162 r Ronald C. Kiener
that which is to happen to us. Upon inquiry, I learned that they
recite (zokhrim) the Name of God in the Ishmaelite language, and
they say “Allah.” I investigated further and I found that when they
pronounce these letters, they direct their thought completely away
from every possible “natural form,” and the very letters ALLAH and
their diverse powers work upon them. They are carried off into a
trance without realizing how, since no Kabbalah has been transmit-
ted to them. This removal of all natural forms and images from the
soul is called by them “effacement” (mehiqah).^40This last reference, to the Sufi doctrine of mahw, is a perfectly plausible
and accurate rendering of the concept, and the description of the dhikr
is also exact.
Other Palestinian disciples of Abulafia, including Isaac b. Samuel of
Acre, who then traveled to Spain, mix the master’s teaching with Sufi
ideas. Idel hypothesizes that the Palestinian mystics may have already
been engaged in a Sufi-Jewish syncretism à la Abraham Maimuni, and
with the arrival of Abulafia, they found a master whose teaching fit their
own tariqah.^41
In a survey of Jewish mysticism in the Middle East, it may be far afield
to now turn to Reconquista Spain to look for signs of Islamic influence on
the so-called Spanish Kabbalah. The one sustained modern attempt to do
so, by Ariel Bension, was not much more than vaguely suggestive of such
connections.^42 Yet the so-called convivencia between Christians, Jews, and
Arabs in Castille and Spain makes the gaze worthwhile.
Drawing on the teachings first articulated in the Sefer ha-Bahir, a dis-
tinctively theosophical and theurgical form of Jewish mysticism sprang
forth first in Provence; then in Northeast Spain, centered in Gerona; and
finally in central Spain—all in the thirteenth century. Unlike the unknown
author of the Bahir, we know many of the key figures of this mystical
branch and its various subbranches by name, and we know that at least a
handful of them were literate in Arabic, which is not surprising given the
Mozarabic character of Spain at this time.
Much has been written recently on the influence of Islamic neo-
Platonism for the development of the sefirotic symbolism of the Span-
ish Kabbalah. At least there are striking parallels that cannot easily be
dismissed.^43 Furthermore, beyond the broad doctrinal comparisons,
there are many folkloric, terminological, and literary themes in Spanish