Mandaean Polemic Author(s): E. S. Drower Source: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol.

25, No. 1/3 (1962), pp. 438-448 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/610915 . Accessed: 20/03/2014 02:39
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Cambridge University Press and School of Oriental and African Studies are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 203.15.226.132 on Thu, 20 Mar 2014 02:39:16 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

MANDAEAN POLEMIC x
By E. S. DROWER HE Mandaean,or Nasoraeanreligionis a system with no definite theology. It is, and apparentlywas fromthe first, an elaboratesystem of symbolical rites, meticulouslypreservedand performedby an hereditarypriesthood. 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 metaphysicaltruths 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 Mandaeanthere was no founderto 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 never becamea state religion. According its lay formMandaeanism, Mandtaiuta) to tradition, it was tolerated and protectedby the Parthians. Under Sassanian rule protection wore thin, and when Muslim conquerorsoverran the Middle East, Mandaeansasked for the grudging tolerance accordedto peoples 'of a book' in the Qur'dn,but they had to prove it. It seems that even pagan neighbours in Harran proclaimed themselves Mandaeansin order to shelter beneath the mysterious umbrellaof the Mandaeanscriptures. From its earliest beginnings, accordingto oral tradition and referencesin their literature, the sect had been persecuted. Historical annals as such do

The following abbreviationsare used in this article : text, translation, and commentary.] (Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Institut fir Orientforschung, Ver6ffentlichungNr. 32.) Berlin, AkademieVerlag, 1960. [Facs. text and translation.] E. S. Drower : The canonicalprayerbook of the Mandaean8s. Leiden, Brill, 1959. Drower Collection: Bodleian Library, Oxford. M. Lidzbarski: Ginza, tbersetztund erkldrt. Gottingen, Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1925. E. S. Drower: The Haran Gawaita. [Facs. text with trs.] (Studi e Testi, 176.) CittA del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1953.
E. S. Drower : The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran: their cults, customs, magic, legends, The thousand and twelve questions (Alf trisar Kuialia). [With facsimile

ATS E. S. Drower:

OP DC GR HG
MII

and folklore. Oxford, ClarendonPress, 1937. (Brill is shortly bringing out a new edition.) Pet. H. Petermann: Thesaurus8 sive Liber magnu8 vulgo 'Liber Adami'. [Mandaictext in two volumes.] Leipzig, P. O. Weigel, 1867. (rt. = right part of text, 1. = left part.) SA E. S. Drower : The SecretAdam. Oxford, ClarendonPress, 1960. TL Theologiche Literaturzeitung.

This content downloaded from 203.15.226.132 on Thu, 20 Mar 2014 02:39:16 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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 Mandaeansclaim to be historical, but which is late and very legendary. It tells of a persecutionof Nasoraeansin the first century A.D. by Jews in Jerusalemand describesthe flight of a number of the sect to Harran where, amongst the Parthians they found (Jewish ?) gnostics like themselves.' In the long commemorativeprayer 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 influencedthe language, with the effect that certainwordsand verbalroots were deliberatelybannedor blackened becauseassociatedwith orthodoxJews and Jewry. Evidence of this is provided which in Mandaichas not the meaning of being holy or by the verbal root qdA but to is used sacred, express obloquy: 'holy' in inverted commas or 'soor any word derived from called' holy, as it might be translated. The root qdA the root, is never employed to describe Mandaean beings, personages, ceremonies, 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 AamiAwhose 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. Christiansaints, monks, and nuns are called qadita and qadigiata(' holy' men and women). Angels, not consideredreputable spirits by Mandaeans,may be qualifiedby an adjective derivedfrom qd?. The motherof the planets and of the (' holy' spirit), a polemicalnamelabellingthe earth-dragon'Ur is Ruha-d-Qudca is the lower immaterialpart of the human perruha' This '. personified spirit and influenced desire lust, but also capable of redemptionthrough by sonality, the sublimatinginfluenceof the higherpart, the niaimta. The ill-reputeattached to qdg is accentuated when it appears as a form of qt?'to fight', e.g. mqad~a
See also SA, 112. CP, p. 152. A priest in modern times is called a tarmida. 3 Alandacanauthors 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 kuJtayaqra (a ' solemn' or ' precious' pact), and kufta rhima 'the beloved pact '. KugtaYaqrais 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 brilliance of whom exceedeth the brightness of all worlds ' (ibid., no. 99). He is spoken of sometimes as a Maina. To such a being, a personificationof ideal truth, pact, and sincerity, yaqra more or less replaces the unwelcome qadif, and other derivatives, which are only used derisively. qdua, 33 VOL. XXV. PART 3.
2

