Who were the Sabians?

Question

In the Guide, Maimonides talks about the religion of the Sabians (first idolators). He tells us that he has spent much time learning about the Sabian religion (he was sort of an anthropologist). After much study, he discovered that Sabianism revealed cows, so much so, that they prohibited their slaughter:

"As for the slaughter of oxen, the majority of idolaters abominated it, as all of them held this species in very great esteem. Hence you will find that up to our time, the Indians do not slaughter oxen, even in countries where other species of animals are slaughtered." (Guide, 3:46)

Is Maimonides telling us that the Ancient Sabians where Indians, since Hinduism was the first polytheism religion and since Hindus revere/worship cows?[1]

[1] Though scholars still debate who exactly were the Sabians.

Answer 1

That doesn't seem to be the case, according to the lines before what you quoted:

Moreh Nevochim 3:46:

" וכן היו כיתות מן הצאבה עובדים לשדים והיו חושבים שהם ישובו בצורת העזים - ולזה היו קוראים לשדים 'שעירים' - וכבר התפשט הדעת הזה מאד בימי 'משה רבינו'"

Translation: And so there were some sects among the Sabeans that worshipped demons, and imagined that these assumed the form of goats, and called them therefore "goats" [se‘irim]. And by the time of Moshe, this became widespread.

It seems that it was a practice that started in Sabean sects and eventually spread world-wide. So too seems to be the case of not slaughtering cows - some ancient sects started it, until eventually it reached the Indians of Rambam's time.

As to the identity of the Sabeans, Rambam in his commentary on the mishnah in Avodah Zara 4:7 writes:

"ועיקר זה באומה הנקראת צאבים והם האומה שיצא אברהם אבינו ע"ה מביניהם וחלק על טעותם וסברתם המקולקלת"

Translation: And this was an important principal in the nation called "Sabeans" and they were the nation that Abraham our forefather peace be upon him came from among them and disagreed with their mistake and their faulty argument [/belief].

And as Abraham is known to have come from the Kasdim, also known as the Babylonians, it seems that "Sabean" was another word for Babylonian.

Answer 2

Historically in the Islamic Middle East, Sabians either refer to the Gnostic Mandaeans, or to the similar religious Gnostic group, the Yazidis.