memory, preserved by several generations. The focus on truthful works of the past is expressed by such traditional narration techniques as the narrator emphasizing the truth of this “story”, which happened in “time immemorial” or at a certain time, in a precisely designated place (for example, “in the village of Salavat”) and connected with the destinies of really existing people whose names are known (Sibai, Ismail and Daut and so on). At the same time, the circumstances of the place and time of action are detailed, for example: “ On the right bank of Agidel, between Muynaktash and Azantash, there is a huge rock that looks like a chest..."("The chest-stone on which Islamgul played the kurai"), or "about one verst from Muynaktash, on the right bank of the Agidel, one stone is visible. Its flat top is covered with yellow-red moss, which is why this stone was nicknamed yellow-headed (“Sarybashtash”).

Most legends are local in nature. Folk stories about the origin of a particular tribe or clan are most common in their habitats, especially for clan divisions - aimaks, ara, tubes (“Ara of Biresbashey”, “Ara of Shaitans”). Legends about the famous historical hero Salavat Yulaev exist in various regions, but most of all in his homeland in the Salavat region of Bashkortostan.

Structurally, the traditions are varied. When they tell about an incident from everyday life, the narrator usually strives to convey the “story” exactly as he heard it himself - he recalls during a conversation about one or another conversational situation, and cites facts from his own life experience.

Among the Bashkir legends-rivayats, plot narratives - fabulata - predominate. Depending on their life content, they can be one-episode (“Salavat and Karasakal”, “Ablaskin - Yaumbay”) or consist of several episodes (“Murzagul”, “Kanifa’s Road”, “Salavat and Baltas”, etc.). Old people, aksakals, who have seen a lot in life, when telling a story, tend to bring their own conjecture into it. A typical example of this is the legend “The Burzyans in the Time of the Khan.” Detailed narrative about the Burzyan and Kypsak tribes; fantastic information about the miraculous birth of Genghis Khan, who came to their lands during the war, the relationship of the Mongol khan with the local population, the authorities (turya), the distribution of tamga biys; information about the adoption of Islam by the Bashkirs and other Turkic-speaking peoples; toponymic and ethnonymic explanations - all this organically coexists in one text, without destroying the foundations of the genre. The plot fabric of the legend depends both on the creative individuality of the narrator and on the object of the image. Heroic events in historical legends and dramatic situations in social everyday life set the narrator and listeners in a “high mood.” There are a number of traditionally developed plots with a pronounced artistic function (“Mountain slope of Turat”, “Bendebike and Erense-sesen”, etc.)

The heroes and heroines of legends are people who played a role in significant historical events (Salavat Yulaev, Kinzya Arslanov, Emelyan Pugachev, Karasakal, Akai), and people who gained historical fame for their deeds in limited regions (for example, fugitives), and people who distinguished themselves by their dramatic everyday destinies (for example, girls kidnapped or forcibly married, humiliated daughters-in-law), unseemly pranks, immoral behavior in everyday life. Features of revealing the image, its artistic pathos- heroic, dramatic, sentimental, satirical - determined by the characters of the hero or heroine, folklore tradition their images, personal relationships, talent, and storytelling skills. In some cases, most often the narrator depicts actions that reveal the appearance of a person (“Salavat-batyr”, “Karanai-batyr and his associates”, “Gilmiyanza”), in others their names and deeds are only mentioned (Governor General Perovsky, Catherine II ). External features The characters are usually depicted sparingly, defined by constant epithets: “very strong, very brave” (“The Adventures of Aisuak”); " On the banks of Sakmara lived, they say, a stalwart warrior named Bayazetdin, a skilled singer, eloquent as a sesen"("Bayas"); " Near the ancient Irendyk there lived a woman named Uzaman. She was a beauty"("Uzaman-apai"); " This woman was very hard-working and efficient, she had a pretty face"(Altynsy). There are also legends in which the character’s appearance is conveyed in the spirit of oriental romantic poetry.

«… The girl was so beautiful that, they say, when she went down to the shore of Aya, the water stopped flowing, freezing from her beauty. Everyone who lived on the banks of Aya was proud of its beauty. Kyunhylu was an expert in singing. Her voice amazed the listeners. As soon as she began to sing, the nightingales fell silent, the winds died down, and the roar of the animals was not heard. They say that the guys froze in place when they saw her."("Kyunkhylu").

