Ottoman Salonika
“the city sacred to the memory of Mevlana Jelal ad-Din Rumi.”^63 Hasan
Akif was born to the second wife in Izmir. After his mother died, he was
sent to Salonika to be raised by his aunt.^64 In 1917 , Hasan Akif died in
Munich and was buried there in a grand tomb at a ceremony attended by
men in top hats. After his death, this international tobacco merchant’s
company continued to thrive. His grandson Ali Riza Hüsnü (d. 1964 ),
who in his earlier years posed for a photo in full “Oriental” outfit, smok-
ing a water pipe, became the manager of the Grathwohl cigarette factory
in Munich, and there was also a branch of the business in Vienna. During
World War I, Ali Riza served as the purveyor of German tobacco products
to the sultan. The family boasted that their Istanbul tobacco warehouse
was the most modern in the empire. Ali Riza married his cousin Nuriye
(photographed as a child with Şemsi Efendi) in Salonika in 1920. By 1928 ,
the family had moved to Brussels.
Dönme Morality Abroad
Although participating in international commerce and culture, the
Dönme preserved their unique religious beliefs and practices. Hasan
Akif ’s descendant—born and raised in Belgium—told of the remark-
able piety of her family, reflecting Dönme, Kabbalah, normative Islamic,
and Sufi elements. “There was a time in the early part of the year when
lamb was not eaten, and then suddenly ‘milk lamb’ would appear, stewed
with tomatoes and parsley,” she recalled. This was the Dönme Festival
of the Lamb. Preparing a family cookbook, the author relied in part
on recipes passed down orally from Hasan Akif ’s wife. Culinary details
provide additional insight into late Dönme religious practices.^65 As the
multiple dishes of lamb cooked with butter demonstrate,^66 the Dönme
had a complete disregard for kosher rules, which makes sense consid-
ering Shabbatai Tzevi’s inverting of what was considered permitted and
what was considered forbidden. The book includes a recipe for Peach
Kebab, the dish eaten at the Festival of the Lamb at the end of the period
when Dönme were forbidden to eat lamb. The dish contains the offal:
the brain, liver, kidneys, testicles, spleen, and intestines of a very young
lamb.^67 Moreover, “Not everyone fasted during Ramadan but at the time
of iftar, the daily evening breaking of the fast, some sort of sweet would
usually appear, sometimes made with dates. As with everyone else, Aşure
[“Noah’s Pudding,” a mixture of grains, fruits, and nuts] appeared dur-