The Sabaeans, Magians and Zandiqin As They Pertain To Islamic Origins

Arab writers after around 832 CE typically identify a group of star and planet worshipping polytheists as Sabaeans. This late view is undoubtedly the source of Maimonides’ confusion on the matter as well. The Qur’ānic Sabaeans, however, are a group which is never associated with polytheism or shirk, and never even critiqued. As we will see, Muḥammad himself is described by his “polytheistic” adversaries as Sabaean, indicating that whatever their religion was, it was certainly more similar - if not identical - to the minhāj of Muḥammad than the planet and star worshipping cults which later authors describe. We will therefore restrict our inquiry to the earliest reports after Muḥammad, heavily favoring those reports before him. We will find that the Sabaeans were in fact a designation that pre-dated Muḥammad, and related to the Ossaean sect from which Elchasitism emerged and Manichaeanism splintered off. Related to this, we will accordingly find that early Muslim schola..