In close genre contact with tradition is a legend - an oral narrative about the ancient past, the driving force of which is the supernatural. Often wonderful motifs and images, for example, in legends about the origin of heavenly bodies, earth, animals, plants, about the emergence of tribes and clans, clan divisions, about saints, have ancient mythological roots. Legendary characters - people, animals - are subject to all sorts of transformations, the influence of magical forces: a girl turns into a cuckoo, a man into a bear, and so on. There are also images of spirits in Bashkir legends - the masters of nature, the patron spirits of the animal world, characters from Muslim mythology, angels, prophets, and the Almighty himself.

The commonality of functions, as well as the absence of strictly canonized genre forms, create the prerequisites for the formation of mixed types of epic narrative: traditions - legends (for example, “Yuryak-tau” - “Heart-mountain”). In the process of long-term oral existence, legends created on the basis of actual phenomena lost some, and sometimes very many, specific realities and were supplemented with fictitious legendary motifs. Thus causing the emergence of a mixed genre form. In narratives that combine elements of traditions and legends, the artistic function often dominates.

Mixed genre forms also include fairy tales-legends (“Why did the geese become motley”, “Sanay-Sary and Shaitan-Sary”).

In Bashkir oral poetry there are works that are called stories of songs (yyr tarikh). Their plot and compositional structure is usually based on an organic connection between the song text and legend, or less often legend. Dramatic, tense moments of the plot are conveyed in poetic song form, performed vocally, and the further escalation of events, details concerning the personality of the character, his actions - prose text. In many cases, works of this type cease to be just a history-song, but represent a complete story from folk life (“Buranbai”, “Biish”, “Tashtugai” and others), therefore it is advisable to call this kind of narratives legends-songs or legends-songs. In this regard, it is appropriate to recall the judgment of V. S. Yumatov that the Bashkir historical songs, the same legends, only dressed in poetic form. In folk tales (legends), more than in any other oral works, the informative and aesthetic principles appear inseparably. At the same time, the emotional mood is created mainly by the song text. In most stories, the song is the most stable component and organizing plot core.

Oral stories about the recent past and modern life, which are conducted mainly on behalf of the narrator - a witness of events - is a transitional stage to legends, which, however, should be considered in the general system of non-fairy tale prose.

A memory story undergoes the process of folklorization only if it conveys, at a certain artistic level, a socially significant event or an interesting everyday adventure that arouses public interest. Stories and memories about the Civil and Great Patriotic War, its heroes and builders of the new socialist life became especially widespread in Soviet times.

All types of non-fairy tale Bashkir prose constitute a relatively integral multifunctional genre system that interacts with other genres of folklore.

CLASSIFICATION OF TRADES AND LEGENDS.

Works of Bashkir non-fairy tale prose are of interest both cognitively and aesthetically. Their connection with reality is manifested in historicism and ideological orientation.

The ideological layer of Bashkir legends is represented by subjects of a mythological nature: cosmogonic, etiological and partly toponymic.

1) Cosmogonic.

The basis of cosmogonic legends are stories about celestial bodies. They retained the features of very ancient mythological ideas about their connection with animals and people of earthly origin. So, for example, according to legends, spots on the Moon are roe deer and a wolf always chasing each other; constellation Ursa Major - seven beautiful girls who, at the sight of the king of the devas, jumped in fear to the top of the mountain and ended up in Heaven.

Many Turkic-Mongolian peoples have similar ideas.

At the same time, these motives uniquely reflected the views pastoral peoples, including Bashkir.

For cosmogonic legends, an anthropomorphic interpretation of the images of celestial bodies is also common (“The Moon and the Girl”)

The Bashkirs have repeatedly recorded fragments of cosmogonic legends that the earth is supported by a huge bull and a large pike, and that the movements of this bull cause an earthquake. Other Turkic-speaking peoples have similar legends (“Bull in the ground”).

The emergence of such legends was determined by ancient imaginative thinking associated with the labor activity of people of the era of the tribal system.

2) Toponymic.

Toponymic legends and legends of various types occupy a significant place in the folk non-fairy prose that exists today. These, for example, include the legend recorded in the village of Turat (Ilyasovo) of the Khaibullinsky district in 1967 that the name of the slope Turat (in Russian translation - bay horse) came from the fact that a wonderful tulpar - a winged horse ("Mountain Turat slope"), as well as the legend “Karidel”, recorded in the village of Kulyarvo, Nurimanovsky district in 1939, that the Karidel spring gushed out of the ground in time immemorial, when a mighty winged horse hit the ground with its hoof.

