Sabians

The Sabians, sometimes also spelled Sabaeans or Sabeans, are a 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 the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, or 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 that follows 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

## Contents

* 1 Etymology
* 2 Sabians of the Quran
* 2.1 In the Quran
* 2.2 In later sources
* 2.2.1 Islamic
* 2.2.2 Other
* 2.3 Modern scholars
* 3 Pagan Sabians
* 3.1 Sabians of Harran
* 3.2 Lower Mesopotamian Sabians
* 4 Contemporary Sabians
* 5 See also
* 6 Notes
* 7 References
* 7.1 Sources

## Etymology

The etymology of the Arabic word Ṣābiʾ is disputed. According to one interpretation, it is the active participle of the Arabic root ṣ-b-ʾ ('to turn to'), meaning 'converts'.[23] Another widely cited hypothesis, first proposed by Daniel Chwolsohn in 1856,[24] is that it is derived from an Aramaic root meaning 'to dip' or 'to baptize'.[25]

The interpretation as 'converts' was cited by various medieval Arabic lexicographers and philologists,[26] and is supported by a tradition preserved by Ibn Hisham (died 834, editor of the earliest surviving biography of Muhammad) relating that the term ṣābiʾa was applied to Muhammad 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 been reappropriated by early Muslims, first as a self-designation and then to refer to other people from a Jewish 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 term ṣābiʾ would be similar in meaning to the term ḥanīf.[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 the Elchasaites or the Mandaeans.[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 the ritual washing performed by Muslims before prayer, a practice resembling those of various Baptist sects.[29]

Other etymologies have also been proposed. According to Judah Segal, the term referred to Ṣōbā, a Syriac name for Nisibis, a city in Upper Mesopotamia.[30] It has also been related to Hebrew ṣābā', "[heavenly] host", implying star worshippers.[31]

## Sabians of the Quran

### In the Quran

First part of Quran 5:69, Maghrebi manuscript, c. 1250–1350

The Quran briefly mentions the Sabians in three places: in Sūrat al-Baqara (2:62), in Sūrat al-Māʾida (5:69), and in Sūrat al-Ḥajj (22:17).[15]

According to Sūrat 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."[Quran 2:62 (Translated by Shakir)]

According to Sūrat 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."[Quran 5:69 (Translated by Shakir)]

According to Sūrat 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."[Quran 22:17 (Translated by Shakir)]

The first two verses have generally been interpreted to mean that the Sabians belonged to the People of the Book (ahl al-kitāb, cf. 5:68),[32] just like the Jews, the Christians and, according to a few interpretations, the Zoroastrians (the 'Magians', al-majūs).[lower-alpha 1] However, neither of the three verses give any indication of who the Sabians might have been or what they may have believed.[26] According to François de Blois, the fact that they are classified in the Quran among Abrahamic 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 later sources

#### Islamic

In some Sunni hadiths, they are described as converts to Islam.[33]

At the beginning of the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia, the leader of the Mandaeans, Anush bar Danqa, appeared before Muslim authorities showing them a copy of the Ginza Rabba, the Mandaean holy book, and proclaiming the chief Mandaean prophet to be John the Baptist, who is also mentioned in the Quran by the name Yahya ibn Zakariya. Consequently, the Muslim caliphates provided them with acknowledgement as the Quranic Sabians and People of the Book.[34]: 5

Other classical Arabic sources include the Fihrist of ibn al-Nadim (c. 987), who mentions the Mogtasilah ("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 in Babylonia when the other tribes left it for Jerusalem in the days of Cyrus and Artaxerxes. According to E. S. Drower (1937) these remaining tribes ... adopted a system mixed up of Magism and Judaism.'[37]

According to Abu Yusuf Absha al-Qadi, Caliph al-Ma'mun of Baghdad in 830 CE stood with his army at the gates of Harran and questioned the Harranians about what protected religion they belonged to. As they were neither Muslim, Christian, Jewish, nor 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 his campaign 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 acknowledged Hermes Trismegistus as their prophet.[42] Validation of Hermes as a prophet comes from his identification with Idris (i.e., Enoch) in Quran 19:57 and 21:85.[43] This has often led modern scholars to think of the Harranian Sabians as Hermeticists, 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]

Additionally, al-Masudi reported in his Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems, that the Sabian religion was founded by a man named "Budhasaf" who lived during the reign of the mythical Persian king, Hushang,[46] whereas Al-Biruni wrote that Budhasaf came forward in India after the 1st year of Tahmuras. However, he also narrates a story that Haran, the brother of Abraham, was the founder of the Sabian religion.[47]

#### Other

The Jewish scholar Maimonides (1135 or 1138–1204) translated the book The 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 the Nabatean Agriculture".[48] He provided considerable detail about the pagan Sabians in his Guide for the Perplexed.[49]

The Sabians are also mentioned in the literature of the Baháʼí 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 from Seth and Idris" [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].[50] 'Abdu'l-Bahá briefly describes Seth as one of the "sons of Adam".[51] Bahá'u'lláh identifies Idris with Hermes Trismegistus in a tablet.[52] He does not, however, specifically name Idris as the prophet of the Sabians. Sometimes referred to as Sabeans, this religious group has been mentioned in the Baha’i Faith among the many early religions of the previous dispensations. In Baha’i writing, `Abdu’l-Bahá’ attributes the Sabeans as possibly being the source of some foundations to the science of logic.[53]

### Modern scholars

Chwolson (1856) differentiates between the pagan "pseudo-Sabians" of Harran and the real Sabians, which he identifies as the marsh Arabs of Iraq.[54] 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.[55]

