Reinscribing the Dönme in the Secular Nation-State Iran), but most soon made it to Istanbul. One extended family from a
town on the Greek–Albanian frontier settled in the Istanbul neighbor-
hoods of Çagˇogˇlu, Gedik Pasha, and Mahmud Pasha, where they lived
on the main boulevard, Divan Yolu, where the Pierre Loti Hotel stands
today. Other families settled in Eminönü, Beşiktaş, and Bakırköy, con-
tinuing their business relations with Dönme who had come before the
exchange.^22
According to the Records of the Mixed Commission, some of the lead-
ing Karakaş merchant families, such as Kibar Ali and his sons, Osman
Fettan, Mehmet Sarım, and Halil Hikmet, who formed a hardware
and metal goods company by that name, reestablished their businesses
in Tahtakale in the business district of Eminönü, Istanbul.^23 Stationery
upon which the powers of attorney were written allowing the liquidation
of their abandoned property in Salonika is headed “Sons of the Kibar
Ali Brothers, Istanbul, Kanza Han, Tahtakale, Numbers 51 – 2 , Telegraph
address: Kibars, Telephone number, Istanbul 3291 – 3292 .” The letter is
stamped with the Sons of the Kibar Ali Brothers seal in Ottoman and
French (Fils de Kibar Ali Frèrés / Kibar Ali Kardeşler Mahdumları, Is-
tanbul), and the Balcı Brothers stamp as well, “Mehmet Balcı Brothers,
Turkish Commerce Inc. (Türk Ticaret Anonim Şirketleri),”^24 which was
based in Sultan Hamam.^25 The name of the Balcı company is a sign of a
quick and successful transfer to a new cultural milieu where the Dönme
had to seize upon the key element of identity: Turkishness. Other powers
of attorney, such as that of Kibar Ali’s wife Afife, also include the stamp
of the Dilberzade Brothers Istanbul in Ottoman and French (Dilber-
zade Kardeşleri Der Saadet / Dilber Zade Frèrés Constantinople).^26 Thus
we see how when they set up businesses in Eminönü (Tahtakale, Sultan
Hamam) and later Şişli in their new home city, Karakaş clans continued
to keep business within extended families (Karakaş, Kibar, Dilber, Balcı)
and the sect (Karakaş). Moreover, the names of the companies, such as
“Sons of the Kibar Ali Brothers” also illustrate the continuation of fam-
ily business for a second generation, in a new homeland, an attempt to
bridge family connections and customer recognition between the impe-
rial and nation-state era.
Business relations may have been maintained, but tight communal
bonds began to unravel. While some Dönme had ceased practicing en-
dogamy in turn-of-the-century Salonika, like other groups, the larger
transition toward exogamous marriage took place in the early years of the