Historical Profile: Abu ʿIsa al-Isfahani

The Rebel Prophet of Isfahan

Abu ʿIsa al-Isfahani, known variously as Ovadiah or Ishaq ibn Ya'qub, stands as the most significant Jewish prophet figure between the Bar Kokhba revolt of the second century and Sabbatai Zevi in the seventeenth. Living in 8th-century Persia, he founded the Isawiyya movement and led a military revolt in Isfahan. While the exact timeline is disputed, scholars situate his uprising during the turbulent transition from the Umayyad to the Abbasid Caliphate—ranging from the reign of Abd al-Malik to that of Marwan II.

His movement was not merely a theological curiosity but a militant force. In Islamic eschatology, his influence was significant enough to be linked to the Dajjal (Antimessiah); a famous Sunni hadith prophesies that the Dajjal would be followed by 70,000 Jews of Isfahan wearing Persian shawls. His rebellion eventually met a violent end when he was killed by the forces of Caliph al-Mansur near Ray.

Theological Innovations and "Strategic Syncretism"

Abu ʿIsa viewed himself not as the Messiah, but as the last of five heralds announcing the Messiah's arrival. He introduced radical theological shifts, most notably a relativizing view of prophecy: he accepted both Jesus and Muhammad as true prophets, but maintained they were sent solely to their own communities, not to the Jews.

Internally, the Isawiyya observed strict asceticism. Abu ʿIsa banned the consumption of meat and wine—likely a reference to Talmudic mourning practices during exile—and forbade divorce except in cases of adultery, aligning with the strict House of Shammai. He also expanded the daily prayer regimen from the standard three to seven or ten, citing Psalm 119:164 ("Seven times a day I praise you").

Chronology and the Shi'ite Connection

The dating of Abu ʿIsa’s career remains a subject of historical debate, with the Karaite historian Qirqisani placing him in the early Umayyad period and the Muslim heresiographer Shahrastani placing him later, during the Abbasid revolution. Modern scholarship tends to favor the later date, noting that the political milieu of the Isawiyya closely mirrors the extremist proto-Shia movements of the time.

Similarities between Abu ʿIsa and the Shi'ite leader Abu Mansur are striking. Both shared themes of military militancy, the concept of a "heavenly ascent," and the trope of the "illiterate prophet"—an idea equated with Muhammad’s reception of the Qur'an. This suggests that Abu ʿIsa’s movement was heavily influenced by the surrounding Shi'ite environment, absorbing concepts like the chain of prophets (Imams) and the Mahdi into a Jewish framework.

Rabbinic Reception and Legacy

The Jewish establishment viewed Abu ʿIsa with deep skepticism. Maimonides, in his Epistle to Yemen, recounts the episode as a cautionary tale. He describes a multitude of Jews "from beyond Isfahan" being led by a pretender who claimed messianic status and armed them for war. Maimonides notes that the sages of the time warned the rebels that this leader lacked the characteristics of the Messiah and that their insurrection would only lead to destruction and the undermining of Mosaic law.

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Summary: Abu ʿIsa al-Isfahani was a militant Jewish leader in 8th-century Persia who blended Jewish messianism with Islamic and proto-Shi'ite concepts. His syncretic movement, though militarily defeated, left a lasting mark on sectarian history and religious historiography.

Historical Analysis of Abu ʿIsa al-Isfahani

The Enigma of Isfahan

Abu ʿIsa al-Isfahani represents a radical collision of Jewish messianism, Persian nationalism, and Islamic sectarianism. Emerging during the profound geopolitical upheaval of the 8th-century transition from the Umayyad to the Abbasid Caliphate, he stands as a unique historical anomaly: a Jewish warlord who acknowledged the prophethood of Muhammad and founded the Isawiyya sect. While hostile medieval sources—including Maimonides and al-Shahrastani—depict him as an illiterate tailor from the al-Yahūdiyyah quarter of Isfahan, modern analysis suggests a more complex figure. He was not merely a "false messiah" or a madman, but a calculated leader operating within a massive power vacuum.

