The Burden of Silence Sabbatai Sevi and the Evolution of the Ottoman Turkish Donmes 1st edition by Cengiz 0190463805 9780190463809

The Burden of Silence Sabbatai Sevi and the Evolution of the Ottoman Turkish Donmes 1st edition by Cengiz Şişman – Ebook Instant Download/Delivery ISBN(s): 0190463805, 9780190463809

Product details:

• ISBN 10: 0190463805
• ISBN 13: 9780190463809
• Author: Cengiz 

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, Dönmes, 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 Dönmes 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 Dönmes 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 Dönmes

Table of contents:

Chapter 1. Remapping a Messianic Movement in the Early Modern World

The “Messiah” of an Ottoman City

The Early Modern Ottoman Crisis, Ottoman Jewry, and the Sabbatean Movement

Ottoman Sultans, European Monarchs, and Sabbatai Sevi

Grand Viziers, the Ottoman Puritans, and Sabbatai Sevi

Natural Calamities, Environmental Crises and the Sabbatean Movement

Sabbatai Sevi and Nathan of Gaza: The Beginnings of a Messianic Movement

Chapter 2. The Rise and Fall of the Sabbatean Movement in the Eurasian World

Sultan’s Gaze: Ottoman Perception of the Sabbatean Movement

Izmir: The Messiah Appeared

Istanbul: The Messiah Imprisoned

Dardanelles: The Messiah Exiled

London: Dissemination and Magnitude of the Movement in the Eurasian World

Edirne: The Messiah Convicted

Spain and Portuguese: The Marrano Impact on the Movement

Sultan’s Palace: “Become a Muslim or Prepare to Die!”

Chapter 3. From a Global Movement to an Ottoman Sect

A New Muslim in the Ottoman World

Living and Schooling at the “Pharaoh’s Palace”

Self-Perception of the Messiah and the Mystery of the Godhead

The Early Messianic Community

The Exiled Messiah

The Dead Messiah?

Chapter 4. Authority, Authenticity, and Leadership

The Birth of a Post-Messianic Community: Yakubis

Jewish Sabbateans among the Dönmes

Nathan of Gaza and the Lurianic Kabbala

Miguel Cardozo and the Theology of “Second Coming”

The Rekindling of Messianic Expectations

A Growing Community: Individual Conversions versus Mass Conversions

A New Authority: Karakaş

A New Authenticity: Kapancıs

Chapter 5. Politics of Crypto- and Hybrid Identities among the Jews, Christians, and Muslims

Naming Hybrid Jewish and Ottoman Communities

European Connections: The Karakaş and the Polish Crypto-Jewish Frankists

Dönmes among the Jews, Christians, and Muslims

Christian Missionaries “Discover” the Dönmes

Ottoman Officials “Discover” the Dönmes

Chapter 6. Dönme Kabbala: Beliefs and Practices in Parallel Space and Time

The Eighteen Commandments as a Kabbalistic Constitution

The Credo and Abolition of Ceremonial Law

Language and Liturgy

Religious Calendar and Festivals

Crypto-Self-Government and Its Institutions

Birth, Circumcision, Genealogy, and Marriage

Homes and Neighborhoods

Charity and the Community Chest

Administrative Committees and Communal Houses

Worship Houses and Temples

Courts

Death, Burial, and Cemeteries

Chapter 7. The Experience of Modernity

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