[JUDAICA] SALONICHIA.IUDEN MESSIAS/THESSALONICA. JEW MESSIAH

A very rare copper engraved print, depicting five events from the life of SABBATAI ZEVI [1626-76], a Jew originating from Smyrna/Izmir, who claimed to have been the long awaited Messiah, who gained strong influence in the Jewish community of Europe ,and many followers. Printed by Koppmeyer at Augsburg/Germany
Extract from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbatai_Zevi. Sabbatai Zevi (Hebrew: שַׁבְּתַי צְבִי‎; August 1, 1626 – c. September 17, 1676), also spelled Shabbetai Ẓevi, Shabbeṯāy Ṣeḇī, Shabsai Tzvi, and Sabetay Sevi in Turkish, was a Sephardic ordained rabbi from Smyrna (now İzmir, Turkey). A kabbalist of Romaniote origin, Zevi, who was active throughout the Ottoman Empire, claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. He was the founder of the Sabbatean movement, whose followers subsequently were to be known as Dönmeh "converts" or crypto-Jews.
[...] By 1658, he was in Constantinople, where he met a preacher, Abraham Yachini (a disciple of Joseph di Trani), who confirmed Sabbatai's messianic mission. Yachini is said to have forged a manuscript in archaic characters which, he alleged, bore testimony to Sabbatai's Messiahship. It was entitled "The Great Wisdom of Solomon", and began:
"I, Abraham, was confined in a cave for forty years, and I wondered greatly that the time of miracles did not arrive. Then was heard a voice proclaiming, 'A son will be born in the Hebrew year 5386 [the year 1626 CE] to Mordecai Zevi; and he will be called Shabbethai. He will humble the great dragon; [...] he, the true Messiah, will sit upon My throne."

In Salonica, Cairo, and Jerusalem. With this document, Sabbatai chose Salonica, at that time a centre of Kabbalists, for his base. He proclaimed himself the Messiah or "anointed one," gaining many adherents. He put on all sorts of mystical events—e.g., the celebration of his marriage as the "One Without End" (the Ein Sof) with the Torah, preparing a solemn festival to which he invited his friends. The rabbis of Salonica, headed by Rabbi Hiyya Abraham Di Boton, banished him from the city.
The sources differ widely as to the route he took after this expulsion, with Alexandria, Athens, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Smyrna mentioned as temporary centres. After wandering, he settled in Cairo, where he resided for about two years (1660–1662)....
[...] In August 1676, he wrote to the Jewish Community in Berat, Albania, requesting religious books, but he died shortly after in isolation, according to some accounts on September 17, 1676, the High Holy Day of Yom Kippur. Upon his death, his widow, brother and children by his first wife moved to Thessaloniki.
His tomb was believed for a long time to have been in Berat, at a tekke built in the yard of the Imperial Mosque (Albanian: Xhamia e Mbretit), where a tomb stood until 1967. However, more recent research on the issue, done in 1985, has suggested that he was buried in Dulcigno. His biographer Gershom Scholem mentions that his tomb was visited by Dönme pilgrims from Salonika until the early 20th century.
"By the 1680s, the Dönme had congregated in Salonica, the cosmopolitan and majority-Jewish city in Ottoman Greece. For the next 250 years, they would lead an independent communal life—intermarrying, doing business together, maintaining their own shrines, and handing down their secret traditions."
By the 19th century, the Dönmeh had become prominent in the tobacco and textile trades. They established progressive schools and some members became politically active. Some joined the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), the revolutionary party known as the Young Turks. With independence, in the 1910s, Greece expelled the Muslims from its territory, including the Dönmeh.
Most migrated to Turkey, where by mid-century they were becoming highly assimilated.