Chwolson’s style of arguing seems easy, and it can be synthesized as follows: since Muhammad could not include a pagan community in the ''People of the Book'', to which Jews and Christians surely belonged, the Harranians cannot but lie when professing themselves ''Sabians'' (and in this sense the famous story of the meeting/dispute between Caliph al-Ma’mùn and the Harranians contained in al- Nadìm’s ''Fihrist ''chapter X plays a decisive role, as the perfect thing for this occasion <ref>IBN AL-NADIM, ''Kitàb al-Fihrist'', ed. G. FLUGEL, Leipzig 1872; ET by B. DODGE, ''The Fihrist of al-Nadìm'', New York-London 1970, pp.751-3. A similar version of the facts, even if much shorter than that, is given by HAMZA ISFAHANI, ''Ta’rìkh sinì mulùk al-ard wa l-anbiyà’'', LT by I..M.E. GOTTWALDT, Petropoli-Lipsiae, 1848, p.3; and by AL-KHWARIZMI, ''Mafàtih al-‘ulùm'', ed. G. Van VLOTEN, Lugd. Bat. 1895, p.36 (= CHWOLSON, op. cit., II, p.504 and p.506). Though not changing the information’s bulk, it seems us quite interesting the Greek word (= ''neighbourhood'', ''proximity'') quoted in brackets by the English translator of AL-BIRUNI, ''The Chronology of Ancient Nations'', ed. and ET by E. SACHAU, London 1879, p.314 f.: ''The same name is also applied to the Harrànians … although they themselves did not adopt this name before A.H. 228 under Abbasid rule, solely for the purpose of being reckoned among those from whom the duties of ''Dhimma ''(''metoikìa'') are accepted and towards whom the laws of ''Dhimma ''were observed. Before that time they were called heathens, idolaters, and Harrànians''. For the connection ''pàroikos ''(= ''mètoikos'') – ''ger ''- proselyte, see SCHURER-VERMES-MILLAR-GOODMAN, ''The History of the JewishPeople'', III, 1, p.170 n.78 (with abundant items from ''Talmud ''and ''Mishnah''’s writings): ''The word [''ger''] is originally equivalent to ''pàroikos'', ''advena'', but later a convert to Judaism – ''nomìmois proselelytòs toìsIoudaikoìs'', ''Ant. ''xviii, 3, 5 (82)''.</ref>; on the other hand, if the Harranian people are not the ''Sabi’ùn ''mentioned in ''Suras'' II, V and XXII laconic verses, there is no doubt that the Prophet had somebody else in mind: but who are the members of this unknown monotheistic community? The phonetic likeness ''Subbi''-''Sàbi’ùn ''provides Chwolson with the answer he wishes <ref>CHWOLSON, ''Die Ssabier'', I , chap. 5 (''Ueber die babylonischen Ssabier im Coràn oder die Mendaiten''), pp.100-38. The Russian orientalist accepts an idea previously proposed by J.D. MICHAELIS, ''Orientalischen Bibliotek'', Vol. 13, Frankfurt 1778, p.30 and Vol. 18, 1782, p.52, p.54, and by M. NORBERG, ''De Religione et Lingua Sabaeorum Commentatio'', Comment. Soc. Reg. Societ. Gott''., ''Vol. III, 1781 (cf. CHWOLSON, op. cit., I, p.66 ff.).</ref>.

But this solution is only apparently easy: it requires both a falsehood on the part of the Harranians who wanted to defend at any cost their ancient religious traditions, and an interested misunderstanding by the Islamic authorities who were welldisposed to turn a blind eye on a pagan community ''à outrance ''in exchange for money (the well-known ''leit-motiv ''of the Near-Eastern peoples’ innate corruption); moreover, it lets a very small religious group grow up in Muhammad’s mind until it becomes a Universal Religion like Christianity and Judaism, as it requires a rather free use of the rules of Etymology (and it is not surprising that very soon the latter point in Chwolson’s thesis was bitterly criticized). This is why we say that Chwolson fails not only in working out the simplest theory, but just a simple one, unless one uses the word as a fable, rather than as something worthy to the word Science. It goes without saying that if all the pieces of evidence in the new pattern which we are going to provide were demonstrated <ref>19 So for example J. PEDERSEN, “The Sabians”, in T.W. ARNOLD - R.A. NICHOLSON eds., ''‘Ajabnàma.A Volume of Oriental Studies Presented to E.G. Browne'', Cambridge 1922, p.387. Further criticisms already by T. NOLDEKE, Review to ''Thesaurus sive Liber Magnus vulgo Liber Adami appelllatus OpusMandaeorum ''…, ed. H: PETERSMANN, ''Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen'', I, Leipzig 1869, pp.481-501; W. BRANDT, ''Elchasai, ein Religionstifter und sein Werk '', Giessen 1912 p.144 ff.</ref>beyond any doubt, we would not have spent so many words arguing and criticizing a book written a hundred an fifty years ago, even if – as we have already said – its theoretical issues are those which are to be found in most encyclopaedias and dictionaries. But we believe that all means are valid to show how much the opening of an alternative horizon on the Sabian problem is needed: it will lead the scholars’ efforts in a direction that might have been totally ignored, without the material collected here. In other words, we hope that, with the help of our suggestions, new evidence will come to light, strengthening our arguments’ validity.

