Istanbul
Dönme.^46 What bothered him, and compelled him to write the series, was
that, unlike those of other premodern “charlatans,” Shabbatai Tzevi’s name
had never been buried in the past and had become the issue of the day in
the columns of newspapers such as his own Vatan.^47 In the new republic,
identity would not be self-ascribed; the state would impose an identity on
the population. In the past, difference always prevailed, an unfortunate
legacy for the new nation-state of Turkey, where the populace was divided
by many local identities. Like Rüştü, Yalman argues in favor of transpar-
ency, for the only action that would put the new Turkish nation on the
path of development was the creation of a Turkish melting pot, to be ac-
complished by accepting individuals and groups that could be assimilated,
and throwing out those that did not accept their Turkification. Yalman de-
picts the Ottomans the way secular Turkish nationalists saw the empire at
the beginning of the republic. Tolerance and pluralism were the problem,
homogeneity and nationalism the solution.
The Dönme is the group that most clearly signals for him the disturb-
ing persistence of difference. He castigates Ottoman society since it did
not investigate converts’ backgrounds, a position Yalman would later in-
terpret in a positive fashion. He also notes that whatever opposition they
faced in society was in part their own fault, because they kept themselves
as a group apart. He asserts that the Dönme call themselves Turks and
Muslims, yet actually maintain a secret life. In sharp contrast to the asser-
tions of Rüştü, the author says the Dönme are becoming “extinct” since
they are dissolving as a community and abandoning a corporate identity.
He speaks most favorably of the Yakubi, who he says are sincere, pious
Muslims who fulfill the obligations of Sunni Islam and have produced
many Muslim religious scholars and learned men capable of reciting Sufi
poetry.^48 Indeed, one of Yalman’s relatives told me that his ancestors were
Muslims who included Sufi sheikhs in a Sufi lodge in Salonika, and Arabic
calligraphers who decorated mosques.^49 Yet according to Yalman, writing
in the 1920 s, some still manifested “superstitions” and characteristics that
“must be decisively eliminated.” Unlike Rüştü, Yalman asserts that this is
not an issue for the government; only social pressure can solve this soci-
etal problem. Surprisingly, he then declares that if some people still desire
to be separate, it is their duty to openly proclaim their identity and their
wish to remain apart. Was he offering the Dönme the autonomous status
that non-Muslims were given in the Ottoman Empire but had recently
publicly abandoned? According to Yalman, there is freedom of conscience