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The Typology of Imams in the West and Imams in Poland: Past and Present

Publication date: 30.07.2019

Studia Religiologica, 2019, Volume 52, Issue 1, pp. 79 - 94

https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.19.006.10788

Authors

Agata S. Nalborczyk
Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1280-5338 Orcid
All publications →

Titles

The Typology of Imams in the West and Imams in Poland: Past and Present

Abstract

Researchers of Islam in the West have noticed that imams working since the 1950s in Western Europe or the United States assume far more responsibilities than their counterparts in traditional Muslim societies. Consequently, further research had to identify and specify the types of imams who perform their service in the West – their most complete typology is the one developed by Niels Valdemar Vinding. However, besides Finland where the Muslim Tatars have lived since the nineteenth century, the classification does not include imams from areas inhabited by the indigenous Muslims. 

This study is an attempt to check if the Polish-Lithuanian Tatars living in Poland who have had their imams for centuries would fit into Vinding’s typology and if this typology also would work in a diachronic perspective. Literature on the subject was the basis for the research into the situation of imams in the past. Interviews with representatives of particular Muslim organizations served as the basis for the research into the present-day situation.

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Information

Information: Studia Religiologica, 2019, Volume 52, Issue 1, pp. 79 - 94

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:
The Typology of Imams in the West and Imams in Poland: Past and Present
English:

The Typology of Imams in the West and Imams in Poland: Past and Present

Authors

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1280-5338

Agata S. Nalborczyk
Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1280-5338 Orcid
All publications →

Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw

Published at: 30.07.2019

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND  licence icon

Percentage share of authors:

Agata S. Nalborczyk (Author) - 100%

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English