Geopolitics and the Artisan Army

During the chaotic reign of the last Umayyad Caliph, Marwan II (c. 740s CE), Abu ʿIsa proclaimed himself a prophet and forerunner to the Messiah. He mobilized a reported force of 10,000 Jews, drawn primarily from the artisan class of tailors and weavers.

This mobilization was likely a survival strategy during the "Abbasid Revolution," a period rife with rebellion among Shi’ite extremists and non-Arab converts. By militarizing the Jewish population, Abu ʿIsa transformed a vulnerable minority into a regional power broker capable of tipping the scales in the eastern provinces. However, the true extent of his coordination with Abbasid revolutionaries remains one of history's unresolved questions.

Strategic Theology

Abu ʿIsa’s religious innovations served as "strategic syncretism." To rival the piety of surrounding Islamic groups, he instituted rigorous asceticism, banning the consumption of meat and wine and increasing the number of daily prayers to seven.

Most significantly, he recognized both Jesus and Muhammad as legitimate prophets sent to their own peoples, though he maintained they were not sent to the Jews. This theological maneuver effectively "decriminalized" his movement in the eyes of Muslims. It created a diplomatic gray zone where an autonomous Jewish army could exist without being immediately branded as infidels waging war against Islam.

The Battle of Rayy and Enduring Legacy

The rebellion was ultimately crushed by Caliphal forces near Rayy (modern Tehran). The defeat is shrouded in folklore: legend claims that when trapped, Abu ʿIsa drew a circle in the sand with a myrtle branch, rendering himself and his inner circle invisible before they vanished into a mountain cleft. This "occultation" narrative strongly echoes Shi’ite concepts of the Hidden Imam.

Despite his disappearance and the suppression of his history by both Rabbinic and Abbasid authorities, the Isawiyya sect proved resilient, surviving in Damascus and Spain into the 10th and 11th centuries. Scholars speculate that the remnants of his anti-establishment movement may have influenced the rise of Karaism, linking the "phantom dossier" of Abu ʿIsa to broader sectarian shifts in Jewish history.

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Summary: Abu ʿIsa al-Isfahani led a significant 8th-century Jewish syncretic revolt in Persia, blending military strategy with theological diplomacy to navigate the fall of the Umayyad dynasty. Although his army was defeated, his sect survived for centuries, leaving a lasting, albeit suppressed, mark on sectarian history.

Jacob Frank (יעקב פרנק Ya'akov Frank, Jakob Frank, Jakub Frank; 1726, Korolivka – December 10, 1791, Offenbach am Main) was an 18th-century Jewish religious leader who claimed to be the reincarnation of the self-proclaimed messiah Sabbatai Zevi and also of the biblical patriarch Jacob. The Jewish authorities in Poland excommunicated Frank and his followers due to his heretical doctrines that included deification of himself as a part of a trinity and other controversial concepts such as neo-Carpocratian"purification through transgression".^[1]

Frank arguably created a new religion, now referred to as Frankism, which incorporated some aspects of Christianity into Judaism. The development of Frankism was one of the consequences of the messianic movement of Sabbatai Zevi, the religious mysticism that followed violent persecution and socioeconomic upheavals among the Jews of Poland and Ukraine.

Historical background[edit]

There were numerous secret societies of Sabbateans (followers of Sabbatai Zevi) in Eastern Poland (now Ukraine),^[2] particularly in Podolia and Galicia at the end of the seventeenth century

In expectation of the great Messianic revolution, the members of these societies violated Jewish laws and custom.^{[citation needed]} The mystical cult of the Sabbateans is believed to have included both asceticism and sensuality: some did penance for their sins, subjected themselves to self-inflicted pain, and "mourned for Zion"; others disregarded the strict rules of modesty required by Judaism, and at times were accused of being licentious.^{[citation needed]} The Polish rabbis attempted to ban the "Sabbatean heresy" at the assembly at Lviv (Lwów) in 1722, but could not fully succeed, as it was widely popular among the nascent Jewish middle class.

