Keeping It Within the Family, 1862–1908 portant development, a first serious step in establishing closer relations
with Muslims, but it caused major disputes among the Dönme, and even
a crisis, because it went against prevailing marriage customs.^8
Endogamy and Genealogies
One of the main ways in which the Dönme preserved their distinct
ethno-religious identity was by marrying only members of the same
Dönme sect. Endogamy and genealogy are important features of many
crypto-faith communities, whether conversos, Huguenots, or Moriscos,
Muslims compelled to convert to Catholicism in Iberia. For all of these
groups, as for the Dönme, marrying insiders allowed them furtively to
continue their religious practices, protect a separate way of being, and
maintain close economic networks. Marrying outsiders would expose
their secrets and could be considered a betrayal of the ancestors.^9 Closed
communities remained loyal to their origins. Genealogy and religious
meaning were interwoven: “Preserving the memory of one’s ancestors is
therefore part and parcel of remaining faithful to the covert religion.”^10
Being Dönme meant both engaging in certain ritual practices and be-
longing to a group related by blood. Religion and community were in-
tertwined. Groups such as the Dönme compile genealogies, not only to
preserve a religion, but also as part of a social practice aiming to perpetuate
a people. Keeping alive the memory of ancestors entailed repeating names:
as was common among Mediterranean Jewish and Indian Ocean Muslim
diasporic groups, newborn sons were named after grandfathers.^11
Such naming practices are “akin to leapfrogging backward to epony-
mous ancestors tied to places. Like climbers roped together on a rock
face, the generations together maintain a tenacious grip, despite their pre-
carious individual hold on the surface.”^12 This process of “positional suc-
cession” serves to confer “the blessings inherent in an ancestral name” on
a descendant.”^13 Like the conversos, who considered themselves “The Na-
tion,” and the Jews, who were a people with a religion, not merely mem-
bers of a religion, the Dönme kept genealogies, because Dönme identity
was part religion, part peoplehood, part diasporic belonging. The mem-
ory of the ancestors recorded in genealogies allowed them to know whom
they could marry. Using genealogies hindered intermarriage, because it
maintained corporate identity, a key constituent of the Dönme way.
I was able to trace the Dönme in part through genealogies provided me