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44-667: The history of Muslim community of Kaunas can be traced to the arrival of Muslim Lipka tatars in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 15th century. The former Muslim cemetery is today located in Ramybė Park , which was previously the Kaunas Old Cemetery from 1847 to 1959 divided between four confessions: the Catholic church , Lutherans , the Orthodox church and Islam . The territory of

88-454: A Tatar ethnic group and minority in Lithuania , who originally settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the beginning of the 14th century. The first Tatar settlers tried to preserve their Turco-Mongol shamanistic religion and sought asylum amongst the pre-Christian Lithuanians . Towards the end of the 14th century, another wave of Tatars—this time, Islamized Turks , were invited into

132-462: A citizen of Kaunas of Tatar descent, obtained permission from the Russian government to build the new mosque. He built a wooden mosque as a memorial to his dead parents who were buried in the graveyard. The wooden mosque's exterior was an undecorated, blue-painted ten-meter-long and eight-meter-wide timber construction. It had no minaret , instead only a small tower adorned the roof peg with the symbol of

176-557: A minaret and a dome. Various oriental elements were visible on the facade of building as well as inside, the mosque was decorated with various paints and oriental ornaments. During World War II , the Mosque was closed and was robbed. Religious activities ran after the war until 1947, when the Mosque's ownership was transferred to the Municipality of Kaunas. During the Soviet times , the building

220-456: A mufti and a council. In Russia (as was during the Soviet Union) a muftiate is further divided into qadiyats which are led by qadis . Directly subordinate to qadiyats are muhtasibats which are headed by a muhtasib (originally an Ottoman official charged with supervising proper weights and measures in markets and the proper conduct of certain rituals). In some muftiates the qadis rank below

264-444: A narrow, not even 2.5 square meter large, prayer room for women that was connected through a slim glass window with the main prayer room. Through the right door was the men's entrance. It was a room that was decorated with friendly shining colourful pictures on both sides, as well as colourful boards. It resembled a living room. On the boards were calligraphically written names of Allah and Muhammad as well as many Quranic verses. From

308-536: Is a symbol of the important role of Tatars in Polish history . "Tatars shed their blood in all national independence uprisings. Their blood seeped into the foundations of the reborn Polish Republic," President Komorowski said at the unveiling. The monument is the first of its kind to be erected in Europe. Lipka Tatars' paternal gene pool comprises 15 haplogroups . Some have clear geographical affinities, including east Europe and

352-503: Is credited for settling Lipka Tatars in Lithuania. The mosque was designed by architects Vaclovas Michnevičius (1866-1947) and Adolfas Netyksas, who followed a modernist style with respect to the Islamic architecture elements. Construction of the new mosque started in 1930 and was completed in 1933. The mosque was small, its first floor is for men and the second floor, for women, and it has

396-481: The Abakanowicz family Muftiate A muftiate (alternative spelling: muftiyat; Bosnian : Muftijstvo or Muftiluk ; Albanian : Myftini ; Bulgarian : мюфтийство ; Kazakh : мүфтият ; Russian : Муфтият ; Tatar : мөфтият ; Bashkir : мөфтиәт ; Romanian : muftiat ; Ukrainian : Муфтіят ) is an administrative territorial entity, mainly in the post-Soviet and Southeast European states, under

440-658: The Great Turkish War up to the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, which ended the Ottoman expansion in Europe with their defeat. Beginning in the late 18th and throughout the 19th century, the Lipkas became successively more and more Polonized . The upper and middle classes in particular adopted Polish language and customs, while the lower ranks became Ruthenized. At the same time, the Tatars held

484-644: The Kipchak group of Turkic languages , and for the most part adopted Belarusian , Lithuanian , and Polish . There are still small groups of Lipka Tatars living in Belarus, Lithuania, and Poland, as well as their communities in the United States . The name Lipka is derived from the old Crimean Tatar name of Lithuania . The record of the name Lipka in Oriental sources permits us to infer an original Libķa/Lipķa, from which

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528-657: The Organization of Tatars of the Polish Republic ( Polish : Związek Tatarów Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej ) with autonomous branches in Białystok and Gdańsk, began operating. In Poland, the 2011 census showed 1,916 people declaring Tatar ethnicity. In November 2010, a monument to Poland's Tatar populace was unveiled in the port city of Gdańsk at a ceremony attended by President Bronislaw Komorowski , as well as Tatar representatives from across Poland and abroad. The monument

