Ottoman Tradition in The Post-Ottoman Times: A Century of Translating The Mathnawi into Bosnian

Abstract

This article examines the reception of Jalaluddin Rumi's Mathnawi in post-Ottoman Bosnia and Herzegovina through the hitherto published translations of that work in the Bosnian language. The authors inspect the Bosnian translations of the Mathnawi according to contemporary translation studies, the retranslation and relay translation studies in particular. Following the survey and analysis, the authors conclude that the translation of the Mathnawi into the Bosnian language cannot be regarded as a linear historical progression because the process itself reveals a complex and multilayered relationship of the local culture towards the Mathnawi. The principal incentive for the translation of Rumi's masterpiece has been an age-old Ottoman tradition of interpreting the Mathnawi, dating back to the 16th century. This is observable in the translators' approach to the text, their insistence upon the contents at the expense of its poetic features, as well as their repeated invocation of the tradition of oral interpretation of verses, and frequent reliance upon the earlier Turkish translations of the Mathnawi and its commentaries composed in the Ottoman times.