Indian mystic and poet, who preached the unity of all religions. There is uncertainty about his origins, but it is believed that he was adopted by a Muslim weaver after being abandoned by his Brahmin Hindu mother. His borrowings from both Hinduism and Islam resulted in the preaching of a new mystic path, the Kabir panth, and the founding, by one of his disciples, of the Sikh religion. His mystical poems, stressing the oneness of God, together with his rejection of caste, have made Kabir one of the most popular religious figures in his country’s history.