Sabbatai Zevi Fødselsdag, fødselsdato

Sabbatai Zevi (Hebrew: שַׁבְּתַי צְבִי, romanized: Šabbəṯay Ṣəḇī, August 1, 1626 – c. September 17, 1676) was an Ottoman Jewish mystic and ordained rabbi from Smyrna (now İzmir, Turkey). His family were Romaniote Jews from Patras. His two names, Shabbethay and Ṣebi, mean Saturn and mountain gazelle, respectively.

Active throughout the Ottoman Empire, Zevi claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah and founded the Sabbatean movement. Central to his teachings was the belief that during the Messianic Age, acts traditionally considered sinful would transform into righteous ones. This antinomian doctrine led Zevi and his followers to deliberately violate Jewish commandments, a controversial practice that later inspired movements like the Frankists.

Upon arriving in Constantinople in February 1666, Sabbatai was imprisoned on the order of the grand vizier Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Pasha. In September of that same year, after being moved from different prisons around the capital to the imperial courts' seat in Adrianople (now Edirne), he was judged on accusations of fomenting sedition. Sabbatai was given the choice of death or conversion to Islam by the Grand Vizier representing Sultan Mehmed IV. He chose conversion, donning an Islamic turban from then on. The heads of the Ottoman state then rewarded him with a generous pension for complying with their political and religious plans. About 300 families who followed Sevi also converted to Islam and became known as the Dönme, Turkish for "converts".

Subsequently, the Ottomans banished him twice, first within Constantinople and when he was heard singing Psalms with Jews there, to a small town known today as Ulcinj in what is now Montenegro. He died in isolation.