Description

This rare pamphlet, published in 1919 in Istanbul, described the Dönme, a group of Sabbatean crypto-Jews. The Dönme, or the Converts, were followers of the Jewish mystic Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676), who was forced to convert to the Islam. Although apparently Muslims, the group still recognized Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676) as the Jewish Messiah and practiced Jewish rituals secretly.

The Dönme were mostly in the last decades of the Ottoman Empire accused of various conspiracy theories, most notably of anti-Sultan plots together with the Freemasons, with the pro-Sultan Muslims accusing Mustafa Kemal Atatürk being a Döhme himself.

Today a small group of the Dönme survives in Istanbul.

The author of the pamphlet was Sadık, Son of Süleyman, a Major from Thessaloniki and possibly a Dönme himself. In the book he describes the loyalty of the Dönme to the Ottoman Empire.

We could not trace any institutional examples on Worldcat.

References: ÖZEGE 4375. Cf.: Dennis WASHBURN – A. Kevin REINHART (ed.), Converting Cultures: Religion, Ideology, and Transformations of Modernity, 2007, p. 305; Marc BAER, The Dönme: Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries, and Secular Turks, 2010, pp. 125ff.