https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Dönmeh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help toimprove this article by introducing more precise citations. (October 2010) |
Dönmeh (Turkish: Dönme) refers to a group of crypto-Jews in the Ottoman Empire who, to escape the inferior condition ofdhimmis, converted publicly to Islam, but were said to have retained their beliefs. The movement was historically centred inSalonica.[1] The group originated during and soon after the era of Sabbatai Zevi, a 17th-century Jewish kabbalist who claimed to be the Messiah and eventually converted to Islam in order to escape punishment by the Sultan Mehmed IV. After Zevi'sconversion, a number of Jews followed him into Islam and became the Dönmeh. Since the 20th century, many Dönmeh have intermarried with other groups and most have assimilated into Turkish society.
Contents
[hide]Etymology[edit]
The Turkish word dönme is from the verbal root dön- that means 'to turn', i.e., "to convert", but in a pejorative sense. They are also called Selânikli "person from Thessaloniki" or avdetî "religious convert" (Arabic: عودة ‘awdah 'return'
History[edit]
See also: History of the Jews in Turkey
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. Please helpimprove this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(October 2010) |
Despite their conversion to Islam, the Sabbateans secretly remained close to Judaism and continued to practice Jewish rituals covertly. They recognized Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676) as the Jewish Messiah, observed certain commandments with similarities to those in Judaism, and prayed in Hebrew and later in Ladino. They also observed rituals celebrating important events in Zevi's life and interpreted Zevi's conversion in a Kabbalistic way.
There are several branches of the Dönmeh group. The first is the İzmirli, formed in İzmir, Turkey(Smyrna). This was the original sect, from which two others eventually split. The first schism created the sect of the Jakubi, founded by Jacob Querido (ca. 1650–1690), the brother of Zevi's last wife.[3] Querido claimed to be Zevi's reincarnation and a messiah in his own right. The second split from the İzmirli was the result of claims that Berechiah Russo, known in Turkish as Osman Baba, was truly the next reincarnation of Zevi's soul. These allegations gained following and gave rise to the Karakashi (Turkish), or Konioso (Ladino), branch, the most numerous and strictest branch of the Dönmeh.[5] Missionaries from the Karakashi were active in Poland in the first part of the 18th century and taught Jacob Frank(1726–1791), the alleged heir of Russo's soul.[citation needed] Frank went on to create the Frankist sect, another non-Dönmeh Sabbatian group in Eastern Europe. Yet another group, the Lechli, of Polish descent, lived in exile in Salonika (modern Thessaloniki, Greece) and Constantinople.[citation needed]
The Dönmeh played an enormous role on the Young Turk movement, a group of modernistrevolutionaries who brought down the Ottoman Empire.[6] At the time of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923, some among the Salonika Dönmeh tried to be recognized as non-Muslims to avoid being forced to leave the city.[citation needed] After the foundation of the Turkish Republicin 1922-1923, the Dönmeh strongly supported the Republican, pro-Western reforms of Atatürk that tried to restrict the power of the religious establishment and to modernize society.[citation needed] In particular, the Dönmeh were instrumental in establishing trade, industry, and culture in the emerging Republic of Turkey, which is partially due to the prominence of Rumeli immigrants in general, and of Salonika in particular, in the early Republic years.[citation needed]
An interesting case is the one of Ilgaz Zorlu, a Dönmeh publisher who founded Zvi Publishers in 2000 and sought recognition as a Jew, but a Beth Din refused to recognize his Jewishness without a full conversion.[citation needed] He claimed to have converted in Israel and then filed a lawsuit for changing his religion from Islam to Judaism in his registry records and identification. The court voted in his favor.[citation needed]
Işık University, which is the part of the Feyziye Schools Foundation (Turkish: Feyziye Mektepleri Vakfı, FMV), and Terakkî schools were founded originally by the Dönmeh community in Thessaloniki in the last quarter of the 19th century and continued their activities in Istanbul after Greeks captured the city on 9 November 1912.[citation needed]
There is a community of Dönmehs living in Yeniköy district of İstanbul.[citation needed]
Ideology[edit]
The Dönmeh ideology of the 17th century revolved primarily around the Eighteen Precepts, an abridged version of the Ten Commandments in which the admonition against adultery is explained as more of a precautionary measure than a ban, likely included to explain the antinomian sexual activities of theSabbateans. The additional commandments are concerned with defining the kinds of interactions that may occur between the Dönmeh and the Jewish and Muslim communities. The most basic of these laws of interaction was to avoid marriage with either Jews or Muslims and to prefer relations within the sect to those outside of it. In spite of this, they maintained ties with Sabbateans who had not converted and even with Jewish rabbis, who secretly settled disputes within the Dönmeh concerning Jewish law.[5]
