For the ancient people in South Arabia, seeSabaeans. For the people of ancient Italy, seeSabines. For the followers of Sabbatai Zevi, seeSabbateans. For other uses, seeSabian (disambiguation).
TheSabians, sometimes also spelledSabaeans orSabeans, are a religious group mentioned three times in theQuran (asالصابئونal-Ṣābiʾūn, in later sourcesالصابئةal-Ṣābiʾa),[1] where it is implied that they belonged to the 'People of the Book' (ahl al-kitāb).[2] Their original identity, which seems to have been forgotten at an early date,[3] has been called an "unsolved Quranic problem".[4] Modern scholars have variously identified them asMandaeans,[5]Manichaeans,[6]Sabaeans,[7]Elchasaites,[8]Archontics,[9]ḥunafāʾ (either as a type ofGnostics or as "sectarians"),[10] or as adherents of theastral religion ofHarran.[11] Some scholars believe that it is impossible to establish their original identity with any degree of certainty.[12]
At least from the ninth century on, the Quranic epithet 'Sabian' was claimed by various religious groups who sought recognition by the Muslim authorities as a People of the Book deserving of legal protection (dhimma).[13] Among those are theSabians of Harran, adherents of a poorly understoodancient Semitic religion centered in the upper Mesopotamian city ofHarran, who were described bySyriac Christianheresiographers asstar worshippers.[14] These Harranian Sabians practiced an old Semitic form ofpolytheism,[15] combined with a significant amount ofHellenistic elements.[16] Most of the historical figures known in the ninth–eleventh centuries asal-Ṣābiʼ were probably either members of this Harranian religion or descendants of such members, most notably the Harranian astronomers and mathematiciansThabit ibn Qurra (died 901) andal-Battani (died 929).[17]
Today in Iraq andIran, the name 'Sabian' is normally applied to theMandaeans, a modern ethno-religious group who follow the teachings of their prophetJohn the Baptist (Yahya ibn Zakariya). These Mandaean Sabians, whose most important religious ceremony isbaptism,[20] aremonotheistic, and their holy book is known as theGinza Rabba.[21]: 1 Mandaean Sabian prophets includeAdam,Seth,Noah,Shem and John the Baptist with Adam being the founder of the religion and John being the greatest andfinal prophet.[22]: 45
The etymology of the Arabic wordṢābiʾ is disputed. According to one interpretation, it is theactive participle of the Arabicrootṣ-b-ʾ ('to turn to'), meaning 'converts'.[23] Another widely cited hypothesis, first proposed byDaniel Chwolsohn in 1856,[24] is that it is derived from anAramaic root meaning 'to dip' or 'to baptize'.[25]
The interpretation as 'converts' was cited by various medieval Arabiclexicographers andphilologists,[26] and is supported by a tradition preserved byIbn Hisham (died 834, editor of the earliest survivingbiography of Muhammad) relating that the termṣābiʾa was applied toMuhammad and the early Muslims by some of their enemies (perhaps by the Jews),[27] who regarded them as having 'turned' away from the proper religion and towards heresy. As such, the term may have beenreappropriated by early Muslims, first as a self-designation and then to refer to other people from aJewish Christian background who 'turned' to the new revelations offered by Muhammad. In the context of the Quranic passages in which the term occurs, it may thus refer to all people who leave their faiths, finding fault in them, but who have yet to come to Islam. In this sense, the termṣābiʾ would be similar in meaning to the termḥanīf.[28]
Understanding the term as a reference to 'dippers' or 'baptizers' fits best with those interpretations that identify the Quranic Sabians with baptist sects like theElchasaites or theMandaeans.[26] However, this etymology has also been used to explain Ibn Hisham's story about Muhammad and his followers being called 'Sabians', which would then be a reference to theritual washing performed by Muslims before prayer, a practice resembling those of various baptist sects.[29]
According toSūrat al-Baqara, "surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last day and does good, they shall have their reward from their Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve."[Quran2:62 (Translated by Shakir)]
According toSūrat al-Māʾida, "surely those who believe and those who are Jews and the Sabians and the Christians whoever believes in Allah and the last day and does good – they shall have no fear nor shall they grieve."[Quran5:69 (Translated by Shakir)]
According toSūrat al-Ḥajj, "surely those who believe and those who are Jews and the Sabians and the Christians and the Magians and those who associate (others with Allah) – surely Allah will decide between them on the day of resurrection; surely Allah is a witness over all things."[Quran22:17 (Translated by Shakir)]
