TY - JOUR
TI - The Typology of Imams in the West and Imams in Poland: Past and Present
AU - Nalborczyk, Agata S.
TI - The Typology of Imams in the West and Imams in Poland: Past and Present
AB - 
	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.
VL - 2019
IS - Volume 52, Issue 1
PY - 2019
SN - 0137-2432
C1 - 2084-4077
SP - 79
EP - 94
DO - 10.4467/20844077SR.19.006.10788
UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/studia-religiologica/article/the-typology-of-imams-in-the-west-and-imams-in-poland-past-and-present
KW - Islam
KW - Muslims in Europe
KW - imam
KW - religious leadership
KW - mosque
KW - Poland
KW - Polish-Lithuanian Tatars