In this book author John Freely follows Sevi's trail across Europe and into Africa, tracing the cult that grew up around this 'false messiah,' as he is often called, and within Judaism. Freely brilliantly evokes the vanished world of the seventeenth-century diaspora in the Ottoman Empire, as the narrative travels from Sevi's birthplace in Izmir, to the ghettos of Venice and Rome, the bazaars of Cairo, and the rabbinical schools of Jerusalem and Safed. This exotic tapestry is placed into a rich context also detailing the then-current state of Jewish communities in these areas.
John freely was born in New York in 1926. At seventeen he joined the navy and served during WWII, later returning to New York where he received a Ph.D. in physics from New York University.
