Shali is a village (selo) in Pestrechinsky District

Pestrechinsky District

Pestrechinsky District is an administrative and municipal district , one of the forty-three in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. Its administrative center is the rural locality of Pestretsy. District's population: 28,454 ; Population of Pestretsy accounts for 25.6% of the district's population....

 of the Republic of Tatarstan

Tatarstan

The Republic of Tatarstan is a federal subject of Russia located in the Volga Federal District. Its capital is the city of Kazan, which is one of Russia's largest and most prosperous cities. The republic borders with Kirov, Ulyanovsk, Samara, and Orenburg Oblasts, and with the Mari El, Udmurt,...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, situated 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south of Pestretsy, the administrative center of the district.

The village is situated on the M7 highway

M7 highway (Russia)

The Russian Route M7 is a major trunk road running from Moscow through Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod to Kazan in Tatarstan and Ufa in Bashkortostan...

. Shali's population was 3,131 in 1989, 2,980 in 2000; mostly ethnic Tatars

Volga Tatars

The Volga Tatars are the largest subgroup of the Tatars, native to the Volga region.They account for roughly six out of seven million Tatars worldwide....

 (as on 1989). The main occupation of the residents is agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 and cattle breeding. There is a secondary school, a cultural centre, a clinic, and a mosque, dating back to the end of the 19th century.

It was founded in the Khanate of Kazan

Khanate of Kazan

The Khanate of Kazan was a medieval Tatar state which occupied the territory of former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552. Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. The khanate covered contemporary Tatarstan, Mari El,...

 epoch.

Russia's Grand Mufti

Grand Mufti

The title of Grand Mufti refers to the highest official of religious law in a Sunni or Ibadi Muslim country. The Grand Mufti issues legal opinions and edicts, fatwā, on interpretations of Islamic law for private clients or to assist judges in deciding cases...

 Rawil Gaynetdin was born here in 1959.