Bashkir New Testament

Bible portions to date: Matthew* (1899), 4 Gospels (1902*, reprint IBT 1975), Luke (1996), John (1998, revised 2000), Jesus Friend of children (2000), Acts (2002), Mark (2003), Genesis* (2010), NT (2014), NT audio (2016, FCBH), Luke diglot (2017). The Bashkirs are Sunni Muslims, and their capital Ufa has been the centre of religious life for European Russian Muslims since the late 18th century, when by the decree of Catherine II the Central Spiritual Board of Muslims of Russia was opened there. In the present post-Soviet period of national revival, there are already over four hundred active mosques in Bashkortostan, and hundreds of new mosques are being opened. The number of Bashkir Christians is quite small. Most of them are Protestant. Despite this, it turned out that quite a few Bashkir people knew about the Injil (New Testament) and were waiting for it impatiently. It took 20 years to complete all the work on the Bashkir NT. When the book was distributed by IBT in 2015, one of the readers wrote to us, “I’m tremendously grateful to your diligent staff and I praise Allah, who sees your valuable work! I have no doubt that the Injil in Bashkir will help quench the spiritual thirst of many people and help them to attain true knowledge of the Creator.” We also received several letters of gratitude from Bashkir Evangelical Christians, who reported of their ministry in one of the regional hospitals in Ufa. Evangelical Christians who minister in this hospital are often asked for literature in Bashkir or Tatar, as people don’t speak Russian well enough, so they are constantly asking IBT for new portions of the Bashkir NT. These NTs are greatly treasured and offered only to those who have a poor command of Russian. The same group of Evangelicals is rapidly developing a Bashkir-oriented ministry in their church.