Zohar

Timeline

1. c. 1280–1286Guadalajara · CastileA mystical Torah commentary written in Aramaic began to be transcribed among Jewish communities in Castile; the text was attributed to an ancient rabbi and quickly spread through intellectual circles from Toledo to Ávila.
2. c. 1290–1305Ávila · CastileDe León spent his later years active in Ávila and elsewhere. After his death in 1305, contemporaries already questioned whether he had discovered ancient scrolls; 20th-century scholarship largely dated the work's composition or compilation to the late 13th century.
3. 1558–1560Mantua · LombardyMantua and Cremona printed the Zohar almost simultaneously; the printed editions standardized the text among Sephardi and Italian Jewish communities and spread it through diaspora networks to Ottoman and northern Europe.
4. 1570Mediterranean Jewish communities · MediterraneanKabbalistic scholars in Safed placed the Zohar at the center of their practice; later the Hasidic movement and modern scholarly editions ensured its continuing status as a foundational document of Jewish mysticism.