The Dönme: Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries, and Secular Turks [Paperback]

Marc David Baer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0804768684 | ISBN-13: 978-0804768689 | Publication Date: October 16, 2009

This book tells the story of the Dönme, the descendents of Jews who resided in the Ottoman Empire and converted to Islam along with their messiah, Rabbi Shabbatai Tzevi, in the seventeenth century. For two centuries following their conversion, the Dönme were accepted as Muslims, and by the end of the nineteenth century rose to the top of Salonikan society. The Dönme helped transform Salonika into a cosmopolitan city, promoting the newest innovation in trade and finance, urban reform, and modern education. They eventually became the driving force behind the 1908 revolution that led to the overthrow of the Ottoman sultan and the establishment of a secular republic.

To their proponents, the Dönme are enlightened secularists and Turkish nationalists who fought against the dark forces of superstition and religious obscurantism. To their opponents, they were simply crypto-Jews engaged in a plot to dissolve the Islamic empire. Both points of view assume the Dönme were anti-religious, whether couched as critique or praise.

But it is time that we take these religious people seriously on their own terms. In the Ottoman Empire, the Dönme promoted morality, ethics, spirituality, and a syncretistic religion that reflected their origins at the intersection of Jewish Kabbalah and Islamic Sufism. This is the first book to tell their story, from their origins to their near total dissolution as they became secular Turks in the mid-twentieth century.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Marc David Baer vividly describes how this ancient, secret sect of Jews, about which little has been written until now, fit into the Islamic world without being found out."—Jewish Book World

"The book is clearly written and provides much data and analysis on the cultural, social, economic, and political life of the Dönme . . . This is a major study of a community that contributed greatly to the growth of Salonika and to the emergence of modern Turkey."—Rachel Simon, AJL

"In Baer's hands, the story of the Dönme becomes . . . a rather familiar modern morality play—a story of strangeness annihilated by the pressure of sameness."—Adam Kirsch, The New Republic

"Baer is dealing with an extremely important and sensitive topic. That the followers of Rabbi Shabbattai Tzevi did not really convert, but continued to practice their religion in secret, continues to be a widespread belief in Turkey. This unique book is of great relevance and significance to modern Turkey in understanding the fate of the many communities that were caught in between the transition from empire to nation state in the Middle East." —Resat Kasaba, University of Washington, editor of Cambridge History of Modern Turkey, Vol. 4

"At last, an engaging yet non-sensationalized history of the Dönme that places their history in the broader context of the later Ottoman empire and emergent Turkish Republic, showing how this group—so vital to the Empire's many later gains, its transition to a republic, and its 'cosmopolitan' character—ended up largely erased from the historical record." —K. E. Fleming, author of Greece—a Jewish History

About the Author

Marc David Baer is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine. His first book, Honored by the Glory of Islam: Conversion and Conquest in Ottoman Europe (2008), won the Albert Hourani Prize from the Middle East Studies Association.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press (October 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804768684
• ISBN-13: 978-0804768689
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #716,904 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Once a upon a time there was a fountain that delivered cherry juice in Thessaloniki, February 27, 2011

By 

Emre Sevinc "Software Developer, Cognitive Sc... (Antwerp, Belgium) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Dönme: Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries, and Secular Turks (Paperback)

Finally an intriguing account of a very important part of Turkey's history that is highly readable yet conforming to highest academic standards. I consider Dr. Baer a very brave person, because as far as I know the topic of 'dönme' or anything related to Sabetay Sevi is very controversial in Turkey. Conspiracy theories regarding those people (who are often called 'Sabetayist' in Turkish) are dime a dozen. It is only after reading this book that I gained an amount of more or less objective knowledge about this part of Turkish - Ottoman history. The author not only provides a great deal of references (as should any respectable historian do) but also provides his sociological analyses of a people who witnessed huge transformations such as the catastrophic forced population exchange (between Greece and Turkey) during 1920s, the fall of Ottoman empire and foundation of Turkish republic and the changing role of religion throughout these big events.

There are still some mysterious parts which probably need more light to be shed upon but I think this will require another book and maybe further interviews. The author says that the topic was considered to be very sensitive by some of the people he interviewed and some of them who accepted to give information refused to do so after a week. I think this shows that the topic is still very alive for these group of people whom Muslims did not consider real Muslims and claimed that they were Jews, yet at the same time Jewish communities plainly claimed that those people were not Jews and followed the orders of a false prophet, a heretic according to them. As if this was not enough, those 'dönme' people from Thessaloniki were also engaged with Sufi orders to complicate the analysis even more. I guess when people are looking for clear-cut categories, black and white distinctions, not being identified 'cleanly' with a 'well established and more or less accepted' category poses a lot of problems for some.

I really wonder what the reactions will be when (and if) this book is translated into Turkish, it may put an end into some of the conspiracy theories (because the author claims that based on his research the people who were supposed to follow Sabetay Sevi are no longer a closed group, they married with other people and assimilated into the general Turkish population long time ago) or at the same time it may trigger even more conspiracy theories (thinking about Dr. Yalçin Küçük, a famous Turkish author who is one of the champions of these kind of conspiracy theories, I'm inclined to believe that this option is a strong one).

I sincerely recommend this book to anybody who wants to understand the early years of Turkish Republic as well as the Ottoman period with its events that led to the new country better. The reactions as well as strategies employed by a very interesting and highly intellectual group of people who really had a very mysterious position and did not marry outside of their group for a very long time is anything but boring. Dr. Baer wrote one of the most exciting history books I've read for a long time. If only I could go back in time to visit that fountain built by Hamdi Bey, the mayor of Selanik then, and which delivered cherry juice...

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Tragically, another Jewish cover up, December 13, 2011

By 

Yonathan - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dönme: Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries, and Secular Turks (Paperback)

The book provides a great introduction to the Donmeh and Crypto-Jewry, but ultimately, for a acute student of history it reads as justification for the Donmeh's actions against the Christian minorities in Turkey. It totally ignores the Donmeh's involvement in the various pogroms and genocides conducted at the time against Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians. As a Jew, I find this repulsive. The author tries to create the Donmeh into "liberators", when in fact, it is obvious that any "positive role" they played in the region lead to a brutal genocide of the Christians in the region. Clearly, as a Jew, I believe in the creation of Israel, but I do not think we should stop with propaganda and let the chips fall as they will. This continually attempt to write Jews always with a positive tone, in my opinion, creates more anti-semitic feelings against us. The book would have been more sincere if it highlighted the role the Donmeh played in the destruction of Christians.