The Burden of Silence: Sabbatai Sevi and the Evolution of the Ottoman-Turkish Dönmes

by Cengiz Şişman

The Burden of Silence is the first monograph on Sabbateanism, an early modern Ottoman-Jewish messianic movement, tracing it from its beginnings during the seventeenth century up to the present day. Initiated by the Jewish rabbi Sabbatai Sevi, the movement combined Jewish, Islamic, and Christian religious and social elements and became a transnational phenomenon, spreading througout Afro-Euroasia. When Ottoman authorities forced Sevi to convert to Islam in 1666, his followers formed messianic crypto-Judeo-Islamic sects, Donmes, which played an important role in the modernization and secularization of Ottoman and Turkish society and, by extension, Middle Eastern society as a whole.
Using Ottoman, Jewish, and European sources, Sisman examines the dissemination and evolution of Sabbeateanism in engagement with broader topics such as global histories, messianism, mysticism, conversion, crypto-identities, modernity, nationalism, and memory. By using flexible and multiple identities to stymie external interference, the crypto-Jewish Donmes were able to survive despite persecution from Ottoman authorities, internalizing the Kabbalistic principle of a "burden of silence" according to which believers keep their secret on pain of spiritual and material punishment, in order to sustain their overtly Muslim and covertly Jewish identities. Although Donmes have been increasingly abandoning their religious identities and embracing (and enhancing) secularism, individualism, and other modern ideas in the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey since the nineteenth century, Sisman asserts that, throughout this entire period, religious and cultural Donmes continued to adopt the "burden of silence" in order to cope with the challenges of messianism, modernity, and memory.

Genres: Judaism, History, Religion

340 pages, Paperback

First published August 31, 2015

Reviews

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This probably isn't the very first thing I'd recommend reading about the Dönme(h) - Gershom Scholem's shorter writings on the topic serve as a good introduction - but it's a delightfully wide-ranging study that moves from Sabbatai Sevi himself to the fate of his followers in the Turkish republic. I found it to be a joy to read, even though structurally it was a bit of a mess and I would l have liked for it to have continued the story past WWII.

I'm not taking off stars for this, but there's one bad thing to point out. A while back I took a graduate seminar in which we read Benjamin Fortna's Imperial Classroom, and the professor went on a rant about how Oxford University Press books feature piss-poor editing these days. I'm sorry to say that this book continues that trend. The number of typos is simply inexcusable; there's even an error in the sentence in which the author thanks the editorial team!

I heard about this book from the Ottoman History Podcast, and based on the experience I'm looking forward to reading more books that I come across there (and hopefully more books by Cengiz Şişman as well).

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Using the Ottoman archives more thoroughly any scholar who has researched Donme life, and building on the research already done, for the first time Sisman provides a thorough explication of their history. I am just a layman but having read several other books on the subject, including the magisterial Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah by Gershom Sholem, this is by far the best. It really ties the room together.
The difference between The Burden of Silence and other books on the subject is Sisman's ability to cook down the scholarly minute into language that is, for a still very scholarly work, very readable. The development of the Donme and their influence on the Ottomans--and in turn the Turkish Republic--is thoroughly explained. For the first time I really understood the course of their history. Though this work celebrates no more than a fascinating niche in the worlds of the Ottoman Empire / Turkish Republic, it is a must read for those who love Istanbul and history.

[Adem Efe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Has been one of my longest reads, yet I can say it was worth every page of it. Each chapter was filled with satisfying amounts of knowledge on the given topic as well as academic resources to back them with. I was sceptical if this book was suitable for someone who has zero knowledge on the topic such as me, but this book definitely works good on also being an introductory guide as well as being an intermediate source on the topic.

[Kerem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Derin bir arastirmanin urunu olan kitap, donmelerin Sabetay Sevi'nin hayatiyla baslayan tarihlerine sosyal, ekonomik ve dinsel gibi bircok degisik acidan bakarak bugunlere kadar bizi tasiyor. Kitap aslen doktora tezi olarak yazildigi icin belki biraz tekduze bir anlatim tarzina sahip, ama cok degisik kaynaklara dalmasi ve varsayimlara kacmamasi olumlu yanlari.

[Jan Devrim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bu topraklara ait çok önemli bir kültürü hiç tanımadığımı farkettim. Bu kitap, komplo teorilerinden başka yerde adını duymadığımız bir kültürü ve inancı anlatıyor, bugüne kadar getiriyor. Keyifle ve heyecanla okudum, öğrendim.