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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2009
In Mandaeism, to copy a manuscript is a meritorious act — a Mandaean copyist (usually a priest) may undertake the task as an exercise to remit his own sins, and those of his family — or he may be hired to perform the task for someone else. Almost all Mandaean manuscripts contain colophons; excluded are talismans and other short magical texts. In the case where the transmission of a Mandaean text spans, say, fifteen or sixteen centuries, a colophon may be very long. Copying the Mandaean Ginza is a major piece of work, for it is the most voluminous of all known Mandaean texts. Mark Lidzbarski's Ginza edition and translation did not include the colophons, the lists of scribes that are attached to the text.
1 Lidzbarski, Mark, Ginza. Der Schatz oder das grosse Buck del Mandaer (Gottingen, 1925). (The Ginza is separated into Right Ginza [GR] and Left Ginza [GL], respectively.)Google Scholar
2 Petermann, Heinrich, Sidra Rabba, ii (Lipsiae, 1867).Google Scholar
3 These are four of nineteen manuscripts pertaining to Mandaeism there; see Zotenberg, H., Catalogue des manuscrits syriaques et sabéens (mandaïtes) de la Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris, 1874).Google Scholar
4 See my article, “The colophons in The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies LI, 1 (1992), pp. 33–50, especially pp. 37 and 40,Google Scholar with reference to Drower, E. S., The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans (Leiden, 1959)Google Scholar (hereafter cited as CP) and Macuch, Rudolf, “Anfange der Mandäer”, in Die Araber in der alten Welt, ii, eds. Altheim, F. and Stiehl, R. (Berlin, 1965), pp. 76–190.Google Scholar
5 They also had a prophet, Yahia (John the Baptist).
6 See Macuch's, arguments, “Anfange”, p. 186.Google Scholar
7 Drower Collection (= DC) 22.
8 This belongs in a private, small collection of texts owned by a Mandaean woman living in the U.S.A.
9 It usually takes years to obtain microfilms from Bibliothèque Nationale, and a study of the colophons in the original MSS must wait.
10 Euting, Julius, Mandäischer Diwan nach photographischer Aufnahme von Dr. B. Poertner, mitgeteilt von Julius Euting (Strassburg, 1904). The manuscript is in the Vatican Library.Google Scholar
11 Drower, E. S., The Book of the Zodiac (Sfar Malwašia), Oriental Translation Fund, vol. xxxvi, London: The Royal Asiatic Society, 1949.Google Scholar
12 A town on the Karka; see Drower, E. S. and Macuch, Rudolf, A Mandate Dictionary (Oxford, 1963) (hereafter cited as MD), 251a.Google Scholar
13 Lidzbarski, Mark, Das Johannesbuch der Mandaer (Giessen, 1915, reprint 1966) (hereafter cited ns JB).Google Scholar
14 In copyist lineages, the designation “son of” means “initiate of”, with the initiator into priesthood designated as “father”. Often, a father will initiate his real son, but in lineages, it must always be kept in mind that the terms reflect the initiate-and-initiator relationship, regardless of family terms.
15 Mandaean years are given according to the Arab calendar, usually with the curse/pun: “– according to the time-computation of the Arabs – may the world founder upon them!” This plays off the word Arabs, “ arbaiiacirc; ”, against the verb “to fall” or “to founder”: ARB.
16 See note 14, just above.
17 Zharas are name-insertions (literally; “warnings”), very common in Mandaean documents, especially in prayers and formulas. This device allows the tailoring of a text so that it mentions, in the proper places, the name of the person for whom the text is being transcribed, for whom a prayer is uttered, or a ritual performed.
18 The term for learned Mandaeans, mainly the priestly class.
19 Petermann, , p. 290.Google Scholar
20 See MD, 462a.
21 Petermann, , p. 291.Google Scholar
22 See references in note 4, above, and see especially p. 39 of my “The colophons in The Canonical Prayerbook”. 23 However, in GL, as we shall see, there are scribes earlier than Zazai.
24 An example of a copyist not having, but using seven copies for scrutinizing consultation and correlation, is Nukraia, , son of Šitil in the first CP colophon; see my “The colophons in The Canonical Prayerbook”, p.49.Google Scholar
25 From the root KNŠ, see MD, 220a.
26 Petermann, , p. 372.Google Scholar
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid.
29 Petermann, , p. 394; for dina, see MD, 108a.Google Scholar
30 Petermann, ibid.; the location of this town is unknown to me (MD 78b only says: “a city”).
31 Edited and translated by Drower, E. S., Diwan Abatur or Progress through the Purgatories, Studi e Testi 151 (Citta del Vaticano, 1950).Google Scholar
32 Here (and elsewhere) I n o t e that the verb “ copied “ when used of women is almost never put in the correct, feminine form. It seems that the power of the preponderantly male form of the verb overshadows the feminine form when this is called for.
33 I am grateful to the late Professor Rudolf Macuch (Berlin) for help in deciphering several problems in this postscript, which is in Petermann, p. 395.
34 I cannot further identify these two cities (for t he second one, see MD, 446b).
35 Literally: “ my teacher” (hereafter I indicate this title by the capital R).
36 (B)šauir seems to be from the Persian shahr. I thank Professor John E. Woods (Chicago) for this information.
