LA LONGUE DURÉE 85
practice pagan worship, conducting ceremonies universally considered to
be cruel and repulsive.^4 The individuals to whose name the epithet al-
sabi is attached, however, are usually noted for their cultural refi nement
and high level of education, and are involved in the translation and com-
position of philosophical, astronomical, and mathematical writings.
Abraham, the fi rst hanif, is said to have opposed Sabian religion,^5 but in
some writings the Sabian religion is actually identifi ed as haniffiyya.^6
The earliest descriptions of the Sabians preserved in Arabic literature—
at varying levels of detail— date from the tenth century.^7 This leaves a
gap of approximately four centuries in the textual continuity of descrip-
tions of the pagan worship in Harran. Given the lack of early sources,
scholars are forced to rely on testimonies written between the tenth and
the thirteenth centuries, and to assume that these late testimonies are
likely to refl ect lost earlier sources. In this par ticular case, however, such
an assumption adds to the existing confusion, since the later works con-
tain muddled and sometimes contradictory descriptions.^8 The detailed
Sabian calendar that Ibn al- Nadim presents does not correspond to the
one preserved by Biruni,^9 and the philosophical conceptions (namely,
pre-Socratic atomism) that Abu Bakr al- Razi may have attributed to the
Sabians differ from those attributed to them by Masudi or Ibn al- Nadim.
Arab heresiographers seem to have been aware of the contradictions in
(^4) SeeGhayat al-hakim, ed. H. Ritter (Leipzig and Berlin, 1933), 225, 228; “Picatrix”: Das
Ziel des Weisen von Pseudo- Majriti, trans. H. Ritter and M. Plessner (London, 1962), 237,
240; Ibn al- Nadim,al-Fihrist, ed. G. Flügel (Leipzig, 1872), 231; C.S.F. Burnett, “Arabic,
Greek and Latin Works on Astrological Magic Attributed to Aristotle,” in Jill Kraye et al.,
eds.,Pseudo-Aristotle in the Middle Ages: The Theology and Other Texts (London, 1986),
- For a summary of sources and theories regarding the Sabians, see T. M. Greene, The
City of the Moon God: Religious Traditions of Harran (Leiden, 1992).
(^5) See, for example, Shahrastani, who describes at length a debate between a Hanif and a
Sabi;Kitab al- milal wa’l-nihal, Book of Religious and Philosophical Sects, ed. W. Cureton
(Leipzig, 1923), 126– 41, 147– 49. On the concept “Hanif,” see Quran 3 [al-Imran]: 6; 16
[al-Nahl]: 122. See also W. Montgomery Watt, “Hanif,” EI, 3: 165– 66.
(^6) As, for example, in the writings of Ibn Hazm and Biruni—see H. Corbin, “Rituel sabéen
et exégèse ismaélienne du rituel,” Eranos Jahrbuch 19 (1950): 181– 246.
(^7) The Sabians are mentioned by the ninth- century Jewish phi losopher al- Muqammas, but
the chapters preserved from his book do not contain detailed descriptions of them. See S.
Stroumsa, ed. and trans., Dawud ibn Marwan al- Muqammis’s Ishrun Maqala (Leiden,
1989), 107 and note 30, and 130 and note 12. From the descriptions of the ninth- century
philosopher Sarakhsi only excerpts have been preserved, quoted by the tenth- century Ibn
al-Nadim; See Fihrist, 373 ff. The composition of Thabit Ibn Qurra (835– 901) regarding
the Sabian religion did not survive at all.
(^8) Greene,The City of the Moon God, 144, states that “Muslim material on Harran is wildly
contradictory.”
(^9) Ibn al- Nadim, al-Fihrist, 318– 27; Abu Rayhan al- Biruni,al-Atar al- baqiyaan al- Qurun
al-Khaliya, ed. C. E.Sachau (Leipzig, 1878), 331– 81; Greene, The City of the Moon God,
142–52.