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24-404: The prayerbook is a collection of Mandaic prayers regarding baptisms ( masbuta ) and other sacred rituals involved in the ascension of the soul ( masiqta ). In Mandaic, individual prayers are generally called buta (plural form: bawata ), although some prayers also known as qaiamta , šrita (loosing or deconsecration prayers), and other Mandaic designations. There is no standardized version of

48-552: A zhara ( lit.   ' warning ' ) is a name insertion used by the person reciting the prayer. One of the most important prayers is prayer 170, called the Ṭabahatan ("Our Ancestors"). As a commemoration prayer with a long list of names, the prayer starts with the line ṭab ṭaba lṭabia ("Good is the Good for the Good"). A different version of this prayer is found in DC 42, Šarḥ ḏ-Ṭabahata ("The Scroll of Ṭabahata" [Parents]), which

72-480: A triple full immersion in water, a triple signing of the forehead with water and a triple drinking of water. The priest ( rabbi ) then removes a ring made of myrtle ( klila ) worn by the baptized and places it on their forehead. This is then followed by a handshake ( kušṭa - hand of truth) with the priest. The final blessing involves the priest laying his right hand on the baptized person's head. Living water (fresh, natural, flowing water, called mia hayyi )

96-575: Is a Mandaean who was born in Iraq. He was trained as an engineer. Al-Mubaraki emigrated to Australia before the 2003 invasion of Iraq . In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he lived in Northbridge , but later moved to Luddenham . The full Ginza Rba in printed Mandaic script , compiled primarily from the Mhatam Zihrun br rbai Adam manuscript from Iraq (copied in 1898 and dated 6 July 1899),

120-605: Is a requirement for baptism, therefore can only take place in rivers. All rivers are named Yardna " Jordan River " and are believed to be nourished by the World of Light . By the riverbank, a Mandaean's forehead is anointed with sesame oil ( misha ) and partakes in a communion of sacramental bread ( pihta ) and water. Baptism for Mandaeans allows for salvation by connecting with the World of Light and for forgiveness of sins. Although masbuta rituals are typically held only in

144-521: Is distinct from ṭamaša "immersion" and rišama "ablution", which are personal ritual purification rituals that do not require the presence of a priest. Ṭamaša is typically performed after bodily pollutions, such as seminal discharge , sexual activity , or after subsiding from unclean thoughts or anger at another person. This ablution is comparable to tevilah in Judaism and ghusl in Islam. Rišama

168-702: Is performed daily before prayers and religious ceremonies or after bowel evacuation and is comparable to wudu in Islam. Birger A. Pearson finds many parallels between the Sethian ritual of the Five Seals and the Mandaean baptismal ritual of masbuta. In Mandaic, Christian baptism is not referred to as maṣbuta , but rather as mamiduta ( Classical Mandaic : ࡌࡀࡌࡉࡃࡅࡕࡀ ; cognate with Syriac ܡܥܡܘܕܝܬܐ mʿmudita , used by Syriac Christians to refer to baptism ), which Mandaean texts describe as unclean since it

192-649: Is performed in standing rather than flowing water. Gallery of Mandaeans performing masbuta in the Karun River in Ahvaz , Iran : Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki ( Arabic : ماجد فندي المباركي ) is an Iraqi-Australian writer and researcher based in the Sydney metropolitan area . He is known for his publications of Mandaic texts , including the Ginza Rabba and Qulasta . Al-Mubaraki

216-510: Is the ritual of immersion in water in the Mandaean religion . Mandaeans revere John the Baptist and practice frequent baptism ( masbuta ) as ritual purification , not of initiation. They are possibly one of the earliest peoples to practice ritual baptism . Mandaeans undergo baptism on Sundays ( Habshaba ), wearing a white sacral robe ( rasta ). Baptism for Mandaeans consists of

240-669: Is used during Parwanaya rituals. In Mandaean rituals, many prayers are frequently recited in sets. Common sets of prayers listed in ritual texts such as the Scroll of Exalted Kingship , The Coronation of the Great Shishlam , the Alma Rišaia texts, and Zihrun Raza Kasia are given below. Drower's and Lidzbarki's numberings are equivalent for these prayers, since the first 103 prayers are nearly identical in both versions. The "loosening prayers" are known as širiata . Many of

264-525: The Mandaean Book of John and the Ginza Rabba , may have been compiled together. However, their date of authorship is heavily debated, some believing it to be during the second and third centuries, and others believing it to be conceived during the first century. A study of the colophons of this text would appear to push back a date to the third century at the latest. In the first colophon of

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288-601: The Right Ginza (GR 12): Various esoteric texts used in priestly initiation ceremonies frequently refer to prayers in the Qulasta. These include: Many passages in these texts are essentially priestly commentaries on both the practical ritual applications and esoteric symbolism of specific prayers in the Qulasta. Masbuta Maṣbuta ( Classical Mandaic : ࡌࡀࡑࡁࡅࡕࡀ ; pronounced maṣwottā in Neo-Mandaic )

312-785: The Drower Collection (abbreviated DC 53). The fragmentary DC 3, which is an incomplete codex of the Qulasta, was also consulted by Drower. DC 53 was copied in 1802 by the ganzibra Adam Yuhana, the father of Yahia Bihram , in Huwaiza , Khuzistan . The manuscript was purchased by Drower in 1954. Carlos Gelbert has also translated the 103 prayers from Lidzbarki's Mandäische Liturgien into Arabic. A typesetted Mandaic version has also been published in 1998 by Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki . Part 1 of Mark Lidzbarski 's Liturgien (1920) (commonly abbreviated ML in Mandaic studies), titled