572-717: The Caucasus (Baku), The Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Northern Caucasus (Buynaksk), and The Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the European Part of the USSR and Siberia (Ufa). The breakup of the four spiritual boards came with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Today, each of the former Soviet Republics with significant Muslim populations have their own independent Spiritual Boards. Attempts have been made to unite all

616-586: The Grand Duchy by Vytautas the Great . These Tatars first settled in Lithuania proper around Vilnius , Trakai , Hrodna , and Kaunas and later spread to other parts of the Grand Duchy that later became part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . These areas comprise parts of present-day Belarus , Lithuania , and Poland . From the very beginning of their settlement in Lithuania they were known as

660-628: The Islamic religious organizations in Russia into one single umbrella organization without success. In the 19th century the Austrian Habsburgs and Russians expanded into southeastern Europe, carving territory out of the Ottoman Empire and helping establish newly independent countries. The Muslim population in these countries were organized under muftiates in a similar fashion to those in Russia. Today,

704-921: The Lipka Tatars (80%) assimilated into the ranks of the nobility in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth while some lower noble Tatars assimilated to the Belarusian , Polish , Ukrainian and Lithuanian townsfolk and peasant populations. A number of the Polish Tatars emigrated to the US at the beginning of the 20th century and settled mostly in the north eastern states, although there is also an enclave in Florida. A small but active community of Lipka Tatars exists in New York City. " The Islamic Center of Polish Tatars "

748-789: The Lipka Tatars written for Suleiman the Magnificent by an anonymous Polish Muslim during a stay in Constantinople in 1557–1558 on his way to Mecca ) there were 100 Lipka Tatar settlements with mosques in Poland. The largest communities existed in the cities of Lida , Navahrudak , and Iwye . There was a Lipka Tatar settlement in Vilnius , known as Totorių Lukiškės , Tatar quarter in Trakai and in Minsk , today's capital of Belarus, known as Tatarskaya Slabada . In

792-861: The Lipka Tatars. From the Battle of Grunwald onwards, the Lipka Tatar light cavalry regiments participated in every significant military campaign of Lithuania and Poland. The Lipka Tatar origins can be traced back to the descendant states of the Golden Horde , the Crimean Khanate , and Kazan Khanate . They initially served as a noble military caste but later they became urban-dwellers known for their crafts, horses, and gardening skills. Throughout centuries they resisted assimilation and kept their traditional lifestyle. While they remained very attached to their religion, over time they lost their original Tatar language , from

836-562: The Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas ( Wattad in Tatar), who encouraged and supported their settlement in the late 14th and early 15th century, in great esteem, including him in many legends, prayers and their folklore. Throughout the 20th and since the 21st century, most Tatars no longer view religious identity as being as important as it once was, and the religious and linguistic subgroups have intermingled considerably; for example,

880-657: The Mosque. Kaunas City Muslim Religious Community has been a member of the Council of Lithuanian Muslim Religious Communities - Muftiate since 2019. In 2018, the mosque of Kaunas was completely renovated. This was financed by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency . Interior and exterior renovation were realized under the supervision of the Department of Cultural Heritage under the Ministry of Culture. From 2012 to 2019,

924-645: The Muslim Cemetery was divided into two parts: Originally there was a wooden Mosque on the banks of the Neman river. However, during French invasion of Russia in the winter of 1812, Napoleonic troops crossed the city of Kaunas and set the wooden building afire. Since then, the Muslim Tatars had no common place of worship in Kaunas, until 1906 when Alexander Illasevich ( Lithuanian : Aleksandras Iljasevičius ) (1853–1925),

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968-628: The Muslim community of Kaunas city was unable to provide the religious responsible from within the community. To establish the main daily prayers and other religious activities, the local community agreed with the Directorate of Religious Affairs ( Turkish : Diyanet ) of Turkey to accept Imams, thus three assigned imams officiated during this period. In 2019 a local Imam was appointed by the Muslim Community of Kaunas. Nowadays, most believers who visit

1012-475: The Ottoman Empire between the 17th and 19th centuries include: Albania, Bosnia-and-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. Many of these muftiates or riyasats were established by these countries following their independence from the Ottoman Empire. At the top of the structure of a grand muftiate is a grand mufti and his council, followed by muftis and their councils. Independent muftiates are governed by

