Fate is the Hunter

Book Description

"This book is an episodic log of some of the more memorable of the author's nearly ten thousand hours aloft in peace and (as a member of the Air Transport Command) in war. It is also an attempt to define by example his belief in the phenomenon of luck--that 'the pattern of anyone's fate is only partly contrived by the individual.'" (The New Yorker)

"This fascinating, well-told autobiography is a complete refutation of the comfortable cliche that 'man is master of his fate.' As far as pilots are concerned, fate (or death) is a hunter who is constantly in pursuit of them...there is nothing depressing about FATE IS THE HUNTER. There is tension and suspense in it but there is great humor too. Happily, Gann never gets too technical for the layman to understand." (Saturday Review)

Customer Reviews:

Tops of Clouds.......2007-08-06

After reading FATE IS THE HUNTER by Elmer K. Gann, I will never think of the men and women that pilot commercial planes as "glorified bus drivers", because they stand upon the shoulders of the men that Gann describes in this fictionalized biography. The book is a series of stories that takes a young commercial pilot (presumably Gann) in the 1930's, from training on DC-2's to the beginning of the commercial jet era.

Gann uses "fate" as the thread that goes through this book, the only thing in common with flight today is the air surface to weight ratio and pilot training; still "fate", not luck, has much to do with the survival of man and machine; then as now. The book opens with an altitude adjustment of 50 feet on a night flight, because not maintaining proper altitude represented "sloppy flying", moments later another airliner flies above them at the altitude they just left. This was before collision avoidance systems and sophisticated air traffic control; the pilot relied upon his skill and training.

The book is filled with adventure, from trying to find a remote village in the Amazon jungle, using vague maps and landmarks above a sea of green, to flying in fog so thick and low that a cable is dropped from the plane to determine what is being flown over. These are the days when there were no sophisticated weather reports, navigation was by radio transmitter, a strong signal meant you were going in the right direction. Gann flew the Burma route during the WWII flying a DC-3 or rather nursing them over the Himalayas and also the European theater flying out of Nova Scotia and Greenland. He and his fellow pilots and copilots flew the "milk runs" between Cleveland and Columbus or Chicago to New York learning the route by landmark and hamlets, knowing what weather to expect given the season, discovering the idiosyncrasies of equipment and the people he flew with and relied upon; navigating by the stars on night flights over water.

Gann lists pilots that he flew with who didn't make it as a tribute in the beginning of the book. There is no question that the early days of commercial aviation were difficult and dangerous, but Gann and his comrades showed us the tops of clouds and paved the way for the airway system we have today.

My profession's "bible".......2007-05-01

As an airline captain, I will occasionally ask my first officers if they have read this book. While most say 'yes', a few haven't. Some haven't even heard of it. I instruct them, no, command them to order and read it immediately! Every aviator needs to read this book, the 'bible' of our profession in order to understand our heritage, and what we have been spared. Flying is now orders of magnitude safer than it was in Gann's time, thanks in part to the courage of aviators like him, but also to the engineers he so disparages in the book! But, who can blame him after one changes all the spark plugs in three out of four engines to a useless experimental type. When I taxi by the American Airlines hangars at LaGuardia, I imagine Gann running up each engine after his close call, embarrassing the nerdy engineer who made a nearly fatal mistake. That engineer's more intelligent colleagues, however, also invented deicing equipment that works, reliable navigation, weight and balance and performance rules that prevent accidents, and maintenance procedures that head off trouble. I, and all my passengers and co-workers owe our lives and livelihoods to the brave pioneers that made it so.

This book is spellbinding. My copy is well-dog eared. Yours will be too!

One of a kind aviation book..........2007-02-23

Ernie Gann's memory abides in a special place of honor within the hearts and minds of aviators of which I happen to be one. What fliers appreciate is Gann`s ability to articulate their feelings so eloquently. He is one of them but what sets him apart and what they revere is that Gann wrote so well about flight. It is not surprising then that fliers hold him in such high regard, but the real testament to his skill as a writer comes from the acclaim of others outside this fraternity.

You don't have to be a pilot to appreciate Gann's work. It is sufficient to understand humankind's willingness to push the limits, all along knowing there is a risk to be taken. Man has always been willing to take a chance "so long as [he] insists on striving for progress." (xv) Gann, through his gift of prose, carries the reader along, not as a passenger, but as an involved observer. That is Gann's talent. The reader believes he is there with him. You don't have to be a pilot to understand Gann. He doesn't challenge you with technicalities. He presents situations whose outcome hangs by a thread. Is it fate, luck, skill, or fortune that determines the outcome? Whatever, Gann is a survivor.

