Shabbetai Tzvi

Shabbetai Tzvi (1626-1676), born in Izmir to a Sephardic merchant family, became the central figure of the largest messianic movement in post-biblical Jewish history. From his early years he displayed the symptoms of what scholars now identify as bipolar disorder — manic-depressive cycles of ecstatic prophecy and severe withdrawal. His 1665 meeting in Gaza with the young kabbalist Nathan Ashkenazi (Nathan of Gaza) transformed Nathan's prior mystical visions into a coherent Lurianic theology of Shabbetai as the awaited messiah, and triggered a worldwide Jewish mass movement.

By 1666 nearly every Jewish community on three continents had declared belief in him; trade was suspended, communal records ceased, and communities prepared for imminent redemption. The Ottoman sultan Mehmed IV forced him to convert to Islam in September 1666 (or face execution). The conversion devastated mainstream Jewish messianism for centuries — but Sabbateanism survived as an underground heretical movement, shaped the Donmeh of Salonika, influenced early Hasidism's guardedness, and produced the later Frankist movement. He died in exile in Ulcinj, Montenegro in 1676.