1056-629: The Polish Orient ), Białystok , Warsaw and Gorzów Wielkopolski totaling some 3,000 people. One of the neighborhoods of Gorzów Wielkopolski where relocated Tatar families resettled has come to be referred to as "the Tatar Hills", or in Polish "Górki Tatarskie". In 1925 the Muslim Religion Association ( Polish : Muzułmański Związek Religijny ) was formed in Białystok, Poland. In 1992,

1100-538: The Polish derivative Lipka was formed, with possible contamination from contact with the Polish lipka "small lime-tree"; this etymology was suggested by the Tatar author S. Tuhan-Baranowski. A less frequent Polish form, Łubka, is corroborated in Łubka/Łupka, the Crimean Tatar name of the Lipkas up to the end of the 19th century. The Crimean Tatar term Lipka Tatarłar meaning Lithuanian Tatars , later started to be used by

1144-631: The Polish–Lithuanian Tatars to describe themselves. Over time, the lower and middle Lipka Tatar nobles adopted the Ruthenian language then later the Belarusian language as their native language. However, they used the Arabic alphabet to write in Belarusian until the 1930s. The upper nobility of Lipka Tatars spoke Polish. Diplomatic correspondence between the Crimean Khanate and Poland from

1188-562: The Russian garrison of the Kaunas Fortress were 2000 Muslim soldiers, who visited the mosques on Fridays. The wooden mosque was replaced by a brick mosque in 1930 with the aid of the state of Lithuania. At that time, Kaunas was the Temporary capital of Lithuania . Kaunas Mosque was rebuilt in commemoration of the 500th death anniversary of Vytautas the Great , the Grand Duke of Lithuania who

1232-544: The Tatar women in Poland do not practice veiling (wearing headscarf/hijab) or view it as a mandatory religious obligation. Today there are about 10,000–15,000 Lipka Tatars in the former areas of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The majority of descendants of Tatar families in Poland can trace their descent from the nobles of the early Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Lipka Tatars had settlements in north-east Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, south-east Latvia and Ukraine. Today most reside in Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus. Most of

1276-865: The USSR in 1991. The newly independent countries established their own independent muftiates or "spiritual administrations" based on the remnants of the Soviet system, such the Central Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Russia, the Clerical Board of Ukraine's Muslims , the Religious Council of the Caucasus , the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Kazakhstan, and others. Countries in southern-eastern Europe who inherited large Muslim populations after gaining their independence from

1320-607: The Volga–Uralic region (N-Tat, R1a-M458, R1a-M558, R1b-M412 and R1b-M478), Central Asia (R1a-Z2125 and Q-M242), South Siberia (Q-M242 and R1b-M478), the Caucasus and the Middle East (G2a-U1, J1-P58, J2a-M410 and J2b-M12). Dominant Y-DNA haplogroups among Lipka Tatars are R1a (54%) – both Slavic and Steppe Asiatic one – J2 (18,9 %) which is of Middle Eastern and south Asian origin, and haplogroup Q (10,8 %). Other haplogroups are G (8.1%), N (5.4%) and J1 (2.7%). According to

1364-407: The ceiling hanged a colourfully decorated chandelier-shaped draw lamp. The floor was covered with beautiful carpets. Near the entrance were two benches where the worshippers could sit to remove their shoes. Despite that, there were no places to sit elsewhere. The Tatar community of Kaunas counted about 120 members at the beginning of 20th century. Nevertheless, the prayers well attended, because among

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1408-628: The correctness of the execution of Muslim worship, and birth registrations. With the creation of the Soviet Union the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly was replaced with the Central Spiritual Board of Muslims. After 1944 the management of spiritual affairs of the Muslim population in Russia was carried out by four independent spiritual boards: The Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan (Tashkent), The Spiritual Administration of Muslims of

1452-509: The early 16th century refers to Poland and Lithuania as the "land of the Poles and the Lipkas". By the 17th century the term Lipka Tatar began to appear in the official documents of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The migration of Tatars into the lands of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the territories of the Golden Horde began during the 14th century and lasted until

