"Lithuanian Tatars" redirects here. For the Tatar population in Lithuania proper, seeTatars in Lithuania.
Ethnic group
Lipka Tatars Tatarzy polscy Lietuvos totoriai Літоўскія татары
One of the variations of the flag of Lipka Tatars, almost resembling the flag ofGolden Horde but with smaller and reversedtamga located on the upper hoist side.
The first Tatar settlers tried to preserve their Pagan tradition and sought asylum amongst thepre-Christian Lithuanians.[8] Towards the end of the 14th century, another wave of Tatars—this time,IslamizedTurkic populations, were invited into the Grand Duchy byVytautas the Great. These Tatars first settled inLithuania proper aroundVilnius,Trakai,Hrodna andKaunas,[8] later spreading to other parts of the Grand Duchy that later became part of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. These areas comprise parts of present-dayBelarus,Lithuania, andPoland. From the very beginning of their settlement in Lithuania they were known as the Lipka Tatars. From theBattle 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 theGolden Horde, theCrimean Khanate, andKazan 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 resistedassimilation and kept their traditional lifestyle. While they remained very attached to their religion, over time they lost their originalTatar language, from theKipchak group ofTurkic languages, and for the most part adoptedBelarusian,Lithuanian, andPolish.[9][10] There are still small groups of Lipka Tatars living in Belarus, Lithuania, and Poland, as well as theirdiaspora communities in theUnited States.
Litas commemorative coin for the 600th anniversary ofKaraims and Tatars in Lithuania (1397–1997)
The name Lipka is derived from the oldCrimean Tatarname of Lithuania. The record of the name Lipka in Oriental sources permits us to infer an original Libķa/Lipķa, from which the Polish derivative Lipka was formed, with possiblecontamination fromcontact with the Polishlipka "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 termLipka Tatarłar meaningLithuanian Tatars, later started to be used by the Polish–Lithuanian Tatars to describe themselves.
Diplomatic correspondence between the Crimean Khanate and Poland from the early 16th century refers to Poland and Lithuania as the "land of the Poles and the Lipkas".[11] 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 theKingdom of Poland and theGrand Duchy of Lithuania from the territories of theGolden Horde began during the 14th century and lasted until the end of the 17th century. There was a subsequent wave of Tatar immigrants fromSoviet Russia after theOctober Revolution of 1917, although these consisted mostly of political and national activists.[11]
Lipka Tatars living in thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had about 400 mosques serving them. According to theRisāle-yi Tatar-i Leh (trans:Message Concerning the Tatars of Poland, an account of the Lipka Tatars written forSuleiman the Magnificent by an anonymous Polish Muslim during a stay inConstantinople in 1557–1558 on his way toMecca) there were 100 Lipka Tatar settlements with mosques in Poland. The largest communities existed in the cities ofLida,Navahrudak, andIwye. There was a Lipka Tatar settlement inVilnius, known asTotorių Lukiškės, Tatar quarter inTrakai and inMinsk, today's capital of Belarus, known asTatarskaya Slabada.[citation needed]
In the year 1672, the Tatar subjects rose up in open rebellion against the Commonwealth. This event was remembered as theLipka rebellion. Thanks to the efforts of KingJohn III Sobieski, who was held in great esteem by the Tatar soldiers, many of the Lipkas seeking asylum and service in theOttoman army returned to his command and participated in themilitary struggles against the Ottoman Empire in theGreat Turkish War up to theTreaty of Karlowitz in 1699, which ended the Ottoman expansion in Europe with their defeat.[13]
Beginning in the late 18th and throughout the 19th century, the Lipkas became successively more and morePolonized. 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 the Lithuanian Grand DukeVytautas (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.[11] 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, the Tatar women in Poland do not practice veiling (wearing headscarf/hijab) or view it as a mandatory religious obligation.[14][15]
1226: The Khanate of the White Horde was established as one of thesuccessor states to the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan. The first Khan, Orda was the second son ofJochi, the eldest son of Genghis Khan. TheWhite Horde occupied the southern Siberiansteppe from the east of theUrals and theCaspian Sea toMongolia.
1380: KhanTokhtamysh, the hereditary ruler of the White Horde, crossed west over the Urals and merged the White Horde with theGolden Horde whose first khan was Batu, the eldest son of Jochi. In 1382 the White and Golden Hordes sacked and burned Moscow. Tokhtamysh, allied with the great central Asian Tatar conqueror Tamerlane, reasserted Mongol power in Russia.
1397: After a series of disastrous military campaigns against his former protector, the great Tatar warlordTamerlane, Tokhtamysh and the remnants of his clan were granted asylum and given estates and noble status in Grand Duchy of Lithuania byVytautas the Great. The settlement of the Lipka Tatars in Lithuania in 1397 is recorded in the Chronicles ofJan Długosz.
