Polish Connections to the Hajj between Mystical Experience, Imaginary Travelogues, and Actual Reality (original) (raw)

Muslims in Poland: Tatars, Refugees and Immigrants

Polish Muslims are a small community, which is consisted of diversified groups such as Tatars, Chechens, Algerians etc. The Tatars are the most indigenous group among the Polish Muslims. At present, the Islamic community of Poland has expanded by the coming up of migrants from Muslim countries as well as diplomats and businessmen. They are Muslims who began to arrive in Poland in the middle of the 20th century, chiefly from countries of the Middle East, North Africa, Iran and Afghanistan. This article examines the constitutional status and position of Muslims in Poland in general and the Polish Tatars in particular. The role of Tatars regarding the Polish Islam and the importance of religion (Islam) in building Tatar identity are the main focus and crux of this study. The situation of non-Tatar people such as Muslim emigrants has also been briefly investigated in this context.

The Story of Polish “Orientalness” – Researching Islam in Poland

KnE Social Sciences, 2019

Polish academia has a long tradition of studies on the Middle East, Islam and its heritage. Oriental studies have been part of university curricula in Kraków, Lvov (today in Ukraine) and Vilno (today Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania), later expanding also in such cities as today’s capital Warsaw [1]. The Oriental studies concentrated on the MiddleEastduetocontactsPolandhashadwiththeregion.Oneofthemostinteresting ideas brought up by researchers is based on the observations of cultural encounters throughout the turbulent history of the country leading some to coin terms such as Polish “Orientalness”. This term denotes a set of identity and cultural characteristics and can beopposed to the widely debated “Orientalism”, as defined by the renowned Palestinian intellectual and academic Edward Said in his seminal book from 1979, due to different experiences of relations with Muslim communities. Today’s Poland due to several, mainly historical factors, is one of the most homogenous nation...

Arab_travellers_about_Poland.pdf

“Arab travelers about Poland. The image of Ibrahim Ibn Yaqub and the image of the Slavs” , 2018

The Arab empire had been formed long before the rise of the Polish state, so that period of the Arab-Polish relations should be viewed in a broader context, meaning Arab contacts with Slavs. The initial period of the Polish-Arab relations was mainly characterized by the unilateral interest of random Arab travelers coming to the Polish lands. Reports concerning Poland were included in the account by the Arab-speaking Ibrāhīm ibn Ya‘qūb in the 10th century and in later accounts by al-Idrīsī (12th century), an Arab geographer who wrote Tabula Rogeriana, which contains very interesting descriptions of the city of Kraków/Cracow (then: the capital of Poland). The aim of the paper is to present the image of others: the Slavs (Poles) by Arab travelers, the image of Ibrāhīm ibn Ya‘qūb in the Polish science (concentrating more on Ibrāhīm himself and less on what he reported about the Slavs and the Polish lands), stressing the importance of his account of the trip to the Slavic countries.

Muslims in the Middle: Islam’s Faithful Few in the Polish Kresy, 1919-1939

In the aftermath of the First World War, new national borders carved up Eastern Europe’s multi-ethnic kresy—a volatile frontier region, which housed Poles, Lithuanians, Jews, Belorussians, Ukrainians, and Tatar Muslims. Tatars, now viewed as a “national minority,” formed one of the smallest ethnic groups in the region. With new boundaries redefining Poland, Lithuania, and the Belorussian SSR, several questions regarding this under-researched Muslim community arise. How did national borders and politics aid or inhibit the growth of a distinct Tatar identity? Was the lived reality of local Muslim communities affected by border changes? Were identity negotiations even important? Or did they remain the aspirations of the few Tatar leaders advocating from multi-ethnic urban centers such as Wilno and Białystok? Previous explorations of Tatar history, identity, and culture in the interwar period have been confined within the nation-state, resulting in separate historiographies for Tatars in Lithuania, the Belorussian SSR, and Poland. To avoid situating histories within national boundaries, this paper utilizes a transnational approach to ascertain the impact of political/national borders on Tatar understanding (or lack of) historical belonging, and reevaluate Muslim identity as an intersection of ethnicity, religion, and nationality. While the new borders, especially in Poland, greatly affected the identity of the Tatar intelligentsia who made great strides to propagate Muslim religious and cultural traditions under the umbrella of Polish nationalism, these boundaries had little impact on provincial Tatar communities. Instead, of greater intrinsic value were (the often permeable) human boundaries created and crossed within the shared spaces of the shtetl marketplace, neighborhoods, and other arenas defined by both physical and immaterial/social elements. Local ties to the land, mosques (meczety), and cemeteries (mizar) often prevailed over national affiliations; and borders, despite causing obstacles, did not stop cross-border connections and movement between Muslim families.

