Vlll PREFACE. 



the sun and the planets, at heart, though 

 the first profess a kind of bastard Islamism, 

 and the latter, since about the year 1762, 

 a mongrel Christianity. These pseudo- 

 Sabians dwelt in the land of Harran, and 

 their descendants have become familiar to 

 us by the narratives of Layard and South- 

 gate, and some recent discussions as to the 

 site of the well of Harran in the Athenceum. 

 In collecting together and examining his 

 materials for this important work, Professor 

 Chwolson necessarily had to dip deeply into 

 the sources of old Babylonian or Naba- 

 thsean literature, greatly encouraged in the 

 pursuit by the previous labours of M. 

 Quatremere ; l and men, who were fully 

 competent to judge of his high linguistic 

 attainments, began to look anxiously for- 



1 Memoire sur lea Nabateens, in the Journal Asiatiqite, 1835 ; 

 reprinted in the Melanges d'Htitoire et de Philologie Orientale. 



