Religious and Moral Education religion, including ethics and morality, yet still at first only teaching mem-
bers of the group.^4
Inasmuch as private Dönme schools predated the establishment of state
schools under Sultan Abdülhamid II, Dönme educational efforts were in
advance of the state, as well as of the initiatives of local Muslims in pro-
moting new curriculums, teaching methods, and moral character build-
ing.^5 Both state and Dönme schools aimed to satisfy “the demands of the
present,” or modern age. For the state, this meant fostering a loyal, honest
civil service.^6 But for the Dönme, it entailed ensuring that Dönme were
able to be educated in Dönme religion and values, in addition to being
well placed financially and politically. Dönme schools not only empha-
sized Islamic morality but taught French, which served to further their
international business relations. Another aim of the Dönme schools was
to ensure that Dönme youth only befriended and socialized with other
Dönme: after being dismissed at the end of the day from school, students
were to not stop in the street or play, but go home, and they were never to
befriend any but children from the school.^7 Even on Friday, when the first
Dönme school had no class, students were to come to school and play
with classmates until evening. Whether they needed this extra incentive
was unclear: in Sabiha Sertel’s biography, we read that “her friends were
wealthy Dönme girls” including the daughter of Etem Efendi, one of the
wealthiest timber merchants.^8
The Yakubi Dönme mayor Hamdi Bey erected modern public build-
ings and also opened a school called Selimiye for educating Dönme
youth.^9 Hamdi Bey’s school did not last long, however, and the most en-
during Dönme educational efforts trace their origins to Şemsi Efendi.^10
In 1873 , at the early age of twenty-one, he opened the Şemsi Efendi
school in the tiny mosque of the predominantly Karakaş neighborhood
of Sinancık, with the assistance and support of the director of educa-
tion and donations from others. The school was just one block from
the seat of the governor and across the street from the Rüşdiye for girls
and the Ministry of Justice.^11 This was a year before French Jews estab-
lished the first secular Alliance isráelite universelle school for boys in the
city, where students learned Turkish, French, and trades.^12 When Gov-
ernor Midhat Pasha toured local schools, he visited Şemsi Efendi’s and
was pleased to find that it used the latest pedagogical methods. When
he asked why they did not have a better building, the administrators
and teachers responded that they feared attack by gangs of bigots. They