Sabbatai Zevi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here's why I love reading history books. I'm currently reading about Albania in the 16th century. They're talking about the small town of Ulcinj which is not especially notable, though it was the town Sabbatai Zevi was exiled to and where he died.

And who is Sabbatai Zevi? He was a rabbi living in the Ottoman Empire. At the age of 22 he declared himself the Messiah. He gathered quite a following and even after he was imprisoned in Constantinople (not Istanbul), he still had a devoted following.

Eventually he was hauled up before the Sultan who said he'd either face a trial of his divinity (shot at by archers, if they missed, he was god), impaled, or he could convert to Islam.

He converted.

The book I'm reading isn't even about Sabbatai, this was just a throw-away line, but man do I want to read a book about the Jewish Messiah who converted to Islam. History is full of wonderful little sidelines like this and that's why I love it so much.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbatai_Zevi#Proclaimed_messiah