JUSTYNA SZEWCZYK, Friday, December 4, 2009
ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News
With six centuries of co-existence behind them, Poles and ‘their Muslims,’ an ethnic Turkic group also known as Polish Tatars, have a long history of peace in their communities and perhaps many lessons for the rest of Europe, where social tensions brewing between locals and Islamic immigrants have pushed people passed their boiling point at times
Much of Europe is questioning its ability to incorporate Muslims into its culture and identity, but the 600-year co-existence of Muslims and Catholics in Poland bucks the trend of cultural tension.
Polish Tatars, often referred to by Poles as “our Muslims,” are part of the country’s national history; even the post-Sept. 11 wave of Islamophobia that swept through other European countries did not bring significant disruption to Polish-Tatar ties.
“Islamophobia touched Poland only slightly,” said Selim Chazbijewicz, a political science professor of Tatar origin at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland.
War refugees
The history of Tatar Muslims in Poland dates back to the 14th century, when Golden Horde khan Tokhtamysh, whose roots trace back to Genghis Khan’s empire, found refuge in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania after being defeated by Tamerlane, the Mongolian emperor who conquered Central Asia and parts of the Middle East. This event initiated the centuries-long presence of the Tatars, an ethnic Turkic group, in what later became the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The earliest Tatar settlements had a military character and were located in Lithuanian territories in what is now northeastern Poland. Though they were valued as great warriors, Tatars began settling in greater numbers and many left soldiering behind. By the 17th century, many Tatar families had begun to cherish the same aristocratic privileges as other nobility in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
This good relationship was complicated in the 1670s, when Tatar units joined Ottoman Turks during the Polish-Ottoman wars, but Polish King Jan III Sobieski soon regained the Tatars’ loyalty when he promised to pay them back salaries.
Tatars also fought in the Battle of Vienna in 1683, when united European powers defended the continent from further Ottoman invasion. In this, the Tatars sided along state, not religious, lines.
Becoming Polish
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