Dżemil Gembicki, caretaker of Kruszyniany mosque, prepares to open the temple on an early autumn morning. The village of Kruszyniany was one of the places where Lipka Tatars first settled in 1679 following a royal decree granting several privileges to loyal soldiers.
The Gembicki family at home. Kasia (Dżemil's wife) serves lunch to their children Lilia and Selim. Dżemil is a Muslim and Kasia is a Catholic. The conundrum that many mixed religion families face when choosing a faith for their children was easily solved: Lilia is brought up as Catholic and Selim as Muslim.
Bridge over Mahomet. View on a water reservoir from the bridge over Mahomet River near Siemiatycze. The map of north eastern Poland is dotted with hamlets and places deriving their names from Tatars and their culture. Many of those names are completely Polonised and only a knowledgeable researcher can point to their Muslim or Asian etymology. Few others are unmistakably influenced by Islam, and the Mahomet River is the best example.
The 13th Cavalry Regiment of Polish Army was formed in 1930 and from the very start its 1st Squadron was partly staffed by Muslims (Polish Tatars as well as escapees from Bolshevik Russia). The word 'Tatar' was officially added to the squadron name in 1936 and any Polish Tatar called up for military service was most likely to be serving in the 1st Squadron. Pictured is an archival image of the 1st Tatar Squadron at the 13th Cavalry Regiment's barracks in Nowa Wilejka (in today's Lithuania) taken in July 1937.
Bohoniki is another village where in 1679 Lipka Tatar soldiers received land from Polish king Jan III Sobieski. Thirty families settled in Bohoniki and surrounding villages, and today there are still 14 Tatars living in this small hamlet.
Eugenia Radkiewicz is the guide at Bohoniki mosque. Her parents, Lipka Tatars from Lithuania, moved to Podlasie at the end of the Second World War to join their extended family. They settled in the village of Malawicze, a few kilometres from Bohoniki.
Interior of a wooden mosque in Bohoniki. The mosque was built in the late 19th century following the fire that consumed the previous, late 17th-century building. Lipka Tatars – soldiers and skilled horsemen – were lacking skills needed to construct a wooden temple and usually employed local craftsmen to build mosques. Buildings would be adapted and modified for requirements of the faith, but the overall look and style remained similar to Christian temples in the area.
Buńczuk – a Tatar dance and song band – performing at a weekend fest in small town of Czarna Białostocka, near Białystok in August 2017. Buńczuk has been active for nearly two decades and the band's repertoire links the Lipka's Eastern European culture with their Asian roots. The band performs dances based on Crimean, Bashkir and Tatarstan traditions, alongside Islamic religious songs and Polish poetry. Over the years more than 70 young people were involved with Buńczuk.
Land near the villages of Drahle and Bohoniki received in 1679 by Muslim Lipka soldiers by royal decree from king Jan III Sobieski. Throughout the 17th century, the Kingdom of Poland was engaged in a series of wars with the expanding Ottoman Empire. During the reign of Jan III Sobieski, Poland achieved some major victories, one of which was the Battle of Vienna in 1683. The irony is that in the highly xenophobic and anti-Islamic climate of today's Poland, the Battle of Vienna is often portrayed as the clash between Europe and Islam, and ultimate historical proof that Poland was always anti-Islam. Unsurprisingly the fact that Polish Muslim soldiers fought on the Polish side is rarely mentioned.
Białystok is the largest city in north-eastern Poland and the capital of Podlasie region. It is also home to the biggest Polish Tatar community: more than 1,000 people.
Decorative crescent moon ornament on the window ledge at the Muftiate office in Białystok.
Although now retired, Halina Szahidewicz is still the bedrock of the Polish Tatar community in Białystok. Her family came to Podlasie from today's Belarus after the Second World War. Halina worked as a teacher for many years. She was also a long-standing chair of the Muslim Religious Association of Poland, co-founder of Poland's Joint Council of Catholics and Muslims, and the 2010 recipient of the Person of Dialogue award, given annually to those promoting dialogue among different religions. In 1999 Halina single-handedly intitiated youth band Buńczuk, which is active to this day.
Daławar (also know as Hramotka) is a small handwritten scroll of paper containing selected Islamic prayers. Daławars had the dual function of a pocket-sized prayer book and a personal amulet. The daławar pictured measures roughly 4x4 centimetres. It belonged to Halina Szahidewicz's father Kontuś Jabłoński. Kontuś handwrote the prayers with saffron before setting off to the front line in the autumn of 1939 while serving with the 1st Tatar Squadron of the 13th Cavalry Regiment. When hospitalised after an aerial bombardment, Kontuś's daławar was nearly washed at the hospital laundry. Luckily the laundry attendant not only found the tiny prayer book in a shirt pocket, but also remembered the patient who observed Muslim prayers.
