Editing Tatars (section)

===Lipka Tatars===
{{main|Lipka Tatars}}
[[File:Lemke Skirmish with Polish Tatars.png|thumb| Swedish King [[Charles X Gustav of Sweden|Charles X Gustav]] in a skirmish with Tatars near [[Warsaw]] during the [[Second Northern War]] of 1655–1660]]

The Lipka Tatars are a group of [[Turkic languages|Turkic-speaking]] Tatars who originally settled in the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]] at the beginning of the 14th century. The first settlers tried to preserve their [[shamanistic]] religion and sought asylum amongst the non-Christian Lithuanians.<ref name= galve>{{Cite web|url=http://www.galve.lt/lt/numeriai/2007062225/Trakai%20ir%20pasaulio%20paveldas/koranas|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071029035259/http://www.galve.lt/lt/numeriai/2007062225/Trakai%20ir%20pasaulio%20paveldas/koranas|title=Lietuvos totoriai ir jų šventoji knyga – Koranas|archive-date=29 October 2007}}</ref> Towards the end of the 14th century Grand Duke [[Vytautas the Great]] of Lithuania (ruled 1392–1430) invited another wave of Tatars—Muslims, this time—into the Grand Duchy. These Tatars first settled in [[Lithuania proper]] around [[Vilnius]], [[Trakai]], [[Hrodna]] and [[Kaunas]]<ref name= galve/> and spread to other parts of the Grand Duchy that later became part of the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] in 1569. These areas comprise parts of present-day [[Lithuania]], [[Belarus]] and [[Poland]]. From the very beginning of their settlement in Lithuania they were known as the Lipka Tatars.

From the 13th to 17th centuries various groups of Tatars settled and/or found refuge within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Grand Dukes of Lithuania especially promoted the migrations because of the Tatars' reputation as skilled warriors. The Tatar settlers were all granted ''[[szlachta]]'' (nobility) status, a tradition that survived until the end of the Commonwealth in the late 18th century. Such migrants included the [[Lipka Tatars]] (13th–14th centuries) as well as Crimean and [[Nogai people|Nogay]] Tatars (15th–16th centuries), all of which were notable in Polish military history, as well as [[Volga Tatars]] (16th–17th centuries). They all mostly settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

[[File:Tatar attack warsawa 1656.jpg|thumb| At the [[Battle of Warsaw (1656)|Battle of Warsaw]] in 1656 Tatars fought with the Poles against the Swedes.]]
Various estimates of the Tatars in the Commonwealth in the 17th century place their numbers at about 15,000 persons and 60 villages with mosques. Numerous royal privileges, as well as internal autonomy granted by the monarchs, allowed the Tatars to preserve their religion, traditions, and culture over the centuries. The Tatars were allowed to [[Interethnic marriage|intermarry]] with Christians,a practice uncommon in Europe at the time. The [[Constitution of May 3, 1791|May Constitution]] of 1791 gave the Tatars representation in the Polish [[Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Sejm]] (parliament).

Although by the 18th century the Tatars had adopted the local language, the Islamic religion and many Tatar traditions (e.g. the sacrifice of bulls in their mosques during the main religious festivals) survived. This led to the formation of a distinctive [[Muslim culture]], in which the elements of Muslim orthodoxy mixed with religious tolerance formed a relatively liberal society. For instance, the women in Lipka Tatar society traditionally had the same rights and status as men, and could attend non-segregated schools.

[[File:Tartares lituaniens (par Richard Knötel).jpg|thumb|[[Lithuanian Tartars of the Imperial Guard]] at the charge, by [[Richard Knötel]]]]
About 5,500 Tatars lived within the inter-war boundaries of [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] (1920–1939), and a Tatar cavalry unit had fought for the country's independence. The Tatars had preserved their cultural identity and sustained a number of Tatar organisations, including Tatar archives and a museum in Vilnius.

The Tatars suffered serious losses during [[World War II]] and furthermore, after the [[Polish–Soviet border agreement of August 1945|border change in 1945]], a large part of them found themselves in the [[Soviet Union]]. It is estimated that about 3,000 Tatars live in present-day Poland, of which about 500 declared Tatar (rather than Polish) nationality in the 2002 census.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} There are two Tatar villages ([[Bohoniki]] and [[Kruszyniany]]) in the north-east of present-day Poland, as well as urban Tatar communities in [[Warsaw]], [[Gdańsk]], [[Białystok]], and [[Gorzów Wielkopolski]]. Tatars in Poland sometimes have a Muslim surname with a Polish ending: ''Ryzwanowicz''; other surnames adopted by more assimilated Tatars are ''Tatara'' or ''Tataranowicz'' or ''Taterczyński'', which literally mean "son of a Tatar".

The Tatars played a relatively prominent role for such a small community in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth military as well as in Polish and Lithuanian political and intellectual life.{{Citation needed|date= April 2007}} In modern-day Poland, their presence is also widely known, due in part to their noticeable role in the historical novels of [[Henryk Sienkiewicz]] (1846–1916), which are universally recognized in Poland. A number of Polish intellectual figures have also been Tatars, e.g. the prominent historian [[Jerzy Łojek]].

A small community of Polish-speaking Tatars settled in [[Brooklyn]], [[New York City]], in the early 20th century. They established a mosque that remained in use {{as of | 2017 | lc = on}}.<ref>
[https://www.rferl.org/a/lipka-tatar-community-brooklyn-poland-baltic/28513760.html Amid Tatar Renaissance In Europe, An American Mosque Turns To Its Roots]&nbsp;– "A Lipka Tatar—a Muslim ethnic group native to the Baltic region—Jakub Szynkiewicz was selected to be Poland's first mufti in 1925, around the time that his community's U.S. diaspora was moving into the very mosque in Brooklyn where his portrait still hangs."</ref>