In the past, as it is to this day, flight is inherently dangerous and unforgiving. The danger is mitigated in many ways. One way is told in the very first chapter captioned "The Tip of the Arrow." Gann descends his aircraft fifty feet to be precisely on his assigned altitude. By this act of professionalism he avoids a near miss when an unreported aircraft flashes by mere feet away. If he had not descended moments before, they would have collided. Striving for perfection, Gann saved their lives. "Those fifty additional sloppy feet held only a few minutes previously -so insignificant then - are now revealed as the pinion of our lives." (13) Gann, the professional pilot, saves himself and his airplane. Is that fate? Luck? Good fortune? Or is flying a game of chance that is played until your number comes up? In Fate is the Hunter, by telling of his experiences in nearly ten thousand hours of flight, Gann leaves it to us to make the final interpretation for his survival. However he gives us some clues to his thoughts. He writes "at least let us admit that the pattern of anyone's fate is only partly contrived by the individual" (384) What if the other aircraft, flown by another equally professional pilot, also had descended fifty feet? Would that have been fate or bad luck? We would never know.

Unquestionably Gann tempted fate many times, but not recklessly. He is not a daredevil. His good fortune in Fate is the Hunter though contrasts with that of many friends and companions who were not so lucky. He lists their names in the beginning pages of the book. (v-ix) Was their demise preordained? Gann doesn't tell us exactly. Instead we read, without a lot of detail, that their deaths were due to an "unknown cause", a "radio range failure", a vagary of the "seniority system", or, to explain the unexplainable, "pilot error". Humans err but is a human error by itself fate? Or is it carelessness? Or stupidity? Or, given the circumstances like a wing falling off, simply unbelievable? Flying, we know, has little regard for the careless or the foolish. One thing is certain from reading Fate is the Hunter, the line between life and death can be very fine indeed.

Even with the best of human performance possible, the odds against survival may be so overwhelming as to be insurmountable. It is then that true heroism is necessary. Heroism is not ever mandated or demanded of someone by others. Heroism comes from within. It is the disregard for personal safety or salvation that propels action against overwhelming odds. This is not Ernest Gann. He doesn't hold himself out (nor the other pilots that he holds in high regard) as heroes though some of us may believe they were. Gann writes about this in the following paragraph.

"Line pilots do not live in an atmosphere of heroism, for that is a very temporary condition better suited to wildly inspired moments in which the hero hardly knows what he is doing. The pilots know what they are doing, right or wrong, always. They wear courage like a comfortable belt, rarely giving it a thought. But a line pilot is wary all of the time, which is an entirely different matter. To be continuously aware you must know what to be wary of, and this sustained attitude can come only with experience. Learning the nature and potentialities of the countless hazards is like walking near quicksand." (109)

What Gann experiences in his career are situations that require a cool head and good judgment. "The timid, super-cautious pilot is not necessarily the safest. Coupled with knowledge, a touch of boldness is required" (52) Gann will take a calculated risk, but the decision is based on his knowledge and experience.

A high standard must be maintained. In the role of an airline pilot, Gann recognizes he is entrusted with a duty. Passengers place their trust in the airline, the airplane and him. Quite simply, his is an occupation unlike any other. The cockpit of an aircraft in flight is a place that most people normally do not get to see. In our journey with Gann we are invited into his world as he progresses from being an apprentice just prior to World War II until he becomes a seasoned veteran as a Captain of his own ship. Ernest Gann doesn't tell us explicitly, but the reader begins to sense the Captain's responsibility for his passengers, his crew and his company. This burden is not carried lightly by Gann or the other pilots. There are a couple that Gann believes do not deserve his or our respect. These he treats with disdain. However he is not malicious and so he doesn`t use their real names. To the despotic Alessandro, he wished bad luck but nonetheless remains unscathed. The pretender "Captain" Dudley, who didn't have a license, was at first pitied, then loathed. After getting properly licensed Dudley again talks himself into command of another airliner which crashes. He survives but some passengers do not.