The Syriac Christian Nicolas Siouffi,[56][57] and later French Vice-Consul at Mosul, claimed to have identified 4,000 Sabians in the Mandaean population.[58] Siouffi's work was well received by the Theosophist G.R.S. Mead,[59] but scholars criticized the estimates and study.[60]

A.H. Layard mentions in his travel diary meeting a "travelling silversmith" who was "Sabaean or Christian of St. John". He estimated around 300~400 families to live in Shooshtar and Basra at the time. He also mentioned the Sabians (spelled by Layard as Sabaeans) to be under oppression from Turkish and Persian authorities.[61]

Gavin Maxwell, while travelling with explorer Wilfred Thesiger in the southern marshes of Iraq, records in his diary that the Sabians were "People of the Book". The marsh 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 skilled artisans in the area, to whom others turned for metalwork. The work they were principally known for outside Iraq was silverwork.[62]

J. Hämeen-Anttila (2002,[63] 2006) notes that in the marsh areas of Southern Iraq, there was a continuous tradition of Mandaean religion, and that there was another pagan, or ‘Sabian’, centre in the tenth-century Islamic world centred around Harran.[63] These pagan Sabians are mentioned in the Nabataean corpus of Ibn Wahshiyya.[64]

## Pagan Sabians

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 were pagans. Moreover, both appear to have engaged in some kind of star worship.

### Sabians of Harran

By far the most famous of these two are the Sabians of Harran, adherents of a Hellenized Semitic polytheistic religion that had managed to survive during the early Islamic period in the Upper Mesopotamian city of Harran.[15] They were described by Syriac Christian heresiographers as star worshippers.[14] Most of the scholars and courtiers working for the Abbasid and Buyid dynasties in Baghdad 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 mathematicians Thabit ibn Qurra (died 901) and al-Battani (died 929).[65] 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.[66] However, apart from the fact that it contains traces of Babylonian and Hellenistic religion, and that an important place was taken by planets (to whom ritual sacrifices were made), little is known about Harranian Sabianism.[67] They have been variously described by scholars as (neo)-Platonists, Hermeticists, or Gnostics, but there is no firm evidence for any of these identifications.[68][lower-alpha 2] Al-Biruni lists off some of the prophets the Sabians of Harran are said to have believed in: Aghādhīmūn Wālīs Pythagoras Bābā Sawar[69]

### Lower Mesopotamian Sabians

Apart from the Sabians of Harran, there were also various religious groups living in the Mesopotamian Marshes who were called the 'Sabians of the Marshes' (Arabic: Ṣābiʾat al-baṭāʾiḥ).[70] Though this name has often been understood as a reference to the Mandaeans, there was in fact at least one other religious group living in the marshlands of Southern Iraq.[71] This group still practiced a polytheistic Babylonian religion or similar, in which Mesopotamian gods had already been venerated in the form of planets and stars since antiquity.[72] According to Ibn 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 maḏāhib an-Nabaṭ al-qadīm] and venerate the stars".[73] However, there is also a large corpus of texts by Ibn Wahshiyya (died c. 930), most famously his Nabataean Agriculture, which describes at length the customs and beliefs — many of them going back to Mespotamian models — of Iraqi Sabians living in the Sawād.[74]

## Contemporary Sabians

Mandaean Sabian court for marital dispute, Ahvaz, Iran (2015)

Today in Iraq and Iran, the Sabians are those that claim to follow the teachings of John the Baptist. They are Mandaean Sabians.[20] They have been vulnerable to violence since the 2003 American invasion of Iraq and numbered fewer than 5,000 in Iraq in 2007. Before the invasion, the highest concentrations of Mandaeans were in Amarah, Nasiriyah and Basra. Besides these southern regions and Ahvaz in Iran, large numbers of Mandaeans were found in Baghdad, 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 to Kurdistan where it is safer.[20]

## See also

## Notes

1. ↑ 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 (see Darrow 2003; Nasr et al. 2015, p. 834, verse 22:17).
2. ↑ On the Sabians of Harran, see further Dozy & de Goeje 1884; Margoliouth 1913; Tardieu 1986; Tardieu 1987; Peters 1990; Green 1992; Fahd 1960–2007; Strohmaier 1996; Genequand 1999; Elukin 2002; Stroumsa 2004; De Smet 2010.

