Burtas

Burtas (Russian: Буртасы, Burtasy; Chuvash: Пăртассем, Părtassem; Tatar: Cyrillic Бортаслар, Latin Bortas, Arabic بُرطاس) were a tribe of uncertain ethnolinguistic affiliation inhabiting the steppe region north of the Caspian Sea in medieval times (modern Penza Oblast, Ulyanovsk Oblast and Saratov Oblast of the Russian Federation). They were subject to the Khazars.

The ethnic identity of the Burtas is disputed, with several different theories ranging from them being a Uralic tribal confederacy (probably later assimilated to Turkic language), and therefore perhaps the ancestors of the modern Moksha people, or that they were an Iranic tribe, possibly the ancestors of the modern Mishars.

Recently, some scholars have suggested that the Burtas were actually Alans or another Iranian ethnolinguistic group. An Alanic (Sarmatian) origin would also explain their name as furt/fort ('big river' in Middle Iranian language) and the Alanic endonym as, cf. Ossetians (Caucasian Alans) and Jasses (Jasz or Hungarian Alans).