The two first verses have generally been interpreted to mean that the Sabians belonged to thePeople of the Book (ahl al-kitāb, cf. 5:68),[32] just like the Jews, the Christians and, according to a few interpretations, theZoroastrians (the 'Magians',al-majūs).[b] However, neither of the three verses give any indication of who the Sabians might have been or what they may have believed.[26] According toFrançois de Blois, the fact that they are classified in the Quran amongAbrahamic monotheists renders it unlikely that they were either the polytheists of Harran or the Mandaeans, the latter of whom defined themselves in opposition to the Abrahamic prophetic tradition.[26]
In some Sunnihadiths, they are described as converts toIslam.[33]
At the beginning of theMuslim conquest of Mesopotamia, the leader of the Mandaeans, Anush bar Danqa, appeared before Muslim authorities showing them a copy of theGinza Rabba, the Mandaean holy book, and proclaiming the chief Mandaean prophet to beJohn the Baptist, who is also mentioned in theQuran by the nameYahya ibn Zakariya. Consequently, the Muslim caliphates provided them acknowledgement as the Quranic Sabians and People of the Book.[34]: 5
Other classical Arabic sources include theFihrist ofibn al-Nadim (c. 987), who mentions theMogtasilah ("Mughtasila", or "self-ablutionists"), a sect of Sabians in southern Mesopotamia who are identified with the Mandaeans or Elcesaites.[35][22]: 35 [36]
Al-Biruni (writing at the beginning of the eleventh century CE) said that the '"real Sabians'" were "the remnants of the Jewish tribes who remained inBabylonia when the other tribes left it forJerusalem in the days ofCyrus andArtaxerxes. According toE. S. Drower (1937) these remaining tribes ... adopted a system mixed up of Magism andJudaism.'[37]
According to Abu Yusuf Absha al-Qadi, Caliphal-Ma'mun ofBaghdad in 830 CE stood with his army at the gates ofHarran and questioned the Harranians about what protected religion they belonged to. As they were neither Muslim, Christian, Jewish or Magian, the caliph told them they were non-believers. He said they would have to become Muslims, or adherents of one of the other religions recognized by the Quran by the time he returned from hiscampaign against the Byzantines or he would kill them.[38] The Harranians consulted with a lawyer, who suggested that they find their answer in the Quran II.59, which said that Sabians were tolerated. It was unknown what the sacred text intended by "Sabian" and so they took the name.[39]
The pagan people of Harran identified themselves with the Sabians in order to fall under the protection of Islam.[40][41]: 111–113 : 5 The Harranians may have identified themselves as Sabians in order to retain their religious beliefs.[40]: 5 Multiple medieval sources state that the Harranian Sabians acknowledgedHermes Trismegistus as their prophet.[42] Validation of Hermes as a prophet comes from his identification withIdris (i.e.,Enoch) in Quran 19:57 and 21:85.[43] This has often led modern scholars to think of the Harranian Sabians asHermeticists, though there is in fact no further evidence for this.[42]
Furthermore, this account of the Harranian Sabians does not fit with the existence of earlier records making reference to Sabians in Harran. Usamah ibn Ayd, writing before 770 CE (his year of death), already referred to a city of Sabians in the region where Harran lies.[44] The jurist Abu Hanifa, who died in 767 CE, is recorded to have discussed the legal status of Harranian Sabians with two of his disciples.[45]
The Jewish scholarMaimonides (1135 or 1138–1204) translated the bookThe Nabataean Agriculture, which he considered an accurate record of the beliefs of the Sabians. According to Maimonides, the Sabians believed in idolatrous practices "and other superstitions mentioned in theNabatean Agriculture".[46] He provided considerable detail about the pagan Sabians in hisGuide for the Perplexed.[47]
The Sabians are also mentioned inthe literature of theBaháʼí Faith. These references are generally brief, describing two groups of Sabians: Those "who worship idols in the name of the stars, who believed their religion derived fromSeth andIdris" [Harranian Sabians], and others "who believed in the son of Zechariah (John the Baptist) and didn't accept the advent of [Jesus Christ] the son of Mary" [Mandaeans].[48]'Abdu'l-Bahá briefly describes Seth as one of the "sons of Adam".[49]Bahá'u'lláh identifies Idris with Hermes Trismegistus in atablet.[50] He does not, however, specifically name Idris as the prophet of the Sabians. Sometimes referred to asSabeans, this religious group has been mentioned in theBaha’i Faith among the many early religions of the previous dispensations. InBaha’i writing,`Abdu’l-Bahá’ attributes the Sabeans are with possibly being the source of some foundations to the science oflogic.[51]
Chwolson (1856) differentiates between the pagan "pseudo-Sabians" of Harran with the real Sabians which he identifies as the marsh Arabs of Iraq.[52] The Caliph Mamun asked the pagan Harranians to choose a recognized religion, become Muslim, or die. They subsequently identified themselves with the Sabians. Chwolson also connected the Elcesaites with the Manicheans and with the Essenes.[53]