Tatar mosque and graveyard in theLukiškės suburb (1830),Vilnius. It was replaced by another, a more traditional one, in 1867Lipka Tatar family.Hasan Konopacki served as an officer in theImperial Russian ArmyDistribution of Lipka Tatars in Poland (1939)Jakub Szynkiewicz, first mufti of interwar Poland
1397: The Italian city state ofGenoa funded a joint expedition by the forces of Khan Tokhtamysh and Grand Duke Vytautas against Tamerlane. This campaign was notable for the fact that the Lipka Tatars and Lithuanian armies were armed with handguns, but no major victories were achieved.
15 July 1410: TheBattle of Grunwald took place between theKingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania on one side (c. 39,000 troops), and theTeutonic Knights on the other (c. 27,000 troops). The Teutonic knights were defeated and never recovered their former influence. After the battle, rumours spread across Europe that the Germans had only been defeated thanks to the aid of tens of thousands of heathen Tatars, though it is likely there were no more than 1,000 Tatarhorse archers at the battle, the core being the entourage ofJalal ad-Din, son of KhanTokhtamysh. At the start of the battle,Jalal ad-Din led the Lipka Tatar and Lithuanian light cavalry on a suicide charge against the Teutonic Knights' artillery positions – the original "Charge of the Light Brigade". The Teutonic Knights' Grand MasterUlrich von Jungingen responded by ordering his own heavy cavalry to pursue the Lipkas away from the field of battle, trampling through their own infantry in the process. The resulting destruction of the Teutonic Knights' line of battle was a major factor in their subsequent defeat. This incident forms one of the highlights ofAleksander Ford's 1960 filmKrzyżacy (Knights of the Teutonic Order), based on the historical novelof the same name by Nobel laureateHenryk Sienkiewicz.
1528: The Polish (szlachta) andLithuanian nobility's legal right to retribution on the grounds of the wounding or killing of a nobleman or a member of his family is extended to the Lipka Tatars.
1569: ThePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth is founded at theUnion of Lublin. Companies of Lipka Tatar light cavalry for a long time constituted one of the foundations of the military power of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Lithuanian Tatars, from the very beginning of their residence in Lithuania were known as the Lipkas. They united their fate with that of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. From the Battle of Grunwald onwards they participated in every significant military campaign.
1591: The rule of the fervent CatholicSigismund III (1587–1632) and theCounter-Reformation movement brought a number of restrictions to the liberties granted to non-Catholics in Poland, the Lipkas amongst others. This led to a diplomatic intervention by SultanMurad III with the Polish king in 1591 on the question of freedom of religious observance for the Lipkas. This was undertaken at the request of Polish Muslims who had accompanied the Polish King's envoy toIstanbul.
1672: TheLipka Rebellion. As a reaction to restrictions on their religious freedoms and the erosion of their ancient rights and privileges, the Lipka Tatar regiments stationed in thePodolia region of south-east Poland abandoned the Commonwealth at the start of the late 17th centuryPolish–Ottoman Wars that were to last until the end of the 17th century with theTreaty of Karlowitz in 1699. The Lipka Rebellion forms the background to the novelPan Wolodyjowski, the final volume of the historicalTrylogia byHenryk Sienkiewicz, theNobel Prize winning author (1905) who was himself descended from Christianised Lipka Tatars. The 1969 filmPan Wolodyjowski, directed byJerzy Hoffman and starringDaniel Olbrychski as Azja Tuhaj-bejowicz, still remains among the biggest box-office successes in the history of Polish cinema.
1674: After the famousPolish victory at Chocim, the Lipka Tatars who held the Podolia for Turkey from the stronghold of Bar were besieged by the armies ofJan Sobieski, and a deal was struck that the Lipkas would return to the Polish side subject to their ancient rights and privileges being restored.
1676: TheTreaty of Zurawno that brought a temporary end to the Polish–Ottoman wars stipulated that the Lipka Tatars were to be given a free individual choice of whether they wanted to serve theOttoman Empire or the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1677: TheSejm in March 1677 confirmed all the ancient Tatar rights and privileges. The Lipka Tatars were permitted to rebuild all their old mosques, to settle Christian labour on their estates and to buy up noble estates that had not previously belonged to Tatars. The Lipka Tatars were also freed from all taxation.
1679: As a reward for their return to the Commonwealth the Lipka Tatars were settled by King Jan Sobieski onCrown Estates in the provinces ofBrest,Kobryn andHrodna. The Tatars received land that had been cleared of the previous occupants, from 0.5 to 7.5 square kilometres per head, according to rank and length of service.
1683: Many of the Lipka Tatar rebels who returned to the service of the Commonwealth in 1674 were later to take part in theVienna campaign of 1683. This included the 60 Polish Tatars in the light cavalry company of Samuel Mirza Krzeczowski, who was later to save the life of KingJan III Sobieski during the disastrous first day of theBattle of Parkany, a few weeks after the great victory of theBattle of Vienna that was to turn the tide of Islamic expansion into Europe and mark the beginning of the end for the Ottoman Empire. The Lipka Tatars who fought on the Polish side at the Battle of Vienna, on 12 September 1683, wore a sprig of straw in their helmets to distinguish themselves from the Tatars fighting underKara Mustafa on the Turkish side. Lipkas visiting Vienna traditionally wear straw hats to commemorate their ancestors' participation in the breaking of theSiege of Vienna.
