In the English Bible the name _Sabeans_ is perplexing, and although used of three different tribes or peoples, none of these are any way related to the present Mandæans unless those mentioned in Job. Sabean is also the term used in the Koran, where it undoubtedly applies to the people and proves that when Islam arose their numbers and settlements were far from unimportant. The Koran recognizes them as distinct from idolaters, and places them with Jews and Christians as people of the book.[105] From this it is evident that the Sabeans could not have been, as some allege, a minor Christian sect or identical with the Hemero-Baptists. Although giving special honor to John the Baptist, _they can in no sense be called Christians_.
Isolated by a creed, cult and language of their own, the Sabeans[106] love their isolation and do not intermarry with strangers nor accept a proselyte to their faith. Nearly all of them follow one of three trades. They raise the finest dairy produce of Mesopotamia; they build a peculiar kind of light canoe, called _Mashhoof_, and all others are silver-smiths. No traveller should visit their villages without carrying away specimens of their beautiful inlaid-work, black metal on silver and gold. A peaceful people they are, industrious, though mostly poor and seldom affording trouble to their Turkish rulers. Both men and women have a remarkably fine physique; tall, of dark complexion, good features, and with long black beards, some of the men are typical patriarchs, even as we imagine Abraham who left their present country for Haran. On ordinary days their dress does not distinguish them from Moslems or Jews, but on feast days they wear only white. Their women go about unveiled; they are rather taller and have a more masculine cast of features than Moslem women.
_Specimens of_ MANDÂITIC CURSIVE-SCRIPT _with transliteration and translation_.
[Mandâitic:] = Àssooda hāvilak = peace be to you.
[Mandâitic:] = kethkŭm skawee = how much is it?
[Mandâitic:] = ana libba kabeelak = I love you much.
[Mandâitic:] = kasbah we dahwah = silver and gold.
[Mandâitic:] = hofshaba rabba = great day (Sunday)
The two great things that distinguish the Sabeans are their language and their religion. Both are remarkable. The former because of its long preservation among a dying people, and the latter as the most remarkable example of religious syncretism.