Ṣābī Matter: The Issue of Whether the Concept Ṣābī in the Qurʾān Signifies Ṣābiʾī/Ṣābiʾa

Year 2010, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 65 - 90, 07.09.2010

Cağfer Karadaş

https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2010.11.5

Abstract

In this article, we examine whether there is a contextual similarity between the expression "ṣābī", a concept in the Qurʾān, and "Ṣābiʾī", which is used as the name for a member of a particular religious group. Even though "ṣābī", which we find three times in the Qurʾān, is used as an adjective concerning religious conversion, it has been alleged that the word "ṣābiʾa" is the name of a religious group used first for the Mandaeans and later for a Ḥarrānian pagan society and that the word in the Qurʾān refers to this religion. Our study finds that there is neither a similarity nor an association between the "ṣābī" in the Qurʾān and the religious group "Ṣābiʾa (Sabians)" and that an artificial naming has emerged within history. Because the concept "ṣābī" was Arabic, and it was originally used for people who left the prevalent belief. Nonetheless, the expression "Ṣābiʾī" was used after the arrival of Islam on the assumption that it was the name given to the religion of the Mandaeans and the Ḥarrānians.

Keywords

Qurʾān, ṣābī, convert, Mandaeans, Ḥarrānians, polytheists, Magians, Jews, Christians, Ṣābiʾī

