Introduction
Scholem claims, incorrectly, but meaningfully, was located near a Bektaşi
lodge,^43 became a major pilgrimage site for the Karakaş, who tended to
reside in the neighborhood of Salonika, where it was located.
Through such pilgrimage sites and other means, leaders of the Yakubi,
Karakaş, and Kapancı routinized the messiah’s charisma, replacing simple
belief in Shabbatai Tzevi’s messianism with codified and disseminated
rite, doctrine, and authority and institutional structures.^44 By the early
eighteenth century, the Dönme had become Dönme, following a distinct
path to God that gave them a new self-identity and moral authority, with
a belief system and social structure to which one could adhere.^45 In order
to create and maintain community, Dönme leaders established places of
communal worship and imposed conformity to common religious and
social criteria, adjudicating disputes and seeking to ensure the financial
well-being of members. As Yıldız Sertel, a descendant of Karakaş Dönme,
writes, “Like all other groups, the Dönme possessed their own schools,
places of prayer (Friday mosque, small mosques, and Sufi lodges), hos-
pitals, social clubs, and centers for social assistance.”^46 The houses of
sect leaders served as places of communal worship.^47 The “Saadethane”
(Abode of Felicity) where Shabbatai Tzevi had once lived, located on
Sabri Pasha [now Eleuthérios Venizélos] Avenue near the government
building (konak) in the Yılan Mermeri neighborhood in the northwest of
Salonika, served this function for the Yakubi from the beginning.^48 Yakub
Çelebi’s successor, Hajji Mustafa Efendi, lived in the Saadethane.^49 It is
possible that the seaside villa of Mehmet Kapancı served this function for
the Kapancı.
By the nineteenth century, when the Dönme numbered perhaps 5 , 000 ,
it appears that at least one sect had an administrative council serving
under its leader. For the Yakubi, male consultants took care of the day-
to-day affairs and women aides were responsible for women, arranging
crucial life-cycle events such as weddings and funerals and taking care
of matters such as care for the elderly.^50 In order to adjudicate disputes
among believers and ensure conformity, communal courts presided over
by judges and served by policing agents and jails unrecognized by the
Ottoman authorities were also established.^51 When excommunication or
banning was deemed insufficient punishment, brutal methods, including
torture, could be used. According to a matter-of-fact Ottoman archival
document, in 1862 , Ottoman authorities, searching for a missing person,
entered the Yakubi Saadethane. Other than an elderly woman,^52 an an-