Ottoman Salonika
Ottoman southeastern Europe, whose language was Ottoman Turkish;
and (c) a discrete ethnic and religious population that prayed in Hebrew,
Judeo-Spanish, and Arabic. Their language of education was mixed (for-
mal schools offering training in Islamic as well as western and central
European languages, and informal education occurring in the family in
Jewish languages), as was their familiar language, which included Span-
ish-language recipes. Their language of memory, as it was publicly visible
inscribed on their tombstones and mosque, was Ottoman Turkish and
Arabic. However, the Dönme simultaneously occupied parallel Dönme
and Muslim universes, embodying different meanings. In each world,
they took care to preserve their own distinct religious, moral, and ethi-
cal character. Dönme officials who very publicly kept the difficult thirty
days’ fast of Ramadan made sure to break their fast each day exactly five
minutes before other Muslims, thus violating it.
The Dönme practiced strict social segregation throughout their lives.
Assisted by detailed genealogies, they married their first cousins or their
brothers’ widows in Levirate marriages. They self-segregated, living to-
gether in Salonika according to sect, and established distinct schools for
educating and socializing their children, and a unique mosque where they
could pray together. They buried their dead in separate cemeteries, walled
off from others’ burial grounds. When they traveled and lived abroad,
they made every effort to remain distinct. They jealously guarded their
social exclusivity to maintain their culture and religion—for example, not
allowing exogamous marriage—but were at the same time progressive,
transgressive, and radical, operating in diverse environments. Dönme so-
ciety was closed, traditional, and conservative, yet intellectually open to
the world. They were mobile, yet committed to a particular place, Salo-
nika, the central node in all of their relations, from religious pilgrimage to
international business.
A map of the Dönme universe, the shape of the space they operated
in, although centered on southeastern Europe, would have Manchester in
England as its northern and western terminus and Izmir at its southern
and eastern end. Between these points, descending north to south, we
find Dönme connections in London, Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Frankfurt,
Munich, Geneva, Vienna, Rome, Ulcinj in Montenegro, Serres, Monastir
(Bitola, today in the Republic of Macedonia), and Istanbul. The Dönme
functioned smoothly both in the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian em-
pires and throughout French, British, and German Europe.^73 The infu-