'''Gnostic Noahites''', '''Sabian Hanifs''' or '''Hanif Sabians''' or '''Paulicians''' or '''proto-Maronites''' in the Roman Province of Tachkastan followed the Essene Jews from whom the Manicheans had seceded from them under the influence of Marcionism and Mandaeism. William St. Clair Tisdall prove that they preserved many Gnostic folktales about Jesus Christ such as for example:
:The "History of the Nativity of Mary and the Saviour's Infancy"