## References

1. ↑ Van Bladel 2017, p. 5.
2. ↑ De Blois 2004; Marks 2021, p. 20.
3. ↑ De Blois 1960–2012 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFDe_Blois1960–2012 (help); Van Bladel 2009, p. 67.
4. ↑ Buck 1984, p. 172.
5. ↑ This was extensively argued by Chwolsohn 1856 and Gündüz 1994 (both cited by Van Bladel 2009, p. 67). The view has also been adopted by such Mandaean scholars as Drower 1960, p. ix and Nasoraia 2012, p. 39 (citing Gündüz 1994).
6. ↑ De Blois 1995 (cited by Van Bladel 2009, p. 67).
7. ↑ Bell 1926, p. 60 (cited by Van Bladel 2009, p. 67).
8. ↑ Dozy & de Goeje 1884 (cited by Green 1992, pp. 105–106); Buck 1984 (cited by Van Bladel 2009, p. 67).
9. ↑ Tardieu 1986 (cited by Van Bladel 2009, p. 67).
10. ↑ As Gnostics: Pedersen 1922, p. 390 and Hjärpe 1972 (both cited by Van Bladel 2009, p. 67). As "sectarians": Genequand 1999, pp. 123–127 (cited by Van Bladel 2009, p. 67).
11. ↑ Margoliouth 1913 (cited by Green 1992, pp. 106–108); Strohmaier 1996 (cited by Van Bladel 2009, pp. 67–68).
12. ↑ Green 1992, pp. 119–120; Stroumsa 2004, pp. 335–341; Hämeen-Anttila 2006, p. 50; Van Bladel 2009, p. 68.
13. ↑ De Blois 1960–2007; Fahd 1960–2007; Van Bladel 2017, pp. 5, 10.
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Van Bladel 2009, p. 68; cf. p. 70.
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 De Blois 1960–2007.
16. ↑ Van Bladel 2009, p. 66.
17. ↑ A genealogical table of Thabit ibn Qurra's family is given by De Blois 1960–2007. On some of his descendants, see Roberts 2017.
18. ↑ Van Bladel 2009, p. 67.
19. ↑ Hämeen-Anttila 2006, p. 49; cf. pp 46–52, p. 20 note 42, p. 37 note 91.
20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Sabah, Zaid (27 September 2007). "Sabian sect keeps the faith". http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-09-27-iraqweek_N.htm.
21. ↑ Al-Saadi, Qais; Al-Saadi, Hamed (2019). Ginza Rabba (2nd ed.). Germany: Drabsha.
22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Brikhah S. Nasoraia (2012). "Sacred Text and Esoteric Praxis in Sabian Mandaean Religion". http://isamveri.org/pdfdrg/D201813/2012_I/2012_I_NASORAIAB.pdf.
23. ↑ De Blois 2004; Genequand 1999, p. 126\. Van Bladel 2009, p. 67, note 14 finds this "the most convincing etymology yet", referring also to De Blois 1995, pp. 51–52 and Margoliouth 1913, p. 519b.
24. ↑ Chwolsohn 1856, as cited by Green 1992, p. 103.
25. ↑ This etymology is still upheld by some scholars, e.g., by Häberl 2009, p. 1.
26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 De Blois 2004.
27. ↑ Green 1992, p. 106\. That these enemies may have been the Jews is suggested by Genequand 1999, p. 127.
28. ↑ Genequand 1999, pp. 126–127.
29. ↑ Ibn Hisham's story was thus explained by Julius Wellhausen, as cited by Green 1992, p. 106.
30. ↑ Green 1992, pp. 111–112, referring to Segal 1963.
31. ↑ "Sabaism", in The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press, 2005).
32. ↑ 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.".[Quran 5:68 (Translated by Shakir)]
33. ↑ E.g. Sahih Bukhari Book No. 7, Hadith No. 340; Book No. 59, Hadith No. 628; Book No. 89, Hadith No. 299 etc.
34. ↑ Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2002), The Mandaeans: ancient texts and modern people, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780195153859, http://mandaeannetwork.com/Mandaean/books/english/2The_Mandaeans_Ancient_Texts_and_Modern_People_American_Academy_of_Religion_Books_Jorunn_Jacobsen_Buckley.pdf?bcsi_scan_955b0cd764557e80=0&bcsi_scan_filename=2The_Mandaeans_Ancient_Texts_and_Modern_People_American_Academy_of_Religion_Books_Jorunn_Jacobsen_Buckley.pdf, retrieved 18 February 2022
35. ↑ Ibn al-Nadim. al-Fihrist. pp. 442–445.
36. ↑ Asmussen, J. P. (29 July 2011). "ALCHASAI". ALCHASAI. https://iranicaonline.org/articles/alchasai-a-sectarian-in-the-early-christian-church-1st-2nd-centuries-a. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
37. ↑ "Extracts from Ethel Stefana Drower, 1937, Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran". http://www.farvardyn.com/mandaean.php.
38. ↑ Churton 2002, p. 26.
39. ↑ Churton 2002, pp. 26–27.
