The false prophets and the mysterious intrigues - 2

Nathan of Gaza, presumably for being away from the threat of Ottoman central government on the one hand and having a close relationship with North of Africa and south of Europe on the other hand, he remained in the Port of Gaza and bided the “Apocalypses” and “the prophetic prophecies” of himself. He promulgated the “Apocalypses” to Shabbetai Zevi and his adherent rabbis in all centers in which Jews live, i.e. in Europe and North of Africa and the Near East, by letters. In September 1665, Nathan of Gaza explained his novel “Apocalypse” as follows: “Shabbetai will seize the reign from the Ottoman Sultan without the war and designate the Sultan to be his servitor. Four or five years later, he will find the ten tribes; and then, Rebecca, a 13-year-old daughter of Moses will emerge and she will marry with Shabbetai. In the absence era of Shabbetai from Constantinople, the Ottoman Sultan will rebel against him and therefore, all around the country, except for Gaza, would be occupied the chaos”.
It was discussed that the clue of Shabbetai’s story could be found in the center of Amsterdam’s plutocracy. There is sufficient evidence to prove this claim. Isaac Abwab, the first rabbi of America and the great thinker of Amsterdam’s plutocracy after the death of Manasseh Ben Israel, was the main proponent and promoter of Shabbetai Zevi and Nathan of Gaza and besides all, Moses Zacuto, the premier leader of Cabbalism cult in Italy, intensely supported Shabbetai.
Cabbalists and Christian promoters of messianic aspirations provoked this conspiracy. They construed that “Shabbetai’s emergence” confirms the previous prophecies indicating the coming of Jesus in 1666. One of passionate promoters of Shabbetai Zevi, Petrus Serrarius, was a celebrated thinker of Messianic ideation and also he was the friend of Manasseh Ben Israel and Lapierre.
It was precisely the propagandas of Amsterdam’s plutocracy powerful center that the Exodus story of Shabbetai Zevi was interspersed with provocative messianic myths in the United Kingdom and all over the Europe via Amsterdam from the summer of 1665. It was narrated that the “ten tribes of Israel” have been undergone exodus, captured Mecca and their corps in the Arabian Desert are bound for Iran's occupation.
From this time, the Jewish writers, Marranos and presses in Netherlands and Italy began an intense attempt. During 1666, an extent astonishing propaganda of presses propagated in favor of Shabbetai in the scale of printing and publishing industries’ abilities of that time and furthermore numerous treatises written in Dutch, English, German and Italian on the exodus, miracles and teachings of Shabbetai Zevi were published across the Europe.
The images on the cover of these treatises are contained in the Jewish Encyclopedia. For example, in Germany, vignettes were published in which indicated Shabbetai Zevi, King of the “ten lost tribes of Israel”, was on the horseback and standing on a hill while the Crusader army down the hill was invading and Muslim army was retreating. A short time later, a treatise was published in Amsterdam in which stated the “emergence of Jesus”. The vignette of Shabbetai Zevi inscribed on the cover of this treatise illustrated he has leant on the throne while a great crown is over his head and in the courtiers are standing around him. Likewise, we could see a phrase on the cover of another treatise (published in Amsterdam), on which contained the image of Shabbetai’s crown, stating that: “Shabbetai Zevi, the King of Israel and the Christ of Jacob’s Lord”. The date upon the printing of this treatise was contemporaneous with “the first year of the prophecy and the monarchy revival”.
Hence the story of Shabbetai Zevi created a wide wave in Europe and also large numbers of poor Christian people massively went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem even by selling their house and its furniture. The great excitation of messianic aspirations in Europe is one of the achievements of Shabbetai’s story.
In the second half of the seventeenth century, following the reforms made by “Mehmet Köprülü”, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (1067-1072 AH or 1656-1661), the Ottoman government ended the long period ascendency of “harems” and “eunuchs”, which was originated from the reign of “Sultan Selim II” and so it started a new phase of its political renaissance. Mehmet Köprülü (Koprulu) was an Albanian Muslim, who began his career within the culinary works at Sultan's palace. During Köprülü’s family ministration, the Ottoman government once again became as a strong and serious threat to Europeans.