1 In HG.

This content downloaded from 203.15.226.132 on Thu, 20 Mar 2014 02:39:16 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

440

E. S. DROWER

'warlike ', 'contentious ', and the final ignominy is found in a word for adulteress,or prostitute, mqada'ta,this time, however,justifiedby the Hebrew 'temple prostitute, a hierodule'. Mandaean avoidance of another verbal root, mth, when meaning 'to "T. anoint' because the word m*iha (anointed one, Messiah)is derived from it, is is 'to anoint, or to stroke or even more striking. In New Hebrew mMh ' for roots beginningwith the letters (?I.) wipe ', accordingto some with the hand ', mt often convey the idea of moving or stretchingthe hand or arm.1 Now when a Mandaeanpriest '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 crouchesbeforehim 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 representsthe soul of a personcommemorated, he drawshis fingermoistenedwith niisa 2 in a similarway, i.e. from right to left, across one disc after another, including the disc which representsthe soul especially commemorated. In the baptismal liturgy the verb used to describe this rite is msa-not mWh.As mviahas also the meaning 'to purify by washing' in Mandaic,the verb employedis peculiarlyadaptedto the baptism rite. Verbs used for 'anointing' elsewhereare 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 Mandaictexts, and the word mviha was then (a) applied to a bridal wreath when smeared with oil for a bridegroom, (b)exceptionallyused in DC 36 (mgihaumihdia' anointed and guided '). It is, therefore,clear that the meaningof 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 not sba (= X73). For instance bmia psiqia mamidilhun amd (Syriac , ), " from a flowing 'baptizing tlem in cut-off" water', i.e. in water cut off source. And in GR rt. the ninth book contains long, and abusive accounts of ' was apparently religionsand sects. One deals with the gate of Venus', which a Christiansect: ' They dig out a basin in the ground, purloinwater from a jordan (stream), boil it with fire, and pour it into the basin. Into it, when they are undressed, them and they take down men and women,baptizingthem (mamidilhun) giving the over name them, some of the water to drink. They pronounce Death's
mit der Hand tiber etwas fahren streichen, we get mia (see above), 'protect (with the Mandaic in instance For '. bestreichen bes. mit Oel 'l.f? and of hand arm, etc.)'. Cloth-sellersin Arab markets hand), touch, and to measure (by length still measure from elbow to finger-tip although this ancient custom is gradually being replaced itself is used for ' to touch', and mMh by a measure stick. M66 'to grope, feel, estimate by Hebrew. in and in occur roots Similar Syriac measure, survey'. with 2The miia used in baptism is sesame oil; that used in the maliqtais of sesame oil mixed date-juice. : 1 J. Levy, Chaldiisches W6rterbuch

This content downloaded from 203.15.226.132 on Thu, 20 Mar 2014 02:39:16 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

MANDAEAN

POLEMIC

441

name of" Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ", baptizing them and mentioningover 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 designationof the Most High God.' The word Yahufor 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 reverenceand affectionattach to some Jewish place-namessuch as Mount Carmel (Karimla, Karimla) and the Lebanon (Libnan). Of course the T.ur 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 SecretAdam, this muddy little river flows through a valley many feet below sea-level and is at all seasons of the year at a temperatureagreeable 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 claimedin the Haran Gawaita, Nasoraeansfleeingfrompersecution in Judaea found asylum in the Hauran and Harran, referencesto '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'ustlanbhauraran ksuian ' with Hauran our garment, in Hauraranour cover' may hint that these place-namesrefer to geographical districts and that they once afforded concealment and cover to refugees for religion'ssake. That the two words are referencesto real geographicaldistricts or places is indicatedin the Barakata(OP, p. 298) ' Thou shalt be blest with the blessings pronouncedon 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 polemicalparableprobablyrefersto 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'stranslation 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 Mandiiismusnach neuer-

schlossenen Quellen ', TL, LXXXI,

3 cf. the story of Naaman, 2 Kings v. 30*

6, 1957, cols. 401-8.

'

GR, 1., 304:11 (Pet.).

GR, 1., 135:18 (Pet.).

