Mandaeism

Mandaeism or Mandaeanism (; , ' or مَنْدَعِيَّة, "mandaʿīya"), also known as Sabianism (, '), is a monotheistic and Gnostic religion with dualistic cosmology. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Noah, Shem, Aram, and especially John the Baptist. The Mandaeans have been counted among the Semites and speak a dialect of Eastern Aramaic known as Mandaic. The name 'Mandaean' is said to come from the Aramaic "manda" meaning "knowledge". Within the Middle East, but outside of their community, the Mandaeans are more commonly known as the ' (singular: ) or Sabians. The term ' is derived from the Aramaic root related to baptism, the neo-Mandaic is "." In the Quran, the "Sabians" (, "") are mentioned three times alongside Jews and Christians. Occasionally, Mandaeans are called "Christians of Saint John". 
According to most scholars, Mandaeaism originated sometime in the first three centuries AD, in either southwestern Mesopotamia or the Syro-Palestinian area. However, some scholars take the view that Mandaeanism is older and dates from pre-Christian times. Mandaeans assert that they predate Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as a monotheistic religion.
The religion has been practised primarily 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. There are thought to be between 60,000 and 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide. 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.
Etymology.
The term Mandaic or Mandaeic "Mandaeism" comes from Classical Mandaic "Mandaiia" and appears in Neo-Mandaic as "Mandeyānā." On the basis of cognates in other Aramaic dialects, Semiticists such as Mark Lidzbarski and Rudolf Macuch have translated the term "manda", from which "Mandaiia" derives, as "knowledge" (cf. "mandaʻ" in Dan. 2:21, 4:31, 33, 5:12; cf. "maddaʻ", with characteristic assimilation of /n/ to the following consonant, medial -nd- hence becoming -dd-). This etymology suggests that the Mandaeans may well be the only sect surviving from Late Antiquity to identify themselves explicitly as Gnostics.
Other scholars derive the term "mandaiia" () from "Mandā d-Heyyi" () "Knowledge of Life," in reference to the chief divinity "Hayyi Rabbi" () "the Great Life" or "Great Living God" or from the word "Beth Manda", which is the cultic hut in which many Mandaean ceremonies are performed (such as the baptism, which is the central sacrament of Mandaean religious life).
History.
According to the Mandaean text the Haran Gawaita, the recorded history of the Mandaeans began when a group called the Nasoreans (the Mandaean priestly caste as opposed to the laity), left Judea/Palestine and migrated to Mesopotamia in the 1st century CE. The reason given for this was their persecution in Jerusalem. The emigrants went first to Haran (probably Harran in modern-day Turkey), or Hauran and then the Median hills in Iran, before finally settling in the southern provinces of Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). According to Edmondo Lupieri, as stated in his article on Encyclopædia Iranica, "The possible historical connection with John the Baptist, as seen in the newly translated Mandaean texts, convinced many (notably R. Bultmann) that it was possible, through the Mandaean traditions, to shed some new light on the history of John and on the origins of Christianity. This brought about a revival of the otherwise almost fully abandoned idea of their Palestinian origins. As the archeological discovery of Mandaean incantation bowls and lead amulets proved a pre-Islamic Mandaean presence in southern Mesopotamia, scholars were obliged to hypothesize otherwise unknown persecutions by Jews or by Christians to explain the reason for Mandaeans’ departure from Palestine."
At the beginning of the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia, the leader of the Mandaeans, Anush son of Danqa appeared before Muslim authorities showing them a copy of the Ginza Rabba, the Mandaean holy book, and proclaiming the chief Mandaean prophet to be John the Baptist, who is also mentioned in the Quran as Yahya Bin Zakariya. This identified Mandaeans with the Sabians who are mentioned in the Quran as being counted among the "Ahl al-Kitāb" (People of the Book). This provided Mandaeans a status as a legal minority religion within the Muslim Empire. The Mandaeans were henceforth associated with the Sabians and the Jewish Christian group the Elcesaites, on account of the location of all three in Mesopotamia in the early centuries CE, and the similarities in their beliefs. The importance of baptism in the rituals of all three is particularly marked. Like the Mandaeans, the Sabians were also said to be gnostics and descended from Noah. Mandaeans continue to be identified with Sabians up to the present day, but the exact relationship between the three groups remains unclear. 
Around 1290, a learned Dominican Catholic from Tuscany, Ricoldo da Montecroce, or Ricoldo Pennini, was in Mesopotamia where he met the Mandaeans. He described them as follows:
Mandaeans were called "Christians of Saint John" by members of the Discalced Carmelite mission in Basra during the 16th century, based upon their preliminary reports. Some Portuguese Jesuits had also met some "Saint John Christians" around the Strait of Hormuz in 1559, when the Portuguese fleet fought with the Ottoman Turkish army in Bahrain. These Mandaean seemed to be willing to obey the Catholic Church. They learned and used the seven Catholic sacraments and the related ceremonies in their lives.
