Dal Profeta al Gran Signor Turco: due immagini a confronto nel Seder Eliyyahu Zuta di Elia Capsali

This paper analyzes the desecrating representation of the Prophet Muhammad and the idealized depiction of Sultan Mehmet II in Elia Capsali’s Seder Eliyahu Zuta (1523). Elia Capsali (ca. 1490-1550) was a condestabulo, rabbi and historian, who lived in Crete under the Venetian rule. By referring to some descriptions of the Prophet from medieval Christian writings of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the first part of the paper shows how Capsali’s representation of Muhammad relates to them, according to the common consideration of Islam as a Christian heresy. The second part of the article is devoted to Sultan Mehmet II, the so called Gran Signor Turco, conqueror of the last bastion of Christia- nity. The appearance of such a charismatic character and the increase of anti-Jewish events give birth to a sequence of eschatological speculations and interpretations: Mehmet II is in the Seder Eliyahu Zuta depicted as a messianic figure, some kind of a second Cyrus who invites the Jews to settle in Istanbul, his new capital city.