Four decades have passed since Gann wrote Fate is the Hunter and a few more years than that since Gann lived the events he so vividly describes in his book. From today's perspective on aviation, Fate is the Hunter opens a window to another time. Unlike the present jet age, all of Gann's flying was in propeller transports - DC 2s, DC 3s, the Lockheed Loadstar, the C-54, and the C-87. In many ways it was a more challenging time. Navigation aids and flight instruments were much less sophisticated than now. Still they were light years ahead of what was available just a short time previously. Yet, while the technology was more primitive, the human factors remain remarkably similar in the present. A pilot faces the hazards of winter snow and summer heat then just as he does today. A schedule is kept just like it is today. Fuel may be critical then as now. Seniority still remains the key to advancement. Pay is determined by the minute of flight though credit time figures into pay computations today. Remarkably the report time of one hour before scheduled departure is the same today as it was for Gann. When airborne there are still the hours of droning along with only routine tasks to complete but always having to be alert for any inkling of an impending problem. I can relate to a common request from passengers interested in exactly where they were. For me the request came via the interphone and is relayed by a flight attendant. In Gann's time it was probably directly from the passenger himself. Gann notes this was "information we seldom had ready at hand" and would "assume a solemn mien and point out a town, or village -anyone visible would do - and...would say. `That is White Pigeon.`" (176) I wish I had thought of that! Thankfully though, copilots today don't have to load passenger baggage any more. Jets are so large we would never leave the gate waiting for them to finish loading! Gann has unintentionally created an historical classic encompassing an important era in aviation.

Gann's description of the aircraft he flew contrasts remarkably with
the aircraft in use now. At the time however they were the best that were available. In one episode the regularly scheduled equipment, a DC-3, is grounded for maintenance. A DC-2 is substituted for the regularly scheduled flight from Nashville to New York with Columbus, Ohio as the alternate. The flight proves to be Gann's first encounter with icing and almost his last flight, period. They encounter heavy icing and battle deteriorating sky conditions until finally arriving at Cincinnati where the weather has remarkably cleared. The fortuitous substitution of a DC-2 saved them. The DC-3 would not have been able to stay in the air carrying the same load of ice. As for the C-87 which he later flew Gann says it "could not carry enough ice to chill a highball."(214) These details provide invaluable information for aviation historians.

Inevitably, in reading Fate is the Hunter , the reader reaches a point where he might ask himself, is all this true? Gann says "insofar as one mind can reveal a vast and extraordinary complex endeavor, all the facts and events described are true." (xvi) I believe him. In nearly ten thousand hours of flying an endless array of situations are possible. Given the time frame, the aircraft he flew, and the conditions he encountered it is entirely within reason for to him have lived the experiences as he describes them. His logbook would be proof. All pilots have one. One thing is sure, if his story is not true, the people he writes about (those that have survived) would not have let him get away with it!

I only have one question. That has to do with "unporting" (368) That is a term as unfamiliar to me as it was to Gann when he was told about it. In the episode that describes the condition, Gann had "arranged the only possible combination of power, speed, and weight which would blockade the chances of unporting" (369) preventing loss of control. Another airplane crashed because of the problem but Gann was unaware except for "a certain trembling" (365) He was only told of the danger later after he came back to work from vacation. Personally I put this in an "ignorance is bliss" category. There are many things beyond the control of the pilot and if you can't do anything about it, it is not worth worrying or knowing about. Even if Gann had known of the problem it is unlikely they would have been able to determine the exact flight requirements to prevent it from occurring. That was only figured out later. Aerodynamics is not my forte but someone else may be able to shed some light on "unporting."

How does Gann's story end? In the end I think he becomes discouraged. He is caught by the seniority trap. A pilot, once he begins with a company, is locked into that company's seniority list. If he were to leave and come back later he would have to go to the bottom of the list and start all over again. Gann left American to pursue another flying opportunity. When that business failed, he was not inclined to start over again as a copilot. He became a writer.

Like a wealthy gambler, he knew when to quit.

A memorable memoir.......2006-11-28

Ernest Gann's autobiographical work is one of the very best examples of the genre ever. The settings are all over the world, but are always in flight. Each chapter is a vignette from his time as a commercial flyer during the late 1930s, '40s, and early 1950s. Every measured word is a pleasure, taking the reader into Gann's cockpit and indeed, into his state of mind. Gann's prose is deceptive in its brevity and simplicity. The proof is in the success of his purpose, which seems to have been to allow his reader to see, hear, and almost smell the experiences of a working aviator. Such a flyer's average hour on the job has been famously described as "59 minutes of utter boredom punctuated by sixty seconds of sheer terror." Gann's exquisite prose captures all sixty minutes of such hours, and does so with seeming effortlessness, but really with eloquence and elegance. Read this book if for no other reason than to study descriptive narrative at its best. You will want to add it to your personal bookshelf, and pick it up once in a while, as I do, just for the pleasure it affords.

A landmark in aviation writing.......2006-11-13

I've never read a bad Ernest Gann book, but the autobiographical FATE IS THE HUNTER marks the top of his form, followed by BLAZE OF NOON, etc.
Bill Brown

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CONAN THE SWORDSMAN
L. Sprague (decamp;) Carter, Lin; Nyberg, Bjorn; Offutt, Andrew J.; Wagner, Karle Edward; Anderson, Poul (re: Robert E. Howard) de Camp
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0553227270

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Early Aviation Stories

Fate Is the Hunter

Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Similar Items:

ASIN: B000EDIN8O

Product Description

This book is an episodic log of some of the more memorable of the author's nearly ten thousand hours aloft in peace and (as a member of the Air Transport Command) in war. It is also an attempt to define by example his belief in the phenomenon of luck--that 'the pattern of anyone's fate is only partly contrived by the individual.'

