Studies in a Mosque - The Search For Mecca

SABIANS AND CHEISTIANS OF ST. JOHN. 255
Golius follow him in his etymology. So the theories
went on. Everybody had a conjecture to offer about
the Sabians, but nobody really had the necessary data
on which to ground an opinion. The only point on
which all agreed was that the essential characteristic
of the Sabian religion was the worship of the stars ;
and this idea has generally been the prevailing notion
in Eastern and Western minds when they thought of
the Sabian creed. Meanwhile, travellers in the East
were bringing back accounts of a peculiar people,
called Sabians, who dwelt in the fens of Lower Meso-
potamia, and had a religion of their own which could
not be explained altogether by the old conception of
star- worship, and whose reverence for St. John Baptist
gained for them, among Europeans, the name of
" Christians of St. John." Ignatius a Jesu published
at Rome, in 1652, his " Narratio " of the origin, ritual,
and errors of the Christians of St. John ; and for a
long time after this the history of the controversy is
only a " narratio " of the errors of Ignatius a Jesu.
Further complications were introduced by the discovery
of many references in Oriental writers to a sect also
called Sabian, dwelling at Harran. The problem now
seemed involved beyond hope of extrication. To
distin^ruish or to unite the Sabeans of Job and Philos-
torgius, the Sabians of Babylonia, and the Sabians of
Harran, was beyond the skill of the scholars of the
day. They tried to identify the Sabians of Baby-
lonia with those of Harran, and had to invent
for that purpose a new Harran in Mesopotamia,
instead of the ancient Carrhae ; but a junction be-