التعريف

A Jewish community which migrated from the Andalus after the collapse of the Islamic rule there and settled in the ottoman state. They are the followers of Sabbatao Zevi, a 17th-century Jewish kabbalist who claimed to be the messiah who would save the Jews and establish their state in Palestine so that they would become the world masters. Many of them pretended to embrace Islam, starting in 1683, and adopted Muslim names, but they remained Jews in reality. In order to achieve their objectives under the ottoman rule, they focused on two areas: control of the media and rising to important positions in government.