III. GNOSTICISM
{Cf. Goldziher, "Neuplatonische und gnostische Elemente im Hadit," in
Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, xxii. 317 ff.}
Though little direct evidence is available, the conspicuous place occupied
by the theory of gnosis in early Sufi speculation suggests contact with
Christian Gnosticism, and it is worth noting that the parents of Ma‘ruf
al-Karkhi, whose definition of Sufism as 'the apprehension of divine
realities' was quoted on the first page of this Introduction, are said to
have been Sabians, i.e. Mandæans, dwelling in the Babylonian fenland