Very little is known about the Karaite seals used during time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The development of the administration in the Russian Empire forced Karaites to use these seals. However the new reality that emerged following the introduction of a new law in the Republic of Poland in 1936 offered them a chance to change some aspects of official Karaite iconography.
This text is a source edition of six public speeches in Polish by Haji Seraya Khan Shapshal, hakhan of the Karaites of the Second Polish Republic, which date from 1928-1936, preceded by an introduction. Three of them are undated and were written on the occasion of the ingress to the position of hahhan, May 3rd and the jubilee of hazzan Szymon Firkowicz, and come from the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius. The remaining three: two pastoral letters on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Poland's independence and the death of Marshal Józef Piłsudski, and a speech in connection with the issuance of the Act on the relationship of the state to the Karaim Religious Association in the Republic of Poland, were taken from the magazine "Myśl Karaimska" [Karaite thought].
PL
Niniejszy tekst jest edycją źródłową sześciu wystąpień publicznych w języku polskim autorstwa hadżi Seraji Chana Szapszała, hachana Karaimów II Rzeczypospolitej, które pochodzą z lat 1928-1936, poprzedzonych wstępem. Trzy z nich są niedatowane i zostały napisane z okazji ingresu na stanowisko hachana, Święta 3 Maja i jubileuszu hazzana Szymona Firkowicza, a pochodzą z Biblioteki Litewskiej Akademii Nauk im. Wróblewskich w Wilnie. Natomiast trzy pozostałe: dwa listy pasterskie z powodu 10-lecia niepodległości Polski i śmierci marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego oraz przemówienie w związku z wydaniem Ustawy o stosunku państwa do Karaimskiego Związku Religijnego w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej zostały zaczerpnięte z czasopisma „Myśl Karaimska”.
The minutes of the various social and religious Karaite organizations shed light on the most important questions of their existence in the Republic of Poland after WW I, when the Karaites had to reestablish their legal, religious and social position.
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