Early life[edit]

Jacob Frank is believed to have been born as Jacob ben Leiba (or Leibowits) in Korolivka, in Podolia of Eastern Poland (now in Ukraine), in about 1726. His father was aSabbatean, and moved to Czernowitz, in the Carpathian region of Bukovina in 1730, where the Sabbatean influence at the time was strong. While still a schoolboy Frank began to reject the Talmud, and afterward often referred to himself as "a plain" or "untutored man."

As a traveling merchant in textile and precious stones he often visited Ottoman territories, where he earned the nickname "Frank", a name generally given in the East to Europeans, and lived in the centers of contemporary Sabbateanism: Salonica and Smyrna.

In the early 1750s, Frank became intimate with the leaders of the Sabbateans. Two followers of Sabbatian leader Osman Baba (d. 1720) were witnesses at his wedding in 1752. In 1755 he reappeared in Podolia, gathered a group of local adherents, and began to preach the "revelations" which were communicated to him by the Dönmeh in Salonica. One of these gatherings in Landskron ended in a scandal, and the rabbis' attention was drawn to the new teachings. Frank was forced to leave Podolia, while his followers were hounded and denounced to the local authorities by the rabbis (1756). At the rabbinical court held in the village of Satanov the Sabbateans were accused of having broken fundamental Jewish laws of morality and modesty.

The anti-Talmudists[edit]

See also: Criticism of the Talmud

Consequent to these disclosures the congress of rabbis in Brody proclaimed a universal Cherem (excommunication) against all "impenitent heretics", and made it obligatory upon every pious Jew to seek them out and expose them. The Sabbateans informed Dembowski, the Catholic Bishop of Kamenetz-Podolsk, Poland, that they rejected the Talmud and recognized only the sacred book of Kabbalah, the Zohar, which did not contradict the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. They stated that they regarded the Messiah-Deliverer as one of the embodiments of the three divinities.

The bishop took Frank and his followers (the "Anti-Talmudists", or "Zoharistic Jews") under his protection and in 1757 arranged a religious disputation between them and the rabbis of the traditionalist community. The Anti-Talmudists presented their theses, which began the intense dispute. The bishop sided in favor of the Frankists and also ordered the burning of all copies of the Talmud in Poland. 10,000 volumes were destroyed, which was a tremendous loss for the Jewish libraries of that era.

After the death of the bishop, the Sabbateans were subjected to severe persecution by the rabbis, although they succeeded in obtaining an edict from Augustus III of Poland guaranteeing them safety.

Portrait of Nathan of Gaza, from 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia.

Nathan Benjamin ben Elisha ha-Levi Ghazzati or Nathan of Gaza (Hebrew: נתן העזתי‎‎; 1643–1680) was a theologian and author born in Jerusalem. After his marriage in 1663 he moved to Gaza, where he became famous as a prophet for the alleged messiah, Sabbatai Zevi.

Biography[edit]

Although he is referred to by names such as Abraham Nathan ben Elisha Hayyim Ashkenazi or Rabbi Nathan Ashkenazi of Gaza, he is more commonly known as Nathan of Gaza. After studying Talmud and Kabbalah in his native town under Jacob Hagiz, he settled at Gaza, whence his name "Ghazzati". The fact of his father being a German Jew gave him the name of "Ashkenazi". As brilliant as he was as a kabbalistic theologian and as a student, Nathan of Gaza was also endowed with other remarkable characteristics that ultimately helped to promote the messianic claims surrounding Shabbetai Zevi. He was known, for example, for his prophetic visions as well as for his ideological and radical views, all of which helped to shape the eventual mystical movement around Shabbethai Zevi. His visionary capabilities in particular not only constructed the foundations for Sabbateanism, but they also aided him in discovering the group’s historical figure, Shabbetai Zevi.

