Religious and Moral Education The general arrives just as the clocks strike eleven. He wears an outfit
made of coarse cloth, which suits Ankara’s wartime fashion. The first
question Atatürk answers concerns his earliest memories:
“The first thing I remember from my childhood is the problem of
entering school. There was a severe clash between my mother and father
over this. My mother wanted me to begin my education by enrolling in the
neighborhood’s religious school, with chanting of the appropriate religious
hymns. But my father, who was a clerk at the customs office, was in favor
of sending me to Şemsi Efendi’s newly opened school and of my getting
the new type of education. In the end, my father artfully found a solution.
First, with the usual ceremony, I entered the religious school. Thus,
my mother was satisfied. After a few days I left the religious school and
enrolled in the school of Şemsi Efendi. Soon afterward, my father died.”^2This passage has been interpreted to mean that Atatürk depicted the
late Ottoman period in Salonika as a time of struggle between the forces of
the traditional (Islam) and the new or modern (secularism). The Dönme
leader Şemsi Efendi (fig. 2. 1 ), whose name means “The Illuminator,” is
figure 2.1 Şemsi Efendi. Tombstone portrait, Istanbul. Photo by author.