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"Kabir was a weaver of Benares whose verses attack the ritual and the authority of Hindus and Muslims alike in favour of a direct and unmediated relation to God." Kabir is formally linked to three religions in this atlas, Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism, and each one, in its own words, claims him differently.

Three Claims on One Figure

"He is claimed by more than one community: the Kabir Panth treats him as its founder," a Hindu-descended community's own claim. Islam's own account names him differently again: "he is named as a weaver of a Muslim community of Benares, and Muslim tradition carries its own account of his death." Sikhism's own account makes the strongest claim of the three: "the Guru Granth Sahib preserves several hundred compositions under his name, which makes him part of Sikh scripture rather than only a subject of it."

Even His Death Is Contested Between Two of Them

"Both Hindu and Muslim traditions carry their own accounts of his death. Almost nothing about him is fixed, his dates included, and the corpus circulating under his name went on growing for centuries after him."

Where To Read More

• KabirSagesOne figure; three communities each claiming him differently, down to how he died
• HinduismDharmic (Polytheistic)Claimed through the Kabir Panth and its own account of his death
• IslamAbrahamic (Monotheistic)Named as a weaver of a Muslim community of Benares, with its own account of his death
• SikhismDharmic (Monotheistic)Several hundred of his compositions preserved as scripture in the Guru Granth Sahib