[1] C. Taylor, _Sayings of the Jewish Fathers_ (1897), pp. 106 sqq.,
175 seq.; W. Bacher, _Jew. Quart. Rev._ xx. 572 sqq. (1908).
[2] On the _Zohar_, "the Bible of the Kabbalists," see below.
[3] The view of a mediate creation, in the place of immediate
creation out of nothing, and that the mediate beings were emanations,
was much influenced by Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021-1070).
[4] See F. Weber, _Judische Theologie_ (1897), pp. 118 sqq.
[5] See C. A. Briggs, _Study of Holy Scripture_ (1899), pp. 427 sqq.,
570.
[6] Even the "over-Soul" of the mystic Isaac Luria (1534-1572) is a
conception known in the 3rd century A.D. (Rabbi Resh Lakish). For the
early stages of Kabbalistic theories, see K. Kohler, _Jew. Ency._
iii. 457 seq., and L. Ginzberg, ibid. 459 seq.; and for examples of
the relationship between old Oriental (especially Babylonian) and
Jewish Kabbalistic teaching (early and late), see especially A.
Jeremias, _Babylonisches in N. Test._ (Leipzig, 1905); E. Bischoff,
_Bab. Astrales im Weltbilde des Thalmud u. Midrasch_ (1907).
[7] L. Ginzberg, _Jew. Ency._ iii. 465.
[8] See, especially, on the mystics of Safed in Upper Galilee, S.
Schechter, _Studies_ (1908), pp. 202-285.
[9] See the instructive article by S. Schechter, _Studies in Judaism_
(London, 1896), pp. 1-55.
[10] See the discriminating estimates by S. A. Hirsch, _Jew. Quart.
Rev._ xx. 50-73; I. Abrahams, _Jew. Lit._ (1906), ch. xvii.:
_Judaism_ (1907), ch. vi.
[11] 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 Stockl, _Gesch. d. Philosophie des
Mittelalters_, ii. 232-251.
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
deg. 12' S., 12 deg. 5' E. The chief town, named Kabinda, is a seaport
on the right bank of the small river Bele, in 5 deg. 33' S., 12 deg. 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, S 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.
KABIR, 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 Ramanand, the
great preacher in the north (about A.D. 1400) of the doctrine of
_bhakti_ addressed to Rama, which originated with Ramanuja (12th
century) in southern India. He himself also mentions among his spiritual
forerunners Jaideo and Namdeo (or Nama) the earliest Marathi poet (both
about 1250). Legend relates that Kabir was the son of a Brahman widow,
by whom he was exposed, and was found on a lotus in Lahar Talao, a pond
near Benares, by a Musalman weaver named 'Ali (or Nuri), who with his
wife Nima adopted him and brought him up in their craft as a Musalman.
He lived most of his life at Benares, and afterwards removed to Maghar
(or Magahar), in the present district of Basti, where he is said to have
died in 1449. There appears to be no reason to doubt that he was
originally a Musalman and a weaver; his own name and that of his son
Kamal are Mahommedan, not Hindu. His adhesion to the doctrine of
Ramanand is not a solitary instance of the religious syncretism which
prevailed at this time in northern India. The religion of the earlier
Sikh _Gurus_, which was largely based upon his teaching, also aimed at
the fusion of Hinduism and Islam; and the example of Malik Muhammad,[1]
the author of the Padmawat, who lived a century later than Kabir, shows
that the relations between the two creeds were in some cases extremely
intimate. It is related that at Kabir's death the Hindus and Musalmans
each claimed him as an adherent of their faith, and that when his
funeral issued forth from his house at Maghar the contention was only
assuaged by the appearance of Kabir himself, who bade them look under
the cloth which covered the corpse, and immediately vanished. On raising
the cloth they found nothing but a heap of flowers. This was divided
between the rival faiths, half being buried by the Musalmans and the
other half burned by the Hindus.[2]
Kabir's fame as a preacher of _bhakti_, or enthusiastic devotion to a
personal God, whom he preferred to call by the Hindu names of Rama and
Hari, is greater than that of any other of the Vaishnava spiritual
leaders. His fervent conviction of the truth and power of his doctrine,
and the homely and searching expression given to it in his utterances,
in the tongue of the people and not in a learned language remote from
their understanding, won for him multitudes of adherents; and his sect,
the _Kabirpanthis_, is still one of the most numerous in northern India,
its numbers exceeding a million. Its headquarters are the _Kabir Chaura_
at Benares, where are preserved the works attributed to Kabir (called
the _Granth_), the greater part of which, however, were written by his
immediate disciples and their followers in his name.
