Who are the Sabians mentioned in the Qur'an as "People of the Book" alongside Jews and Christians? What did they believe, and do any texts from them survive?

by Skeptiiiic
yodatsracist

No one has been able to match the Quranic and Hadithic descriptions of the Sabians to any historical group. I go into more detail here. It's possible they were some Mandaean or Jewish Christian group, but it's possible they were something else entirely. This essential ambiguity of the category let later Muslim administrators protect various local groups as "Sabians".