Customer Reviews:

Early Aviation Stories.......2007-05-14

Absolutely the best aviation book you'll ever read. Gann was at the top of his writing career, and knew how to spin a tale. Fascinating stories of near-misses and the heavy human price paid during the early years of commercial airline service. So good it should have six stars!

Fate is the hunter / Ernest K. Gann (Ballantine books)

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Aviator and Non Aviator historical classic

Fate is the hunter / Ernest K. Gann (Ballantine books)
Ernest Kellogg Gann
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007EFVX0

Customer Reviews:

Aviator and Non Aviator historical classic.......2006-03-08

This book gives a look inside the life of a pilot. From his first flights all the way to retirement. Read how dangerous flying used to be and how uncertain the survivability rates were. The story takes you from the cradle of aviation to the golden age of aviation.

Interlaced with world period events of the time the book captures your attention from one hair rasing mission to the next. Wether its a commercial flight gone bad or war mission botched, you will find you cannot read fast enough.

Best Sellers From Reader's Digest Condensed Books, to Kill a Mockingbird, the Agony and the Ecstasy, the Winter of Our Discontent, Fate Is the Hunter

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Best Sellers From Reader's Digest Condensed Books, to Kill a Mockingbird, the Agony and the Ecstasy, the Winter of Our Discontent, Fate Is the Hunter

Manufacturer: The Reader's Digest Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000BX5VWI

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Fate Is The Hunter
Ernest K. Gann
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JWQT8Q

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FATE IS THE HUNTER
Ernest Gann
Manufacturer: Fawcett Crest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B0000CKWVY

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FATE IS THE HUNTER
ERNEST K. GANN'S
Manufacturer: PANTHER BOOK
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000SC1KOU

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Fate is the Hunter

Fate Is the Hunter

Manufacturer: Ballantine
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0345027922

Product Description

Book about aircraft pilots.

Customer Reviews:

Fate is the Hunter.......2007-07-25

This is my favorite flying book of an extensive flying library. Although biased toward WW2 fighters this exceptionally well written book of an airline pilot from the thirties and forties is a must read. Some of the hair raising experiences of this pilot would most likely have made me never start my fifty five years of flying if I had read it first. The primitive flying conditions and equipment used in the early days of the airlines and in the military while flying the "Hump" in WW2 will chill any pilot.

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Fate is the Hunter
Ernest K. Gann
Manufacturer: Crest Book
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000KOWQM6

Book Description

A richly detailed account of the only messianic movement ever to engulf the entire Jewish world.

The twentieth century produced a galaxy of extraordinary Jewish historians. Gershom Scholem stands out among them for the richness and power of his historical imagination. Born in Berlin in 1897, Scholem became a Zionist as a young student in a revolt against his family's bourgeois and assimilated life. He learned Hebrew and studied Kabbalah, the world of mystical teachings that had become marginalized--indeed stigmatized--within the mainstream rationalist Jewish tradition. In 1923, Scholem emigrated to Palestine and eventually joined the faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, publishing groundbreaking studies in the field of Jewish mysticism.

In the 1930s, Scholem's scholarship turned to an obscure kabbalist rabbi of seventeenth-century Turkey, Sabbatai Sevi, who aroused a fervent following that spread over the Jewish world after he declared himself to be the Messiah. The movement suffered a severe blow when Sevi was forced to convert to Islam, but a clandestine sect survived. A Bollingen Foundation grant enabled Scholem to complete the original Hebrew edition of his biography in 1957. Bollingen also supported R. J. Zwi Werblowsky's masterful English translation. A monumental and revisionary work of Jewish historiography, Sabbatai Sevi stands out for its combination of philological and empirical authority and for its passion. It is widely esteemed as one of Scholem's masterworks. The author himself always regarded the Princeton/Bollingen edition as a highlight of his scholarship.

Customer Reviews:

Original, encyclopedic and bold, but not written like a popular history book.......2006-03-16

This book is less about the man, Sabbatai Sevi, than it is about the Kabbalah movement and its impact on the Jewish people. This book is not a "popular" history book. For example, the author spends the first 100 pages of the book discussing the history and fundamental principals of Kabbalah. (Perhaps the discussion was shorter in the original Hebrew as it would not surprise me that the translator needed to "digest" many of the concepts for the English readers.)

