TURKO-TATARS, A term used by certain ethnologists to designate a group of Ural-Altaic peoples composed of the Turkic and related so-called Tatar tribes and nations. Under Tnrko-Tatars are included: The Siberian peoples of Turkic stock, such as the Yakuts and Siberian Tatars; the Kirghiz-Cossacks of the lrtysh Cas pian steppes: the Kara-Kirghizes of the Tian Shan; the Ligurs, Sarts, Uzbegs, and Turko mans of Central Asia; the Tatars of the Volga ; Bashkirs, Tchuvashes, and Meshtcheriaks, in Eu ropean Russia; the Tatars of the Crimea and the Caucasus, including the Nogai, Karatchai, Kumyks, and Basians; the Azerbaijani; the Yuruks of Anatolia; the Osmanli Turks; and others. Many of these peoples, like the Osmanlis, Starts, Turkomans, Uzbegs, Azerbaijani. and the Turks of Turkestan, are largely Aryanized in blood. with often an added Semitic strain. Ex cept the Yakuts, whose religion is Shamanism, and those Tchuvashes who have become Chris tian, the Turkic peoples profess Islam. The em
pires founded by Turko-Tataric peoples have bad a rather ephemeral existence, and the realm of the Osmanli Turks in Europe owes its perpetuation not a little to the very mixed physical character of that people. Consult: VflmWry, gisehes Worterbuch der turko-tatarisehen Spraehen (Leipzig, 1878) ; id., Die primitive Kulter des turko-tatarischen Volkes (ib., 1879) ; id., Das Tiirkenrolk (ib., P,adloff, Eth vologischc iibersicht der Tiirkstiimme Sibcricns and der Mongolei (ib., 1883) ; Ujfalvy, Exp(di lion seientifique franeaise en RUSSEC, en Sib&ie et en. Turkestan (Paris, 1S78-80) : Chantre, Re cherches anthropologiques darns le Cuucase 1885-87) : id., Recherches anthropologiques dans l'Asie occidentale (Lyons, 1S95).