WI/AHC: The Greco-Mesopotamian pagans of Ḥarrān survive into the twenty-first century

The pagans of Ḥarrān (ancient Carrhae) are usually considered the last organized remnants of Late Antique paganism to survive, mainly because of the city's remote location on the border between the Roman and Persian/Arab empires.

Following the Islamic conquest, they managed to convince the Arabs to tolerate them under the pretense that they were "Sabians," an unidentified monotheistic group mentioned in the Quran.


Tenth-century Arab sources (ibn al-Nadim and al-Biruni) independently reproduce the ritual calendar of this community, explicitly naming gods with Greek and Assyrian names:

On the 6th of April they [the pagans of Ḥarrān] sacrifice a bull to the Moon.

On the 20th of April, they go to Dayr Kadhi, a sanctuary near one of the gates of the city, where they sacrifice three bulls, "[one to] Kronos, who is Zuhal [Arabic for the planet Saturn]; for Ares, who is Mirrikh [Arabic for the planet Mars], the Blind god; and one is for the Moon, which is Sin [name of the Assyrian moon god]."

On the 4th day of December, they begin a seven-day festival in honor of Baltha, who is Zahra [Arabic for the planet Venus], whom they call al-Shahmiyyah [the Glowing One]. They build a dome within her shrine and adorn it with fragrant fruits; in front of it, they sacrifice as many different kinds of animals as possible.​


Al-Masʿūdī, another tenth-century Arab historian, says that:
  • He personally visited Ḥarrān in 943 AD. He saw on the door of a "place of assembly" of the Ḥarrānites a "saying of Plato", which read "He who knows his own essence becomes divine."
  • The Ḥarrānites are the remnants of the "Egyptians." However, they are also similar to the Romans before their conversion to Christianity. Masʿūdī explicitly cites Julian the Apostate as an example of a Roman who followed a religion similar to that of the Ḥarrānites.
  • The Ḥarrānites are divided into two: the common people, who practice sacrifice and divination, and the learned, who are "philosophers."
  • The Ḥarrānites do not eat "pork, chicken, garlic, beans, and other things of this type."
  • The Ḥarrānites study the teachings of the following "prophets": Hermes Trismegistus (thought of as the Islamic prophet Idris), Agathodaemon (considered the Islamic prophet Seth), Homer, Aratus, "Aryasis", and "Arani".


There was an important Ḥarrānite scientist named Thābit ibn Qurrah in the ninth-century Arab court, and a later historian cites Thābit as declaring:

Although many have been subjugated to error by means of torture, our fathers, by the hand of God, have endured and spoken valiantly, and this blessed city [of Ḥarrān] has never been defiled with the error of Nazareth. And we are the heirs and transmitters of hanputho [pure religion], which is honored gloriously in this world.

Several sources mention that the first Arab conquerors of Ḥarrān converted the existing Moon Temple to a mosque, but allotted a place for the Ḥarrānites to build a replacement temple. This new temple existed until either 1032, when the Fatimids destroyed it during one of their wars with the Byzantines, or 1081, when the Turks destroyed it during their invasion of Anatolia.

Ḥarrān was then devastated by the Crusades, several other waves of Turks, and ultimately totally destroyed in 1271 by the Mongols, so that by the thirteenth century there was nothing left of the city. The current population of Ḥarrān dates from an Ottoman resettlement program in the eighteenth century. Sometime between 1081 and 1271, the last self-consciously non-Abrahamic community in the Mediterranean world died out.


So here's the AHC: with a post-Arab conquest POD, have Ḥarrān retain its "Sabian" community to the present day.
 
I know butterfly net and all that but...

The position of this religious minority seems like it would have had the roughest twentieth century
 
The position of this religious minority seems like it would have had the roughest twentieth century
Butterflies aside... If history happens exactly as OTL and they survive the 1910s, which I don't see a reason they wouldn't since they clearly aren't Christians (hell, they might actively help in and benefit from the ethnic cleansing of Assyrians), they'll probably do not bad under Turkish Republican rule. At least they aren't on the Syrian side of the border.
 
They end up the same way as the Assyrian Christians, the Mandaeans, the Druze, the Yezidi, and the Alawites: a perpetually persecuted minority on the verge of extinction... well, maybe not so much in the case of the Alawites, but that was luck more then anything.
 
Maybe it could have lasted if things had gone differently in Central Asia. Let's say Inalchuq doesn't arrest the caravan Genghis Khan sends and the Mongols succeed in establishing trade relations - and later an alliance - with Khwarezmia. Assuming good relations continue, this probably means they don't push west. Since there aren't any Mongol invasions of the Levant, Harran doesn't get destroyed by them, and may very well last much longer.
 
It would be interesting to see Renaissance-era neoclassicists, such as Gemistus Pletho, either settle in Harran, or recruit followers and allies from Harran (depending on how safe the pagans there are).

Plethon was one of the most renowned philosophers of the late Byzantine era. He was a chief pioneer of the revival of Greek scholarship in Western Europe. As revealed in his last literary work, the Nomoi or Book of Laws, which he only circulated among close friends, he rejected Christianity in favour of a return to the worship of ancient Hellenic Gods as well as ancient wisdom based on Zoroaster and the Magi.

His religious movement was not viable (though his Platonist restoration was, and became important for the history of Florence), but if there was an city of Greco-Mesopotamian pagans to recruit leadership from, maybe we could see a small cult forming in Renaissance Italy that grows into a viable classicist religion. Maybe also an outgrowth of Hermeticists and similar movements of the time.
 
It’s ironic that the place where pre Abrahamic religions held out longest in the Mediterranean world was also the birthplace of Ibn Taymiyya, the first Muslim scholar to justify the killing of righteous Muslims and the developer of reactionary salafism that informs the Saudi state today- he was the direct named inspiration for the only two fatwas that bin laden ever wrote.
 
It’s ironic that the place where pre Abrahamic religions held out longest in the Mediterranean world was also the birthplace of Ibn Taymiyya, the first Muslim scholar to justify the killing of righteous Muslims and the developer of reactionary salafism that informs the Saudi state today- he was the direct named inspiration for the only two fatwas that bin laden ever wrote.
It would be a fun TL where Ibn Taymiyya ends up being a famous Hellenic alchemist-philosopher.
 
How would renaisance thinkers view them if they somehow found out about them? I can imagine them becoming a lot like the legend of prester John, just pagan. Victorian adventurers would probably love it as well.
 
How would renaisance thinkers view them if they somehow found out about them? I can imagine them becoming a lot like the legend of prester John, just pagan. Victorian adventurers would probably love it as well.

I think they would deny that they were 'real' pagans. Imagined paganism in books was always going to be more attractive than real people doing real stuff.
 
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