Podcast episode

July 31, 2024

Episode 191: Kevin van Bladel on the Ṣābians of Ḥarrān and the Fate of the Athenian Academy

There exists in scholarship a very, very seductive narrative, stemming from ingenious work by Michel Tardieu and others, which goes something like this: ‘Once the final Platonists had fled from Justinianic persecution to the Sassanian court, a treaty between the Persians and the Romans made provisions that they would be allowed to return to the Roman empire and live their philosophic lives unmolested. They returned, and settled in the border-town of Ḥarrān, in modern-day Türkiye, where they founded a new Athenian Academy, which evolved into the philosophical, astral, polytheist cult for which latter-day Harranians became famous, under the name of ‘Ṣābians’ (Ṣābi’a).’ For the first part of this story we have sparse, but solid, historical testimony from Roman historians; the wonderful second part seems to be based on very, very little evidence and a whole lot of filling-in of the blanks. As usual, though, the truth (as far as we can reconstruct it) is even more interesting than the scholarly fiction.

We examine this story piece by piece with Kevin van Bladel, discussing:

• An introduction to the history of the city of Ḥarrān, which remained polytheist through both Christian and Islamic hegemonies, until at least the eleventh century, and
• The curious term ṣābi’ūn/ṣābi’a and its evolution down the ages.
• Context established, we turn to the evidence (lack thereof, actually) for the ‘Harranian Academy’. Dreams are shattered in the process.
• We then discuss the evidence for Harranian religion in the Islamicate era, and those persistent rumours of astral worship among the Harranian Ṣābians.

Interview Bio:

Kevin van Bladel is Professor of the Classical Near East at Yale University. He has written the definitive book on the Arabic Hermetica-tradition, knows an embarrasing number of languages, dead and living, and is generally exactly the sort of person dear to our heart here at the SHWEP. Check out his Academia page if you don’t believe us.

Works Cited in this Episode:

Primary, roughly in order of discussion:

Khusrau I’s treaty with the Romans: Agathias Histories II.31.4 Frendo: ‘A clause was inserted in fact in the treaty, which at that time was being concluded between the Romans
and the Persians, to the effect that the philosophers should be allowed to return to their homes and to live out their lives in peace without being compelled to alter their traditional religious beliefs or to accept any view which did not coincide with them. Chosroes insisted on the inclusion of this point and made the ratification and continued observance of the truce conditional on its implementation.’

Bishop Theodore Abū Qurra mentions Ḥarranian astral worship in his time (the ninth century): ‘They claimed that they worship the seven planets—the sun, the moon, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Venus—and the twelve zodiacal houses, because they are the ones that create and govern this creation and give good fortune and prosperity in the lower world (ad-dunyā), and ill fortune and suffering. They said that their prophet in that is Hermes the Sage (al-ḥakīm).’: 200.8–201.1, trans. van Bladel 2009 (cited below), p. 85. Find an edition of the original in Theodore Abū Qurra, Maymar fī Wuǧūd al-ḫāliq wa-d-dīn al-qawīm / Traité de l’existence du créateur et de la vraie religion, ed. Ignace Dick, Jounieh, Librairie Saint-Paul/Rome, Pontificio Istituto Orientale, 1982.

The Qur’ān mentions the mysterious Ṣābi’ūn: 2:62; 5:69; 22:17.

Anecdote about the Khalifa Ma’mun visiting the Ḥarranians: the Christian Abū Yūsuf Īshu‘ al-Qaṭī‘ī , ap. al-Nadīm, Fihrist 385.3–30 (Flügel 320.10–321.11).

ibn Bahlul: see Kitāb ad-Dalā’il, Publications of the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Sciences, ed. Fuat Sezgin, Series C: Facsimile Editions, vol. 10, reproduced from MS Hekimoğlu 572, Süleymaniye Library, Istanbul.

al-Mas‘ūdī’s most important testimony for the question of the ‘Ḥarranian Academy’: Murūj al-ḍahab (ed. Pellat §§1394–1395 = 2.293.1–8, trans. 2.536–537).

Secondary:

‘Abdarraḥmān Badawı̄. Aflūṭı̄n ‘ind al-‘Arab. L’institut Français, Cairo, 1948.

Ilsetraut Hadot. Dans quel lieu le néoplatonicien Simplicius a-t-il fondé son école de mathématiques, et où a pu avoir lieu son entretien avec un manichéen? The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition, 1:42–107, 2007.

David Pingree. The Sābians of Harrān and the Classical Tradition. International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 9(1):8–35, 2002.

Franz Rosenthal. On the Knowledge of Plato’s Philosophy in the Islamic World. Islamic Culture, 14:387–422, 1940.

Michel Tardieu. Ṣābiens coraniques et ‘Ṣābiens’ de Ĥarrān. Journal Asiatique, 274: 1–44, 1986.

Idem. Les calandriers en usage à Ĥarrān d’après les sources arabes et le commentaire de Simplicius à la physique d’Aristote. In Ilsetraut Hadot, editor, Simplicius: Sa vie, son œuvre, sa survie. Actes du colloque international de Paris (28 Sept.-1er Oct. 1985), pages 40–57. De Gruyter, Berlin, 1987.

Kevin van Bladel. Hermes Arabicus. PhD thesis, Yale University, 2004.

Idem. The Arabic Hermes: From Pagan Sage to Prophet of Science. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009.

Recommended Reading:

SHWEP Episode 191 Recommended Reading

A chart of the Athenian and Alexandrian schools in late antiquity.

Themes

Astral Religion, Astrology, Astronomy, Damascius, Islamic Esotericism, Late Platonism, Mandæans, Plato, Polytheism, Pseudo-Aristotle, Ṣābians, Talismans, Thābit ibn Qurra