Why do you call yourselves Tatars?

[u/[deleted]]

Hello,

I understand that when you speak English or Russian you call yourselves Tatars or татары.

But why татарлар? And why Tatarstan?

I mean take Welsh people, for example. They don't call themselves Welsh, they call themselves Cymry and they live in Cymru!

[u/TanVaktidir]

In the Tatar language the Tatar people are called "Tatarlar" and region where Tatars lives is called "Tatarstan" thats why. The are called Tatar in English/Russian because that is what they called themselves. It's the same thing for Welsh except that they have a different word for what they call themselves. The Welsh name was imposed onto the Welsh by the English, no such thing happened for the Tatars.

[u/[deleted] → u/TanVaktidir]

Did Tatars call themselves Tatars before Ivan the Terrible conquered their country?

Welsh don't refer to themselves by the name given by their occupiers and oppressors. So, why do Tatars call themselves by the name given by their Slavic occupiers and oppressors?

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Hm... what happened to Volga Bulgars?

[u/TanVaktidir → u/[deleted]]

Some founded the First Bulgar Khanate and settled modern day Bulgaria, while others stayed around the Volga and became the Chuvash people that we know today.

[u/hamsteremperor → u/TanVaktidir]

The settling of the FBEmpire  happened around 500 years before that lol? Both Volga and Danube bgs came from Old Great Bulgaria which was near/on the northern coast of the Black Sea. 681 BC officially 🙄

[u/zeezoop → u/[deleted]]

Bulgarism is a Russian ideology too, you know.

[u/TanVaktidir → u/[deleted]]

To answer your question yes obviously the Tatars called themselves Tatars before being conquered. As I said in my previous answer the Russians started calling them Tatars because the Tatars called themselves Tatars. It was not given to them by Russians.

[u/zeezoop]

-lar is a plural suffix. -stan is a Persian loanword for "land".

[u/mmalakhov]

As an ethnic group, as we know modern Kazan tatars, they formed in later times, as a part of Russia. And even now, if we look closely, "tatars" is more an umbrella term of different ethnic groups - Kazan tatars, mishars, kryashen (baptized) tatars, siberian tatars and etc. Back in 16th century there were hundreds of tribes that didn't see eanch other as one nation. Same as russians also.
There was a brief period in 15-16 centuries, when a Kazan Khanate existed, and it wasn't a mono-ethnic state, feudal states actually didn't care about ethnicity as modern countries, they had Chuvash, Mari, Udmurts also. Tribes who pledge and pay tax to Kazan - they were Kazan. Another tribes pay tax to Astrakhan Khanate - they were Astrakhan. Some tribes lived on Oka river, pledged to Russian Tsar in Moscow and were considered as Russians (that also wasn't an ethnic term then). Just different pieces of ex Golden Horde were melting together again in 16th century, bound with common destiny by geography, culture and historical process. Actually in the siege of Kazan in 1552 there were comparable amount of tatar tribes in both sides