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introduction
For over two centuries the Dnme lived an open secret in Ottoman Salonika
following their conversion from Judaism to Islam in the wake of the conversion
of the messianic rabbi Shabbatai Tzevi in 1666.1 Neither the category Jewish
nor Muslim expresses their religious identity. Unlike Jews, the Dnme ostensibly followed the requirements of Islam, including fasting at Ramadan and
praying in mosques, one of which they built. Unlike Muslims, the Dnme maintained a belief that Shabbatai Tzevi was the messiah, practiced kabbalistic rituals, and recited prayers in Hebrew and Judeo-Spanish. According to the descendants of Dnme in Istanbul, the Dnme in Salonika saw themselves as a
community apart; fulfilling the commandments of Shabbatai Tzevi caused
Dnme to only marry among themselves, avoid relations with Jews, maintain
their separate identity guided by detailed genealogies, and bury their dead in
Acknowledgments: Previous versions of this paper were presented at the Annual Meeting of the
Association for Jewish Studies; The Center for Jewish Studies, Stanford University; the Leslie Center Humanities Institute, Dartmouth College; The Department of History, Williams College; The
Department of Religious Studies, the University of Pittsburgh; and the Watson Institute, Brown
University. I am grateful for the insightful criticism of audience members at each presentation. Particular thanks for critical commentary are due to Harris Lenowitz, Esra zyrek, Dicle Kogacoglu,
Aron Rodrigue, Dennis Washburn, Kevin Reinhart, Cornell Fleischer, the eight Fellows of the Humanities Institute at Dartmouth College, and the editor and four anonymous reviewers of CSSH. A
debt of gratitude is also due those who launched my study of the Dnme: Ilgaz Zorlu, Rfat Bali,
and Engin Akarl.
1
Members of this group called themselves Believers (Hebrew: MaGaminim); Muslims in the modern era label their descendants those who turn, convert (Turkish: Dnme). The terms Sabbatean
(Sabatayist) and Salonikan (Selnikli) have also been used. The latter term is not preferred because
Muslims of Salonikan origins who are not Dnme are sometimes confused with the group. Likewise, there is a tendency in Turkey to incorrectly use the term Dnme to refer to all converts to
Islam. I use Dnme in this article to denote the descendants of Jewish followers of Shabbatai
Tzevi who converted to Islam.
0010-4175/04/682708 $9.50 2004 Society for Comparative Study of Society and History
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