Most likely, today few Minsk residents will be able to explain where in the city the area called “Tatar gardens” is, although even a few decades ago, at least, experienced Minskers would immediately point to the area of \u200b\u200bthe Sports Palace. And further up - to the streets of Timiryazev, Amuratorskaya: there historically, for several centuries, the Minsk Tatars lived.
Minsk Tatars near the mosque. 1918 year.
Who are they and where are the Minsk Tatars from? And also Novogrudok, Grodno, Ivyev, Nesvizh, Slonim ... In short, Belarusian. How did you end up in the Slavic lands? And so long ago - more than 600 years ago that they became inseparably akin to the Belarusian land, rooted in it. But if we try to look beyond the farthest horizons of history, what will we see there?
Beyond the horizons of history
The history of the Tatars in the Belarusian lands is generally well known. In the middle of the 19th century, the orientalist historian Anton Mukhlinsky noted that the Tatar population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was formed from: 
Peace. Tatar. 1920s.
Sedentary mercenaries and allied warriors of the Tatar hordes;
Ulus, who were brought by Vytautas and Tokhtamysh from the joint campaign of 1397;
Natives of the Golden Horde, who, tired of civil strife, themselves voluntarily moved to the Belarusian lands. Among them were prisoners (but a minority): for example, in 1362, the army of the Grand Duke Olgerd defeated the Horde army in the Battle of Blue Waters, and presumably this is the origin of the Tatar population near Novogrudok and Krevo. Perhaps some part of the Tatar army settled in the Grand Duchy after the battle on the Kulikovo field in 1380.
When the pressure of the Great Horde weakened, the Crimean Khanate directed its forces to the lands of the Grand Duchy. In the 90s of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th, his units reached southern Belarus. Victories and defeats fell on both opposing sides. In any case, the number of captured Tatars in our lands was growing. For example, the great Tatar campaign, led by the princes Biti and Burnash, organized in the summer of 1506, ended for the Tatars in complete defeat at the Battle of Kletsk. The prisoners were then dismantled by the victorious magnates. It is believed that some ended up in Minsk, which marked the beginning of the Tatar colony in the city.
Belarusian Tatars at the congress in Vilno. 1918 year.
Minsk address
In Minsk, the captives were settled on their lands by Janusz Radziwill the Bearded and Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky (Tarasovsky courtyard). These Tatars, formally dependent on the feudal lords, formed their own enclave - the so-called Tatar end. In 1586, the residents of the Radziwill law received a document defining their responsibilities:Payment of 6 pennies from a built-up plot in the city and a vegetable garden (at that time only one Tatar family in Minsk had a field allotment, the rest owned vegetable gardens);
Delivery of letters;
Work in the field by order of the housekeeper.
Ivye. Tatar cemetery. 1916 year.
Ordashi. Smorgon district. Tatar cemetery. 1916 year.
The main occupations of the Minsk Tatars were carriage, leatherworking and tailoring. Things were going well, and already at the end of the 16th century the Tatars-landowners had their own houses in Minsk.
The ransomed most noble captives, as well as the Murza sent to the Grand Duchy in 1506, with the guarantee of acquaintances of the local Tatars, entered the Grand Duke's service - the Belarusian Tatars bravely fought on the side of their new homeland, receiving estates for this. The most striking example is the fate of Melikbashi from the Crimean Shirin family. After the redemption in 1506 on the guarantee of the Asanchukovich Tatar family in 1508, Melikbasha entered the economic service, for which he received in 1520 the rich estate of Kroshin in the Novogrudok Voivodeship. Later, Melikbasha himself returned to Crimea, but his family remained in Belarus.
In the second half of the 16th century, the Tatar population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was replenished by new groups of Muslim immigrants - refugees from Kazan and Astrakhan captured by Ivan IV (1552, 1556), as well as Temryuk Tatars, who did not want to convert to Orthodoxy. The last large group of Muslims who sought refuge in the Belarusian lands were the Tatars of the Budzhak horde, who in 1637 raised a revolt against the Crimean Khan.
Myadel Tatars on a holiday near the mosque. 1930s.
Not only responsibilities, but also rights
In the Grand Duchy, the Tatars had many privileges: the right to engage in military craft, the right to land, limited gentry rights and, which is very important, the right to freely profess Islam and build mosques. It turned out to be more difficult to keep the language. But the problems arose not because of any harassment, but because of fairly objective reasons. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the Tatar settlers arrived from different areas, came from different hordes, uluses, clans, and used different dialects. In their new homeland, in order to maintain unity, they used a common language - the one spoken by the local population. This is how a unique spiritual and cultural phenomenon was born - kitabs: books written in the Belarusian language in Arabic script.When the Belarusian lands became part of the Russian Empire, the local Tatars did not lose their privileged position - both socially and financially. They also continued to maintain their faith, rituals and customs.
