Introduction dren, father, and brother. Veiling was required even around a husband’s
brothers, a brother’s children. According to Yalman, an outspoken critic
of the persistence of Dönme tradition, the leader’s basic duty was to hin-
der innovation and see to it that there was no deviation from the norm.
Men had to shave their heads, women had to separate their hair into thin
braids. Any sign of turning away from these requirements or any deviat-
ing from the group’s required clothing or footwear or way of life would be
investigated. One of the leader’s wives would serve as an inspector and the
leader acted as a judge, offering admonitions and warnings. In the event
that the offense was repeated, the wrongdoer would be called in person
before the judge and face ostracism, which was the foundation of their
entire penal system. The threat was sufficient to preserve “an iron disci-
pline within the tribe. Discipline was such that no one even considered
acting against what was commanded.”^61 In this way, the Dönme were not
unlike other religious communities, such as Jewish congregations, whose
life centered in a building where they ran their charity funds, burial so-
cieties, and study groups, organized the allocation and collection of taxes
and agreed salaries for their cantor, ritual slaughterers, the mohel (respon-
sible for circumcisions), and rabbi.^62
By the turn of the twentieth century, when they numbered ten to fif-
teen thousand, the Dönme had developed not only a radical theology, but
all the apparatuses of what was understood to be a religion. Although un-
recognized, they possessed their own lay and religious leaders, communal
courts and jails, and places of prayer, like recognized religious groups in
the Ottoman Empire; they had their own cemeteries and tombs, resided
together in the same neighborhoods, collected a tax to take care of their
needy, maintained detailed genealogies, and developed a unique religious
calendar, liturgy, prayers, prayer books, and beliefs, which were shared
by neither Muslims nor Jews.^63 Although they had originated in their
own practices, neither Sufis nor Kabbalists claimed the feasts, fasts, and
festivals of the Dönme. In Christianity and Islam, believers mark the pas-
sage of time by reliving events in the founding of the religion and the life
of the messiah or messenger. We only need to think of Christmas and
a similar Muslim celebration, the Maulid observance of the birthday of
the Prophet Muhammad. Likewise, the rhythms of Dönme religious life
were based upon events in the life of Shabbatai Tzevi. These included his
conception, birth, and circumcision, and his messianic calling—its begin-
ning, the first receiving of revelations, the coronation as messiah—and