References

• Abū l-Baqāʾ, Ayyūb b. Mūsā al-Ḥusaynī al-Kafawī, al-Kulliyyāt, (ed. ʿA. Darwīsh and M. al-Miṣrī; Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1992).
• Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb b. Ibrāhīm b. Ḥabīb al-Anṣārī, Kitāb al-kharāj, (Cairo: al-Maṭbaʿa al-Salafiyya, 1396).
• Ashʿarī, Abū l-Ḥasan Ibn Abī Bishr ʿAlī b. Ismāʿīl b. Isḥāq, Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn wa ikhtilāf al-muṣallīn, 2 vols., 3rd ed., (ed. Hellmut Ritter; Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1980).
• Baghawī, Abū Muḥammad Muḥyī al-Sunna al-Ḥusayn b. al-Masʿūd, Tafsīr al-Baghawī (Maʿālim al-tanzīl), 4 vols., (ed. Khālid ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-ʿAkk and Marwān Suwār; Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1992).
• Baghdādī, Abū Manṣūr ʿAbd al-Qāhir b. Ṭāhir b. Muḥammad, al-Farq bayna l-firaq (ed. Muḥammad Muhyī al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd; Beirut: al-Maktaba al-ʿAṣriyya, 1990).
• Baghdādī, Uṣūl al-dīn, (Istanbul: Maṭbaʿat al-Dawla, 1928).
• Balādhurī, Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Yaḥyá b. Jābir, Futūḥ al-buldān (Ülkelerin Fetihleri), 2nd ed., trans. into Turkish by Mustafa Fayda, (Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, 2002).
• Bīrūnī, Abū l-Rayḥān Muḥammad b. Aḥmad, al-āthār al-bāqiya ʿan al-qurūn al-khāliya, (ed. Parwīz Adhkāʾī; Tehran: Mīrāth-i Maktūb, 1380 H. S.).
• Blois, F. C. de, "Ṣābiʾ", EI2, (Leiden: Brill, 1995), VIII, 672-675.
• Buckley, J. Jacobsen and Albrile, Ezio, "Mandaean Religion", trans. from Italian by Paul Ellis, Encyclopedia of Religion Second Edition, (editor in chief: Lindsay Jones; USA: Thomson Gale, 2005), VIII, 5634-5640.
• Cerrahoğlu, İsmail, "Kur'ân-ı Kerîm ve Sâbiîler [The Qurʾān and the á¹¢ābiʾīs]", Ankara Üniversitesi İlâhiyat Fakültesi Dergisi [Review of the Faculty of Divinity of Ankara University], X (1962), 103-116.
• Fahd, T., "Ṣābiʾa", EI2, (Leiden: Brill, 1995), VIII, 675-678.
• Gündüz, Şinasi, Son Gnostikler: Sâbiîler, İnanç Esasları ve İbadetleri [The Sabians: The Last Gnostics, Their Beliefs and Prayers], 2nd ed., (Ankara: Vadi Yayınları, 1999).
• Ḥimyarī, Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Munʿim, al-Rawḍ al-miʿṭār fī khabar al-aqṭār, 2nd ed., (ed. Iḥsān ʿAbbās; Beirut: Maktabat Lubnān, 1984).
• Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, Abū ʿUmar Aḥmad b. Muḥammad, Kitāb ʿiqd al-farīd, 5 vols., (ed. Aḥmad Amīn et al.; Cairo: Maktabat al-Nahḍa al-Miṣriyya, 1962).
• Ibn Abī Shayba, Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm al-ʿAbsī, al-Muṣannaf, 7 vols., (ed. Kamāl Yūsuf al-Ḥūt; Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Rushd, 1409).
• Ibn al-ʿIbrī, Abū l-Faraj Jamāl al-Dīn, Tārīkh mukhtaṣar al-duwal, (Beirut: Dār al-Mashriq, 1992).
• Ibn al-ʿIbrī, Tārīkh al-zamān, trans. into Arabic by Ishāq Armala, (Beirut: Dār al-Mashriq, 1986).
• Ibn al-Jawzī, Abū l-Faraj Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAlī, Zād al-masīr fī ʿilm al-tafsīr, (Beirut: al-Maktaba al-Islāmiyya, 1987).
• Ibn al-Nadīm, Abū l-Faraj Muḥammad b. Isḥāq, al-Fihrist, (ed. Ibrāhīm Ramaḍān; Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1994).
• Ibn Ḥazm, Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī b. Aḥmad al-áºāhirī al-Andalusī, Jumal futūḥ al-Islām in Rasāʾil Ibn Ḥazm al-Andalusī, (ed. Iḥsān ʿAbbās; Beirut: al-Muʾassasa al-ʿArabiyya li l-Dirāsāt wa l-Nashr, 1981), 125-133.
• Ibn Manẓūr, Abū l-Faḍl Ibn Manẓūr b. Mukarram Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Anṣārī al-Miṣrī, Lisān al-ʿArab, 15 vols., (Beirut: Dār á¹¢ādir, 1990).
• Ibn Qudāma, Abū Muḥammad Muwaffaq al-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad, al-Mughnī, (Cairo: Maktabat al-Jumhūriyya al-ʿArabiyya, n.d.).
• Iṣbahānī, Abū l-Qāsim al-Rāghib Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad b. Mufaḍḍal, al-Mufradāt fī gharīb al-Qurʾān, (Istanbul: Kahraman Yayınları, 1986).
• Kattānī, Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥayy b. ʿAbd al-Kabīr b. Muḥammad, al-Tarātīb al-idāriyya, (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿArabī, n.d.).
• Kaya, Remzi, "Ehl-i Kitap" [Ahl al-Kitāb], Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) [Turkish Religious Foundation Encyclopaedia of Islam] , X, 516-519.
• Khuwwārī, Hūd b. Muḥakkam, Tafsīr Kitāb Allāh al-ʿAzīz, 4 vols., (ed. Balḥājj b. Saʿīd al-Sharīfī; Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1990).
• Khwārizmī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Kātib Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Yūsuf, Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm, (Cairo: Maṭbaʿat al-Sharq, 1342).
• Lupieri, Edmondo F., "Mandaeans: i. History", Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, 20 January 2010, available at http://www.iranica.com/articles/mandaeans-1.
• "Mandaeans", Encyclopedia Britannica, XIV, 766-767.