Deep. Tatars-tanners. 1930s.
When statistics differ in statistics
Minsk, Novogrudok, Kletsk, Slonim, Mir, Myadel, Vidzy, Dokshitsy, Glubokoe, Ivye, Lovchitsy - this is not a complete list of places where the Tatar and Muslim population in general lived in Belarus. How many in total? It is difficult to give an exact answer, since the numbers that have come down to us vary greatly. For example, one can read in historical sources that at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, Muslims, most of them, of course, local Tatars, constituted a small part of the urban population - about 0.5 percent. However, one should not forget that a significant number of Tatars lived in towns and villages. We do not know the statistical data on them. 
Tatars from the Grodno province. The beginning of the twentieth century.
Preserved information for 1912 about the Muslims of the Vitebsk province. Thus, in response to a request from the Department of Spiritual Affairs of Foreign Confessions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, police officers from Velizhsky, Vitebsk, Gorodoksky, Dvinsky, Lyutsinsky, Nevelsky, Polotsk, Rezhitsky and Sebezhsky districts reported that there is no Muslim population in the respective districts. In the Lepel district, 10 Tatars were noted, in Drissensky - 8 Tatars. The presence of Muslims is also indicated in Vitebsk: as of January 1, 1912, 15 Turks lived there - perhaps they were prisoners of war after the war of 1877-1878. And in Dvinsk - 22 Tatars, 8 Turkmens and 26 representatives of "other nationalities", 208 Tatars, 23 Bashkirs and 14 representatives of "other nationalities" also served in the local garrison. In Polotsk there are 11 Muslims from “other nationalities”. At the same time, according to the information of the Vitebsk Provincial Statistical Committee, as of January 1, 1912, 61 Muslims lived in Vitebsk, 301 in Dvinsk, 10 in Polotsk district, 27 in Dvinsky ... In total, there were 421 Muslims in the province - 368 men. and 53 women. The sharp predominance of men indicates that these were military personnel from the Volga and Asian regions of the empire, and not the local population. Thus, we get a discrepancy between the data provided by the police administration and the statistical office.
As for other provinces, in 1853 there were 1,543 Muslims in the Grodno province, 1,500 in Minsk (in Minsk - 400); in 1897: in the Minsk province - 4.619 people, in 1912-1915 - 5.364 people.
Nevertheless, today we judge not by numbers, but by the life of the Belarusian people. And in it the most worthy place was and still is occupied by Belarusian Tatars - brave defenders, talented scientists and creative personalities, wonderful masters. And of course, gardeners, whose farming experience was adopted by the neighbors - this is the question of the name of the former Minsk suburb, from which the story began. Our rubric will tell you more about the regions of settlement of the Belarusian Tatars in one of the following issues.
This term has other meanings, see Tatars (meanings). Polish Lithuanian Tatars Modern area of \u200b\u200bsettlement and number ... Wikipedia
This term has other meanings, see Tatars (meanings). Tatars Tatarlar ... Wikipedia
Contents 1 Tatars 1.1 Modern peoples 1.2 Names of other peoples 1.3 ... Wikipedia
A group of Turkic-speaking peoples (T. Wed. Volga and Ural regions, Astrakhan, Siberian, Crimean, Lithuanian, etc.), the origin and formation of which took place in different ist. conditions. For the first time the term T. in the form yes yes or that tan is noted in the whale. ... ... Soviet Historical Encyclopedia
Tatars - people related to the Ottomans Turks, all Mohammedans, use several Turkic dialects. European Tomsk, for the most part, are the descendants of the Polovtsians, who mixed with the Mongols of the Golden Horde; Kazan, Astrakhan, Crimean and Lithuanian, over all ... ... Cossack dictionary-reference
Russian-Polish wars Boleslav I's campaign in Kiev - Russian-Lithuanian wars - Livonian war - 1605-1618 - Smolensk war - 1654-67 - ... Wikipedia
Russian Lithuanian wars 1368 1372 1406 1408 1487 1494 1500 1503 1507 1508 1512 1522 1534 1537 1563 1582 Russian Lithuanian wars wars of the Russian principalities against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the XIII XVI centuries, from the formation of the Grand Duchy ... ... Wikipedia
Or Turkish Tatar peoples a term synonymous with sl. Turks (see). The origin and meaning of this term requires clarification. The fact is that under the word Tatars or Tartars even up to the present time, especially in the West, they denote the totality ... ...
The beginning of the struggle between Lithuania and Russia dates back to the 13th century, when the Lithuanian peoples began to unite into one state. Lithuanian prince Mindovg waged a long struggle with prince Daniil Romanovich Galitsky. In the XIV century, when Russia, conquered ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron
This term has other meanings, see Karaites. Karaites, Karai ... Wikipedia
Books
- The last day of Moscow, Rogachev A. .. Moscow is the capital of our Motherland! These words are familiar to every citizen of Russia from school. But few people thought about what price this city paid for the right to be called the capital of Russia. ...