Beliefs.
Mandaeism, as the religion of the Mandaean people, is based on a set of religious creeds and doctrines. The corpus of Mandaean literature, though quite large, covers topics – such as eschatology, the knowledge of God and the afterlife.
Fundamental tenets.
According to E. S. Drower, the Mandaean Gnosis is characterized by nine features, which appear in various forms in other gnostic sects:
Cosmology.
As noted above Mandaean theology is not systematic. There is no one single authoritative account of the creation of the cosmos, but rather a series of several accounts. Some scholars, such as Edmondo Lupieri, maintain that comparison of these different accounts may reveal the diverse religious influences upon which the Mandaeans have drawn and the ways in which the Mandaean religion has evolved over time.
In contrast with the religious texts of the western Gnostic sects formerly found in Syria and Egypt, the earliest Mandaean religious texts suggest a more strictly dualistic theology, typical of other Iranian religions such as Zoroastrianism, Zurvanism, Manichaeism, and the teachings of Mazdak. In these texts, instead of a large pleroma, there is a discrete division between "light" and "darkness." The Mandaean God is known as "Hayyi Rabbi" (The Great Living God). Other names used are "Mare d'Rabuta" (Lord of Greatness) and "Melka d'Nhura" (King of Light). 
Ptahil (), the third emanation, alone does not constitute the demiurge but only fills that role insofar as he is the creator of the material world. Rather, Ptahil is the lowest of a group of three emanations, the other two being Yushamin (; first emanation a.k.a. Joshamin) and Abathur (), the second emanation. Abathur's demiurgic role consists of his sitting in judgment upon the souls of mortals. The role of Yushamin, the first emanation, is more obscure; wanting to create a world of his own, he was severely punished for opposing the King of Light. The name may derive from Iao "haš-šammayim" (in Hebrew: Yahweh "of the heavens").
While Mandaeans agree with other gnostic sects that the world is a prison governed by the planetary archons, they do not view it as a cruel and inhospitable one.
Chief prophets.
Mandaeans recognize several prophets. Yahia-Yohanna, known in Christianity as John the Baptist, is accorded a special status, higher than his role in Christianity and Islam. Mandaeans do not consider John to be the founder of their religion but revere him as one of their greatest teachers, tracing their beliefs back to Adam.
Mandaeans do not believe in the sanctity of Abraham, Moses or Jesus, but recognize other prophetic figures from the Abrahamic religions, such as Adam, his son Seth, and his grandson Anush (Enosh), as well as Nuh (Noah), Sam (Shem), and Ram (Aram), whom they consider to be their direct ancestors.
Mandaeans also do not recognize the Holy Spirit in the Talmud and Bible, who is known in Mandaic as "Ruha", "Ruha d-Qudsha", or "Ruha Masțanita", in the same way. Instead of being viewed positively as a holy spirit, she is viewed negatively as the personification of the lower, emotional, and feminine elements of the human psyche.
Scriptures.
The Mandaeans have a large corpus of religious scriptures, the most important of which is the "Ginza Rba" or Ginza, a collection of history, theology, and prayers. The "Ginza Rba" is divided into two halves—the "Genzā Smālā" or "Left Ginza", and the "Genzā Yeminā" or "Right Ginza". By consulting the colophons in the Left Ginza, Jorunn J. Buckley has identified an uninterrupted chain of copyists to the late second or early third century. The colophons attest to the existence of the Mandaeans or their predecessors during the late Parthian Empire at the very latest.
The oldest texts are lead amulets from about the third century CE, followed by magic bowls from about 600 CE. The important religious manuscripts are not older than the sixteenth century, with most coming from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Although the "Ginza" continued to evolve under the rule of the Sasanian Empire and the Islamic caliphates, few textual traditions can lay claim to such extensive continuity.
Another important text is the "Haran Gawaita" which tells the history of the Mandaeans. According to this text, a group of Nasoraeans (Mandean priests) left Judea before the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century CE, and settled within the Parthian Empire. 
Other important books include the "Qolusta", the canonical prayerbook of the Mandaeans, which was translated by E. S. Drower. One of the chief works of Mandaean scripture, accessible to laymen and initiates alike, is the "Mandaean Book of John" (), which includes a dialogue between John and Jesus. In addition to the "Ginza", "Qolusta", and "Draša", there is the "Dīvān", which contains a description of the 'regions' the soul ascends through, and the "Asfar Malwāshē", the "Book of the Zodiacal Constellations". Finally, there are some pre-Muslim artifacts that contain Mandaean writings and inscriptions, such as some Aramaic incantation bowls.
