The polytheism of India and its modes of sorcery belong to this very strain. Witness the Book of Ṭamṭam the Indian; in the same vein Abū Maʿshar al-Balkhī produced a treatise he entitled The Codex of the Moon, and Thābit ibn Qurrah al-Ḥarrānī, renowned for his astronomical tables, followed suit.

Harran—the seat of the Sabians:
Harran was the homeland of those Sabians. According to two reported views, Abraham—peace be upon him—was either born there or moved there from Iraq. In that city stood the Temple of the First Cause, the Temple of the First Intellect, the Temple of the Universal Soul, and the temples of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, and likewise of Venus, Mercury, and the Moon.

This, then, was their religion before Christianity appeared among them. When Christianity did take root, the Sabian idolaters still persisted until the advent of Islam. Under Muslim rule the Sabians and the philosophers continued to reside there for many generations; some of the Sabians living in Baghdad and elsewhere served as physicians and scribes, though not all of them accepted Islam.

When al-Fārābī visited Harran in the middle of the fourth century AH, he entered their circles, studied with them, and took