apostle of the Kabbalah. His treatises exercised an almost magic influence upon the greatest thinkers of the time. Pope Leo X. and the early Reformers were alike captivated by the charms of the Kabbalah as propounded by Reuchlin, and not only divines, but statesmen and warriors, began to study the Oriental languages in order to be able to fathom the mysteries of Jewish theosophy. The Zohar, that farrago of absurdity and spiritual devotion, was the weapon with which these Christians defended Jewish literature against hostile ecclesiastic bodies (Abrahams, Jew. Lit. p. 106). Thus the Kabbalah linked the old scholasticism with the new and independent inquiries in learning and philosophy after the Renaissance, and although it had evolved a remarkably bizarre conception of the universe, it partly anticipated, in its own way, the scientific study of natural philosophy.[1] Jewish theosophy, then, with its good and evil tendencies, and with its varied results, may thus claim to have played no unimportant part in the history of European scholarship and thought.
The main sources to be noticed are:—
1. The Sēpher Yĕṣīrah, or “book of creation,” not the old Hilkoth Y. (“rules of creation”), which belongs to the Talmudic period (on which see Kohler, Jew. Ency. xii. 602 seq.), but a later treatise, a combination of medieval natural philosophy and mysticism. It has been variously Main Sources.ascribed to the patriarch Abraham and to the illustrious rabbi ʽAqiba; its essential elements, however, may be of the 3rd or 4th century A.D., and it is apparently earlier than the 9th (see L. Ginzberg, op. cit. 603 sqq.). It has “had a greater influence on the development of the Jewish mind than almost any other book after the completion of the Talmud” (ibid.).
2. The Bāhīr (“brilliant,” Job. xxxvii. 21), though ascribed to Neḥunyah b. Haqqanah (1st century A.D.), is first quoted by Naḥmanides, and is now attributed to his teacher Ezra or Azriel (1160–1238). It shows the influence of the Sēpher Yēṣīrah, is marked by the teaching of a celestial Trinity, is a rough outline of what the Zohar was destined to be, and gave the first opening to a thorough study of metaphysics among the Jews. (See further I. Broydé, Jew. Ency. ii. 442 seq.).
3. The Zohar (“shining,” Dan. xii. 3) is a commentary on the Pentateuch, according to its division into fifty-two hebdomadal lessons. It begins with the exposition of Gen. i. 4 (“let there be light”) and includes eleven dissertations: (1) “Additions and Supplements”; (2) “The Mansions and Abodes,” describing the structure of paradise and hell; (3) “The Mysteries of the Pentateuch,” describing the evolution of the Sephiroth, &c.; (4) “The Hidden Interpretation,” deducing esoteric doctrine from the narratives in the Pentateuch; (5) “The Faithful Shepherd,” recording discussions between Moses the faithful shepherd, the prophet Elijah and R. Simon b. Yoḥai, the reputed compiler of the Zohar; (6) “The Secret of Secrets,” a treatise on physiognomy and psychology; (7) “The Aged,” i.e. the prophet Elijah, discoursing with R. Simon on the doctrine of transmigration as evolved from Exod. xxi. 1–xxiv. 18; (8) “The Book of Secrets,” discourses on cosmogony and demonology; (9) “The Great Assembly,” discourses of R. Simon to his numerous assembly of disciples on the form of the Deity and on pneumatology; (10) “The Young Man,” discourses by young men of superhuman origin on the mysteries of ablutions; and (11) “The Small Assembly,” containing the discourses on the Sephiroth which R. Simon delivered to the small congregation of six surviving disciples. The Zohar pretends to be a compilation made by Simon b. Yoḥai (the second century A.D.) of doctrines which God communicated to Adam in Paradise, and which have been received uninterruptedly from the mouths of the patriarchs and prophets. It was discovered, so the story went, in a cavern in Galilee where it had been hidden for a thousand years. Amongst the many facts, however, established by modern criticism which prove the Zohar to be a compilation of the 13th century, are the following: (1) the Zohar itself praises most fulsomely R. Simon, its reputed author, and exalts him above Moses; (2) it mystically explains the Hebrew vowel points, which did not obtain till 570; (3) the compiler borrows two verses from the celebrated hymn called “The Royal Diadem,” written by Ibn Gabirol, who was born about 1021; (4) it mentions the capture of Jerusalem by the crusaders and the re-taking of the Holy City by the Saracens; (5) it speaks of the comet which appeared at Rome, 15th July 1264, under the pontificate of Urban IV.; (6) by a slip the Zohar assigns a reason why its contents were not revealed before 5060–5066 A.M., i.e. 1300–1306 A.D., (7) the doctrine of the Ēn Sōph and the Sephiroth was not known before the 13th century; and (8) the very existence of the Zohar itself was not known prior to the 13th century. Hence it is now believed that Moses de Leon (d. 1305), who first circulated and sold the Zohar as the production of R. Simon, was himself the author or compiler. That eminent scholars both in the synagogue and in the church should have been induced to believe in its antiquity is owing to the fact that the Zohar embodies many older opinions and doctrines, and the undoubted antiquity of some of them has served as a lever in the minds of these scholars to raise the late speculations about the Ēn Sōph, the Sephiroth, &c., to the same age.
