Editing Hermes Trismegistus (section)

==Islamic tradition==
{{See also|Idris (prophet)}}

[[File:Bodl Arab.d.221 roll332 frame11.jpg|thumbnail|right|Pages from a 14th-century Arabic manuscript of the [[Cyranides]], a text attributed to Hermes Trismegistus]]

[[Antoine Faivre]], in ''The Eternal Hermes'' (1995), has pointed out that Hermes Trismegistus has a place in the [[Islam]]ic tradition, although the name Hermes does not appear in the [[Qur'an]]. [[Hagiographer]]s and chroniclers of the first centuries of the Islamic [[Hijrah]] quickly identified Hermes Trismegistus with Idris,<ref>{{harvnb|Van Bladel|2009|p=168}}: "Abu Mas'har’s biography of Hermes, written approximately between 840 and 860, would establish it as common knowledge."</ref> the [[Prophets of Islam|Islamic prophet]] of [[sura]]hs 19.57 and 21.85,  whom Muslims also identified with [[Enoch (ancestor of Noah)|Enoch]] (cf. Genesis 5.18–24). According to the account of the Persian astrologer [[Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi]] (787–886), Idris/Hermes was termed "Thrice-Wise" Hermes Trismegistus because he had a threefold origin. The first Hermes, comparable to [[Thoth]], was a "civilizing hero", an initiator into the mysteries of the divine science and wisdom that animate the world; he carved the principles of this sacred science in [[Egyptian hieroglyph|hieroglyphs]]. The second Hermes, in [[Babylon]], was the initiator of [[Pythagoras]]. The third Hermes was the first teacher of [[alchemy]]. "A faceless prophet," writes the Islamicist [[Pierre Lory]], "Hermes possesses no concrete or salient characteristics, differing in this regard from most of the major figures of the Bible and the Quran."<ref>(Faivre 1995 pp. 19–20)</ref>

The [[star-worship]]ping sect known as the [[Sabians of Harran]] also believed that their doctrine descended from Hermes Trismegistus.<ref name=stapleton>{{cite journal <!-- Citation bot bypass-->|last1=Stapleton|first1=Henry E.|author1-link=Henry Ernest Stapleton|last2=Azo|first2=R.F.|last3=Hidayat Husain|first3=M.|year=1927|title=Chemistry in Iraq and Persia in the Tenth Century A.D.|journal=Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|volume=VIII|issue=6|pages=317–418|oclc=706947607|url=http://www.southasiaarchive.com/Content/sarf.100203/231270}} pp. 398–403.</ref>

There are least twenty [[Hermetica#Arabic|Arabic ''Hermetica'']] extant. While some of these Arabic Hermetic writings were translated from [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] or [[Middle-Persian]], some were originally written in Arabic.<ref>{{harvnb|Van Bladel|2009|loc=p. 17, note 42}}.</ref> Hermetic fragments are also found in the works of [[Alchemy and chemistry in the medieval Islamic world|Muslim alchemists]] such as [[Jabir ibn Hayyan]] (died {{circa|806}}–816, cited an early version of the ''[[Emerald Tablet]]'' in his {{Transliteration|ar|Kitāb Usṭuqus al-uss}})<ref>{{cite thesis|last=Zirnis|first=Peter|year=1979|title=The Kitāb Usṭuqus al-uss of Jābir ibn Ḥayyān|type=Unpublished PhD diss.|location=New York University}} pp. 64–65, 90. Jabir explicitly notes that the version of the ''Emerald Tablet'' quoted by him is taken from "Balīnās the Sage" (i.e., [[Pseudepigrapha|pseudo]]-[[Apollonius of Tyana]]), although it differs slightly from the (probably even earlier) version preserved in pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana's [[Sirr al-khaliqa|''Sirr al-khalīqa'']] (''The Secret of Creation''): see {{Cite book|last=Weisser|first=Ursula|editor1-first=<!-- Deny Citebot -->|editor1-last=<!-- Deny Citebot -->|title=Das "Buch über das Geheimnis der Schöpfung" von Pseudo-Apollonios von Tyana|publisher=[[De Gruyter]]|year=1980|isbn=978-3-11-086693-3|location=Berlin|doi=10.1515/9783110866933|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DZFZzxgiUqAC}} p. 46.</ref> and [[Ibn Umayl]] ({{circa|900|960}}, quoted and commented upon Hermetic sayings throughout his work, among them also a commentary on the ''Emerald Tablet'').<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Stapleton|first1=H. E.|author1-link=Henry Ernest Stapleton|last2=Lewis|first2=G. L.|last3=Taylor|first3=F. Sherwood|author3-link=F. Sherwood Taylor|year=1949|title=The sayings of Hermes quoted in the Māʾ al-waraqī of Ibn Umail|journal=Ambix|volume=3|issue=3–4|pages=69–90|doi=10.1179/amb.1949.3.3-4.69}}</ref>