1962 drower mandaean polemic

Mandaean PolemicAuthor(s): E. S. DrowerSource: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 25,No. 1/3 (1962), pp. 438-448Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/610915 .Accessed: 20/03/2014 02:39

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MANDAEAN POLEMIC x

By E. S. DROWER

T HE Mandaean, or Nasoraean religion is a system with no definite theology. It is, and apparently was from the first, an elaborate system of symbolical rites, meticulously preserved and performed by an hereditary priesthood. These priests, to judge by scrolls reserved for priests only, appear to have concealed gnostic conceptions in symbolical myths, personifying abstract conceptions and so veiling, even in priestly texts, high and metaphysical truths which only the especially endued could perceive if fitted to understand.

Such truths were high above the heads of the laity, 'the multitude'. For these simple believers, the extroverts, everything must be conveyed in parable. For their souls' salvation it was enough to obey and support their priests, to come to them for moral instruction, and to carry out rites and taboos imposed upon them by their spiritual betters.

For the lay Mandaean there was no founder to reverence, no great prophet to single out as leader, no human saint upon whom to pinpoint devotion. This, from the standpoint of propaganda, was a disadvantage. Nasiruta (in its lay form Mandaeanism, Mandtaiuta) never became a state religion. According to tradition, it was tolerated and protected by the Parthians. Under Sassanian rule protection wore thin, and when Muslim conquerors overran the Middle East, Mandaeans asked for the grudging tolerance accorded to peoples 'of a book' in the Qur'dn, but they had to prove it. It seems that even pagan neighbours in Harran proclaimed themselves Mandaeans in order to shelter beneath the mysterious umbrella of the Mandaean scriptures.

From its earliest beginnings, according to oral tradition and references in their literature, the sect had been persecuted. Historical annals as such do

1 The following abbreviations are used in this article : ATS E. S. Drower: The thousand and twelve questions (Alf trisar Kuialia). [With facsimile

text, translation, and commentary.] (Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Institut fir Orientforschung, Ver6ffentlichung Nr. 32.) Berlin, Akademie- Verlag, 1960.

OP E. S. Drower : The canonical prayerbook of the Mandaean8s. [Facs. text and translation.] Leiden, Brill, 1959.

DC Drower Collection: Bodleian Library, Oxford. GR M. Lidzbarski: Ginza, tbersetzt und erkldrt. Gottingen, Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht,

1925. HG E. S. Drower: The Haran Gawaita. [Facs. text with trs.] (Studi e Testi, 176.) CittA

del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1953. MII E. S. Drower : The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran: their cults, customs, magic, legends,

and folklore. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1937. (Brill is shortly bringing out a new edition.)

Pet. H. Petermann: Thesaurus8 sive Liber magnu8 vulgo 'Liber Adami'. [Mandaic text in two volumes.] Leipzig, P. O. Weigel, 1867. (rt. = right part of text, 1. = left part.)

SA E. S. Drower : The Secret Adam. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1960. TL Theologiche Literaturzeitung.


MANDAEAN POLEMIC 439

not exist in Mandaic and the only document of the kind which has survived frequent fires in reed huts, raids by Arabs, and the damp and floods of the marshes is a scroll which modern Mandaeans claim to be historical, but which is late and very legendary. It tells of a persecution of Nasoraeans in the first century A.D. by Jews in Jerusalem and describes the flight of a number of the sect to Harran where, amongst the Parthians they found (Jewish ?) gnostics like themselves.' In the long commemorative prayer for souls of the deceased, prayer is offered for 'the 360 tarmidia (= talmidia 'disciples') who went forth from the district of Jerusalem the city'.

Such a persecution would explain the violent abhorrence for orthodox Judaism which runs like an underground stream throughout Nasoraean (Mandaean) literature. That this hatred dates from a very early period seems to be indicated by the fact that it actually influenced the language, with the effect that certain words and verbal roots were deliberately banned or blackened because associated with orthodox Jews and Jewry. Evidence of this is provided by the verbal root qdA which in Mandaic has not the meaning of being holy or sacred, but is used to express obloquy: 'holy' in inverted commas or 'so- called' holy, as it might be translated. The root qdA or any word derived from the root, is never employed to describe Mandaean beings, personages, cere- monies, or objects. The only exception, if it is one, is when the unsuccessful demiurge Pthahil is called qadiia (MVIMP) when he appears as lord of a maarta (a place of durance-a purgatory), and in GR, trs., p. 163, n. 3, Lidzbarski calls attention to the curiously polemical use of the word.

The sun (SamiA) is called qadu : 'the wrathful AamiA whose name is Adonai, whose name is QaduA, whose name is 1l-l' (GR, trs., 25:8; Pet., text, 43:2).