40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 Poonawala, Ismail K. (1990). The History of al-Tabari-Volume IX The Last Years of the Prophet. State University of New York Press.
41. ↑ Drower 1960.
42. ↑ 42.0 42.1 Van Bladel 2009.
43. ↑ Churton 2002, p. 27.
44. ↑ Green 1992, p. 106.
45. ↑ Green 1992, p. 112.
46. ↑ "lesprairiesdor02masuuoft p.110". https://archive.org/details/lesprairiesdor02masuuoft/page/110/mode/2up.
47. ↑ "Biruni on the Sabians". https://pages.charlotte.edu/john-reeves/wp-content/uploads/sites/521/2013/04/biruni-on-the-sabians.pdf.
48. ↑ ben Maimon, Moses (1956). The Guide for the Perplexed. New York, NY: M. Friedlander / Dover Publications. p. 334.
49. ↑ Elukin 2002.
50. ↑ Mihrábkháni, Rúhu'lláh (1994) (in ar). Á'ín-i Sábi'ín. Ontario, ON: Institute for Baháʼí Studies.
51. ↑ 'Abdu'l-Bahá (1982). The Promulgation of Universal Peace (Hardcover ed.). Wilmette, IL: Baháʼí Publishing Trust. p. 365. ISBN 0-87743-172-8. http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/PUP/pup-111.html#pg365.
52. ↑ Bahá'u'lláh (1994). Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh Revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Wilmette, IL: Baháʼí Publishing Trust. p. 152. ISBN 0-87743-174-4. http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/TB/tb-10.html#pg152.
53. ↑ ʻAbdu'l-Bahá (1990) (in en). The Secret of Divine Civilization. Bahá'í Reference Library. Wilmette, IL: Baháʼí Publishing Trust. ISBN 0-87743-008-X.
54. ↑ Chwolson, D. (1856) (in de). Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus.
55. ↑ Chwolsohn (1856); cf. Drower (1960), pp. 98, 111.
56. ↑ Lupieri, Edmondo F. (7 November 2001). The Mandaeans: The last gnostics. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-8028-3350-1. https://books.google.com/books?id=zJ73YfrZ2T4C.
57. ↑ Guest, John S. (12 November 2012). "Chapter nine: Abdul Hamid and the Yezidis". Survival among the Kurds. Routledge. p. 126. ISBN 978-1-136-15729-5. https://books.google.com/books?id=TJUrBgAAQBAJ&dq=Nicolas+Siouffi+christian&pg=PA126.
58. ↑ Siouffi, N. (1880) (in fr). Études sur la religion des Soubbas ou Sabéens, leurs dogmes, leurs moeurs. Paris, FR: Imprimerie Nationale.
59. ↑ Mead, G.R.S. (1924). Gnostic John the Baptizer: Selections from the Mandaean John-Book. London, UK: John Watkins. p. 137. https://archive.org/details/gnostic-john-the-baptizer/. "... 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, ..."
60. ↑ 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 the Etudes sur la religion des Soubbas.".[article+and+issue+not+cited]&rft.jtitle=The+Edinburgh+Review&rft.aulast=Smith&rft.aufirst=Sydney&rft.au=Smith, Sydney&rft.date=1880&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikibooks.org:Religion:Sabians">
61. ↑ 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. ISBN 9781313905619.
62. ↑ Maxwell, Gavin (1959). A Reed Shaken by the Wind: A journey through the unexplored marshlands of Iraq. Harper and Row. ISBN 1-85089-272-5.
63. ↑ 63.0 63.1 Hämeen-Anttila, Jaakko (27–31 October 2000). written at Chicago, IL. Panaino, Antonio; Pettinato, Giovanni. eds. Melammu Symposia III. Milano, IT: Università di Bologna & IsIAO. 2002. pp. 89–108. "... 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 ..."
64. ↑ "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)
65. ↑ Van Bladel 2009, p. 65\. A genealogical table of Thabit ibn Qurra's family is given by De Blois 1960–2007. On some of his descendants, see Roberts 2017.
66. ↑ Hjärpe 1972 (as cited by Van Bladel 2009, pp. 68–69).
67. ↑ Van Bladel 2009, pp. 65–66.
68. ↑ Van Bladel 2009, p. 70.
69. ↑ "Al-Biruni on the Sabians". https://pages.charlotte.edu/john-reeves/wp-content/uploads/sites/521/2013/04/biruni-on-the-sabians.pdf.
70. ↑ Van Bladel 2017, pp. 14, 71. On the Mesopotamian Marshes in the early Islamic period, see pp. 60–69.
71. ↑ Van Bladel 2017, p. 71\. According to Van Bladel there were two other groups, the third one being Elchasaites, whom other scholars see as Mandaeans.
72. ↑ Van Bladel 2017, pp. 71–72.
73. ↑ Translation by Van Bladel 2017, p. 71.
74. ↑ Hämeen-Anttila 2006, pp. 46–52.

