CHAPTER SEVEN

HARRAN, HERMETICISM AND ESOTERIC ISLAM

INTRODUCTION

The search for evidence pointing to the existence of philosophical and esoteric traditions among the Harranians during the Muslim period requires a completely different kind of investigative approach than that which was used in a consideration of the survival of pre­ Islamic religious cult and ritual. Muslim interest in pre-Islamic paganism may be broadly characterized, despite its occasional po­ lemic tone, as antiquarian and perhaps ahistorical, while the in­ terpretation of the esoteric doctrines of Hermeticism is in large measure shaped by ideological concerns of the Muslim reporters, the sources of which may have little to do with the actual beliefs and practices of the Harranians. The elements of an ancient "traditional" paganism in the calen­ dars of the Catalog and the Chronology were easily characterized as polytheistic, and thus countered by the injunctions of the Qur)an; but the doctrines of Hermeticism became part of the intellectual and spiritual apparatus of at least some members of the Dar al-Islam. The question of a Hermetic tradition at Harran is complicated by the fact that although the religious and intellectual history of the city sug­ gests that Harran most probably served as one of the entry points of Hermeticism into Islam, we have little first-hand evidence for the existence of such a tradition at Harran itself. It may be possible, nevertheless, through an examination of the possible sources of Her­ meticism found in Islam, not only to evaluate the truth of this line of transmission, but also to gain some insight into what, if any, role Muslim interest in such teachings played in shaping their percep­ tions of the Sabians of Harran.

GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND HARRAN The role of the Harranian coterie centered around Thabit ibn Qurra and his intellectual descendants in the development of Islamic science has been well-documented, and his importance in this HARRAN, HERMETICISM AND ESOTERIC ISLAM 163 process of transmission is undisputed. His reputation as a scientist was known even in the west: Roger Bacon called him, a bit inac­ curately to be sure, ''the supreme philosopher among all Christians, who has added in many respects, speculative as well as practical, to the works of Ptolemy." Thabit' s lasting fame in both the Christian and Islamic worlds rested, however, not on his philosophical and scientific commentaries, but on his supposed authorship of various treatises on astrology and the occult sciences, most notably image magic. Listed among his works is a translation from Syriac of Proclus' commentary on a tract called the Golden Testaments of Pythagoras. Thabit's dual roles in the intellectual traditions oflslamic science, that as sober translator and investigator of Greek science and that as master of the esoteric doctrines of Harran, indicate two separate traditions which are to be found concerning the Harranian Sabians in Islamic sources. Accordingly, any examination of the Sabian tra­ dition within Islam must be one that considers both these percep­ tions, for it was in two entirely different ways that the influence of what Muslim authors understood as Sabian doctrine came to be felt in Islam. One, the role ofHarranians like Thabit in the transmission of Greek science and dialectic method into Islam, was the conse­ quence of an attempt on the part of some to establish a rationalist Islamic theology; the other, the search for the key that would reveal the secrets of a hidden truth, the result of a need on the part of others to transcend rationalism. Sarakhsi, a disciple of Kindi, was acquainted with Thabit ibn Qurrah, which may explain the emphasis on a rationalist philosophy in his account of Sabian doctrine. Kindi himself had participated in the intellectual life of Baghdad during the reign of Ma)mun, in which setting he was exposed to those Muctazilite perspectives which encouraged such a reading. Sarakhsi, who wrote commentaries on the Aristotelian corpus, 1 declares that their beliefs about matter, the elements, form, nonentity, time, place and motion are in accord with Aristotle, citing various works of Aristotle from which the Harranians purportedly drew their views. He also reports that the Sabians ''agree that the world has a prime cause who is eternal and a unity .... no attribute of things created is connected with Him." 2

1 Dodge, Fihrist, 599. 2 Fliigel, 318; Dodge, Fihrist, 746.