- The last day of Moscow, Rogachev Alexey Vyacheslavovich. Moscow is the capital of our Motherland! These words are familiar to every citizen of Russia from school. But few people thought about what price this city paid for the right to be called the capital of Russia. ...
I spent my childhood in the Tatar settlement of the city of Ivye (it is also called Murovshchizna). And although the Tatars have not settled separately for a long time, it turns out that most of them live in this area. Which, however, is now no different from other parts of the city. You can't tell right away where the Tatars live and where the Belarusians live. And if, almost here, the tall minaret of the local mosque does not surprise me at all, then our photographer is sincerely bewildered by such proximity of traditional Belarusian huts and a Muslim temple. By the way, during Soviet times, the mosque in Ivye was the only working Muslim temple.
Ivye is about halfway from Minsk to Grodno. If you turn off the M6 \u200b\u200bhighway, then another 6 - 8 kilometers - and we are there.
The fact that Ivye is an unusual city can be understood already at the entrance. Almost every vegetable garden has huge greenhouses, where local people grow tomatoes in season. And starting from about February - salad, onions, radishes. Even 20 years ago, such greenhouses could only be seen among the Tatars, but now the Belarusians have adopted the wisdom of gardening from their Muslim neighbors.
Tatars appeared on the Belarusian lands just over 600 years ago. No, they did not come to us with the war and then stayed. In 1397, the Grand Duke Vitovt invited skilled Tatar soldiers to guard the borders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. And they served so well that the rulers generously endowed them with noble titles and gave them land. The Tatars, in their prayers, still call the prince who invited them to their lands, Vitovt strong or Vitovt the intercessor.
Over time, the Tatars got along so much with their neighbors that even Tatar surnames began to sound first in Polish, and then in Belarusian: Abramovich, Adamovich, Bogdanovich, Voronovich, Gembitsky, Zhdanovich, Kazakevichi, Radkevich, Radlinsky, Shchutsky, Yakubovsky Yes, Yasinski ... and outwardly it is not always possible to determine that in front of you is a representative of the Tatar people - mixed marriages in Ivye are not uncommon. Here is such a typical Belarusian standing in front of you. And he is Mustafa!
And this Mustafa lives in a simple rural house. Life, by and large, already from the 19th century did not differ in any way from the life of a Belarusian peasant. We were able to make sure of this by visiting the Tatar family of Shabanovichs.
NIKAKH, CHILDREN'S RUNNING - HABITUAL RITES
Yakub Mustafovich Shabanovich - one of the elders of the local community, at one time was the chairman of the local collective farm, and a tractor driver, and a worker, and together with his father he worked in leather.
A simple solid wooden house, a canopy, an ordinary stove, a familiar TV. "Red corner" in the room, where instead of Christian icons there are suras from the Koran depicted on sheets of paper.
Our names are simple - Yakov, Mustafa, Aminya, Aisha, Aliya, Ibrahim, - Yakub Mustafovich smiles and leads us around the house. His wife, Aminya Yakubovna, follows.
How did you meet? - I ask, looking at old photos.
And we have not met. The parents agreed - that's all.
Why is that? Was the dowry large? - we are surprised.
Well, what a dowry there: brought her clothes - and that's it. After the war, my mother was very sick, she had to work, but my brothers and I could not cope.
So you got an assistant?
And an assistant and a life companion. So they got used to each other, settled down together already.
How did you play the wedding?
Houses. The relatives gathered. A simple country wedding.
It turns out that the Tatar wedding is not much different from the usual Belarusian one. However, instead of a wedding, the main religious rite is nikah - translated from Arabic as “treaty”. This ceremony is held in the mosque: the mullah instructs the young before living together, blesses them and signs a marriage certificate, which now has no legal force, but, like a wedding, is very important for believers.
Yakub Mustafovich and Aminya Yakubovna lived together for more than 50 years, raising three children. In addition to raising his own sons, Yakub Mustafovich participated in the fate of many Tatar children in Ivye, because the elders who know prayers in Arabic are sure to take part in reciting children. The ceremony looks quite simple: certain prayers are read over the baby. All the action takes place at home during the next everyday bathing of the newborn. Sometimes, when announcing, a child is given a middle name, and the community gathers for a gift, because a very important period begins in the life of a little Muslim.
Growing up, Tatar children in Ivye go to ordinary kindergartens, together with others they study in an ordinary secondary school and gymnasium. Although even before the war, according to Yakub Mustafovich, there was a separate Muslim school in Iwye, where children were taught the basics of the Koran and the Arabic language.