Literature.—The study of the whole subject being wrapped up with Gnosticism and Oriental theosophy, the related literature is immense. Among the more important works may be mentioned, Baron von Rosenroth’s Kabbala Denudata (Sulzbach, 1677–1678; Frankfort, 1684); A. Franck, La Kabbale (Paris, 2nd ed., 1889; German by Jellinek, Leipzig, 1844); C. D. Ginsburg, The Kabbalah, its Doctrines, Development and Literature (London, 1865); I. Meyer, Qabbalah (Philadelphia, 1888); Rubin, Kabbala und Agada (Vienna, 1895), Heidentum und Kabbalah (1893); Karppe, Ét. sur les origines du Zohar (Paris, 1891); A. E. Waite, Doctrine and Literature of the Kabbalah (London, 1902); Flügel, Philosophy, Kabbala, &c. (Baltimore, 1902); D. Neumark, Gesch. d. Jüd. Philosophie d. Mittelalters (Berlin, 1907); also S. A. Binion, in C. D. Warner’s World’s Best Literature, 8425 sqq. See further the very full articles in the Jewish Ency. by K. Kohler and L. Ginzberg (“Cabbala”), I. Broydé (“Bahir,” “Zohar”), with the references. (C. D. G.; S. A. C.)
KABINDA, a Portuguese possession on the west coast of Africa north of the mouth of the Congo. Westwards it borders the Atlantic, N. and N.E. French Congo, S. and S.E. Belgian Congo. It has a coast-line of 93 m., extends inland, at its greatest breadth, 70 m., and has an area of about 3000 sq. m. In its physical features, flora, fauna and inhabitants, it resembles the coast region of French Congo (q.v.). The only considerable river is the Chiloango, which in part forms the boundary between Portuguese and Belgian territory, and in its lower course divides Kabinda into two fairly even portions. The mouth of the river is in 5° 12′ S., 12° 5′ E. The chief town, named Kabinda, is a seaport on the right bank of the small river Bele, in 5° 33′ S., 12° 10′ E.; pop. about 10,000. From the beauty of its situation, and the fertility of the adjacent country, it has been called the paradise of the coast. The harbour is sheltered and commodious, with anchorage in four fathoms. Kabinda was formerly a noted slave mart. Farther north are the ports of Landana and Massabi. Between Kabinda and Landana is Molembo at the head of a small bay of the same name. There is a considerable trade in palm oil, ground nuts and other jungle produce, largely in the hands of British and German firms.
The possession of the enclave of Kabinda by Portugal is a result of the efforts made by that nation during the last quarter of the 19th century to obtain sovereignty over both banks of the lower Congo. Whilst Portugal succeeded in obtaining the southern bank of the river to the limit of navigability from the sea, the northern bank became part of the Congo Free State (see Africa, § 5). Portuguese claims to the north of the river were, however, to some extent met by the recognition of her right to Kabinda. The southernmost part of Kabinda is 25 m. (following the coast-line) north of the mouth of the Congo. This district as far north as the Chiloango river (and including the adjacent territory of Belgian Congo) is sometimes spoken of as Kacongo. The name Loango (q.v.) was also applied to this region as well as to the coast-lands immediately to the north. Administratively Kabinda forms a division of the Congo district of the province of Angola (q.v.). The inhabitants are Bantu negroes who are called Kabindas. They are an intelligent, energetic and enterprising people, daring sailors and active traders.
KABĪR, the most notable of the Vaishnava reformers of religion in northern India, who flourished during the first half of the 15th century. He is counted as one of the twelve disciples of Rāmānand, the great preacher in the north (about A.D. 1400) of the doctrine of bhakti addressed to Rāma, which originated with Rāmānuja (12th century) in southern India. He himself also mentions among his spiritual forerunners Jaidēo and Nāmdēo (or Nāmā) the earliest Marāthī poet (both about 1250). Legend relates that Kabīr was the son of a Brāhman widow, by whom he was exposed, and was found on a lotus in Lahar Talāo, a pond near Benares, by a Musalmān weaver named ʽAlī (or
- ↑ See, e.g., G. Margoliouth, “The Doctrine of Ether in the Kabbalah,” Jew. Quart. Rev. xx. 828 sqq. On the influence of the Kabbalah on the Reformation, see Stöckl, Gesch. d. Philosophie des Mittelalters, ii. 232–251.
