Istanbul
however, and found no such assertion.^56 Yalman also argues that they
wrote that it was ridiculous to remain a member of a secret order and not
intermarry with the Turkish and Muslim community. The leaders began
to accept some innovations, including the study of foreign languages, and
the study of law and civil service, and later still, Yakubi youth were per-
mitted to become pharmacists and veterinarians. Eventually, they could
study medicine, and then be educated in Istanbul and Europe.
Yalman says that pronouncements against innovation did not matter
much to the new generation. They opposed being members of the tribe
and tried to forget the fact of their origins and have it be forgotten as fast
as they could. Especially when serving as civil servants, they even hid the
fact that they had been born in Salonika. Since the 1880 s, the organiza-
tion of the community and marks that distinguished them from oth-
ers had disappeared; they had ceased to practice endogamous marriage
and keep a separate cemetery. Yalman concludes by declaring: “The two-
century existence of this strange society is completely a thing of the past.
Today one can only find a feeling of attachment to the past in the minds
of a few elderly people who are in their seventies and eighties.” Because
they view the past as completely extinct, the elderly “do not even dare
mention it to the new generations, who view it as a ridiculous nightmare.
People sent to the four corners of the nation as civil servants have com-
pletely become part of the general [Turkish and Muslim] society.”^57
In his penultimate column, Yalman turns to the new Karakaş and
Kapancı schools established in Salonika. After the youth rebelled and de-
manded a serious education in the 1870 s, the Feyziye primary school was
opened, and for the first time, very well educated young Karakaş and
Kapancı emerged. A five- or ten-year renaissance erased two centuries of
poverty and ignorance. This was owing in part to the new schools, which
were the finest in the empire.^58
Whereas the Yakubis were primarily involved in government, the
Karakaş were primarily engaged in crafts, trade, and commerce, Yalman
says, although they produced many professionals and civil servants as well.
The Kapancı were predominantly businessmen. This was important for
Yalman, who sought to understand the reason for the Dönme’s persistence
and the perpetuation of their “tribal” organization. Like endogamous mar-
riage, economic ties also hindered the breaking up of the community and
its dissolution in the general population. He asserts that for the Karakaş,
“had it not been for economic ties, there is no doubt that their breaking