Nathan of Gaza was born in Jerusalem around 1643-1644; he died on Friday, January 11, 1680 in Macedonia. Although he grew up in Jerusalem, his parents were not born in Ottoman Syria. On the contrary, they had immigrated from Poland or Germany. His father, Elisha Hayyim ben Jacob, was a distinguished rabbinic intellectual who served as an envoy of Jerusalem collecting donations for impoverished Jews. During his travels, he would distribute kabbalistic works, which he had obtained in Jerusalem. Upon settling in Ottoman Palestine, Elisha Hayyim ben Jacob took on the surname “Ashkenazi” as a means of differentiating his family and himself from the largely Sephardic inhabitants of the Ottoman province. He later died in Morocco in 1673.

Prior to his father’s death, Nathan of Gaza began studying under Hagiz. The relationship between these two religious devotees would continue for many years. In fact, Nathan of Gaza would spend a majority of his life – up until about 1664 – with his teacher at a rabbinic college. During this academic period, documents were written that described his interest in and persistence towards academic work. It is said that he was “…an extremely gifted student, of quick apprehension and a brilliant intellect. His talents…[were] noteworthy for their rare combination of intellectual power and capacity for profound thinking with imagination and strong emotional sensitivity…”^[1] In and of itself, Nathan of Gaza was an extremely gifted pupil. His intellectual brilliance and his intense focus on his studies, however, did not limit or prevent him – as occurs with most intensely devoted religious individuals –from experiencing many of the Jewish rites of passage. In fact, at the age of nineteen or twenty, he married the daughter of an affluent Jew named Samuel Lissabona. The nuptials were believed to have taken place before the end of the year 1663, when he joined his wife’s family in Gaza. There, he was able to focus considerably on his religious studies.

It is upon moving to the area of Gaza that Nathan of Gaza began to take up a more in-depth study of Kabbalah. Only upon delving into the mysterious realm of Jewish mysticism did he begin to embark on mystical experiences. An example of such a transformative incident can be seen with his prophetic awakening, which he describes in a letter written in 1673:

When I had attained the age of twenty, I began to study the book Zohar and some of the Lurianic writings. [According to the Talmud] he who wants to purify himself receives the aid of Heaven; and thus He sent me some of His holy angels and blessed spirits who revealed to me many of the mysteries of the Torah. In that same year, my force having been stimulated by the visions of the angels and the blessed souls, I was undergoing a prolonged fast in the week before the feast of Purim. Having locked myself in a separate room in holiness and purity…the spirit came over me, my hair stood on end and my knees shook and I beheld the merkabah, and I saw visions of God all day long and all night…^[2]

This vision lasted approximately twenty-four hours and was said to have had a powerful impact on his overall perception of reality as well as his entire self. While the revelation was overpowering and transformative, it was the only visual moment where Nathan of Gaza felt that he was a true prophet. Nevertheless, in addition to his physical and mental alteration, there was another important component to the vision: Nathan of Gaza believed that a man by the name of Shabbetai Zevi was the messiah. This strong belief in Shabbetai Zevi as the next leader of the Jewish people marked the initiation of the first Sabbatean believer, Nathan of Gaza. It also constituted the beginning of the Sabbatean movement itself.

Nathan of Gaza’s prophecy about Shabbetai Zevi was not his only mental visualization. On the contrary, as the years passed, he would have many other visions, all of which would aid his movement and promote the belief in Shabbetai Zevi. His second vision in fact came on the evening of the Shavu’ot festival in the spring of 1665. Unlike his prophetic awakening, here, Nathan of Gaza was said to have undergone a spiritual possession by a maggid, or a divine spirit. At the moment of this spiritual takeover, he was described as dancing wildly and emitting a special kind of odor. This smell is described in the Zohar and is believed to be associated with the scent of the Garden of Eden as well as of the prophet Elisha and Rabbi Isaac Luria. While the vision itself is significantly different from that of the prophetic awakening, it does contain several similarities. One of the parallels is that of transformation. Like the prophetic awakening, as soon as the maggidic possession ended, Nathan of Gaza underwent a kind of alteration. Unlike the first vision, this change was not physical or mental. On the contrary, it was one that involved the perception of Nathan of Gaza by the Jewish community. He became viewed by others as a prophet and as a spiritual “doctor.” The public’s acknowledgement of Nathan of Gaza as a mystic and as a seer in particular allowed there to be later on an immediate acceptance of Shabbetai Zevi as the next messiah. In general, it is the use of prophecies that plays a central role in this particular movement. In fact, the numerous predictions made by Nathan of Gaza and even Shabbetai Zevi himself caused a significant part of the contemporary Jewish community to become Sabbatean followers.

