Why you should read:The Burden of Silence, Cengiz Şişman
Jeffery Kahrs
Of the heterogeneous multitude of belief systems that fall under the name of Islam, there may be no group more unique than the Dönme. Secretive yet known at least in passing to anyone who has immersed themselves in the mysteries of the Ottoman Empire, they are the descendent of followers of an 18th century messiah—and here many have added the word false before messiah. Sabbatai Sevi filled tens of thousands of Jews In Northern Europe and the Mediterranean Basin with the hope that he was the long-awaited answer to their prayers. Upsetting many in the Jewish community and disturbing the general peace, Sevi was eventually given the choice of martyrdom or conversion to Islam by Sultan Mehmet IV. By choosing Islam he lost the vast majority of his followers, though he retained more than one might imagine, both as Jews who followed Sevi’s mystical tenets and as converts to Islam.
Some 200 families chose to follow Sabbatai Sevi into Islam and became Dönme (the Turkish word for convert). In time they were joined by other followers from ports of call in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe. Their fascinating syncretic belief was a post-messianic form of Jewish mysticism based on the writing and commandments of Sabbatai Sevi, the practice of takkiye (dissimulation) and similar traditions established by the Marrano Jews in Spain, who had been forced to convert to Christianity. Add the Kabbalistic practices of Issac Luria redefined, the use of Islamic practices, particularly from Sufi lodges of various orders, a variety of celebrations and antinomian practices that were added to the existing Jewish calendar, and we are only touching on the most obvious forces guiding this sect / religion.
Cengiz Şişman’s The Burden of Silence is required reading for anyone who wishes to understand the heterogenous nature of religion and ethnic identity during the Ottoman Empire, with of course a focus on the Dönme, and how all this changed with the creation of Republican Turkey. Though there is now a good deal of information and plenty of misinformation on the Dönme, this is the first book that presents a clear, historical arc of the sect from its beginnings to the present, as well as a full explanation of the ideas that guided the three forms of Dönme: the Yakubi, Kapanci and Karakuş, groups that follow similar religious practices, yet split over doctrinal differences that made them distinctive enough to keep very separate burial grounds in whatever Ottoman city they happened to live and endogamous marriage within their groups. To marry outside their group, as Şişman points out, could lead to death for the transgressor. These practices were strictly followed until first challenged in the late 19th century, as the Dönme began traveling to Europe and questioning their identity through the lens of modernity and assimilation spurred on by a developing cosmopolitan identity.
Though The Burden of Silence is scholarly, with extensive footnotes and quotes at key moments, it is also blessedly readable. And because the Dönme remain a controversial subject to this day, Şişman is very careful to eschew the minefields of bias, whether Eurocentrism, Turkish nationalists, Jewish or Dönme. One reason Şişman is so successful in explaining his position is because of the careful work he’s done in the Ottoman archives. Şişman, for example, asks why didn’t the Ottoman authorities persecute Sabbatai Sevi? Why didn’t they just eliminate him when he was causing them grief? Good question. Şişman proves, I think rather conclusively, the Ottoman authorities thought of him as more of a nuisance than a revolutionary and, when the time came, they reveled in his conversion of this learned rabbi, for he brought his family (and in time his followers) into, as they saw it, the true faith of the Islamic fold. What the group wished to practice in private was their choice, though Sevi eventually complicated matters with movement between the two faiths. To further explicate the Ottoman viewpoint, Şişman gives multiple examples of groups that had converted to Islam but continued to practice Christianity or Judaism as a more or less open secret. He gives us a very clear picture of why the Ottoman attitude was so tolerant, even when the conversion was less than sincere.
Because the Dönme created the first Western-style schools in the Ottoman Empire outside of the Ottoman military and countries in Europe and the United States, they played a remarkable role in the modernization of the Ottoman state, specifically in the development of a European-style economy and politically through The Committee of Union and Progress. In turn, they deeply affected the founding of the Turkish Republic. Under great pressure to abandon their beliefs during the Republican Era and conform to the image of secular, Islamic Sunni Turks the Republic wished to project, many left the faith—though there are literally tens of thousands of people, particularly in Istanbul, who can claim a parent or grandparent who was once Dönme. Indeed, there are still some who continue to practice their faith.
Reading Şişman is like getting a new prescription for my glasses. Though there are several fine books on the subject, most of which build on the foundation of Gershom Sholem’s celebrated Sabbatai Zevi: The Mystical Messiah, Şişman has truly integrated the disparate viewpoints on the subject into a scholarly, readable text which I’m sure will become the standard book on the subject for some time to come.
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