Although ethnically and religiously different, the Tatars have been associated with the history of the Republic for several hundred years. Among the surviving historical traces of this community, historic mosques occupy an important place. One of the most interesting is located in Rejžiai in Lithuania.

One of the most interesting and at the same time less well-known ethnic communities that inhabited the historical Republic of Poland was the Tatars. The beginnings of the centuries-old Tatar settlement in the historical lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania date back to the late 14th century and were linked to Lithuania's involvement in the conflict with the Mongolian state of the Golden Horde. Numerous political emigrants from the Orda, usually descended from Tatar elders, were settled on the condition of military service (often in separate Tatar cavalry flags). In return, they received privileges from the ruler guaranteeing freedom of religion and land grants. The most important concentrations of Tatar military settlement in the 15th-16th centuries were located near the main political centres of the Grand Duchy: Vilnius, Trakai, Krewo, Grodno, Lida and Novogrudok.

Mosques in the former Republic
Traditionally, the centre around which the life of the Tatar community (parish) was centred was the mosque. Today, few Tatar churches have survived: two in Poland (in Bohoniki and Kruszyniany in Podlasie), others in Belarus (in Ivory, Novogrudok and Lovczyce) and in Lithuania (in Sorok Tatar, Nemėžė and Rejža). One of the most important of these is undoubtedly the mosque in Režiai (Lithuanian: Raižiai), a former noble 'neighbourhood' (parochial area), in the historic district of Trakai. Today, it is a small village, lost among fields and meadows northeast of the city of Alytus, less than ninety kilometres west of Vilnius. Written sources indicate that the mosque in Rejžežė is believed to have been established before the middle of the 16th century. After World War I, Rejžežė became part of the Republic of Lithuania and was the largest Tatar population centre in the country. The local mosque was one of two continuously active during the Soviet occupation of Lithuania.

In the eye of an art historian
The current mosque was built in 1889 on the site of an earlier one, presumably destroyed by fire. Modest, wooden, rectangular in plan, it is a typical example of the sacral architecture of the Polish-Lithuanian Tatars. The mosque is covered by a triple-pitched roof with a gable in the front (northern) façade. The single minaret (tower) has the form of a small signature, topped by a flat dome with a crescent moon. According to Muslim tradition, there are two entrances to the interior of the temple, separate for men and women. The interior is divided into a larger prayer hall and a babiniec (women's room, on the left).

In the prayer hall of the Rajeev temple, one's attention is drawn to a small, five-sided mihrab (a niche in the wall, called a kibla, indicating the direction of Mecca in which worshippers should pray). Undoubtedly, the most interesting design element of the mosque in Rejža is the 17th-century minbar - a pulpit standing to the right of the mihrab, from which the imam presiding over prayers preaches the khutba (sermon during the communal Friday prayer) and makes solemn announcements. According to tradition, the minbar was moved to Rejż from a mosque in the nearby village of Bazary.

The cascade has a stepped, three-stepped base. It is covered by a flat canopy (supported by two posts). The carved decoration of the baldachin consists of an elaborate cornice with floral and geometric ornamentation and a Baroque finial in the type of crested attic and corner balls with pinnacles. The backrest with earlobes, the palate of the baldachin, and the outer walls of the platform are covered with rich calligraphic decoration in Arabic - in accordance with the canons of Islamic art, yet standing out against the decorative poverty of the Tatar shrines in the Grand Duchy. The geometric calligraphic compositions on the backrest are particularly eye-catching. These consist of three circles in a vertical arrangement containing Arabic prayer inscriptions and Koranic verses.

The minbar was made in 1686, as indicated by the Polish-Latin date visible in the lower part of the backstrip ('A:[nn]o 1686 M:[month] August 14 day'). It is consistent with the Arabic date, the text of which appears between the various circles on the zaplecka - according to the Muslim calendar: 1097 the year of the Hijra (i.e. Muhammad's flight from Mecca to Medina). The interesting and rare use of the dual dating of the monument's execution, according to the Muslim and Christian eras (using the Latin alphabet), as well as the architectural and woodcarving form of the pulpit - bearing (lagging) early Baroque stylistic traits - are evidence of the strong cultural influences to which the Tatar communities were subjected by their numerically dominant Christian neighbours. It would therefore be evidence of a kind of reversal of the process of orientalisation of Sarmatian artistic culture in the 17th-18th centuries in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

In the unanimous opinion of scholars, the minbar from the mosque in Rejży - next to monuments of writing and tomb epigraphy - is the oldest and most valuable monument of the material culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Tatars. A legacy that is a rare but clear example of the peaceful integration of the Muslim population into European communities while maintaining religious and moral distinctiveness. In 2019, the Ryev kazalnica underwent a comprehensive restoration, the cost of which was financed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The work was carried out by a joint Polish-Lithuanian team of conservators.