### Sources

* Bell, Richard (1926). The Origin of Islam in Its Christian Environment. London: Macmillan. OCLC 695842215. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.528983.
* Buck, Christopher (1984). "The Identity of the Ṣābi'ūn: An Historical Quest". The Muslim World 74 (3–4): 172–186. doi:10.1111/j.1478-1913.1984.tb03453.x. https://www.academia.edu/33760876.
* Churton, Tobias (2002). The Golden Builders: Alchemists, Rosicrucians, and the First Freemasons. New York: Barnes and Noble.
* Chwolsohn, Daniel (1856). Die Ssabier und die Ssabismus. Vols. 1–2.. St. Petersburg: Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. OCLC 64850836. https://archive.org/search.php?query=Die+Ssabier+und+die+Ssabismus.
* Darrow, William R. (2003). "Magians". in McAuliffe, Jane Dammen. Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān. doi:10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQSIM_00269.
* De Blois, François (1995). "The "Sabians" (Ṣābi'ūn) in pre-Islamic Arabia". Acta Orientalia 56: 39–61.
* De Blois, François (2002). "Naṣrānī (Nαζωραῖος) and ḥanīf (ἐθνικός): Studies on the Religious Vocabulary of Christianity and of Islam". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 65 (1): 1–30. doi:10.1017/S0041977X02000010. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4145899.
* De Blois, François (2004). "Sabians". in McAuliffe, Jane Dammen. Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān. doi:10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQSIM_00362.
* De Blois, François (1960–2007). "Ṣābiʾ". in Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E. et al.. Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0952.
* De Callataÿ, Godefroid (2017). "The Ṣābiʾans of Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī". Studia graeco-arabica 7: 291–306. https://learningroads.cfs.unipi.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/SGA_2017_9_DECALLATAY_pp_291_306.pdf.
* De Smet, Daniel (2010). "Le Platon arabe et les Sabéens de Ḥarrān. La 'voie diffuse' de la transmission du platonisme en terre d'Islam". Res Antiquae 7: 73–86. ISBN 978-2-87457-034-6.
* Dozy, Reinhart Pieter Anne; de Goeje, Michael Jean (1884). "Mémoire posthume de M. Dozy: contenant de Nouveaux documents pour l'étude de la religion des Harraniens, achevé par M. J. de Goeje". Travaux de la 6e session du Congrès international des Orientalistes à Leide. 2. Leiden: Brill. pp. 283–366. OCLC 935749094. https://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/content/titleinfo/807792.
* Drower, E.S. (1960). The Secret Adam: A Study of Nasoraean Gnosis. Oxford: Clarendon Press. OCLC 654318531. https://archive.org/details/secretadamstudyo0000drow.
* Elukin, Jonathan (2002). "Maimonides and the Rise and Fall of the Sabians: Explaining Mosaic Laws and the Limits of Scholarship". Journal of the History of Ideas 63 (4): 619–637. doi:10.2307/3654163. https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=facpub.
* Fahd, Toufic (1960–2007). "Ṣābiʾa". in Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E. et al.. Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0953.
* Genequand, Charles (1999). "Idolâtrie, astrolâtrie, et sabéisme". Studia Islamica 89 (89): 109–128. doi:10.2307/1596088. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1596088.
* Green, Tamara M. (1992). The City of the Moon God: Religious Traditions of Harran. Religions in the Graeco-Roman World. 114. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-09513-7. https://brill.com/view/title/1320.
* Gündüz, Şinasi (1994). The Knowledge of Life: The Origins and Early History of the Mandaeans and Their Relation to the Sabians of the Qur'ān and to the Harranians. Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement. 3. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199221936. https://books.google.com/books?id=NPXYAAAAMAAJ.
* Häberl, Charles G. (2009). The Neo-Mandaic Dialect of Khorramshahr. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-05874-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=BBjwrJY6-sYC&pg=PA1.
* Hämeen-Anttila, Jaakko (2002). "Continuity of Pagan Religious Traditions in Tenth-Century Iraq". in Panaino, A.; Pettinato, G.. Ideologies as Intercultural Phenomena: Proceedings of the Third Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project, Held in Chicago, USA, October 27-31, 2000. Melammu Symposia. III. Bologna: Mimesis. pp. 89–107. ISBN 9788884831071. OCLC 52953838.
* Hämeen-Anttila, Jaakko (2006). The Last Pagans of Iraq: Ibn Waḥshiyya and His Nabatean Agriculture. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-15010-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=qXjXAAAAMAAJ.
* Hjärpe, Jan (1972). Analyse critique des traditions arabes sur les Sabéens harraniens (PhD diss.). University of Uppsala.
* Lameer, Joep (1997). "From Alexandria to Baghdad: Reflections on the Genesis of a Problematical Tradition". in Endress, Gerhard; Kruk, Remke. The Ancient Tradition in Christian and Islamic Hellenism: Studies on the Transmission of Greek Philosophy and Sciences Dedicated to H.J. Drossaart Lulofs on his Ninetieth Birthday. Leiden: Research School CNWS. pp. 181–191. ISBN 9789073782778. OCLC 36916418.
* Margoliouth, D.S. (1913). "Harranians". in Hastings, James; Selbie, John A.. Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. VI. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. pp. 519–520. OCLC 4993011.
* Marks, Richard G. (2021). Jewish Approaches to Hinduism: A History of Ideas from Judah Ha-Levi to Jacob Sapir (12th–19th centuries). New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-00-043666-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=1B8-EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA20.
* McAuliffe, Jane Dammen (1982). "Exegetical Identification of the Ṣābiʾūn". The Muslim World 72: 95–106. doi:10.1111/j.1478-1913.1982.tb03237.x.
* Nasoraia, Brikhah S. (2012). "Sacred Text and Esoteric Praxis in Sabian Mandaean Religion". in Çetinkaya, Bayram. Religious and Philosophical Texts: Rereading, Understanding and Comprehending Them in the 21st Century. Istanbul: Sultanbeyli Belediyesi. pp. vol. I, pp. 27–53.
* Nasr, Seyyed Hossein; Dagli, Caner K.; Dakake, Maria Massi et al., eds (2015). The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary. New York: HarperOne. ISBN 978-0-06-112586-7.
* Pedersen, J. (1922). "The Ṣābians". in Arnold, T. W.; Nicholson, R. A.. ʿAǧab-nāma: A Volume of Oriental Studies Presented to Edward G. Browne on his 60th Birthday. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 383–391. OCLC 6390613. https://archive.org/details/volumeoforiental00arnouoft.
* Peters, Francis E. (1990). "Hermes and Harran: The Roots of Arabic-Islamic Occultism". in Mazzaoui, M.; Moreen, V.B.. Intellectual Studies on Islam: Essays Written in Honor of Martin B. Dickson. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. pp. 185–215. ISBN 9780874803426.
* Pingree, David (2002). "The Ṣābians of Ḥarrān and the Classical Tradition". International Journal of the Classical Tradition 9 (1): 8–35. doi:10.1007/BF02901729. https://www.jstor.org/stable/30224282.
* 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.
* Segal, Judah (1963). "The Sabian Mysteries: The Planet Cult of Ancient Harran". in Bacon, Edward. Vanished Civilizations. New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 201–220. OCLC 399022.
* Strohmaier, Gotthard (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. ISBN 9783447037457. OCLC 643711267. https://books.google.com/books?id=So14Vip9xjsC&pg=PA51. [reprinted in Strohmaier, Gotthard (2003). Hellas im Islam: Interdisziplinäre Studien zur Ikonographie, Wissenschaft und Religionsgeschichte. Diskurse der Arabistik. 6. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. pp. 167–169. ISBN 978-3-447-04637-4. ]
* Stroumsa, Sarah (2004). "Sabéens de Ḥarrān et Sabéens de Maïmonide". in Lévy, Tony; Rashed, Roshdi. Maïmonide: Philosophe et savant (1138–1204). Leuven: Peeters. pp. 335–352. ISBN 9789042914582.
* Tardieu, Michel (1986). "Ṣābiens coraniques et 'Ṣābiens' de Ḥarrān". Journal Asiatique 274 (1–2): 1–44. doi:10.2143/JA.274.1.2011565.
* Tardieu, Michel (1987). "Les calendriers en usage à Ḥarrān d’après les sources arabes et le commentaire de Simplicius à la Physique d’Aristote". in Hadot, Ilsetraut. Simplicius. Sa vie, son œuvre, sa survie. Berlin: de Gruyter. pp. 40–57. doi:10.1515/9783110862041.41. ISBN 9783110109245.
* Van Bladel, Kevin (2009). "Hermes and the Ṣābians of Ḥarrān". The Arabic Hermes: From Pagan Sage to Prophet of Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 64–118. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195376135.003.0003. ISBN 978-0-19-537613-5. https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195376135.001.0001/acprof-9780195376135-chapter-3.
* Van Bladel, Kevin (2017). From Sasanian Mandaeans to Ṣābians of the Marshes. Leiden: Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004339460. ISBN 978-90-04-33943-9. https://brill.com/view/title/34389.