The polemical use of the verb qd? appears in references to Christians. Christian saints, monks, and nuns are called qadita and qadigiata (' holy' men and women). Angels, not considered reputable spirits by Mandaeans, may be qualified by an adjective derived from qd?. The mother of the planets and of the earth-dragon 'Ur is Ruha-d-Qudca (' holy' spirit), a polemical name labelling the personified ruha' spirit '. This is the lower immaterial part of the human per- sonality, influenced by desire and lust, but also capable of redemption through the sublimating influence of the higher part, the niaimta. The ill-repute attached to qdg is accentuated when it appears as a form of qt? 'to fight', e.g. mqad~a

1 In HG. See also SA, 112. 2 CP, p. 152. A priest in modern times is called a tarmida. 3 Alandacan authors are forced to find adjectives which mean ' holy ', ' sacred' which derive

from innocuous roots such as ' honoured ', ' revered ', ' precious ', etc. Yqr provides yaqra, and the marriage rite is called a kuJta yaqra (a ' solemn' or ' precious' pact), and kufta rhima 'the beloved pact '. Kugta- Yaqra is personified, deified. ' Kuita- Yaqra, the Great Light before whom no being existed' (AT,, i, no. 100) and again he is called ' the Great Radiance, the bril- liance of whom exceedeth the brightness of all worlds ' (ibid., no. 99). He is spoken of sometimes as a Maina. To such a being, a personification of ideal truth, pact, and sincerity, yaqra more or less replaces the unwelcome qdua, qadif,

and other derivatives, which are only used derisively. VOL. XXV. PART 3. 33


440 E. S. DROWER 'warlike ', 'contentious ', and the final ignominy is found in a word for adulteress, or prostitute, mqada'ta, this time, however, justified by the Hebrew

"T. 'temple prostitute, a hierodule'.

Mandaean avoidance of another verbal root, mth, when meaning 'to anoint' because the word m*iha (anointed one, Messiah) is derived from it, is even more striking. In New Hebrew mMh

(?I.) is 'to anoint, or to stroke or

wipe ', according to some ' with the hand ', for roots beginning with the letters mt often convey the idea of moving or stretching the hand or arm.1 Now when a Mandaean priest 'anoints' with water a person he is baptizing, whilst both are standing in the baptismal pool or river, he dips his hand in the water and draws his finger-tip lightly across the baptizand's forehead from the right temple to the left. When the latter crouches before him on the bank, he repeats this action, but this time uses sesame oil (mi`a br susma). In the maliqta, in which rite each tiny disc of dough represents the soul of a person commemorated, he draws his finger moistened with niisa 2 in a similar way, i.e. from right to left, across one disc after another, including the disc which represents the soul especially commemorated. In the baptismal liturgy the verb used to describe this rite is msa-not mWh. As mvia has also the meaning 'to purify by washing' in Mandaic, the verb employed is peculiarly adapted to the baptism rite. Verbs used for 'anointing' elsewhere are usually those which mean ' to sign ', ' to seal ', and ' to make a pass over ', i.e. r~m, htm, and ada. I have, as far as memory serves one, only twice found the past participle of the verb msh meaning ' anointed' or ' smeared' in Mandaic texts, and the word mviha was then (a) applied to a bridal wreath when smeared with oil for a bride- groom, (b) exceptionally used in DC 36 (mgiha umihdia' anointed and guided '). It is, therefore, clear that the meaning of the root was well known to Mandaean writers, but avoided because of its use in religion by Jews and Christians.

When referring to Christian baptism the Mandaeans employ the root amd (Syriac

, ), not sba (= X73). For instance bmia psiqia mamidilhun

'baptizing tlem in " cut-off" water', i.e. in water cut off from a flowing source. And in GR rt. the ninth book contains long, and abusive accounts of

religions and sects. One deals with ' the gate of Venus', which was apparently a Christian sect:

' They dig out a basin in the ground, purloin water from a jordan (stream), boil it with fire, and pour it into the basin. Into it, when they are undressed,

they take down men and women, baptizing them (mamidilhun) and giving them some of the water to drink. They pronounce Death's name over them, the

1 J. Levy, Chaldiisches W6rterbuch :

'l.f?

mit der Hand tiber etwas fahren streichen,

bes. mit Oel bestreichen '. For instance in Mandaic we get mia (see above), 'protect (with the hand), touch, and to measure (by length of hand and arm, etc.)'. Cloth-sellers in Arab markets still measure from elbow to finger-tip although this ancient custom is gradually being replaced

by a measure stick. M66 'to grope, feel, estimate by touch', and mMh itself is used for ' to

measure, survey'. Similar roots occur in Syriac and in Hebrew. 2The miia used in baptism is sesame oil; that used in the maliqta is of sesame oil mixed with

date-juice.



name of" Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ", baptizing them and mentioning over them the name of the Anointed One (mniha, Christ)' (Pet., rt., 226).

These examples of polemical language are directed primarily against Jews and, as illustrated in a quotation above, words especially connected with the Jewish religion such as Adonai (my Lord), Sbaboth, and others, become derisive or are used in magic, usually black magic. Tl, too, is a word soiled by association with the Hebrews; nevertheless we find it used here and there as a designation of the Most High God.' The word Yahu for Jehovah (Yahweh) is also taboo but is freely and repeatedly used as a word of power in exorcisms and magic.