As far as ritual was concerned, the Dönmeh followed both Jewish and Muslim traditions, shifting between one and the other as necessary for integration into Ottoman society.[7] Outwardly Muslims and secretly Jewish Sabbateans, the Dönmeh observed traditional Muslim holidays like Ramadan but also kept the Jewish Sabbath and major holidays.[8] Much of Dönmeh ritual is a combination of various elements of Kabbalah, Sabbateanism, Jewish traditional law, and Sufism.[9]
Dönmeh liturgy evolved as the sect grew and spread. At first, much of the Dönmeh literature was written in Hebrew. Later, as the group developed, Ladino replaced Hebrew as the prominent language and became not only the vernacular language, but also the liturgical language. Though the Dönmeh had branched into several sects, all of them held the view that Zevi was the divine messiah and that he had revealed the true "spiritual Torah"[5] which was superior to the practical earthly Torah. The Dönmeh created and celebrated holidays pertaining to various points in Zevi's life and their own history of conversion. Based at least partially in the Kabbalistic understanding of divinity, the Dönmeh believed that there was a three-way connection of the emanations of the divine, which engendered much conflict with Muslim and Jewish communities alike. The most notable source of opposition from other contemporary religions was the common practice of exchanging wives between members of the Dönmeh.[5]
The hierarchy of the Dönmeh was based in branch divisions. The Ismirli lay at the top of the hierarchy, composed of merchant classes and intelligentsia. Artisans tended to be mostly Karakashi while lower classes were mostly Jakubi. Each branch had its own prayer community, organized into a "Kahal," or congregation (Hebrew).[5] An extensive internal economic network provided support for lower class Dönmeh in spite of ideological differences between branches.[10]
Mehmet Karakaşzade Rüştü[edit]
In 1924, Mehmet Karakaşzade Rüştü, a Karakash Dönmeh,[clarification needed] revealed information (= made allegations?) about Dönmehs, branches and wife-swapping rituals to Vakit newspaper. He also accused Donmehs of lacking patriotism and not having been assimilated. Discussions spread into other newspapers including the ones owned by Dönmeh groups. Ahmet Emin Yalman, in the newspaper (Vatan) he owned, accepted the existence of such groups, but claimed that those groups were no longer following their traditions. Then Karakaşzade Rüştü petitioned TBMM, requesting the abolition of some Dönmehs' ongoing immigration from Macedonia by population exchange.[11][12][13]
Notable people of Dönmeh descent[edit]
See also[edit]
- Converso
- Jacob Frank
- Frankism
- History of the Jews in Turkey
- Jewish Museum of Turkey
- Judaism and Islam
- Kabbalah
- Marrano
References[edit]
- ^ Sean McMeekin, The Berlin-Baghdad Express p.75
- ^ Waiting for the Messiah
- ^ a b Maciejko, Pavel (2011). The Mixed Multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement, 1755-1816.Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
- ^ "Dönmeh" in Singer, Isidore, ed. (1906). "Jewish Encyclopedia." Jersey City, NJ: Ktav Publishing House. s.v. (accessed 10 March 2013).
- ^ a b c d e Scholem, Gershom (1974). Kabbalah. New York, NY: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Company.
- ^ Kirsch, Adam (15 February 2010). "The Other Secret Jews". The New Republic. Archived from the original on 5 December 2010. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
- ^ Baer, Marc. "Globalization, Cosmopolitanism, and the Dönme in Ottoman Salonica and Turkish Istanbul." Journal of World History. 18. no. 2 (2007): 141-170. doi: 10.1353/jwh.2007.0009 (accessed 6 March 2013).[1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ Marc Baer, "Dönme (Ma'aminim, Minim, Shabbetaim)," Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. University of Maryland. 7 March 2013
- ^ Weiker, Walter F. (1992). "Ottomans, Turks, and the Jewish Polity: A History of the Jews of Turkey." Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
- ^ Link text, Turkay Salim Nefes (2013) The Sociological Review Volume 61, Issue 2, pages 247–264.
- ^ Link text, Turkay Salim Nefes (2012) Journal of Historical Sociology Volume 25, Issue 3, pages 413–439, September 2012.
- ^ Cengiz Sisman, "The History of naming the Ottoman/Turkish Sabbatians", in Studies on Istanbul and Beyond ed. by Robert G. Ousterhout (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007).
Further reading[edit]
- The Dönme Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries, and Secular Turks by Marc Baer ISBN 978-0-8047-6867-2
- The Dönmes: Crypto-Jews under Turkish Rule by Jacob M. Landau Jewish Political Studies Review 19:1-2, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
- A Scapegoat for All Seasons: The Doenmeh or Crypto-Jews of Turkey by Rifat Bali (Isis Press, 400pgs), a review by Dan Yardeni in Haaretz
- DOENMEH-article in jewish virtual library
Navigation menu
Interaction
Tools
Print/export
- This page was last modified on 24 April 2015, at 18:22.
