distinction may justly be drawn between early and later Sufiism and Indian influence be admitted as stronger in the later developments, still an early Sufi, Al-Hallaj, was executed in 922 A.D. for saying Ana ’l-Haqq, I am the Truth or God, and we are expressly told that he visited India to study magic.  Many important Sufis made the same journey or at least came within the geographical sphere of Indian influence.  Faridu-’d-Din Attar travelled in India and Turkestan; Jalalu-’d-Din er-Rumi was born at Balkh, once a centre of Buddhism:  Sa’di visited Balkh, Ghazna, the Panjab, and Gujarat, and investigated Hindu temples.[1170] Hafiz was invited to the Deccan by Sultan Muhammad Bahmani and, though shipwreck prevented the completion of the visit, he was probably in touch with Indian ideas.  These journeys indicate that there was a prevalent notion that wisdom was to be found in India and those who could not go there must have had open ears for such Indian doctrines as might reach them by oral teaching or in books.  After the establishment of the Caliphate at Bagdad in the eighth century translations of Indian authors became accessible.  Arabic versions were made of many works on astronomy, mathematics and medicine and the example of Alberuni shows how easily such treatises might be flavoured with a relish of theology.  His book and still more the Fihrist testify to the existence among Moslims, especially in Bagdad and Persia, of an interest in all forms of thought very different from the self-satisfied bigotry which too often characterizes them.  The Caliph Ma’mun was so fond of religious speculation and discussion that he was suspected of being a Manichee and nicknamed Amiru-’l-Kafirin, Commander of the Unbelievers.  Everything warrants the supposition that in the centuries preceding Mohammed, Indian ideas were widely disseminated in western Asia, partly as a direct overflow from India, for instance in Turkestan and Afghanistan, and partly as entering, together with much other matter, into the doctrines of Neoplatonists and Manichaeans.  Amid the intolerant victories of early Islam such ideas would naturally retreat, but they soon recovered and effected an entrance into the later phases of the faith and were strengthened by the visits of Sufi pilgrims to Turkestan and India.

The form of Jewish mysticism known as Kabbala, which in Indian terminology might be described as Jewish Tantrism, has a historical connection with Sufiism and a real analogy to it, for both arise from the desire to temper an austere and regal deism with concessions to the common human craving for the interesting and picturesque, such as mysticism and magic.  If the accent of India can sometimes be heard in the poems of the Sufis we may also admit that the Kabbala is its last echo.

Experts do not assign any one region as the origin of the Kabbala but it grew on parallel lines in both Egypt and Babylonia, in both of which it was naturally in touch with the various oriental influences which we have been discussing.  It is said to have been introduced to Europe about 900 A.D. but received important additions and modifications at the hands of Isaac Luria (1534-72) who lived in Palestine, although his disciples soon spread his doctrines among the European Jews.