PREFACE 1. INTRODUCTION 2 JEWISH HISTORIOGRAPHY AND ITS DISTINCT NATURE 3. JEWISH HISTORIOGRAPHY ON THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 4. JEWISH HISTORIOGRAPHY ON SABBATIAN MESSIANISM AND THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 5. JEWISH CULTURAL STAGNATION IN THE WAKE OF THE SABBATIAN MOVEMENT AND THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 6. CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY List of tables I. Jewish Historiography on the Ottoman Jews (Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries) II. Jewish Historiography on the Ottoman Jews (Eighteenth, Nineteenth and First Decades of the Twentieth Centuries) III. Jewish Historiography on Sabbatai Sevi Messianism