ZABIAN
\zˈabi͡ən], \zˈabiən], \z_ˈa_b_iə_n]\
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z[=a]'bi-an, adj. and n. the same as SABIAN.--ns. Z[=A]'BAISM, Z[=A]'BISM, the doctrines esp. of the Pseudo-ZABIANS, or Syrian Zabians (in Haurân, Edessa, Bagdad), remnants of the ancient Syrian but Hellenised heathens, from about the 9th to the 12th century. Under the name Zabians used to be grouped several peoples distinct in origin and by no means alike in religion. The medieval Arabic and Jewish writers called nearly all those heathens or Sabæans who were neither Jews or Christians, nor Mohammedans or Magians. Now the name Sabæans denotes strictly the ancient inhabitants of southern Arabia, who were but little modified by Babylonian influences; the Zabians of the Koran were originally non-Christian Gnostics--the ancestors of the still existing Mandæans (q.v.) or Joannes' Christians.
By Thomas Davidson