Islam in Ukraine

Ukraine, modern country in the Eastern Europe can be seen as one of the ancient centers of islam faith.

First muslims appeared on territory of modern Ukraine not so long time after the life of the Prophet, in that time (VIII-IX centuries) almost all of them were arabic merchants. Not so long after that, the neighbouring state of Rus and predeccesor of Tataria, Bulgaria adopted islam as a state religion. Later, in 988, russian kniaz Volodymyr choose state religion for Rus from christianity, islam and judaism. This fact shows the importance of islam on the territory of modern Ukraine in that time.

The fourteenth century opened a new chapter of Islamic history in Ukraine. This era is characterized by the integration of Muslims into Ukrainian ethnic territory proper. In 1350, the Lithuanian kniaz (ruler) invited Tartar warriors to join his military force. The number of Tartars was so large that in 1591 their population was approximately 100,000 and they had near 400 mosques in Western Ukraine, Poland and Belarus. Tartars formed isolated communities near local castles. In this context we should note the cultural discourse of Ukrainian Tartars and pay special attention to the "kitabs" (from Turkish transliteration of Arabic word kitab - "book"). Theese books were written in the Old Belarusian language, which is very similar to old Ukrainian literary language. The only difference lies in the Arabic script used in the language of kitabs.

http://naub.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/ukrainian-translations-of-the-meanings-of-the-glorious-quran-problems-and-prospects.pdf