Seljuks on the Baltic: Polish-Lithuanian Muslim Pilgrims in the Court of Ottoman Sultan Süleyman I

The unique authorship of the Risâle-i Tatar-i Leh, created in 1558 for Ottoman Grand Vezier Rüstem Pasha and Sultan Süleymân I by Polish-Lithuanian Muslim pilgrims and members of the Ottoman ulema, brings to light critical issues faced by one of early modern Christendom’s largest integrated Muslim populations. This document encourages further exploration of several aspects of the Muslim population of early modern Poland-Lithuania: the stratification of Muslim society, the ways in which both Ottoman and Polish-Lithuanian myths of origin and legitimizing narratives were combined to justify conflict between fellow Muslims and the loyalty of Muslim settlers to non-Muslim rulers, Polish-Lithuanian Muslims as a branch of the greater Islamic ecumene, the legal status and social hierarchies of Muslims in an emerging early modern republic, and the role of the Ottoman Sultan as the facilitator of the hajj and millenarian world conqueror vis-à-vis Muslims residing outside of the dâr al-Islâm.

European Islam. The Case of Polish Tatars

Hemispheres. Studies on Cultures and Societies, 2008

The discourse on European Islam focuses on the developments inside contemporary Muslim immigrant communities and stresses the dynamics and transformations of the religion in the changing social context. In such perspective one point is missing - the example of 'indigenous' Muslim minorities, such as the Poles of Tatar origin, who, in the course of the history, adapted some elements of Islamic culture and developed the first variants of Euro-Islam. The paper explores the socio-cultural processes that contributed to the emergence of an European identity of the Polish Tatars' community. Some aspects of the negotiation of social identity are analyzed, and the role of the state and state's policy towards Tatar group are shown, are as well as some inspirations for the Tatar modernist ideas in the Islamic reformist movements.

Christian-Muslim Relations in Central Europe: The Polish Experience

2013

Although thirty million Muslims currently reside in the European Union, and adherents to the Islamic religion now constitute the majority of immigrants and the second largest religious group in European society, the influence of Islam on the culture of Central Europe was and is small, with the notable exception of Poland. There, a small traditional group of Polish Muslims has made a considerable contribution during six centuries of history to Poland's cultural and religious heritage: Polish Muslims or “Tartars” fought for Catholic Poland against the Catholic State of the Teutonic Order, and almost always stood by their Polish kings against incursions from the Sunni Turks, highlighting the importance of the loyalty felt to the Polish homeland. By the same token, Polish culture has been greatly enriched by Tartar customs, in a gradual and complex process of acculturation – a process that was ‘necessary’, ‘extended’ and ‘complete’ in its various phases. More recent migrants and refugees arriving in Poland have increased the ethnic and religious diversity of the Polish Muslim community, with marked social and theological implications. These are reflected today in the plethora of organizations representing the interests of various Muslim groups and organizations in the country. Furthermore, the advanced extent of Christian-Muslim dialogue, something well developed in Poland, manifests a true “dialogue of life” and reflects the shared desire to promote understanding, stimulate communication, and work collaboratively on specific problems of mutual concern.