1699: Some of theKamieniec-based Lipka Tatars who had remained loyal to the TurkishSultan were settled inBessarabia along the borderlands between the Ottoman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as well as in the environs ofChocim and Kamieniec-Podolski and in the town known asLipkany. A further large scale emigration of Lipkas to Ottoman controlled lands took place early in the 18th century, after the victory won by KingAugustus II over the Polish-born KingStanisław Leszczyński, whom the Lipkas had supported in his war against the Saxon King.
1775: The Polish Lipkas came back into favour during the reign of the last King,Stanislas Augustus (1765–95). In 1775 theSejm reaffirmed the noble status of the Polish Lithuanian Tatars. After thePartitions of Poland, the Lipkas played their part in the various national uprisings, and also served alongside the Poles in theNapoleonic army.
1939: With there-emergence of the Polish state after the First World War, a Polish Tatar regiment was re-established in thePolish Army which was distinguished by its own uniforms and banners. After thefall of Poland in 1939, the Polish Tatars in theWilno (Vilnius) based 13th Cavalry Regiment were one of the last Polish Army units recorded carrying on the fight against the German aggressors while led by MajorAleksander Jeljaszewicz.[16]
Tatars in Belarus according to 2009 censusA flag of Lipka Tatars inBelarusLipka Tatars, 2021.
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-eastLatvia and Ukraine. Today most reside in Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus.[citation needed]
Most of the Lipka Tatars (80%) assimilated into the ranks of the nobility in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth while some lower noble Tatars assimilated to theBelarusian,Polish,Ukrainian andLithuanian townsfolk and peasant populations.[citation needed]
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" was built in 1928 inBrooklyn, New York City, and functioned until recently.[9]
After the annexation of eastern Poland into the Soviet Union in 1939 and then following World War II, Poland was left with only two Tatar villages,Bohoniki andKruszyniany. A significant number of the Tatars in the territories annexed by the USSR repatriated to Poland and clustered in cities such asGdańsk (Maciej Musa Konopacki – patriarch of the Polish Orient[17]),Białystok,Warsaw andGorzów 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".[citation needed]
In Poland, the 2011 census showed 1,916 people declaring Tatar ethnicity.[4]
In November 2010, a monument to Poland's Tatar populace was unveiled in the port city ofGdańsk at a ceremony attended by PresidentBronislaw Komorowski, as well asTatar representatives from across Poland and abroad. The monument is a symbol of the important role of Tatars inPolish 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.[citation needed]
Gene pool (Y-DNA) of the Lipka Tatars [Pankratov V. et al., 2016].[18]Autosomal distances of Lipka Tatars to peoples of the world. The closest population are theSteppe Crimean Tatars, which confirms the Lipka Tatars' largely Crimean origin.
Lipka Tatars' paternal gene pool comprises 15haplogroups. Some have clear geographical affinities, including Eastern Europe (Crimea) and theVolga-Urals (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).[19]
Dominant Y-DNA haplogroups among Lipka Tatars are R1a (49—54 %) and R1b (10 %) – both Eastern European and Steppe Asiatic one[20] – 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 %).[21]
According to one research, Lipka Tatars' mtDNA consists of combination of Eastern Eurasian and Western Eurasian haplogroups. The source of Eastern Eurasian haplogroups are populations of Central Asia, Eastern and Southern Siberia, while the source of Western Eurasian haplogroups can be linked with Belarusians and other Eastern Europeans. In another research, the dominant are haplogroups, common in Central Asia (Kazakhs, Kyrgyz), Volga-Ural region (Volga Tatars, Kalmyks), Siberia (Yakuts, Evenki), and Eastern Asia (Han Chinese, Tibetans).[22]
According to 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.[19]
The proportion of East Eurasian component is substantially higher when compared to many Turkic-speaking populations in western Eurasia such as Gagauz, Turks, Iranian Azeri, Balkars, Kumyks and Turkmens, and is as high as in the Volga Tatars.[19]
^The termLipka refers toLithuania; they are otherwise known asLipkas orLithuanian Tatars; later referred to asPolish Tatars,Polish–Lithuanian Tatars,Belarusian Tatars,Lipkowie,Lipcani, andMuślimi.
^abcdeSelim Mirza-Juszeński Chazbijewicz, "Szlachta tatarska w Rzeczypospolitej" (Tartar Nobility in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth), Verbum Nobile no 2 (1993), Sopot, Poland,"Szlachta tatarska w Rzeczypospolitej". Archived fromthe original on 5 January 2006. Retrieved23 February 2006.
1 Central Asian (i.e.Turkmeni,Afghani andIranian)Turkmens, distinct from Levantine (i.e.Iraqi andSyrian) Turkmen/Turkoman minorities, who mostly adhere to an Ottoman-Turkish heritage and identity.2 In traditional areas of Turkish settlement (i.e. formerOttoman territories).
Belarus
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