Monday Book: The Jewish Messiah Who Converted to Islam ; the Lost Messiah by John Freely (Viking, Pounds 20)

Beginning of article

ACCORDING TO Jewish theology, the Messiah is yet to come. But throughout Jewish history, several candidates have claimed for themselves, or had it claimed by their followers, that they were indeed the Messiah. The list continues right down to Rebbe Menachem Schneerson, the leader of the Lubavitch sect, a visit to whose Brooklyn headquarters was de rigueur for any aspiring presidential hopeful.

Of all the false messiahs, none was more astonishingly successful or ultimately tragic than Sabbatai Sevi. Born in Izmir, Turkey, when the Thirty Years War was devastating Europe, Sevi evoked a frenzied response from segments of the Jewish people. As a young man, he studied …