The strength of the idea of identifying the Sabians with the God-Fearers, namely the worshippers of One Most-High God, lies in the exceptional correspondence of the latter group not only with the three Koranic paragraphs mentioning ''Sàbi’ùn'', but also with most of the Arab-Islamic sources of the Middle Ages, in spite of the often hazy, loose, or even contradictory nature of such information. As far as the ''Koran''’s passages are concerned, we believe that the chains Muslims-Jews-Christians-Sabians (''Sura ''II), Muslims, Jews, Sabians Christians (''Sura ''V) and Muslims-Jews-SabiansChristians- Magians-Unbelievers (''Sura ''XXII) should be understood in terms of a sketch-map of the Universal Religions, though not chronologically listed, in some way similar to the one contained in Aristide’s ''Apology ''or to the other one shown by the famous ''Kartìr''’s Mid-Persian ''Inscription'': consequently, we find it '''impossible that the place of the Sabian group within the Muslims’ Holy Book might be occupied by a simple sect such as Mandaeans''', even if the last important work recently published on the subject by S. Gunduz goes on presenting this old theory once again. But an even more important reason why '''only God-Fearers appear perfectly able to take upon themselves the problematic identity of this (Sabi) community''' is that no other one possesses the singular features drawn by the definition of the Sabians often recurring in many literary sources, namely that they are ''a religious group which has no cult, scripture and prophet, admitting only the ''tawhìd'', the profession of faith: ‘There is no god but God’''. A religion with similar features is a kind of a paradox, but God-Fearers prove that the contrary is true: the available evidence about their beliefs and ritual practices, in fact, is quite meagre, as well as that about their gathering places, so that on the whole one can just state that they shared the universal code of moral-religious duties generally known by the label of ''[[Noachite laws]]''.
'''We should remember that ''[[Noah’s Laws’Laws]]'' were also the limited set of observances foreseen by the Jerusalem Council (51 C.E.) for uncircumcised Christians (''Ecclesia ex Gentibus'')'''. Together with other common religious features shared by both groups, this factor may explain why the first Latin translation of the ''Koran'', fully corroborating our theory, seems not to distinguish completely between Christians and God-Fearers; the same things happened – as Pines demonstrated - in the regions where different Iranian languages were spoken, since the name for Christians in Persia is still today just ''Tarsakàn'', ''Fearers'': this historical confusion may suggest that the ''Sabians'' mentioned by Muhammad might perhaps be nothing else but an alternative name for ''Christians''.
Our theoretical proposal is in accordance, besides, with another important traditional opinion about the Sabians, that they are a ''people who leave their religion (for another)''. Such an idea comes apparently from the Arabic root(s) ''SB’/SBW'', but we have checked the Hebrew root ''SHWBH ''which it seems likely had a very significant influence upon the Arabic one(s). Al-Bìrùnì’s statement that the Sabians are ''the adherents of the prevailing religion'' is closely connected with this line of thought, even if it seems not to derive from lexicographic sources. Needless to say, the last definition just like the previous ones cannot seriously be applied to any existing religion, nor to a religious phenomenon such as Conversion. Surely one of the factors which played a crucial role in this sense, also from a linguistic point of view, was the existence of an original group such as the God-Fearers, who are not adequately defined by a name like ''Converts'', but rather by that of ''Mid-Converts'', or even better by one of the above recorded periphrastic expressions.

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God-Fearers and the Identity of the Sabians

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