Changing perceptions, varying fortunes: representations of the Sabbateans of Turkey

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2327699_ (Table of contents)

This research basically examines the various representations of the Sabbateans and the perception of society in contemporary Turkey. From the second half of the 17th century, society has “raised concerns” over the Sabbateans being a closed community and keeping their covert identity. From the 19th century onward, emerging nationalism which was one of the serious problems in the Ottoman Empire led to some cleavages among different communities, including the Sabbatean community. Although the Sabbateans had converted to Islam under the leadership of Sabbatai Zwi, they continued some of their old Jewish rituals which caused an alienation towards their identity and the rise of conspira-cies about them to this day. In doing so, this thesis aims to ask the questions why the Sabbateans began to be perceived as an enemy and a “scapegoat” by some in Turkish political history. Firstly, based on the publications about the Sabbatean community, the study analyses the content of the conspiratorial works and the rise and fall in the literature to understand the roots of conspiracy theories. Secondly, based on the memoirs of some well-known Sabbatean figures, this study intends to discover in what ways they represent themselves and their Sabbatean identities. As a consequence of these discussions, based on the silence of the Sabbateans for centuries, this thesis defends that the Sabbatean com-munity would not be existing as a monolithic community in contemporary Turkey any-more and it would be an “imagined community” which has been created by the conspiracy theories