Origine de tous les cultes ou religion universelle

(1) Hyde, p. 67. Thomas Hyde, an English orientalist who wrote about the religion of the ancient Persians.
(2) Selden, On the Syrian Gods, and Kircher, Oedipus, volume 1. John Selden and Athanasius Kircher were prominent scholars of ancient mythology and religion.
(3) Selden, On the Syrian Gods, chapter 1.

of Baal; that of Mars, the name of Moloch; Venus, that of Astaroth and Astarte; Mercury, the name of Nebo (1); and all these names are also found to be those of the Syrian, Assyrian, Phoenician, and Canaanite deities (2). This gives reason to believe that it was these celestial bodies that were revered under these names, especially since it is recognized that the worship of the planets was established in these countries (3) and formed part of what the Jewish books call the worship of the "heavenly host."

(4) Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel, book 1, chapter 9.

Sanchuniathon, the most ancient writer of Phoenicia (4), who himself did nothing but interpret the ancient monuments of his homeland consecrated in the columns of Thoth, tells us that the first men who inhabited Phoenicia raised their hands to the sky toward the sun. They regarded it as the sole master of the heavens, and honored it under the name of Beel-Samin Lord of Heaven; a name which, in their language, means King of Heaven. They also raised columns to the elements, one to fire, and the other to the air or the wind, and rendered homage to them. Sabaism the worship of the stars flourished throughout Babylonia.

(5) Abulfaragius, History of the Dynasties, p. 101.

The Arabs, placed under a sky that was always pure and serene, professed the same religion and worshipped the sun, the moon, and the stars. Abulfaragius (5), in his history of the Arabian dynasties, tells us that not only did these peoples worship the stars with a general cult, but also that each Arab tribe was under the invocation of a particular star. The Hamyar tribe was consecrated to the sun; the Cennah tribe was to the moon; the Misa tribe was under the protection of the beautiful star

(6) Arrian, book 7, p. 161.
(7) Arrian, cited by Photius, Codex 91.

of the Bull, Aldebaran; the Tai tribe under that of Canopus, or the beautiful star of the constellation of the Ship; the Kais tribe was under the protection of Sirius, otherwise known as the Dog Star; the tribes of Lachamus and Idamus honored the planet Jupiter; Asad honored that of Mercury: and so with the others. All these stars were the children of Uranus (6) the Personification of the Sky, or of Heaven, which was their great divinity, along with Bacchus (7), whom we will prove elsewhere to be none other than the sun.

(8) Lebeau, History of the Late Empire, volume 2, p. 66.

The Homerites, a people of Arabia Felix the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, modern Yemen, worshipped the sun and the moon during the reign of Constans, son of Constantine (8).

(9) Euthymius Zigabenus, On the Saracens, p. 1.

The Arabs, known by the name of Saracens, who conquered the greater part of Asia, Africa, and Europe, still worshipped the beautiful planet Venus (9) at the time of Heraclius. They named her Cabar the Great, the same as that "Astarte the Great" of whom the Phoenician writer, Sanchuniathon, speaks.

(10) Ibid, p. 26.

Muhammad, their leader, makes them swear by the sun (10), the moon, and the stars; and the historian of this sect concludes that he recognized them as Gods, since he invoked them in his oaths.

(11) Ibid, p. 81, p. 85, ibid, p. 70, and Cedrenus, volume 1, p. 425.

In the formula of anathema that was required to be pronounced by a converted Saracen, he abjured his ancient opinions on the sun and the moon, and on the whole worship of the morning star, of Venus-Cabar, or the Great, whose name they had formerly invoked in that formula of prayer so famous among the Arabs (11): Alla, va, Cabar, alla God is great original: "Alla, va, Cabar, alla", a transliteration of "Allahu Akbar".

(12) Strabo, book 16, p. 784.

Strabo speaks of an altar raised to the sun in Arabia Felix (12), upon which the most exquisite incense burned. In the island of Panchaia, located to the Ea-

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(1) Diodorus Siculus, book 5, chapter 44, p. 366.

st of Arabia, was a fountain consecrated to the sun, which no one, except the priests, could approach (1). Near there was a sacred mountain, upon which was said to be the throne of Uranus, or of Heaven.

(2) Hyde, On the Ancient Religion of the Persians, p. 105.

Al-Shahrastani (2), an Arabic author, says that the Arabs and the Indians anciently had temples consecrated to the seven planets, which were later mostly converted into Pyrées fire temples, or consecrated to the worship of the sacred and immortal fire. The worship of the planets and other stars formed the core of the religion known as Sabaism, whose extent was as immense as its duration.

(3) Abulfaragius, History of the Dynasties, p. 2.

All those who have written universal history, says Abulfaragius (3), and who have traced back to the origin of peoples, count seven great primitive nations from which all others came: the Persians, the Chaldeans, the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Turks, the Indians, and the Chinese. They then divided into several peoples with different languages; but all originally professed Sabaism and rendered worship to images and idols consecrated to the stars they represented.

(4) History of the Dynasties, p. 184.

Here is what he says in particular about the Chaldeans in his history of Sabaism (4):

"What we know for certain about the Sabaeans is that their religion is entirely the same as that of the Chaldeans; they turn to the north pole to pray; they pray three times a day: at sunrise, at noon, and at sunset. They make three inclinations before this star; they invoke the stars or the intelligences they place within them, and offer sacrifices to them; they give the title of Gods to the fixed stars and the planets." The Chaldeans, says the

(5) Salmasius, On Climates, p. 1 and 2.

same author, distinguished themselves among other peoples by their astronomical observations; they studied the nature of the stars and their secret influences. They then carried this science to the West, taught men to raise temples to the stars, to construct them and arrange them in a manner proper to attract their salutary influences, and they established the form of worship analogous to the nature of each of them.

No one is unaware that the Chaldeans made themselves famous throughout all antiquity for the science of astrology, of which they are said to be the inventors. This branch of charlatanism made so much progress among them that the name of Chaldean and Astrologer were formerly synonymous. Now, this science, as Salmasius judiciously remarks, could only be established upon the firm conviction that the planets and stars were Gods who regulated the destinies of mortals. Without this conviction, there is no astrology, nor any foundation for faith in its oracles (5). It is on this base that it rests; take away this belief, and it collapses entirely.

(6) Ibid, p. 3.
(7) Philo, Book on Abraham, p. 282.

Therefore, wherever we see astrology reigning with power, there we must suppose that the opinion of the divinity of the stars was established (6). Thus the Jew Philo observes that the Chaldeans, more versed than any other people in astronomy,

"made everything depend on the movement of the stars, which they regarded as the sovereign arbiters of the world's order. They limited their homage to the visible cause, and formed no idea of the invisible and intellectual being; on the contrary, by observing the order of the world, they believed they saw in it the divinity itself, entirely whole, which