==The Etymological Model==

It is impossible to be grateful enough to the Italian scholar Giovanni Semerano for the work which he has carried out throughout his life (he is now ninety-two years old!) in the field of Etymology. In fact, nobody before him, had proved in the same degree the unbelievable conservative power of language and the practical consequences of this fact on a historical level. For those who do not yet know this learned man or the struggles he had to fight to make his revolutionary position known, we need only to quote his main work, ''Le origini della cultura europea ''<ref>20 G. SEMERANO, ''Le Origini della Cultura Europea'', Firenze 1984.</ref>(''TheOrigins of the European culture'') and the more recent book ''L’infinito: un equivocomillenario ''<ref>21 G. SEMERANO, ''L’Infinito: un Equivoco Millenario'', Milano 2001.</ref>(''Infinity: a millenary mistake''), which another Italian scholar, the philosopher Emanuele Severino, once called ''una festa dell’intelligenza''. Why such a title? And why should it represent ''a feast of the intelligence''? <ref>22 See U. GALIMBERTI, Review to SEMERANO’s ''L’Infinito ''in ''La Repubblica'', 14/06/2001, “Il Linguista che fa tremare l’Accademia”. </ref>Because Semerano for the first time sweeps away an old idea, which he defines in terms of ''Indoeuropean Mirage'' <ref>23SEMERANO, ''Le Origini'', I, p.7 ff.</ref>, implying that the linguistic roots of Italian, in particular, and those of other European languages, more generally, for the most part go back to old Greek or to Latin (more remotely, to Sanscrit as well). The issues linked to such a wrong use of Etymology’s rules were often quite funny: let us recall here only the once common etymological explanation of the word ''Italia'', which the ''Indoeuropean Mirage'' went as far as connecting to the Latin term ''vitulus'', obtaining consequently the curious result: ''Italia'' = ''Terra dei Vitelli'' (''the Calves’ Country'')! <ref>24SEMERANO, ''Le Origini'', II, p.492 f., where the ancient tale handed down by the Greek historian Hellanicos (V c. B.C.E.) which gave birth to such a belief is recorded; cf. GALIMBERTI, Review.</ref>

Against such miracles of ingenuity, in virtue of which everything becomes possible, Semerano rightly raised the plain objection that the initial ''i'' in the word ''Italia'' is long, whereas in the word ''vitulus ''it is short <ref>25SEMERANO'', ibidem''; cf. GALIMBERTI, Review.</ref>; this briefly means that in the first case the vowel ''i'' belongs to the word’s root, while in the second one it does not: nothing else is necessary to demonstrate that such an inference is wrong, and with it thousands and thousands of others. It is now easy to understand why Semerano felt the need to reconsider during his long and not always happy life <ref>26</ref> roughly twenty-five thousands words <ref>27</ref>, both common nouns and proper names, in old Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, German, English, Slavic, together with their alleged original Indoeuropean roots systematically collected by classical linguists. Thus to a great extent, he took on the task of rewriting Europe’s linguistic history, an activity which coincided eventually with rewriting the history of the European culture itself: a huge task, indeed!

As we are writing these pages, we realize that it is the 27th of January, a date which Italy and other European countries, plus Israel and the U.S.A., decided a few years ago to celebrate as a ''Memorial Day'', in order to show to the new generations the atrocities of the Holocaust – the ''Shoah – ''during the past Second World War, so that nobody ever forgets Nazi-Fascist barbarity and, above all, so that such horror should never repeat itself in the course of human history. The present reference to anti-Semitism is not casual. In fact what Semerano calls the ''Indoeuropean Mirage'' saw the light just at the beginning of XIX century together with the birth of Comparative Linguistics, but it owed its existence to something that had nothing to do with a scientific and neutral interest in ancient languages: it was a floating mine, it was racism <ref>28</ref>. The proud sense of their own superiority over Semitic populations expressed by the Germans and other European peoples started from an unconscious hate that slowly transformed itself into an open will of destruction; and it was just the same absurd spirit of self-excellence that invented the legend of the beautiful and terrible Indo-European race, coming from the deep Asian steppes, riding on their fast wild horses, whose assigned destiny was the conquest of the world. ''We have been searching everywhere - Semerano says - but, in spite of our sincere efforts, we have found no trace of the Indoeuropeans at all'' <ref>29</ref>. Nor of their imaginary language, of course.

