Genghis Khan empire, 13th century (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Tartaris are not alien to South Asia or to Pakistanis. In Urdu thaye are called Tatar. The last names tell only half the story about the Tartars who invaded Asia and many stayed behind. They are are feroucious and hardy race that conquered many lands. Today they survive in Russia and Romania but their existence is threatened.
The Tataris are a Turkic people, numbering around 7 million. The majority of them live in the Russian Federation, with a population of 5.5 million, 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan, 1 million in the republic of Bashkortostan and other 2.5 million in different regions of Russia. Large minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.
Taizu, better known as Genghis Khan. Portrait cropped out of a page from an album depicting several Yuan emperors (Yuandai di banshenxiang), now located in the National Palace Museum in Taipei (inv. nr. zhonghua 000324). Original size is 47 cm wide and 59.4 cm high. Paint and ink on silk. For the full page, see Image:YuanEmperorAlbumGenghisFull.jpg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Tatars originated in the Tatar confederation in the north-eastern Gobi desert in the 5th century. They were subjugated by the Khitans in the 9th century. The onslought of the Mongols under Genghis Khan in the 13th century conquered them again. They became part of the Khan dynesty under Genghis Khan’s son Jochi and grandson Batu Khan. They moved westwards, forming part of the Golden Horde which dominated the Eurasian steppe during the 14th and 15th centuries. In Europe, they were assimilated into the local populations or their name spread to the conquered peoples, the Kipchaks, the Kimaks and others; and elsewhere with Uralic-speaking peoples, as well as with remnants of the ancient Greek colonies in the Crimea and Caucasians in the Caucasus.
The three ethnic descendants of the 13th-century westward migration are Volga Tatars, Lipka Tatars and Crimean Tatars, most of whom adopted Islam in the medieval period.
A significant number live in Romania. Tartar Muslims of Romania
Image via Wikipedia
It was a different story in the 16th century. Today Islam in Romania is followed by only 0.3 percent of population, but has 700 years of tradition in Northern Dobruja, a region on the Black Sea coast which was part of the Ottoman Empire for almost five centuries (ca. 1420-1878). In present-day Romania, most adherents to Islam belong to the Tatar and Turkish ethnic communities and follow the Sunni doctrine. The Islamic religion is one of the 16 rites awarded state recognition.
According to tradition, Islam was first established locally around Sufi leader Sari Saltik during the Byzantine epoch.
Carol I Mosque, Constan?a is the centre of Islam in Romania.. Image via Wikipedia
Romania’s principal port, Constanta is a busy riviera town on the Black Sea Coast at the site of the ancient Greek colony, Tomis. The Greeks settled here in the 6th century as an annex to Histria. The attractive lively town is settled next to the sea and is comprised of Greco-Roman remains, Turkish mosques, modern boulevards, and several museums. Situated at the place where new and old meet are the ruins of Tomis. The most prominent remains are the Butcher’s Tower and the defensive walls from the 3rd and 4th centuries. As the center for Islam in Romania, there are some significant mosques in town. The Mahmudiye Mosque has a 50-meter minaret that dominates the skyline and affords marvelous views to the Sea, the Delta, and the town. The small Giamia Hunchiar Mosque sits opposite the Ethnographic Museum in a square dominated by dingy coffee and kebab houses.
The most important and cherished church in Budapest is the Matthias Church (Matyas Church), with its roof of colored-tiles and the splendid Holy Trinity Column at its center. formerly the High Mosque (during the Ottoman times), and its current shape, like many churches in Europe, is a combination of different styles added over the centuries. http://www.european-river-cruises.eu/danube-river
Tatars (Romanian: Tatari) were present on the territory of today’s Romania since the 13th century. According to the 2002 census, 24,000 people declared their nationality as Tatar, most of them being Crimean Tatars living in Constan?a County. They are the main factor of Islam in Romania.
The Tatars first reached the mouths of the Danube in the mid-13th century at the height of power of the Golden Horde. In 1241, under the leadership of Kadan, the Tatars crossed the Danube, conquering and devastating the region. The region was probably not under the direct rule of the Horde, but rather, a vassal of the Bakhchisaray Khan. It is known from Arab sources that at the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th century that descendants of the Nogai Horde settled in Isaccea. Another Arab scholar, Ibn Battuta, who passed through the region in 1330-1331, talks about Baba Saltuk (Babadag) as the southernmost town of the Tatars. The Golden Horde began to lose its influence after the wars of 1352-1359 and at the time, a Tatar warlord, Demetrius is noted defending the cities of the Mouths of the Danube. Toward the end of the 16th century, about 30,000 NogaiTatars from the Budjak were brought to Dobruja. Nogai Tatars consider themselves as descended of the people of the Golden Horde and they take their name from Nogai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan.
A picture taken of the roof of a mosque in Constanta, Romania. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Crimean Tatars were brought to Dobruja by the Ottomans following the increasing power of the Russians in the region and its annexation of Crimea in 1783. After the Russian annexation of Crimea in 1783, Crimean Tatars began emigrating to the Ottoman coastal provinces of Dobruja (today divided between Romania and Bulgaria). However, after the independence of Romania in 1877-1878, between 80,000 and 100,000 Crimean Tatars moved to Anatolia, a migration which continued afterward. As such, the number of Tatars in Northern Dobruja decreased from 21% in 1880 to 5.6% in 1912. In 2002, they formed 2.4% of the population of this region. The Nogaicomponent of the Tatar population are not separately enumerated in Romanian censuses. Most have emigrated to Turkey but it is estimated that a few thousand Nogais still live in Dobruja, notably in the town of Mihail Kog?lniceanu (Karamurat) and villages of Lumina (Kocali), Valea Dacilor(Hendekkarakuyusu) and Cobadin (Kubadin).
Between 1947-1957 Tatar schools began operating in Romania and in 1955 a special alphabet was created for the Tatar community. In 1990 the Democratic Union of Muslim Tatar-Turks was established. Currently Romania respects the minority rights of Tatars and does not follow any policy of Romanianization. http://surprising-romania.blogspot.com/2009/12/tatars-in-romania.html
