The Demise of Shukr Kuhayl II
Eventually, it was Jacob Saphir's 1872 Igeret Taiman (consciously borrowing the title of Rambam's earlier Epistle), countering the messianic claims of Judah ben Shalom, and signed by the rabbis of Jerusalem, which lead to a deterioration in Kuhayl's stature among the community leaders controlling his cash flow (Klorman 1989). As the income diminished, he was forced to borrow money from wealthy Arabs, and—evidently defaulting on these loans—was finally taken to jail. Released after some time, he was not able to regain his former acclaim, and died in poverty around 1878.
Read more about this topic: Judah Ben Shalom