Mandaeism (Classical Mandaic: ࡌࡀࡍࡃࡀࡉࡉࡀ‎ mandaiia; Arabic: المندائيّة, romanized: al-Mandāʾiyya), sometimes also known as Nasoraeanism or Sabianism,[a] is a Gnostic, monotheistic and ethnic religion with Greek, Iranian, and Jewish influences.

[22]: ix [23] The religion has primarily been practiced around the lower Karun, Euphrates and Tigris, and the rivers that surround the Shatt al-Arab waterway, part of southern Iraq and Khuzestan province in Iran.

[24] Many Mandaean Iraqis have since fled their country because of the turmoil created by the 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation by U.S. armed forces, and the related rise in sectarian violence by extremists.

Reports of them and of their religion have come primarily from outsiders: particularly from Julius Heinrich Petermann, an Orientalist;[26] as well as from Nicolas Siouffi, a Syrian Christian who was the French vice-consul in Mosul in 1887,[27][28] and British cultural anthropologist Lady E. S. Drower.

On the basis of cognates in other Aramaic dialects, semiticists such as Mark Lidzbarski and Rudolf Macúch have translated the term manda, from which Mandaiia derives, as "knowledge" (cf.

[5][32]: vi, ix  The emigrants first went to Haran (possibly Harran in modern-day Turkey) or Hauran, and then to the Median hills in Iran before finally settling in southern Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq).

[38] Around 1290, a Catholic Dominican friar from Tuscany, Riccoldo da Monte di Croce, or Ricoldo Pennini, was in Mesopotamia where he met the Mandaeans.

[43] Mandaeans were called "Christians of Saint John" by members of the Discalced Carmelite mission in Basra during the 16th and 17th centuries, based on reports from missionaries such as Ignatius of Jesus.

[45] According to Brikha Nasoraia: The Mandaeans see themselves as healers of the "Worlds and Generations" (Almia u-Daria), and practitioners of the religion of Mind (Mana), Light (Nhura), Truth (Kušța), Love (Rahma/Ruhma) and Enlightenment or Knowledge (Manda).

[13]: 28 According to E. S. Drower, the Mandaean Gnosis is characterized by nine features, which appear in various forms in other gnostic sects:[21] The religion extolls an intricate, multifaceted, esoteric, mythological, ritualistic, and exegetical tradition, with the emanation model of creation being the predominant interpretation.

The role of Yushamin, the first emanation, is more obscure; wanting to create a world of his own, he was punished for opposing the King of Light ('The First Life') but was ultimately forgiven.

Mandaeans do not consider John to be the founder of their religion, but they revere him as their greatest teacher who renews and reforms their ancient faith,[7]: 101 [57] tracing their beliefs back to Adam.

John is believed to be a messenger of Light (nhura) and Truth (kushta) who possessed the power of healing and full Gnosis (manda).

[32][7][58] They recognize other prophetic figures from the Abrahamic religions, such as Adam, his sons Hibil (Abel) and Sheetil (Seth), and his grandson Anush (Enosh), as well as Nuh (Noah), Sam (Shem), and Ram (Aram), whom they consider to be their direct ancestors.

According to this text, a group of Nasoraeans (Mandean priests) left Judea before the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century CE and settled within the Parthian Empire.

In addition to the Ginza, Qulasta, and Draša d-Yahya, there is the Diwan Abatur, which contains a description of the 'regions' the soul ascends through, and the Book of the Zodiac (Asfar Malwāshē).

Each mandi is adorned with a drabsha, which is a banner in the shape of a cross, made of olive wood half covered with a piece of white pure silk cloth and seven branches of myrtle.

[70][71] Mandaeans believe in marriage (qabin) and procreation, placing a high priority upon family life and in the importance of leading an ethical and moral lifestyle.

[72][73] They are pacifist and egalitarian, with the earliest attested Mandaean scribe being a woman, Shlama Beth Qidra, who copied the Left Ginza sometime in the second century CE.

[74] They believe the creator created the human body complete, so no part of it should be removed or cut off, hence circumcision is considered bodily mutilation for Mandaeans and therefore forbidden.

Two of the surviving acolytes (šgandia), Yahia Bihram and Ram Zihrun, reestablished the priesthood in Suq al-Shuyukh on the basis of their own training and the texts that were available to them.

[86]: 55 Scholars specializing in Mandaeism such as Kurt Rudolph, Mark Lidzbarski, Rudolf Macúch, Ethel S. Drower, Eric Segelberg, James F. McGrath, Charles G. Häberl, Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, and Şinasi Gündüz argue for an Israelite origin.

"[101] Barbara Thiering questions the dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls and suggests that the Teacher of Righteousness (leader of the Essenes) was John the Baptist.

[108] Scholars such as Kurt Rudolph, Rudolf Macúch, Mark Lidzbarski and Ethel S. Drower and James F. McGrath connect the Mandaeans with the Nasaraeans described by Epiphanius, a group within the Essenes according to Joseph Lightfoot.

[117] Early Mandaean religious concepts and terminologies recur in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Yardena (Jordan) has been the name of every baptismal water in Mandaeism.

[129][32][130] Maghāriya were a minor Jewish sect that appeared in the first century BCE, their special practice was the keeping of all their literature in caves in the surrounding hills of Israel.

At some point, both Mandaeans and Jews living in Babylonia began to develop similar cosmogonic and theosophic traditions involving an analogous set of terms, concepts, and images.

The Thousand and Twelve Questions, Scroll of Exalted Kingship, and Alma Rišaia Rba link the alphabet with the creation of the world, a concept found in Sefer Yetzirah and the Bahir.

[136] The Simonians were centered on Simon Magus, the magician baptised by Philip and rebuked by Peter in Acts 8, who became in early Christianity the archetypal false teacher.

The ascription by Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and others of a connection between schools in their time and the individual in Acts 8 may be as legendary as the stories attached to him in various apocryphal books.