The Bashkirs () are a Turkic people indigenous to Bashkortostan extending on both sides of the Ural Mountains, on the place where Europe meets Asia. Groups of Bashkirs also live in the republic of Tatarstan, Perm Krai, Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Tyumen, Sverdlovsk, Kurgan, Samara and Saratov Oblasts of Russia, as well as in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and other countries. They speak the Bashkir language, pertaining to Kypchak branch of the Turkic languages. The Bashkirs are mainly Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi madhhab.