Side by side with all this defamation of Jewish cult-words, we discover that reverence and affection attach to some Jewish place-names such as Mount Carmel (Karimla,

T.ur Karimla) and the Lebanon (Libnan). Of course the

Jordan is more than a memory 2; it is the baptismal river above all other streams, and running water in which baptism is performed automatically becomes a jordan. As I pointed out in my book The Secret Adam, this muddy little river flows through a valley many feet below sea-level and is at all seasons of the year at a temperature agreeable to those who immerse, and is by this fact alone adapted to compete favourably with other streams in Palestine and Syria, for these are rapid and icy when fed at certain seasons in the year with melting snow from the hills.3

And if, as claimed in the Haran Gawaita, Nasoraeans fleeing from persecution in Judaea found asylum in the Hauran and Harran, references to 'the pure Hauraran' 4 and ' Hauraran in which souls become perfect' 5 and so on, become meaningful. A line in the baptismal hymns (CP, p. 37, text, left, ult. and penult.) bhauran 'ustlan bhauraran ksuian ' with Hauran our garment, in Hauraran our cover' may hint that these place-names refer to geographical districts and that they once afforded concealment and cover to refugees for religion's sake. That the two words are references to real geographical districts or places is indicated in the Barakata (OP, p. 298) ' Thou shalt be blest with the blessings pronounced on the Jordan and on the land of Hauraran '.

Bethlehem is mentioned (GR, rt., 329:22, Pet.; trs., 338:23) as a place at which the seven planets came down to earth and where their mother Ruha bade them build a' new Jerusalem'. She is driven off by the voice of 'Anush- 'Uthra. This polemical parable probably refers to the Peshitta story of the birth of Jesus.

In earlier Mandaean books and in priestly commentaries there is little polemic, indeed usually none whatever, against Christianity, and the main tide of venom flows against the Jews. In the post-Islamic book called Drabia d-Yahia (in Lidzbarski's translation Das Johannesbuch (JB), there is a dispute

1 See SA, p. 93, n. 1. The first letter of the Mandaic alphabet is often interchangeable with 'ain (?y = on, above, the above).

2 See Dr. R. Macuch's interesting article 'Alter und Heimat des Mandiiismus nach neuer- schlossenen Quellen ', TL, LXXXI, 6, 1957, cols. 401-8. 3 cf. the story of Naaman, 2 Kings v. ' GR, 1., 304:11 (Pet.). GR, 1., 135:18 (Pet.). 30*


442 E.S. DROWER

between John (Yahia-Yuhana) and Jesus. John the Baptist, by the way, is not mentioned in the priestly scrolls, and even in modern Mandaean theology he is never claimed to be more than a Nasoraean priest contemporary with Jesus. The latter is always 'the false (or pseudo-) messiah', and the only apostle mentioned is 'Paulis ',1 whose name occurs in the dialogue referred to above (JB, text, 103 if., trs., 103 ff.). Jesus (YSu-messiah) says: 'Yahia, baptize me with thy baptism and pronounce over me the name which thou pronouncest. If I show myself thy disciple I will mention thee in my writing 2 but if I do not become thy disciple, erase my name from thy scroll'.

John (Yahia) answers ' Jesu-messiah in Jerusalem ',' Thou hast lied to the Jews and hast deceived men and priests!' and accuses Jesus of ascetism, monasticism, celibacy, and breaking the Sabbath. Jesus vehemently denies his accusations and continues to demand baptism. John proposes a series of riddles and paradoxes which Jesu-messiah answers in a plausible manner. A 'letter' from the 'House of Abathur' then descends to John telling him to baptize Jesus, ' Baptize the Liar in the Jordan, take him up the bank and let him stand there '.

'Then Ruha d-Quda 3 (" holy " Spirit) assumed the likeness of a dove, made a cross in the Jordan and stirred the water into divers colours and said (to it) " Jordan, thou hast made me and my seven sons holy" (mqada&ztlia

...). The Jordan in which Messiah-Paulis hath been baptized I have made a gutter; the pihta (sacramental bread) which Messiah-Paulis took I have made into qurban.' The burzinqa (ritual turban) which Messiah-Paulis took I have made into kahnuta (cohen-ry). The margna which Messiah-Paulis took I have turned into filth.'

It is apparently an accusation that the Nestorian church has stolen and parodied Mandaean vestments and sacraments.

In the same codex we find a dialogue between 'Anush-'Uthra and ' Messiah' (op. cit., p. 276, text 243) in which ' Messiah' asks 'Anush-'Uthra for' signs '.5 The name of the latter is a form of 'man, mankind ', and he is one of the three symbolically named sons of Adakas-Ziwa (the Light-Adam), i.e. Adam-Kasia (the Secret or Mystic Adam). In the same book 'Anush-'Uthra is described as working miracles and cures in Jerusalem. The late Professor F. C. Burkitt saw in this a Mandaean attempt to annex the miracles of Jesus and

1 This cannot be the result of reading the NT in translation or Syriac, for neither Peter nor Thomas (apostle to the Middle East) are mentioned. It is probably hearsay from chance references by Nestorians.