The ancient folk belief in the existence of zoomorphic spirits-owners of mountains and lakes is associated with the emergence of a legend about spirit-masters in the guise of a drake, a duck that lived on the mountain lake “Yugomash-Mountains”, and a legend about the mistress of the lake.

In toponymic legends, as in cosmogonic ones, nature is poetically animated. The rivers talk, argue, get angry, and are jealous (“Agidel and Yaik”, “Agidel and Karidel”, “Kalym”, “Big and Small Inzer”).

The origin of mountains in Bashkir legends is often associated with mythological stories about wonderful giants - the Alps (“Two sandy mountains of Alp”, “Alp-batyr”, “Alpamysh”).

3) Etiological.

There are few etiological legends about the origin of plants, animals and birds. Among them there are very archaic ones, associated with mythical ideas about werewolves. Such, for example, is the legend “Where the Bears Come From,” according to which the first bear is a man.

In terms of mythological content, the Bashkir legend is consonant with the legends of many nations.

Mythical ideas about the possibility of turning a person into an animal or bird form the basis of the Bashkir legends about the cuckoo.

Ancient ideas about the possibility of conjuring a person into a flower form the basis of the lyrical Bashkir legend “Snowdrop”.

Bashkir legends about birds - wonderful patrons of people - are distinguished by their archaic origin and originality of plot. Back in the 10th century, the content of the Bashkir legend about cranes was recorded, variants of which still exist today (“Crane Song”).

No less interesting for its archaic motifs is the legend “Little Crow,” which is related to the widespread cult of the crow and other birds among the Bashkirs. The kargatuy ritual was associated with this cult.

Legends.

Ancient legends that tell about the origin of tribes, clans and their names, as well as the historical and cultural ties of the Bashkirs with other peoples are unique.

The most ancient ideological layer is formed by legends and traditions about the ancestors. The wonderful ancestors of the Bashkir tribes and clans are: Wolf (“Offspring of Wolves”), Bear (“From the Bear”), Horse (“Human Tarpan”), Swan (“Tribe of Yurmaty”) and demonological creatures - devil (“Clan of Shaitans”) , Shurale – goblin (“Shurale breed”).

Actually, the historical legends of the Bashkirs reflect real events public importance in popular understanding. They can be divided into two main thematic groups: legends about the fight against external enemies and legends about the struggle for social freedom.

Some historical legends condemn representatives of the Bashkir nobility. Who, having received the khan's charters for the right to own land, supported the policy of the Golden Horde khans.

The legends about the Kalmyk raids and the oppression of the Tatars (“Takagashka”, “Umbet-batyr”) are historical in their basis.

Folk wisdom is reflected in legends about the voluntary accession of Bashkiria to the Russian state.

Traditional historical legends about the fight against an external enemy are complemented by oral narratives about the Patriotic War of 1812. The patriotic upsurge that gripped the Bashkir people was very clearly reflected in the legends of this group. These legends are imbued with sublime heroic pathos. (“Second Army”, “Kakhym-turya”, “Bashkirs in the war with the French”)

There are many historical legends about the struggle of the Bashkir people for national and social liberation. The voluntary entry of Bashkiria into Russia was a deeply progressive phenomenon. But fraud, deception, bribery, and violence were typical phenomena in the activities of entrepreneurs and businessmen, and the motive of selling land “with the skin of a bull” in a unique artistic form perfectly conveys historical reality (“How a Boyar Bought Land,” “Utyagan”). In legends of this type, a complex psychological situation is quite clearly shown - the plight of the deceived Bashkirs, their confusion, and insecurity.

Of the traditional stories about the theft of Bashkir lands, the legend about the death of a greedy merchant who tried to cover as much land as possible from sunrise to sunset in order to take possession of it ("Sale of Land") is of particular interest.

There are numerous legends telling about the struggle of the Bashkirs against the theft of their lands by factory owners and landowners, against the colonial policy of tsarism. A prominent place among such stories is occupied by legends about Bashkir uprisings 17th-18th centuries. Due to the remoteness of events, many plots have lost their specific realities and are filled with legendary motifs (“Akai Batyr” - the leader of the uprising of 1735-1740).

A remarkable cycle of legends surrounds the revolt of the Bashkirs in 1755 against Bragin, who arrived in southeastern Bashkiria from St. Petersburg as the head of a mining and exploration party. In artistic form, folk legends brought to us the atrocities of Bragin on Bashkir soil. Many events reflected in legends are historically reliable and confirmed by written sources.