Although the book primarily follows a chronological order the author often deviates from the chronology of the events and addresses tangential issues. Scholem's knowledge of the times and issues are encyclopedic and it is not difficult for a reader to get lost in the details of the numerous tangents which the author pursues.

However, if one gets passed the "professor" like writing and the tangents one is rewarded with an amazing picture of the man and the times.

Scholem rarely cites other historians for conclusion but rather develops his ideas independently by reference to numerous primary sources. For example, Scholem compares and analyses the different contemporary account of the events surrounding Sabbatai's apostasy that appear in the different historical accounts and by reference to primary sources, which were often not available or consciously omitted by the previous writers, debunks many myths surrounding this key event. By following his sources the reader is given the opportunity to make up their own mind as to what might have "really" happened.

Scholem seeks to understand how the whole Jewish world could have been swept up in the euphoria of the Messiah, and not just the illiterate masses as many other historian have contended. It was refreshing to see Sabbatai Sevi not being simply dismissed as a charlatan and a quack but the possibility of his "belief" in himself as Messiah honestly addressed. Scholem does not simply sweep "problematic" facts under the carpet of history because it may be uncomfortable for some to believe how could both the lay and religious leaders all believe in the Messiah who, thanks to our hindsight, we "know" did not bring redemption to the Jewish people.

Although Scholem does not address this issue directly, after reading this book I now better understand how events surrounding the Sabbatian movement explain the initial reaction of the Jewish leaders to the Hassidic movement. I also find this historical account instructive in understanding of the dangers of the current messianic strains in HaBaD and the current simplistic popularity of Kabbalah.

I would have given this book 5 stars, but I am giving it 4 as a caution to the readers because of its difficult reading style and length.

Should be a movie.......2005-09-20

This story has everything: personal conflict, political overtones, romance, madness, coincidence, religion, intrigue and a surprise ending. Why does Hollywood recycle 60's TV shows and leave stories like this in the dustbin?

sometimes fascinating, sometimes dry..........2004-10-20

but always informative. Rather than reiterating the other reviewers' comments (all of which I agree with) I wanted to mention a few things about the book that grabbed my attention:

1. That complaints about the popularization of kabbalah was as common 350 years ago as it is today. One rabbi wrote in 1662: "now there have appeared presumptuous men who abuse [kabbalah], turning it into a spade with which to feed themselves. They write books on kabbalistic subjects . . . and even mingle the inventions of their hearts with kabbalistic teachings, until it becomes impossible to distinguish between the words of the kabbalist masters and their own additions." (p. 87). Take that, Madonna!

2. Claims that the Messiah is coming were even more common among Jews in those days as today. Scholem mentions numerou such instances (usually based on gematria, a kind of Jewish numerology involving turning letters from the Bible into numbers and adding up the numbers to achieve interesting results). For example, Kabbalist Moses Cordervero wrote: "Though not delaying the date of redemption, they [our sins] have hidden it so that its light is invisible until the appointed time. But none of these things will be later than the year 408 [1648], and some will occur earlier, such as the resurrection [of the dead] in the Holy Land." (p. 88-89) Instead of getting Messiah, Jews in the Ukraine got massacred in 1648. After the massacres, other rabbis used gematria to show that the Torah predicted the massacres, and asserting that the massacres were the "birth pangs" of the Messianic age (p. 92)- a prediction which of course failed to materialize. For example, one commentator noted that the Hebrew words for "the messianic woes" equalled 408 (Id.) So when you hear someone assert that Jews' current troubles are the birth pangs of Messianic redemption, just remember that the argument has been made before.

3. The use of gematria to persuade people that Sevi was Messiah. For example, Sevi claimed that the numerical value of his name was equal to the numerical value of the Hebrew words "for the true Messiah" and "and God moved." (pp. 234-35).

4. Who Sabbatai Sevi was: a nice, rabbinically trained Jewish boy who was unfortunately under the spell of manic-depression. Even before claiming to be the Messiah, Sevi would do bizarre things in his manic phases: for example, celebrating Jewish festivals at the wrong time of year (p. 162). The Messianic movement may not have been Sevi's idea: Nathan Ashkenazi, a brilliant young rabbi in Gaza, claimed to have had a heavenly vision that Sevi was the Messiah (p. 204-05) and then gradually persuaded Sevi of this "fact" (id. at 215-20). Scholem believes that Nathan was far more energetic than Sevi, "could read people's consciences" (p. 268) and was thus able to persuade them of Sevi's status. And the people persuaded by Nathan wrote other Jews around the globe, causing the Sevi movement to explode.

