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Peoples of Russia
Mishari
Mishari (or Mishari Tatars) are a subethnos of the Tatars of the Middle Volga and the near-Ural region.
Language
The Mishari speak the Mishari dialect of the Tatar language.
Dispersion
The villages and settlements of the Mishari Tatars are most compactly located in the Nizhny Novgorod, Penza, Ulyanovsk regions, on the territory of Tatarstan, of the republics of Mariy El, Mordovia, Bashkortostan and Chuvashia. Fairly small groups of them are located in the Samara, Saratov, Volgograd and Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan and Northern Kazakhstan regions. A number of Tatar villages has been preserved in the Ryazan and Tambov regions.
Traditional occupations
Farming, cattle breeding, dairy cattle breeding, sheep breeding, weaving, beekeeping.
Dwellings
The traditional settlement is a large village. Large settlements have a block-type layout. The buildings are mostly made from bricks (more rarely they are loghouses), of a three-chamber type.
Clothes
The clothes of the Mishari are very unique and distinguish them not just from other peoples of this area, but also from other ethnic Tatar groups. Until the middle of the 19th century, the main fabric for making clothes was homemade sackcloth or striped linen (alacha), for heavy fabrics, woolen cloth (tula) of grey and dark colors was used. Factory-made fabrics were in limited use (for patches). Later the choice of the fabric depended on the amount of assets (from chintz and sateen to silk and wool). To make and decorate winter clothes, sheepskin, fox fur and otter fur were used. In decorating clothes, colored ribbons, strings, cords and galloons were used. Footwear was made from home-finished leather, sheep wool and bast fiber.