2 Prudqa, a writing which gives the credentials of a traveller. 3 The use of qdi here with Ruha d-Qudsa is polemical. She is an evil spirit, mother of the

seven (planets). 4 The Nestorian sacramental bread is so called. I suspect that kahnuta which follows as the

substitute from the Mandaean burzinqa (turban) was originally krakta (the Nestorian mitre or turban).

r In this dialogue 'A-'U cites various periods at which the entire population of the earth has been wiped out by global disasters, except for a single couple (e.g. Noah and his wife, and others named in GR) which paired in order that the human race might populate the world.


MANDAEAN POLEMIC 443 concluded that the sect was a late offshoot of Christian gnosticism deriving its cults from Nestorian Christianity.' His acquaintance with Mandaean literature, however, was limited to Lidzbarski's translations, and he failed to discern that the chief accusation against Jesus in the earlier books is the falsity of his messiahship and that it is only late Mandaean polemic which tilts against Christian monasticism and attitude towards sex. Hans Lietzmann took a view similar to that of Burkitt but it is one which has largely been abandoned by modern theologians.

The left side of the Ginza rba, which contains, I believe, the oldest part of that book, is chiefly composed of hymns for the departed soul, sixty-two in number. Throughout the hymns the soul is called a mana, and the only curses, reproaches, and contumely expressed in them are against the planets. The stars and the signs of the zodiac are the enemies of the soul. This we may, I think, look upon as refutation of the idea that man is the helpless victim of heimarmene, the plaything of the planets under the influence of which he was born. Nasiruta is an urgent denial of fate, it is a call to the soul of man to hearken to its own mana which is at once an image and part of the Great Mana. If man listens to this call from within, he is proof against fate and the planets. The left side of the Ginza rba, however, includes a prose section of four fragments in which there is propaganda against monasticism and Christianity. The matarata, are worlds in which souls are imprisoned and tortured for their sins and impurities, hence they correspond to purgatories. The soul is conducted by sons of the Light past these realms of suffering. One of these is that of' the wizard Messiah, son of the spirit of Lie, who has given himself out to be the god of the Nasoraeans ' (GR, 1., Pet., 33:18) and in the same purgatory are qadigia and qadigiata ('holy' men and women) and unmarried men and women (ptulia uptuliata) and 'zbia and 'zbiata (celibates, monks, and nuns); 'men who wish for no women and women who 'wish for no men and will have no children; slaughtering and slaying their offspring in their wombs and cutting off living seed which has come to them from the House of Life'.

Further on, in the same fragment, the soul is shown the purgatory of' the Spirit of Iniquity' (Ml'ITM lD8), in which are incarcerated and tortured by privations those who practised fasts and mortifications of the flesh, for such unnatural self-torture is looked upon as sinful by Mandaeans.

The canonical prayers, when examined, show little concern about competing faiths beyond a brief and contemptuous mention here and there-and such is usually directed against the Jews. The Miriai prayers in the 'niania, for instance, have as mise en scene Jerusalem and speak of the conversion of a Jewess named Miriai. I see no reason for thinking that there is any basis for identifying this character with Mary the Mother of Jesus.2 There are two

1 ' Mandaean hostility to Eshu-Mfiha is hostility to the fully-developed post-Nicene Church' (Burkitt, Church and Gnosis, Cambridge, 1932).

2 Who is called by them Miriam, Mariam. Miriai is mentioned with the mother of Yahia (John) in JB as weeping together (JB, trs., p. 85), again with other Jews (Yaqif and Beni-Amin), and two sections of JB are devoted to Miriai, (a) telling of her declaration in ruined Jerusalem


444 E. S. DROWER

of these hymns, both long, and the second contains her reproof of disbelieving Jews who question her, 'What is he like, the being whom thine eyes beheld ? ' She tells them

'There is not His peer in the world.... At His tread and at His footsteps- The earthly world was alarmed. The dead heard Him and lived, The sick heard Him and were cured, Lepers heard Him and were healed, They got up, arose and were healed By the healing of Knowledge-of-Life (Manda-d-Hiia)' etc.

She is also mentioned in JB,1 a book which, as said earlier, is for the most part post-Islamic. The conversion of a Jewess of rank is probably the basis of this legend, as Miriai is usually described as a princess.

As in pre-Islamic times Mandaeans had Magians as neighbours, some form of attack upon fire and fire-altars might reasonably be expected. But, except for a verse in a baptism hymn (CP, no. 21)

' "Lo ! There burns a fire! It will bear witness for us." " That is not what I seek; Not that which my soul desireth. The fire of which ye spake Needs once a day a fire-brand. Fire of which ye speak, fire Is vanity and cometh to naught And its worshippers come to nought And are vanity "'

there is nothing. It should be remembered that the small fire-brazier upon which sacramental bread is baked and incense constantly cast, is indispensable to all Mandaean rites. Without it, no rite (but that of the Letter under emergency circumstances) may be performed. It is kindled by the priest, fed with ritually immersed and ritually pure fuel, is tended by celebrant or asganda, and without this fire no baptism is valid. It not only bakes the pihta for all sacraments, but is placed beside the banner erected on the bank of the jordan (baptismal pool or river). We find all three, king (priest), fire-altar, and banner represented on coins of the pre-Christian dynasty of Fars. The king acts as fire-priest, just like the Mandaean 'king' (the Mandaean priest is a 'king ', a malka). There is a series of hymns to the banner, not a single one to the fire. I find this silence eloquent.

