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388 Gerald HawtingChristianity that emphasize such things as the importance of Jerusalem, the Sabbath(whetherSaturday or Sunday) and the shunning of icons can be spontaneous, asPatricia Crone has pointed out in connection with her suggestion that iconoclasticimpulses could have been mediated between Islam and Byzantium by a Jewish­Christian group. 48Pines argued that there is indeed evidence for the existence of Jewish-Christian .groups in the Arab-Islamic world of the seventh and eighth centuries. 49 That typeof evidence is, however, not overwhelming, and any argument that early Islamwas influenced by such groups, or emerged in a setting where Jewish Christianitywas important, must depend equally on an analysis of ideas and practices. Theargument about whether messengers of God must be angels or men adds tothe material that suggests a connection between a Gnostic-inspired JewishChristianity and some of the Qur' iinic material, albeit that in this case the"Jewish-Christian" arguments are refuted by the Qur'iinic messenger.There is at least one other text that suggests that such arguments were stilltopical among Jews in the ninh century CE. Sa'adyii Gaon (d. 331/942), in hisKitab al-Amanat wa-1-i 'tiqadat, also argues strongly that prophets must be humanbeings and that for God to send an angel would not be effective. Angels canperform all sorts of wonders and their miracles would not, therefore, be a sign ofthe authenticity of their claims. It is only when a miracle is performed by someoneknown to be human that it can help to persuade those to whom the prophet hasbeen sent. 5°Although Sa'adyii's arguments have some points incommon withthose of theQur'iinic messenger, it does not seem to me that they derive from the Qur'iin. Hislanguage .is different even though, like the Qur'iin, he refers to the bodily needsand weaknesses of the prophets sent by God. His explanation of why God does notsend angels but rather ordinary men- because otherwise the prophet's miracleswould be meaningless·- is also rather different from the Qur' iinic stress on angelsas signs of the end and the fact that angels do not normally inhabit the earth. Butagainst whom were Sa'adyii's arguments directed? Might they point to the existenceof a Gnostic type sect of .the sorts we have referred· to here among the Jewsof his time?Several scholars, seeking the target of his polemic, have sought to relate it to arather obscure and mysterious Jewish sect called the Maghiiriyya, often understoodto have originated before Christianity and, according to Wolfson, at onestage to have adopted Christianity. Reports about this sect in medieval ArabicMessengers and angels in the Qur'an 389sources refer to a belief in an angel responsible for the creation and operation ofthe world. According to Shahrastiini (d. 548/1153) the Maghiiriyya (he has themas al-Maqiiriba) held that it is normally possible that "[God] sends a single angelfrom all of the elite ones (al-khawa!f/i, i.e. the archangels?)/ 1 assigns his name tohim (yulqf 'alayhi ismahu), and proclaims: 'This is My messenger (rasiil). Hisplace among you is My place, his words and commands among you are My wordsand commands, and his appearance (~uhiir) among you is My appearance.' Thiswas the state of that angel." 52· I am inclined to share W asserstrom' s doubts about using the text of Shahrastfuiias a straightforward source of historical facts about the sects that he treated, andto heed his warnings about the chronological information given for the Maghiiriyya.Furthermore, there is no real evidence that Sa' adyii was indeed directing his argumentagainst that sect in particular. That the Gaon felt called upon to reject theidea that prophets were in fact angels, however, suggests that Gnostic type ideaspersisted in early Islarr:llc times among groups associated with Judaism as well asamong the ghulat sects more associated with Islam.48 Crone, "Islam, Judea-Christianity and Byzantine Iconoclasm", JSAI 2, 1980, 59-95.49 See especially his "Notes on Islam and on Arabic Christianity and Judaeo-Christianity," where hedraws attention to an account stemming from the Christian pilgrim Arculf, who visited Jerusalemin the time ofMu'awiya, referring toiudaei Christianiin Jerusalem. S. Pines, "Notes on Islam andon Arabic Christianity and Judaeo-Christianity," Jentsalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 4, 1984,(136-52) 145-47.50 See Sa' adyii Gaon, The Book of Doctrines and BeliefS, translated and abridged byA. Altmann, Indianapolis: Hackett, 2002, 107-{)8 .51 The translation provided by Wasserstrom (see following note), based on the edition ofShahrastiiniby Badriin (3 vols, Cairo 1968), differs here.52 AI-Milal wa-1-nif:zal, ed. W. Cureton, Loudon: Society for the Publication of Oriental Texts, I 842-46, 92. See too Harry A. Wolfson, "The pre-existent angel ofthe Magharians and al-Nahawandi,"Jewish Quarterly Review 51, 1969, 89-106; N. Golb, "Who were the Magiitiya?" JAOS 80, 1960,347-59; G. Stroumsa, "Le couple de l'ange et de !'esprit: traditionsjuives et chretiennes," RevueBiblique 88, 1981, (42-61) 50; J. Fossum, "The Magharians: A pre-Christian Jewish sect and itssignificance for the study of Gnosticism and Christianity," Henoch 9, 1987, 303-44; and StevenM. Wasserstrom, "SahrastiinT on the Magariyya," Israel Oriental Studies 17, 1997, 127-54.._,·.I'I:.!.I