Concept
Mandaeans
Overview
Mandaeans (Mandaic: ࡌࡀࡍࡃࡀࡉࡉࡀ) (Arabic: المندائيون al-Mandāʾiyyūn), also known as Mandaean Sabians (الصابئة المندائيون al-Ṣābiʾa al-Mandāʾiyyūn) or simply as Sabians (الصابئة al-Ṣābiʾa), are an ethnoreligious group who are followers of Mandaeism. They believe that John the Baptist was the final and most important prophet.
They may have been among the earliest religious groups to practise baptism, as well as among the earliest adherents of Gnosticism, a belief system of which they are the last surviving representatives. The Mandaeans were originally native speakers of Mandaic, an Eastern Aramaic language, before they nearly all switched to Mesopotamian Arabic or Persian as their main language.
After the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies in 2003, the Mandaean community of Iraq, which before the war numbered 60,000–70,000 people, collapsed with most of the community relocating to Iran, Syria and Jordan, or forming diaspora communities beyond the Middle East. By 2007, the population of Mandaeans in Iraq had fallen to approximately 5,000.
The community of Iranian Mandaeans has also been dwindling as a result of religious persecution over the decades. Unlike other religious minorities such as Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, Mandaeans have no protection from persecution whatsoever, similar to Baháʼís in Iran.
Today, there are estimated to be 60,000–100,000 Mandaeans worldwide. About 10,000 Mandaeans live in Australia and between 10,000 and 20,000 in Sweden, making them the countries with the most Mandaeans. There are about 2,500 Mandaeans in Jordan, the largest Mandaean community in the Middle East outside of Iraq and Iran.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Having done so they continued to follow on further in the tracks of the enemy, until they had passed through the whole of this land and had arrived at the desert. This desert region is occupied by no men, and it lies above the land of the Budinoi, extending for a seven days' journey; and above this desert dwell the Thyssagetai, and four large rivers flow from them through the…
Herodotus, The History of Herodotus — Volume 1
States what Mandaeans is.
For the first mentioned of these flows from the Armenians, and the latter from the Matienians. The fourth river is called the Gyndes, which Cyrus once distributed into three hundred and sixty channels. As you enter from Armenia into the country of Matiene, there are four stations; and from thence as you proceed to the Cissian territory there are eleven stations, and forty-two parasangs and a half, to the river…
Herodotus, The Boys' and Girls' Herodotus
States what Mandaeans is.
xi, 11. which was, as it seems, all one as to be judge. And he judged Israel, judg. xii. 7. that is, was their captain-general six years. So when Jotham upbraids the Shechemites with the obligation they had to Gideon, who had been their judge and ruler, he tells them, He fought for you, and adventured his life far, and delivered you out of the hands of Midian, Judg. ix. 17. Nothing mentioned of him but what he did…
John Locke, Second Treatise of Government
States what Mandaeans is.
Philosophers who discussed Mandaeans
Related ideas
- Macmillan Publishers
- BBC News
- Persian language
- Germany
- Greek language
- Gnosticism
- Basic Books
- Gnosis
- Hebrew language
- Italy
- Iran
- Ashkenazi Jews
- Jerusalem
- Latin
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Middle East
- The Guardian
- Monotheism
- Muslims
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- Mesopotamia
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Place in the tradition
Part of Gnosticism.