Since the late 14th century, which marked the beginning of their presence in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL), Tatars have constituted a Muslim community living in a diaspora dispersed among the indigenous inhabitants of the GDL and distinguished by their origin, culture, language, religion, etc. Depending on the period, they were a population of several thousand to several dozen thousand people. Usually, the life of such a diaspora is conditioned by many factors, both internal and external, as well as by assimilation and dissimilation tendencies. Therefore, the fact that the Tatar ethnic and cultural community has survived six centuries in the GDL and remained fully aware of their otherness despite being dominated by a totally different culture, language, and religion is a real historical phenomenon. Although the Tatars have become enculturated within these six centuries, thus forgetting their native language and their steppe habits, customs and traditions, they have saved until today the value of utmost importance – Islam, the religion of their fathers. Not only does this paper discuss various aspects of the enculturation of Lithuanian Tatars, but it also presents the history of similar minorities in other communities and cultures, such as the Spanish Moriscos, the Albaninan Bektashi or the Bosnian Muslims.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
