Sabbatai Sevi and the Ottoman-Turkish Dönmes | Cengiz Şişman

E308 | In 1665, an Izmir-born Rabbi named Sabbatai Sevi (1626-76) was proclaimed to be the Jewish Messiah. His messianic movement attracted tens of thousands of followers and become known throughout the early modern world. Ottoman authorities, however, arrested Sevi in 1666, and, under duress, the charismatic leader converted to Islam. Many members of his movement followed suit and became the communities who today are called dönme (which literally means "convert"). After Sevi's death, dönme communities continued to outwardly practice Islam but inwardly retain practices of Judaism. In this episode, Cengiz Şişman talks about his research on the development of Sevi’s movement, the trajectories of dönme communities, and questions of conversion and communal boundaries, which became more pressing in the late nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries. More at http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2017/03/donme.html Cengiz Şişman is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Houtson, Clear Lake, where he works on the history of religions, conversion, irreligion, messianism, mysticism, crypto-double identities, missionaries, and religion and modernity. He also teaches courses on world history, Islamic empires, and the modern Middle East. Matthew Ghazarian is a Ph.D. Candidate in Columbia University's Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, African Studies. His research focuses on the intersections of sectarianism, humanitarianism, and political economy in central and eastern Anatolia between 1856 and 1893. CREDITS Episode No. 308 Release Date: 26 March 2017 Recording Location: Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civizations, Istanbul, Turkey Audio editing by Matthew Ghazarian Music: Istanbul'dan Ayva Gelir Nar Gelir - Azize Tozem and Sari Recep Images and bibliography courtesy of Cengiz Şişman available at http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2017/03/donme.html