Poland

Islam is one of Poland’s traditional religions. The first Muslims to settle in the present-day territory of Poland were Polish-Lithuanian Tatars, who arrived more than three hundred years ago. Since then, the nature of the Muslim religious leadership has changed several times due to historical circumstances. For centuries, Tatars did not have a high-level local religious authority and were subject to external religious leadership. The so-called Polish-Lithuanian Tatars came from the Golden Horde in the 14th century and settled in the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania which at that time included the area of today's Lithuania and Belarus and which was joined with the Kingdom of Poland by the monarch. Over time, Tatars lost their native language and started to use one of the variants of Polish. Their religious works, even though recorded using the Arabic alphabet, were also written in Polish. It is also Polish that the majority of works on the history of the Tatar community is available in. Therefore, in order to avoid repetition, the history of the religious leadership in the Polish-Lithuanian Tatar community is presented in the chapter devoted to Poland. For centuries, Tatars did not have a high-level local religious authority and were subject to external religious leadership. In the first half of the 20th century, however, they created their first Poland-based religious organization and elected a mufti. Since then, Polish Muslims have been independent from external religious authorities, even though Muftis have been educated outside of Poland. The first Polish Mufti held his post until his death, but at present a mufti is can be elected for a definite term and can even lose his post. There have been three muftis in Poland until now, one before the Second World War and two hold their positions now.