Similarities Between Sabbatai Sevi And The Ottoman

In the podcast about Sabbatai Sevi and the Ottoman-Turkish Donmes, presented by Matthew Ghazarian and Cengiz Sisman, presents us about a messianic movement by Sabbatai Sevi in 1665 and the secret community that his followers created after his passing within the Ottoman Empire. According to Sisman, Sevi’s messianic movement is renowned to be one of the successful movements during the Ottoman empire. The movement gained so much popularity that it challenged the authority of the Ottoman sovereignty. The Ottoman Empire usually did not interfere with the religious affairs of the people in the millet system. However, Sisman argues that the Ottomans retaliated to contain and eliminate this movement. The community of the sevi followers, who after Sevi’s death, still followed Judaism but presented themselves as muslims to the outside world.
He is the youngest son of the family and considered to be a bright student from a young age. After finishing his schooling, he studied Jewish mysticism known as the Kabala. Due to his introduction to this type of Judaism, he started to considered himself as the Messiah. His rise to fame is credited to two people: Sarah his wife and Nathan of Gaza. His wife was an orphan in Poland and she dreamt that she will be the one who will marry the messiah. After meeting each other in Cairo, they got married. This is one of the reasons that Sabbatai Sevi’s movement attracted a large following. Sevi’s messianic movement grew uncontrollable for the Ottomans and challenged their social order. In retaliation, Sevi was arrested and forcefully converted to Islam. There is a widespread belief that even though Sevi converted to Islam, he still secretly followed Judaism. His followers also converted but secretly practiced