Moon and Sun are both dismissed as witnesses of baptism in the hymn

that she has been converted to Manda-d-Hiia (gnosis of life) and cursing orthodox Jewish priests, and (b) dealing with Miriai by the Euphrates, where a throne was set up for her. We are evidently dealing here with a legend about a woman who was probably at one time an historical figure.

1 JB, p. 85:13. Other JB references to her are 87 ff., 123 ff., and p. 192:11 (again with Yaqif and Beni-Amin (Bnia-amin)).



quoted above, but there is no mention in it of a messiah or of Christian baptism. Hymn no. 23 in CP which is an address to the oil of anointment says expressly that anointing is ' not in the name of a messiah' or a ' temple-Ishtar ', but there is no connexion here with a Christian messiah. I should place the baptism prayers amongst the oldest which have been preserved,1 and suppose some formulae as old as Nasiruta (Ur-Manddismus) itself.

The ma'iqta and 'letter' prayers are free of polemic, which is strikingly absent from the canonical prayerbook with the exception of

'My sign is not that of fire Nor is it that wherewith the anointed one (mbiha) anointed' (CP, no. 90)

in the 'niania (antiphonal hymns), but again no messiah is specified by name. It is not until the Rahmia (the daily prayers recited at the three prayer-times daily for each day of the week), that we get direct attack upon Jesus, and this reads as though it could have been an interpolation, for it comes after lines bidding the faithful beware of sleep and forgetting.

'Beware, my friends, of Jesu the pseudo-messiah And of those who misconstrue appearances And alter the words of My mouth' (CP, no. 125).

It is again Gnosis-of-Life (Manda-d-Hiia) who addresses the faithful. In the Blessed Oblation prayers (CP, trs., pp. 240-52, text, pp. 368-80) there is con- demnation of those who eat pihta (sacramental bread) in a wrong manner.

'The Jews, an evil nation, accursed and blasphemous Ate it (the oblation). The kiwanaiia 2 ate it with flames of fire, The demented yazuqaiia 3 ate it who reverence fire, Crazed creatures who reverence fire, Serving a thing which is powerless, Idumaeans g ate it, who destroyed their virility, Cast away, destroyed is their manhood And they set up a corpse 5 worshipping it. Zandiqs 6 who rest on supports of falsehood Ate it .... Arabs ate it, evil liars, a wicked race Who drink blood' (CP, no. 357).

1 But after exile to Babylonia, as the sesame oil is called 'son of Euphrates-bank '. 2 Evidently these are Iranian heretics, Zurvanites ? Zurvan was Infinite Time (see R. C.

Zaehner, Zurvan, a Zoroastrian dilemma, Oxford, 1955). Kiwan is the Mandaean Saturn, the planet of old age, Time.

3 Another Zoroastrian sect ? That these were already diverse and numerous is pointed out by Zaehner in The dawn and twilight of Zoroastrianism, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1961, 185 if.

4Idumaeans--a sect situated in Edom, a Transjordan sect which practised self-castration ? Origen, A.D. 185 (?)-254 (?), castrated himself. He is considered heretical by the Roman Catholic Church.

1 Or ' Death'. * Zandiqa, see Zaehner, The dawn and twilight of Zoroastrianism, 184 f., on Zoroastrian sects

under Shahpur I. 'The list of sects persecuted [i.e. after Shahpur's death] shows how justified


446 E. S. DROWER

Here we are in a forest of enigmas, faced with a formidable list of heresies! Only the Nasoraeans ate the sacramental bread and oblation with the true interpretation of symbolic acts of eating and drinking.

Finally, in the Barakata, a long section which priests recite within the mankna (the Mandaean sanctuary and temenos) there is no syllable of polemic. For that very reason I place the 'Blessings' amongst compositions of comparatively early date.

We come now to polemic against Muslims and their prophet. One example can be found in a phrase automatically quoted in colophons by later Mandaean scribes when setting down the day, month, and year on which they complete their copy of a manuscript. Such a year is always 'after the Hijrah' that is

'according to the computation of the Arabs-may the world founder upon them and make vain their raging against the great Congregation of souls '.

One indication of the date of Mandaean texts is absence of this as in the 'Book of souls ', and of mention of Islam. In manuscripts intended for priests only, polemic is of course unnecessary: there is nothing of the kind in the very lengthy collection of seven texts entitled 'A thousand and twelve questions' or in sarhks, that is compositions intended to guide priests in matters of secret doctrine and the proper performance of rites.