Those works which seem to have the best claim to be considered his own
compositions are the _Sakhis_, or stanzas, some 5000 in number, which
have a very wide currency even among those who do not formally belong
to the sect, and the _Shabdawali_, consisting of a thousand "words"
(_shabd_), or short doctrinal expositions. Perhaps some of the
_Rekhtas_, or odes (100 in number), and of the _Ramainis_--brief
mystical poems in very obscure language--may also be from his hand. Of
these different forms specimens will be found translated in Professor
H. H. Wilson's _Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus_, i.
79-90. Besides the followers who call themselves by Kabir's name,
there may be reckoned to him many other religious sects which bear
that of some intermediate _guru_ or master, but substantially concur
with Kabir in doctrine and practice. Such, for instance, are the
_Nanakshahis_ in the United Provinces, the Central Provinces, and
Bombay, and the _Dadu-panthis_, numerous in Rajputana (Wilson, _loc.
cit._ pp. 103 sqq.); the Sikhs, numbering two and a half millions in
the Panjab, are also his spiritual descendants, and their _Granth_ or
Scripture is largely stocked with texts drawn from his works.
Kabir taught the life of _bhakti_ (faith, or personal love and
devotion), the object of which is a _personal_ God, and not a
philosophical abstraction or an impersonal quality-less, all-pervading
spiritual substance (as in the Vedanta of Sankaracharya). His utterances
do not, like those of Tulsi Das, dwell upon the incidents of the human
life of Rama, whom he takes as his type of the Supreme; nevertheless, it
is the essence of his creed that God became incarnate to bring salvation
to His children, mankind, and that the human mind of this incarnation
still subsists in the Divine Person. He proclaims the unity of the
Godhead, the vanity of idols, the powerlessness of _brahmans_ or
_mullas_ to guide or help, and the divine origin of the human soul,
_divinae particula aurae_. All evil in the world is ascribed to _Maya_,
illusion or falsehood, and truth in thought, word and deed is enjoined
as the chief duty of man: "No act of devotion can equal truth; no crime
is so heinous as falsehood; in the heart where truth abides there is My
abode."[3] The distinctions of creeds are declared to be of no
importance in the presence of God: "The city of _Hara_[4] is to the
east, that of '_Ali_[5] is to the west; but explore your own heart, for
there are both _Rama_ and _Karim_;"[6] "Behold but One in all things: it
is the second that leads you astray. Every man and woman that has ever
been born is of the same nature as yourself. _He_, whose is the world,
and whose are the children of '_Ali_ and _Rama_, He is my _Guru_, He is
my _Pir_." He proclaims the universal brotherhood of man, and the duty
of kindness to all living creatures. Life is the gift of God, and must
not be violated; the shedding of blood, whether of man or animals, is a
heinous crime. The followers of Kabir do not observe celibacy, and live
quiet unostentatious lives; Wilson (p. 97) compares them to Quakers for
their hatred of violence and unobtrusive piety.
The resemblance of many of Kabir's utterances to those of Christ, and
especially to the ideas set forth in St John's gospel, is very striking;
still more so is the existence in the ritual of the sect of a
sacramental meal, involving the eating of a consecrated wafer and the
drinking of water administered by the _Mahant_ or spiritual superior,
which bears a remarkable likeness to the Eucharist. Yet, though the
deities of Hinduism and the prophet of Islam are frequently mentioned in
his sayings, the name of Jesus has nowhere been found in them. It is
conjectured that the doctrine of Ramanand, which came from southern
India, has been influenced by the Christian settlements in that region,
which go back to very early times. It is also possible that Sufiism, the
pietistic (as distinguished from the theosophic) form of which seems to
owe much to eastern Christianity, has contributed some echo of the
Gospel to Kabir's teaching. A third (but scarcely probable) hypothesis
is that the sect has borrowed both maxims and ritual, long after Kabir's
own time, from the teaching of the Roman Catholic missionaries, who were
established at Agra from the reign of Akbar (1556-1605) onwards.
No critical edition of the writings current under the name of Kabir
has yet been published, though collections of his sayings (chiefly the
_Sakhis_) are constantly appearing from Indian presses. The reader is
referred, for a summary account of his life and doctrine, to H. H.
Wilson's _Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus_ (Works, i. 68
sqq.). Dr E. Trumpp's edition of the _Adi Granth_ (Introduction, pp.
xcvii. sqq.) may also be consulted. Recent publications dealing with
the subject are the Rev. G. H. Westcott's _Kabir and the Kabir Panth_
(Cawnpore, 1908), and Mr. M. A. Macauliffe's _The Sikh Religion_
(Oxford, 1909), vi. 122-316. (C. J. L.)