Perhaps due to the lack of specialized educational institutions, the Ivyevsk Tatars practically do not know the Tatar language. And only a few know well the more complex Arabic, in which spiritual literature is mainly published.
TATARS ARE FAMOUS FOR THEIR SWEETS, AND NO ONE MAKES HIJAB TO WEAR
One of these experts is the imam of the Ivye mosque, Adam Radetsky, who recently became the spiritual leader of the local community. For the imam, serving in the mosque is a kind of social burden, because he does not receive money for it.
We are now in the holy month of Ramadan, an extremely important period for every Muslim when a strict fast is observed. It differs from a similar Christian fast in that it is possible to eat and drink only after sunset. Of course, in the summer it is very difficult to follow all the rules, but in our community there are people who keep the fast. Our prayer day is Friday, then usually about 50-60 people gather at the mosque, and when big holidays take place, and this happens three times a year, there is literally nowhere for an apple to fall in the mosque.
Tell me, should Tatar women wear hijabs?
No, we are not a Muslim country. Whoever wants to, and walks. There are a few families that have stricter rules, where women wear headscarves and long skirts.
Holidays of the Tatars are celebrated by the whole community. According to tradition, meat is distributed among the locals, and for the oldest, which means, respected people, the community prepares a kind of dry ration, which includes cereals, sweets, including traditional for the Tatars.
National Tatar dishes are prepared here mostly for the holidays - Eid al-Adha, Eid al-Adha, Sabantui. Then the Ivyevsk Tatars cook traditional open pies, rich meat soups, and the so-called nomad - the dough is rolled out thinly and thinly and combined with meat or sweet filling. And in everyday life, dumplings are prepared. But not such as we are used to seeing, but large, similar to manti, with beef or lamb.
My Tatar friend is happy to talk about the fact that her main and most vivid memories are connected precisely with the big "gatherings" of the community. Then she was ready to give anything for a traditional Tatar dessert - galma. I also remember the most delicious galma from my childhood. Although, at first glance, the recipe is simple - flour, honey and butter. All this is boiled, cooled, then cut into diamonds and distributed to the community and neighbors.
Why don't you make these sweets yourself now? - I ask a friend.
I don’t know, probably because national traditions remained for our generation somewhere in childhood, ”she says, and continues dreamily:“ I would like to go to Istanbul, where many cultures are truly mixed, the West and the East, to see how people of different nationalities live there together.
And I thought - why go somewhere? After all, Belarusian Ivye is a small Istanbul in itself ...
BTW
Centuries ago, Trakai and Ivye were the centers of Tatar culture on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Now about 25 thousand Tatars live on the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. 10 thousand are scattered across Belarus. The community in Ivye numbers about 800 people.
Newspaper "Nasha Niva" (Belarus) - 2005 - №34
Six hundred years on a Belarusian cart
Belarusian Tatars live together with Belarusians, but separately. Its streets, its own government, its cemeteries, its own business. Report by Andrey Skurko from the city of Ivye.
Translated from Belarusian by Alexander Sosinovich (that is, I)
The Tatar presence in Ivye is imperceptible. At least on the facade. The ceremonial picture rather testifies to the former presence of Jews. Their renovated stone houses stretch from the central square down to the church like a colored garland. One-storey Krakow. So Ivye blossomed, having received the status of a city.
There is a Jesuit monogram on the church. The presence of God does not end there: vaults filled with light, a clean choir, in the altar there is a play of white and red colors. Ivye residents use this miracle as best they can. In the morning on Sunday you will see a dressed-up young woman or a respectable Belarusian uncle on a bicycle in the center - it is not difficult to determine the route. Half the town gathers for Mass.
The second half also has nothing against Christ - a prophet sent from Allah. Their church is not at the crossroads of main streets, like a church, and not next to the square - between the police station and a boarded-up synagogue - like a small Orthodox church. The mosque is hiding in the heart of the Tatar quarter. For six hundred years, Belarusian Tatars have been living with us, but separately. Their streets, their self-government, their cemeteries, even ten years ago there were even their own dances.
“Tatars have never come to us before!” A woman standing at the door at the face control shouts over the roar of the Ivyevskaya disco. “They had their own playground! They only came to ours in a big crowd!” And now that doesn't happen? "Now? Fight? And then half of the Tatars", - the dark-haired police captain smiles, nodding towards the crowd of teenagers raging to house music. "We are all friends here! Especially if we get drunk," 15-16-year-olds bravely answer. So do the Tatars drink too? The guys laugh: "They are not allowed to dance only on their holidays." And Christians in Lent? "Christians are allowed in."