As the Ginza rba is a miscellany in which some 'books' or fragments are older than others, when we find references to other religions these help to date the composition as pre- or post-Islamic, or even perhaps pre- or post- Christian. A group-designation for other religions is 'the Twelve Gates'. There is hardly anything in the GR against Muhammad and his followers. In the first book of the collection we hear of' Ahmat son of the wizard Bizbat '- 'who brings about much evil in the world' and later on in the GR (and also in JB) ' Bizbat the demon' means Muhammad. In the fifteenth ' book' (right side) of the GR the 'era of Muhammad' is prophesied to be the final age of the world, a theme elaborated in the eighteenth book which foretells that 'Arab kings' will continue to rule for seventy-one years, thus providing a clue to the date at which such a prophecy was, presumably, written. The left side of the GR is, as might be expected, mute about Islam.

JB enumerates the evils which' Muhammad the Arab' brought to the world. The Muslims are accused of removing honesty and peace and setting up in their place falsehood and evil, of condemning adultery and usury and yet fornicating and money-lending. Masknia had been replaced by mosques. In one section 'Yahia' (John) condemns their customs, dress, and habits. If a Muslim, he says, sees a Mandaean wearing a himiana 1 'a great sick (rage) overspreads the early Sasanian kings were in seeking a unifying force that would weld their Empire together, for not only do we find Jews, Christians, Manichees, and Mandaeans (Ns&8rayj) mentioned, but also Buddhists and Brahmans.' Zaehner says of 'Zandiks' that they were 'probably Zurvanite materialists ' (op. cit., 186). We should not be far out, it may be, in dating the composition of CP, no. 357, to the third century A.D., perhaps during the era of Artabanus V, by which time there was a considerable colony of Naeoraeans in Tib and Khuzistan.

I Mandaeans wear a sacred girdle (himiana), woven of sixty strands of white male lamb's wool.



his whole body. He stands, questions them, and says to them "Who is your prophet? Tell us who thy prophet is and tell us whom thou worshippest ! " (But) the accursed disgraceful ones know not nor do they understand that our Lord is King of Light in the Highest ! One is He ! and Life is victorious ! '

Such passages as this were of course written well after the conversion of Mesopotamia and Persia to the Islamic faith. As a Christian Arab writer, Abfi Yfisuf, tells us, soon after the invasion of the Muslims about the year A.D. 830, the Caliph al-Ma'miin (I referred to this event earlier in this article) demanded that a number of Harranians should either declare themselves Muslims or produce a holy book to procure them the protection of the Qur'An. They obtained protection by declaring themselves Sabians. This must have been about the period which is mentioned in the Haran Gawaita as the time when a certain Anus-Danqa procured for Nasoraeans from the 'Son-of- Slaughter, the Arab' the protection afforded by' this Book' (pp. 15 ff.). About this time, actually, according to colophons, a collection and editing of a number of scattered Mandaean texts took place, some fragments being gathered pell-mell into single scrolls called diwans. This was accomplished by a priest named Ramuia of Tib, who was aided by other reforming liturgists.

That unfortunately unreliable text the Haran Gawaita mentions a heresy amongst the Nasoraeans 'about eighty-six years before the Son-of-Slaughter, the Arab ', and describes its subsequent disappearance together with the burning of writings which had been circulated. If there is a grain of truth in this, how one regrets that not one of these 'heretical' writings survived, since in such books one can often obtain valuable historical data! HG is full of polemic against Jews and the Parthians are spoken of gratefully as protectors. Jesus' son of Miriam' is called the false messiah whose mind is filled with sorcery and fraud. Nevertheless, when the 4,000 years which this book allots to the Arab ' Son-of-Slaughter' are over,1 ' it will come to pass that the false messiah son of Miriam will succeed him, that he will come and will show forth signs (wonders) in the world until the birds and the fish from sea and rivers open their mouths and bless him and give testimony, until the clay and mud-brick bear witness to him and until four-legged creatures open their mouths and testify to him

'.)2 Hibil-Ziwa warns Nasoraeans not to be dazzled by this temporary triumph of the false messiah. The final part of the scroll goes on to prophesy in very obscure language that after the false messiah's 6,000 years, Nasiruta will prevail and that there will be peace and righteousness for 50,000 years and until world's end.3

I have merely skimmed the surface of my subject but hope that this brief review has succeeded in conveying certain definite facts about the sect. What

1 This suggests the date of the whole composition. 2 Bar-Khuni quotes a similar passage in his &cholion (A.D. 792). See H. Pognon, In8criptions

mandaites, Paris, 1848, p. 241. 3 The end of the text is a kind of recapitulation, not, as it would seem on first reading, another

age of degeneration before the end of the world. VOL. XXV. PART 3. 34


448 MANDAEAN POLEMIC

are they ? Firstly, that the earliest form of polemic took the shape of banning or degrading certain words sacred to Jewry, and that the earliest background is Palestine itself. Secondly, that this early antagonism was especially aimed against different interpretations of an idea common to both, and that this later embraced Christianity, for it concerned different conceptions of Messiah, that is to say, one anointed as king. For the Jews the Anointed One was originally an earthly king, a political figure, in later Judaism an eschatological and spiritual saviour. For Christians he was a man into whom the Highest had descended, the only Son of God. For the Nasoraeans the Anointed One was a purely metaphysical conception, the symbol of Man as he first appeared in the Mind (Mana) of the Great Life.

