Harranian Sabeans

Static levitation is a form of marvel with metaphysical implications whose long history has not previously been charted. First, Pliny the Elder reports an architect's plan to suspend an iron statue using magnetism, and the later compiler Ampelius mentions a similar-sounding wonder in Syria. When the Serapeum at Alexandria was destroyed, and for many centuries afterwards, chroniclers wrote that an iron Helios had hung magnetically inside. In the Middle Ages, reports of such false miracles multiplied, appearing in Muslim accounts of Christian and Hindu idolatry, as well as Christian descriptions of the tomb of Muhammad. A Christian levitation miracle involving saints' relics also emerged. Yet magnetic suspension could be represented as miraculous in itself, representing lost higher knowledge, as in the latest and easternmost tradition concerning Konark's ruined temple. The levitating monument, first found in classical antiquity, has undergone many cultural and epistemological changes in its long and varied history.

Thābit b. Qurra (d. 288/901), a Sabian of Ḥarrān, and his descendants remained in their ancestral religion for six generations. Why did they persist despite pressure to convert? This article argues that religious self-identification as a Sabian could be a distinct advantage in Baghdad’s elite circles. It focuses on Thābit’s great-grandson Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Hilāl al-Ṣābī (d. 384/994) and his poetry as collected by al-Thaʿālibī (d. 429/1038). Two members of the family who did convert are also considered by way of contrast.

Okuyucu bu metinde oldukca garip, ayni olcude zengin bir tarihe sahip olan bir yiyecegin oykusunu bulacaktir. Antropolojik kokleri en ciplak haliyle olasilikla yazili tarih oncesinin cig et yeme pratigine dayandirilabilen, ancak medeniyetle birlikte farkli kulturler (gocebe-yari gocebe-tarimci) ve dinsel gelenekler (Yunan ve Dogu, ayrica Girit gibi guneyli ve adali) uzerinden surdurulegelmis ve o kulturlerce iceriklendirilmis, dahasi, arka planindaki olasi insan kurbani ve yamyamliga ragmen, once Orfiklerce, sonra Yeni Pisagorcularca modifiye edilmis olan bir yiyecekle karsi karsiyayiz. Yani, gercekte insan kurbaniyla iliskili olsun ya da olmasin, belli belirsiz arkaik ya da kannibalistik bir imaja sahip olan cig kofte, aslinda ayni zamanda ve ozellikle felsefi bir yiyecektir. Yine de o sadece Yeni Pisagorcular araciligiyla edinmis oldugu felsefi yaniyla da tarif edilemez. Cig koftenin astrolojiyle ilgili bir yani da vardir ve biz bunu onun geleneksel yedi baharatindaki sayi sembolizminde goruruz. Ote yandan, gayrimedeni, avam ve tasrali imajina ragmen, onun belki de simyevi bir yanindan bile soz edilebilir. Bu calismada ilk kez cig koftenin kokleri, tarihi, yaslandigi sembolizm, iliskilendigi dinsel ve dinsel olmayan gelenekler ve mitolojiler gibi konular irdelenmistir.

This dissertation aims primarily at presenting the critical edition of two works: AlWāridāt wa’l-Taqdīsāt and Sharḥ al-Asmā’ al-Arba‘īn. The first text is for the first time published in its entirety. Some of its disparate fragments (around the third of the entire size in total) have been already printed in original Arabic or in Persian and French translations but were not subjected to serious critical editing based on more than one original manuscript. As far as the second is concerned, which has the character of a free form and multiple variants extant in the numerous manuscripts I cannot exclude the possibility that some of them could 7 have been issued uncritically under another title, however I do not own any substantial knowledge in that matter, except the single prayer (Du‘ā’ Idrīs) that is the base of the commentary and was published at least three times. What I hope is that for the first time various variants of the commentary (Sharḥ) have been presented simultaneously and in the form of critical edition. This dissertation contains also the critical edition of additional seven short texts of Al-Suhrawardī that are found in the manuscripts related to Al-Wāridāt wa’l-Taqdīsāt