This content downloaded from 203.15.226.132 on Thu, 20 Mar 2014 02:39:16 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

442

E.S. DROWER

between John (Yahia-Yuhana) and Jesus. John the Baptist, by the way, is not mentionedin the priestly scrolls,and even in modernMandaeantheology he is never claimed to be more than a Nasoraean priest contemporarywith 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 discipleI 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-messiahin 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 (sacramentalbread) which Messiah-Paulistook I have made into qurban.' The burzinqa(ritual turban) which Messiah-Paulistook I have made into kahnuta(cohen-ry). The margnawhich Messiah-Paulis took I have turned into filth.' It is apparently an accusation that the Nestorian church has stolen and parodied Mandaeanvestments and sacraments. In the same codex we find a dialoguebetween 'Anush-'Uthraand ' Messiah' (op. cit., p. 276, text 243) in which ' Messiah' asks 'Anush-'Uthrafor' 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 miraclesof Jesus and
1 This cannot be the result of reading the NT in translation or Syriac, for neither Peter nor Thomas (apostle to the MiddleEast) 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 kahnutawhich 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.

This content downloaded from 203.15.226.132 on Thu, 20 Mar 2014 02:39:16 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

MANDAEAN POLEMIC

443

concluded that the sect was a late offshoot of Christiangnosticism deriving its cults from NestorianChristianity.' His acquaintancewith Mandaeanliterature, however, was limited to Lidzbarski'stranslations,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 Christianmonasticismand attitude towards sex. Hans Lietzmanntook a view similar to that of Burkitt but it is one which has largely been abandonedby 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. Throughoutthe 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 the plaything of the planets under the influenceof which he was heimarmene, born. Nasiruta is an urgent denial of fate, it is a call to the soul of man to hearkento its own manawhich is at once an image and part of the GreatMana. 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 imprisonedand tortured for their sins and impurities,hence they correspond to purgatories. The soul is conducted sons of the realms of these by suffering. One of these is that of' the Light past 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 qadigiaand qadigiata('holy' men and women)and unmarriedmen 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; slaughteringand slaying their offspringin 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 purgatoryof' the Spirit of Iniquity' (Ml'ITM lD8), in which are incarceratedand tortured by those who privations practised fasts and mortificationsof the flesh, for such unnatural self-tortureis looked upon as sinful by Mandaeans. The canonicalprayers,when examined,show little concernabout 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 characterwith Mary the Mother of Jesus.2 There are two
1 ' Mandaeanhostility to Eshu-Mfiha is hostility to the fully-developed post-Nicene Church' (Burkitt, Churchand 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

This content downloaded from 203.15.226.132 on Thu, 20 Mar 2014 02:39:16 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

444

E. S. DROWER

of these hymns, both long, and the second contains her reproofof 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 footstepsThe 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 Miriaiis usually describedas a princess. As in pre-Islamictimes Mandaeanshad Magiansas neighbours,some form of attack upon fire and fire-altarsmight reasonablybe 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 worshipperscome to nought And are vanity "' there is nothing. It should be rememberedthat the small fire-brazierupon which sacramentalbread is baked and incense constantly cast, is indispensable to all Mandaean rites. Without it, no rite (but that of the Letter under emergencycircumstances)may be performed. It is kindled by the priest, fed with ritually immersedand ritually pure fuel, is tended by celebrantor asganda, and withoutthis fire no baptismis valid. It not only bakes the pihta for all sacraments,but is placed beside the banner erected on the bank of the jordan (baptismalpool or river). We find all three, king (priest),fire-altar,and banner representedon coins of the pre-Christiandynasty of Fars. The king acts as fire-priest,just like the Mandaean 'king' (the Mandaeanpriest 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)).

This content downloaded from 203.15.226.132 on Thu, 20 Mar 2014 02:39:16 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

MANDAEAN

POLEMIC

445

quoted above, but there is no mention in it of a messiahor of Christianbaptism. Hymn no. 23 in CP which is an addressto the oil of anointment says expressly that anointing is ' not in the name of a messiah' or a ' temple-Ishtar', but there is no connexionhere with a Christianmessiah. I should place the baptism prayers amongst the oldest which have been preserved,1and 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 prayerbookwith the exception of 'My sign is not that of fire Nor is it that wherewiththe anointedone (mbiha) anointed' (CP, no. 90) in the 'niania (antiphonalhymns), but again no messiah is specifiedby name. It is not until the Rahmia (the daily prayersrecited 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 misconstrueappearances 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 condemnation of those who eat pihta (sacramentalbread) in a wrong manner. 'The Jews, an evil nation, accursedand blasphemous Ate it (the oblation). The kiwanaiia 2 ate it with flames of fire, The dementedyazuqaiia3 ate it who reverencefire, Crazedcreatureswho reverencefire, 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 worshippingit. Zandiqs6 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 '.
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
2

