The Besermyan, Biserman, Besermans or Besermens (Russian: бесермяне, besermyane singular: besermyanin, Udmurt: бесерманъёс, Tatar: бисермәннәр, romanized: bisermännär) are a numerically small Permian people in Russia.[2]
The Besermyan live in the districts of Yukamenskoye, Glazov, Balezino, and Yar in the northwest of Udmurtia. There are ten villages of pure Besermyan ethnicity in Russia, and 41 villages with a partial Besermyan population.
A map of Udmurtia with highlighted regions where the Besermyan live.
History
The Besermyan are of Turkic origin,[4][5] and are probably the result of a group of Tatars who were assimilated by the Udmurts.[6][7][8] In the 13th century during his travel to Mongolia, papal envoy Plano Carpini claimed that the Besermyan were subjects of the Mongols. Russian chronicles sometimes made mention of the Besermyan but it's unclear whether the term was meant to denote the modern group as it was a common derivation of the term "musulman" (Muslim).[4] It is likely that the term had broader usage before it became an ethnonym.[4]
Culture
The language of the Besermyan is a dialect of the Udmurt language with Tatar influences.[9] Although they speak a dialect of Udmurt, the Besermyan consider themselves a distinct people.[10]
Some Besermyan traditions differ from other Udmurtian customs due to the Islamic influence during the Volga Bulgaria and Khanate of Kazan periods.
The Besermyan used to historically practice their own indigenous religion.[2] According to scholar Shirin Akiner, most current Besermyan practice Sunni Islam.[11] Some Besermyan also practice Christianity.[10] The Russians began converting the Besermyan to Christianity around the middle of the 18th century.[2]
Genetics
In a mtDNA research which was done on Besermyans there were 41 tested persons from the village of Yozhovo in Yukamenskovo raion of Udmurtia. The proportion of Eastern Eurasian haplogroups, primarily of haplogroup C, turned out to be significantly higher than that of the Udmurts. According to this indicator, the Besermyans genetically stand out against the background of the Volga-Ural region and are closer to the Turkic-speaking peoples of Southern Siberia.[12]
A study was conducted of the Y-chromosome haplogroups of 53 Besermyans from the villages of Yukamenskoye and Yozhevo, as well as the village of Shamardan, Yukamensky district of Udmurtia. It turned out that more than half of the samples belong to haplogroup N, which may indicate the predominance of the Finno-Ugric component in the formation of the Besermyans along their male line.[13]
Genetically, Besermayns seem to be descended mostly from Udmurts on their paternally and from the sub-group of Kazan Tatars - Chepetsk Tatars, maternally.[citation needed]