The language in which the Mandaean religious literature was originally composed is known as Mandaic, and is a member of the Aramaic family of dialects. It is written in a cursive variant of the Parthian chancellory script. Many Mandaean lay people do not speak this language, though some members of the Mandaean community resident in Iran and Iraq continue to speak Neo-Mandaic, a modern version of this language.
Worship.
The two most important ceremonies in Mandaean worship are baptism (masbuta), and a mass for the dead or 'ascent of the soul ceremony' (masiqta). Unlike other Abrahamic religions, baptism is not a one-off event but is performed every Sunday, the Mandaean holy day. Baptism usually involves full immersion in flowing water, and all rivers considered fit for baptism are called Yardena (after the River Jordan). After emerging from the water, the worshipper is anointed with holy oil and partakes of a communion of bread and water. The ascent of the soul ceremony can take various forms, but usually involves a ritual meal in memory of the dead. The ceremony is believed to help the souls of the departed on their journey through purgatory to the World of Light. Mandaean pray three times a day.
A ' () ("Beth Manda") or "Mashkhanna" is a place of worship for followers of Mandaeism. A ' must be built beside a river in order to perform maṣbuta (or baptism) because water is an essential element in the Mandaean faith. Modern ""s sometimes have a bath inside a building instead. Each mandi is adorned with a "darfash", which is a cross of olive wood half covered with a piece of white pure silk cloth and seven branches of myrtle. The cross is not identified with the Christian cross. Instead the four arms of the cross symbolise the four corners of the universe, while the pure silk cloth represents the Light of God. The seven branches of myrtle represent the seven days of creation.
Mandaeans believe in marriage and procreation, and in the importance of leading an ethical and moral lifestyle in this world. They are pacifist and egalitarian, with the earliest attested Mandaean scribe being a woman, "Shlama Beth Qidra", who copied the "Left Ginza" sometime in the 2nd century CE. There is evidence for women priests, especially in the pre-Islamic era. They also place a high priority upon family life. Mandaeans do not practice asceticism and detest circumcision. Mandaeans will, however, abstain from strong drink and red meat.
Organisation.
There is a strict division between Mandaean laity and the priests. According to E.S. Drower ("The Secret Adam", p. ix):
There are three grades of priesthood in Mandaeism: the "tarmidia" () “disciples” (Neo-Mandaic "tarmidānā"), the "ganzibria" () “treasurers” (from Old Persian "ganza-bara" "id.," Neo-Mandaic "ganzeḇrānā") and the "rišamma" () “leader of the people”. This last office, the highest level of the Mandaean priesthood, has lain vacant for many years. At the moment, the highest office currently occupied is that of the "ganzeḇrā", a title which appears first in a religious context in the Aramaic ritual texts from Persepolis (c. 3rd century BCE) and which may be related to the "kamnaskires" (Elamite <qa-ap-nu-iš-ki-ra> "kapnuskir" "treasurer"), title of the rulers of Elymais (modern Khuzestan) during the Hellenistic age. Traditionally, any "ganzeḇrā" who baptizes seven or more "ganzeḇrānā" may qualify for the office of "rišamma", though the Mandaean community has yet to rally as a whole behind any single candidate.
The contemporary priesthood can trace its immediate origins to the first half of the 19th century. In 1831, an outbreak of cholera devastated the region and eliminated most if not all of the Mandaean religious authorities. Two of the surviving acolytes ("šgandia"), Yahia Bihram and Ram Zihrun, reestablished the priesthood on the basis of their own training and the texts that were available to them.
In 2009, there were two dozen Mandaean priests in the world, according to the Associated Press. However, according to the Mandaean Society in America the number of priests has been growing in recent years.
Relations with other groups.
The Mandaeans have been identified with several groups, in particular the Sabians and the Elkasaites. Other groups such as the Nazarenes and the Dositheans have also been identified with the Mandaeans. The exact relation of all these groups to one another is a difficult question. But they do share many common beliefs, in accordance with other ancient Middle Eastern religions such as Yazdaism and Judaism, such as belief in a formless deity, reincarnation and rejection of meat or red meat either completely or during religious times.
While it seems certain that a number of distinct groups are intended by these names, the nature of these sects and the connections between them are less than clear. At least according to the "Fihrist" (see below), these groups seem all to have emerged from or developed in parallel with the "Sabian" followers of "El-Hasaih"; "Elkasaites" in particular may simply have been a blanket term for Mughtasila, Mandaeans, Sabians and even Manichaeans.
Sabians.
