It has been granted the status of a monument of history for its outstanding historical values ( history and culture of Polish Tatars).

History

The Muslim cemetery (mizar) in Bohoniki was probably founded in the 18th century and enlarged to its current size in the 19th century.

Description

The cemetery is located in the eastern part of the village, approx. 350 m to the north of the road from Bohoniki to Malawicze Górne. It was built on a rectangular plan, enclosed with a wall with an entrance gate to the south. The layout of the quarters is indiscernible. A relatively small number of historic gravestones located in the oldest southern part of the mizar have survived. The oldest of them dates back to 1796, about 30 gravestones were erected in the second half of the 19th century, about 100 date back to the period before 1945 and more than 250 to the post-war period. The inscriptions on most of the oldest gravestones are obliterated and most of the gravestones have subsided into the ground. These are usually granite stones with a smooth face and rounded at the top. Stelae and obelisks can also be found. The post-war gravestones resemble those found in the Christian cemeteries. Most of them have a form of stelae and are made of terrazzo, less of granite or marble. The inscriptions, usually in Polish (though a few Russian inscriptions have survived), are accompanied by verses from the Qur’an and a symbolic representation of a crescent with a star.

The monument is open to visitors.

Compiled by Grzegorz Ryżewski, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Białystok, 11.09.2014 r.

Bibliography

• Górska I., Meczety i mizary w Bohonikach i Kruszynianach pomnikami historii,  “Biuletyn Konserwatorski Województwa Podlaskiego” 2013, issue 19, pp. 263-286.
• Kołodziejczyk A., Cmentarze muzułmańskie w Polsce, Warszawa 1998, pp. 52-55.