The literature of the Tatars of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania – characteristics of the Tatar writings and areas of research

The literature of the Tatars of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania constitutes the most important and richest part of their cultural heritage, as well as a lasting trace of Tatar settlements in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The literature that flourished during the spiritual revival of the Renaissance and Reformation somewhere in the seemingly God-forsaken, remote Eastern Borderlands has not been forgotten; on the contrary, it has been recognised as a unique phenomenon of great spiritual, literary and cultural value. This phenomenon manifests itself in the extraordinary combination of the Oriental Islamic culture and Christian culture, two components that appear to be mutually exclusive but are in fact in perfect harmony with each other, both in the life of society and in the literary works of Polish-Lithuanian Tatars.

The paper is dedicated to literary manuscripts of the Tatars of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, including their genesis at the background of the Tatar settlement in the territory of the Republic of Poland, characteristic features and typology of the manuscripts on the basis of the criteria of form and content. Furthermore, the author discusses the research areas, beginning with the description of the state of research on Tatar manuscripts from the point of view, through the characteristics of the current research on this matter, as well as reporting the institutions running and coordinating the interdisciplinary and international activities within the scope of the research, editing and popularization of the issues connected with the kitabistics.