Editing Bashkirs (section)

==Ethnonym==
{{More citations needed section|date=March 2023}}

The etymology and indeed meaning of the [[endonym]] ''Bashqurt'' has been for a long time under discussion.

The name Bashqurt has been known since the 10th century, most researchers etymologize the name as "main/leader/head" ('''bash''') + "wolf" ('''qurt''' being an archaic name for the animal), thus "''wolf-leader''" (from the totemic hero ancestor).

This prevailing [[folk etymology]] relates to a legend regarding the migration of the first seven Bashkir tribes from the [[Syr Darya]] valley to the Volga-Ural region. The legend relates that the Bashkirs were given a green and fertile land by the fertility goddess of [[Tengrism]] [[Umay]] (known locally also as ''Umay-əsə''), protected by the legendary Ural mountains (in alignment with the famous Bashkir epic poem "Ural-Batyr"). A wolf was sent to guide these tribes to their promised land, hence ''bash-qurt, "leading wolf"''. The [[ethnographers]] [[Vasily Tatishchev|V. N. Tatishchev]], P. I. Richkov, and [[Johann Gottlieb Georgi]] provided similar etymologies in the 18th century.

Although this is the prevailing theory for an etymology of the term ''bashqurt'', other theories have been formulated:
* In 1847, the historian V. S. Yumatov speculated the original meaning to have been "[[beekeeper]] or beemaster".<ref>{{citation|publisher=Оренбургские губернские ведомости|title=О названии башкирцев|page=297|year=1847|language=ru}}</ref>
* [[Douglas Morton Dunlop]] proposed ''bashqurt'' being derived from the forms ''beshgur'', ''bashgur'', which means "five [[oghurs]]". Since modern ''sh'' corresponds to ''l'' in [[Bulgar language]]. Therefore, Dunlop proposes the ethnonyms Bashqurt and Bulgar are equivalent.<ref>{{cite book|author=D. M. Dunlop|title=The History of the Jewish khazars|year=1967|location=New Jersey|page=34}}</ref> [[Zeki Velidi Togan]] also suggested this.<ref>{{TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi|title=BAŞKIRT Orta Asya Türk kavimlerinden.|url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/baskirt}}</ref>
* Historian and [[ethnologist]] A. E. Alektorov has suggested that ''Bashqurt'' meant "distinct [[nation]]".{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}
* [[Anthropologist]] R. M. Yusupov considered ''Bashqurt'' may originally have been an [[Iranian languages|Iranian]] [[compound word]] meaning "wolf-children" or "[[wikt:descendant|descendant]]s of heroes", on the basis of the words ''bacha'' "descendant, child" and ''gurd'' "hero" or ''gurg'' "wolf".
* Historian and [[archaeologist]] Mikhail Artamonov suggested that the word is a [[linguistic corruption|corruption]] of the name of the Bušxk (or ''Bwsxk''), a tribe of [[Scythia]] that lived in the area now known as Bashkortostan.<ref name="Golden">[https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=3ZzXjdyK-CEC Peter B. Golden, Haggai Ben-Shammai & András Róna-Tas, The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives], Leiden/Boston, Brill, 2007, pp. 422.</ref>
* Ethnologist N. V. Bikbulatov suggested that the term originated from the name of a legendary [[Khazar]] warlord named [[Bashgird]], who ruled an area along the [[Ural River|Yayıq]] river.
* Ethnologist R. G. Kuzeev derived the ethnonym from the morphemes ''bash'' "leader, head" and ''qurt'' "tribe".{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}
* Historian and [[linguist]] [[András Róna-Tas]] argued the ethnonym "Bashkir" to be a [[Bulgar language|Bulgar]] [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] reflex of the Hungarian endonym ''[[Hungarian language|Magyar]]'' (or the [[Old Hungarian language|Old Hungarian]] ''Majer'').<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Róna-Tas |first1=András |title=Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: an introduction to early Hungarian history |last2=Róna-Tas |first2=András |publisher=Central European Univ. Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-963-9116-48-1 |location=Budapest New York |pages=289–294 |translator-last=Bodoczky |translator-first=Nicholas}}</ref>