The chapter, based mainly on field research conducted by the author in Iraq, Turkey, and Georgia, is devoted to the Yezidi cult of the Seven Angels and their leader, called the Peacock Angel. Following an introduction to the Yezidi religion, it focuses on the relationship between the Yezidi concept of God’s essence (sur) and the Seven Angels, who, like the seven Yezidi saints and the seven planets, are its manifestations and objects of religious worship. Apart from an attempt to answer the question which of the heavenly bodies the Peacock Angel is connected with and to which angel it corresponds to in other religious traditions, another object representing him, the sanjak, is discussed. The search for the origins of the Yezidi cult points to several other religions which also refer to the seven angels, and concludes with the Harranian ‘Sabians’, whose beliefs were a mixture of elements of Platonism and local traditions. The preserved accounts about them allow the conclusion that, after the destruction of their temples, when the last representatives of the Sabians migrated to the area of Mardin and Mosul, they could have joined the religious community that was forming there between the 12th and
14th centuries and which became known as Yezidis.

Özet: Hicri 554 ile 626 yılları arasında yaşayan Ya‘kûb el-Mencinîkî Harranlıdır. Kaynaklarda “el-
Harrânî” nisbesiyle anılmıştır. el-Mencinîkî, mancınık yapımıyla uğraşmıştır. Bu yüzden “el-
Mencinîkî” nisbesini almıştır. Silahlara ve silah üretimine merak sarmıştır. Savunma ve savaş stra-
tejileri ile yönetim alanlarına da ilgi gösteren el-Mencinîkî, bu alanda ‘Umdetu’s-Sâlik fî Siyâseti’l-
Memâlik adlı bir eser yazmıştır. el-Mencinîkî aynı zamanda bir şairdir. Halife, emir ve vezirleri met-
heden şiirler yazmıştır. Onun şiirlerini bir araya topladığı Meğâni’l-Me‘ânî adlı bir divanı vardır. Şi-
irlerinde istiare, teşbih ve kinaye gibi söz sanatlarını kullanan el-Mencinîkî, farklı konularla ilgili şi-
irler yazmıştır. Bu çalışmada Ya‘kûb el-Mencinîkî’nin şairliği ele alınacaktır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Ya‘kûb el-Mencinîkî, Harran, şiir, şair, mancınık.

Translation of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi's commentary on Qur'an 2:30-34. The quranic narrative of Adam's presentation to the angels is the starting point of Razi's lengthy commentary, which can be considered as a complete treatise on angelology.

Bu denemede Hz Nuh ve Hz Adem'in mitolojik yönünü doğa unsurları üzerinden tanımlayan paganizmin spesifik bir yorumu ve özgün bir alanı olan Anadolu Paganizmi'nin kültürel antropolojik temelini oluşturan Hermetizm ve Harranilik'in batıni yorumunu hermönotik yöntemle ele aldım. Latin, Helen ve Mısır inisiyasyonunun bir bileşkesi olan ve kutsal diaddan triada geçmek olarak da bilinen Hermetik öğretilerin tarihsel anlatımının ezoterik bakışla ne anlama geldiğini ve hangi kaynaklara dayandırıldığına ilişkin bir teolojik mütalaa yaptım. Mistik ve inisiyatik yöntemle ve alegorik anlatımlarla mücehhez bir düşünce altyapısına sahip olan Hermetizm'in gezegen-yıldız kültleriyle olan bütünleşme geleneğinin yanında aynı zamanda monist dinlerle olan yakın ilişkisi, kadim antropolojinin Altın Çağ'ı yorumlamada nasıl bir etkisi olduğunu felsefi açıdan irdeledim.

The Ṭabaqāt al-umam opens with an account of the seven primeval nations taken from Masʿūdī’s Tanbīh. At the end of Ṣāʿid’s version, however, we are told that “these seven nations, which together constituted the whole of mankind, were all Ṣābiʾans” – an indication not found in the Oriental model. Several references to Ṣābiʾans also appear in the core of the Ṭabaqāt, a definitely more original section of the work in which the author reports the achievements of the eight nations (Indians, Persians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Arabs, and Jews) which in his view contributed to the improvement of science. The present paper examines all these passages. We try to determine where the author of the Ṭabaqāt situates these groups of Ṣābiʾans in the overall history of the nations, and we ask ourselves to what extent these groups may be regarded as continuators or remnants of the primordial Ṣābiʾans.

