Sabians

The Sabians, sometimes also spelled Sabaeans or Sabeans, are a mysterious religious group mentioned three times in the Quran (as الصابئون al-Ṣābiʾūn, in later sources الصابئة al-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 as Mandaeans,^[5] Manichaeans,^[6] Sabaeans,^[7] Elchasaites,^[8] Archontics,^[9] ḥunafāʾ (either as a type of Gnostics or as "sectarians"),^[10] or as adherents of the astral religion of Harran.^[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 the Sabians of Harran, adherents of a poorly understood ancient Semitic religion centered in the upper Mesopotamian city of Harran, who were described by Syriac Christian heresiographers as star worshippers.^[14] These Harranian Sabians practiced an old Semitic form of polytheism,^[15] combined with a significant amount of Hellenistic elements.^[16] Most of the historical figures known in the ninth–eleventh centuries as al-Ṣābiʼ were probably either members of this Harranian religion or descendants of such members, most notably the Harranian astronomers and mathematicians Thabit ibn Qurra (died 901) and al-Battani (died 929).^[17]

From the early tenth century on, the term 'Sabian' was applied to purported 'pagans' of all kinds, such as to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, or to Buddhists.^[18] Ibn Wahshiyya (died c. 930) used the term for a type of Mesopotamian paganism that preserved elements of ancient Assyro-Babylonian religion.^[19]

Today in Iraq and Iran, the name 'Sabian' is normally applied to the Mandaeans, a modern ethno-religious group who follow the teachings of their prophet John the Baptist (Yahya ibn Zakariya). These Mandaean Sabians, whose most important religious ceremony is baptism,^[20] are monotheistic, and their holy book is known as the Ginza Rabba.^[21]: 1 Mandaean Sabian prophets include Adam, Seth, Noah, Shem and John the Baptist with Adam being the founder of the religion and John being the greatest and final prophet.^[22]: 45

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