"Witaj Szkoło!" Welcome to school! Every child in Poland is greeted by this sentence in early September when school commences after the summer holidays. Although religious education is not compulsory in Poland, a vast majority of school children attend classes of religion, usually run by a Catholic priest/nun (sometimes, if enough parents/students request it, lessons of ethics are taught). Muslim pupils usually aren't as lucky as the kids in Białystok, where the local Muslim Religious Association in co-operation with Białystok's education board and the Muftiate office organises Islam classes. The children who attend are a mix of Polish and Crimean Tatars and Chechen refugees. Pictured is Mirza, a local imam, who is leading a prayer class to a mixed group of boys and girls.
Image of a 1930s postcard of the mosque in Niekraszuńce in today's Belarus. The village of Niekraszuńce was one of the fist places where Lipka Tatars settled in the 14th century. The existence of a mosque there was first mentioned in 1415. Over the centuries few mosques were built, the last one was erected in the 1920s and demolished by the Soviets in the 1950s. Many Polish Tatars' roots connect them with Niekraszuńce.
Mufti of Poland Tomasz Miśkiewicz in the prayer room of the Muslim Religious Association in Białystok. The title of Mufti is given to an educated Muslim who is qualified to give advice on applications of religious law in all aspects of everyday life. Miśkiewicz, a Polish Tatar from Podlasie, is the second Mufti in the history of Poland holding his office since 2004. The first Polish Mufti Jakub Szynkiewicz (also a Lipka Tatar) took the title in 1925. Szynkiewicz lived in exile from 1945 and died in the USA in 1966.
Anna and Krzysztof Mucharscy moved to Białystok from the western Polish city of Gorzów Wielkopolski. Their parents were forcibly relocated after the Second World War from today's Lithuania and Belarus to western Polish territories. Although the Lipkas in Gorzów formed one of the largest Tatar groups in post-war Poland, after the 1960s the community became more and more assimilated. This accelerated after the death of the local imam in 1987. Anna and Krzysztof's decision to relocate to Białystok was mostly based on their desire to be closer to a vibrant and religiously active Tatar community.
Derelict house in Kruszyniany. Just like many hamlets in Podlasie, Kruszyniany – traditionally inhabited by Tatars – has suffered from a steady flight of inhabitants moving out to larger towns and cities. Official figures from 2006 account for just 160 inhabitants living in the village (down from nearly 300 in 1980). Growing interest in Tatar culture and a flow of tourists to Podlasie in the summer months means that things are slowly changing and abandoned houses may one day become a rarity.
Landscape outside of Kruszyniany. According to a local tale, a Tatar cavalry colonel Samuel Murza Krzeczkowski saved the life of a Polish king during the Battle of Parkany in 1683 and in recognition received an estate in Kruszyniany.
Moments of anxiety before a live performance. Emilia and Selim Mucharscy are part of Buńczuk a Tatar dance and song band. Buńczuk has been active for nearly two decades and the band's repertoire links the Lipka's Eastern European culture with their Asian roots. The band performs dances based on Crimean, Bashkir and Tatarstan traditions, alongside Islamic religious songs and Polish poetry. Over the years more than 70 young people were involved with Buńczuk.
A group of touring motorcyclists stop to visit a wooden mosque in Bohoniki. The mosque was built in the late 19th century following the fire that consumed the previous, late 17th-century building. Lipka Tatars – soldiers and skilled horsemen – were lacking skills needed to construct a wooden temple and usually employed local craftsmen to build mosques. Buildings would be adapted and modified for requirements of the faith, but the overall look and style remained similar to Christian temples in the area.
Adam Iljasiewicz at his home in Kruszyniany holding the seminal book 'The Armorial of Tatar Families in Poland'. The Iljasiewicz family, just as many other Polish Tatar families, held nobility titles. This heritage is often cherished to this day. The Iljasiewicz family identifies by the Leliwa coat of arms.
Expanse of fields outside of Bohoniki.This land was given to Lipka Tatar soldiers by the Polish King Jan III Sobieski for loyal military service to the country. According to the local legend the king told one of his commanders that he will be given as much land as he can reach riding on horseback from dawn to dusk. The legend is likely to hold some truth as the land would be chosen with the knowledge of the large amount of horses the Tatars, professional cavalry soldiers, would keep.
Elwira and Stefan Szahidewicze performing with Buńczuk. Elwira and Stefan were one of the first among Tatar youth who were involved with the band. They since married and occasionally perform with Buńczuk.
Graffiti covered derelict shell of an unfinished construction of the Islamic Culture Centre in Białystok. Planning for this hugely ambitious project commenced in 1989. The scheme was initially supported financially by investments from the Arab countries, but stalled after 1994 due to inflation and the poor exchange rate of Polish currency. The uncompleted construction site has been abandoned since 1997.
Tarmac road leading from Sokółka to Drahle and Bohoniki. In 1970 this point marked the end of the tarmacked road and anyone willing to travel further down towards Bohoniki had to endure a dirt track. Sometime in the 1970s the wife of then chairman of the Council of State (the de facto head of the Polish government) was touring the region with the wife of UK's ambassador. When returning from the Bohoniki mosque after a huge downpour, their limousine got stuck in a sandy dirt road. The ladies were promptly rescued by Bohoniki Tatars. Next year the tarmac road was extended past Drahle to Bohoniki and Malawicze.