• Maqdisī, Abū Naṣr al-Muṭahhar b. Ṭāhir, Kitāb al-badʾ wa l-tārīkh, 6 vols., (ed. Clement Huart; Paris: Erneste Laroux, 1903).
• Masʿūdī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī, Murūj al-dhahab wa maʿādin al-jawhar, 4 vols., 4th ed., (ed. Muḥammad Muhyī al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd; Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Tijāriyya al-Kubrā, 1964).
• Māturīdī, Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd, Taʾwīlāt Ahl al-sunna, 5 vols., (ed. Fāṭima Yūsuf al-Khaymī; Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 2004).
• Māwardī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. Ḥabīb, al-Nukat wa l-ʿuyūn, 6 vols., (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1992).
• Muqātil b. Sulaymān, Tafsīr Muqātil b. Sulaymān, 3 vols., (ed. Aḥmad Farīd; Beirut: n.p., 2003).
• Mutarjim Aḥmad ʿāṣim Efendī, al-Uqyānūs al-basīṭ fī tarjamat al-Qāmūs al-muḥīṭ, 3 vols., (Istanbul: n.p., 1268).
• Muzanī, Abū Ibrāhīm Ismāʿīl b. Yaḥyá b. Ismāʿīl al-Shāfiʿī, Mukhtaṣar Kitāb al-Umm, (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, n.d.).
• Nāshiʾ al-Akbar, Abū l-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad, Masāʾil al-imāma, (ed. Josef van Ess; Beirut: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1971).
• Nawawī, Abū Zakariyyā Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyá b. Sharaf al-Mūrī, Kitāb al-majmūʿ, 9 vols., (ed. Muḥammad Najīb al-Mutīʿī; Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, Beirut, n.d.).
• Pines, Shlomo, Madhhab al-dharra ʿinda l-muslimīn (Beiträge zur Is-lamischen Atomenlehre), trans. into Arabic by Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Hādī Abū Rīda, (Cairo: Maktabat al-Nahḍa al-Miṣriyya, 1946).
• Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus), The Natural History of Pliny, 6 vols., trans. with notes by John Bostock and H. T. Riley, (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855).
• Qurṭubī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr, al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 10 vols., (ed. Muḥammad Ibrāhīm al-Ḥifnāwī; Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2005).
• Rāzī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Fakhr al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿUmar, al-Tafsīr al-kabīr, 32 vols., (Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1934).
• Rāzī, al-Riyāḍ al-mūnaqa fī ārāʾ ahl al-ʿilm, (ed. Asʿad Jumʿa; Kairouan: Markaz al-Nashr al-Jāmiʿī, 2004).
• Rudolph, Kurt, "Mandaeans: ii. The Mandaean Religion", Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, 20 January 2010, available at http://www.iranica.com/articles/mandaeans-2-religion.
• Sāʿid al-Andalusī, Abū l-Qāsim Sāʿid b. Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Ṭabaqāt al-umam, (ed. Ḥayāt Bū ʿAlwān; Beirut: Dār al-Ṭalīʿa, 1985).
• "Sabians", Encyclopedia Britannica, XIX, 855.
• Samʿānī, Abū l-Muẓaffar Manṣūr b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān (Kitāb al-tafsīr) , (ed. Abū Tamīm Yāsir b. Ibrāhīm and Abū Bilāl Ghānim b. ʿAbbās; Riyāḍ: Dār al-Waṭan, 1997).
• Sarakhsī, Abū Bakr Shams al-Aʾimma Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Sahl, Sharḥ Kitāb al-Siyar al-kabīr, 5 vols., (ed. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad al-Shāfiʿī; Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1997).
• Shahrastānī, Abū l-Fatḥ Tāj al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm, al-Milal wa l-niḥal, 2 vols., (ed. ʿAbd al-Amīr ʿAlī Mahnā and ʿAlī Ḥasan Fāʿūr; Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1990).
• Ṭabarī, Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. Jarīr, Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān, (ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī; Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2003).
• Ṭabarī, ʿAlī b. Sahl Rabban, al-Dīn wa l-dawla fī ithbāt nubuwwat al-Nabī Muḥammad, 4th ed., (ed. ʿādil Nuwayhiḍ; Beirut: Dār al-āfāq al-Jadīda, 1982).
• Thaʿlabī, Abū Isḥāq Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Nīsābūrī, al-Kashf wa l-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān, 6 vols., (ed. Sayyid Kasrawī Ḥasan; Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2004).
• Wāḥidī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Nīsābūrī, al-Wasīṭ fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-majīd, 4 vols., (ed. ʿādil Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Mawjūd; Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1994).
• Yılmaz, Melek, Mugîre b. Şu'be, Hayatı, Kişiliği ve Devlet Adamlığı [Mughīra b. Shuʿba, His Life, Personality and Statesmanship], (MA thesis; Bursa: Uludağ University, 2005).
• Zamakhsharī, Abū l-Qāsim Jār Allāh Maḥmūd b. ʿUmar, al-Kashshāf ʿan ḥaqāʾiq ghawāmiḍ al-tanzīl wa ʿuyūn al-aqāwīl fī wujūh al-taʾwīl, 4 vols., (ed. Muḥammad al-Saʿīd Muḥammad; Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Tawfīqiyya, n.d.).