Jurjas

**Jurjas** (Arabic: **جرجاس**) or **Jurgas**, was the greatest of shayatin found within the Sabian cult. Associated with the Mystery of the North (Shamal).

## *Brethren of Purity*

There is a description of a Sabian temple where the ceremony was held, built when the planets were at their propitious moments. Although the temple was divided into separate parts for male and female, an account is given only of what took place in the room in which young men were gathered. The room was without windows, illuminated only by torches. On the north side were the names of the twelve zodiacal signs as well as representations of the planets, each made of its corresponding material (i.e., that of the Sun was gold, that of the Moon was silver).

In front of these images were placed on a mat seven white discs; the disc closest to the images was dedicated to the Moon and had a single circle, while that which was furthest away, representing Saturn, had seven circles, each of the discs having a number of circles corresponding to the rank of the star in the celestial spheres. Each of the discs held a censer filled with an incense particular to the planet. Completing the setting were a ewer of water and three boughs of tamarisk, an iron knife with an iron handle, and an iron ring on which was engraved an image of Jurjas, placed to the left of the planetary images.

The ceremony began the night before with a prayer by the high priest: "O Jurjas of Jurjas, Iblis of Iblis, greatest of the shayatin, greatest of all the jinn" (يا جرجاس الجراجسة ويا ابليس الأبالسة وكبير الشياطين وعظيم الجن). In their preceding account of Harranian doctrine, the anonymous authors of the Epistles explain that the Sabians posit two categories of divine spirits: "one good in its nature, that they call angels, to whom they sacrifice to win their favors; the other bad in its nature, of which they call the individuals 'shayatin;' and they sacrifice to these to neutralize the evil that they can do." Thus, sacrifices offered to the shayatin would be apotropaic in nature and it is clear from the words of the high priest that this is the function of his prayer:

> We have decided this morning to receive one of our young people in our confession, to allow him to hear the mystery of our angels. Assist us in this ceremony; be a witness for us and against us; avert from us your evil and your calamities; drive away from our ceremony those of your companions who are endowed with deceit and treachery.
>
>

After cockcrow on the following morning, one of the young men who were to be initiated was led into the adyton along with his guarantor, and stood before the high priest. After a series of questions in which the young man promised to hold fast to his religion and not to reveal its secrets, the priest made as to offer him as a sacrifice, reciting the names of the ten angels in their hierarchical order or the 87 names and that of Jurjas. At that moment, the guarantor stepped forward to offer a substitute pledge, a rooster, in place of the young man. The substitution was accepted; and after marking the young man on his thumb with the iron ring, the priest touched him 99 times with the tamarisk bough. The initiate was then dressed in new white vestments and given salt in the form of a triangle to eat. The ceremony was then repeated for each of the young men who were to be initiated.

It was at this point that he began to reveal the mystery. The legomena consisted of two discourses, one intended for men, the other for the women.

> Both are equal in the number of words and letters. If their words are scattered and then mixed in an order where each word of one is found between two words of the other, there result multiple combinations, of which four contain respectively the laws and proofs of one of the four following sciences: medicine, chemistry, astrology, and the science of talismans.
>
>