Ṣābī Matter: The Issue of Whether the Concept Ṣābī in the Qurʾān Signifies Ṣābiʾī/Ṣābiʾa

Abstract

In this article, we examine whether there is a contextual similarity between the expression "ṣābī", a concept in the Qurʾān, and "Ṣābiʾī", which is used as the name for a member of a particular religious group. Even though "ṣābī", which we find three times in the Qurʾān, is used as an adjective concerning religious conversion, it has been alleged that the word "ṣābiʾa" is the name of a religious group used first for the Mandaeans and later for a Ḥarrānian pagan society and that the word in the Qurʾān refers to this religion. Our study finds that there is neither a similarity nor an association between the "ṣābī" in the Qurʾān and the religious group "Ṣābiʾa (Sabians)" and that an artificial naming has emerged within history. Because the concept "ṣābī" was Arabic, and it was originally used for people who left the prevalent belief. Nonetheless, the expression "Ṣābiʾī" was used after the arrival of Islam on the assumption that it was the name given to the religion of the Mandaeans and the Ḥarrānians.

Keywords

• Qurʾān
• ṣābī
• convert
• Mandaeans
• Ḥarrānians
• polytheists
• Magians
• Jews
• Christians
• Ṣābiʾī

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