Samuel Primo
sabbatean sectarian
Samuel Primo (c. 1635 in Jerusalem – 1708 in Adrianople), was a prominent Sabbatean sectarian of the 17th century.
Primo was one of the earliest followers of Sabbatai Zevi, the self-proclaimed Jewish messiah. Primo became Zevi's private secretary on Zevi's journey from Jerusalem to Smyrna in 1665, cleverly managing to give the advent of the pseudo-Messiah an air of dignity. From Smyrna, Primo spread the news among foreign Jews that the Messiah had actually appeared. With certain of his confidants he was the first to plan the abolition of rabbinic Judaism. In the name of Zevi, Primo sent a circular to the Jews (December 1665) advising the abolition of the fast-day Tisha B'Av from the Hebrew calendar.
In February, 1666, Primo accompanied Zevi to Constantinople. After Zevi converted to Islam, Primo explained this apparent apostasy as having been foreordained in the Messianic role. Concerning the rest of his life not much is known.
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This entry incorporates text from “Samuel Primo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.