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Tatars in Poland 

Adopted Homeland

Join us on a podcast journey into the rich and often overlooked world of the Tatars in Poland—a Muslim community with over six centuries of history in the heart of Central Europe. 

Hosted by Maurits Berger, professor of Islam and the West at Leiden University, and Ewa Górska, socio-legal researcher at the University of Wrocław, this podcast explores  the cultural heritage, everyday lives, and religious practices of Polish Tatars.

Together, we travel across the Polish landscape—from quiet rural settlements to archives and academic institutions—meeting Tatars from different backgrounds and discovering stories that reveal their past and present.

Who are the Tatars of Poland today? How do they maintain their traditions, and what does it mean to be Muslim in a largely Catholic society? In exploring these questions, we also reflect on broader themes of identity, belonging, and the place of Islam within European histories and futures.


Listen to the episodes

Ewa and Maurits travel to Kruszyniany, a quiet village on Poland’s eastern border—and the heart of the country’s Tatar heritage. What they find is part cultural revival, part tourist attraction. Over meals, mosque visits, and long conversations with local Tatars, they uncover stories of resilience, memory, and unexpected religious traditions. What does it mean to preserve identity in a place where Islam blends with local customs—and what happens when tourists become part of that story? Ewa and Maurits ask themselves to what extent the Islam practices of the Tatars are influenced by Catholicism, and pose this question to professor Drozd who comes with a surprising answer.

About the Project

Ewa and Maurits met in Kraków during an academic conference in the summer of 2022. They quickly discovered a shared passion for exploring the intersection of law, culture, and religion—and a mutual love of podcasting. That conversation sparked an idea: to create a podcast series about the Polish Tatars, one of Europe’s oldest Muslim communities.

In March 2023, they reunited in Gdańsk and set off on a field trip across northern and north-eastern Poland, visiting towns, villages, mosques, cemeteries, and community centers. Along the way, they recorded stories, conversations, impressions, and reflections—seeking to understand who the Polish Tatars are today, how they live, and how they remember their past.

After months of research, analysis, and editing, they now present this podcast series: an audio journey through the landscapes, voices, and layered histories of Polish Tatars.

The project was made possible with the generous support of Leiden University and the University of Wrocław.

Locations

The recordings were made in seven locations, mostly Podlasie, in Eastern Poland.


  1. Kraków
  2. Gdańsk
  3. Kruszyniany
  4. Białystok
  5. Sokołka
  6. Krynki
  7. Bohoniki

Get in touch

Maurits Berger
Ewa Górska
Tomasz Stankiewicz

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