Religious terminology in Islamic literature in the Lithuanian language

Abstract

Appearance of Islamic literature in the Lithuanian language is a rather recent phenomenon—its beginnings may be traced to the late 1990s and, to this day, it is exclusively translations of texts from other languages, chiefly English and Russian. Translators (as a rule, themselves religiously self-educated Lithuanian converts to Islam) have to grapple with Islamic religious terminology, which, save for a few commonly known words, has barely made its way into the normative language. Moreover, those Islamic terms that have been included into Lithuanian dictionaries and encyclopedias have been transliterated mainly from Russian and in their present form hardly correspond to their original (Arabic, Persian, or Turkish) phonetics. Therefore, the translators stand before the choice of either keeping English or Russian transcription/transliteration, reverting to one closer to the original or altogether translating the Islamic terms into Lithuanian (using familiar Christian terms or invented neologisms). The present article investigates the translators’ preferences in their rendering of Islamic terms and what they tell about the relation between language and faith. The analysis focuses on how transliteration of Islamic terms fits into competition among Muslims of different backgrounds as well as between Muslim and non-Muslim usage of Islamic terminology for the “ownership” or “possession” of religion through language, as the different strategies reveal cultural and even political affinities and preferences.