SABIANS. The Sabians (as-Sabi'fin) 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. How Mohammed understood the term "Sabians" is uncertain, but he mentions them together with the Jews and Christians. The older Mohammedan 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 Meccan idolaters to denote Mohammed himself and his Muslim 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 ljarran (Carrhae) in Mesopotamia must be carefully distinguished. In A.D. 830 the Caliph Ma'mun, while marching against the Byzan tines, received a deputation of the inhabitants of klarran. Aston ished by the sight of their long hair and extraordinary costume, he inquired what religion they professed, and getting no satisfac tory 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 Mohammedan jurist, the Harranians 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 Harra.n had been a famous centre of pagan and Hellenistic culture; its people were Syrian heathens, 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 as the 9th century of our era. The more en lightened Harranians, 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 Muslims the results of Babylonian civiliza tion and Greek learning, and their influence at the court of Bagh dad secured more or less toleration for Sabianism, although in the reign of Harun al-Rashid the Harranians had already found it necessary to establish a fund by means of which the conscientious scruples of Muslim officials might be overcome. Accounts of these false Sabians reached the West through Maimonides, and then through Arabic sources, long before it was understood that the name in this application was only a disguise.
See also "Nouveaux documents pour Petude de la religion des Har raniens," by Dozy and De Goeje, in the Actes of the sixth Oriental con gress, ii. 281 f. (i885) ; and Chwolsohn, Sabier and der Sabismus (1856; complete discussion of sources).