88 CHAPTER FOUR
De Blois’s suggestion refl ects a theory proposed some dozen years ago
by Michel Tardieu. According to this leading scholar of Gnosticism, the
Sabians of the Quran were the adherents of a specifi c Gnostic sect,^20
while the Sabians of Harran were indeed an ancient people, adherents of
a pagan religion. According to his suggestion, the Neoplatonist phi loso-
phers who were exiled from Athens by Justinian in 529 and took refuge
in Persia passed through Harran on their way back. The Sabian inhabit-
ants of Harran invited them to become their leaders, and they accepted
the offer.^21 This arrangement— the fulfi llment of the Platonic vision of
the philosopher- king—remained in effect until the tenth century. Ac-
cording to Tardieu, “Pagan Harran could have been a place of refuge for
the Greek phi losophers who were exiled from Athens, and thus became a
Greek- and Aramaic- friendly environment that could serve as a starting
point for the philosophical school which later gave rise to T
̄
abit Ibn
Qurra.”^22 Tardieu’s suggestion has the merit of highlighting the existence
of theurgic trends among pagan Neoplatonist phi losophers, and the pos-
sibility that these trends were also manifested in pagan Harran. This line
of thinking could prove helpful, provided that one does not attempt— as
Tardieu did— to use our hazy data in order to paint too precise a pic-
ture.^23 Tardieu’s claim relies mainly on Arabic sources, which he presents
with impressive erudition and persuasiveness. At the same time, a careful
examination reveals the entire theory to rely on a few lines written by
Masudi,^24 or rather, on Tardieu’s reading of these lines. Masudi is cer-
tainly an important source, but his reliability, consistency, and precision
(^20) According to Tardieu, they should be identifi ed with the stratiotikoi mentioned by Epiph-
anius. Despite the change in identifi cation of the Sabians, Tardieu in effect continues in the
direction already proposed by Edward Pococke, who sought the origin of the name “Sa-
bian” in the Hebrew: “tzeva ha- shamaayim”(heavenly host); see E. Pococke, Specimen
historiae Arabum (Oxford, 1649), 141– 43, quoted in M. Tardieu, “Sabiens coraniques et
Sabiens de Harran,” Journal Asiatique 274 (1986): 41.
(^21) Tardieu, “Sabiens.”
(^22) M. Tardieu, Les paysage reliques: routes et haltes syriennes d’Isidore à Simplicius (Lou-
vain and Paris, 1990), 161. Hämeen- Anttila, who does not cite Tardieu, offers a similar
description of a two- tiered Sabian society (that is, a society composed of learned phi loso-
pher pagans and of commoners), and he seems to leave open the possibility that this ar-
rangement held true not just in Harran, but also in rural Mesopotamia; see The Last
Pagans of Iraq, 52.
(^23) A clear and balanced way of connecting these data was proposed, for example, by Frank
Peters, who examined the sources of the Arab Platonic tradition. See F. E. Peters, “The Ori-
gins of Islamic Platonism: The School Traditions,” in P. Morewedge, ed., Islamic Philo-
sophical Theology (Albany, 1979), 14– 45. See also N. P. Joose, “An Example of Medieval
Arabic Pseudo- Hermetism: The Tale of Salaman and Absal,” Journal of Semitic Studies 38
(1993): 289– 90.
(^24) If Masudi’s claim that he visited Harran in 943 is accepted, he would be the only eyewit-
ness to have visited Harran during this period.