Theological readings erase Islam’s significance in Sabbatai Zevi’s conversion

Evidence

Islam (by now, that most “theological” of names) has remained an unreadable cipher, or a sign for-Christianity. Or, simply, for religion. In Kabbala studies, for example, Moshe Idel recently explained that new explanations concerning Sabbatai Zevi’s conversion to Islam are to be framed within “echoes of Christian Kabbalah,” studied “within the context of the two rival religions, Islam and Christianity,” and that, ultimately, the “important case” of Sabbatai Zevi testifies to a “direct influence of christology on Tzevi himsel£” As another scholar summarizes it, Zevi’s “conversion to Islam was interpreted as if it echoed the conversions ofJews oflberia to Catholicism.” — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 777 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Paul Fen- ton’s assertion about Gershom Scholem’s work remains relevant: “The impression gathered is that the whole of this intriguing episode in Jewish history could well have taken place outside of the Muslim realm and that its unhappy hero did not end up by converting to Islam” (Paul B. Fenton, “Shabbatai Sebi and His Muslim Contemporary Muhammad An-Niyazi,” 81). — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 1263 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Sabbatai Zevi’s conversion parallels the Muslim’s loss of the divine spark; Scholars read Sabbatai Zevi’s conversion through Christianity, erasing Islam’s significance — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab: A History of the…, 777; Scholarly treatments of Sabbatai Zevi erase the Muslim context entirely — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab: A History of the…, 1263 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Scholars read Sabbatai Zevi’s conversion through Christianity, erasing Islam’s significance #corroborates (0.98) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 777
• Scholarly treatments of Sabbatai Zevi erase the Muslim context entirely #corroborates (0.96) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 1263