Following Mehmet Köprülü’s death, his son, Fazel Ahmedpasha (Ahmed Köprülü) was appointed as the Grand Vizier (1072-1087 AH or 1661-1676) and also he continued the reforms of his father. Ahmed Köprülü ended two intractable wars with Austria (1663-1664) and Poland (1672-1677) to a favorable outcome and he also possessed the island of Crete from the sovereignty of Venice government in 1669.
After the death of Ahmed Köprülü, his brother in law i.e. “Qara Mustafa Pasha” was appointed as the Grand Vizier (1087-1095 AH or 1676-1683). At first, Qara Mustafa modulated the war with Russia (1678-1681) and then owing to Hungarian people revolution against the domination of the Habsburg’s dynasty, and following the request of “Nicholas Zrinyi” and “Imre Thokoly”, the Hungarian national movement leaders, he assisted them. The Ottoman army successfully advanced a war against Austria’s army and they laid siege to the city of Vienna in July to September of 1683. This is the second egregious advance of Ottoman army into the profundity of Europe and siege of Vienna. The first advance was occurred at the time of Sultan Suleiman Qanuni. During the interim period of the war with Austria, Qara Mustafa victimized because of an inauspicious mysterious conspiracy and finally he was dismissed from his position by the order of Sultan on December 15, 1683 and then he was assassinated in Belgrade.
During Köprülü’s family sovereignty, once again, the “Ottoman threat” was coupled with Crusade propagandas in Europe. According to Stanford Shaw, pop Innocent XI called for the provision of a new crusade war against the infidels [Muslims], and for this reason, he even also invoked Iran’s king ]Shah Safi II]. As we see, there is a direct and obvious relationship between the Ottoman invasion to Europe and spreading of messianic aspirations and therefore the emergence of “Jewish prophets”. During the war between Sultan Suleiman Qanuni and Habsburg’s dynasty, David Reuben got emerged and at the time of conflict between Köprülü’s dynasty and European powers, there were Shabbetai Zevi and Nathan of Gaza.
It is clear that Shabbetai’s story attracted the regards of the Ottoman government officials and aroused their reaction. It was also happened. Ahmed Köprülü issued an order to arrest Shabbetai Zevi. In February 1666, Shabbetai was taken to Constantinople to the Grand Vizier. It should be marked that the Ottoman historical documents about this great event were apparently perished due to a fire and hence, there is no evidence pertaining to Shabbetai’s interrogation. It is reasonable to consider that the documents were intentionally perished. In other words, “Dönmeh Jews”, Ottoman Masons and the followers of Shabbetai during the tenure of sensitive positions in the Ministry in the nineteenth century or after appointment of Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Ataturk) to power, they have perished all the documents to protect the “myth of Shabbetai” from damage. Jewish and European traditions about the meeting of Ahmed Köprülü and Shabbetai Zevi are unreliable and they are all interwoven with myths in the favor of Shabbetai.
Ahmed Köprülü did not survey Shabbetai’s story seriously. This “sapient” and “insightful” Vizier was tolerant towards the followers of other religions. “Lord Kane Ross has described the character of Ahmed Köprülü as following:
“He was a pious Muslim, but without prejudice. He tolerantly scrutinized the religious beliefs of others. He defended the Christians and Jews against injustice and he also revoked the limitations of the church establishment... Ahmed Köprülü with clear-sighted judgment, decisive and careful thought, viewed the root of issues, but he was a taciturn man who conflated a dignified attendance with a polite respectful behavior. His People regarded him as an honorable man that committed to his promises and it was just for these features that he could attract their respect and affection”.
Certainly, Ahmed Köprülü did not comprehend the political nature of the story of Shabbetai Zevi and he ideated it as a common religious claim probably resulting from the mental instability of Shabbetai. Shabbetai’s messianic claim was orientated in the context of Jewish culture and religious beliefs and it is not pertaining to Muslims. His allegation to reign upon the “Israelites” was diminutive and senseless. Certainly Shabbetai had a beseeching or reverential demeanor in meeting with Köprülü because he was not under toughness and he was just held in the castle of Gallipoli.