Moses Maimonides mentions the Sabians frequently. He believed that by studying Sabian ritual he would gain insight into the logic behind the commandments (Heb. ta‘amei hamizvot) and their meanings (see Maimonides, Dalālat al-Ḥā’irīn, 3:29). Maimonides ascribed many variant beliefs and customs to the Sabians. As a result, some scholars have argued that, for Maimonides, the name “Sabians” was simply a general term for idolatry (E.g., Shlomo Pines, “The Philosophic Sources of Maimonides,” in Idem (ed.), Studies in the History of Jewish Philosophy: The Transmission of Tex ts and Ideas (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1977), 103-173, at 164). To justify his arguments regarding the Sabians, Maimonides cited the various sources he used. One of these sources was The Book of Nabatean Agriculture (kitāb al-Filāḥa al-Nabaṭiyya), ascribed to Aḥmad b. Waḥshiyya (See Maimonides, Dalālat al-Ḥā’irīn, 3:29).
The first Muslims lived side by side with non-Muslims, and as a result, the issue of how to relate to non-Muslims appears as early as the Qur’ān itself. Most Qur’ānic references to non-Muslims refer to Jews and Christians, who are usually called People of the Book (ahl al-kitāb). The Qur’ān also refers, albeit only once, to the Zoroastrians (Qur’ān [henceforth Q.] 22:17), who resided in Persia. In addition to the People of the Book, the Qur’ān also refers to the non-monotheistic religion of the idolatrous Quraysh tribe, which had settled in the city of Mecca and persecuted Muḥammad. The subject of this paper is another religious sect that is mentioned three times in the Qur’ān— the enigmatic people referred to as the Sabians (Q. 2:62, 5:69, 22:17).
For the most part, modern scholars have concluded that the Sabians described by Muslim scholars of the ‘Abbāsid period are not the Sabians mentioned in the Qur’ān. The city of Ḥarrān, close to the Euphrates river on the border between Syria and Asia Minor, was home to a syncretistic sect that combined worship of the stars and constellations with Hellenistic philosophy. During the medieval period, members of the sect succeeded in convincing Muslims that they were the Sabians referred to in the Qur’ān. As a result, they were permitted to practice their religion. See EI, s.v. Ṣābī (F.C. De Blois).
The Earliest Qur’anic Commentators
Islamic literature cites the early Qur’ānic commentator Abī al-Ḥajjāj Mujāhid b. Jabr al-Makkī (Mecca, 642-722) as the source of several contradictory opinions on the Sabians. According to one citation, Mujāhid claimed that the Sabians were a religious sect that mixed Zoroastrian and Jewish practices (al-Ṣābi’ūn: bayna al-majūs wa’l-yahūd) (Abū Ja‘far Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, Jāmi‘ al-Bayān fī Tafsīr al-Qur’ān, (Cairo: Dār alMa‘ārif, 1953), 2:146; Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Anṣārī al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmi‘ li-Aḥkām al-Qur’ān, 10 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Turāth al-‘Arabī, 1965), 1:434; ‘Imād alDīn Ismā‘īl b. ‘Umar Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-Karīm, 4 vols. (Cairo: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Kutub al-‘Arabiyya, 1950), 1:104). Mujāhid wrote the same in his tafsīr and added that the Sabians had no religion (Abī al-Ḥajjāj Mujāhid b. Jabr al-Makkī al-Makhzūmī, Tafsīr Mujāhid, 2 vols. (Beirut: alManshūrāt al-‘Ilmiyya, n.d.), 77), by which he meant that the Sabians had no religion unique to themselves.
- Modern scholars have demonstrated that Judaism and Zoroastrianism share many characteristics, especially in regard to issues of impurity and purification. See: e.g. Haggai Mazuz, “Qur’ānic Commentators on Jewish and Zoroastrian Approaches to Menstruation,” The Review of Rabbinic Judaism 15/1 (2012), 89-98. Some of the scholars have concluded that, for the most part, these similarities are the result of Persian influence on Judaism. George William Carter claims that, just as Greek culture influenced Judaism during the period of the Hellenistic empires, the same was the case during Persian rule. See George William Carter, Zoroastrianism and Judaism (New York: AMS Press, 1970), 34-35. For a detailed study of Persian influence on Judaism, see Shaul Shaked, “Iranian Influence on Judaism” in The Return to Zion— Under Persian Rule, ed. Haim Tadmor (Jerusalem: ‘Am ‘Oved Press, 1983), 236-250 [Hebrew]. For further information, see James Barr, “The Question of Religious Influence: The Case of Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 53/2 (1985), 201-35.
