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Tatarskie meczety w Rzeczypospolitej

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Brykowski R.

Ochrona Zabytków

1988

issue 3

153-172

To Tartars - th e Soldiers of the Country That Has Not Perished On the later territories of Rzeczypospolita of the Two Nations (Poland and Lithuania) Tartars, as military settlers and at the same time political immigrants, appeared in the 13th century; in Halicka Russia Tartar settlements were known in the 2nd half of the 13th century; in Cracow Land — before 1300; the first mention of them in Lithuania dates back to 1324. Grand Duke Vitold (1392— 1430) accepted the tribute of Khan Mamaj’s son and then he settled the Tartars beyond the Dnieper river. In the 16th and in the 1st half of the 17th century a new wave of settlers, mainly captives, appeared in Little Poland, Podolia and Volhynia. The number of Tartars who settled down on farms and were conscripted into Rzeczpospolita's army had never been great. It is estimated that in 1528 there were ca 3,500 Tartars including their families living in Lithuania, while in the entire territory of Rzeczpospolita of the Two Nations in the 16 th century — up to 7,000 people. At present nearly 3,000 Tartars live in Poland, while in Lithuania and Byelorussia their number comes to ca 10,000. At the beginning Tartars in Rzeczpospolita came from d ifferent ethnic groups, but already in the 16 th century they constituted a homogenous group of the Muslim population, who while preserving their faith differed from their distant kinsmen in their national status, customs and language, at that time partially Byelorussian but from the 17th century — exclusięely Polish. During the partition of Poland Russian officials considered the Tartars to be „Poles of Mohammedan denomination". To build a mosque required on each occasion king's consent, which never offered any difficulty, especially during the reign of Jagiellons, the so-called white khans. Because of that in their prayers for the ruler the Tartars prayed for the Polish king. First restrictions in building mosques took place in the 17th century. During the Polish contr-reformation a mosque in Troki was demolished in 1609, but people of different denomination were not harassed. When in 1786 a parliamentary decree permited the Tartars to raise mosques already without royal consent, they continued to apply for it. It is assumed that the oldest mosques were put on future territories of the Kingdom of Poland and Pogonią already in the 14th century (Lvov, Vilnius, Sorok— Tatary, Niekraszunce). The first source-based mention from 1558 found in the treaty o f an unknown author "Risale — and Tartar — and Lech" presented to sultan Sulejman the Magnificent concerned mosques in Vilnius, Sorok — Tatary and Lowczyce. Ibrahim Pasha Pevcewi (d. 1640) listed in his manuscript 60 mosques (a reconstructed list covers 23 temples). The first register of mosques in Rzeczpospolita from 1795 mentions 23 temples and 5 clergymen, where there undoubtedly existed mosques. The map by AM Smajkowicz (after 1933) showed 20 mosques, but only 19 were illustrated with drawings (no mosques in Widze). The compled iconographie material gives us an idea of the appearance of 22 mosques, including 2 in Vilnius on Lukiszki from the 18th and 19th cent, respectively. Today there are two mosques open in Poland (Bohoniki, Kruszyniany). Two are found in Lithuania (Kowno, Niemuz, Sorok— -Tatary). The oldest mosques known from iconography may date back to the 2nd half of the 18th century (Vilnius, on Lukiszki, or Dowbuciszki, Kruszyniany) but this dating is not certain, e.g. the time of building a mosque in Dowbuciszki is ascribed to the 17th century and the year of 1757, while the mosque in Kruszyniany has as many as eight supposed datings ranging from the 17th century until 1846. Only the dates of the construction of mosques in Novogrodek (1855) and Iwie (1884) were confirmed with foundation plates. Unfortunately we do not know what the Poiish-Lithuanian mosques from before mid-18th century looked like, but it does not seem that they could have been more splendind than the known historic material. On the basis of that material we may say that those buildings were rather small and modest, incomparable to mosques in distant Muslim territories, deprived of basic components parts (such as the courtyard — sahu, a swimming-pool - kauz, a fountain — midha and other auxiliary rooms). A specific character of mosques in Rzeczpospolita was obtained thanks to the building material used (wood) and a technique of construction; a simple (rectangular or square) spatial arrangement restricted to a praying room (haram) with a separate mihrab in form of a tiny apse pointing to the congregation the direction (kibta) to Mecca; division of a praying room into the