History of Muslims in Ukraine
The majority of followers of Islam in Ukraine are Crimean Tatars who live in Crimea, a peninsula located on the northern coast of the Black Sea. As of 2012 an estimated 500,000 Muslims lived in Ukraine and about 300,000 of them were Crimean Tatars.
While ethnic
Ukrainians are predominantly
Orthodox and
Uniate Christians,
Muslims have lived in the territory that makes up modern Ukraine for centuries. Muslim settlements are concentrated in the country's southern half, particularly in
Crimea, although colonies of
Lipka Tatars are in other regions such as
Volhynia and
Podolia.
The
Crimean Khanate was established by the
Crimean Tatars in the 15th century. These people were formed from the
Turkic speaking descendants of both
Turkic and non-Turkic peoples who had settled in Eastern Europe as early as the 7th century.
The Khanate soon lost its sovereignty and fell under the influence of the
Ottoman Empire and was controlled by the local tributary rulers with a significant degree of
autonomy. From the 15th century to the 18th century, Crimean Tatars frequently raided Eastern Slavic lands to capture their inhabitants, enslaving an estimated three million people, predominantly Ukrainians. The influence of
Russia in the area, initially small, was gaining momentum, and in the late 18th century, after the series of
Russo-Turkish Wars, the territory was annexed by the
Russian Empire.
The Crimean Tatars were
Sunnis, and the
mufti was regarded as the highest religious figure. All communities were led by and represented before others by local
imams.
The Crimean Khanate had
Bakhchysarai as its capital. In the 18th century, when it was conquered by Russia, at least 18 mosques were in the capital along with several
madrassas. The Russian Empire began persecuting the Muslim population, and nearly 160,000 Tatars were forced to leave Crimea.
Muslims who stayed faced conflicts in ideology among those who adhered to a conservative form of
religion, the moderates, and those who subscribed to liberal and Western ideology.
Religion in Ukraine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Religion in Ukraine (2006)
[1]
Non religious, or not belonging to any church (62.5%)
Eastern Orthodoxy (26.8%)
Catholicism (5.9%)
Protestantism (0.9%)
Other religions (3.9%)
Historically, the territories of the present-day
Ukraine were inhabited by
pagan tribes, but
Byzantine rite Christianity was introduced by the turn of the first millennium. It was imagined by later writers who sought to put Kyivan Christianity on the same level of primacy as Byzantine Christianity that
Apostle Andrew himself had visited the site where the city of
Kyiv would be later built.
However it was only by the 10th century that the emerging state, the
Kyivan Rus' became influenced by the
Byzantine Empire, the first known conversion was by the Princess
Saint Olgawho came to
Constantinople in 945 or 957. Several years later, her grandson, Knyaz
Vladimirbaptised his people in the
Dnieper River. This began a long history of the dominance of the Eastern Orthodoxy in Ruthenia that later was to influence
Russia and
Ukraine.
Judaism was present on Ukrainian lands for approximately 2000 years when Jewish traders appeared in Greek colonies. At the same time the neighbouring
Khazar Khaganate was influenced by Judaism. Since the 13th century the Jewish presence in Ukraine increased significantly. Later on in Ukraine was established new teaching of Judaism -
Hasidism.
Islam was brought to Ukraine with the
Golden Horde and the
Ottoman Empire.
Crimean Tatarsaccepted Islam by being a part of the Golden Horde and later the vassals of Ottoman Empire.
More recently, during the time of the
Soviet Union,
atheism was officially promoted by the government and taught in schools, while religious believers were persecuted. As a result, only a small fraction of people remained official church goers in that period, and the number of non-believers increased.