Muezzin uncle Xul
“Drinking and smoking is haram. You can't,” says Suleiman Rafalovich, a muezzin of the Ivyevskaya mosque. “Just like worshiping images, believing in other gods besides Allah alone ... asked on the street where the imam or his assistant lives. "Uncle Syulya!" she called. Uncle Syulya came out of the thicket of a giant greenhouse. Like all Tatars, the muezzin lives by vegetable growing. His tomatoes resemble grapes - not in size but in quantity. Bushes tied up to the height of a man, water is supplied to each, in the yard there is a cargo van, where many, many boxes of fresh vegetables can be placed. Uncle Suleiman and his son have their own autonomous business. “I don’t know what to do with cucumbers,” the muezzin laughs. “Everyone wants young and even ones. They don’t take twisted ones at all.”
Products of monumental Tatar greenhouses float to Minsk bazaars. "Tatars are rich because they are landowners!" - whisper envious people at the Ivyevsky bazaar. Anyone who saw the hands of Uncle Suleiman with an indelible greenish bloom from tomato bushes, will object: "That's not why." Horse breeding and the craft of an excavator, as a Tatar business, died out. True, the muezzin has a buckskin filly, and the imam has a horse.
"Ah, only troubles with them," Uncle Suleiman grimaces. "We have a saying: if you have a horse or you have a wife, you will not have peace."
Tick \u200b\u200bfor export
The road workers in the DRSU, workers of the gas department and electric networks earn the most from government work in Ivye. There is also a cannery and a bakery. But the bread in old ovens turns out to be tasteless, and people chase after imported Lida in private stores.
Stepan Stanilko, the leader of the Ivyevsk "Afghans", also sells it. "Afganets" store - on the central square. Stanilko even erected a monument to his fellow countrymen who died in the Soviet war in Afghanistan. The monument in the central park looks like the wall of the Kamenets tower on a scale of 1:10. (Read about the Kamenets Tower here :). The private sector in Ivye has grown into its own restaurants. The inn "Old Mill" tempts on the way to the church. In this Central European restaurant you can have a delicious dinner with Lida beer for 15 thousand Belarusian rubles (3.75 euros).
An inalienable attribute of state trade in these border areas is confiscation. It is also sold in the Ivyevsky food store. Here you can buy a motorcycle for "spare parts" for 77 thousand rubles (19.25 euros) or a Volga for four million (1000 euros). On the second floor of the food store there is a bookstore. From the "Belarusian" in it - "The sword of Prince Vyachka" by Leonid Daineko and piles of photo albums by Anatoly Kleshchuk with all the colors of Belarus. (Anatoly Kleshchuk (in the Belarusian pronunciation Klyashchuk) is a well-known journalist in Belarus). It is usually taken by children traveling abroad. Despite Lukashenka’s bans, children from Goncharov and Urtishek, Subbotniki and Trabov still have summer vacations in Italy and the USA. In 1986, Iwye was covered with a radiation spot, and people associate an increase in the number of cancers with this.
“But Belarus is a hundred times better than Lithuania, a thousand,” says Jozef Rusakevich, a teacher from Maishagala. “There only politicians receive 16 thousand euros. But people are in poverty. “It’s good where we are not,” proves the opposite of an employee of the Lida House of Culture. “I graduated from the institute with honors, and now I earn 180 thousand Belarusian rubles (45 euros). So in Lithuania, a pensioner gets twice as much.”
Tatars don't complain. They distance themselves as much as they can from political processes and social life. They do not have their own deputies, only one became a farmer. The community is run by a committee of twenty people. He collects money for public needs. Co-religionists from Poland are also helping. The one where the poverty is, according to Belarusian television (BT). Vegetable growing is also a way of escape into oneself, into one's community. “We are for Lukashenka,” uncle Suleiman averts his eyes. “Life has taught us. We have been living here for six hundred years. At least today in the passport office they do not rewrite Yakhya with Ivanov, and Mustaf with Stepanov. At least today you can go to the mosque.
"My father taught to speak Tatar. Until he died," says the muezzin. "And then there was a stagnant period. And those who were born in 1950, 1960 are already illiterate. And now they are teaching children again. In winter. When there is no work in the garden". Young guys teach the Tatar language and the basics of the Muslim faith in such a Sunday school. "They were in Minsk at the congresses, they know history, about Muhammad, they all know hadiths, they know what the Prophet Muhammad said," says Suleiman proudly. Young people do not renounce Islam. A full mosque of people is going to Kurban-Bayram.
Marshmallow for mullah
"Allah is not like anyone, and no one is like him. He himself was not born and did not give birth to anyone. He does not give birth, He creates. He will say: let it be so! And so it is. We honor the Prophet Isa, for he is sent from Allah, from God, for Christians, and Musa, who instructed the Jews on the right path, so that they believe only in one Allah, in God.We venerate Ibrahim, Ismail the forefather.His father made idols - statues - and Ibrahim said that they did not we must worship, we must worship the only God. And he broke those idols, because they do not give any harm or good. The statues are inanimate ... "Uncle Suleiman's sermon sounds simple and natural. A sermon from a sincere believer who has lived his whole life with Allah in his soul.
