What the society of medieval Arabic scholars and the history of Hermetica in Arabic concerns, by the time of Muhammad in the 6th century, Hermes was regarded in the Roman and Persian empires as an ancient sage and different groups claimed him for their purposes.

Persian intellectuals in the Sasanian Empire as we have seen, received these works favorably as their own with the understanding that all science was originally Iranian; some of this Iranian science was preserved in ancient Egypt, and other parts had been stolen by Alexander the Great. This historical legend was promoted by Iranians writing in Arabic and it flourished as a part of Arabic historiography of ancient times.

It was the identification of Hermes and Enoch that gave the Egyptian Hermes the biblical genealogy that appears in the Arabic Hermes legend and brought him immediately into the Abrahamic tradition of ancient history.

Thus Jewish occultists could use his name in incantation bowls, Persian astrologers studied his works to descry the future, and Christian polemicists quoted his dialogues with Tat to prove the trinity of God. By early 9th century, ancient Egyptian, Hellenic, Iranian, Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions had come together around the legend of Hermes in stages culminating in a new account synthesized by Aba-Mgar who used it to grant authority to his astrology. This legend became the basis for understanding the nature of the texts attributed to Hermes in Arabic.

But there is another source of Jewish traditions in Arabic, Wahb ibn-Munabbih (d. ca. 730), one of the tabiciin i.e., a third-generation Muslim. And he is indeed credited by early sources with the statement that Idris is Enoch and that Idris received thirty scrolls from God. Thus while we still do not know the origins of the identification of ldris with Enoch, it can be dated back to the early eighth century at least.

But it was in this circle of Iranian Muslim astrologer-chronographers (practitioners of historical astrology), that the traditions of Iran were added to the earlier mixture of Babylonian, Greek and Judaeo-Christian chronographic traditions.

In fact there was also an Islamic component to the new synthesis of traditions about Hermes. That claimed thirty scrolls sent down by God. This information is said to be orally transmitted from the early Muslims. A subsequent equation of Hermes-Enoch with Hoshang, the "Adarn" of Iranian legendary ancient history (i.e. Gayumart), might be Aba-Wgar’s innovation. Similarly, the first king, Aloros, -was equated with Gayumart, the first man or first king in Iranian mythology.

As we pointed out on the page about the Da Vinci Code ‘tradition’ early Januari 2004, a promising book at the time in 1998, Susanne Ackerman’s Rose Cross over the Baltic, needs urgent revision, including what its reference to ‘Sabians’ concern.

Though there was some kind of reverence for Hermes among the Sasanian Sabians of Harran - which is what we would expect from once Hellenistic pagans who were aware of Hermes' status as a venerable pagan teacher - references to Sabians in this context are always references to Iranians.

As a matter of fact it seems clear that much of what is called Sabian in Arabic literature is part of a ninth-century scholarly exploration of a concept of the "primordial religion" underlying idolatry. Therefore Sabianism simple was an intellectual movement of 9th century Bagdad claiming antique ancestry and chronological priority as a part of the first religion. And may have been nothing but a term for practitioners of astral magic and related sciences understood as a part of this ancient tradition.

Basing Sabianism on the supposed revelation of Hermes, considered as antediluvian prophet, made the arcane practices associated with astral spirits potentially the common property of all the religions. And may perhaps be compared with the European Renaissance Christian occultism associated with figures like Marsilio Ficino, who made similar claims about their occult practices inspired by the Hermetic.

In any case, it is true that the name Hermes legitimized astrology, magic, alchemy, and the use of talismans as well as the propitiation of planetary spirits by means of sacrifices, incenses, rituals, and words of power. And while the Iranian pagans were certainly identified (and identified themselves) as surviving remnants of this sect, poorly understood groups like the Buddhists and ancient Egyptians were also called Sabian with the same understanding !

The wise sayings of Hermes also show a similarly diverse set of origins. Through means not yet understood both ancient Greek and Persian sayings were reattributed to Hermes in Arabic and combined in collections forming a new picture.

Political advice for rulers typical of Middle Persian stands side by side with the Greek ideal of the philosopher king. The exhortation to detachment from the fruits of this world combined with the practical advice for a life in this world from both Greek and Persian together made up the utterances of this ancient prophet in the new Arabic tradition. Above all the wise sayings attributed to Hermes in Arabic urge a respect for learning and an almost generic monotheistic piety that could appeal to all sects of the medieval Arabic ruling class.

All of this together is part of the reception of ancient Hermetica in Arabic and the further reattribution of new writings to the name Hermes. The sciences that this prophet revealed were astrology, alchemy, physical theory of the properties of substances, and astral magic. The Hermetic philosophical discourses best known in the Greek tradition seem to have found no special audience in Arabic, but works in the occult genres were widely cited by writers in Arabic until fairly recent times.

 

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