We surely have here an indication that early Nasiruta, or Ur-Manddismus to use the convenient German expression, was originally a sect which flourished in Judaea and Samaria, then possibly in Parthian-Jewish settlements and in Transjordania, and that it was a hybrid strongly influenced by Magianism and Jewish gnosticism. Its ' mysteries ', older than the great bulk of its texts, belong to this early stratum, for they have been guarded by a priesthood so rigid in its observances that, although its theology presented two faces, the 'mysteries' themselves have preserved the original kernel of the faith. And this kernel is that purified, anointed, crowned and raised up in baptism,x and in the ma'iqta re-purified, re-anointed, re-crowned and raised into the spiritual' Body of Adam' by priests who are on earth his crowned and anointed image, human beings are, in life and death, absorbed into All-Humanity, Man as first conceived by the being they call the Great Life, before that Idea was translated into flesh on a material earth as human beings.

1 Baptism with crowning and anointing is repeated constantly during life, and dying rites also include immersion, anointing, and crowning.


Article Contentsp. [438]p. 439p. 440p. 441p. 442p. 443p. 444p. 445p. 446p. 447p. 448

Issue Table of ContentsBulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 25, No. 1/3 (1962), pp. i-x+1-672+ii-iii+ii-iv+ii-viVolume Information [p. i-i]Front Matter [pp. iii-x]Terms of Scriptural Interpretation: A Study in Hebrew Semantics [pp. 1-27]Bistamiana [pp. 28-37]Al-Jabart's Introduction to the History of Ottoman Egypt [pp. 38-51]Negation and the Law of Contradiction in Indian Thought: A Comparative Study [pp. 52-71]Tibetan "par, dpar, spar", and Cognate Words [pp. 72-80]Calling the Soul: A Mongolian Litany [pp. 81-103]The Arabic Literature of Nigeria to 1804: A Provisional Account [pp. 104-148]Notes and Communications [pp. 149-161]ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 162-163]Review: untitled [pp. 163-165]Review: untitled [p. 165]Review: untitled [pp. 165-167]Review: untitled [pp. 167-168]Review: untitled [pp. 168-169]Review: untitled [p. 169]Review: untitled [pp. 170-171]Review: untitled [p. 171]Review: untitled [pp. 171-173]Review: untitled [pp. 173-176]Review: untitled [pp. 176-178]Review: untitled [pp. 178-179]Review: untitled [pp. 179-180]Review: untitled [pp. 180-181]Review: untitled [pp. 181-183]Review: untitled [pp. 183-185]Review: untitled [p. 185]Review: untitled [pp. 185-186]Review: untitled [pp. 186-189]Review: untitled [pp. 189-190]Review: untitled [pp. 190-191]Review: untitled [pp. 191-192]Review: untitled [pp. 192-193]Review: untitled [pp. 193-195]Review: untitled [p. 195]Review: untitled [pp. 195-196]

Short NoticesReview: untitled [pp. 196-197]Review: untitled [p. 197]Review: untitled [p. 197]Review: untitled [p. 198]Review: untitled [p. 198]Review: untitled [p. 199]Review: untitled [p. 199]Review: untitled [p. 199]Review: untitled [pp. 199-200]Review: untitled [p. 200]Review: untitled [pp. 200-201]Review: untitled [p. 201]

Books Received for Review [pp. 202-208]The Influence of the Hebrew Language on Contemporary Israeli Art Music [pp. 209-224]Origin and Character of "al-madrasah" [pp. 225-238]Historians and Historiography of aramawt [pp. 239-261]Development of Agricultural Land Taxation in Modern Iraq [pp. 262-274]Vs-u Rmn (IV) [pp. 275-286]Vedic "bh-;" Iranian "b-, bau-" [pp. 287-305]The Neolithic Stone Industry of the Santal Parganas [pp. 306-330]Notes and Communications [pp. 331-337]ReviewsReview: untitled [p. 338]Review: untitled [pp. 339-340]Review: untitled [pp. 340-341]Review: untitled [p. 341]Review: untitled [pp. 341-342]Review: untitled [pp. 342-343]Review: untitled [pp. 343-347]Review: untitled [pp. 347-348]Review: untitled [p. 348]Review: untitled [pp. 349-350]Review: untitled [pp. 350-351]Review: untitled [pp. 351-353]Review: untitled [pp. 353-355]Review: untitled [pp. 355-357]Review: untitled [pp. 357-358]Review: untitled [pp. 358-359]Review: untitled [pp. 359-360]Review: untitled [pp. 360-361]Review: untitled [pp. 361-363]Review: untitled [p. 363]Review: untitled [pp. 363-364]Review: untitled [pp. 364-366]Review: untitled [p. 367]Review: untitled [pp. 367-370]Review: untitled [pp. 370-371]Review: untitled [pp. 371-372]Review: untitled [pp. 372-373]Review: untitled [pp. 373-375]Review: untitled [pp. 375-376]Review: untitled [pp. 376-377]Review: untitled [pp. 378-380]Review: untitled [pp. 380-381]Review: untitled [pp. 382-384]Review: untitled [pp. 384-385]Review: untitled [pp. 385-386]Review: untitled [pp. 386-387]Review: untitled [pp. 387-390]Review: untitled [pp. 390-391]Review: untitled [pp. 391-392]Review: untitled [pp. 392-393]Review: untitled [pp. 393-394]Review: untitled [pp. 394-395]Review: untitled [pp. 395-396]Review: untitled [pp. 396-398]Review: untitled [pp. 398-400]Review: untitled [pp. 400-401]Review: untitled [pp. 401-402]Review: untitled [pp. 402-403]Review: untitled [pp. 403-404]Review: untitled [pp. 404-405]Review: untitled [pp. 405-406]Review: untitled [pp. 406-407]Review: untitled [pp. 407-408]Review: untitled [p. 408]Review: untitled [pp. 408-409]Review: untitled [pp. 409-410]Review: untitled [pp. 410-411]

