Interior Tatarian Mosque Bohoniki Poland

Bohoniki ( Polish Arabic: بوـحـونيكي) is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

in the administrative district of

Gmina Sokółka __NOTOC__ Gmina Sokółka is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Sokółka County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland, on the border with Belarus. Its seat is the town of Sokółka, which lies approximately north-east o ...

, within

Sokółka County __NOTOC__ Sokółka County ( pl, powiat sokólski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Podlaskie Voivodeship, north-eastern Poland, on the border with Belarus. It was created on 1 January 1999 as a result of th ...

, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, close to the border with

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

. It lies approximately east of

Sokółka Sokółka (; lt, Sokulka, Sakalinė, be, Саку́лка, yi, סאקאלקע, Sokolke) is a town in northeastern Poland, seat of the Sokółka County in Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is a busy rail junction located on the international Warsaw–B ...

and north-east of the regional capital Białystok. The village has a population of 100. Bohoniki was primarily a

Lipka Tatar The Lipka Tatars (Lipka – refers to '' Lithuania'', also known as Lithuanian Tatars; later also – Polish Tatars, Polish-Lithuanian Tatars, ''Lipkowie'', ''Lipcani'', ''Muślimi'', ''Lietuvos totoriai'') are a Turkic ethnic group who origi ...

settlement. Today, still a few families in the village are Tatars and practicing Muslims. Although residents don't speak their native Tatar language (often written in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, Cyrillic or Arabic alphabet), they have close ties to Lipka Tatar and Islamic traditions.Leonard Drożdżewicz, Biographical Dictionary of Polish Tatars of the Twentieth Century, „Znad Wilii”, nr 4 (68) z 2016 r., p. 77-82, http://www.znadwiliiwilno.lt/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Znad-Wilii-68.pdf Sites of interest in the village include a 19th-century

wooden mosque The Wooden Mosque ( fa, مسجد چوبی) is a unique mosque situated south-east of the city of Nishapur, Iran. This mosque, built completely of wood, is one of the tourist attractions of the county of Nishapur and is situated inside a garden ...

and a Muslim cemetery. The village was named one of Poland's official national Historic Monuments (''

Pomnik historii Historic Monument ( pl, pomnik historii) is one of several categories of objects of cultural heritage (in the singular, '' zabytek'') in Poland. To be recognized as a Polish historic monument, an object must be declared such by the President ...

''), as designated November 20, 2012. Its listing is maintained by the

National Heritage Board of Poland The National Institute of Cultural Heritage of Poland ( pl, Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa NID) is a Polish governmental institution responsible for documenting cultural property and the intangible cultural heritage, as well as for supporting and ...

Muslim cemetery

File:Cmentarz muzułmański Bohoniki.jpg, Entrance File:Cmentarz muzułmański w Bohonikach.jpg, Muslim Lipka Tatar cemetery sign File:Bohoniki cmentarz muzulmanski 02.jpg, Damaged tombstone File:Bohoniki cmentarz muzulmanski 01.jpg, Ruthenian language Arabic script of a tombstone File:Bohoniki cmentarz muzulmanski 03.jpg File:Cmentarz w Bohonikach grob z 1945.jpg File:Cmentarz muzułmański w Bohonikach w województwie podlaskim.jpg File:Cmentarz w Bohonikach grob z pocz 20 w.jpg File:Cmentarz w Bohonikach groby wspolczesne.jpg

References

Lipka Tatars Villages in Sokółka County Islam in Poland {{Sokółka-geo-stub