Between Empire and Nation-State
natural to them that when they grow up and a slight wind lifts their veil,
they feel hurt, as if hot water had been poured on their heads.” More-
over, “Christian women in Albania and non-Muslim women in the Arab
world [also] wear the dust cloak and veil. This is not based on pressure
or because it is imposed; when you think about it, you realize the veil
is worn because it is suitable to women and looks good on them.” This
logic allows Major Sadık to then ask “what is so strange, outlandish, or
foreign about the free movement / independence and social lives of some
[Dönme] women? There are other reasons for the new veil and light cloak
to be worn. Things go in cycles. Is it far-fetched to think that if today it is
like this, a little later they will decide to return to the cloaks and veils their
mothers used?” In conclusion, “When you compare what some of them
do with foreign customs, you will see that it is more a question of wealth
and natural disposition than anything else and will not consider it to be
the sin of adopting foreign customs.”
Concerning Dönme prayer, Major Sadık returns to his theme of sec-
ularization and also displays a return to the earlier prevailing Ottoman
Muslim understanding of religion ( 27 ). He asserts that the proportion
of Dönme who go to mosque is not lower than that of other Muslims.
Major Sadık urges fellow Muslims to return to an earlier Ottoman mode
of live and let live, saying: “We also should not have bad thoughts about
a Muslim who is seen praying in a mosque, since we cannot know or
under stand what is in his heart.” Among the Dönme “there are so many
of excellent virtues and merits, pure moral qualities, conduct, and charac-
ter that they perform their daily prayers and religious obligations without
hypocrisy or dissimulation, for love of God, expecting nothing in return.”
Pious Dönme are pious Muslims, “Their eyes full of tears thinking of
the End, they aim to maintain the same moral character until they die
and avoid what is forbidden, keeping themselves pure, so that after they
die, they may appear before God with a clean slate.” Major Sadık is es-
pecially angered by claims of Dönme dissimulation. Just as “no one has
the authority or right to say anything to other Muslims who pray,... no
one could make such a great mistake as to believe that they render five
prayers a day just as a show” ( 28 ). He ridicules the idea that Dönme pray
in mosques only as a punishment for failing to live up to Dönme law, and
actually warms to the idea for others. He asks whether it would not be a
great idea if in order to mend his manners and morals after an offense the
offender would have to pray with the community.