THE BASHKIRS IN THE REPRESENTATIONS OF THE MUSLIM EAST OF THE VIII–XV CENTURIES: SOURCES, INTERPRETATIONS, AND ETHNO-POLITICAL CONTEXT

The analysis of narratives, including sources containing historical and geographical material by authors from Muslim countries - Arab, Persian, and others demonstrates the considerable awareness of Eastern authors regarding the Southern Urals and its indigenous inhabitants, the Bashkirs. In medieval Arab Persian cartography, it was crucial to record or describe as accurately as possible a given people or territory. Consequently, authors often compiled their works from previous sources, frequently mixing historical realities from different periods. Research Goal and Objectives. The goal of this study is to identify and analyze information on the ethnic history and culture of the Bashkirs contained in Arab-Muslim sources from the 9th to 14th centuries. To achieve this goal, the following objectives are set: to determine the circle of Arab-Muslim authors who mentioned the Bashkirs; to analyze the main information on the ethnography, geography, and political history of the Bashkirs in their works; to compare the data from these sources with modern research; and to characterize the significance of the Arab-Muslim tradition for the study of the early history of the Bashkirs. Results and conclusion . The accounts of Arab-Muslim travelers and geographers of the 8th–12th centuries formed the basis of cartographic traditions not only in the Middle East but also in East Asia, as evidenced using these materials in the creation of the Korean-Chinese world map Kangido (1402). Regarding al-Idrisi’s interpretations, apparently adopted from Jaihani, the distinction between “internal” and “external” Bashkirs remains debated: some scholars see it as a reflection of the administrative (tribal) structure characteristic of nomadic societies, while others associate it with the migration of certain Bashkir tribes westward, forming the basis of the Hungarian ethnos. Persian sources of the 13th–15th centuries (Juvayni, Qazvini, Rashid al-Din Fazlullah Hamadani, et al.) confirm the role of the Bashkirs in the political and military history of the Chinggisid era and document their position within the Ulus of Jochi.