Kruszyniany Mosque: A Historic Lipka Tatar Mosque in Poland
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Poland
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russian
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Mosque
On this page7 sections
History
Kruszyniany Mosque is a wooden Sunni mosque in Kruszyniany, Poland, built by the Lipka Tatar community, with the present building probably dating from the second half of the eighteenth century or the first half of the nineteenth century. It is described as the oldest surviving Lipka Tatar mosque in Poland.
Lipka Tatar settlement
Kruszyniany was granted in the seventeenth century by King John III Sobieski to Tatars who had fought for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during its war with the Ottoman Empire. The Lipka Tatars were a Muslim Tatar community settled in the lands of the Commonwealth, including areas of present-day Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus. After establishing themselves in the village, they built a mosque that was first mentioned in 1717.
The existing mosque probably replaced an earlier building on the same site. Its precise construction date is unknown, but its form belongs to the period when the local Lipka Tatar community was maintaining its religious institutions within the Polish-Lithuanian lands. A stone plaque beside the entrance used by women records a renovation carried out in 1846.
Community and religious use
After the Second World War, the surrounding area was settled by repatriates and Muslims from present-day Belarus. The mosque continued to serve local worshippers, and regular Friday prayers continued until the death of the last local imam, Aleksander Bajraszewski. An imam is the person who leads prayers and provides religious guidance in a Muslim community. Today, formal sermons, known as khutbas, are delivered during major religious holidays and when the imam from Białystok visits.
Protection and vandalism
The mosque entered Poland’s national register of historic monuments under reference A-62 on 3 November 1960. On 22 October 2012, it was designated with the mosque in Bohoniki as part of the Historic Monument “Bohoniki and Kruszyniany, mosques and mizars,” Poland’s highest form of heritage protection. A fire-protection system was installed in August 2008 with support from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
During the night of 28 to 29 June 2014, unknown perpetrators spray-painted the symbol of Fighting Poland and images of pigs on the mosque’s historic walls. The Fighting Poland symbol was an emblem of the Polish underground resistance during the Second World War. Gravestones in the nearby mizar were also defaced. The local multi-faith community repaired the damage, while the Białystok prosecutor’s office discontinued its investigation in May 2015 because the perpetrators could not be identified.
Remains
The mosque has a rectangular plan measuring 10 by 13 metres. Its log construction and dark-green wooden paneling give both the exterior and interior a character resembling the nearby two-towered wooden churches, while its three crowned towers and prayer orientation identify it as a Muslim place of worship.
The mosque building
Two wood-covered towers rise at the northern end of the building. A third, smaller and windowless tower stands on the roof ridge, slightly toward the mihrab, the niche that indicates the direction of prayer toward Mecca. All three towers have flattened, helmet-shaped roofs topped with crescents, and the main roof is covered with wooden shingles.
The interior is divided between a substantially smaller women’s section and a men’s prayer hall. The women’s entrance stands on the main axis beneath a triangular tympanum flanked by the two towers, while the men enter through a side wall. A wooden partition separates the two areas. About one metre above the floor, a long opening in the partition is covered with transparent white fabric.
The front wall of the men’s prayer hall faces southeast toward Mecca. It contains the small mihrab, and a minbar, or wooden pulpit, stands to its right. The pulpit has six steps. Rugs cover the floor, while calligraphic quotations from the Quran decorate the walls.
The mizar
The mosque’s associated mizar, a Muslim cemetery or burial ground, lies about 100 metres away on a forested hill reached by a dirt road. Covering approximately 0.6 hectares, it is enclosed by a stone wall. A gate marks the entrance, with an information plaque and a crescent above it. The older central part is densely overgrown with shrubs.
The oldest deciphered gravestone dates to 1744. Other stones date to 1790 and the first half of the nineteenth century, providing material evidence of the cemetery’s long association with the Lipka Tatar community at Kruszyniany.
