Sabbatai Zevi
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Sabbatai Zevi, (other spellings include Sabetay in Turkish, Shabbethai, Sabbetai, Shabbsai; Zvi; Sabbetai Tzvi; he was also known by the acronym ש״ץ Shatz) (August 1 1626 – possibly September 17 1676, in Dulcigno (present day Ulcinj), Montenegro) was a rabbi and kabbalist who claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. He was the founder of the Jewish Sabbatean movement and inspired the founding of a number of other similar sects, such as the Donmeh in Turkey.
Sabbatai Zevi was born in Smyrna on (supposedly) a 9th Av 1626 (a Sabbath), and died, according to some, on Yom Kippur, September 30 1676, in Dulcigno, a small town in the coastal region of Montenegro, now called Ulcinj. Zevi's family were Romaniotes from Patras; his father, Mordecai, was a poor poultry-dealer in the Morea. Later, when in consequence of the war between Turkey and Venice under the Sultan Ibrahim I, Smyrna became the centre of Levantine trade, Mordecai became the Smyrnan agent of an English house. As a consequence, he acquired considerable wealth.