The legends about the Peasant War of 1773-1775 are historically reliable in their main motives. They tell of unbearable feudal and national oppression; they express the people's unshakable desire for freedom, their determination to protect native land from violent robbery (“Salavat-batyr”, “Speech of Salavat”). The legends contain reliable historical information about the participation of the masses in the rebel movement led by Salavat Yulaev (“Salavat and Baltas”). The legends about the Peasant War are devoid of creative speculation. It is significantly manifested in the depiction of the heroic exploits of Salavat, endowed with the features of an epic hero. Legends about the peasant war are an important source of knowledge of the past.

Fugitive robbers are portrayed as noble social avengers in such legends and songs as “Ishmurza”, “Yurke-Yunys”, “Biish” and many others. Such legends-songs form a special cycle. The common motive for most of their plots is robbing the rich and helping the poor.

There are numerous legends that tell about events related to the ancient way of life and customs of the Bashkirs. The characters of the heroes are manifested here in dramatic circumstances determined by feudal-patriarchal relations (“Tashtugai”).

The legends of the legends “Kyunkhylu” and “Yuryak-tau” are imbued with humanistic dramatic pathos.

In a number of legends, the images of heroic freedom-loving women are poeticized, their moral purity, loyalty in love, decisiveness of action, and the beauty of not only their external but also their internal appearance are emphasized.

The legends “Uzaman-apai”, “Auazbika”, “Makhuba” tell about brave women who inspiredly fight for their happiness.

The legend “Gaisha” lyrically reveals the image of an unhappy woman who, in her youth, found herself in a foreign land, gave birth and raised children there, but for many years yearned for her homeland and, at the end of her life, decided to flee to her native land.

Among the remarkably vivid legends and traditions, a significant group is represented by stories about ancient everyday mores, customs, and festivals of the Bashkirs (“Zulhiza”, “Uralbai”, “Inekai and Yuldykai”, “Alasabyr”, “Kinyabai”).

HISTORY OF THE BASHKIR PEOPLE IN LEGENDS AND TRADES

Issues of the ethnic history of the Bashkir people received multilateral coverage for the first time at the scientific session of the Department of History and the Bashkir Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences held in Ufa (1969). Since then, significant positive results have been achieved in solving the problems of the ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs, and yet interest in them does not wane and continues to attract the attention of scientists in various humanitarian specialties. Folklore sources play a significant role in solving these problems.

The legends existing today in the Bashkir folk environment about the origin of the people, individual tribes and clans, as well as inter-tribal relationships, reveal some circumstances of the formation of the ethnic and linguistic community of the Bashkirs, not known from written sources. However, legends reflect popular ideas about history, and not history itself; their informational function is inseparably combined with an aesthetic one. This determines the complexity of studying legends as material for the ethnic history of a people. The truth of history is intertwined in legends with later folklore and often book fiction, and its isolation is possible only through a comparative historical study of the material. It should be taken into account that such oral sources go far beyond the folklore of modern Bashkiria. After all, the process of ethnogenesis of the Bashkir tribes and the history of their settlement span many centuries, starting from the era of the great migration of peoples, and are associated with the vast territories of Central Asia and Siberia. The ancient ethnic history of the Bashkirs was therefore reflected not only in their national folklore, but also in the folklore of other peoples.

An example of a complex combination of the fantastic and the real, folklore and book is the legend of an ancient tribe hehyen, from which the Uighurs living in China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and the Bashkirs allegedly descend. In the shezher of the Bashkir tribe of the Yurmata, its origin is traced back to Yafes (Yaphet) and his son Turk. Ethnographer R.G. Kuzeev, not without reason, connects the legendary motifs of this shezhere with the real process of Turkization of the Yurmatians (“Turkified Ugrians”) in the 13th - 15th centuries. Along with legends in which the influence of Muslim books is noticeable, Bashkir folklore material often contains legends and myths about the origin of the people, alien to religiosity.

Speaking about legends in which the origin of such family dynasties is explained by marriage with mythical creatures, R.G. Kuzeev sees in them only a reflection of the displacement or crossing of individual ethnic (more precisely, foreign and other religious) groups within the Bashkirs. Of course, such an interpretation of the content of the legends is possible, but with their archaic basis they apparently go back to more ancient sources tribal community, when antagonism arises in its depths between the patriarchal family and the individual. The conflict is resolved by the hero leaving his relatives and forming a new clan unit. Over time, the new clan is subject to oppression from the old clan. In this regard, the legend about how the “shaitans” lived on the outskirts of the village and were not given a place in the general cemetery after death is of interest.

