Sabbatai Zevi - Disillusion

Disillusion

Sabbatai's conversion was devastating for his followers. Muslims and Christians criticized his followers after the event. In spite of Sabbatai's apostasy, many of his adherents still tenaciously clung to him, claiming that his conversion was a part of the Messianic scheme. Prophets such as Ghazzati and Primo, who were interested in maintaining the movement, encouraged such belief. In many communities, the Seventeenth of Tammuz and the Ninth of Av were still observed as fast-days in spite of bans and excommunications by the rabbis.

At times Sabbatai assumed the role of a pious Muslim and reviled Judaism; at others he associated with Jews as one of their own faith. In March 1668 he announced that he had been filled with the "Holy Spirit" at Passover, and had received a "revelation." He, or one of his followers, published a mystical work claiming Sabbatai was the true Messiah in spite of his conversion. His goal was to bring thousands of Muslims to Judaism. After telling the sultan he was trying to convert Jews to Islam, Sabbatai was permitted to associate with them and preach in their synagogues. He succeeded in bringing over a number of Muslims to his kabbalistic views. Whether through his efforts or their willingness to follow in his latest steps, about 300 families of Sephardic Jews converted to Islam, becoming known as the Dönmeh (also spelled Dönme), convert. Some of the followers adhered to a combination of their former Jewish practices as well as Islam.

Gradually the Turks tired of Sabbatai's schemes. They ended his salary and banished him to Constantinople. When he was discovered singing psalms with Jews, the grand vizier ordered his banishment to Dulcigno (today called Ulcinj), a small place in Montenegro. There he died in isolation, according to some accounts, on September 17, 1676, the High Holy Day of Yom Kippur.

"By the 1680s, the Dönme had congregated in Salonika, the cosmopolitan and majority-Jewish city in Ottoman Greece. For the next 250 years, they would lead an independent communal life — intermarrying, doing business together, maintaining their own shrines, and handing down their secret traditions." By the 19th century, the Dönmeh had become prominent in the tobacco and textile trades. They established progressive schools and some members became politically active. Some joined the Committee on Union and Progress (CUP), the revolutionary party known as the Young Turks. With independence, in the 1910s, Greece expelled the Muslims from its territory, including the Dönmeh. Most migrated to Turkey, where by mid-century they were becoming highly assimilated.