5. The polarization of the Jewish community over Sevi, which led to shameful behavior by believers and nonbelievers alike. In one of his manic phases, Sevi once smashed the doors of a hostile congregation with an ax on the Sabbath and took over the service (p. 395). Nonbelievers and believers alike asked non-Jewish kings to punish their opponents on trumped-up charges (p. 514). Even "nonbelievers" conceded that the believers were usually the majority (p. 475).

6. The ability of the masses to experience religious delusions. For example, when the movement was at its height in Smyrna, Greece, dozens of Jews claimed to have seen Elijah (p. 417) and hundreds of Jews engaged in mass "prophecies". During these prophecies, they trembled, swooned, proclaimed that Sevi was messiah- and forgot their words afterwards (p. 419). False prophecy is real - and the false prophets might not even be aware of their own falsity.

7. The manipulation of Sevi by Turkish authorities, who first arrested him, then sought revenue by charging admission to Jews who sought to visit their Messiah (p. 603), then compelled him to convert to Islam.

8. The apparent abdication of authority by even hostile rabbis. Turkish rabbis asked their counterparts in Jerusalem (who knew Sevi better than they) to comment on his messianic claims. The Jerusalem rabbis never answered (p. 613).

9. The occasional presence of good sense even among believers. When asked about the issue, Sevi's brother Elijah praised Sevi, but added that "he was an expert in cloth and linen but not in divinity." (p. 614).

10. The fact that Sevi's apostasy did not immediately eliminate all his support, since a few "believers" claimed that his conversion to Islam was a trick- an impression nurtured by Sevi himself, who contained to receive Jewish visitors after his apotasy and to study Torah etc.

11. The attempt by anti-Sevi rabbis to cover up the whole affair after Sevi apostasized- for example, rabbis in Venice wrote to other Jewish communities commdanting them "to destroy all documents rlating to the movement of 1666 [Sevi's] and to obliterate all testimony of this shameful episode." (pp. 762-63). If you have been thought that only a lunatic fringe supported Sevi, now you know why.

One of a Kind.......2004-07-21

Sabbatai Sevi by Gershom Scholem is a quintessential study of a little understood episode in Jewish history. Often dismissed as a marginal incident supported by marginal players, Scholem systematically outlines the background and broad scope of the acsent and decline of the "mystical messiah" Sabbatai Sevi. Scholem provides rich detail of the intellectual and political climate that paved the way for a mass messianic movement that reached across world Jewry. He documents the level of support that Sabbatai Sevi enjoyed from a critical mass of world Jewish leaders, support that would later be retracted (and denied) after the decline of the movement.

The book is a challenging read for individuals without the academic background, but is nonetheless rewarding for those willing to work to digest the high-academic style of much of the writing. Like Scholem's other works, this book is a window to a world of Kabbalistic belief which historically existed in parallel to "traditional" Rabbinic Judaism, quietly passed down and further developed in the shadows. Most importantly, the book portrays the explosive mix of a powerfully appealing ideology with a cultural appetite driven by a sense of desperation.

Both Brilliant and Definitive.......2001-10-18

How often does a scholar write a text that is uniformly considered definitive? Rarely. However, Scholem's work on Sabbatai Sevi is exactly that. So important is this text, that all other examinations before have fallen away and are no longer studied and almost all that came after are derivative. A brilliant scholar, the author goes to great depths, examining both the historical and philosophical underpinnings of Judaism's largest Messianic movement since Jesus.

The author rejects the traditional explanation that followers of Sevi were attracted to him because of the deprivation experienced by some Jews of the period. As Scholem points out, even wealthy communities of Jews in Amsterdam and Greece found him irresistible. Patterns of the growth of the movement are given great attention and are fascinating.

Many people are put off by the length of this work (almost 1000 pages of prose). However, the field is so vast, that a shorter book would not have done it justice. While somewhat esoteric, Sabbati Sevi provides a powerful window into a period of Jewish history given too little study.

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A facinating book on a little known corner of Turkish history

The reverse of the medal

The Lost Messiah: In Search of Sabbatai Sevi
John Freely
Manufacturer: Viking
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Customer Reviews:

A facinating book on a little known corner of Turkish history.......2007-04-12

The Donme are one of the most remarkable groups in the Middle East. A Jewish sect that had converted to Islam but still retained much of it's previous faith and practice, carried out in secret, they dont intermarry with other Muslims while have becoming influential in various political positions in the Muslim world (Ismail Cem and the Ipekci family for example).

