The London Gazette, Numb. 46, Thursday, April 19th to Monday, April 23rd, 1666

(SHABBETAI ZEVI)

Tho. Newcomb

London

1666

Not referred to by Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi

Newspaper account of arrival of “the Jewish Prophet Sabadai” in Constantinople Datelined “Genoa, March 6t,” this journalistic account of Shabbetai Zevi’s arrival in Constantinople commences on solid ground and then takes a sudden flight of fancy: “It is written from Constantinople, That upon the arrival of the Jewish Prophet Sabadai, the Grand Signior [i.e. the Sultan] consulted with his Mufti, and one of his Judges, what was to be done with him, who resolved that he was to be dealt with as a Traytor to the Ottoman Empire…The false Prophet was immediately delivered to the Guard, who set him upon an ugly horde, and carried him to the Seven Towers…From the Seven Towers, he was in a little while delivered to the Executioner…” This amounts to wishful thinking on the part of this unknown English journalist. The truth is that Shabbetai lived a “gilded cage” existence in the Tower of Gallipoli, nicknamed by his ardent followers “Migdal Oz” (Tower of Strength), and would then languish, first in Adrianople (Edirne), the Sultan’s second capital, and later in Dulcigno (then Albania), for another ten years, having in the meantime been forcibly converted to Islam. Shabbetai Zevi died of natural causes, aged fifty, in 1676