Words coming from the heart, into the heart and fall. Therefore, in the mosque you want to cross yourself and bow to Mecca. God is one.
The Temple of Allah is painted blue inside. Slightly darker than the sky in tall windows. We take off our shoes in the hallway, we step on the carpets. On the walls - calligraphic script of sayings from the Koran, drawings of holy places. For all the images, muezzin Suleiman made neat frames. Near the window to Mecca there is a dais with steps, from where the mullah delivers a sermon. On the steps are sweets, cookies, marshmallows in chocolate. People take food with them to the mosque: they set it on the side near the wall, and each Muslim comes up and treats himself to whatever he wants. For the mullah, a little bit of everything is put separately as a sign of respect. To accommodate everyone, the mosque has a "second floor" - a gallery on planed wooden pillars.
In the female half of the mosque there are flowers ("there are women, they want everything to be beautiful," Suleiman smiles), warm scarves are folded. Because the mosque is not heated in winter; the usual thing is to pray in a casing and felt boots.
Women pray separately not only in the mosque. And during prayer at home, as the prophet ordered, the woman stands behind the man. So that the man is not possessed by earthly temptations. The prophet also said: if they do not pray at home, then this is not a house, but a grave.
Tatars with Jews - brothers
“Marrying a Christian woman is halal. You can,” says the muezzin. “If she converts into our faith. Submits to our laws. Believes in Allah alone. Neither polytheism nor idolatry. The Prophet allows a Muslim to have up to four wives, if you can. contain them ". Are there such polygamous families in Ivye? “It happens that you can barely cope with one wife here,” our guide waves his hand.
Tatars very rarely go beyond the netatars. Faith and blood ties cement this small community. But there is a big world around. And the Tatar youth are already dancing with the Belarusians at the disco to the accompaniment of fashionable Western music. A couple more generations - and the Tatars will dissolve in the Belarusian sea. Or they will be able to modernize, make their tradition modern and attractive, and find a place for themselves in new conditions. Much depends on the youth.
Three Ivyevites recently returned from Turkey, where they studied at a religious school. "They pray better than the elderly - five times a day," praises Suleiman. Perhaps the youth will also restore the tradition of boy circumcision. The last time it was done was in 1946 - "two old men with gray beards" came and cut off all the Ivyevskaya kids from the Tatar streets. Then Suleiman himself was lucky. "Some boys, up to a year old, had not yet walked. And some were already big, for ten years. They ran away from those grandfathers, they were afraid," he recalls. Then someone else took the kids to Vilno, to the Jews. "To the Jews?" - we are surprised. "It is possible for a Jew to circumcise a Muslim," explains the muezzin. "Because Tatars and Jews are brothers."
"Circumcision is for cleanliness. For hygiene. Nobody died from it. But now, among the Russians, you know, if such an event is established, there may be some discrepancy. There may be a problem ..." - says Suleiman.
Tatars are forced to mimic in a sovietized society, to present themselves as "like everyone else." In order not to attract attention with their distinction. Sacrifice what is possible so as not to provoke hostility. Six hundred years have taught them: the tranquility of society is above all.
And the Tatars settled in Ivye for centuries. At their cemetery - mizare - where people have been buried since 1397, the land has been allocated with a margin of another six hundred years. Generations rest under mighty pines. Both on the mossy stones and on the new marble monuments, next to the father's name, the name of the deceased's mother is written with respect. Potatoes are raging in the free half of the cemetery. How can the land be empty?
Throughout its history, Minsk has been a multinational city, as evidenced by its place names. So, the north-western part of our city was once called the Tatar settlement (Tatar suburb, Tatar end). Here, in the area of \u200b\u200bBolshaya and Malaya Tatarskaya, Zaslavskaya, Glukhay and Zamechetnaya streets, Tatars lived compactly (now this is the area of \u200b\u200bmodern Dimitrov, Melnikayte, Zaslavskaya streets, part of Pobediteley avenue). And the piece of land adjacent to the Tatar suburb along the Svisloch was called the Tatar gardens. The creator of the minsk-old-new.com website Vladimir Volozhinsky tells about the history of these places.
A fragment of a 1909 map. Number 3 denotes a mosque.
The appearance of the Tatars in Belarus
The period of the initial settlement of the Tatars on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (modern Belarus) falls on the XIV-XVI centuries. The process was encouraged by several princes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, who invited the Muslim Tatars from the Crimea and the Golden Horde to perform military service.
Tatar equestrian warrior.