- Mujāhid’s description of Sabian rituals in the latter citation, however, indicates that they were similar to the rituals of Manichaeism. Mani (216-276), the founder of Manichaeism, tried to combine the teachings of previous prophets, especially Zoroaster and Jesus. Despite Mani’s attempt at syncretism, the Manichaean religion was primarily based on Zoroastrianism, which embraced dualism and saw the world as the scene of a metaphysical battle between good and evil.
- Mujāhid’s description of Sabian customs as essentially Manichaean is supported by Yazīd b. Abū al-Ziyād (667-753), who claimed that the Sabians believed in the teachings of all previous prophets, fasted thirty days a year, and prayed five times a day facing the direction of Yemen, i.e., south (Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, 1:104). This is in accord with Mujāhid’s description of Sabian rituals and beliefs. Yet another tradition holds that Mujāhid described the Sabians’ religion as a mixture of Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism (Muḥammad b. ‘Alī al-Shawkānī, Tafsīr Fatḥ al-Qadīr, 5 vols. (Cairo:‘Ālam al-Kutub, 1964), 1:76).
Yet another theory is attributed to both Mujāhid and Wahb b. Munabbih (Yemen, d. 728). It states that the Sabians did not follow the customs of the Jews, the Christians, the Zoroastrians, or the idolater. Instead, the commentators assert that the Sabians were remnants of the fiṭra and had no fixed religion (lā dīn muqarrar lahum yatba‘ūnahu) (Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, 1:104). The fiṭra is a term mentioned in the Qur’ān that, according to Qur’ānic commentators, is a divine religion imprinted on man at the moment of his creation (dīn Allāh alladhī faṭara khalkatan) (see Abū al-Ḥasan ‘Alī b. Muḥammad al-Māwardī, Tafsīr al-Māwardī: al-Nukat wa’l-‘Uyūn, 4 vols. (Kuwait: Wizārat al-Awqāf wal-Shu’ūn al-Islāmiyya, al-Turāth al-Islāmī, 1982), 1:266). This interpretation of fiṭra is based on a quote from Muḥammad that is cited in the ḥadīth, “Every infant is born in the state of fiṭra” (kull mawlūd yūladu ‘alā al-fiṭra) (Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-Masīr, 6:300). According to many opinions that appear in the Islamic tradition, the fiṭra is the religion of Islam; that is, every human being is given the potential to become a Muslim at birth, and only because they are taught to adopt other religions, they become non-Muslims (see Abū Zakariyya Yaḥyā b. Sharaf Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Nawawī, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim bi-Sharḥ al-Nawawī). Most commentators, however, assert that fiṭra is simply the recognition of God (al-iqrār bi-Allāh)wa’l-ma‘rifa bihi) (Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-Masīr, 6:301). According to Mujāhid and Wahb b. Munabbih, then, the Sabians practiced a primordial form of monotheism.
A different opinion as to the identity of the Sabians is given under the name of ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Zayd b. Aslam al-‘Adawī al-Madanī (Medina, d. 798). Although Islamic literature presents ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Zayd’s view of the Sabians as independent of other commentators’ ideas on the subject, it in fact elaborates on the opinions of Mujāhid and Wahb b. Munabbih. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Zayd claims that the Sabians were members of a religion that was common in Mosul (jazīrat al-mawṣil), Iraq (Yāqūt b. ‘Abd Allāh al-Ḥamawī al-Rumī al-Baghdādī, Mu‘jam al-Buldān, 7 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1990), 5:258-59).
