MANDIE'ANS (from Mandaic manda, knowl edge), also called NASOREANS, and, less cor rectly. SAINT JOHN'S CHRISTIANS. A religious sect which has flourished in Babylonia very pos sibly since the beginning of the Christian Era. At the present time the adherents of this faith live in the marshy lands near Basra. and in Khuzistan. The number of Mantheans was esti mated by Petermann in 1854 to be about 1500, but Siouffi in 1880 found about 4000. Thdvenot in 1663 counted 3279 families. Ignatius a Jest' asserted that there were 20.000 to 25,000 families in 1652, but he may have included many heretical Christians. At the time of :Mohammed they were probably a considerable body, forming the most important part of the Sabians or Baptists (from the Aramaic root saba, to baptize), to which the Elkesaites and Hemerobaptists also seem to have belonged. From them Mohammed may have adopted the custom of washings before the daily prayers. Hence he and his followers were long known as Sabians. As a people possessing a written revelation they were accorded by Mo hammed the same privileges as Jews and Chris tions. The Mand•ans have nothing in common with the pagans of Harran, who to gain for themselves these privileges falsely claimed to be Sabians and were thus permitted to continue their idolatrous practices. Whether the Man designated themselves in any other way than as Mandaye, i.e. gnostikoi, 'those who have the knowledge.' is not certain. Their religious views are known through their extant writings. Among these the most important are Ginza. 'the treasure,' also called Sidra rabba. 'the Great Book :' Sidra de Yahya. 'the Book of .John.' also called Deraske de malke, 'Discourses of the Angels;' and Tc.olasta, 'Purity,' a collection of baptismal songs; there are also Diirfi. 'the Book.' .isfar Malwasha, 'Signs of the Zodiac.' and a number of incantations. Ginza was pub lished by Norberg from a Paris codex dated 1633, and more critically by Petermann from another Paris codex dated 1560. liolasta was published by Euting from several manuscript:, the oldest of which was written in 1570. Sidra (lc Falitln. Diu-an. and Asfar Malwasha exist only in late manuscripts. A large collection of incantations, all of recent date. have been pith lished by Pognon. All of these writings are of composite authorship; they represent a long de velopment, and the Manffiran religion is a mix ture of many elements. The earliest parts of Ginza apparently present a purely pagan gnosti cism. as yet uninfluenced by Jewish or Christian thought. Lagarde has pointed out that some of the sections showing familiarity with Judaism go back to a period when animal sacrifices were still practiced and the Christians were regarded as rnerclv a Jewish sect. consequently to the first century A.D. Niildeke has indicated some parts that must have been composed in the Sassanid pe riod (226-6.11). But even Ginza and Kotasta contain nainy elements that are evidently later than Mohammed, It is probable that certain ele ments were at first borrowed from Christianity. Much old Babylonian and Persian speculation has also survived in Mandiefinism. According to the orignal polytheistic doctrine, the soul be longs to a better world, the realm of the 'first Ilk,' and is only temporarily attached to the body in the world of matter, in which the gods of light have chained the powers of darkness.
This world is the creation of the powers of the 'second life.' who try to drag men down from the world of light. Through .panda do Dayycy the personified 'knowledge of life,' the soul may he brought hack to its pristine state. An im portant symbol and means of purification is the holy lustration. The relations between these Baptists on the Euphrates and John the Baptist not yet been cleared up. He maintains a position of honor among them, and this led to the name 'Christians of Saint John,' given by missionaries of the seventeenth century. Not withstanding the Christian elements in their faith. they are bitterly hostile to certain Chris tian doctrines as well as to the Jews. They de clare that Jeshu Meshieha (Jesus the Messiah) and his mother, Rucha ( the Holy Ghost), are evil spirits and the authors of all false religion. Efforts on the part of Nestorian missionaries to convert them may have caused this hostility. They have bishops, priests, and deacons, and admit women to these offices. They have a sort of Lord's Supper and observe Sunday and fasts. They are polygamous and command the marriage of priests. The Mandaie language belongs to the Aramaic branch of the Semitic family. It is only dialectically different from the language of the Babylonian Talmud, and probably represents the Aramaic speech of Babylonia from Cpi to the Persian Gulf. Its syntax is particularly important. Even its vocabulary shows less foreign influence than the kindred Aramaic tongues. A grammar has been written by Niildeke. The script is a form of the Syriac, closely akin to that which was carried to Manchuria and Mongolia by Mesopotamian missionaries. It seems to have been in use in the seventh and eighth centuries.
At present the Manche:ins use the Arabic lan guage. Ginza was translated into Latin by Nor berg. Tyehsen and De Sacy translated some sec tions of and Sidra de Yahya. Large parts of Ginza have been rendered into German by Brandt. Some of the incantations have been translated by Pognon. The religion has been best described by Brandt. Consult: Zotenherg, Cata logue des, manuscripts syriaques et sabeens (man &tiles) de la Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris, IS7-1) ; Norberg, Codes Nosara•us Librr Adami ppella t us 1812-1 ) : Petermann, Thesaurus sire Libel- Magnus (Leipzig, 1867) : Enting. Qolasta odor Gesiinge and Lehren son der Tonle and dem Ausgang der Seek (Stuttgart, IS(17): Niildeke, .11andiiisehe Grammatik (ITalle, 1575) : Brandt, Die mandiiische Religion (Leip zig, 1367) : id.. .11and;iisehe gehriften iibersetzt wnd erlilutert (Giittingen. 1593) ; Lagarde, Jlitteilungen, iv., pp. 129 soq. (ib.. 1S9l.) ; Pognon, Incantations mandaItes(Paris,)S91-1901); Well hausen, Reste arabischen Heidentums (2d ed., Berlin, 1897) ; Petermann, Reim' in? Orient, vol. ii. (Leipzig, 1861 ) ; Sioulli, Etudes sur la religion des Soubbas on Sabeens (Paris, 1880) ; Babelon, Lcs Mandaitcs, leur histoire et !car doctrines (Paris, 1882).