The Bashkirs (UK: /bæʃˈkɪərz/ bash-KEERZ, US: /bɑːʃˈkɪərz/ bahsh-KEERZ) or Bashkorts (Bashkir: Башҡорттар, romanized: Başqorttar, pronounced [bɑʂ.qʊɾt.ˈtaɾ]; Russian: Башкиры, pronounced [bɐʂˈkʲirɨ]) are a Turkic ethnic group indigenous to Russia. They are concentrated in Bashkortostan, a republic of the Russian Federation and in the broader historical region of Badzhgard, which spans both sides of the Ural Mountains, where Eastern Europe meets North Asia. Smaller communities of Bashkirs also live in the Republic of Tatarstan, Perm Krai the oblasts of Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Tyumen, Sverdlovsk, Kurgan and other regions in Russia; sizeable minorities exist in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Most Bashkirs speak the Bashkir language, which is similar to the Tatar, Kazakh and Kyrgyz languages.The Bashkir language belongs to the Kipchak branch of Turkic languages; they share historical and cultural affinities with the broader Turkic peoples. Bashkirs are mainly Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school madhhab, or school of jurisprudence, and follow the Jadid doctrine. Previously nomadic and fiercely independent, the Bashkirs gradually came under Russian rule beginning in the 16th century; they have since played a major role through the history of Russia, culminating in their autonomous status within the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia.

The etymology and indeed meaning of the endonym Bashqurt has been for a long time under discussion.

The name Bashqurt has been known since the 10th century, most researchers etymologize the name as "main/leader/head" (bash) + "wolf" (qurt being an archaic name for the animal), thus "wolf-leader" (from the totemic hero ancestor).

This prevailing folk etymology relates to a legend regarding the migration of the first seven Bashkir tribes from the Syr Darya valley to the Volga-Ural region. The legend relates that the Bashkirs were given a green and fertile land by the fertility goddess of Tengrism Umay (known locally also as Umay-əsə), protected by the legendary Ural mountains (in alignment with the famous Bashkir epic poem "Ural-Batyr"). A wolf was sent to guide these tribes to their promised land, hence bash-qurt, "leading wolf". The ethnographers V. N. Tatishchev, P. I. Richkov, and Johann Gottlieb Georgi provided similar etymologies in the 18th century.

Although this is the prevailing theory for an etymology of the term bashqurt, other theories have been formulated:

The Bashkir group was formed by Turkic tribes of South Siberian and Central Asian origin, who, before migrating to the Southern Urals, wandered for a considerable time in the Aral-Syr Darya steppes (modern day central-southern Kazakhstan), coming into contact with the Pecheneg-Oghuz and Kimak-Kipchak tribes. Therefore, it is possible to note that the Bashkir people originates from the same tribes which compose the modern Kazakhs, Kyrgyzes and Nogais, but there has been a considerable cultural and a small ethnic exchange with Oghuz tribes.

The migration to the valley of the Southern Urals took place between the end of the 9th century and the beginning of the 10th century, in parallel to the Kipchak migration to the north.