Sabian
an adherent of a religious sect mentioned thrice in the Qu'ran (in which they
are classified with Christians, and Jews as "true believers" worth of toleration
by Muslims), 1614, from Arabic, of uncertain origin. Perhaps the ref. is to a
Gnostic sect akin to the later Mandæans (if the word derives, as some think it
does, from Arabic ch'bae "to baptize"); but it has the appearance of derivation
from the Sem. root of Heb. tzabha "host" (see Sabaoth), and as the Sabians were
thought in the Middle Ages to have been star-worshippers, it was interpreted as
referring to the "host of heaven."
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