The Quran makes several references to the Sabians, who are frequently thought to be Mandaeans. Sabians are counted among the "Ahl al-Kitāb" (People of the Book), and several hadith feature them. Arab sources of early Quranic times (7th century) also make some references to Sabians. Some scholars hold that the etymology of the root word 'Sabi'un' points to origins either in the Syriac or Mandaic word 'Sabian', and suggest that the Mandaean religion originated with Sabeans who came under the influence of early Hellenic Sabian missionaries, but preferred their own priesthood. The Sabians believed they "belong to the prophet Noah"; Similarly, the Mandaeans claim direct descent from Noah.
An Assyrian Christian writer said that the true 'Sabians' or Sabba lived in the marshes of lower Iraq. The Assyrian writer Theodore Bar Konai (in the Scholion, 792) described a "sect" of "Sabians", who were located in southern Mesopotamia. 
Al-Biruni (writing at the beginning of the 11th century) said that the 'real Sabians' were "the remnants of the Jewish tribes who remained in Babylonia when the other tribes left it for Jerusalem in the days of Cyrus and Artaxerxes. These remaining tribes ... adopted a system mixed-up of Magism and Judaism."
Nasaraean.
The Haran Gawaita uses the name Nasoraeans for the Mandaeans arriving from Jerusalem. Consequently, the Mandaeans have been connected with the Nasaraeans described by Epiphanius, a group within the Essenes. Epiphanius says (29:6) that they existed before Christ. That is questioned by some, but others accept the pre-Christian origin of this group.
Elkesaites.
The Elkesaites were a Judeo-Christian baptismal sect which seem to have been related, and possibly ancestral, to the Mandaeans (see Sabians). The members of this sect, like the Mandaeans, wore white and performed baptisms. They dwelt in east Judea and Assyria, whence the Mandaeans claim to have migrated to southern Mesopotamia, according to the "Harran Gawaiṯā". In the "Fihrist" ("Book of Nations") of Arabic scholar Al-Nadim (c. 987), the "Mogtasilah" ("Mughtasila", "self-ablutionists") are counted among the followers of "El-Hasaih" or Elkesaites. "Mogtasilah" may thus have been Al-Nadim's term for the Mandaeans, as the few details on rituals and habit are similar to Mandaeans ones. The Elkesaites seem to have prospered for a while, but ultimately splintered. They may have originated in a schism where they renounced the Torah, while the mainstream Sampsaeans held on to it (as Elchasai's followers did)—if so, this must have happened around the mid-late 1st millennium CE. However, it is not clear exactly which group he referred to, for by then the Elkesaite sects may have been at their most diverse. Some disappeared subsequently; for example, the Sampsaeans are not well attested in later sources. The "Ginza Rba", one of the chief holy scriptures of the Mandaeans, appears to originate around the time of Elchasai or somewhat thereafter.
Manichaeans.
According to the "Fihrist" of ibn al-Nadim, the Mesopotamian prophet Mani, the founder of Manichaeism, was brought up within the Elkesaite ("Elcesaite" or "Elchasaite") sect, this being confirmed more recently by the Cologne Mani Codex. None of the Manichaean scriptures has survived in its entirety, and it seems that the remaining fragments have not been compared to the "Ginza Rba". Mani later left the Elkasaites to found his own religion. In a comparative analysis, the Egyptologist Säve-Söderbergh indicated that Mani's "Psalms of Thomas" were closely related to Mandaean texts. This would imply that Mani had access to Mandaean religious literature, or that both derived from the same source.
Dositheans.
They are connected with the Samaritan group, the Dositheans, by Theodore Bar Kōnī in his "Scholion".
Number of adherents.
Official numbers estimate that the current population of Mandaeans numbers between 60,000 and 70,000 people. Their proportion in their native lands has collapsed because of the Iraq War, with most of the community relocating to nearby Iran, Syria, and Jordan.
In 2011, Al Arabiya put the number of hidden and unaccounted for Iranian Mandaeans in Iran as high as 60,000. According to a 2009 article in "The Holland Sentinel", the Mandaean community in Iran has also been dwindling, numbering between 5,000 and at most 10,000 people.
Of the Mandaeans tallied in official numbers, many have formed diaspora communities outside the Middle East, especially Australia, where some 10,000 now reside, mainly around Sydney, representing 15% of the total world Mandaean population. 
Approximately 1,000 Iranian Mandaeans have emigrated to the United States since the US State Department in 2002 granted them protective refugee status, which was also later accorded to Iraqi Mandaeans in 2007. A community estimated at 2,500 members live in Worcester, Massachusetts, where they began settling in 2008. Most emigrated from Iraq.
Mandaeism does not allow conversion, and the religious status of Mandaeans who marry outside the faith and their children is disputed.