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7/7/2025, 10:00:21 PM
>Such innovations caused great commotion in some communities. In Moravia, excitement reached such a pitch that the government had to intervene, while at Salé, Morocco, the emir ordered a persecution of the Jews.
>While Sabbatai was in Abydos prison, an incident ultimately led to his downfall. Polish Jewish communities, hearing of Sabbatai's Messianic claim, sent the Kabbalist Nehemiah Ha-Kohen to interview him in his captivity. Nehemiah reached Abydos, after a journey of three months at the beginning of September 1666. The meeting did not go well—Nehemiah declared Sabbatai an impostor.
>Nehemiah went to Constantinople, where he told the Ottomans of Shabbatai's ambitions. The Ottoman vizier gave him three choices: subject himself to a trial of his divinity in the form of a volley of arrows (should the archers miss, his divinity would be proven), be impaled, or convert to Islam.
>On the following day (September 16, 1666), Zevi appeared before the sultan, cast off his Jewish clothing, and put a turban on his head, thereby converting to Islam. Satisfied, the sultan rewarded Shabbatai by conferring on him the title effendi and appointing him as his doorkeeper on a generous salary. Sarah and approximately 300 families among his followers also converted to Islam. Shabbatai was ordered to take a second wife to confirm his conversion. Some days afterwards, he wrote to the community in Smyrna, "God has made me an Ishmaelite; He commanded, and it was done. The ninth day of my regeneration."
>Shabbatai's conversion devastated his followers, and Muslims and Christians alike ridiculed them. Despite his apostasy, many of his adherents still believed in him, claiming that his conversion was a part of the messianic scheme. Those such as Nathan of Gaza and Primo, who were interested in maintaining the movement, encouraged such belief. In many communities, the Seventeenth of Tammuz and Tisha B'Av were still observed as feast days despite bans and excommunications by the rabbis.
>While Sabbatai was in Abydos prison, an incident ultimately led to his downfall. Polish Jewish communities, hearing of Sabbatai's Messianic claim, sent the Kabbalist Nehemiah Ha-Kohen to interview him in his captivity. Nehemiah reached Abydos, after a journey of three months at the beginning of September 1666. The meeting did not go well—Nehemiah declared Sabbatai an impostor.
>Nehemiah went to Constantinople, where he told the Ottomans of Shabbatai's ambitions. The Ottoman vizier gave him three choices: subject himself to a trial of his divinity in the form of a volley of arrows (should the archers miss, his divinity would be proven), be impaled, or convert to Islam.
>On the following day (September 16, 1666), Zevi appeared before the sultan, cast off his Jewish clothing, and put a turban on his head, thereby converting to Islam. Satisfied, the sultan rewarded Shabbatai by conferring on him the title effendi and appointing him as his doorkeeper on a generous salary. Sarah and approximately 300 families among his followers also converted to Islam. Shabbatai was ordered to take a second wife to confirm his conversion. Some days afterwards, he wrote to the community in Smyrna, "God has made me an Ishmaelite; He commanded, and it was done. The ninth day of my regeneration."
>Shabbatai's conversion devastated his followers, and Muslims and Christians alike ridiculed them. Despite his apostasy, many of his adherents still believed in him, claiming that his conversion was a part of the messianic scheme. Those such as Nathan of Gaza and Primo, who were interested in maintaining the movement, encouraged such belief. In many communities, the Seventeenth of Tammuz and Tisha B'Av were still observed as feast days despite bans and excommunications by the rabbis.
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