TheSyriac ChristianNicolas Siouffi,[54][55] and later French Vice-Consul atMosul, claimed to have identified 4,000 Sabians in the Mandaean population.[56] Siouffi's work was well received by the TheosophistG.R.S. Mead,[57] but scholars criticized the estimates and study.[58]
A.H. Layard mentions in his travel diary meeting a "travelling silversmith" who was "Sabaean or Christian ofSt. John". He estimated around 300~400 families to live inShooshtar andBasra at the time. He also mentioned Sabians (spelled by Layard asSabaeans) to be under oppression from Turkish and Persian authorities.[59]
Gavin Maxwell while travelling with explorerWilfred Thesiger in the southern marshes of Iraq records in his diary that the Sabians were "People of the Book". Themarsh Arabs called them "Subbi". They had their own script and religious practices. He estimated their number as "perhaps ten thousand". They dressed in the manner of the Sunnis. They lived only near moving (rather than stagnant) marsh water. In the mid-1950s they were considered the skilled craftsmen in the area who others turned to for metalwork. The work they were principally known for outside Iraq being silverwork.[60]
Among the various religious groups which in the 9th and 10th centuries came to be identified with the Sabians mentioned in the Quran, at least two groups werepagans. Moreover, both appear to have engaged in some kind of star worship.
By far the most famous of these two are the Sabians of Harran, adherents of aHellenized Semitic polytheistic religion that had managed to survive during the earlyIslamic period in theUpper Mesopotamian city ofHarran.[15] They were described bySyriac Christianheresiographers as star worshippers.[14] Most of the scholars andcourtiers working for theAbbasid andBuyid dynasties inBaghdad during the ninth–eleventh centuries who were known as 'Sabians' were either members of this Harranian religion or descendants of such members, most notably the Harranian astronomers and mathematiciansThabit ibn Qurra (died 901) andal-Battani (died 929).[63] There has been some speculation on whether these Sabian families in Baghdad, on whom most of our information about the Harranian Sabians indirectly depends, may have practiced a different, more philosophically inspired variant of the original Harranian religion.[64] However, apart from the fact that it contains traces ofBabylonian andHellenistic religion, and that an important place was taken by planets (to whom ritualsacrifices were made), little is known about Harranian Sabianism.[65] They have been variously described by scholars as (neo)-Platonists,Hermeticists, orGnostics, but there is no firm evidence for any of these identifications.[66][c]
Apart from the Sabians of Harran, there were also various religious groups living in theMesopotamian Marshes who were called the 'Sabians of the Marshes' (Arabic:Ṣābiʾat al-baṭāʾiḥ).[67] Though this name has often been understood as a reference to theMandaeans, there was in fact at least one other religious group living in the marshlands of Southern Iraq.[68] This group still practiced a polytheisticBabylonian religion or similar, in which Mesopotamian gods had already been venerated in the form of planets and stars since antiquity.[69] According toIbn al-Nadim, our only source for this specific group counted among the 'Sabians of the Marshes', they "follow the doctrines of the ancient Aramaeans [ʿalā maḏāhiban-Nabaṭ al-qadīm] and venerate the stars".[70] However, there is also a large corpus of texts byIbn Wahshiyya (died c. 930), most famously hisNabataean Agriculture, which describes at length the customs and beliefs — many of them going back to Mespotamian models — of Iraqi Sabians living in theSawād.[71]
Mandaean Sabian court for marital dispute,Ahvaz, Iran (2015)
Today inIraq andIran, the Sabians are those that follow the teachings ofJohn the Baptist. They areMandaean Sabians.[20] They have been vulnerable to violence since the2003 invasion of Iraq and numbered fewer than 5,000 in 2007. Before the invasion, the highest concentrations of Mandaeans were inAmarah,Nasiriyah andBasra. Besides these southern regions andAhvaz in Iran, large numbers of Mandaeans were found inBaghdad, giving them easy access to the Tigris River. Today, they primarily live around Baghdad, where the high priest resides who conducts services and baptisms. Some have moved from Baghdad toKurdistan where it is safer.[20]
^Whether the 'Magians' listed in Quran 22:17 are to be understood as belonging to the People of the Book was a matter of dispute among medieval Muslim scholars. Islamic jurists generally granted Zoroastrians partial status as a People of the Book, though they disagreed on the extent to which legal privileges such as intermarriage with Muslims should be allowed (seeDarrow 2003;Nasr et al. 2015, p. 834, verse 22:17).
