Table of Contents

Preface
Part I: Background
1.: Introduction
2.: Hermes in Sasanian Iran
3.: Hermes and the Sabians of Harran
Appendis to Chapter 3: The Harranians and India
Part II: History of the Arabic Hermes
4.: The Three Hermeses
5.: Hermes the Prophet
6.: Conclusion: The Making of the Arabic Hermes
Bibliography

About the Author

Kevin van Bladel is Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Southern California.

Reviews

"I suggest that his work has the great potential to become a classical reference book for both late antiquity and the study of Hermetism. --Journal of Semitic Studies
"Kevin van Bladel addresses a significant gap in our knowledge. The author should be commended for such a competent artisanship.... The author has done a great service to the profession by clearing the field for himself and for other scholars so that they can build on a solid groundwork."--Hayrettin Yucesoy, Journal of World History
"A veritable treasure trove of information, well-indexed and with an extensive bibliography. It should thus be indispensable on the shelves of anyone interested in Hermes Trismegistus, Late Antiquity, Sasanian Iran, and early Arabic translations and intellectual life. No small feat!"--Christian H. Bull, Numen
"A wonderfully solid historical masterpiece that greatly contributes to our understanding of certain strands of intellectual transmission in the late antique Near East, as well as disabuses us of many a myth about the presence of Hermes and hermeticism in classical Islamic learned culture." --The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences
"Kevin van Bladel has produced an admirable study of the Arabic Hermetic tradition, fleshing out in considerable detail the evolution of Hermes' image, his identification with Qur'anic prophet Idris as well as the forces driving this transformation, and his connections, real, imagined, and still controversial, with the Harranians, the last organized group of astrolators to continue functioning within Islamic civilization.... This brief recap does not do justice
to the many separate and meticulous investigations that van Bladel has carried out and pieced together in order to provide this account.... this is a very good book, all the more impressive as it is
the product of a young scholar."-- Y. Tzvi Langermann, Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews