Between Greek Thessaloníki and Ottoman Istanbul, 1912–1923 or mark to place at the head of every tombstone. They are such pure-
hearted Muslims.” For Major Sadık, “one can be sure that these brothers
in religion of ours are sincere Muslims, and that any doubts on this sub-
ject are groundless” ( 14 ).
A Turn to Racialized Thinking
Reading the two treatises together, the anonymous attack on the
Dönme and the rebuttal by Major Sadık, one concludes that both au-
thors had inside information on the Dönme and their religion. One au-
thor was most likely a Salonikan Muslim who had recently migrated to
Istanbul, and the other a retired army officer, a Muslim who knew Salon-
ika well, or a Yakubi Dönme. Although one attacked the Dönme in toto,
and the other primarily defended the Dönme as a group, the latter also
noted the effects of individual Dönme actions. The authors had a great
amount in common concerning their view of Ottoman society following
World War I and the apparent influx of Dönme to Istanbul, or at least
knowledge of the Dönme in Ottoman Thrace and Anatolia following the
fall of Salonika to Greece. To both authors, Muslim society had been cor-
rupted and secularized. They may have differed largely on the question
of the piety of Shabbatai Tzevi and his descendants, who was primarily to
blame in fomenting moral decadence, and in the importance of race, but
both pointed to a general lack of piety and spread of Christian customs,
particularly among Muslim women. Both mark 1908 as the pivotal year,
which opened the floodgates of atheism and immorality, the anonymous
author explicitly attacking the Dönme in general for causing corruption.
What is surprising is how at so many points in his defense of the Dönme,
Major Sadık makes arguments or references, such as their removing the
bowels of the dead prior to burial, or claiming that there are as many ir-
religious Dönme as irreligious other Muslims, or even referring to their
syncretistic practices, which contradict his ends, including defending
their Muslim piety.
Major Sadık responded to a treatise that was part of a longer, yet ever-
worsening trend for the Dönme. Sentiment expressed as early as the 1890 s,
and then in Volkan in 1908 and 1909 , was reflected in anti-Christian and
anti-Jewish writings published in the wake of the disastrous Balkan Wars
of 1912 – 13 and the Ottoman loss of Salonika. The Balkan Wars concluded
with military failure, disillusionment, a crushing of confidence, loss of