Religious writing of Belarusian tatars in the postwar period: the end of the tradition?

Abstract

The meaning of the religious writing was very great for the Tatar-Muslim community of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the past: it not only performed the function of the conservation and translation of the religious knowledge but also was an important culture-forming factor. The manuscript tradition continued during all the 20th century and lived till the 21st century, although it underwent some transformation.
The cardinal changes of the social political and cultural conditions in the 20th century have led to the gradual reduction of the manuscript tradition. The expansion of the print editions was the main reason in the West Belarus which was part of Poland; in BSSR, it was caused by the antireligious struggle. Only some categories of the manuscripts (khamails, hramatkis, and dalawars) continued to be copied at this time.
The number of the believers who could read texts written with the Arabic letters significantly reduced after the Second World War. In the 50s–60s, the Muslim learning semi-legally existed only in Iwye on the territory of Belarus. Therefore, the manuscript tradition was maintained here. The majority of the Tatar copyists (both men and women) of the second half of the 20th century come from Iwye. Many copied for themselves small personal prayer-books (khamails) and the great number of the hramotkis which were saved as amulets, and dalawars used in the funeral ritual.
The use of the saffron ink had a special meaning in the handwriting practice. Its recipe in the second half of the 20th century likely greatly differed from the recipe used in the past because of the inaccessibility of some ingredients. Some informants said that cultivated saffron by themselves. The revival of the religious life in the 90s of the 20th century did not promote a new rise of the handwriting tradition because of some reasons.
The many-century tradition, which played a huge role in the preservation of the ethno-cultural and confessional identity, is on the verge of the total extinction in the beginning of the 21st century.