Loyal Turks or Fake Muslims? in Turkey, and no one is to be subject to persecution on account of behav-
ing differently. He then contradicts himself by asserting that the Dönme
had to understand the true nature of the Turkish body politic and act
accordingly by assimilating, for they had no other choice. One could no
longer have a separate identity.
Yalman attributes the centuries-long coherence of the Dönme as a so-
cial group to the fact that the original families, faced hostile external pres-
sure, turned inward and decided not to mix with others.^50 Their marriage
pattern was the only reason they were able to maintain their separation
from the society around them and did not disappear without a trace like
other groups. Although the younger generation ceased following “tribal
superstitions,” the Dönme continued to exist in the 1920 s, since they
were slow to end endogamous marriage. Yet marrying out was “increas-
ingly and definitively demolishing the old walls.”^51
As for their future, the author asserts that for the Yakubi, since the 1880 s,
the organization of the community and the marks that distinguished its
members from others had disappeared; the new generation opposed the
stultifying conditions of being members of the “tribe.”^52 They knew noth-
ing about their own customs. As governor of Salonika in 1874 ,^53 Midhat
Pasha was astonished to find some of his employees with shaved heads,
and he was informed that they were members of a Sufi order.^54 In fact,
they were Yakubi Dönme, who wore beards as well.^55 He ordered that
those who shaved their heads would be fired. Yakubis pledged to grow
their hair, a great blow to the separateness of the group. Yet they opposed
innovation, which was why they dressed the same way in the 1870 s as
they had the previous century. According to Yalman, “within this circle
of black ignorance, carrying out Midhat Pasha’s commands opened some
eyes.” The new generation raised between 1874 and 1883 began to feel a
sense of rebellion and opposed the leader of the community’s commands.
He rained banishment punishments upon them for opposing his orders,
but they were not moved. They only, it is said, respected those who were
close to God (veli). This may be a reference to Shabbatai Tzevi. Yalman,
who was born in 1888 , was likely including his father, Osman Tevfik, in
this group. They did not desire to be members of the “tribe” and hid the
fact that they had been born into it. Yalman says in this series of articles
in Vatan that writers in the literary magazine Gonca-i Edeb, founded in
1883 by Osman Tevfik and other young Yakubis, declared Shabbatai Tzevi
to have been a charlatan. I have scoured the entire run of Gonca-i Edeb,