"The period between 950 and 1150 C.E. is regarded as "turning point in the history of the Islamic Culture" from the Early Islamic to the Late Medieval civilization. What led to the urban decline in between and the later recovery? Ḥ̣arrān and al-Raqqa serve as paradigma for the development in Northern Syria and Northern Mesopotamia.
The collapse of the cAbbasid state left the region cornered between Buyids, Fatimids and Byzantines to the nomadic tribes not acquainted with urban culture. After 1086 A.D., measures undertaken by the Seljuqs in order to safeguard their hegemony led to a renaissance of cities inspite of permanent power struggles and the crusades. They based their rule on fortified places. The financing of the army led to the distribution of land as fiefs (iqtac) and subsequently to a dislodgement of nomads and a recultivation of former agricultural land. Cash money for the treasury was generated by skimming long distance trade; this in turn required public security on the roads. An analysis of the monetary circulation according to archaeological and literal evidence serves as measure for the economic recovery. A corpus of the coin production in al-Raqqa, ḥarrān and al-Ruha'/Edessa supplements the textual sources.

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This paper attempts to trace the activity and influence of the Neoplatonic  philosopher Damascius and his disciples who after the closing of the Academy of Athens by Justinian I (529 AD) decided to move their intellectual establishment in Sassanind Persia (532), away from imperial oppression. There they managed to convince Khosrau I to include their case in a clause of the Eternal Peace of 532 with Justinian, guaranteeing their safety and freedom of traveling and preserving their beliefs undisturbed in Roman territory. The Philosophers settled in Harran in Northern Mesopotamia, a border-point between the two Empires, and re-established their School there. The Graeco-Aramaic background of some of Damascius’ disciples in combination with the bilingual environment (Greek and Persian) of the city encouraged the cultural osmosis and the translation of Greek texts to Syriac and later to Arabic. This well-established tradition was continued by local Syrian and Arab successors until approximately the ninth century and was responsible to an extent for the transmission of Neoplatonic Philosophy in Baghdad of the Abbasids.  Standing at the crossroad of Empires and Cultures the legacy of the School of Harran and of the last Neo-Platonists of Athens proved to be fundamental for the intellectual flourishing of the Arab World and its famous Golden Age.

Harran Sabiiler Nastûrî-Süryânî kiliselerinden farklı olarak yıldız ve gezegenlere tapan Pağan bir topluluk ve gelenek mevcuttu. Kökleri M.Ö. üç bin yılındaki Asur-Babil politeizmine kadar gerilere uzanıyordu. M.Ö. IV. yüzyılda Büyük İskenderin doğu seferiyle (M.Ö.327-323) Yunan egemenliğine girmesi ile de geleneksel Harran dini/kültürel yapısı Yunan kültürü ile zorunlu bir tanışma yaşamıştır. Ayrıca şehirde o zamana kadar konuşulan Süryânicenin yanı sıra Makedon göçmelerin şehre yerleştirilmesi ile Yunanca da rağbet görmeye başlamış, bu sayede yerli halk Yunan filozof ve bilginlerinin eserleri ile tanışmışlardır. Bu zorunlu karşılaşma iki kültür arasında zamanla senkretik bir yapının oluşmasının da başlangıcı olmuştur. Bundan sonra uzun yıllar Harran Helenistik mirasın çok önemli bir merkezi olmuş; M.S. IV. Asırda ve M.S. IX. asırlarda yani Abbasiler döneminde Yunan bilim ve felsefesinin Süryanice ve Arapçaya tercüme edildiği bir merkez olarak öne çıkmıştır. Özellkle Matematik, Astronomi ve geometri alanlarında eserleri tercüme etmişler, bilimsel keşiflerde bulunmuşlardır.

This article studies the presence and role of Hermes Trismegistus, the mythical sage of Antiquity, in thirteenth-century Castilian wisdom literature and its fundamental works: Bocados de Oro, Libro de los buenos proverbios y Poridat de las Poridades, which had as their direct ancestor in Latin the Disciplina clericalis by Pedro Alfonso. To this end, particular attention is placed on the transformations and re-elaborations that Hermes underwent after passing through Arabic culture, from which the most important works of the sapiential genre derive. Finally, the article also shows how this literature has traces of all the important currents developed by Arabic Hermetism. The article offers a broad perspective of how the Hermetic tradition found an unsuspected place in Spanish literature.

