The Jewish mystic and pseudo-Messiah Sabbatai Zevi (1626-1676), or Sebi, was the founder of the Sabbatean sect.

Sabbatai Zevi was born in Smyrna (modern Izmir), Turkey, of Spanish-Jewish parentage. At an early age he adopted the mysticism of Isaac ben Solomon Luria and began to lead an ascetic life. Sabbatai's continual prayer, prolonged ecstasies, and Messianic prophecies secured for him by the age of 22 a large and enthusiastic following.

Sabbatai's father was the local agent in Smyrna for an English firm. Perhaps through his father, Sabbatai heard excited talk about the English Fifth Monarch Men, a group that with Christian millennialists had fixed upon 1666 as the year of the Messiah and of millenarian fulfillment. The Jewish Cabalists had already proclaimed 1648 as the year of salvation. In that year Sabbatai announced himself as the coming Messiah, pointing to his birthday (the ninth day of the month Av) as the...