==A Strictly Etymological Proposal: the Accadian Noun ''Sàbu''==

As far back as 1649, the orientalist E. Pocock proposed for the first time the idea of identifying the Sabians with ''the worshippers of the heavenly army'', ''the stars'', to whom the Old Testament often make reference (''sabà hash-shamayim'') <ref>328</ref>. By advancing a similar proposal, the scholar had evidently in mind the astral Magic and generally the astrologic culture which, as a result of Maimonide’s opinion <ref>329</ref>, was known as being the Sabians’ most remarkable feature: so no one wonders why many authors dealing with the ''Sabian enigma'' went on following his suggestions since that time, as for example the French student Michel Tardieu who simply appears to be the last exponent of this line of thought <ref>330</ref>.

Actually the noun ''sabà ''means ''soldiers, army, military service'' <ref>331</ref>, but we guess that, if the Hebrew root ''SBA ''– both in nominal and in verbal form – has really some connections with the historical beginnings of the Sabian question, it is absolutely not because Sabianism is an astral religion or a form of heavenly idolatry, since the Harranian Sabianism itself cannot be entirely reduced to that. It is very tempting, for example, to imagine that the word had some relations with the cult(s) practised in a military environment, namely within a human milieu made up of mixed ethnical elements, by various nationalities, where the ''strangers’ '' dominant presence was the rule rather than the exception <ref>332</ref>. For the moment, however, without increasing what L. Massignon once felicitously called ''le roman syncrétistique des Sabéens'' <ref>333 </ref> with other fruitless speculations, it is worth paying more attention to the semantic values of the Hebrew root, considering the literary sources which allow us to see more in detail its several practical uses. Following this theme, one is given a genuine surprise: through the ''Torah'', in fact, the terms connected to this root systematically recur in relation with the particular priestly duties and privileges of Levi’s tribe. Let us read, for instance, chapter IV of ''Numbers'', verses 1-3: ''And the Lord spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying: ‘Take the sum of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, after their families, by the house of their fathers, from thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter into the host, ''to do the work ''in the tabernacle of the congregation’ '' <ref>334</ref>.

It is not difficult to see the close semantic links between the military service and the special tasks imposed on the members of the Levite clan which can be paralleled because of the similarity that exists between the soldier’s heavy burdens and the Levite’ weighty responsibilities consisting in carrying out their sacerdotal duties in the Temple. But there is more than that. The concept of ''service'' seems in fact to recur not fortuitously through the available textual evidence about the Sabians, since we have to do with two items occupying a significant position in the already quoted Arabian manual of Magic ''Gayat al-Hakìm''. The first one is a general definition of the ''Sabians'', where it is said that they are nothing else but ''the Nabataean ''servants ''of Chaldaeans'' <ref>335</ref>; in the Latin version of the work, the ''Picatrix'', the whole expression is slightly different, but the semantic bulk of ''service'' remains unwavering: ''Zabii ''= servi ''capti Chaldaerum ''<ref>336</ref>. The second text is relevant by itself, because it is part of the ''Gaya''’s introduction to the Sabian planetary prayers: ''And among the operations of the Sàbians is what al-Tabari the astrologer says concerning the drawing down of the power of the planets. He says: ‘That which is known to me concerning the drawing down of the planets and their services which I found attributed to the leaders of the Sabians and the servants of the temples, is what I will say. They say …’ '' <ref>337</ref>. We think that the Jewish linguistic background had certainly played a very remarkable role in modelling the Arabic verb(s) ''saba’a/sabà ''and upon the name(s) ''Sabian/Sabians'' connected with them, both from the point of view of the Hebraic wisdom and from the common usage of language, as we have learnt dealing with the root ''SHUBH ''and with some technical figures of the Hebraic culture like the ''gertoshàb'', as well as with some proper names such as ''Elizabeth ''<ref>338''</ref>. ''From a strictly etymological point of view, however, we are convinced that, if all these linguistic elements are fully pertinent, they must be considered at the same time in terms of progressive semantic intersections, issuing with an ever-increasing meaningfulness from the original noun which we believe does not come from Hebrew.

At this point, we have become familiar with a wide semantic field, the general co-ordinates of which are expressed by terms and concepts such as ''People(s), Nation(s), Greek(s), Soldier(s), Stranger(s), Servant(s), etc.''. Is there any coherence in that? We think so, mostly after having acknowledged the historical relationships between the particular roles played by these groups of people in reference to the prevailing religion according to the double-faced perspective according to which such a phenomenon was viewed in Late Antiquity, also beyond the frontier of the Roman Empire.

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/bpilant613/public_html/w/extensions/MobileFrontend/includes/diff/InlineDiffFormatter.php:103) in /home/bpilant613/public_html/w/includes/WebResponse.php on line 42

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/bpilant613/public_html/w/extensions/MobileFrontend/includes/diff/InlineDiffFormatter.php:103) in /home/bpilant613/public_html/w/includes/WebResponse.php on line 42

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/bpilant613/public_html/w/extensions/MobileFrontend/includes/diff/InlineDiffFormatter.php:103) in /home/bpilant613/public_html/w/includes/WebResponse.php on line 42

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/bpilant613/public_html/w/extensions/MobileFrontend/includes/diff/InlineDiffFormatter.php:103) in /home/bpilant613/public_html/w/includes/WebResponse.php on line 42
Changes - Wikinoah English