Mythical legends about shaitans are accompanied by legends about the origin of the Bashkir clan Kubalyak and the Kumryk tribe, in which it is easy to discern echoes of ancient totemistic views: the ethnonyms themselves indicate their connection with pre-Islamic tribal mythology (Kubalak - butterfly; Kumryk - snag, roots, stumps). A comparison of different versions of the story about the appearance of the Kubalak clan leads us to the assumption that these legends refract the process of development of mythological ideas in a very unique way: in one of them, the ancestor is a flying monster, in another - a shaggy humanoid creature, in the third - someone who accidentally wandered into the wilderness an ordinary old man. The images of four twin boys, from whom the current Inzer Bashkirs of the Arkhangelsk region of Bashkortostan allegedly descend, are distinguished by the same certainty of real features as the image of the old man in the legend about the origin of the Kubalak clan. In the Inzer legend, realistic motifs are intertwined with mythological ones.

It should be noted that the legendary image of a tree has numerous parallels in legends about the origin of the peoples of the world.

It is known that even in the recent past, each Bashkir clan had its own tree, cry, bird and tamga. This was associated with a fairly wide spread of legends about the family relationship between man and animal and flora. They especially often depict images of a wolf, crane, crow and eagle, which have survived to this day as ethnonyms of clan divisions. In the research literature, a legend has been repeatedly cited about the origin of the Bashkirs from a wolf, which supposedly showed them the way to the Urals. With a legend of this type The story is about an ancient Bashkir banner with an image of a wolf's head. The plot refers to the events of the 5th century AD.

In the legends of the Bashkirs, there is a tendency to denote the territory of their ancestral home in a certain way: South-Eastern Siberia, Altai, Central Asia. Some elderly storytellers tell quite detailed stories about the penetration of Bulgaro-Bashkir groups from Central Asia as part of the Tugyz-Oguz ethnic formations into Siberia and the Urals, about the formation of the Bulgar state in the Volga-Kama basin and about the adoption of Islam by the Bulgars and then the Bashkirs through Arab missionaries . In contrast to such oral narratives, there are legends about the autochthonous Ural origin of the Bashkirs, which deny the connections of the Bashkir tribes with the Mongol hordes that invaded the Urals in the 12th century. The inconsistency of legendary ideas about the origin of the Bashkirs is associated with the exceptional complexity of the long-standing process of their ethnogenesis. Among the Bashkir tribes there are those that have been mentioned in written monuments since the 5th century and are most likely of local Ural origin, for example, the Burzyans. At the same time, the Bashkirs of the village of Sart-Lobovo, Iglinsky district, who are called “Bukharians,” are unlikely to deviate much from the historical truth, saying that their ancestors “came from Turkestan during the war of the khans.”

There is no doubt about the historical roots of the legends that the Bashkir tribes shared the fate of the peoples conquered by the Golden Horde. Such, for example, is the legend about the reprisal of the Bashkir batyr Mir-Temir over Genghis Khan in 1149 because he issued a decree contrary to Bashkir customs.

In the 14th century, the struggle of the peoples conquered by the Tatar-Mongols for liberation from the yoke of their enslavers intensified. The Bashkirs took direct part in it. The heroic tales of the Bashkirs tell the story of the young warrior Irkbai, who led a successful campaign against the Mongol invaders. Interesting in this regard is the legend about how Batu Khan, fearing the resistance of the Bashkir warriors, with his army bypassed the lands they protected:

At the same time, the era Mongol invasion significantly influenced the formation of the ethnic composition of the Bashkirs and was reflected in their oral and poetic creativity. So, for example, in the village. Uzunlarovo, Arkhangelsk region of Bashkiria, along with the legend about the emergence of Inzer villages from four twin boys found under a snag, there is also a legend according to which nine Bashkir villages on the mountain river Inzer originate from the nine sons of the warrior Khan Batu, who remained alive Here.

Traditions and legends about the participation of Finno-Ugrians in the formation of the Bashkir people are worthy of serious attention of ethnographers. The legends recorded in a number of regions of Bashkiria that the Bashkirs “destroyed the eccentrics,” but themselves, like the “chuds,” began to live in maras and mounds, “so that they would not be destroyed by enemies,” are apparently related to historical process assimilation of some Finno-Ugric tribes by the Bashkirs. In the scientific literature, attention was paid to the reflection of the ethnic ties of the Bashkirs with the Finno-Ugrians in the legend about the emergence of the Geine and Tulbui tribes. It is noteworthy that the names of the Bashkir villages Kara-Shida, Bash-Shida, Bolshoye and Maloe Shidy go back, as noted by prof. D.G. Kiekbaev, to the tribal name of miracles. Legends about ancient Bashkir-Ugric connections largely correspond to the data of modern ethnographic science.