1496-605: The empire. The mufti was initially appointed by the emperor, but with a decree signed by Emperor Alexander I in 1817, it was determined that the mufti should be elected by the Muslim community with imperial approval. Most of the muftis, their assistants and ordinary mullahs were elected from the Kazan Tatars. The mufti's duties included overseeing the Muslim clergy, clerical appointments, the construction of mosques, marriages and divorces, inheritances, property disputes, endowments ( waqf ), cases of disobedience to parents by children,

1540-534: The end of the 17th century. There was a subsequent wave of Tatar immigrants from Soviet Russia after the October Revolution of 1917, although these consisted mostly of political and national activists. Lipka Tatars living in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had about 400 mosques serving them. According to the Risāle-yi Tatar-i Leh (trans: Message Concerning the Tatars of Poland , an account of

1584-415: The golden crescent with a star. There was also no front court, instead a two-meter deep, fenced-off front yard set behind the double-door entrance which was decorated with a memorial plaque, with the Muslim testimony of faith Shahada written on it: lā ʾilāha ʾillā -llāhu muḥammadun rasūlu -llāhi (There is no deity but Allah , Muhammad is the messenger of Allah). On the interior, the left door lead to

1628-469: The majority of muftiates in south-eastern Europe are independent from government control. Former republics of the Soviet Union that retained muftiates or "spiritual boards" after the breakup of the USSR: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Four spiritual directorates presided over the territory of the Soviet Union until the dissolution of

1672-677: The mosque are foreign students from throughout the world who study in Kaunas' universities and businessmen from Central Asia . The Friday sermons - Khutbah - are given by different Khateeb in English, Arabic and Lithuanian. The mosque is open for the five daily prayers. Lipka tatars The Lipka Tatars (the term Lipka refers to Lithuania ; they are otherwise known as Lipkas or Lithuanian Tatars ; later referred to as Polish Tatars , Polish–Lithuanian Tatars , Belarusian Tatars , Lipkowie , Lipcani , Muślimi , and Lietuvos totoriai ) are

1716-415: The principle of an all-encompassing legal and administrative order in parallel fashion to Christian dioceses with the purpose of regulating the Islamic religion. In 1788 the Russian Empire under Empress Catherine II established the first muftiate in Russia named “The Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly ” governed by a supreme mufti who oversaw the appointment of imams and the management of mosques across

1760-531: The supervision of a mufti . In the post- Yugoslavia states, spiritual administrations similar to the muftiate are called riyasat . A grand muftiate is more significant than a muftiate, and is presided over by a grand mufti . A grand muftiate or muftiate is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the directorate, and oversees the local boards, clerics, mosques, and trusteeships. The structure of Russian- and south-eastern European muftiates were never prescribed by Islamic doctrine, but instead are based on

1804-469: The whole genome sequencing, around two-thirds of the Lipka Tatar genomes are composed of the European and Middle Eastern/Caucasus components, with remaining one-third belonging to two sub-variants of the general east Eurasian component: east Asian and Siberian. Taken together, both PC and ADMIXTURE analyses suggest the presence of a significant amount of east Eurasian-specific alleles among the autosomal genomes of Lipka Tatars. Two distantly related members of

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1848-407: The year 1672, the Tatar subjects rose up in open rebellion against the Commonwealth. This event was remembered as the Lipka rebellion . Thanks to the efforts of King John III Sobieski , who was held in great esteem by the Tatar soldiers, many of the Lipkas seeking asylum and service in the Ottoman army returned to his command and participated in the military struggles against the Ottoman Empire in

1892-432: Was built in 1928 in Brooklyn , New York City, and functioned until recently. After the annexation of eastern Poland into the Soviet Union in 1939 and then following World War II, Poland was left with only 2 Tatar villages, Bohoniki and Kruszyniany . A significant number of the Tatars in the territories annexed by the USSR repatriated to Poland and clustered in cities such as Gdańsk (Maciej Musa Konopacki – patriarch of

1936-482: Was used for a circus and a library . There were plans to establish a museum of Islamic/Oriental art. The Mosque's external appearance is similar to its original appearance, but, all the internal decorations were replaced with the passage of the time. In 1989, Kaunas Mosque was returned to the faithful. In 1991 the first worship was held. Thus, since the independence of Lithuania, the Kaunas City Muslim Religious Community (Kauno Miesto Musulmonų Religinė Bendruomenė) owns

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