The Lost Messiah by John Freely
"The Lost Messiah" is the astonishing story of Sabbatai Sevi, a 17th-century rabbi who through the mysticism of the kabbalah convinced vast numbers of Jews throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa that he was the long-awaited Messiah. Many of his followers were disappointed when he embraced Islam on threat of execution from the Turkish sultan, but many others continued to believe in him. Some of them even converted to Islam, creating the sect known as the Donme - outwardly Muslim, yet clinging secretly to Judaism. Today, a few Sabbatians still secretly hold true to their beliefs, patiently waiting for their Messiah to return and lead them to redemption; they believe that Sabbatai is not dead but merely hidden from human view, despite more than three centuries having passed since he left them. When John Freely came across the name of Sabbatai Sevi in an old Jewish bookshop in Istanbul, he was instantly fascinated by the story and journeyed to Ismir, the Aegean port of Turkey and Sabbatai's first home. Brilliantly evoking the vanished world of the 17th-century Jewish diaspora in the Ottoman Empire, his journey moves to the ghettoes of Venic and Rome, the bazaars of Cairo and the rabbinical schools of Jerusalem and Safed. Ranging from the Sultan's palaces in Istanbul to the synagogues of North Africa and out to the isolated Jewish communities of the Yemen and the remote reaches of Albania, Freely's remarkable quest takes us deep into the esoteric world of Jewish mysticism and the messianic cult which still inspires belief today.
'Everything I believe in has come from the Kabbalah' - Roseanne Barr
John Freely was born in New York in 1926, joined the US Navy at the age of seventeen and served in the Second World War. He received a Ph.D. in physics from New York University in 1960, and since then he has lived in New York, Boston, London, Athens, Istanbul and Venice. Freely's first book was Strolling Through Istanbul. Since then he has written over twenty books, including Istanbul and Inside The Seraglio (1999)
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780670886753 |
| ISBN 10 | 0670886750 |
| Title | The Lost Messiah |
| Author | John Freely |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Penguin Books Ltd |
| Year published | 2001-09-06 |
| Number of pages | 288 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |