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al-Masˁūdī’s description of the Sabian temples (1)

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12 Assyrian Identity
12 Assyrian Identity
01 Religious and ideological doctrines and imagery



 		Keywords
Harran
temples
Period
10th century CE 		Channel
Islamic philosophers and scholars

Text
al-Masˁūdī, The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems:
The Harranian Sabians have temples according to the names of the intellectual substances and the stars. To these temples belong: the temples of the first cause and of Intelligence, but I do not know whether it is the first or second Intelligence; also, the temple of the world order, Necessity. The temple of the soul is round; of Saturn, hexagonal; of Jupiter, triangular; of Mars, long (rectangular); the Sun square; that of Venus, a triangle in a quadrangle; that of Mercury, a triangle inside an elongated quadrangle, and that of the moon, octagonal. The Sabians have in them symbols and mysteries which they keep hidden.

Source (list of abbreviations)
al-Masˁūdī, The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems

Bibliography

Chwolsohn 1856, II 367Chwolsohn, D. Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus. 2 Vols. Saint Petersburg: Buchdrückerei der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften 1856.
Green 1992, 71, 115-116Green, Tamara. The City of the Moon God, Religious Traditions of Harran. Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 114. Leiden, New York, Cologne: E. J. Brill 1992.

Amar Annus


URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000416.php

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