an intriguing lot.........
...............dunno if this related but since it's an islamic forum, i will add it just for the interesting account i found in the Quran which had me wondering:
86. So Moses returned to his people in a state of indignation and sorrow. He said: "O my people! did not your Lord make a handsome promise to you? Did then the promise seem to you long (in coming)? Or did ye desire that Wrath should descend from your Lord on you, and so ye broke your promise to me?"
87. They said: "We broke not the promise to thee, as far as lay in our power: but we were made to carry the weight of the ornaments of the (whole) people, and we threw them (into the fire), and that was what the Samiri suggested.
88. "Then he brought out (of the fire) before the (people) the image of a calf: It seemed to low: so they said: This is your god, and the god of Moses, but (Moses) has forgotten!"
89. Could they not see that it could not return them a word (for answer), and that it had no power either to harm them or to do them good?
90. Aaron had already, before this said to them: "O my people! ye are being tested in this: for verily your Lord is ((Allah)) Most Gracious; so follow me and obey my command."
91. They had said: "We will not abandon this cult, but we will devote ourselves to it until Moses returns to us."
92. (Moses) said: "O Aaron! what kept thee back, when thou sawest them going wrong,
93. "From following me? Didst thou then disobey my order?"
94. (Aaron) replied: "O son of my mother! Seize (me) not by my beard nor by (the hair of) my head! Truly I feared lest thou shouldst say, 'Thou has caused a division among the children of Israel, and thou didst not respect my word!'"
95. (Moses) said: "What then is thy case, O Samiri?"
96. He replied: "I saw what they saw not: so I took a handful (of dust) from the footprint of the Messenger, and threw it (into the calf): thus did my soul suggest to me."
97. (Moses) said: "Get thee gone! but thy (punishment) in this life will be that thou wilt say, 'touch me not'; and moreover (for a future penalty) thou hast a promise that will not fail: Now look at thy god, of whom thou hast become a devoted worshipper: We will certainly (melt) it in a blazing fire and scatter it broadcast in the sea!"
98. But the god of you all is the One Allah. there is no god but He: all things He comprehends in His knowledge.
99. Thus do We relate to thee some stories of what happened before: for We have sent thee a Message from Our own Presence.
Ancestrally, they claim descent from a group of
Israelite inhabitants from the tribes of
Ephraim and
Manasseh (the two sons of
Joseph) as well as some descendants from the priestly tribe of
Levi,
[3] who have connections to ancient
Samaria from the period of their entry into the land of Canaan, while some suggest that it was from the beginning of the Babylonian Exile up to the Samaritan Kingdom of
Baba Rabba. The Samaritans, however, derive their name not from this geographical designation, but rather from the Hebrew term Shamerim שַמֶרִים, "Keepers [of the Law]".
[4]