by
Reb Yakov Leib HaKohain, Founder & Spiritual Director
DONMEH WEST

It is commonly held (usually on the basis of "conventional wisdom" and hearsay rather than historical scholarship) that Sabbatai Zevi's "conversion" to Islam was an act of cowardice that betrayed the Jewish people. However, this raises four questions:

1. Was he, as we are expected to believe, unaware of the reason for which the Sultan of Turkey had summoned him for an audience? That is, to force him into apostasy.
2. Was there any significance to the highly-suggestive title bestowed upon him by the Sultan following his conversion -- i.e., that of Kapici Bashi, or "Keeper of the Gate?" Or are we to believe, as most historians including Scholem imply, that the title was purely honorary and without significance?
3. Why, following Sabbatai's Shahada, did the Sultan permit him to continue functioning as a Jew in the very Messianic activities for which he had supposedly threatened to punish him with death -- after a period of time, exiling him to Dulcigno for his Jewish-Messianic posturing, but nonetheless tacitly permitting him to continue in it even after that?
4. What form of Islam, if any, did Sabbatai practice after his presumed "conversion" to it? Scholem and others are strangely quiet on this point, but our Chaver, Professor Avraham Elqayam (a noted Sabbatian scholar in his own right) has recently informed us all that after making Shahada to Islam, Sabbatai actively practiced Shi'i Bektashi Sufi, which was somewhat strange since the Sultan himself (on whose continuing good favor Sabbatai's life presumably depended) was a member of the opposing Sunni sect.

In what follows, I propose to show -- on the basis of historical facts rather than commonly held beliefs -- that this "conversion" was not an act of cowardice, but in fact one of the mystical ma'asim zarim (strange actions) that he and Nathan of Gaza believed the Messiah was destined to perform, based on their reading of the Kabbalah. Such an explanation suggests that the collapse of Sabbatai Zevi's world-wide movement, and almost of Judaism itself, resulted not so much from what Sabbatai did as from the inability of the Jewish people to understand and accept it. In other words, it was not Sabbatai Zevi who "betrayed" the Jewish people, but they who misunderstood and, therefore, abandoned him.

As we know from the historical record, the Sultan of Turkey bestowed the royal title, Kapici Bashi ("Keeper of the Gate") upon Sabbatai Zevi following his Shahada (conversion) to Islam; however, I propose to show that he did so with the full knowledge that such a title, bestowed upon such a widely-acclaimed Holy Man (possibly even the "Mahdi," or Messiah, of Islam itself), would have significant symbolic meaning to the Bektashi Sufi of the Ottoman Empire, and did so for that very reason. The significance of this is that it strongly suggests that the Sultan acknowledged, at least tacitly, the divine mission of Sabbatai Zevi and was prepared to use it for his own purposes -- and this took place within the context of the following historical events:

