Polish Muslim Tatars constitute a religious minority with an interesting status. They were settled in the Polish-Lithuanian territories at the beginning of the fourteenth century, above all because of their military service. The tradition of military service was continued by their descendants in subsequent centuries, even when military service was no longer compulsory. This kind of involvement in the political life of the Republic of Poland resulted in Muslim Tatars being granted social and religious privileges – this will be discussed later in this chapter. Recognition of the Tatars' service to the country has remained in the consciousness of Polish society to the present day and is visible in the approach to public matters concerning this minority.

History: the participation of Muslim Tatars in the Polish-Lithuanian and Polish armed forces

The first Muslims emerged within the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian state in the fourteenth century (Tyszkiewicz 1989: 146f); Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania had at that time been connected through the person of the ruler since 1385. These Muslims were Tatars who originated from the Mongol Khanate of the Golden Horde, a state nominally Islamic since the thirteenth century (Borawski and Dubiński 1986: 13–14). They were prisoners of war and political refugees and, later, in the fifteenth century, mercenaries invited by the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Vytautas the Great (1401–40), to fight the enemies of his country; Lithuania at that time shared its borders with the Golden Horde.