The princes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Gedimin, Yagailo, Vitovt used the military skill of the Tatar soldiers in the fight against the Teutonic Order. In 1410 the Tatars took part in the famous Battle of Grunwald against the Crusaders. According to the chroniclers, 30,000 Tatars allied to us, under the command of Dzhe-lal-ed-din, the son of Tokhtamysh, were in Vitovt's army. And, as it is believed, it was from the crooked saber of Khan Bagardin that the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Ulrich von Jungingen died.
Battle of Grunwald 1410 Painting by Jan. Matejko (1878).
It is also known that several Tatar regiments participated in the battle on the Kulikovo field in 1380 on the side of the troops of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
In total, during the time of Vitovt, up to 40 thousand Tatars moved to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. And by the end of the 16th century, more than 100,000 Tatars had already settled on the territory of modern Belarus and Lithuania. These included mercenary warriors and guards, volunteer settlers and prisoners of war.
They always settled compactly, even within the same settlement. Their settlements in Nesvizh, Grodno, Snov, Kopyl are known ... Well, such cities as Novogrudok, Ivye, Slonim, Minsk, Smilovichi, Kletsk, Mir, have become real centers of Tatar life.
The Grand Duke of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the King of Poland Zhigimont II Augustus granted the Tatars privileges for the gentry and allowed them to marry Christian women. The Tatars began to have names and surnames in the local manner - Aleksandrovich, Voronovich, Shabanovich, Kurmanovich, Krichinsky, Krinitsky, Konopatsky ...
Over time, the Belarusian language became their native language, and their own was gradually forgotten. A very bright and unique phenomenon - kitabs - Tatar books written in Arabic script, but in the Old Belarusian (Lithuanian) language understandable to local Tatars.
An excerpt from the Meraj legend from Al-Ketab. It is written in Belarusian.
Here is a translated excerpt from the 17th century kitab: “Syuleiman showed his palace vusokiy zbudova [ts] і ... ali the fish was like a sea float і became ... rakla: - Lord Sueleiman ... Pan God told me ў [ts] ebe yees [ts] and pіtsі asked [ts ] b. Suleyman rack: - Mila fish. Praўda. Oto Mayesh INTO Yes [ts] і і pі [ts] і ".
Tatars in Minsk
On the outskirts of ancient Minsk, the Tatars appeared in the first half of the 15th century. In 1428, the Tatars living in the vicinity of Minsk met with the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt and presented him with horses, camels, other animals and weapons.
The first news of the appearance of the Tatars in Minsk itself dates back to the 16th century, when Crimean Tatars, who participated in the raids on the Lithuanian lands and defeated in 1506 near Kletsk by the troops of Prince Mikhail Glinsky, were settled to the west and north-west of the castle. In the place of their compact settlement, streets were formed, which laid the foundation for the Tatar suburb.
Battle with the Tatars. XVI century
In the middle of the 19th century, the Belarusian ethnographer Pavel Shpilevsky wrote: “Speaking about the Tatar end, one cannot but recall one of its features, which ... is proof that the present Tatar suburb was part of the ancient Minsk ... too. This feature is the trenches, or ramparts, on the left bank of the Svisloch, which are visible from the Lyudamont farm, which were the fortifications of ancient Minsk. These trenches stretch around the Tatar end from Svisloch to Rakovskaya Street, here they are interrupted ... The trenches around the Tatar end are so overgrown with grass, bushes and even large trees that the inhabitants of Minsk consider them ordinary mountains. Meanwhile, these are not simple, natural mountains, but artificial embankments of an ancient city, which usually replaced fortresses and defensive walls among the Slavs ... "
View of the Tatar suburb and the mosque. Drawing by Yazep Drozdovich (1920s).
From the descriptions of P. Shpilevsky: “The number of Minsk Tatars reaches 400 souls. They lead a rather hardworking life ... The main subject of their activity is garden vegetables, which they sow and grow in large quantities in gardens and in the fields near the Rakovskaya road. In addition, some of them were engaged in horse breeding and therefore have huge meadows on the banks of the Svisloch for making hay; some of these meadows once belonged to the Holy Dukhov Monastery, but then was bought by the Tatar elder Saliman. "
Administratively, the Tatar settlement in the pre-revolutionary period belonged to the 5th police unit of Minsk. Included streets: Malaya and Bolshaya Tatarskaya, Tatarsko-Lyudamonskaya, 1st and 2nd Tatarsky lanes, Novo-Tatarskaya street and Novo-Tatarsky lane, Glukhaya-Tatarskaya street. The swampy area between the Tatar end and the Svisloch, where the Tatars grew vegetables, began to be called the Tatar vegetable gardens.
View of the Tatarskaya Sloboda from the side of the castle hill.