1. The Ottoman Empire was collapsing at the time of Sabbatai Zevi, and the Shi'i Bektashi Sufi took this opportunity to infiltrate and dominate its administrative infrastructure, thereby achieving a kind of bloodless, administrative coup.
2. Like their Shi'i brothers, the Ismailis, the Bektashi referred to their Imam as "The Gate of God."
3. Prior to Shahada, interaction between Sabbatai Zevi and the Bektashi is unknown; but following his conversion (and receipt of the royal title, "Keeper of the Gate"), he establishes contact with them and begins engaging frequently in their Sufi rituals. (Source: Prof. Avraham Elqayam)
4. The figure of al-Khadir, the "Green Man," plays a prominent role in Islamic mysticism, most likely originating from Jewish legends, and is associated with the Muslim Mahdi in the same way that Elijah is associated with the Jewish Messiah. (Source: Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam and Prof. Elqayam)
5. According to ancient Jewish prophecy, the Messiah will enter Jerusalem riding a white horse, led by a descendant of Ishmael (i.e., an Arab) who holds the horse's bridle. Although Muslim custom strictly forbade a Jew of the time from riding on a horse, Sabbatai Zevi demands and is given permission by the Sultan to ride in state to their meeting on a white stallion. In addition, he wears a "green mantle," already associated in Islam with al-Khadir and the "new age" of the Mahdi. (Source: Gershom Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah)
6. Upon his conversion to Islam, Sabbatai is given the Arabic name, Aziz Mehemet (i.e., "Power of Muhammad") and is appointed to the honorary royal office of Kapici Bashi, or "Keeper of the Gate," a title strikingly similar to that of the Imam in Sufi, "Gate of God." (Ibid, Gershom Scholem)
7. Although nominally a Muslim, Sabbatai openly continues his messianic posturing as a Jew under the very nose of the Sultan of Turkey who had only recently threatened to execute him for doing the same, but now seems to turn a blind eye to it. However, for some reason (possibly that Sabbatai had failed in his undercover mission to the Bektashi) the Sultan can no longer seem to ignore Sabbatai's activities, but rather than executing him as one would expect, banishes him to Dulcigno where Sabbatai continues in his Jewish-Messianic activities. (ibid, Scholem)
8. Following his Shahada, not only did Sabbatai refrain from actively practicing nominal Islam -- openly remaining both a Jew and a Jewish Messianic figure -- but he never became a "missionary" for Islam to his fellow Jews as some contemporary, fundamentalist Muslims would like to believe. This is all the more interesting since conventional wisdom holds that Sabbatai converted to Islam because the Sultan threatened him with death if he did not do so; but had that been so, it seems strange that the Sultan did not execute Sabbatai for reneging on his alleged vow to be a good Muslim -- particularly in light of the fact that the punishment by Islamic law for a convert who later separates himself from Islam (as Sabbatai did) is death.

Sabbatai Zevi (שַׁבְּתַאי צְבִי Shabbetai Tzvi, other spellings include Sabbatai Ẓevi, Shabbetai Ẓevi, Sabbatai Sevi, and Sabetay Sevi in Turkish) (August 1, 1626 – c. September 17, 1676^[1]) was a Sephardic Rabbi^[2] and kabbalist who claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. He was the founder of the JewishSabbatean movement.

At the age of forty, he was forced by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV to convert to Islam. Some of his followers also converted to Islam, about 300 families who were known as the Dönmeh (converts).^[3]

Sabbateans (Sabbatians) is a complex general term that refers to a variety of followers of, disciples and believers in Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676), a Jewish rabbi who was proclaimed to be the Jewish Messiah in 1665 by Nathan of Gaza. Vast numbers of Jews in the Jewish diaspora accepted his claims, even after he became a Jewish apostate with his conversion to Islam in 1666. Sabbatai Zevi's followers, both during his "Messiahship" and after his conversion to Islam, are known as Sabbateans. They can be grouped into three: "Maaminim" (believers), "Haberim" (associates), and "Ba'ale Milhamah" (warriors).^[1]

Dönmeh (Turkish: Dönme) refers to a group of crypto-Jews in the Ottoman Empire who, to escape the inferior condition of dhimmis, converted publicly to Islam, but were said to have retained their beliefs. The movement was historically centred in Salonica.^[1] The group originated during and soon after the era of Sabbatai Zevi, a 17th-century Jewish kabbalist who claimed to be the Messiah and eventually converted to Islam in order to escape punishment by the Sultan Mehmed IV. After Zevi'sconversion, a number of Jews followed him into Islam and became the Dönmeh. Since the 20th century, many Dönmeh have intermarried with other groups and most have assimilated into Turkish society.