This content downloaded from 203.15.226.132 on Thu, 20 Mar 2014 02:39:16 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

446

E. S. DROWER

Here we are in a forest of enigmas, faced with a formidablelist of heresies! Only the Nasoraeans ate the sacramental bread and oblation with the true interpretationof symbolic acts of eating and drinking. Finally, in the Barakata, a long section which priests recite within the mankna(the Mandaeansanctuary 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 Muslimsand their prophet. One example can be found in a phrase automaticallyquoted in colophonsby 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 Mandaeantexts is absence of this as in the 'Book of souls ', and of mention of Islam. In manuscriptsintended for priests only, polemic is of courseunnecessary: 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 compositionsintended to guide priests in matters of secret doctrine and the proper performanceof rites. As the Ginza rba is a miscellany in which some 'books' or fragments are older than others, when we find referencesto other religionsthese help to date the composition as pre- or post-Islamic, or even perhaps pre- or postChristian. A group-designationfor other religions is 'the Twelve Gates'. There is hardly anything in the GR against Muhammadand 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 providinga 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. the Arab' broughtto the world. JB enumeratesthe evils which' Muhammad The Muslimsare accused of removinghonesty and peace and setting up in their place falsehoodand evil, of condemningadultery 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 Mandaeanwearing a himiana1 '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, Zaehner says of 'Zandiks' that they were 'probably but also Buddhists and Brahmans.' 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.

This content downloaded from 203.15.226.132 on Thu, 20 Mar 2014 02:39:16 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

MANDAEAN POLEMIC

447

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 accurseddisgracefulones know not nor do they understandthat 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, 830, the Caliph al-Ma'miin(I referredto this event earlier in this article) demanded that a number of Harranians should either declare themselves Muslimsor producea holy book to procurethem 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 Gawaitaas the time when a certain Anus-Danqa procured for Nasoraeans from the 'Son-ofSlaughter,the Arab' the protectionaffordedby' this Book' (pp. 15 ff.). About this time, actually, accordingto colophons,a collection and editing of a number of scatteredMandaean texts took place, some fragmentsbeing gatheredpell-mell into single scrolls called diwans. This was accomplishedby a priest named Ramuia of Tib, who was aided by other reformingliturgists. That unfortunately unreliable text the Haran Gawaitamentions 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 calledthe false messiahwhosemind is filledwith 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 Miriamwill 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-Ziwawarns Nasoraeansnot to be dazzled by this temporarytriumph of the false messiah. The final part of the scroll goes on to prophesy in very obscurelanguagethat after the false messiah's6,000 years, Nasirutawill prevail and that there will be peace and righteousness for 50,000 years and until world'send.3 I have merely skimmed the surface of my subject but hope that this brief review has succeededin conveying certain definite facts about the sect. What 1 This suggests the date of the whole composition.
A.D. (A.D.792). See H. Pognon, In8criptions 2 Bar-Khuni quotes a similar passage in his &cholion 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. 34 VOL. XXV. PART 3.

Abfi Yfisuf, tells us, soon after the invasion of the Muslims about the year

This content downloaded from 203.15.226.132 on Thu, 20 Mar 2014 02:39:16 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

448

MANDAEAN POLEMIC

are they ? Firstly, that the earliest form of polemic took the shape of banning or degradingcertain words sacred to Jewry, and that the earliest background is Palestine itself. Secondly, that this early antagonism was especially aimed against differentinterpretationsof an idea commonto 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 Christianshe was a man into whom the Highest had descended, the only Son of God. For the Nasoraeansthe Anointed One was a purely metaphysical conception, the symbol of Man as he first appearedin the Mind (Mana) of the Great Life. We surely have here an indication that early Nasiruta, or Ur-Manddismus to use the convenient Germanexpression,was originallya sect which flourished in Judaea and Samaria, then possibly in Parthian-Jewishsettlements 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 crownedand 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 translatedinto flesh on a materialearth as humanbeings.
1 Baptism with crowning and anointing is repeated constantly during life, and dying rites also include immersion, anointing, and crowning.

This content downloaded from 203.15.226.132 on Thu, 20 Mar 2014 02:39:16 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions