Nağaybäk

thumb|Percentage of Nağaybäk in Chelyabinsk Oblast Nağaybäks ( ) are an ethnoreligious group of Volga Tatars in Russia, recognized as a separate people under Russian legislation. Most Nağaybäks live in the Nagaybaksky and Chebarkulsky Districts of the Chelyabinsk Oblast. They speak a sub-dialect of the Tatar language's middle dialect known as the Nagaibak dialect. Russian and Tatar historians usually treat the Nağaybäks as an integral part of Volga Tatars; a minority considers Nağaybäks a separate ethnicity in their own right. In the 1989 Russian census, 11,200 people identified themselves as Nağaybäks, falling to 9,600 in 2002.

== Origin == The origins of the Nağaybäks are unclear. One theory places the Nağaybäks as an offshoot of the Nogais. Other accounts claim that they are Volga Tatars baptized after the fall of Kazan Khanate. The most plausible theory, according to the 1994 Great Russian Encyclopedia, says that the ancestors of the Nağaybäks traditionally lived in central districts of the Khanate, east of Kazan, and most likely descended from Nogay and Kipchak people. In the 18th century, they also assimilated a small group of Christians from Iran and Central Asia.