Ottoman Salonika
when they pray; according to the eighteen commandments of Shabbatai
Tzevi, Dönme observance of Ramadan and public prayers was meant for
public viewing, in order to deceive Muslims about their true beliefs and
rituals.^51 Thus, publicly praying like Muslims, or even building a mosque,
did not necessarily mean that all Dönme were like other Muslims.
I see the Dönme mosque as an extension of the Dönme time zone into
the public realm. In his discussion of the complicated nature of converso
identity in Argentina, José Faur highlights the inside / outside dichotomy,
noting how the public world allows the private to exist, and connects the
converso to another time and space. “Outside, we shared the culture and
values of the Europeanized Sephardim intertwined with those of the old
Buenos Aires,” Faur writes. “But upon entering into the house and speaking
to our grandparents, the outer world vanished, and we joined a time zone
inhabited by people and places belonging to a different epoch and a differ-
ent realm.”^52
Exploring Dönme architecture, in particular the mosque, allows me
to answer the question where precisely the Dönme acted as Dönme, and
where as Muslims. Consider the Yakubi, who appear to have had their
council meetings and prayer services in the home of their leader, which was
surrounded by thick walls, indistinguishable from other homes from the
outside, and, as seen in the case of a police raid on it, must have had guards
who kept a watch for such raids. Yalman mentions how his house in the
heart of the city was “kept safe and private behind high walls and without
any outside windows on the first floor.”^53 On the other hand, think of the
Dönme mosque, which superseded it. Imagining the architecture, inscrip-
tions, and iconography, I surmise that Dönme meaning was built into the
physical structure and that, as at their funerals, additional Dönme prayers
or rituals were added. The question of interiors and exteriors is an impor-
tant one for the dense, crowded city center where Karakaş lived. As seen
in late Ottoman treatises, Muslim neighbors would peer into windows of
Dönme homes and check on what they were doing, whether they were ful-
filling the requirements of Islam, whether, for example, the Dönme awoke
before dawn and took the predawn meal during Ramadan.
At the same time, there is a turn away from inward-looking, unremark-
able private architecture (homes in the medieval city center) to ostenta-
tious public displays of newly acquired wealth (seaside villas in the new
suburb). The Dönme moved from conclaves in hidden meeting houses
behind walls, which were thus invisible from the street, to a public house