Istanbul
converted into the greatest mosque, and finally into a museum; Rumeli
Hisarı, the fortress that Mehmet the Conqueror built prior to conquering
Constantinople from the Byzantines; an ancient column located at the
Hippodrome; stamps with the sultan’s monogram; Leander’s Tower; and
two fez-wearing military men. There is also a stamp depicting a nearly
naked man with the female wolf Asena that led the Turks out of Central
Asia to Anatolia, looking to the future, in Turkic mythology. The latter
stamp is from the Turkish Republic, yet it is also inscribed in Ottoman
writing. Nevertheless, its image is a striking nationalist intrusion on the
other stamps. Along with the thin, brushlike mustache in the center of
Osman Nusret’s upper lip, it is the only clue that this is a tombstone
from the 1930 s. And despite the fact that eight years had passed since the
language reform replacing Ottoman written in Perso-Arabic script with
Turkish written in the Latin alphabet, and thirteen years since the empire
had been replaced by the nation-state, Osman Nusret chose (or those
who buried him chose) to include Ottoman stamps in the Ottoman and
French languages to decorate his tomb.
The Salonikan might have become an Istambuli, but the “Salonikan”
badge still identifies and marks the journey and genealogical precedence
of Salonika. Resisting strong pressure to disappear, those who were buried
in the 1930 s had wanted their descendants to know of their origins—to
maintain the asymmetry between themselves and other Turks at a time
when the state and social pressure worked to abolish it. As Ahmet Emin
Yalman argued regarding endogamous marriage in Salonika, discrimi-
nation reinforced it. In burying relatives, Dönme descendants accepted
the label “Salonikan” when they paid for tombs that bore it, expressing a
wish to mark their trajectory despite the nation-state. One suspects some
hoped they would one day be able to return to Salonika.
traveling on the sufi pathIt is notable that there are few references to religious themes on Kapancı
gravestones. Occasionally, one finds instead a combination of science and
knowledge (ilm ve irfan), the latter perhaps meaning spiritual knowl-
edge. Occasionally, too, the visitor is asked to recite a fatiha for the de-
ceased, and one sometimes comes across the phrase “Ruhu için, dua edin”
(Pray for their soul) in place of the more typical Sunni Muslim fatiha.
But fatiha are few and far between. Often no prayer is included. Some,
however, ask God (Tanrı) for forgiveness, or the head of the tombstone