Este artículo estudia la presencia y el papel de Hermes Trismegisto, sabio mítico de la Antigüedad, en la literatura sapiencial castellana del siglo XIII y sus obras fundamentales: Bocados de Oro, Libro de los buenos proverbios y Poridat de las Poridades, que tuvieron como directo precedente en Latín la Disciplina clericalis de Pedro Alfonso. Para ello pondré particular atención en las trasformaciones y reelaboraciones que Hermes había experimentado tras pasar por la cultura árabe, de la que derivan las obras más importantes del género sapiencial. Finalmente, también mostraré cómo esta literatura tiene rastros de todas las corrientes importantes desarrolladas por la Hermética árabe. El artículo ofrece una amplia perspectiva de cómo la tradición hermética encontró un insospechado cauce de difusión en la literatura española.

William Cantwell Smith commented that, alone of modern world religions, Islam is conscious of the world being divided into many religions from the outset. He argues that Islam launched itself into a world that already had religious traditions, but did so with a developed self-consciousness that allowed it to be conceived of as a closed system. In this sense, he argued, it was quite unlike a movement like Manichaeism, which emphasized its continuity with and inheritance from other traditions. 1 Islam was, moreover, also different from Christianity, in that the Gospels have little sense of Christianity as a distinct religion: following Jesus is a new form of discipleship, but it is unclear how this relates to older forms of communal membership or scripture. 'Muhammad seems to know what he was speaking of when he spoke of Islam, but it is hazy thinking to speak of Guru Nanak or Jesus or Lao Tzu as founders of religions.' 2 Cantwell Smith was writing some seventy years ago and we might wish to issue several caveats over his statements. We would now be much more wary of speaking of a single Islam, or to equate it so straightforwardly with Muhammad's 'revelation'. We might instead separate the thought-world of the Qur'an from the traditions that grew from it (or claimed to grow from it) in Kufa, Basra and Damascus, and then in Baghdad and a host of other centres of scholarship. 3 Fred Donner (2010) has recently proposed that Muhammad presided over a much more heterogenous community than has 1 Cantwell Smith 1964: 81-86, 93-94.

The article is an attempt to answer the question why Wednesday has the status of a holy day in Yezidism. Wednesday can be seen as a commemoration of the fourth day of creation, when the life on earth began and the Peacock Angel became its ruler. The article points to the Yezidi worship of the Moon and the Sun and related angels (Melek Fakhradin and Melek Sheikh Shams) and connects it with the Pythagorean concept concerning the movement of the planets and the Music of the Spheres. Two sacred Yezidi instruments, def and shibab, appear as allegories of celestial bodies in the Yezidi sacred hymns in the cosmogonic context of the creation of the macrocosm and microcosm (Adam). The article also points out the meaning of Wednesday in Judaism as the day when God created the sun, moon and stars and briefly discusses relationships with planet worship in Harran, Zoroastrianism and Mandaeism, especially in the context of the Yezidi Çarşemiya Sor festival which takes place on the first Wednesday of the month of Nisan.

Volume X, Fascicolo II le monnier -Firenze 2012 DI ESTRATTO: Tommaso Braccini, Orfeo, Publio e l'erebinthos di Damascio: ancora sulla fortuna delle «teste profetiche» dusforouv ntwn d∆ auj twǹ ej pi; toi" genomev noi" kai; ej n aj poriv a/ kaqesthkov twn ouj th/ tucouv sh/ boulomev nwn te aj posteilai eij " Delfouv ", fqev ggetai hJ kefalh; tou` paidiv ou ej pi; tou` ej dav fou" keimev nh kai; lev gei crhsmw/ ta; aj pobhsov mena: w\ poluuv mnhton naiv wn cqov na lao; " aj peiv rwn, mh; steic∆ ej " Foiv bou tev meno" naov n te quwv dh: ouj gav r soi kaqarai; cev re" ai{ mato" aij qev r∆ e[ cousin, aj lla; muv so" propav roiqe podwǹ e[ ntosqe keleuv qou. frav zeo d∆ ej x ej mev qen, triv podo" d∆ aj pov eipe kev leuqon: mantosuv nh" pasan ga; r ej fetmhv n soi katalev xw.

