The Lost Messiah: In Search of the Mystical Rabbi Sabbatai Sevi - Hardcover

Freely, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1585673188 ISBN 13: 9781585673186

Verlag: Overlook Books, 2003

Inhaltsangabe

The Lost Messiah is the astonishing story of Sabbatai Sevi, a seventeenth-century rabbi who through the mysticism of the Kabbalah convinced vast numbers of Jews throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa that he was the long-awaited Messiah. Most of his followers were enraged and stupefied when he embraced Islam (on threat of execution from the Turkish Sultan), but many others continued to believe him. Some even converted to Islam themselves, creating the sect known even today as the Dönme – outwardly Muslim, yet clinging secretly to Judaism. A few Sabbatians still secretly hold true to their beliefs, patiently waiting for their Messiah to return and lead them to redemption; they believe that Sabbatai is not dead but merely hidden from human view, despite more than three centuries having passed since he was last seen.

When John Freely came across the name of Sabbatai Sevi in an old Jewish bookshop in Istanbul, he was instantly fascinated by the story and journeyed to Izmir, the principal Aegean port of Turkey and Sabbatai’s first home. Brilliantly evoking the vanished world of the seventeenth-century Jewish Diaspora in the Ottoman Empire, his narrative moves to the ghettos of Venice and Rome, the bazaars of Cairo, and the rabbinical schools in Jerusalem and Safed. The result of thirty years of research and travel, THE LOST MESSIAH deftly interweaves the work of respected scholars – especially the scholarly writings of Gershom Scholem – along with Freely’s own firsthand knowledge of ancient and contemporary Turkey and its environs. Ranging from the Sultan’s palaces in Istanbul to the synagogues of North Africa and out to the isolated Jewish communities of the Yemen and even the remote reaches of Albania, Freely’s remarkable story takes us deep into the esoteric world of Jewish mysticism and the messianic cult which still inspires belief today.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

John Freely was born in New York in 1926. At seventeen he joined the navy and served during WWII, later returning to New York where he received a PhD in Physics from New York University in 1960. He has lived in New York, Boston, London, Athens, Istanbul, and Venice, and has written more than twenty books, including INSIDE THE SERAGLIO.

Rezensionen

The idea of a messiah who will come to offer salvation and heal the world remains one of Judaism's most enduring yearnings. Freely focuses on one who assumed the mantle of Messiah. In the mid-seventeenth century a messiah appeared, a rabbi named Sabbatai Sevi. As Freely describes him, Sabbatai would be described in modern terms as manic-depressive. In his own time, his "illuminations" (which alternated with moods of deep despair) and his knowledge of the Torah and kabbalah allowed Sabbatai to attract followers. When the respected Nathan of Gaza, serving as Sabbatai's John the Baptist, proclaimed him the Messiah, his fame grew throughout the Jewish world. Freely, quoting extensively from primary sources, follows Sabbatai's movements up to his shocking conversion to Islam, which, perhaps even more shockingly, did not dissolve all of his support. Freely paints a portrait of the Jewish community in the Ottoman Empire that brings time and place alive. He is less successful in describing Sabbatai the man. Although Freely makes us understand the circumstances that made the masses long for a messiah, he fails to show how Sabbatai, a not particularly appealing figure, could have successively assumed that role. Still, this volume gathers the threads of many sources into one fabric, providing a valuable interweaving of history and biography. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Historian and travel writer Freely retraces the 17th-century rabbi Sabbatai Sevi's steps from his birth in Izmir (in Turkey) to his exile and death in Dulcigno (in northern Albania) in this plodding and workmanlike account-part travelogue, part detective story and part religious history.. Sevi traveled through the Ottoman Empire declaring himself to be the Messiah; he claimed to be born on the Ninth of Ab, the traditional birthdate of the Messiah, and fervently studied the mystical texts of the Kabbalah. Although he gathered some followers, most thought he was a madman and a fool. When he began to declare that fast days should become feast days, that women could read from the Torah and that Jews could pronounce the sacred name of God (YHWH), the rabbis in Istanbul drove him out of the country. Sevi became the target of even greater animosity when he converted to Islam. After his conversion he maintained a syncretistic religious lifestyle, trying to convert his followers to Islam, yet still proclaiming himself the Jewish Messiah. After his death, many of his followers declared that he had not died but that his presence was hidden, and that he would appear again at the end of time. Drawing upon the writings of Gershom Scholem and others, Freely offers a fascinating glimpse into a little-known chapter of Jewish religious history. However, he depends too heavily on secondary source material, encumbering his own writing with lengthy quotations that fail to illuminate Sevi's exciting story.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Overlook Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2003
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1585673188
• ISBN 13: 9781585673186
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 275
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar