1. Mandaeism Overview:
– Mandaeism is a Gnostic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion influenced by Greek, Iranian, and Jewish elements.
– Mandaeans revere Adam, Seth, Noah, Shem, and John the Baptist as prophets.
– Mandaeans speak Mandaic, an Eastern Aramaic language.
– Mandaeans are also known as Ṣubba or Sabians outside their community.
– Mandaeans primarily live in southern Iraq and Khuzestan province in Iran, with a global population of 60,000 to 70,000.
2. Historical Background:
– Mandaeans migrated from Jerusalem to Media in the 1st century CE due to persecution.
– Mandaeans flourished under Parthian rule but faced persecution under the Sasanian emperor Bahram I.
– Mandaeans were recognized as People of the Book by the Muslim Empire due to their reverence for John the Baptist.
– Mandaeans were identified as Sabians in the Quran and were considered a legal minority religion.
– Mandaeans were described by Catholic friar Riccoldo da Monte di Croce in Mesopotamia in 1290.
3. Beliefs and Tenets:
– Mandaeism is based on religious creeds and doctrines covering eschatology, knowledge of God, and the afterlife.
– Mandaeans believe in a supreme formless Entity creating spiritual, etheric, and material worlds and beings.
– Mandaeans worship the Power of Light personified by Malka d-Nhura and the uthras.
– Mandaeans emphasize immortality of the soul and believe in reward and punishment in the afterlife.
– Mandaeans believe in living near rivers as water is essential for their rituals and symbolizes purity.
4. Cosmology and Scriptures:
– Archetypal Man creates the cosmos in his image.
– Dualism presents cosmic Mother and Father, Light and Darkness.
– Counter-types exist in a world of ideas.
– Planets and stars influence fate and human beings.
– Savior spirits guide the soul through life and after death.
– Ginza Rabba is a crucial religious scripture.
– Haran Gawaita narrates Mandaean history.
– The Mandaean Book of John features a dialogue between John and Jesus.
– Mandaean religious texts may have been orally transmitted.
– Mandaic is the language of the religious literature.
5. Worship, Rituals, and Customs:
– The Mandaean calendar is significant in rituals.
– The Drabsha symbolizes the Mandaean faith.
– Almsgiving and charity are emphasized in worship.
– Weapons of knowledge and faith are preferred over physical weapons.
– Relying on patience, love, and goodness is encouraged.
– Baptism (Masbuta) performed every Sunday.
– Purification rituals like Rishama and Tamasha.
– Death and burial customs including orientation and prayers.
– Places of worship (Mandi) and their essential features.
– Almsgiving (Zidqa) and charity practices within the community.
Mandaeism (Classical Mandaic:ࡌࡀࡍࡃࡀࡉࡉࡀ mandaiia; Arabic: المندائيّة, romanized: al-Mandāʾiyya), sometimes also known as Nasoraeanism or Sabianism, is a Gnostic, monotheistic and ethnic religion with Greek, Iranian, and Jewish influences. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Noah, Shem, Aram, and especially John the Baptist. Mandaeans consider Adam, Seth, Noah, Shem and John the Baptist prophets, with Adam being the founder of the religion and John being the greatest and final prophet.
| Mandaeism | |
|---|---|
| ࡌࡀࡍࡃࡀࡉࡉࡀ المندائيّة (Arabic) | |
 A copy of the Ginza Rabba in Arabic translation | |
| Type | Ethnic religion |
| Classification | Gnosticism |
| Scripture | Ginza Rabba, Qolasta, Mandaean Book of John (see more) |
| Theology | Monotheism |
| Rishama | Sattar Jabbar Hilo |
| Region | Iraq, Iran and diaspora communities |
| Language | Mandaic |
| Origin | 1st century CE Judaea, Roman Empire |
| Separated from | Second Temple Judaism |
| Number of followers | c. 60,000–100,000 |
| Other name(s) | Nasoraeanism, Sabianism |
The Mandaeans speak an Eastern Aramaic language known as Mandaic. The name 'Mandaean' comes from the Aramaic manda, meaning knowledge. Within the Middle East, but outside their community, the Mandaeans are more commonly known as the صُبَّة Ṣubba (singular: Ṣubbī), or as Sabians (الصابئة, al-Ṣābiʾa). The term Ṣubba is derived from an Aramaic root related to baptism. The term Sabians derives from the mysterious religious group mentioned three times in the Quran. The name of this unidentified group, which is implied in the Quran to belong to the 'People of the Book' (ahl al-kitāb), was historically claimed by the Mandaeans as well as by several other religious groups in order to gain legal protection (dhimma) as offered by Islamic law. Occasionally, Mandaeans are also called "Christians of Saint John", in the belief that they were a direct survival of the Baptist's disciples. Further research, however, indicates this to be a misnomer, as Mandaeans consider Jesus to be a false prophet.
The core doctrine of the faith is known as Nāṣerutā (also spelled Nașirutha and meaning Nasoraean gnosis or divine wisdom) (Nasoraeanism or Nazorenism) with the adherents called nāṣorāyi (Nasoraeans or Nazorenes). These Nasoraeans are divided into tarmidutā (priesthood) and mandāyutā (laity), the latter derived from their term for knowledge manda. Knowledge (manda) is also the source for the term Mandaeism which encompasses their entire culture, rituals, beliefs and faith associated with the doctrine of Nāṣerutā. Followers of Mandaeism are called Mandaeans, but can also be called Nasoraeans (Nazorenes), Gnostics (utilizing the Greek word gnosis for knowledge) or Sabians.
The religion has primarily been practiced around the lower Karun, Euphrates and Tigris, and the rivers that surround the Shatt al-Arab waterway, part of southern Iraq and Khuzestan province in Iran. Worldwide, there are believed to be between 60,000 and 70,000 Mandaeans. Until the Iraq War, almost all of them lived in Iraq. Many Mandaean Iraqis have since fled their country because of the turmoil created by the 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation by U.S. armed forces, and the related rise in sectarian violence by extremists. By 2007, the population of Mandaeans in Iraq had fallen to approximately 5,000.
The Mandaeans have remained separate and intensely private. Reports of them and of their religion have come primarily from outsiders: particularly from Julius Heinrich Petermann, an Orientalist; as well as from Nicolas Siouffi, a Syrian Christian who was the French vice-consul in Mosul in 1887, and British cultural anthropologist Lady E. S. Drower. There is an early if highly prejudiced account by the French traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier from the 1650s.
