During the eleventh to sixteen centuries, numerous Turkic tribes live in what is now Russia and Kazakhstan.

The present territory of Tatarstan is inhabited by the Volga Bulgars.

The Bulgars settle on the Volga River in the 8th century and convert to Islam in 922 during the missionary work of Ahmad ibn Fadlan.

After the Mongol invasion of Europe from 1241, Volga Bulgaria is defeated, ruined, and incorporated into the Golden Horde.Few of the population survives, and nearly all of them move to northern territories.

According to one theory, there was some degree of mixing between the remnant Volga Bulgars and the Cuman-Kipchaks of the Horde during the ensuing period, yet according to another theory, called Bulgarism, the Bulgars did not mix with the Cuman-Kipchaks.

The group as a whole accepted the language of the Kipchaks and the ethnonym "Tatars" (although the name Bulgars persisted in some places), while the bulk of invaders eventually converted to Islam.

Two centuries later, as the Horde disintegrated, the area became the territory of the Kazan khanate, which was ultimately conquered by Russia in 1552.The Volga Tatars are the largest subgroup of the Tatars, native to the Volga-Ural region.

They account for roughly six out of seven million Tatars worldwide.

They are in turn subdivided into various subgroups, the largest being the Kazan Tatars.The majority of Volga Tatars are Kazan Tatars.

They form the bulk of the Tatar population of Tatarstan.