| 释义 |
Sabian, n. and a.|ˈseɪbɪən|
Also 7–8 Zabian, 7–8 Sabean, 8 Zabæan, Tsabæan, 8–9 Sabæan, Tsabian.
[f. Arab. çābi' + -an.
According to Nöldeke, the word represents the pr. pple. of the Aramaic ç'baﻋ to baptize (the ע being changed into א as is usual in the Mandæan and cognate dialects). In the actual form in which the word occurs in Arabic, it has the appearance of being derived from the same root as the Hebrew çābā host (see Sabaoth); hence, as certain sects claiming the name of Sabians were alleged to be worshippers of the stars, the name was (already by Maimonides in the 12th c.) interpreted as referring to ‘the host of heaven’.]
A. n.
1. a. An adherent of a religious sect mentioned in three passages of the Koran (ii. 40, v. 73, xxii. 17), and by later Arabian writers.
In the Koran the Sabians are classed with Muslims, Jews, and Christians, as believers in the true God. On account of the toleration extended by Muslims to them, the name of Sabians was, some centuries after Muhammad, assumed not only by the Gnostic half-Christian Mandæans (whose religion is perhaps akin to that of the true Sabians), but also by certain actual polytheists. The statement of some Arabic writers is that the Sabians were professedly Christian, but secretly worshippers of the stars. (Cf. Sabaism.)
1614Purchas Pilgrimage i. xii. (ed. 2) 63 These Zabians thought whatsoeuer went from their bodies was vncleane. 1661Boyle Style of Script. (1675) 35 For want of knowing the Religion of the antient Zabians... Of those Zabiists..I find a deep and general silence in Classick Authors. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) X. 462/1 The fourth [sc. apartment of hell] named al Sair, [Mohammedans assign] to the Sabians. 1841Penny Cycl. XX. 295/2 That the unity of the Deity was however still acknowledged in the religious system of the Tsabians is manifest from the way in which this religion is spoken of in the Korán.
b. Used for Mandæan (see quot. 1883).
1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) X. 458/2 The Sabians have several books which they attribute to some of the antediluvian prophets. 1883K. Kessler ibid. (ed. 9) XV. 467/2 note, In their dealings with members of other communions the designation they [i.e. the Mandæans] take is Sabians.
2. In erroneous use: A worshipper of ‘the host of heaven’; a star-worshipper.
1716Prideaux O. & N. Test. Connected i. iii. (1718) I. 140 The remainder of this sect still subsists in the east under the same name of Sabians... That which hath given them the greatest credit among the people of the east is, that the best of their astronomers have been of this sect... For the stars being the gods they worshipped, they made them the chief subject of their studies. 1864Col. Greenwood in Athenæum 23 July 115/3 Bishop Cumberland and Bishop Warburton..agree that Cain..and his descendants were Sabæans. Abraham and Moses were Sabæans till Jehovah revealed himself to them.
B. adj. Pertaining to the Sabians (in the various applications of the name: see A).
1748T. Blackwell Lett. conc. Mythol. 369 This Zabian Principle of the Worship of one God by Prayer and Incense. 1787W. Jones in Asiatick Researches (1790) II. 8 It is generally asserted, that the old religion of the Arabs was entirely Sabian; but I can offer so little accurate information concerning the Sabian faith, or even the meaning of the word, that I dare not yet speak on the subject with confidence. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. II. 571 The Sabean Christians have, in their religion, a mixture of Judaism and Mahometanism. 1859J. M. Arnold Ishmael 35 In a Sabian Almanac..it is stated: ‘They fast in it seven days..in honour of the great Lord, the Sun, the Lord of all Good.’ 1886Encycl. Brit. XXI. 128/1 It is quite inappropriate to call star-worshippers in general Sabians or Zabians or to speak of a distinct Sabian religion, as older writers do. |