Bolshaya Tatarskaya was the main street, it passed from the western side of the castle along the Tatar gardens (Tatar swamp), and rested against the floodplain of the river. Svisloch in the area of \u200b\u200bthe modern Sports Palace. The houses of wealthy Muslims were covered with tin roofs, the rest had shingle roofs. The main street was mainly inhabited by merchants and artisans. There was also a mosque on it.
In 1844, 325 Tatars lived in Minsk, and in 1885 - 424. According to the 1897 census, 1146 Muslim Tatars lived in the city. Minsk Tatars were mainly engaged in various crafts. Among them were merchants, furriers, saddlers, cabbies, gardeners. A significant group consisted of civil servants who worked in the court, police, post office, telegraph, on the railway, there were also military personnel (122 people). The Tatars led a law-abiding lifestyle - according to data from 1897, none of them was in prison, had nothing to do with prostitution ... ..
Resident of the Tatar settlement. The beginning of the twentieth century.
Belarusian Tatars. The beginning of the twentieth century.
Belarusian Tatars had a privileged position, which was approved by the decree of the Senate of September 5, 1840 "On granting the Mohammedan nobles the right to have estates." The decree, in particular, stated the following: "By the opinion of the State Council, approved on June 11, 1838, it was decided to the nobles of the Mohammedan law, who settled with special privileges in the western provinces, to keep intact the right to own immovable inhabited estates."... These nobles could own serfs from among the Orthodox Christians.
Muslim. The beginning of the twentieth century.
Most of the Belarusian Tatars belonged to the nobility. Thus, in the annual statistical report of the Minsk governor for 1850, it was noted that “there are 94,320 foreigners and Tatars of 2017 souls of both sexes in the Minsk province. Tatars, mostly noblemen, own real estate inhabited by peasants, while others are successfully engaged in arable farming, horticulture and leather dressing. "
The Tatars, who lived for centuries on the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (including modern Belarus), were able to preserve their identity, their national identity. It was reflected in their appearance, in everyday life, typical character, and behavior. Tatar estates have always been fenced, with flower beds, a vegetable garden in which fruit trees and fruit and berry bushes grew. The houses of the Tatar villagers differed little from the houses of the Belarusians. They abandoned some of their customs: from polygamy, from wearing a veil, girls and boys studied in schools together. However, they retained their religion. It was Islam that became the foundation on which the national tradition and culture of the Tatars in the new ethnolinguistic environment were fastened for centuries.
Mosque
Around the end of the 16th century (probably in 1599), at the request of the Tatar elder Saliman, a wooden mosque was built on the territory belonging to the Resurrection Church. In 1617, the Minsk kashtalyan Pyotr Tyshkevich confirmed the rights of Muslims to a mosque and an allotted plot of land.
Bolshaya Tatarskaya. Mosque. End of the 19th century
The mosque had a male and a female section, separated by a metal fence. The interior was modest: the floor was covered with green cloth, the men's section had a ceremonial canopy, sayings from the Koran hung on the walls, and benches for believers stood along the walls. Each department had a hallway where Muslims left their shoes in front of the entrance to the prayer hall.
There was no minaret in that mosque, so the muezzin called the faithful to prayer, standing on the porch.
In 1890, the construction department of the Minsk provincial government gave permission to build a new stone cathedral mosque in Minsk on the site of an old wooden mosque. On October 25, 1902, "the consecration of the newly built Mohammedan stone mosque on Tatarskaya Street" took place.
As contemporaries noted: “It was a beautiful stone structure with a large central dome and a straight, high, multi-story minaret. The white stucco facades of the temple were decorated and had semicircular doors and windows. The roof of the temple was covered with tin. The area around the mosque had a high blank wooden fence and a brick main gate. "
Mosque on a postcard. The beginning of the twentieth century.
Built in the Byzantine style, the temple with a 32-meter minaret was distinguished by "grace and modesty of architecture." Outwardly, the building “is one of the best structures in Minsk,” wrote the newspaper “Minskiy Listok”.
After the opening, the Minsk mosque became one of the landmarks of Minsk and was reflected on numerous postcards of the early 20th century. Especially many believers gathered here on Fridays (a holy day for Muslims) and on holidays.
The relations of the Tatars with the local Christian population developed in a good-neighborly manner. Mainly due to tolerance, hard work, high moral qualities of the Tatars. The Muslim clergy did not carry out missionary work, did not strive to involve Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants in their faith. Their main concern was the preservation of religion. Therefore, there were no serious conflicts with representatives of other confessions.
Soviet period
The 1917 revolution changed the life of the settlement forever. Along with the positive aspects - the opening of the national Tatar school, the creation of the Tatar hut-reading room - she also brought in the negative. The streets of the suburb, for example, were renamed in the Soviet manner: Malo-Tatarskaya became Kolkhoznaya, Bolshaya Tatarskaya - Dimitrov, which lost its ethnic uniqueness ...