corresponds to the historical territory of the Siberian Khanate). Of these Tatars only 9,289 identified as Siberian Tatars. 2002 Russian Census recorded a total of 9,611 Siberian Tatars in Russia. Some publications estimated their number in the range of 190,000-210,000. Such significant discrepancy is explained by the fact that the immigrants from the other ethnic groups who are also called Tatar by the Russians were also included in the figure, though most were Volga Tatars. Physical anthropology Like most of the modern indigenous human groups of West Siberia, Siberian Tatars reveal traits that are specific of West Siberian anthropological type. Siberian Tatars show a combination of features characteristic of both western and eastern Eurasian groups. Origin and ethnogenesis The term Siberian Tatar covers three autochthonous groups, all Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi madhab, found in southern Siberia. Siberian Tatars have been living in Western Siberia since the 6th century. They are remnants of the Khanate of Sibir, which was conquered by Russia in 1582. Geographically, the Siberian Tatars are divided into three main groups, each speaking their own dialect. Although the Siberian Tatar language has been sometimes considered a dialect of Tatar, detailed linguistic study demonstrates that Siberian Tatar idioms are quite remote from Volga Tatar by origin. Siberian Tatars' ancestry was partly from Turkic and Mongol peoples, but their main ancestors are Ugrian, Samoyedic, and Yeniseian tribes. Siberian Tatar language The Siberian Tatar language is, due to the Kipchakization processes during the Middle Ages, many times classified as belonging to the Kipchak–Nogay group of the Kipchak languages. There are approximately as many elements that could be classified in the Upper Altaian language group. Beginning in the 12th century, the Siberian Tatar language received some Karluk influences. Those Siberian Tatars who are living in ethnically mixed villages where, in the periods after Russian colonization, more numerous Volga Tatars settled, have also been influenced by the Kipchak-Bulgar language. Siberian Tatar language has different dialects. Since the penetration of Islam until the 1920s after the Russian Revolution, Siberian Tatars, like all Muslim nations, were using an alphabet that had been based on Arabic script. They adopted an alphabet based on Latin script in 1928 and one based on the Cyrillic script in 1939. Until 2014, the written language for Siberian Tatars was Tatar, a version based on the grammar rules of Volga Tatars. In the 21st century, work began on the rationalizing