Non­fic­tion

The Dön­me: Jew­ish Con­verts, Mus­lim Rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies, and Sec­u­lar Turks

Marc David Baer
  • Review
By – August 25, 2011
The Dön­me are a secret sect of descen­dants of the fol­low­ers of the false mes­si­ah Shab­batai Tzvi. When Tzvi was proven false by the sul­tan of Turkey, he con­vert­ed to Islam; the Dön­me con­vert­ed along with him, think­ing that this was all part of a greater plan. The Dön­me con­tin­ued their secret reli­gion for cen­turies; out­ward­ly they were Mus­lims, in pri­vate they were Jews.

These were not con­ver­sos, who were forced to con­vert to Chris­tian­i­ty or die by the sword of the Inqui­si­tion. The Dön­me con­vert­ed of their own voli­tion because of their per­son­al convictions.

The Dön­me devel­oped their own set of laws and dis­ci­plines. Over time they remained sep­a­rate yet attained extreme­ly high lev­els of pow­er. To this day rumors cir­cu­late about whether cer­tain major play­ers in the con­tem­po­rary Islam­ic world were for­mer­ly Jews or Dönme.

Marc David Baer vivid­ly describes how this ancient, secret sect of Jews, about which lit­tle has been writ­ten until now, fit in to the Islam­ic world with­out being found out.
Mic­ah D. Halpern is a colum­nist and a social and polit­i­cal com­men­ta­tor. He is the author of What You Need To Know About: Ter­ror, and main­tains The Mic­ah Report at www​.mic​ah​halpern​.com.

Discussion Questions