Ethnogenetic legends include stories about the relationships of the Bashkirs with other Turkic tribes. Such legends explain the origin of individual clan divisions (Il, Aimak, Ara). Particularly popular in different regions of Bashkiria is the story of the appearance among the Bashkirs of a Kazakh or Kyrgyz, whose descendants formed entire clans. In the Khaibullinsky district of Bashkiria, old people talk about the Kazakh youth Mambet and his descendants, from whom numerous family dynasties and villages allegedly originate: Mambetovo, Kaltaevo, Sultasovo, Tanatarovo and others. The origin of their family and the founding of villages (villages) are associated with the Kyrgyz ancestor (Kazakh?) by the residents of Akyar, Bayguskarovo, Karyan of the same region. According to legend, the history of the villages of Arkaulovo, Akhunovo, Badrakovo, Idelbaevo, Iltaevo, Kalmaklarovo, Makhmutovo, Mechetlino, Musatovo (Masak), Munaevo in Salavatsky, Kusimovo in Abzelilovsky and a number of aimags with. Temyasovo in Baymaksky districts. The presence of foreign-language elements among the Bashkirs is also indicated by the ethnonymic phrases “Lemezin and Mullakaev Turkmens” in Beloretsky, the names of the villages of Bolshoye and Maloye Turkmenovo in the Baymaksky districts, etc.

Until the mid-16th century, Nogai tribal groups played a significant role in the historical destinies of the Bashkirs. In the legend recorded by us in the Alsheevsky region of Bashkiria, it is revealed complex nature their relations with the Nogais, who, after the conquest of Kazan by the Russian state, leaving their former possessions, carried away part of the Bashkirs with them. However, the majority of the Bashkirs did not want to part with their homeland and, led by the hero Kanzafar, rebelled against Nogai violence. Having exterminated their enemies, the Bashkirs left only one Nogai alive and gave him the name Tugan (Native), from whom the Tuganov family descended. The content of this legend refracts historical events in a unique way.

These and others folk stories and the legends partly echo documentary historical information.

Bashkir ethnogenetic traditions and legends have not reached us in accurate records of pre-revolutionary times. Such legends have to be reconstructed from book sources. But there are no special works solving this problem yet. In Soviet times, no more than twenty such legends were published. The purpose of our message is the need to draw attention to the importance of further collecting and studying legends about the origin of the Bashkirs.

Since the history and folklore of the Bashkir people developed in close interaction with the history and oral creativity other peoples of the Urals, a comparative study of Ural ethnogenetic legends is very relevant.

ETHNONYM "BASHKORT".

The very name of the Bashkir people is Bashkort. Kazakhs call Bashkirs expired, expired. Russians, through them many other peoples, call Bashkir. In science, there are more than thirty versions of the origin of the ethnonym “Bashkort”. The most common are the following:

1. The ethnonym “Bashkort” consists of the common Turkic bash(head, chief) and Turkic-Oghuz court(wolf) and is associated with the ancient beliefs of the Bashkirs. If we consider that the Bashkirs have legends about the wolf-savior, the wolf-guide, the wolf-progenitor, then there is no doubt that the wolf was one of the totems of the Bashkirs.

2. According to another version, the word “Bashkort” is also divided into bash(head, chief) and court(bee). To prove this version, scientists use data on the history and ethnography of the Bashkirs. According to written sources, the Bashkirs have long been engaged in beekeeping, then beekeeping.

3. According to the third hypothesis, the ethnonym is divided into bash(head, chief), core(circle, root, tribe, community of people) and plural affix -T.

4. The version that connects the ethnonym with the anthroponym deserves attention Bashkort. Written sources record the Polovtsian Khan Bashkord, Bashgird - one of the highest ranks of the Khazars, the Egyptian Mamluk Bashgird, etc. In addition, the name Bashkurt is still found among Uzbeks, Turkmen, and Turks. Therefore, it is possible that the word “Bashkort” is associated with the name of some khan, biy, who united the Bashkir tribes.

TRADES AND LEGENDS ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF THE BASHKIRS.

