Sabbatai Zevi proclaimed Messiah
A messianic fever grips the Jewish world, then collapses
In 1665 the prophet Nathan of Gaza proclaimed the Smyrna kabbalist Sabbatai Zevi the Messiah, and within months the news swept communities from Yemen to Amsterdam; people sold their property to prepare for the return to the Holy Land. In 1666 the Ottoman authorities arrested Sabbatai, and under threat of death he converted to Islam. The collapse shook the Jewish world, though his secret followers, the Dönme, survived in Turkey into the 20th century.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 17th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1648 Peace of Westphalia — 17 years earlier
- 1649 Execution of Charles I of England — 16 years earlier
- 1676 Leeuwenhoek sees microbes — 11 years later
- 1683 Battle of Vienna — 18 years later
- 1687 Newton's Principia — 22 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement — 11 years earlier
- 1682 Accession of Peter the Great — 17 years later
Africa
- 1662 Last sighting of the dodo — 3 years earlier
Asia
- 1644 Fall of the Ming, rise of the Qing — 21 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Rembrandt (aged 59)
- Louis XIV (aged 27)
- Isaac Newton (aged 22)
- Kangxi Emperor (aged 11)
- Shah Jahan (aged 73)
- Aurangzeb (aged 47)
- Alexis the Most Quiet (aged 36)
- Shivaji (aged 35)
- Charles II (aged 35)
- Leopold I (aged 25)