* v
* t
* e

People and things in the Quran

Characters

Non-humans|

* Allāh ("The God")
* Names of Allah found in the Quran, such as Karīm (Generous)
* Beings in Paradise

| Animals|

| Related|

* The baqarah (cow) of Israelites
* The dhiʾb (wolf) that Jacob feared could attack Joseph
* The fīl (elephant) of the Abyssinians
* Ḥimār (Domesticated donkey)
* The hud-hud (hoopoe) of Solomon
* The kalb (dog) of the sleepers of the cave
* The namlah (female ant) of Solomon
* The nūn (fish or whale) of Jonah
* The nāqat (she-camel) of Saleh

|

Non-related|

* ʿAnkabūt (Female spider)
* Dābbat al-Arḍ (Beast of the Earth)
* Ḥimār (Wild ass)
* Naḥl (Honey bee)
* Qaswarah ("Lion", "beast of prey" or "hunter")

Angels|

* Angels of Hell
* Mālik
* Zabāniyah
* Angel of the Trumpet (Isrāfīl or Raphael)
* Jibrīl (Gabriel)
* Ar-Rūḥ ("The Spirit")
* Ar-Rūḥ al-Amīn ("The Trustworthy Spirit")
* Ar-Rūḥ al-Qudus ("The Holy Spirit")
* Mīkāil (Michael)
* Angel of Death (Azrael)
* Bearers of the Throne
* Riḍwān
* Munkar and Nakir
* Harut and Marut
* Kirāman Kātibīn (Honourable Scribes)
* Raqib
* Atid

Others|

* Jinn
* Jann
* ʿIfrīt
* Mārid ("Rebellious one")
* Shayāṭīn (Demons)
* Iblīs the (Chief) Al-Shayṭān
* Qarīn
* Ghilmān or Wildān
* Ḥūr

Prophets|

| Mentioned|

* Ādam (Adam)
* Al-Yasaʿ (Elisha)
* Ayyūb (Job)
* Dāwūd (David)
* Dhūl-Kifl (Ezekiel?)
* Hārūn (Aaron)
* Hūd (Eber?)
* Idrīs (Enoch?)
* Ilyās (Elijah)
* ʿImrān (Joachim the father of Maryam)
* Isḥāq (Isaac)
* Ismāʿīl (Ishmael)
* Dhabih Ullah
* Lūṭ (Lot)
* Ṣāliḥ
* Shuʿayb (Jethro, Reuel or Hobab?)
* Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd (Solomon son of David)
* ʿUzair (Ezra?)
* Yaḥyā ibn Zakariyyā (John the Baptist the son of Zechariah)
* Yaʿqūb (Jacob)
* Isrāʾīl (Israel)
* Yūnus (Jonah)
* Dhūn-Nūn ("He of the Fish (or Whale)" or "Owner of the Fish (or Whale)")
* Ṣāḥib al-Ḥūt ("Companion of the Whale")
* Yūsuf ibn Ya‘qūb (Joseph son of Jacob)
* Zakariyyā (Zechariah)

| Ulul-ʿAzm|

* Muḥammad
* Aḥmad
* Other names and titles of Muhammad
* ʿĪsā (Jesus)
* Al-Masīḥ (The Messiah)
* Ibn Maryam (Son of Mary)
* Mūsā Kalīmullāh (Moses He who spoke to God)
* Ibrāhīm Khalīlullāh (Abraham Friend of God)
* Nūḥ (Noah)

|

Debatable ones|

* Dhūl-Qarnain
* Luqmān
* Maryam (Mary)
* Ṭālūt (Saul or Gideon?)

Implied|

* Irmiyā (Jeremiah)
* Isma'il Ṣādiq al-Waʿd (Fulfiller of the Promise)?
* Ṣamūʾīl (Samuel)
* Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn (Joshua, companion and successor of Moses)

People of Prophets|

| Good ones|

* Adam's immediate relatives
* Martyred son
* Wife
* Believer of Ya-Sin
* Family of Noah
* Father Lamech
* Mother Shamkhah bint Anush or Betenos
* Luqman's son
* People of Aaron and Moses
* Egyptians
* Believer (Hizbil or Hizqil ibn Sabura)
* Imraʾat Firʿawn (Arabic: امْرَأَت فِرْعَوْن, Āsiyá bint Muzāḥim (Arabic: آسِيَا بِنْت مُزَاحِم) or Wife of Pharaoh, who adopted Moses)
* Magicians of the Pharaoh
* Wise, pious man
* Moses' wife
* Moses' sister-in-law
* Mother
* Sister
* People of Abraham
* Mother Abiona or Amtelai the daughter of Karnebo
* Ishmael's mother
* Isaac's mother
* People of Jesus
* Disciples (including Peter)
* Mary's mother
* Zechariah's wife
* People of Joseph
* Brothers (including Binyāmin (Benjamin) and Simeon)
* Egyptians
* ʿAzīz (Potiphar, Qatafir or Qittin)
* Malik (King Ar-Rayyān ibn Al-Walīd))
* Wife of ʿAzīz (Zulaykhah)
* Mother
* People of Solomon
* Mother
* Queen of Sheba
* Vizier
* Zayd (Muhammad's adopted son)

|

Evil ones|

* Āzar (possibly Terah)
* Firʿawn (Pharaoh of Moses' time)
* Hāmān
* Jālūt (Goliath)
* Qārūn (Korah, cousin of Moses)
* As-Sāmirī
* Abū Lahab
* Slayers of Saleh's she-camel (Qaddar ibn Salif and Musda' ibn Dahr)