In ancient times, our ancestors roamed from one area to another. They had large herds of horses. In addition, they were engaged in hunting. One day they migrated far away in search of better pastures. They walked for a long time, covered a great path and came across a pack of wolves. The wolf leader separated from the pack, stood in front of the nomadic caravan and led it further. Our ancestors followed the wolf for a long time until they reached a fertile land, abundant with rich meadows, pastures and forests teeming with animals. And the dazzlingly sparkling marvelous mountains here reached the clouds. Having reached them, the leader stopped. After consulting among themselves, the elders decided: “We cannot find a land more beautiful than this. There is nothing like it in the whole wide world. Let us stop here and make it our camp.” And they began to live on this land, the beauty and wealth of which has no equal. They set up yurts, began to hunt and raise livestock.

Since then, our ancestors began to be called “Bashkorttar”, that is, people who came for the main wolf. Previously, the wolf was called “court”. Bashkort means head wolf.” This is where the word “Bashkort” - “Bashkir” came from.

Bashkir tribes came from the Black Sea region. There lived four brothers in the village of Garbale. They lived together and were clairvoyants. One day a certain man appeared to the eldest of the brothers in a dream and said: Get out of here. Head to the northeast. You will find a better life there. In the morning, the older brother told the dream to the younger ones. “Where is this better lot, where to go?” - they asked in bewilderment.

No one knew. At night, the older brother had a dream again. The same man again tells him: “Leave these places, take your cattle away from here. As soon as you set off, a wolf will meet you. He will not touch you or your livestock - he will go his own way. You follow him. When he stops, you stop too.” The next day the brothers and their families set off on their journey. Before we had time to look back, a wolf was running towards us. They followed him. They walked to the northeast for a long time, and when they reached the place where the Kugarchinsky district of Bashkiria is now located, the wolf stopped. The four brothers who followed him also stopped. They chose land in four places and settled there. The brothers had three sons, they also chose land for themselves. So they became the owners of seven plots of land - seven-rods. The Semirodtsev were nicknamed Bashkirs, since their leader was a wolf leader - a Bashkort.

A long time ago, in these places, rich in forests and mountains, lived an old man and an old woman from a Kypsak family. In those days, peace and tranquility reigned on earth. Long-eared, cross-eyed hares frolicked across the vast expanses of the steppes, deer and wild tarpan horses grazed in schools. There were a lot of beavers and fish in the rivers and lakes. And in the mountains, beautiful roe deer, sedate bears, and white-throated falcons found refuge. The old man and the old woman lived without grieving: they drank kumiss, raised bees, and went hunting. How long or how little time has passed - their son was born. The old people lived only for it: they took care of the baby, fed it with fish oil, and wrapped it in a bearskin. The boy grew up agile and nimble, and soon the bearskin became too small for him - he grew up and matured. When his father and mother died, he went wherever his eyes led him. One day in the mountains, Eget met a beautiful girl, and they began to live together. They had a son. When he grew up, he got married. Children appeared in his family. The family grew and multiplied. Years passed. This family branch gradually branched out, and the “Bashkort” tribe was formed. The word “bashkort” comes from bash” (head) and “kop” (clan) - it means “main clan”.

CONCLUSION.

So, traditions, legends and other oral stories, traditional and modern, are closely connected with folk life, with its history, beliefs, and worldview. They uniquely reflected different stages of the historical development of the people and their social self-awareness.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

1. Kovalevsky A.P. A book by Ahmed Ibn Fadlan about his journey to the Volga in 921-922. Kharkov, 1956, p. 130-131.
2. Bashkir shezhere/comp., translation, introduction and commentary. R. G. Kuzeeva. Ufa, 1960.
3. Yumatov V.S. Ancient legends of the Bashkirs of the Chumba volost. – Orenburg Provincial Gazette, 1848, No. 7
4. Lossievsky M.V. The past of Bashkiria according to legends, tales and chronicles // Reference book of the Ufa province. Ufa, 1883, dept. 5, p. 368-385.
5. Nazarov P.S. On the ethnography of the Bashkirs // Ethnographic Review. M., 1890, No. 1, book. 1, p. 166-171.
6. Khusainov Gaisa. Shezhere – historical and literary monuments//Epoch. Literature. Writer. Ufa, 1978. pp. 80-90
7. Khusainov Gaisa. Shezhere and the book//Literature. Folklore. Literary heritage. Book 1. Ufa: BSU. 1975, p. 177-192.
8. Tatishchev V.N. Russian History. T. 4, 1964, p. 66, vol. 7, 1968, p. 402.
9. Rychkov P.I. Topography of the Orenburg province. T. 1. Orenburg. 1887.
10. Pallas P. S. Traveling through different provinces of the Russian state. Translation from German. In 3 parts. Part 2, book. 1. St. Petersburg, 1768, p. 39
11. Lepekhin I. I. Complete collection scientific travels around Russia, published by Imperial Academy sciences in 5 volumes. T. 4. St. Petersburg, 1822, p. 36-64.
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There are about two million Bashkirs in the world, according to the latest census, 1,584,554 of them live in Russia. Now representatives of this people inhabit the territory of the Urals and parts of the Volga region, speak the Bashkir language, which belongs to the Turkic language group, and have been practicing Islam since the 10th century.

