Nalans (Jun 2022)
The Muslims in Medieval Lviv: linguistic, historical contexts
Abstract
The existence of Muslim communities in the medieval cities of Europe is an actual issue. Information of some medieval narrative texts demonstrated the presence of Muslims as a separate urban stratum. A striking example is Ruthenian (old Ukrainian) Lviv, which in the fourteenth century became part of the Kingdom of Poland. King Casimir III of Poland, in confirmation of the Magdeburg right granted to the city in 1356, identified the “Sarracenorum” group of people as a separate category of citizens. The purpose of the article is to analyze medieval and early modern sources (historical records and literary works) about Muslim community in Lviv from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. The research is based on the use of special linguistic, historical and other theoretical research methods. Using the comparative historical method, we compared mentions about Muslims in early modern historical works. The typological method of language research made it possible to trace the linguistic evolution of the word “Sarracenorum”, its transformation in the Ruthenian manner. The conclusions indicate that during the fourteenth to seventeenth century representatives of the Muslim community could well live in Lviv. Their number or ethnic origins are difficult to establish because of lack of sources. At the same time, early modern tradition (historical records and literary works) dating back to the sixteenth century does not mention them. Obviously, the area of Muslim settlement in the city and their activities are the subject of further discussion.