Within the multi-volume Kitāb al-Aghānī ('Book of Songs') of Abū'l Faraj al-Iṣfahānī, there is preserved for us a curious anecdote featuring a sharp exchange of verbal barbs between the eighth-century litterateurs and satirists Baššār b. Burd 1 and Ḥammād 'Ajrad. 2 Neither Baššār nor Ḥammād were renowned for their orthodox piety, and both figures enjoyed a reputation for dissoluteness and irreverence that contemporaries and later commentators often branded as zandaqa. 'Abd al-Jabbār numbers both of them among 'the leaders of the dualists,' a list of whom he found in al-Nawbakhtī and al-Misma'ī. 3 It remains unclear whether either bard merited such a charge in terms of an actual religious affiliation or sympathy, 4 but the allusions made by both interlocutors suggest they were not ignorant of dualist rhetoric. Here is the passage: 5

Fin dal XVI secolo esisteva in Valstrona una nobile famiglia di conti, detti «Gozzano», la cui residenza dominava l'abitato di Luzzogno. La stirpe diede parroci al paese e vescovi alla cristianità. Nell'edifcio, ancora esistente, al piano alto, sulla parete del loggiato nella quale si apre la porta di accesso alla camera da letto patronale, è ancora presente un complesso ed enigmatico dipinto allegorico risalente presumibilmente alla metà del Seicento. Poche o pressoché nulle sono le informazioni su questo «gioiello», che è tale non tanto per stile e qualità artistica, quanto per la sua profondità sapienziale e la sua vastità simbolica. Se le poche ricerche sull'argomento ne hanno individuato i tratti essenziali, bisogna spingersi in direzioni nuove per riuscire ad aferrarne i preziosi segreti. Il dipinto si presenta come una sorta di tabella, di tavola ben spaziata in quattro quadri, separati a coppie in senso verticale da una colonna, avvolta in spire da un drappo e terminante in un «sole» con la Madonna e il Bambino Gesù al centro. I due riquadri bassi presentano ciascuno una teoria di personaggi femminili, allegorie dei vizi e delle virtù. I due alti presentano invece schiere angeliche con tratti maschili. Una linea di cartigli o forse di tende separa le immagini angeliche da quelle femminili, come a oscurare le une dalla vista degli altri. Le due teorie maschili e femminili sono senz'altro un riferimento alla terra (femminile e umano) e al regno celeste (maschile e angelico). In senso orizzontale, le fgure femminili delle due teorie sono le stesse, ma ritratte ciascuna in comportamenti antitetici: lo specchio che induce prudenza, il guardare bene dentro sé stessi è anche lo specchio della vanità che genera superbia. Così, il bene e il male terreni si fronteggiano, ma esistono insieme, sono aspetti di una stessa cosa. Ma, appunto, bene e male sono soltanto terreni; nel regno celeste non c'é spazio alcuno per il male. Infatti, sono angeli anche quelli che si avvicendano sopra ai vizi e sono precisamente quei 7 vittoriosi, di cui parlano i profeti biblici e l'Apocalisse, ciascuno sopra ogni afizione. Gli angeli più esterni portano emblemi eloquenti che si rifanno ai Vangeli: il velo della Veronica, che fu «sollecita» nel soccorre Gesù, la croce del Cireneo che fu suo «alleato» nella salita al Golgota, ecc. Se poi facciamo caso alla scelta di porre i vizi alla sinistra della Madonna e le virtù a destra, otteniamo una precisa direzione di lettura, aiutata anche dagli sguardi reciproci di tutti i personaggi: dai 7 angeli guardiani con gli sguardi verso il basso, l'occhio viene condotto ai vizi, da questi alle virtù e di nuovo in alto verso i 7 «angelici» Doni dello Spirito. Lo sguardo e il corpo del Bambino Gesù sono rivolti a chi «lo segue», quelli della Madre a chi è lontano e ancora deve percorrere il «sentiero irto di ostacoli». Si compie con gli occhi una spirale, discendente e poi ascendente, quella della fallacità umana che, con l'aiuto del cielo può diventare virtù e attraverso questa ci può portare al cielo e ai suoi doni spirituali. L'albero al centro, rifà lo tesso movimento, di discesa attraverso le spire del drappo, di risalita

Proceeding from the Renaissance philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man, this paper is an attempt to survey the historical premises of the academic study of religion, both as a practice of detaching the subject matter of religion from its insti- tutional restrictions, and as a practice of rehearsing certain modalities of thought and action (philosophical as well as religious) flourishing in the ancient world long before Christianity conquered the sphere of public worship in the fourth century. By paying particular attention to themes of suspension and commensality in religious practice and discourse, an attempt is made to reconsider the critical task of the history of religions, famously devised by Bruce Lincoln as a reversal
of the orientation of religious discourse.