This (and perhaps Bernard Lewis' book but I tend to avoid anything written by him) is perhaps the only decent study of the Donme sect and its founder Sabbatai Sevi. The term Donme is a Turkish word meaning 'turncoat' it seems from the book that they were never realy recognised as true Muslims (such examples are the fact that there were specific 'Donme Mosques' in Salonika, there were never for example 'Albanian' or 'Bosnian' Mosques even though they were a distinct group that had converted to Islam) But I have no idea why a previous reviewer chose to say that Sabbatai Sevi was forced to convert to Islam as the book itself makes no such claim.

Their history is remarkable and Mr Freely goes into great detail discussing the life of the founder Sabbatai Sevi and his main student Nathan of Gaza. How the group developed and the controversy they caused in the major cities of the Ottoman world such as Izmir and Istanbul, the leaders arrest and his conversion to Islam. The book then goes into some detail to suggest where he may be buried and then the mass conversion of his followers in Salonika, how they became greatly involved particually in politics such as the Young Turk movement and even the Mevlevi order in Salonika. The book then goes on to detail their expulsion from Greece (along with all other Muslims) to Turkey and their settlement in Istanbul. How even they have a sepperate cemetary from other Muslims and their gravestones are distinct from other Turkish Muslim ones. The book also covers the history of the followers of Sabbatai Sevi in Europe who did not convert to Islam but Catholicism particually in Poland and Eastern Europe and some of the famous descendents of that group.

It is even more interesting that at the same time this book came out a similar one in Turkish was published. It would seem that this is yet another small effort of Turkey comming to terms with its past.

Well worth a read for anyone with an interest in either Islamic studies or Jewish history.

The reverse of the medal .......2005-05-04

The crucial year is Anno Domini 1666 - Hegira 1067.
In that year "Jews in various part of the Middle East and Europe were taken by a messianic frenzy... began selling their goods... preparing for their joint return to the Holy Land".
A hectic exchange of letters span the Mediterranean, but also the New world is interested: in far away Brazil Portuguese Marranos talk about unfolding events, in Boston the sermons of reverend Cotton Mother wonder about the coming end of the Diaspora.
A sense that something important is going to happen grips the entire world. For a few months time seems to stop.
Oldenburg, the secretary of the British Royal Academy writes inquisitively to Spinoza, the ten lost tribes of Israel are reported to have put Mecca under siege, the anointed Messiah is coming to restore the Jewish nation to the promised land and will humble the infidel enemy.
The world upside down.

But the climax comes to a strange result: Sabbatai Sevi, the self appointed messiah, is forced by the Turkish authorities to abjure the Jewish faith and become a Muslim.
In a sense this is the turning point but not the end of the story, like one could be easily led to think: a definite change none the less. Because most of his followers kept their faith remaining in the Jewish religion (the still existing Sabbatian Jews), some joined him in the apostasy (the still existing Muslim Domne community), some of them, still faithful to his message, joined the Catholic Church (Yes! The picturesque Frankist community).

In the tumultuous unfolding of events we are guided by John Freely to the discovery of a vanished world: the many Jewish communities (Romaniotes, Sephardis, Askenazi, Karaites, Mustaribs,...) and the many cradles of the Diaspora (multinational Salonika, Alexandria, Cairo, Izmir, Istanbul, but also far away places like Amsterdam, Ferrara in Italy and the too many communities in Central Europe).
In a sense, this book can be read as well as a travel book: to search the material, Freely followed physically the footsteps of the Sabbatians and his effort to unearth that world is in itself a real pleasure.
Most of that world has gone, wiped by two world wars and by the mad specter of nationalism: the great Jewish communities of Greece are no more, gone the royal palace in Edirne, gone the Jewish quarter in Salonika, gone the Jewish quarters of Alexandria and Cairo, but sometimes a place has been able to defy time: Berat in Albania (truly gripping the description of the city), but also the valley of Nightingales in Istanbul.

A vanished world: a multinational empire where Greeks and Jews, Turks, Armenian and Arabs coexisted. A world that was apparently much more culturally global than our own and with an area that spanned from the new world to far away cities on the edge of India. A world in which many languages coexisted: the official Turkish and the semiofficial Greek, the multinational Ladino, Arabic and Yiddish...(it is curious that Sevi was not fluent in Turkish, notwithstanding his being born and lived most of his life in Izmir).

The story is framed and intersected by the relevant historic events of the time: the fall of Venetian Candia (Crete) to the Turks, the Chminielnicki massacres in Poland and Ukraine in 1648 (one of the first great scale pogroms), the birth of the first ghetto in Venice ("ghetto" is a Venetian word), the expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492), up to the failed siege of Vienna that marks the beginning of the decline of the Turkish Empire.

I resolved to read this book after I first read about Sabbatai Sevi in the biography of Spinoza (Spinoza. A Life by Stephen Nadler). Many feature stimulated my interest, not the least the strange phenomenon of an unusual revivalist movement in the Jewish Religion, the fact that Freely is also author of respected travel books about Greece and Turkey, my passion for the Mediterranean heritage.