Another theory regarding the Sabians was expressed by al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad (d. 787), who claimed that the Sabian religion was similar to Christianity. Al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad also states that the Sabians practiced the “religion of Noah” (dīn Nūḥ) and prayed facing “the way the wind blew in the middle of the day” (inna qiblatahum naḥwa mahabb al-janūb ḥiyāl muntaṣaf al-nahār) (Al-Māwardī, al-Nukat wa’l-‘Uyūn, 1:117).
According to Muqātil b. Sulaymān (Balkh, d. 767), “The Sabians are a cult which separated from the Christians because of a desire to practice the ‘religion of Noah’ (ṣabā’ū ilā dīn Nūḥ), but they erred and were not successful because the ‘religion of Noah’ was like the religion of Islam” (waza‘amū annahum ‘alā dīn Nūḥ ‘alayhi al-salām wa-ākhṭā’ū li-ānna dīn Nūḥ ‘alayhi al-salām kāna ‘alā dīn al-Islām) (Muqātil Ibn Sulaymān, Tafsīr Muqātil Ibn Sulaymān, 3 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 2003), 1:312).
Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (Medina-Baṣra, 642-728/737), appears to have been open to several possibilities regarding the identity of the Sabians. According to some sources, Ḥasan al-Baṣrī believed that the Sabians practiced Zoroastrianism (qawm ka’l-majūs) (Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, 1:10; Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-Masīr, 1:92). Qatāda quotes Ḥasan al-Baṣrī as saying that the Sabians combined Jewish beliefs with Zoroastrianism and that they had no religion (Ṭabarī, Jāmi‘ al-Bayān, 2:146). ‘Abd Allāh b. Abī Najīḥ (Meccan, d. 749) agreed with this,48 as did Mujāhid, as mentioned above. The greatest of the Qur’ānic commentators, Ibn ‘Abbās, reported that the Sabians were Christian pilgrims who shaved the centers of their heads (al-sā’iḥūn almuḥallaqa awsāṭ ru’ūsihim), a common identifying practice among Christians; while Sa‘īd b. Jubayr (Kūfa, 665-714) claimed that the Sabians mixed Judaism and Christianity (Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-Masīr, 1:92).
Abū al-‘Āliya Rufay‘ b. Mihrān al-Riyāḥī (d. 709) also held that the Sabians were People of the Book because, he claimed, they used to read from the Book of Psalms (yaqra’ūna al-zabūr) (Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-Masīr, 1:92). Ibn ‘Abbās, however, who believed the Sabians were a group of Christian pilgrims (ṣinf min al-naṣārā) who shaved the centers of their heads, stated that it was forbidden to eat from the Sabians’ sacrifices or to marry their wives (Qurṭubī, al-Jāmi‘, 1:434).
Qatāda gives a similar opinion on the Sabians. He claims that the Sabians worshipped a number of beings and that their rituals included customs from five different religions. Of these five religions, “four of them are from Satan (al-shayṭān) and one of them from the Merciful One” (alRaḥmān, one of the ninety-nine beautiful names for Allāh). According to Qatāda, the Sabians worshipped the angels and practiced the rituals of the Zoroastrians—who “worship fire” (wa-hum ya‘budūna al-nār); [the rituals] of the idolaters “who worship graven images” (wa-alladhīna ashrakū ya‘budūna al-awthān), [the rituals] of the Jews, and [the rituals] of the Christians (Al-Rāzī, al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr, 3:105).
Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Anṣārī al-Qurṭubī (d. 1237) interpreted Q. 22:17 as indicating that the Sabians worshipped the stars (qawm ya‘budūna al-nujūm) (Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmi‘, 12:22). In his commentary on Q. 5:69, however, he held that they converted to Judaism (qad dakhalū fi’l-yahūdiyya). It may be possible to reconcile al-Qurṭubī’s statements if we posit that the Sabians began as a pagan sect, but later embraced Judaism. This theory becomes problematic in light of al-Qurṭubī’s commentary on Q. 2:62, in which he claims that the Sabian religion was not that of the People of the Book (qad kharajū min dīn ahl al-kitāb). If the Sabians did accept Judaism, as al-Qurṭubī stated in his commentary on Q. 5:69, they should have been considered People of the Book (1:434).
