The House of Wisdom and Sabeans of Harran

then arrive at the actual production of new writings. The House of Wisdom hosted all the great Arab mathematicians, astronomers, inventors, and scientists of the period. The House of Wisdom was frequented by al-Khwarizmi, inventor of algebra and discoverer of solutions to quadratic equations, the Banu Musa brothers, al-Kindi, Thabit ibn Qurra, and numerous others. At the height of its splendor, the House of Wisdom contained more than half a million volumes classified through a thematic index of genre and categories, at a time when the most well-stocked European libraries contained barely a few thousand volumes. The work was made possible also by the introduction in this context of a new type of support alternative to papyrus and parchment, namely paper which was introduced with the help of some Chinese prisoners captured during the Battle of Talas in Central Asia fought between the Abbasid Caliphate and the Chinese Tang dynasty. However, already towards the end of the 10th century, the influence of the House of Wisdom began to slowly decline and the Arab cultural and scientific epicenter moved to Cordoba in the Caliphate of al-Andalus. Nevertheless, it continued to exert its influence until at least 1258, the year in which the Mongols brought down the caliphate.

The Sabeans of Harran

An important role, although not entirely clarified, in the process of Arab Hellenization that took place at the House of Wisdom is played by the people of the Sabeans of Harran, a people with a cult with strong astrological connotations and heir to various traditions both Hellenic and archaic. These could have been the depositaries of a large number of Hellenic writings and manuscripts of hermetic and neoplatonic character that would have had a role in the formation of young scholars of the House of Wisdom like al-Kindi. The history of the Sabeans of Harran is at least characteristic; according to Arab chronicles, in fact, the people in question have nothing to do with the Sabeans of South Arabia but appropriated this name around the 9th century to fall within the laws prescribed by the Quran and escape possible persecution. According to the Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim, a treatise composed towards the end of the 10th century, Caliph al-Mamun visited the people of Harran while he was heading for a military expedition towards the borders of his land. Intrigued by the strange customs of the people, he asked them what their cult was and was quite surprised to discover that they were pagans. Before leaving the city, he informed the people of Harran that they would have to convert to one of the monotheistic faiths admitted by the Quran, otherwise when he returned he would exterminate them. Frightened by the threat, the population of Harran would have turned to a lawyer who, after careful reflection, would have suggested they adopt the name of Sabeans. The people of the Sabeans were in fact mentioned in the Quran repeatedly as a people worthy of esteem and respect: "Verily, those who believe, whether they be Jews, Christians or Sabeans, all those who believe in Allah and the Last Day and do good will receive their reward with their Lord. They will have nothing to fear and will not be afflicted." (Quran 2:62) Since at the time it was not clear who the Sabeans were, the people of Harran decided to take this name and constitute themselves before the caliph as a people protected by the Quran. They adopted Hermes Trismegistus as their prophet, identified at the time with the antediluvian Enoch and accepted as a prophet with the name of Idris, and declared the Corpus Hermeticum as their sacred book. Ibn al-Nadim's account ends positively with the recognition by the Muslim authorities of the people of Harran. The story told by Ibn al-Nadim appears to a historian as evidently apocryphal. From the reported chronicle, the people of Harran would seem isolated from the rest of the Islamic world, when the city was the seat of government under Marwan II still in 750. Finally, before al-Mamun, already Harun al-Rashid had noticed the community of Harran and had put pressure there considering them heretics. The account, however, remains historically interesting for some elements. The constitution under the protection of Hermes Trismegistus and the declaration of the Corpus Hermeticum as sacred, for example, attests to the diffusion that this writing had in these areas. Once Plato's Academy was closed in 529, it had first moved to Alexandria in Egypt and subsequently to Harran itself, evidently bringing a series of codes and manuscripts of Hellenic and neo-Platonic stamp. Probably precisely from Harran came the hermetic codes that al-Kindi and Abu Ma'shar demonstrated having read and studied if not even commented. Abu Ma'shar's description of Hermes Trismegistus refers to a Hermes identical to that proposed by the Sabeans of Harran and who is indeed called the Babylonian Hermes and distinguished from the Hermes of Egypt. The Hermeses, says Abu Ma'shar, are numerous. Among them is the one who lived before the flood and who, according to the Jews, is the prophet Enoch, that is Idris, peace be upon him! After the flood, other Hermeses lived, full of science and wisdom, but the most eminent are Hermes the Babylonian of whom we have spoken and another, disciple of Pythagoras, originally from Egypt. Another important element