Possibly this book is a perfect blend of history, geography and religion. I enjoyed every page of it and cannot but recommend it.
I loved this book, and yet there are parts of it that are true cameos. Between the many, this anecdote of the late 50s is sure worth to be cited in full:
"While in the station in Edirne, Abraham Galanté (one of the leading authorities in the history of Turkish Jewry) waited for a train to take him back to Istanbul, he noticed an old woman who was sweeping up in the waiting room, and singing while she worked. When she came closer he could hear that she was singing in Ladino, and then to his astonish¬ment he realized that the song was one that the Donme sang together to keep up their hopes in the long centuries of waiting for Sabbatai Sevi to return:
Oh, my beloved's gone from me, God's chosen one, Sabbatai Sevi. Though fallen low and suffering smart, Yet he is closest to my heart. . .
Galanté questioned the woman, and learned that she was in fact a Donme - one of the very few who still remained in Edirne. He asked why she was cleaning up in the waiting room, and she explained that she did this every day to make sure that it would be spotless when Sabbatai arrived. The Messiah had gone to his rest in Albania she explained, and when he returned he would surely come by train, picking up his faithful followers on the way to Istanbul from where they would set sail for Jerusalem. She was waiting to join him, she said, and then excused herself to get on with her work, continuing her interrupted song."
(pag.241-242).
Three hundred years had elapsed but still someone was keeping the faith.

If you've been so patient and kind to follow me so far, there can be a chance you share some of my passions and could be interested in other books I had the opportunity to read in the past about similar arguments:
Most specifically historical:
- Steven Nadler - "Spinoza. A Life" , more a survey of the age and times in which Spinoza lived than a specific biography of the great philosopher (see also my review)
- Dimitry Obolensky - "The Byzantine Commonwealth" an informed survey of the Byzantine legacy in Eastern Europe (see also my review)
More travel-related:
- Predrag Matvejevic - "Mediterranean. A Cultural Landscape". Nostalgia over the shores of the dark wine sea (see also my review).
- Ernle Bradford - "Mediterranean. Portrait of a Sea". Possibly the best book I read on history, culture and traditions of the Mare Nostrum.
- John Ash - "A Byzantine Journey". A poetic, fragile and luminous evocation of the Byzantine past.
- Ohran Pamuk - "My Name is Red" a fabulous novel (a must read for sure) that uses Bellini's portrait of Mehmet the Conqueror to illustrate the clash between the artistic tradition of the West (art like mirror of an ideal reality) and the Eastern tradition (art like symbol and not representation) - (see also my review).

You are truly welcome if you can suggest other readings or just share ideas and comments!
Thanks for reading.

The grand vizier and the false Messiah: the Sabbatai Sevi controversy and the Ottoman reform in Egypt.: An article from: The Journal of the American Oriental Society

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The grand vizier and the false Messiah: the Sabbatai Sevi controversy and the Ottoman reform in Egypt.: An article from: The Journal of the American Oriental Society
Jane Hathaway
Manufacturer: American Oriental Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Egypt | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

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This digital document is an article from The Journal of the American Oriental Society, published by American Oriental Society on October 1, 1997. The length of the article is 5398 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: When Sabbatai Sevi proclaimed himself messiah in 1665, many Jews throughout the Ottoman Empire and beyond abandoned their normal occupations in anticipation of a messianic age. The Ottoman authorities imprisoned Sabbatai Sevi, who ultimately converted to Islam. The Sabbatian movement has typically been analyzed as a form of Kabbalistic mysticism. Madeline Zilfi has pointed out, however, that the movement coincided with the heyday of the Kadizadelis, a rigorously anti-mystical group of Muslim preachers. The present study proposes that the collapse of Sabbatai Sevi's movement was also connected to the reforms of the Koprulu grand viziers, who patronized the Kadizadelis. In Egypt, fiscal reform was accompanied by the murder of the fervently Sabbatian Jewish community leader and the abolition of his office. Thus, a rereading of the Sabbatai Sevi affair in light of the Koprulu reforms and Kadizadeli rigor reveals it as a product of intense religious and political ferment within the Ottoman Empire, and within Egypt in particular.

Citation Details
Title: The grand vizier and the false Messiah: the Sabbatai Sevi controversy and the Ottoman reform in Egypt.
Author: Jane Hathaway
Publication: The Journal of the American Oriental Society (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 1997
Publisher: American Oriental Society
Volume: v117 Issue: n4 Page: p665(7)

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ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006VZNZ0

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Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah.

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Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IC2HI8

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