196 | Policing Morality
Sabbatai Zevi (1625–1676) was born to an originally Greek Ashkenazi mer-
chant family in Izmir. His father, Mordecai, migrated from Salonica to Izmir and
eventually became an agent of British merchants. The economic decline of the
Jewish community in the seventeenth century, the displacement of Jewish mer-
chants and bankers by Orthodox Greeks and Armenians (European protégés) in
Western trade in Izmir and Istanbul, and the Jewish expulsion from the Balık
Pazarı neighborhood in Istanbul after the great fire of 1660 generated extreme
tensions and a sense of displacement among the poorer Jewish populations of
the empire. Traditionalism and kabbalah mysticism prevailed among Ottoman
Jewry and greatly influenced daily life and inspired Sabbatai Zevi, who was pur-
suing religious legal studies of the Talmud and the Torah. Reacting to the news
of the massacres of Jews in Ukraine and Poland in 1648, he claimed to be the mes-
siah sent by God to prepare his Chosen People for redemption and the eminent
coming of the Last Day, which he predicted to be in 1666. He traveled to Sa lonica,
Cairo, Gaza, and Jerusalem and attracted a large number of followers in Eastern
Europe, where the Jewish communities had been persecuted for centuries.
The mainstream rabbis opposed Sabbatai Zevi and complained about the
disruption to daily activities and trade caused by his movement in Izmir and Is-
tanbul. When Sabbatai Zevi decided to move to Istanbul and declare himself king
in December 1665, his movement attracted the attention of the Kadizadelis and
Ottoman authorities. At their behest, the sultan ordered Sabbatai Zevi’s arrest,
imprisonment, and trial in Edirne in the presence of Şeyhülislam Minkarizade
Yahya Efendi and Kadizadeli Vani Efendi, who enjoyed great prestige in the
court. Given the option of death or conversion to Islam, Sabbatai Zevi chose
conversion, was renamed Aziz Mehmed Efendi, and received a fur robe and a
salary as a court functionary preaching his new faith. His wife Sara, his son, two
brothers, and a great number of his followers also converted to Islam.
Sabbatai Zevi lived in Edirne and Istanbul (the Kuruçesme neighborhood),
practiced both his old and new religions, and continued gaining followers, who
frequented his home. Fearful of persecution, the mainstream rabbis preached
against his doctrines in their synagogues to prevent further division and crisis
within Ottoman Jewish communities. Finally, in 1673, the grand vizier exiled
Sabbatai Zevi to Berat, a town on the Dalmatian coast, where he died in 1676.
His followers who had converted to Islam continued practicing the Sabbatean
form of mystic Judaism and became known as dönmes (turncoats), awaiting the
reappearance of the messiah. As a result of this upheaval, Ottoman Jewry en-
tered a period of deep religious crisis, moralism, and economic decline in the
Ottoman Empire. Sexual interaction between men and women before marriage
was banned, and women were confined to their homes within the Jewish com-
munity. These religious and social tensions also resulted in the policing of sex-
ual interactions across communal boundaries, especially between Muslims and