PAGANS AND GNOSTICSHeaven and its members could still be found around Mada'in in the
tenth century .96
Chaldaean groups that closely resembled the older pagans lived in
lower Iraq and generally were designated as "Sabian" by Arabic writ-
ers. The Mughtasila were called the Sabians of the swamps and were
numerous in the swamps and in the region of Dast-i Maysan. They
were supposed to have been there before the Manichaeans and were
still in the region in the tenth century. They were called Mughtasila
because they performed ablutions and washed everything they ate. In
the tenth century they were still venerating the stars and possessed
idols. They also shared the Manichaean belief in two forms of existence
but construed them as male and female principles and produced a
]udaizing subsect.^97 Mas'iid"i tells of a Sabian sect called Kimariyyiin,
which was located between Wasit and Basra on the edge of the swamps
and practiced astrology, and of Chaldaeans who lived in villages in
the swamps between Wasit and Basra.^98
Pagans in Iraq had definite affinities in matters of sacrifice and
astrology to the great cult center at Harran in Byzantine Mesopotamia.
Harran was the only major pagan cult center to survive the changes
during Late Antiquity and existed well into the Islamic period with
its temples, priests, and pagan rituals. The pagans at Harran exerted
important religious and intellectual influences, and there is some in-
dication that those influences were being felt in Iraq in the seventh
century. The people at Shatru in Behqubadh in the 640s performed
similar sacrifices. How such influences were exerted may be seen in a
story about a Christian scholar called Isl).aq from Peroz Shapur in Beth
Nuhadhra. He went to Harran during the reign of Khusraw Parviz
and then returned to his home town, where he became an interpreter
(Ar. mufassir) in the local school. Although he maintained outward
Christian appearances, he sacrificed to demons in secret.^99
The long-haired, white-robed pagans of Harran were famous for
their observance of the planetary cult and for their practice of as-
trology. In the Islamic period, they worshiped the planetary gods in
96 Ibn an-Nadim, Fihrist, 11, 808-15. The myth ofJanji al-Jukhani has definite affinities
to what is reported about the Valentinians (see Irenaeus, Contra Haereses, 1,5 in J.-P.
Migne, Patrologiae Graecae, VII, cols. 493-96).
97Ibn an-Nadim, Fihrist, 11, 774, 811-12; Pedersen, "~abians," pp. 383-84.
98 Mas'iidi, Tanbth, p. 161; idem, Mur'u;, I, 263. Pedersen ("~abians" p. 390)
suggests that ~abian was used in the sense of "gnostic" but Ya'qiibi (Ta'rtkh, I, 179)
used ~abian expressly for the astral cult.
99 Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," 11(2), 464.