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EncyclopediaKabirKabir (kubēr') [key], 1440–1518, Indian mystic and poet. A Muslim by birth, he was a weaver in Benares (Varanasi) and early in life may have become the disciple of the famous Hindu saint Ramananda. Kabir opposed caste practices, ritual, image-worship, and all forms of religious sectarianism; he taught the brotherhood of Hindu and Muslim under one God. Because of his anti-institutional ideas he was subject to persecution and banished from Benares c.1495. Thereafter he traveled from one N Indian city to another and died at Maghar near Gorakhpur. His songs in Hindi show the fusion of Muslim and Hindu devotional traditions. See Poems of Kabir, tr. by R. Tagore, 1972; I. A. Ezekiel, Kabir, the Great Mystic (1966). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. More on Kabir from Infoplease:
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