Isaac the Blind
1160 CE–1235 CE · Rishonim · Provence
R. Yitzchak Sagi Nahor — Isaac the Blind (c. 1160-1235) — is generally considered the first identifiable Kabbalist in the modern academic sense and the founder of Kabbalah as a teachable textual tradition. The son of R. Abraham ben David (the Ra'avad) of Posquières, he lived in Provence (Languedoc, southern France) at the turn of the 13th century.
His brief Perush Sefer Yetzirah and a small handful of letters to the Geronese kabbalists (R. Yonah Gerondi, R. Ezra, R. Azriel) transmitted the foundational doctrine of the ten sefirot, the ein-sof, and the contemplative discipline that would become Kabbalah. His Geronese students brought the teaching south into Catalonia and Castile, from where it diffused into the wider Sephardic world and ultimately into the Zoharic circle in Castile a generation later. Without Yitzchak Sagi Nahor, there is no Kabbalah.
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ProvenceפרובנסSouthern France
What they did here
Lived in Provence (the area of Posquières / Lunel / Narbonne in Languedoc, southern France). Taught the foundational doctrine of the ten sefirot to a small circle that included the Geronese kabbalists who would diffuse it across the Sephardic world. Died c. 1235.
About Provence
Provence (the Languedoc region of southern France) was the cradle of Kabbalah as a written tradition; R. Yitzchak Sagi Nahor (Isaac the Blind, c. 1160-1235) of Posquières/Lunel/Narbonne was the founding figure.
In Provence at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Isaac the Blind’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Isaac the Blind’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Jewish world
- R. Eliezer ben Shmuel of Metz (Re'em)· 1115 CE–1198 CE
- Ra'avad· 1125 CE–1198 CE
- Moses Kimchi· 1127 CE–1190 CE
- Zerachiah HaLevi of Gerona· 1130 CE–1186 CE
- Moses ben Maimon (Rambam)· 1138 CE–1204 CE
- Eliezer ben Yoel HaLevi· 1140 CE–1225 CE
- R. Baruch ben Yitzchak of Worms· 1140 CE–1211 CE
- Anonymous (Sefer HaBahir circle)· 1140 CE–1200 CE
- R. Yosef ben Yitzchak Bekhor Shor· 1140 CE–1190 CE
- Samuel ibn Tibbon· 1150 CE–1230 CE
- Yehuda HeChasid· 1150 CE–1217 CE
- R. David Kimchi (Radak)· 1160 CE–1235 CE
- Azriel of Gerona· 1160 CE–1238 CE
- Meir HaLevi Abulafia (Yad Ramah)· 1170 CE–1244 CE
- R. Eleazar ben Yehuda of Worms· 1176 CE–1238 CE
- Yitzchak ben Moshe of Vienna· 1180 CE–1250 CE
- Aaron of York· 1185 CE–1253 CE
- Avraham ben HaRambam (HaMaspik)· 1186 CE–1237 CE
- Yechiel ben Yosef of Paris· 1190 CE–1265 CE
- Moses ben Nachman (Ramban)· 1194 CE–1270 CE
- Moshe of Coucy (Sefer Mitzvot Gadol)· 1200 CE–1260 CE
- Rabbeinu Yonah Gerondi· 1200 CE–1264 CE
- Shimon HaDarshan of Frankfurt (attrib.)· 1200 CE–1280 CE
- Moses ben Hasdai Taku· 1200 CE–1280 CE
Islamic world
Christian world
Buddhist world
Scientists
Luminaries & Explorers world
Rulers world
- Al-Afdal ibn Salah ad-Din· 1169 CE–1225 CE
- Genghis Khan· 1162 CE–1227 CE
- Az-Zahir Ghazi· 1172 CE–1216 CE
- Iltutmish· –1236 CE
- Al-Mu'azzam Isa· 1176 CE–1227 CE
- al-Nasir· 1158 CE–1225 CE
- Razia Sultana· –1240 CE
- Ögedei Khan· 1186 CE–1241 CE
- Isaac II Angelos· 1156 CE–1204 CE
- Prithviraj Chauhan· 1166 CE–1192 CE
- Muhammad of Ghor· 1144 CE–1206 CE
- Sundiata Keita· –1255 CE
- Qutb ud-Din Aibak· –1210 CE
- Minamoto no Yoritomo· 1147 CE–1199 CE
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.