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SABIANS
SABIANS
Christians of St. John). Uncertainty besetsthe form, etymology, origin, applicability, andreal application of this ancient name. TheSabian peoples and religion have been describedas the very “dust-heap of Orientalism.”
The genuine Sabians are perfectly distinctfrom the Sabaioi of the Caspian Sea, and from“the Sdbeans” of the Bible, who are probablyidentifiable with the Omerites or Hamayaritesof S. Arabia. Nor are they to be identified withthe Zabians or Ssabians of the Hauran, who canbe historically shewn, during the 9th century,deliberately to have adopted their name in orderto avoid the persecution of the Mohammedans.After the 9th century Mohammedan writers giveto these Pseudo-Sabians, as well as to the Man*daeans, this name, and some of the peculiaritiesof the one sect are attributed to the other. In-extricable confusion prevailed on the subjectuntil, in comparatively recent years, the sacredbooks of the Sabians proper have been with veryvaried ability edited by Tychsen, Matt. Norberg(Codex Nasareus , Liber Adami appellatus , Sy-riace transcriptus , Latincque redditus , 2 vols.4°. 1815), and H. Petermann ( Thesaurus siveLiber Magnus , vulgo Liber Adami appellatusopus Mandaeorum summi ponderis, 2 vols. 1867).The last-mentioned work is lithographed inthe singular character of the Mandaeans, butnot translated either into Syriac proper orLatin. The knowledge thus placed before Euro-pean students has been supplemented by Peter-mann’s personal researches given in his Reise inOrient , and his brief articles in Herzog Real-Cycl. arts. Mandaer and Zabier or Ssabier, Tothese publications may be added the brochureof M. Siouffi, vice-consul of France at Mosul, in his“ Etudes sur la Religion des Soubhas ou Sabeens,leurs dogmeSy leurs mceurs,” &c. Petermannbrought to his research scientific knowledge, andthe priest who gave him information was far morecompetent to impart it than was the half-instructed youth from whom Siouffi derived hisfacts. So far as present customs prevail, the twoinformants do not seriously differ. D. Chwol-son, Professor in the Imperial University atSt. Petersburg, has also thrown much light uponthe subject in his learned and laborious work,entitled Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus, two vols.,1856. Four-fifths of this treatise are devotedto the Hauranite Sabians, or pseudo-Sabians,whom he carefully discriminates from the Man-daeans or Sabians proper. He has filled a volumewith the Arabic documents upon which he baseshis conclusions concerning the history, thedogmas, the worship, the philosophy of thiseclectic sect and its offshoots. The name “Chris-tians of St. John ” is a title which was givento the Mandaeans in the 17th century by Portu-guese travellers (Chwolson, i. 100). They donot designate themselves by this term, althoughthere may have been some slight colour for theascription of it to them, in the contents of someof their sacred books, in the high place assigned toYahia (John the Baptist) in their tradition andworship, and in their frequent use of baptism forthe removal of all impurities. M. Norberg pre-fixed to his edition of the Liber Adami a strangerecital by Conti the Maronite (1650), to the effectthat a Johannine sect had migrated to Mcrgab inthe Lebanon from Galilee about 150 years pre-viously to his time. This sect considered John
the Baptist to be their founder. Their ministerswore turbans and garments of camel’s hair. Theirsacrament consisted of locusts and wild honeywhich was administered to those present in theirassembly, and also carried to the absent. Thoughthe minister commenced his discourse with thesentence “ In the beginning was the Word,” thevheld the Messiah to be a mere prophet whosucceeded John. Images and pictures theyabhorred. Their days of assembly were Sundayand Thursday. Their annual feasts were fourin number: (1) The birthday of John; (2) Acommemoration of the institution of baptism*(3) A lamentation for John on the day whichcommemorates his decapitation; (4) A feast inhonour of the destruction by John of a dragon(see John the Baptist , &c., by the present writer,p. 476). This narrative is not confirmed by anyancient source of information touching the prac-tices of either the Hauranites or Mandaeans.
It is important to determine who were theSabians, to whom Mohammed referred in theKoran. In Surah ii. 59, we read: “The be-lievers, be they Jews, Christians, or Sabians , a ifthey believe in God and in the judgment dayand do what is right, will find reward with theLord; let neither fear nor dismay torment them.”In Surah xxii. 17 : “Verily on the day of theresurrection, God will discriminate betweenbelievers, Jews, Sabians , Christians, Magians,and Polytheists.” The same sentence occursv. 73. Clearly the Sabians, whosoever they maybe, were believed by Mohammed to worship oneGod only. Chwolson shews that those to whomMohammed referred could be no other than theMandaeans of Southern Babylon, whom theMohammedan writers carefully distinguish fromthe Hauranites. They are discriminated fromthe latter by Masudi, a.d. 958, who says theyturn towards the North Pole in their worship.This peculiarity is justified by their sacred booksand present habits. About a.d. 987 Mohammed
b. Isaac, after speaking of the Hauranites, devotesa chapter to Dualists, and enumerates amongthem El-Mogtasilah, the sect that purifies itselfby washing, but he calls them the Sabians of themarshy district between Arabian deserts andthe Euphrates and Tigris.
Chwolson gives at length, vol. ii., the Fihristof Moh. b. Isaac, En Nedim of the 10th century,who interprets the word Sabiyun from tsaba,“ dip ” or “ plunge ” or “ dye,” correspondingwith the Syriac word Saba —“ tinxit,” “ baptiza-vit.” This is the etymology which Renan pre-fers ( Vie de Jesus, c. vi. IHstoire des longuesSe'mitiqueSy iii. 4. i.); also, with misgiving,Bp. Lightfoot ( Ep. to Galatians , p. 312, Ep> toColoss. p. 165). Later Mohammedan writers havereferred its origin to the Arabic word saba, “ tochange one’s religion,” i.e. “ to become an apo-state.” Petermann inclines to this last originof the word, while Sale (Koran, Introd. p* 15)thought that it might refer to Seba, the host ofheaven, or the leader of the stars, which Sa-bians were supposed to reverence.
Much additional interest has been thrownaround the subject, from the strongly supporteconviction that these Mandaeans, or Sabiansproper, are either direct descendants, or col-
a Palmer spells the word Sabaeans, Qur’an, vol. i*
c. 8, and ii. 58. Rodwell, “ Sa&eites.”