SABIANS

This article appears in Volume V23, Page 964 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: RON-SAC

SABIANS . The Sabians (as-Sabi'un) who are first mentioned in the Koran (ii. 59, V. 73, xxii. 17) were a semi-Christian sect of Babylonia, the Elkesaites, closely resembling the Mandaeans or so-called " Christians of St John the Baptist," but not identical with them. Their name is probably derived from theAramaic ass, a dialectical form of yus, and signifies " those who

wash

WASH, THE

themselves "; the term al-mughtasila, which is sometimes applied to them by Arab writers, has the same meaning, and they were also known as huepol3a rncrai. How Mahomet understood the
In the 18th century there was discovered in one of the catacombs of Rome an inscription containing the words " qui et Filius diceris et Pater inveniris." This can only have come from a Sabellian.
2 Whether Sabellius himself ever visited the

East

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

is unknown.
term " Sabians " is uncertain, but he mentions them together with the Jews and Christians. The older Mahommedan theologians were agreed that they possessed a written revelation and were entitled accordingly to enjoy a toleration not granted to mere heathen. Curiously enough, the name " Sabian " was used by the Meccanidolaters to denote Mahomet himself andhis Moslem converts, apparently on account of the frequent ceremonial ablutions which formed a striking feature of the new religion.
From these true Sabians the pseudo-Sabians of Ilarran (Carrhae) in Mesopotamia must be carefully distinguished. In A.D. 830 the Caliph Ma'mun, while marching against theByzantines, received a deputation of the inhabitants of IJarran. Astonished by the sight of their long

hair

HAIR (a word common to Teutonic languages)

and extraordinary costume, he inquired what religion they professed, and getting no satisfactory answer threatened to exterminate them, unless by the time of his return from the war they should have embraced either Islam or one of the creeds tolerated in the Koran. Consequently, acting on the advice of a Mahbmmedan jurist, the IJarranians declared themselves to be " Sabians," a name which shielded them from persecution in virtue of its Koranic authority and was so vague that it enabled them to maintain their ancient beliefs undisturbed. There is no doubt as to the general nature of the religious beliefs and practices which they sought to mask. Since the epoch of Alexander the

Great

GREAT

}Arran had been a famous centre of

pagan

PAGAN
PAGAN (Lat. paganus, of or belonging to a pagus, a canton, county
district
- DISTRICT
,
village
- VILLAGE
, commune)

and Hellenistic culture; its people were "Syrian heathens,

star

STAR

-worshippers versed in astrology and magic. In their temples the planetary powers were propitiated by blood-offerings, and it is probable that human victims were occasionally sacrificed even as

late

LATE

as the 9th century of our era. The more enlightened IJarranians, however, adopted a religious philosophy strongly tinged with Neoplatonic and Christian elements. They produced a brilliant succession of eminent scholars and scientists who transmitted to the Moslems the results of Babylonian civilization and Greek learning, and their influence at the court of Baghdad secured more or less toleration for Sabianism, although in the reign of Harlin al-Rashid the IJarranians had already found it necessary to establish a fund by means of which the conscientious scruples of Moslem officials might be overcome. Accounts of these false Sabians reached the West through Maimonides, and then through Arabic sources, Iong before it was understood that the name in this application was only a disguise. Hence the utmost confusion prevailed in all European accounts of them till Chwolsohn published in 1856 his Ssabier and der Ssabismus, in which the authorities for the history and belief of the IJarranians in the middle ages are collected and discussed.
See also " Nouveaux documents pour !'etude de la religion des Harraniens," by Dozy and De Goeje, in the Actes of the

sixth

SIXTH

Oriental congress, ii. 281 f. (Leiden, 1885). (R. A. N.)

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