The Sabbatean Prophets

80 The Sabbatean Prophets
Jews in the empire. So while Nathan’s messianic scenario imagined the sultan
in a subservient capacity, he was not unempowered. He alone among
the subjugated world leaders was to become Shabbatai’s viceroy, with the
attendant privileges. It is only when Shabbatai crosses the Sambatyon and
leaves him alone that the sultan cannot resist the inducement to rebel. This
could be an oblique reference to the weak character of Sultan Mehmet IV
and the supremacy of his own Grand Vizier, Koprülü, in political affairs.
The Christian world is also spared military destruction in the messianic
unfolding. While this is clearly part of a miraculous scenario wherein rulers
are subjugated by the prayers of the messiah, the script returns from the
purely mystical to decree physical annihilation upon the perpetrators of the
1648 Chmielnicki massacres. The period between the Spanish expulsion
and the rise of Sabbateanism witnessed a radical change in the European political
stance toward Jews. Mercantilism rose above religious scruples, and
the Jews were welcomed to many Western European lands from which they
had earlier been expelled or to which they had never been admitted, such
as the important communities of Amsterdam, London, Hamburg, and Livorno.
86 Thus it would have seemed inappropriate for the Jewish messiah to
mete out brutal treatment to the relatively benign leaders and peoples of
those Christian lands. In fine, Nathan’s stance toward Muslims and Christians
in messianic times is not precisely that of traditional Jewish apocalyptic;
it rather reflects both heavy mystical elements and a keen awareness of
contemporary political propriety.
While the Sambatyon River is indeed a standard element in Jewish apocalyptic,
Nathan again introduces several original elements. In traditional narratives
the Lost Tribes would generally leave their habitation beyond the
Sambatyon to participate in the wars preceding redemption, whereas here
the messiah himself travels to the other side of the Sambatyon. It is this very
act that unleashes the evil powers and precipitates the messianic wars; they
occur in his absence, with no clear indication as to who the combatants are.
The element of Moses’ daughter is also novel. It gave Shabbatai the legitimacy
of the first Jewish redeemer, Moses (mentioned also in the Vision of R.
Abraham), and it denigrated Shabbatai’s present wife, Sarah. Another geographic
element of importance is the central place of Gaza as the holy capital
of the messiah, “even as Hebron was unto David,” the original messiah. This
is of particular interest because Gaza was not Shabbatai’s home but Nathan’s,
again indicating Nathan’s centrality in the messianic scenario; and
because there was a genuine question about whether Gaza is really part of