men's part (bigger) and women's part wirh separate entrances, often preced with vestibules; placing of a dais for the person reading Koran (dakka) on a gallery suspended on the wall partitioning a praying room, above a small orifice through which women watched the course of prayers; the absence of a special place for the ruler (maskuty) ; the absence of typical minarets replaced with ave-bell type towers and turrets characteristic of Orthodox church buildings (except, perhaps, for mosques in Winksznupie, 1818-24 and Iwie, 1884), The majority of the blocks of well-known mosques were patterned after various sacral and secular buildings and even dwelling houses. The form of small, simple and poor village churches had undoubtedly mosques in Vilnius, on Lukiszki (mid-19th century) and Niekraszunce (1926). More imposing but towerless was a mosque in Rejze (1886). A more interesting form had a mosque in Winksznupie (1818— 1824), while the finest example represented a mosque in Kruszyniany (2nd half of the 18 th century - 1st half of the 19th century) with a two-tower frontal elevation representing a characteristic native, although provincialized, expression of wooden sacral buildings from a cultural circle of Rzeczpospolita before its partition. Attempts were also made to give mosques a finer form by introducing elements of classicism such as columns or pillars in the front (e.g. a mosque in Studzionka, Ist half of the 19th century). A sacral genesis based on forms of Eastern, Orthodox or Uniate Churches can be found in mosques in Dowbuciszki (1757) with a characteristic Byzantine-like style and at Slonim (1888) with features of a three-ave-bell Uniate temple. The form of secular buildings resembling small town-halls have mosques in Mir (1809), Kiecko (1881) and Lachowicze (1924-1928). Mosques in Vilnius, on Lukiszki (18th century) and in Iwie (1884) resemble a granary with two-tier arcades in the front. Finally, a mosque in Lowczyce (1820) reminds of a splendid dwelling house with a nobleman's porch in the front, while a mosque in Madziol (1923) has features of a cottage. Apart from the above mentioned temples there existed a group of mosques (Sorok-Tatary, 1815; Novogrodek, 1855; Bohoniki. 1900; Niemiez, 1903— 9; Osmolowo, 1925) erected on the throw of a square or close to a square, covered with pavilion roofs, crowned with domed turrets, with a small mihrab separated from their block, and occasionally with a porch. Dates of their construction rainging from 1809 to 1929 as well as similar to them mosques with a ’'town-hair' block (disregarding the turret) show this type of mosques was the most frequently used form. It corresponded to the needs of the Muslim canon and as such was both specific and traditional, going back, perhaps, to the ancient times. A chronological confrontation of well-known mosques shows that the year of ca 1800 represented a certain border-line in the mode of building mosques, which undoubtedly was associated with the impoverishment of Tartar communes. The mosques built earlier (Dowbuciszki, Kruszyniany, Vilnius) are more splendid; the ones raised later are not so spectacular or even poorer. Except for a mention of the ruins of a temple in Niemirov in Podolia (17th— 18th cent.) brick mosques were built by bigger communes only in 1899 in Minsk; in 1930— 32 in Kowno. In the mid-thirties it was planned to raise a brick mosque in Warsaw. The builders of Tartars mosques remain unknown. It is supposed that even a mosque in Osmolov was built by Jewish carpenters; still, this information is controversial. The historical material shows that they were not professional high- skilled workers but rather provincial carpenters from neighbouring regions. Because of that, mosques may be included into a folk trend of sacral wooden architecture in Poland and in Lithuania. The founders of mosques were both Muslim parishioners (Mir, Osmolovo) and individual rich Tartars (Kruszyniany, Novogrodek). The building of mosques was also subsidized by great land owners (Kleck, Slonim). A rich variety of forms of wooden Tartar mosques in Rzeczpospolita shows that although blocks of a number of temples were erected "a fter the Polish sky” , still under the Polish sky there was also room for own, even if simple, custom, finding its expression in form of a different type of a mosque and an almost poor interior but built in a way specific for Poiish-Lithuanian Tartars, differing markedly from "the custom and the sky” of their distant kinsmen. * „R z e c z y p o s p o lita ” was the o f f ic ia l name o f the Polish state in ce n tu ries a n d it was id e n tic a l w ith the Commonwealth or Res Pu blica.

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1 Ochrona Zabytków

1 Brykowski R.

1 1988

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Tatarskie meczety w Rzeczypospolitej