„De Lege Ferenda Proposals in Tatar Al-Furqan, a 17th Century Pasquinade on Lithuanian Tatars”

„To the Tatars, it behooves to act in Lithuania as one would with the Jews in Egypt.” - these words,
excerpted from the Polish pasquinade first published in 1617 under the title „Alfurkan Tatarski
prawdziwy na czterdzieści części rozdzielony” (The Genuine Tatar Al-Furqan Divided into Forty
Parts), sum up one of the leitmotifs of religious polemical literature in the Polish–Lithuanian
Commonwealth, namely how the state and society should deal with „infidels”. The book became
quite popular, and further editions appeared. It even provoked a response from the Tatars, a booklet
titled „Apologia Tatarów” (Apology of Tatars) which unfortunately did not survive to modern times.

What I find interesting and wish to share during my paper is the fact that the author, in his
argumentation against the Tatars, despite the aforementioned book not being a legal work, very
often recalls various laws and customs. In the narrative, they serve different purposes: from merely
an interesting illustration, through examples that can be used to amplify the argumentative force, to
direct de lege ferenda proposals. The first two categories encompass, for the most part, legal orders
already present in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, such as Polish law, Islamic law, Canon
Law, as well as Tatar customs. But when it comes to the demands for the enactment of new laws, it
is often stated that things should and can be done better. For this purpose, the author recalls Roman
Law, alongside other foreign institutions.

In my paper, after a brief introduction to the work, I will bring your attention to a few examples of
such instances of antique or foreign provisions that the author proposes to be applied to Lithuanian
Tatars. Many aspects of such proposals need to be taken into consideration.
Firstly, what is proposed by the author is his idea of legal provisions that may or may not be
relevant to what is known about them nowadays. One should not forget to address the problem of
the understanding of legal institutions from antiquity. Secondly, the character of this work is mainly
polemical with rather frivolous formulation; therefore, some of the examples may be manipulated
so that they fit into the narrative. Another aspect is that the standard of redaction used in
publications from the 17th century for notes and references is far less restricted than what modern
scholars are used to. Sometimes annotations can be unclear and, despite many efforts, they remain
such. Lastly, the authors from this time very often used compendia or silvae rerum to draw various
examples and use them in their works.

My presentation will illustrate how legal institutions can be (mis)understood, (mis)represented, and
(mis)used to fit them into the argumentation. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, fortunately,
all these proposals remained in the postulatory phase but still provide us with examples of how
propositions of legal transplants were presented to the wider public in the past.

Selected bibliography:

Bairašauskait T., Problem autorstwa siedemnastowiecznego paszkwilu Alfurkan tatarski:

wątpliwości i ustalenia. (The Autorship Problem of the Seventeenth-Century Pasquinade Tatar Al-
Furqan: Doubts and Findings.) Rocznik Lituanistyczny 2023, t. 8, p. 205–215. DOI 10.12775/
RL.2022.8.10.
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 Czy ewski P., Alfurkan tatarski prawdziwy na czterdzie ci cz ci rozdzielony, Wilno 1617 (BUW,
sygn. Sd 713.1262).

Czy ewski P., Alfurkan tatarski prawdziwy na czterdzie ci cz ci rozdzielony, ed. Konopacki A.,
Białystok 2013; with commentary of Starczewska K., Spuścizna łacińskojęzyczna w Alfurkanie
Czyżewskiego.

Żochowski, K., Ile jurysty w Piotrze Czyżewskim? Uwagi o prawie rzymskim w Alfurkanie
tatarskim, siedemnastowiecznym paszkwilu na litewskich Tatarów. (How Much of a Jurist in Piotr
Czyżewski? Remarks on Roman Law in Tatar Al-Furqan, a Seventeenth-Century Pasquinade on
Lithuanian Tatars.) Rocznik Lituanistyczny 2023, t. 8, p. 217–230. DOI 10.12775/RL.2022.8.11.

Biographic note:

Kacper Żochowski, 2nd year doctoral student, Chair of Roman Law and Law of Antiquities, Faculty
of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw.
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