Obraz islamu w Rzeczpospolitej w XVIII w.

The end of successive wars between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire (the treaty of Karlowitz, 1699) and a new peaceful coexistence brought gradually changes in Poland in the 18th century as far as the perception of the Muslim state is concerned. This was also due to cultural transformations – the adoption of the ideas of the Enlightenment and orientalism which came into fashion in Western Europe. At that time, the so-called ‘sarmatian’ ideology and mentality, dominant in Poland in the previous century, were still common. The aim of this article is to answer the question whether the influence of these foreign novelties on the Polish image of Islam was significant. The main sources of knowledge about Islam in Poland in the 18th century are considered to be the published works of prominent Polish authors such as Józef Mikosza, Kajetan Chrzanowski, Franciszek Bohomolec and Ignacy Krasicki. Their descriptions of Muslim beliefs are compared with information from Polish magazines, encyclopaedias, geography textbooks, travel descriptions and diaries from the same century as well as with Polish works dealing with this topic which were written in the previous two centuries, and finally with foreign works about Islam which had won some popularity among Polish readers. Two examples are discussed – opinions about the Prophet Muhammad and the Qur’an. The main part of the article is preceded by a short presentation of the aforementioned cultural changes and followed by a conclusion.