Keeping It Within the Family, 1862–1908 Conflicts could arise in diaspora among such a group, and genealo-
gies could serve as very important mediating contracts. As Esra Özyürek
has pointed out, since the 1990 s, many Turks have sought to recover and
remember their diverse past, including the trauma of dramatic, sudden
change suppressed or erased by the homogenizing early republic.^15 Swept
up in this nostalgic wave, one also finds a new effort by descendants of
Dönme to record their family histories, in so doing interviewing the el-
derly to figure out the webs of family relationships. These genealogies are
different from the earlier ones in that they are produced with a sense of
nostalgia, and with the aim of writing popular books on the topic—fam-
ily histories recorded desperately before the last relatives who know some-
thing pass away. They are thus unlike genealogies written before World
War II, which were recorded to ensure distinctions between Dönme sects
and Dönme and the rest of the world, which is to say, with a religious and
not merely documentary intent. The aims of the compiler today, especially
when married to an outsider, are far from those of the original compilers.
Genealogies also have a legal nature. Kinship and marriage offer rights
to inheritance. In a group as closely knit (yet divided into three sharply
delineated sects) as the Dönme, it was crucial to keep relationships well
ordered, not only to keep marriages in line with the aims of the group,
but also to keep wealth and property in the proper hands as well. Mar-
riage and family alliances were mapped onto trade alliances. Genealogies
can function as legal wills. Inheritance claims can be substantial.^16
The Dönme primarily practiced endogamous marriage in Salonika in
part in order to keep their wealth and businesses within the family. Noth-
ing illustrated communal belonging better. Breaking this marriage pattern,
marrying outsiders, was a way of leaving the community. Dönme opposi-
tion to exogamy was so strong that Dönme leaders imposed the death
penalty on those who strayed, according to the Ottoman archival docu-
ment dating from 1862 cited in the Introduction, and those who wanted
to marry outsiders had to take extreme measures. The marriage between
Mehmet Zekeriya and Sabiha, daughter of Nazmi Efendi, is well known.
Less well known is its precedent. According to an Ottoman document
from 1891 ,^17 the eighteen-to-twenty-year-old Rabia, daughter of a Dönme
(referred to as an Avdeti) named Ali Efendi, fell in love with a Muslim
named Hajji Feyzullah Efendi of Monastir, who told her to leave home
and to appear before a deputy judge, where she could publicly convert to
Islam. Ali Efendi understood that his daughter’s conversion was a pretext