In the first part of the paper, a short overview is given of the emergence of the political, cultural and language dominance of Kazan Tatar (Kipchak) ethnicity in the Volga-Kama region. In the second part, the role of Islam in the Tatar culture is demonstrated. Then, through a historical areal study of the Arabic word ṣabi ‘boy, male child’, it is discussed how this lexical element spread among the dominated languages of the Kazan Tatar Khanate: Arab → Kazan Tatar → Middle Chuvash (Viryal dialect) → Mari dialects.