Sabbatai Zevi

The Jewish mystic and messiah, Sabbatai Zevi (1626-76), referred to by the abbreviated title of Amirah by his followers,  was born in Smyrna (now Izmir), Turkey.  Sabbatai's first teacher was the Gadol Reb. Isaac di Alba, a member of  the Bais Din in Smyrna with whom he studied Kabbalah beginning in 1650.  After six years under Master Isaac, Sabbatai continued his studies under the illustrious R. Joseph Eskapha, author of "Rosh Yosef" and a leading halakhist of his time. He most probably gave Sabbatai smicha and the rabbinical title of hakham ("wise" or "sage") when the latter was still an adolescent.
By 1648 Sabbatai showed signs of what modern scholars (who are caught up in the meme of reductionist materialism) claim to be manic-depressive psychosis.  In other words, strange behavior and violations of religious law, and proclaimed himself the Messiah.  Expelled from Smyrna around 1651-54, he wandered through Greece, Thrace, Palestine, and Egypt.  In 1665 he met the charismatic Nathan of Gaza, who persuaded him that he was indeed the Messiah.   Sabbatai Zevi then formally revealed himself, named 1666 as the millennium, and soon gained fervent support in Palestine and the Diaspora.  It is important to realize that the entire Jewish world of 1665-66 believed that Sabbatai was no mere "prophet" or "teacher" but the Promised Messiah and a living incarnation of God.  It was the only messianic movement to engulf the whole of Jewry; from England to Persia, from Germany to Morocco, from Poland to the Yemen.

Sabbatai attempted to land in Constantinople in 1666, but was captured andimprisoned by the Turkish authorities in 1666.  He converted to Islam, supposedly to escape execution, although Nathan and his other followers put a different interpretation on this.  Sabbatai's conversion actually represented the descent into the klippotic realm in order to reclaim the lost sparks of light.  Many of his followers converted likewise.  Sabbatai - who, like Meher Baba and Max Theon was called "The Beloved" by his followers - may have had close relations with the Sufis. He died in exile in Ulcinj (in what is now Montenegro, part of the federation of Serbia and Montenegro).  The Sabbatean movement was revived in the 18th century by Jacob Frank.

Early life and education[edit]

Sabbatai Zevi was born in Smyrna on (supposedly) Tisha B'Av or the 9th of Av, 1626, the holy day of mourning. His name literally meant the planet Saturn, and in Jewish tradition "The reign of Sabbatai" (The highest planet) was often linked to the advent of the Messiah.^[4]Zevi's family were Romaniotes from Patras in present-day Greece; his father, Mordecai, was a poultry dealer in the Morea. During the war between Turkey and Venice, Smyrna became the center of Levantine trade. Mordecai became the Smyrna agent of an English trading house and managed to achieve some wealth in this role.

In accordance with the prevailing Jewish custom of the time, Sabbatai's father had him study the Talmud. He attended a yeshiva under the rabbi of Smyrna, Joseph Escapa. Studies in halakha (Jewish law) did not appeal to him, but apparently he did attain proficiency in the Talmud. On the other hand, he was fascinated by mysticism and the Kabbalah, as influenced by Rabbi Isaac Luria. He found the practical kabbalah - with its asceticism, through which its devotees claimed to be able to communicate with God and the angels, to predict the future and to perform all sorts of miracles - especially appealing.

Influence of English millenarianism[edit]

During the first half of the 17th century, millenarian ideas of the approach of the Messianic time were popular. They included ideas of the redemption of the Jews and their return to the land of Israel, with independent sovereignty. The apocalyptic year was identified by Christian authors as 1666 and millenarianism was widespread in England. This belief was so prevalent that Manasseh ben Israel, in his letter to Oliver Cromwell and the Rump Parliament, appealed to it as a reason to readmit Jews into England, saying, "[T]he opinions of many Christians and mine do concur herein, that we both believe that the restoring time of our Nation into their native country is very near at hand."^[5] Besides being involved in other commercial activities, Sabbatai's father was the agent for an English trading house in Smyrna and must have had some business contact with English people. Sabbatai could have learned something about these Western millenarian expectations at his father's house. - [note: this theory was originally suggested by Graetz; Gershom Scholem argued forcefully against it in his major work on Sabbatai quoted throughout this entry.]

