On a beautiful, warm and sunny Sunday we resolved to set off to Polish Tatars. There are left only few villages where Polish Tatars still live - Bohoniki and Kruszyniany. Most Tatars after the II World War moved to towns and cities - Bialystok, Gdansk, Gorzow Wielkopolski, Warsaw, and many of them stayed at their homeland - near Nowogordek (presently Belarussia, before the WW II town belonged to Poland).
First Tatars were settled in Lithuania in the 14th century by the Great Prince of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania - Witold (Vitaut, Vitautas). Here in Podlasie - in villages - Bohoniki, Drahle, Malawicze, Nietupa, Sanniki, Kruszyniany, Luzany, Studzianka, Lebiedziew, Ortel, Malaszewicze, they appeared in the 17th century. Polish king - Jan III Sobieski settled them in royal villages in exchange for money he should have payed them for their service in royal army, but because of lack of money in state treasury soldier’s pays could not have been paid. Tatars obtained many privileges - they could marry Chrisitan women, obtained nobility and were allowed to preserve their Muslim faith and tradition.
Today about 5.000 Tatars live in Poland, most of them in Bialystok (in the north eastern Poland) - about 2.000 - 3.000, they still confess islam. But it seems that many of them lost their Tatar features - not all have slanted eyes, black hair, olive complexion and high cheekbones. They perfectly integrated into Polish society, their islam is very gentle, moderate and peacful, we can say liberal. Tatar women have equal rights as men, they are not discriminated by their husbands, they can learn, study, work and have equal position to men. Their realtions with other national groups in Podlasie (Poles, Belarussians) apppear to be exemplary.
Below I am presenting pictures taken during last Sunday trip to Kruszyniany.
Mosque in Kruszyniany, bulit in the second half of the 18th century or in the first half of the 19th century.
Mizar in Kruszyniany. Mizar it is the name for Tatar cemetery. Many of tombstones come from the 19th century.
Beautiful pine in the mizar a few hundred years old, it may be as old as whole cemetery, which was established in the second half of the 17th century.