Implied or
not specified|

* Abrahah[clarification needed]
* Bal'am/Balaam
* Barsisa
* Caleb or Kaleb the companion of Joshua
* Luqman's son
* Nebuchadnezzar II
* Nimrod
* Rahmah the wife of Ayyub
* Shaddad

Groups|

| Mentioned|

* Aṣḥāb al-Jannah
* People of Paradise
* People of the Burnt Garden
* Aṣḥāb as-Sabt (Companions of the Sabbath)
* Christian apostles
* Ḥawāriyyūn (Disciples of Jesus)
* Companions of Noah's Ark
* Aṣḥāb al-Kahf war-Raqīm (Companions of the Cave and Al-Raqaim?
* Companions of the Elephant
* People of al-Ukhdūd
* People of a township in Surah Ya-Sin
* People of Yathrib or Medina
* Qawm Lūṭ (People of Sodom and Gomorrah)
* Nation of Noah

| Tribes, ethnicities
or families|

* Aʿrāb (Arabs or Bedouins)
* ʿĀd (people of Hud)
* Companions of the Rass
* Qawm Tubbaʿ (People of Tubba)
* People of Sabaʾ or Sheba
* Quraysh
* Thamūd (people of Saleh)
* Aṣḥāb al-Ḥijr ("Companions of the Stoneland")
* ‘Ajam
* Ar-Rūm (literally "The Romans")
* Banī Isrāʾīl (Children of Israel)
* Muʾtafikāt (The overthrown cities of Sodom and Gomorrah)
* People of Ibrahim
* People of Ilyas
* People of Nuh
* People of Shuaib
* Ahl Madyan People of Madyan)
* Aṣḥāb al-Aykah ("Companions of the Wood")
* Qawm Yūnus (People of Jonah)
* Ya'juj and Ma'juj/Gog and Magog
* Ahl al-Bayt ("People of the Household")
* Household of Abraham
* Brothers of Yūsuf
* Lot's daughters
* Progeny of Imran
* Household of Moses
* Household of Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Abdul-Muttalib ibn Hashim
* Daughters of Muhammad
* Muhammad's wives
* Household of Salih
* People of Fir'aun
* Current Ummah of Islam (Ummah of Muhammad)
* Aṣḥāb Muḥammad (Companions of Muhammad)
* Anṣār (Muslims of Medina who helped Muhammad and his Meccan followers, literally 'Helpers')
* Muhajirun (Emigrants from Mecca to Medina)
* People of Mecca
* Wife of Abu Lahab
* Children of Ayyub
* Sons of Adam
* Wife of Nuh
* Wife of Lut
* Yaʾjūj wa Maʾjūj (Gog and Magog)
* Son of Nuh

|

Implicitly
mentioned|

* Amalek
* Ahl as-Suffa (People of the Verandah)
* Banu Nadir
* Banu Qaynuqa
* Banu Qurayza
* Iranian people
* Umayyad Dynasty
* Aus and Khazraj
* People of Quba

Religious groups|

* Ahl al-Dhimmah
* Kāfirūn (Disbelievers)
* Zoroastrians
* Munafiqun (Hypocrites)
* Muslims
* Believers
* Ahl al-Kitāb (People of the Book)
* Naṣārā (Christian(s) or People of the Injil)
* Ruhban (Christian monks)
* Qissis (Christian priest)
* Yahūd (Jews)
* Ahbār (Jewish scholars)
* Rabbani/Rabbi
* Sabians
* Polytheists
* Meccan polytheists at the time of Muhammad
* Mesopotamian polytheists at the time of Abraham and Lot

Locations|

| Mentioned|

* Al-Arḍ Al-Muqaddasah ("The Holy Land")
* 'Blessed' Land
* In the Arabian Peninsula (excluding Madyan)
* Al-Aḥqāf ("The Sandy Plains," or "the Wind-curved Sand-hills")
* Iram dhāt al-ʿImād (Iram of the Pillars)
* Al-Madīnah (formerly Yathrib)
* ʿArafāt
* Al-Ḥijr (Hegra)
* Badr
* Ḥunayn
* Makkah (Mecca)
* Bakkah
* Ḥaraman Āminan ("Sanctuary (which is) Secure")
* Kaʿbah (Kaaba)
* Maqām Ibrāhīm (Station of Abraham)
* Safa and Marwa
* Sabaʾ (Sheba)
* ʿArim Sabaʾ (Dam of Sheba)
* Rass
* Al-Jannah (Paradise, literally "The Garden")
* Jahannam (Hell)
* In Mesopotamia:
* Al-Jūdiyy
* Munzalanm-Mubārakan ("Place-of-Landing Blessed")
* Bābil (Babylon)
* Qaryat Yūnus ("Township of Jonah," that is Nineveh)
* Door of Hittah
* Madyan (Midian)
* Majmaʿ al-Baḥrayn
* Miṣr (Mainland Egypt)
* Salsabīl (A river in Paradise)
* Sinai Region or Tīh Desert
* Al-Wād Al-Muqaddas Ṭuwan (The Holy Valley of Tuwa)
* Al-Wādil-Ayman (The valley on the 'righthand' side of the Valley of Tuwa and Mount Sinai)
* Al-Buqʿah Al-Mubārakah ("The Blessed Place")
* Mount Sinai or Mount Tabor

| Religious locations|

* Bay'a (Church)
* Miḥrāb
* Monastery
* Masjid (Mosque, literally "Place of Prostration")
* Al-Mashʿar Al-Ḥarām ("The Sacred Grove")
* Al-Masjid Al-Aqṣā (Al-Aqsa Mosque, literally "The Farthest Place-of-Prostration")
* Al-Masjid Al-Ḥarām (The Sacred Mosque of Mecca)
* Masjid al-Dirar
* A Mosque in the area of Medina, possibly:
* Masjid Qubāʾ (Quba Mosque)
* The Prophet's Mosque
* Salat (Synagogue)