336-689: The DC 53 colophons: Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki has published a two-volume set of Qulasta prayers containing the printed Mandaic text of the prayers. It was originally published in 1998 and 1999, and republished in 2010 as an electronic CD-ROM version. Volume 1 corresponds to Part 1 of Lidzbarski (1920), and Volume 2 partially corresponds to Part 2 (the "Oxford Collection") of Lidzbarski (1920). The contents are as follows, with Drower's CP numbers provided as well. The prayers in Al-Mubaraki's Qulasta correspond to prayers 1-259 and 410 in Drower (1959). Note that

360-543: The Qolasta. The Qulasta has been translated into English by E. S. Drower in 1959 and by Mark Lidzbarski into German in 1920. Lidzbarski's translation was based on two manuscripts, including Ms. Syr. F. 2 (R) held at the Bodleian Library , which he called "Roll F." E. S. Drower 's version of the Qulasta contains 414 prayers (338 prayers if excluding duplicated prayers), which was based on manuscript 53 of

384-834: The Qolastā, has only 103 prayers. Part 2 includes 4 books from the "Oxford Collection," with 60, 33, 20, and 20 prayers respectively for books 1-4. All of the prayers have the original Mandaic transcribed in Hebrew letters side-by-side with their respective German translations. CP 104–105, 161–164, 170–179, 200–329, and 348–414 in Drower (1959) are not found in Lidzbarski (1920). Lidzbarski's Mandäische Liturgien differs substantially from Drower's Canonical Prayerbook , since different manuscripts had been consulted. The 414 prayers in E. S. Drower 's 1959 Canonical Prayerbook (commonly abbreviated CP in Mandaic studies) are categorized into

408-573: The Qulasta (directly after prayer 74), Nukraya, son of Šitil, a scribe from the earliest part of the Islamic period, wrote that he copied the text while consulting at least seven manuscripts ( ṭupsia ). One of them belonged to "a library in a house of 'a People of the Book ' ( anašia ḏ-ktiba ), while another originated from "a town of Byzantines" (i.e., Byzantine Christians), indicating that Mandaean liturgical texts were being kept in non-Mandaean libraries at

432-485: The Qulasta; different versions can contain varying numbers of prayers, and ordering of the prayers can also vary. The most commonly Qulasta versions are those of E. S. Drower (1959 English translation) and Mark Lidzbarski (1905 German translation). Eric Segelberg (1958) contains a detailed study of many of the first 90 Qulasta prayers (many of which are known in Mandaic as buta ) as used in Mandaean rituals. The Qulasta , and two other key texts to Mandaic literature,

456-467: The following sections. Mandaeans typically refer to their canonical prayers as being part of the sections listed below (for example, the Book of Souls), rather than as part of the "Qulasta" (since Qulasta simply means 'Collection'). There are 8 colophons in DC 53, which means that the manuscript had originally consisted of at least 8 separate texts. As a result, Buckley (2010) provides the following outline for Drower's Canonical Prayerbook (CP) based on

480-515: The material shared with the Psalms of Thomas may only be the use of a common source (perhaps Elkesaite funerary hymns), and that the text as a whole may date considerably later. The present form of the text must post-date the early Muslim conquests at minimum, given the references made in the Qulasta to the advancement of the Arab armies. In 1867, Julius Euting published a printed Mandaic version of

504-612: The prayers in the Qulasta have recurring formulas such as: Several of the prayers in Drower's Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans ( CP ), mostly ʿniania (" responses ") and masiqta prayers, correspond to hymns in Book 3 of the Left Ginza (GL 3): Prayer 66 also corresponds with Psalms of Thomas 6. Some marriage hymns ( hadaiata ) in the Canonical Prayerbook also correspond to some hymns in Book 12 of

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528-574: The presence of Mandaeans, a historic commemorative masbuta ceremony was held at the 13th conference of the ARAM Society (titled "The Mandaeans"), which took place during 13–15 June 1999 on the banks of the Charles River at Harvard University . There are different types of masbuta used for different purposes. Similarly, there are also several different types of masiqta (see Masiqta § Types ). A few types of masbuta are: Masbuta

552-629: The start of the Islamic period. In 1949, Torgny Säve-Söderbergh argued that at many passages in the Manichaean Psalms of Thomas were paraphrases or even word-by-word translations of Mandaean prayers in the Qulasta. Säve-Söderbergh also argued that the Manichaean psalms had borrowed from Mandaean sources rather than vice versa. As a result, much of the Qulasta can be dated to before the 3rd century, i.e. before Mani 's lifetime. However, some scholars such as Kevin van Bladel believe that

576-654: Was first published by Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki, Brikha Nasoraia (as Rbai Haitham Saeed ), and Brian Mubaraki in Sydney in March 1998 during Parwanaya . A Roman transliteration of the entire Ginza Rba was also published in 1998 by Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki and Brian Mubaraki. The Concordance of the Mandaean Ginza Rba was published by Brian Mubaraki and Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki in 2004. In 1999, Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki, Brikha Nasoraia, and Brian Mubaraki published

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