If there really was once such a people as the Mongol-Tatars, then why some of its descendants now profess Buddhism, while others Islam? Perhaps it was the difference of religions that divided him?
Ethnopolitical situation in the state of Genghis Khan
Initially, one of the Mongol tribes was called the Tatars. According to Mongol legends, Genghis Khan massacred all the men of this tribe. Only a few survived by chance. However, for some reason this tribe became famous in Russia and in the West. The Mongol conquerors who arrived were most often called Tatars.
Later this name was spread to many Turkic peoples living within the Mongol Empire. The ancestors of these peoples were, as a rule, conquered by the Mongols of Genghis Khan, and then, as vassals, they themselves took part in his campaigns.
The population of the western part of the Mongol Empire was predominantly Turkic. It is believed that the relatively few Mongols quickly disappeared into the mass of the Turkic population.
The situation was different in the eastern part of the Mongolian state. Here the Mongols ruled China for over a century. But in the last third of the 14th century, they lost power there. In the remaining territory, the Mongols remained the predominant ethnic group.
The religious environment in different parts of the disintegrated empire was determined by these ethnic processes.
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The spread of Islam among the Tatars
On the territory of Ulus Jochi or the Golden Horde, Islam became widespread long before the arrival of the Mongol conquerors. Representatives of the branch of the Turkic people of the Bulgars settled on the land of present-day Tatarstan, as well as the neighboring regions of the Middle Volga region, since the 7th century. Not later than the 9th century, the state of the Volga Bulgaria was formed here, which existed until the Mongol conquest in 1236.
In 922 the rulers of the Volga Bulgaria decided to convert to Islam. Since then, it has become the religion of the ancestors of modern Kazan Tatars and Bashkirs.
The Volga Bulgars were sedentary farmers. Islam penetrated slowly into the mass of the nomadic population of the steppes. In the book "State and Peoples of the Eurasian Steppes" Sergei Klyashtorny states: "The Kipchak steppe remained outside the Muslim world before the Mongol conquests. At the beginning of the 13th century, the Muslim ruler of Central Asia, Khorezmshah Muhammad (1200-1220) fought with non-Muslim Kipchaks in the Syrdarya and in the Turgai steppes."
With the unification of vast territories into the Golden Horde, conditions arose for the spread of Islam. The choice of Islam as a state religion by the rulers of the Golden Horde was made, obviously, because in two ancient centers of civilization on its territory - in the Volga Bulgaria and Khorezm - they adhered to this religion for a long time.
But this choice was not made immediately. The first khan of Ulus Jochi to convert to Islam was Berke (1257-1266). But he did not introduce Islam as the state religion. This is evidenced by the fact that during his reign, in 1261, a diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church was established in his capital Sarai.
Only Khan Uzbek (1313-1341) made a decisive step towards the establishment of Islam in the Golden Horde. But for a long time after him, the Golden Horde remained a multi-confessional state. Khans pursued a tolerant policy towards various religious communities.
The statehood of the Golden Horde is associated with the adoption of Islam by the peoples who have retained the name "Tatars" to this day: the Crimean, Astrakhan, Siberian Tatars. The ancestors of the Kazan Tatars, as mentioned above, professed Islam since the X century. The change in the name of the ethnos - Bulgars to Tatars - did not affect the faith.
Establishment of Buddhism among the Mongols
The spread of Buddhism among the peoples of the Mongolian group - the ancestors of the Khalkha-Mongols, Buryats, Oirats, Kalmyks, etc. - began during the reign of Genghis Khan's son and successor Ogedei (1229-1241). He was interested in Buddhism and invited Kungu Gyaltsen, a well-known in Tibet, for mentoring.
Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai also became interested in Buddhism in his youth. His first teacher in the faith was the Chinese Buddhist monk Liu Binzhong. Subsequently, when Kublai conquered China, Liu Binzhong became one of Kublai's chief advisers. When Khubilai was elected great khan of the Mongols in 1260, he was already a Buddhist.
In 1271, Khubilai completed his conquest of China, proclaimed the beginning of a new Chinese Yuan dynasty, and made Buddhism the state religion of his empire. True, other confessions were not persecuted.
The influence of Buddhism on the ruling stratum of the Mongols in the second half of the 13th century spread beyond Central Asia. For example, Khulagu Khan (1261-1265), Kublai's brother, founder of the Mongol state in conquered Iran (the state of the Khulaguids or Ilkhanov) was a Buddhist. Among the successors of Hulagu Khan there were both Muslims and Christians, but most of all were Buddhists. Only starting with the seventh Ilkhan Gazan Khan (1295-1304), the religion of the majority of the subordinate people - Shiite Islam - finally became the faith of the ruling elite of Iran.
In 1368, the Mongol rule over China was abolished. The impact of Buddhism on the Mongols declined. Its revival in Mongolia began only in the last quarter of the 16th century. It was associated with the activities of Buddhist preachers of the Gelug school. At the same time, almost all the peoples of the Mongolian group adopted Buddhism. The migration to the west in the 17th century of one of them - the Kalmyks - is associated with the spread of Buddhism to the lower reaches of the Volga.
Tuvans living nearby joined the followers of Buddhism along with the Mongol peoples.
It is noteworthy that the descendants of the Mongol-speaking tribe of the Tatars - the very one that was subjected to genocide by Genghis Khan - who retained their name to our time, also profess Buddhism, like the rest of the Mongols. Thus, the saying that all Tatars are traditionally Muslim is incorrect. There are Buddhist Tatars. True, they are not Turks.