Short NoticesReview: untitled [p. 412]Review: untitled [p. 412]Review: untitled [pp. 412-413]Review: untitled [p. 413]Review: untitled [p. 413]Review: untitled [p. 413]Review: untitled [pp. 413-414]Review: untitled [p. 414]Review: untitled [pp. 414-415]Review: untitled [p. 415]Review: untitled [pp. 415-416]Review: untitled [pp. 416-417]Review: untitled [p. 417]Review: untitled [pp. 417-418]Review: untitled [p. 418]Review: untitled [p. 418]Review: untitled [pp. 418-419]Review: untitled [p. 419]Review: untitled [pp. 419-420]Review: untitled [p. 420]Review: untitled [p. 420]Review: untitled [p. 421]Review: untitled [p. 421]Review: untitled [p. 421]Review: untitled [pp. 421-422]Review: untitled [p. 422]Review: untitled [pp. 422-423]

Books Received for Review [pp. 424-430]Remarks on the Text of the Falasha 'Death of Moses' [pp. 431-437]Mandaean Polemic [pp. 438-448]A Moroccan amr's Commercial Treaty with Venice of the Year 913/1508 [pp. 449-471]Recent Marriage Legislation from al-Mukall with Notes on Marriage Customs [pp. 472-498]Disturbances in Eastern Afghanistan, 1839-42 [pp. 499-523]The "ukranti"--A Nineteenth-Century Text [pp. 524-556]The Left Wing Kuomintang--A Definition [pp. 557-576]An Islamic Tradition of Reform in the Western Sudan from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century [pp. 577-596]Notes and Communications [pp. 597-601]ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 602-603]Review: untitled [pp. 603-604]Review: untitled [pp. 604-605]Review: untitled [pp. 605-606]Review: untitled [pp. 606-608]Review: untitled [pp. 608-609]Review: untitled [pp. 609-610]Review: untitled [pp. 610-611]Review: untitled [pp. 611-612]Review: untitled [pp. 612-613]Review: untitled [pp. 613-615]Review: untitled [pp. 615-616]Review: untitled [pp. 616-617]Review: untitled [pp. 617-618]Review: untitled [pp. 618-622]Review: untitled [pp. 622-623]Review: untitled [pp. 623-624]Review: untitled [pp. 624-625]Review: untitled [pp. 625-626]Review: untitled [pp. 626-627]Review: untitled [pp. 627-628]Review: untitled [pp. 628-629]Review: untitled [pp. 629-630]Review: untitled [pp. 630-632]Review: untitled [p. 632]Review: untitled [pp. 632-634]Review: untitled [p. 634]Review: untitled [pp. 634-635]Review: untitled [pp. 635-636]Review: untitled [pp. 636-638]Review: untitled [pp. 638-639]Review: untitled [pp. 639-641]Review: untitled [pp. 641-642]Review: untitled [pp. 642-643]Review: untitled [pp. 643-644]Review: untitled [p. 644]Review: untitled [pp. 644-645]Review: untitled [pp. 645-646]Review: untitled [pp. 646-647]Review: untitled [p. 647]Review: untitled [pp. 647-648]Review: untitled [pp. 648-649]Review: untitled [p. 650]Review: untitled [pp. 650-651]

Short NoticesReview: untitled [p. 652]Review: untitled [p. 652]Review: untitled [pp. 652-653]Review: untitled [p. 653]Review: untitled [p. 653]Review: untitled [p. 653]Review: untitled [pp. 653-654]Review: untitled [p. 654]Review: untitled [p. 654]Review: untitled [p. 654]Review: untitled [pp. 654-655]Review: untitled [p. 655]Review: untitled [pp. 655-656]Review: untitled [p. 656]Review: untitled [pp. 656-657]Review: untitled [p. 657]Review: untitled [p. 657]Review: untitled [pp. 657-658]Review: untitled [p. 658]Review: untitled [p. 658]Review: untitled [p. 658]

Books Received for Review [pp. 659-665]Obituary: David Storm Rice [pp. 666-671]Back Matter [pp. ii-v]

1962 drower mandaean polemic

Documents

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