^"Sabaism", inThe Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press, 2005).
^De Blois 2004. 5:68, the verse preceding 5:69 quoted above, reads "Say: O followers of the Book [ahl al-kitāb]! You follow no good till you keep up the Taurat and the Injeel and that which is revealed to you from your Lord; and surely that which has been revealed to you from your Lord shall make many of them increase in inordinacy and unbelief; grieve not therefore for the unbelieving people.".[Quran5:68 (Translated by Shakir)]
^E.g.Sahih Bukhari Book No. 7, Hadith No. 340; Book No. 59, Hadith No. 628; Book No. 89, Hadith No. 299 etc.
^Siouffi, N. (1880).Études sur la religion des Soubbas ou Sabéens, leurs dogmes, leurs moeurs [Studies on the Religion of the Soubbas or Sabians, their Doctrines, [and] their Customs] (in French). Paris, FR: Imprimerie Nationale.
^Mead, G.R.S. (1924).Gnostic John the Baptizer: Selections from the Mandaean John-Book. London, UK: John Watkins. p. 137 – viaInternet Archive (archive.org).... the French Vice-Consul at Mosul estimated them at some 4000 souls in all (Etudes sur la Religion des Soubbas ou Sabéens, Paris, 1880). These were then to be found chiefly in the neighbourhood of Baṣra aud Kút. Siouffi's estimate, ...
^Smith, Sydney (1880). "[article and issue not cited]".The Edinburgh Review.Admitting M. Siouffi's ignorance and his teacher's possible dishonesty, these are scarcely sufficient to account for the origin of all the traditions and beliefs described in theEtudes sur la religion des Soubbas.
^Layard, Austen Henry, Sir (1887).Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia: Including a residence among the Bakhtiyari and other wild tribes before the discovery of Nineveh. John Murray. pp. 162–164.ISBN9781313905619.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Maxwell, Gavin (1959).A Reed Shaken by the Wind: A journey through the unexplored marshlands of Iraq.Harper and Row.ISBN1-85089-272-5.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^abHämeen-Anttila, Jaakko (27–31 October 2000). Written at Chicago, IL. Panaino, Antonio; Pettinato, Giovanni (eds.).Ideologies as Intercultural Phenomena: Proceedings of the third annual symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project.Melammu Symposia III. International Association for Intercultural Studies of theMelammu Project. Milano, IT: Università di Bologna & IsIAO (published 2002). pp. 89–108. p. 90:... that in the marsh areas of Southern Iraq there was a continuous tradition of Mandaean religion, but it seems to have been totally neglected in scholarship that there was another pagan, or Sabian, centre in the tenth-century Islamic world, in the countryside of Iraq (sawad) around Baghdad ...
^"First, the books of the Nabatean corpus themselves claim to be translations from "ancient Syriac" (e.g. Filaha 1:5) made by Ibn Wahshiyya and transmitted to a student of his, Ibn az-Zayyat. The real authors of, e.g., Filaha, according to ..."Hämeen-Anttila (2002)[page needed]
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Peters, Francis E. (1990). "Hermes and Harran: The Roots of Arabic-Islamic Occultism". In Mazzaoui, M.; Moreen, V.B. (eds.).Intellectual Studies on Islam: Essays Written in Honor of Martin B. Dickson. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. pp. 185–215.ISBN9780874803426.
Roberts, Alexandre M. (2017). "Being a Sabian at Court in Tenth-Century Baghdad".Journal of the American Oriental Society.137 (2):253–277.doi:10.17613/M6GB8Z.
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Strohmaier, Gotthard[in German] (1996)."Die ḥarrānischen Sabier bei Ibn an-Nadīm und al-Bīrūnī".Ibn an-Nadīm und die mittelalterliche arabische Literatur: Beiträge zum 1. Johann Wilhelm Fück-Kolloquium (Halle 1987). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. pp. 51–56.ISBN9783447037457.OCLC643711267. [reprinted inStrohmaier, Gotthard (2003).Hellas im Islam: Interdisziplinäre Studien zur Ikonographie, Wissenschaft und Religionsgeschichte. Diskurse der Arabistik. Vol. 6. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. pp. 167–169.ISBN978-3-447-04637-4.]
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