|

Implied|

* Antioch
* Antakya
* Arabia
* Al-Ḥijāz (literally "The Barrier")
* Black Stone (Al-Ḥajar al-Aswad) & Al-Hijr of Isma'il
* Cave of Hira
* Ghār ath-Thawr (Cave of the Bull)
* Hudaybiyyah
* Ta'if
* Ayla
* Barrier of Dhul-Qarnayn
* Bayt al-Muqaddas & 'Ariha
* Bilād ar-Rāfidayn (Mesopotamia)
* Canaan
* Cave of Seven Sleepers
* Dār an-Nadwa
* Jordan River
* Nile River
* Palestine River
* Paradise of Shaddad

Plant matter|

* Baṣal (Onion)
* Fūm (Garlic or wheat)
* Shaṭʾ (Shoot)
* Sūq (Plant stem)
* Zarʿ (Seed)

| Fruits|

* ʿAdas (Lentil)
* Baql (Herb)
* Ḥabb dhul-ʿaṣf (Corn of the husk)
* Qith-thāʾ (Cucumber)
* Rummān (Pomegranate)
* Tīn (Fig)
* Ukul khamṭ (Bitter fruit or food of Sheba)
* Zaytūn (Olive)
* In Paradise
* Forbidden fruit of Adam

|

Bushes, trees
or plants|

* Plants of Sheba
* Athl (Tamarisk)
* Sidr (Lote-tree)
* Līnah (Tender Palm tree)
* Nakhl (Date palm)
* Rayḥān (Scented plant)
* Sidrat al-Muntahā
* Zaqqūm

Holy books|

* Al-Injīl (The Gospel of Jesus)
* Al-Qurʾān (The Book of Muhammad)
* Ṣuḥuf-i Ibrāhīm (Scroll(s) of Abraham)
* At-Tawrāt (The Torah)
* Ṣuḥuf-i-Mūsā (Scroll(s) of Moses)
* Tablets of Stone
* Az-Zabūr (The Psalms of David)
* Umm al-Kitāb ("Mother of the Book(s)")

Objects of people
or beings|

* Heavenly Food of Christian Apostles
* Noah's Ark
* Staff of Musa
* Tābūt as-Sakīnah (Casket of Shekhinah)
* Throne of Bilqis
* Trumpet of Israfil

| Mentioned idols
(cult images)|

* 'Ansāb
* Idols of Israelites:
* Baʿal
* The ʿijl (golden calf statue) of Israelites
* Idols of Noah's people:
* Nasr
* Suwāʿ
* Wadd
* Yaghūth
* Yaʿūq
* Idols of Quraysh:
* Al-Lāt
* Al-ʿUzzā
* Manāt
* Jibt and Ṭāghūt

|

Celestial bodies|

Maṣābīḥ (literally 'lamps'):

* Al-Qamar (The Moon)
* Kawākib (Planets)
* Al-Arḍ (The Earth)
* Nujūm (Stars)
* Ash-Shams (The Sun)

Liquids|

* Māʾ (Water or fluid)

* Nahr (River)
* Yamm (River or sea)

* Sharāb (Drink)

Events, incidents,
occasions or times|

* Incident of Ifk
* Laylat al-Qadr
* Event of Mubahala
* Sayl al-ʿArim (Flood of the Great Dam of Marib in Sheba)
* The Farewell Pilgrimage
* Treaty of Hudaybiyyah

| Battles or
military expeditions|

* Battle of al-Aḥzāb ("the Confederates")
* Battle of Badr
* Battle of Hunayn
* Battle of Khaybar
* Battle of Tabouk
* Battle of Uhud
* Conquest of Mecca

|

Days|

* Al-Jumuʿah (The Friday)
* As-Sabt (The Sabbath or Saturday)
* Days of battles
* Days of Hajj
* Doomsday

|

Months of the
Islamic calendar|

12 months:

* Four holy months
* Ash-Shahr Al-Ḥarām (The Sacred or Forbidden Month)
* Ramaḍān

|

Pilgrimages|

* Al-Ḥajj (literally "The Pilgrimage", the Greater Pilgrimage)
* Al-ʿUmrah (The Lesser Pilgrimage)

|

Times for Prayer
or Remembrance|

Times for Duʿāʾ ('Invocation'), Ṣalāh and Dhikr ('Remembrance', including Taḥmīd ('Praising'), Takbīr and Tasbīḥ):

* Al-ʿAshiyy (The Afternoon or the Night)
* Al-Ghuduww ("The Mornings")
* Al-Bukrah ("The Morning")
* Aṣ-Ṣabāḥ ("The Morning")
* Al-Layl ("The Night")
* Al-ʿIshāʾ ("The Late-Night")
* Aẓ-Ẓuhr ("The Noon")
* Dulūk ash-Shams ("Decline of the Sun")
* Al-Masāʾ ("The Evening")
* Qabl al-Ghurūb ("Before the Setting (of the Sun)")
* Al-Aṣīl ("The Afternoon")
* Al-ʿAṣr ("The Afternoon")
* Qabl ṭulūʿ ash-Shams ("Before the rising of the Sun")
* Al-Fajr ("The Dawn")

|

Implied|

* Event of Ghadir Khumm
* Laylat al-Mabit
* The first pilgrimage

|

Note: The names are sorted alphabetically. Standard form: Islamic name / Biblical name (title or relationship)

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabians. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Religion:Sabians&oldid=4577073"
*[c.]: circa
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template