Customer Reviews

The Dönme: Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries, and Secular Turks

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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...

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.