Book review – the history of the Tatars of the western Urals. Volume I. the nomads of the great steppe in the Urals. Tatar medieval states

Abstract

The collective volume under review, The History of the Tatars of the Western Urals. Volume I. The Nomads of the Great Steppe in the Urals. Tatar Medieval States (Kazan, Sh. Marjani Institute of History of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences Publ., 2016) is a scholarly work that presents the latest research by turkologist experts in the field of the ethnic processes taking place in the Western Urals in the early and late Middle Ages. The volume may be useful to a wide range of specialists, including ethnologists. The conclusions the book’s authors regarding the origins of Tatars and Bashkirs, concerning the pragmatic transition from one ethnic group to another, and about the presence of a single culture among associated ethnic groups raise new questions about the nature of ethnicity – its limits, variability, and plasticity in both time and space.

Keywords

• belovolzhsky ulus
• bashkirs
• ethnic contact
• tatars
• the golden horde