new certainties and new mysticism 401
It was after this that [Sabbetai] began to do things that seemed strange. He
would pronounce the Sacred Name precisely as it was written. He ate ani-
mal fat. He did other things contrary to God and His Torah, and pressed
others to do the same wicked deeds ... Then, that Sabbath, he recited
petitionary prayers at great length and afterwards went off to the Portu-
guese synagogue. Many of those who worshipped there did not believe in
him, and therefore had barred the synagogue doors. He fell into a terrific
rage. He sent for an axe, and, Sabbath though it was, hacked away at the
doors until they opened them.By urging that the law be broken, and especially demanding that his
supporters utter aloud the ineffable name of God, Sabbetai Zevi was
heralding the messianic age when everything would be changed. But he
also flushed out the opposition, thus binding his supporters closer (not
least the women whom he called to read the Torah). He announced that
the date of redemption would be 15 Sivan 5426, which coincided with
18 June 1666.^33
By this time, expression of opposition to Sabbetai Zevi’s claims was
becoming dangerous in Smyrna, even when he shockingly decreed the
abolition of the fast of the Tenth of Tevet, a fast ordained within the
Bible itself in commemoration of the beginning of the Babylonian siege
of Jerusalem which had led to the destruction of the first Temple in 586
bce. The local Jews began to pray for Sabbetai Zevi as the king of Israel
in place of the standard prayer which expressed loyalty to the sultan.
He was increasingly addressed as amirah, which signified ‘Our Lord and
King, may his Majesty be exalted’. Jews flooded into Smyrna from all
over Turkey to join the celebrations, and on 30 December 1665 Sab-
betai, with a huge train, sailed to Constantinople.^34
Over the two centuries since its capture by the Ottomans in 1453,
Constantinople had been transformed into the great Islamic city of
Istanbul, in which narrow, twisting streets of wooden houses clustered
between great mosques, palaces and bazaars. The holy site of Eyüp
stood at the head of the Golden Horn, where the body of the Prophet’s
standard- bearer killed during the Arab siege of Constantinople in 674–
8 had been discovered, and numerous fountains, bridges, schools and
other buildings erected by Suleiman the Magnificent and other sultans
adorned the capital. But of half a million or so inhabitants only a small
majority were Muslims, and the Jews – of whom thousands had settled
after the expulsion from Spain in 1492 – were a self- governing commu-
nity, like the Orthodox Christians, under their own religious authorities