Editing Sabbateans (section)

==Conversion to Islam==
{{main|History of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire}}
[[File:Shabbatai4.jpg|thumb|right|Former followers of Sabbatai do penance for their support of him.]]

In February 1666, upon arriving in [[Constantinople]], 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 [[Adrianople]] (the imperial court's seat) for judgment on accusations of fomenting [[sedition]], Sabbatai was given by the Grand Vizier, in the name of the [[Sultan of the Ottoman Empire]], [[Mehmed IV]], the choice of either facing death by some type of ordeal, or of [[forced conversion|converting to Islam]]. Sabbatai seems to have chosen the latter by donning from then on a [[turban]]. He was then also rewarded by the heads of the Ottoman state with a generous pension for his compliance with their political and religious plans.<ref>Scholem, ''op cit.'', pp. 678–681; Scholem, Gershom. "Shabbetai Zevi." Encyclopaedia Judaica, pp. 348–350</ref>

Sabbatai's conversion to Islam was extremely disheartening for the world's Jewish communities. In addition to the misery and disappointment from within, Muslims and Christians jeered at and scorned the credulous and duped Jews.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah|last=Scholem|first=Gershom|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1973|pages=821–828}}</ref>

In spite of Sabbatai's apostasy, many of his adherents still tenaciously clung to him, claiming that his conversion was a part of the Messianic scheme.<ref name=":2" /> This belief was further upheld and strengthened by the likes of Nathan of Gaza and [[Samuel Primo]], who were interested in maintaining the movement.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kahana|first=Maoz|year=2012|title=The Allure of Forbidden Knowledge: The Temptation of Sabbatean Literature for Mainstream Rabbis in the Frankist Moment, 1756–1761|jstor=41681764|journal=The Jewish Quarterly Review|volume=102 |issue=4 |pages=589–616 |doi=10.1353/jqr.2012.0033 |s2cid=162409618 }}</ref>

Many within Zevi's inner circle followed him into Islam, including his wife [[Sabbatai Zevi#Marriage to Sarah|Sarah]] and most of his closest relatives and friends.{{citation needed|date=April 2015}} [[Nathan of Gaza]], the scholar closest to Zevi, who had caused Zevi to reveal his Messiahship and in turn became his prophet, never followed his master into Islam but remained a Jew, albeit excommunicated by his Jewish brethren.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zinberg |first=Israel |url=https://www.google.co.il/books/edition/A_History_of_Jewish_Literature_The_Jewis/XaYeSoPbrPMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA153&printsec=frontcover |title=A History of Jewish Literature: The Jewish center of culture in the Ottoman empire |date=1972 |publisher=KTAV Publishing House, Inc. |isbn=978-0-87068-241-4 |language=en}}</ref>

After Sabbatai Zevi's apostasy, many Jews, although horrified, clung to the belief that Zevi could still be regarded as the true [[Messiah in Judaism|Jewish Messiah]].<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="AICE"/><ref name="JE 1906"/><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah|last=Scholem|first=Gershom|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1973|pages=687–693}}</ref> They constituted the largest number of Sabbateans during the 17th and 18th centuries. By the 19th century, Jewish Sabbateans had been reduced to small groups of hidden followers who feared being discovered for their beliefs, that were deemed to be entirely [[Heresy in Judaism|heretical]] and antithetical to [[Rabbinic Judaism]]. These very Jews fell under the category of "sectarian" Sabbateans, which originated when many Sabbateans refused to accept that Zevi's feigned apostasy might have been indicative of the fact that their faith was genuinely an illusion.<ref name=":0" />

Another large group of Sabbateans after Zevi's apostasy began to view Islam in an extremely negative light.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Jacobs|first=Martin|year=2007|title=An Ex-Sabbatean's Remorse? Sambari's Polemics against Islam|jstor=25470213|journal= The Jewish Quarterly Review|volume=97 |issue=3 |pages=347–378 |doi=10.1353/jqr.2007.0038 |s2cid=162896245 }}</ref> [[Criticism of Islam|Polemics against Islam]] erupted directly after Zevi's forced conversion. Some of these attacks were considered part of a largely anti-Sabbatean agenda.<ref name=":1" /> Accusations coming from anti-Sabbatean Jews revolved around the idea that Sabbatai Zevi's feigned conversion to Islam was rightfully an indicator of a false claim of Messianship.<ref name=":1" />

Inside the [[Ottoman Empire]], those followers of Zevi who had converted to Islam but who secretly continued Jewish observances and [[brit milah]] became known as the [[Dönmeh]] ({{langx|tr|dönme}} "convert"). There were some internal sub-divisions within the sect, according to the geographical locations of the group, and according to who the leaders of these groups were after the death of Sabbatai Zevi.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/01/26/97064150.pdf | work=The New York Times | title=A Strange Sect in Saloniki | date=January 26, 1919}}</ref>