The name of Tatari Street in Tallinn still points to the community today. In the 18th century, when Tallinn was a base of the Russian navy, many discharged sailors — among them a number of Tatars — bought plots around Sakala, Tatari, Liivalaia, Ravi and Veerenni streets, and the area came to be called the Tatar suburb. Between 1834 and 1862 about 50 Muslims lived in Tallinn, with their own mosque and cleric.
The lasting community grew out of trade. After serfdom was abolished in Russia in 1861, Tatar traders arrived here, moving from county to county by horse-cart. As trade prospered they settled down and opened shops in the towns. These merchants were mostly Mišärs — Mišär Tatars whose roots lay in the Tatar villages of the Nizhny Novgorod governorate, and whose language this site also preserves.
The merchant Zakir Zakerov, from near Nizhny Novgorod, settled in Tallinn in the 1870s and worked his way up to become a successful entrepreneur. In keeping with Islamic custom he cared for the community: each year he took 6–7, sometimes up to 12, young men from his home village as apprentices, teaching them trade and Russian.
In the 1930s the best-known Tatar businessmen in Tallinn were the furrier Sibgadulla Mähdejev, called the king of the Tatars; the lace merchant Umiar Zarip, whose shop stood on the corner of Sauna and Väike-Karja streets; and the furriers Hairulla Mähdejev (Mehdi after Estonianisation) and Fateh Zakerov.
According to the 1934 census, 170 Muslims lived in Estonia, of whom 166 were Tatars; by the community's own estimate the true figure was about 180, half in Narva and half in Tallinn. The Narva Muhammadan Congregation was registered in 1928 and the Tallinn Muhammadan Religious Society in 1940.
Associational life was lively: the Tatar Cultural Society was active, Tatar songs were sung, outings were arranged to the kindred community in Finland, and in the summer of 1939 the last great gathering took place in Narva-Jõesuu, where almost all the Estonian Tatars were represented.
Cultural behaviours and customs among the Estonian Tatars have largely become Estonianised over time.
