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The legendary Hermes, in Arabic Hirmis (occasionally Hirmīs), called al-Muthallath bi-l-Ḥikma (“Threefold-in-Wisdom”)—variations such as al-Muthallath bi-l-Niʿma (“Threefold-in-Grace”) are also found—was known among premodern Arabic scholars as an ancient sage and prophet and the author of numerous arcane works, many of which survive in Arabic manuscripts, but most of which remain unpublished. Hermes Trismegistus (“Thrice Greatest”) was the name given to Thoth, the Egyptian god of scribal learning, by the authors of Greek discourses and treatise…

Gnosticism is a term derived from ancient Christian heresiography, generalised during the twentieth century by historians of religion to describe various ancient sects resembling one another in their doctrines and subsequently applied, without justification, to certain non-Sunnī Islamic groups, particularly the Ismāʿīlīs and the Shīʿīs known pejoratively by outsiders as ghulāt (“transgressive” Shīʿīs; see Sean Anthony, Ghulāt, EI3) and also sometimes to Ṣūfīs, alchemists, and others. Irenaeus, author of the earliest extant major Christian heresiographical work…

The Barmakid family of wazīrs and administrators, non-Arabs originating from Balkh, in Tukhāristān, provided the first five ʿAbbāsid caliphs with trusted support, companionship, education, and advice and were in charge of many major affairs of state, administrative offices, and military expeditions, until their leading members were removed from power in 187/803 by Hārūn al-Rashīd, for reasons that famously remain mysterious. The Barmakids (Arabic, al-Barāmika) present one of the best-documented case…

Bayt al-Ḥikma (“the House of Wisdom”) was the palace library of the early ʿAbbāsid caliphs, mentioned in the sources only in connection with al-Rashīd (r. 170–193/786–809) and al-Maʾmūn (r. 196–218/812–833). The idea, developed in twentieth-century scholarship, that the Bayt al-Ḥikma was a bureau for the large-scale translation of Greek books into Arabic, operating along the lines of a modern research institute or even a university, is entirely incorrect. While we have little information about th…