Claims of messiahship[edit]

Apart from this general Messianic theory, there was another computation, based on an interpreted passage in the Zohar (a famous Jewish mystical text), and particularly popular among the Jews, according to which the year 1648 was to be the year of Israel's redemption by their long-awaited Jewish Messiah.

At age 22 in 1648, Sabbatai started declaring to his followers in Smyrna that he was the true Messianic redeemer. In order to prove this claim he started to pronounce the Tetragrammaton, an act which Judaism emphatically prohibited to all but the Jewish high priest in the Temple in Jerusalem on the Day of Atonement. For scholars acquainted with rabbinical, and kabbalistic literature, the act was highly symbolic. He revealed his Messiahship early on to Isaac Silveyra and Moses Pinheiro, the latter a brother-in-law of the Italian rabbi and kabbalist Joseph Ergas.

However, at this point he was still relatively young to be thought of as an accepted and established rabbinic authority; and his influence in the local community was not widespread. Even though Sabbatai had led the pious life of a mystic in Smyrna for several years, the older and more established rabbinic leadership was still suspicious of his activities. The local college of rabbis, headed by his teacher, Joseph Escapa, kept a watchful eye on him. When his Messianic pretensions became too bold, they put him and his followers under cherem, a type of excommunication in Judaism.

About the year 1651 (according to others, 1654), the rabbis banished Sabbatai and his disciples from Smyrna. It is not certain where he went from there. By 1658, he was in Constantinople, where he met a preacher, Abraham Yachini (a disciple of Joseph di Trani), who confirmed Sabbatai's messianic mission. Yachini is said to have forged a manuscript in archaic characters which, he alleged, bore testimony to Sabbatai's Messiahship. It was entitled "The Great Wisdom of Solomon", and began:

"I, Abraham, was confined in a cave for forty years, and I wondered greatly that the time of miracles did not arrive. Then was heard a voice proclaiming, 'A son will be born in the Hebrew year 5386 [the year 1626 CE] to Mordecai Zevi; and he will be called Shabbethai. He will humble the great dragon; ... he, the true Messiah, will sit upon My throne."

----Joseph Trani (1538–1639) or Joseph di Trani was a Talmudist of the latter part of the 16th century who lived in Greece. By contemporary scholars he was called Mahrimat (Hebrew: מהרימ"ט), and regarded as one of the foremost Talmudists of his time. Today he is more widely known as Maharit (Hebrew: מהרי"ט).

He was the author of She'elot u-Teshubot (responsa), a work in three parts: part i comprises 152 responsa, together with a general index (Constantinople, 1641); part ii consists of 111 responsa in the order of the first three parts of the ritual codex (Venice, 1645); part iii contains responsa to the fourth part of the ritual codex, together with novellæ to the tractate Ḳiddushin, and supercommentaries on RaN's andAlfasi's commentaries on the tractates Ketubot and Ḳiddushin (ib. 1645). The entire work appeared in Fürth in 1764. Joseph also published novellæ to the treatises Shabbat, Ketubot, and Kiddushin(Sudzilkov, 1802), and the responsa which were embodied in Alfandari's Maggid me-Reshit (Constantinople, 1710). He left several commentaries in manuscript on Alfasi, on Maimonides' Yad, and on R. Nathan's Aruk.

In 2008, Trani's grave was discovered in Safed by the noted bibliophile and book dealer Shlomo Epstein, near the grave of Rabbi Moshe Alshich.^{[1][dead link]} Although the Maharit died and was buried inConstantinople, his sons later transferred his remains to Safed as he had requested so that he could be interred near his father, Moshe di Trani. -----