Among the ancestors of the Bashkirs, ethnographers name Turkic nomadic peoples, peoples of the Finno-Ugric group, and ancient Iranians. And Oxford geneticists claim that they have established the relationship of the Bashkirs with the inhabitants of Great Britain.

But all scientists agree that the Bashkir ethnic group was formed as a result of the mixing of several Mongoloid and Caucasian peoples. This explains the difference in the appearance of representatives of the people: from the photo it is not always possible to guess that such different people belong to the same ethnic group. Among the Bashkirs you can find classic “steppe people”, and people with an oriental appearance, and fair-haired “Europeans”. The most common type of appearance for a Bashkir is average height, dark hair and brown eyes, dark skin and a characteristic eye shape: not as narrow as those of the Mongoloids, only slightly slanted.

The name "Bashkirs" causes as much controversy as their origin. Ethnographers offer several very poetic versions of its translation: “The Main Wolf”, “The Beekeeper”, “The Head of the Urals”, “The Main Tribe”, “Children of the Heroes”.

History of the Bashkir people

The Bashkirs are an incredibly ancient people, one of the first indigenous ethnic groups of the Urals. Some historians believe that the Argippeans and Budins, mentioned back in the 5th century BC in the works of Herodotus, are precisely the Bashkirs. The people are mentioned both in Chinese historical sources of the 7th century, as Bashukili, and in the “Armenian Geography” of the same period, as Bushki.

In 840, the life of the Bashkirs was described by the Arab traveler Sallam at-Tarjuman; he spoke of this people as an independent nation inhabiting both sides of the Ural ridge. A little later, the Baghdad ambassador Ibn Fadlan called the Bashkirs warlike and powerful nomads.

In the 9th century, part of the Bashkir clans left the foothills of the Urals and moved to Hungary; by the way, the descendants of the Ural settlers still live in the country. Remaining Bashkir tribes for a long time held back the onslaught of Genghis Khan's horde, preventing him from entering Europe. The war of the nomadic peoples lasted 14 years, in the end they united, but the Bashkirs retained the right to autonomy. True, after the collapse of the Golden Horde, independence was lost, the territory became part of the Nogai Horde, the Siberian and Kazan Khanates, and eventually, under Ivan the Terrible, it became part of the Russian state.

In troubled times, under the leadership of Salavat Yulaev, Bashkir peasants took part in the rebellion of Emelyan Pugachev. During the period of Russian and Soviet history, they enjoyed autonomy, and in 1990 Bashkiria received the status of a republic within the Russian Federation.

Myths and legends of the Bashkirs

In legends and fairy tales that have survived to this day, fantastic stories are played out, telling about the origin of the earth and the sun, the appearance of the stars and the moon, and the birth of the Bashkir people. In addition to people and animals, myths describe spirits - the masters of the earth, mountains, and water. Bashkirs talk not only about earthly life, they interpret what is happening in space.

So, the spots on the moon are roe deer, always running away from the wolf, Big Dipper- seven beauties who found salvation in heaven from the king of the devas.

The Bashkirs considered the earth to be flat, lying on the back of a large bull and a giant pike. They believed that earthquakes caused the movements of the bull.

Most of the mythology of the Bashkirs appeared in the pre-Muslim period.

In myths, people are inextricably linked with animals - the Bashkir tribes, according to legend, descended from a wolf, horse, bear, swan, but animals, in turn, could descend from humans. For example, in Bashkiria there is a belief that a bear is a person who has gone to live in the forests and is overgrown with fur.

Many mythological subjects are comprehended and developed in heroic epics: “Ural Batyr”, “Akbuzat”, “Zayatulyak menen Khyukhylu”, etc.