37 MD 200b has kasaian as a name of a town.
38 Evidently, the kind governor Salmana repelled the rebels, protected the Mandaeans, and lifted a curfew (imposed on religious minorities?).
39 The writer compares his own friendly governor to the wise King Solomon, who banished the demons to the underworld.
40 The Mandaean cult-hut.
41 This sentence refers to the ritual foods offered during the five-day intercalary period, Parwanaiia. A masiqta, “death-mass”, for the ancestors, “the Parents”, is celebrated at that time (see my study, “The Mandaean Tabahata Masiqta”, Numen XXVIII, 2 (1981), pp. 138–63).Google Scholar
42 For this and other information/references regarding the named Muslim rulers in the Gmza-colophons, I am indebted to John E. Woods for directing me to P. Luft's article on the Musha'sha's, in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., vii, pp. 672–5Google Scholar and Mazzaoui, M. M., The Origins of the Safavids, Stism, Sufism and the Gulat (Wiesbaden, 1972), especially pp. 67–71.Google Scholar
43 “Cooking-pot”: MD, 410b.
44 A very important man in Mandaean history! See Macuch's, “Anfange”, p. 182,Google Scholar and my treatment of the information on him in CP, in “The colophons in The Canonical Prayerbook”, especially pp. 38–9. Bayan Hibil can be dated to the mid-seventh century A.D.Google Scholar
45 Petermann, , p. 138.Google Scholar
46 Ibid. It is common practice to give the baptismal name, which designates the subject in relation to his mother, in these types of formulae.
47 Sa'dan, alias Adam Zihrun, might be identical to a craftsman Bulbul in JB's MSS A and B, but it is too early to tell at this stage of my colophon research.
48 See Mazzaoui, , p. 71.Google Scholar
49 Petermann, , p. 182.Google Scholar
50 Ibid.
51 The Ottoman governor, who had purchased his position, was “a military man of uncertain origin” (letter from John E. Woods, 11/10/92).
52 “Gazelle” or “deer” (MD, 173a).
53 Petermann, , p. 230.Google Scholar
54 Petermann, , p. 119.Google Scholar
55 I will, however, hazard a guess: about A.D. 700. This is a reasonable time for the collection of t he variegated texts of JB (many of which must have been considerably older). See JB, pp. 72 and 137, for the reference to the “Dome of the Rock”, which the Mandaeans took to be associated with Judaism. (The Dome was constructed in A.D. 691–2.)
56 The formula properly belonging to Anuš Ma'ilia is also, erroneously, attributed to Yuhana Sarwan here.
57 The two last names are family/tribe names. Such designations appear frequently in Mandaean colophons, and they would merit a separate study in the geography of the Mandaean religion. (Notice, similarly, the just mentioned Zakia Mašhadia, “from Mashad”, i.e. the Iranian city.)
58 Petermann, , p. 184.Google Scholar
59 Ibid.
60 The pun is on the similarity of the verb ARB I, “to fall”, “to founder”, with the noun arbaiia, “Arabs”; see note 15, above.
61 See, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, vii, p. 674.Google Scholar
62 Petermann, , p. 230.Google Scholar
63 Ibid., p. 119, see text to note 54, above.
64 See MD, 443b. I suggest that it is in Khuzistan.
65 Petermann, , pp. 186–7.Google Scholar
66 See, again, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, vii, p. 674.Google Scholar
67 Schwarz, Paul, Iran im Mittelalter nach den arabischen Geographen, VII (Leipzig, 1929)Google Scholar, iv: “ Khuzistan ”. Schwarz here quotes Makkaddisi, (p. 295)Google Scholar and Kazvini, (p. 312).Google Scholar (I thank John E. Woods for referring me to this book.)
68 Literally “my teacher”. The term is often used of teachers in generations long past, and I will simply indicate the title by a capital R. in the translation from here on.
69 This is not the famous Anuš bar Danqa of early Islamic times (see my “ The colophons in The Canonical Prayerbook”, p. 40).
70 Yuhana, Sam, son of Bulbul, Mhatam, is in CPs lineage (see “ The colophons in The Canonical Prayerbook”, p. 46). From here on, individual CP and Ginza colophons often intersect or otherwise agree with each other.Google Scholar
71 A woman, whose son/initiate is a famous copyist.
72 Saka ( “end” or “limit” ), written s – a, marks the end of a section in Mandaean manuscripts.
73 Or “he”, pointing back to Mansur 'Ubadia (it is unclear whether Ram Baktiar copied twice, because of the repetition here).
74 Notice that the two brothers have the same initiator, Adam Bayan.
75 The first n is left out of ansalun. The two different “fathers“/initiators given for the two brothers seem garbled, for Šadan is not the father of Bayan Hibil, but a fellow-initiate of Bayan Hibil and Banan Bihram – along with a fourth man: Bihram; see Petermann, , p. 232, for GL MS C, where the four appear as co-owners of the GL MS.Google Scholar
76 Also a woman.
77 Ditto.
78 In the formula from here on, baptismal names are used, giving the mother's name.