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Sidra d-Nishmata

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Sidra ḏ-Nišmata
Information
ReligionMandaeism
LanguageMandaic language
Period3rd century AD or earlier

The Sidra ḏ-Nišmata (Classical Mandaic: ࡎࡉࡃࡓࡀ ࡖࡍࡉࡔࡌࡀࡕࡀ, lit. 'Book of Souls'; Modern Mandaic: Sedrā d-Nešmāthā[1]), also known as the Book of Souls or Book of Gadana, is a collection of Mandaean litugical prayers that constitutes the first part of the Qulasta. It is typically considered to consist of 103 prayers. The Sidra ḏ-Nišmata most likely constitutes the oldest stratum of Mandaean literature and dates to at least the 3rd century CE or earlier.[2]

The Sidra ḏ-Nišmata contains the most important prayers used in core Mandaean rituals, namely the masbuta and masiqta.[3]

Structure

Matthew Morgenstern (in the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon)[4] and Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki (2010) considers the Sidra ḏ-Nišmata to contain 103 prayers,[5] which correspond to the first 103 prayers in both Mark Lidzbarski's Mandäische Liturgien (1920)[6] and E. S. Drower's Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans (1959).[7]

The Sidra ḏ-Nišmata consists of the following sections. Each of the three parts has its own colophon.[2]

  • Part 1: Prayers 1–74
    • Prayers 1–31: masbuta liturgy
    • Prayers 32–72: masiqta liturgy
    • CP 73–74: the 2 "Letter" (engirta) prayers
  • Part 2: Prayers 75–77: 3 long prayers of praise
  • Part 3: Prayers 78–103: the "responses" (eniania)

Types of prayers

Eric Segelberg (1958) lists the following types of prayers in the Sidra ḏ-Nišmata.[8]

  • buta (plural form: bauata; generic Mandaic term for prayers)
    • Prayers 1, 3, 5: prayers for the crown
    • Prayer 7: prayer for the pandama
    • Prayers 9–11: prayers at the river bank
    • Prayers 22–24: prayers over the oil
    • Prayers 25–28: buta haṭamta or "sealing prayer"
    • Prayer 32: opening masiqta prayer
    • Prayers 75–77: long baptismal prayers
  • qaiamta: Prayers 56–65
  • pugdama (lit. 'commandment, declaration'): Prayers 8, 14, 19, 34; also applies to Prayers 5, 47, 48
  • šrita (plural form: širiata) (loosening or deconsecrating prayers): Prayers 2, 4, 6, 31, 55
  • draša
  • eniana
    • Prayers 79–81: three hymns in the beginning of the baptismal rite
    • Prayer 82: hymn after the acts in the water
    • Prayer 83–87: hymns said after the sealing prayers

List of prayers

Below is a list of individual prayers of the Sidra ḏ-Nišmata based on the text of Drower (1959),[7] with additional notes from Segelberg (1958)[8] and Buckley (2002).[3]

Litanies in the Sidra d-Nishmata include prayers 8, 9, 25, 58, 70, 71, 77, 80, and 81.[9]

Maṣbuta liturgy

  • Prayer 18 (audio): long prayer blessing the yardna which begins with the invocation of Piriawis (main prayer said during the maṣbuta immersion)
  • Prayer 19 (audio): short prayer for crowning with the klila, and pronouncing ʿuthria names over the baptized person ("Manda created/called me")
  • Prayer 20 (audio): yardna prayer beginning with a blessing of the outer door (tira baraia), for deconsecrating the yardna
  • Prayer 21 (audio): ascent from the yardna; the prayer rejects the sun, moon, and fire as witnesses

Masiqta liturgy

  • Prayer 32 (audio): short opening prayer
  • Prayer 33 (audio): mambuha prayer dedicated to the Water of Life
  • Prayer 34 (audio): shorter incense prayer
  • Prayer 35 (audio): long prayer ("I sought to lift my eyes" (bit mišqal ainia)) dedicated to Manda d-Hayyi, used for versatile ritual applications

Engirta prayers

Three long prayers

Eniania

References

  1. Häberl, Charles (2022). The Book of Kings and the Explanations of This World: A Universal History from the Late Sasanian Empire. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1-80085-627-1.
  2. Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2010). The great stem of souls: reconstructing Mandaean history. Piscataway, N.J: Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-59333-621-9.
  3. Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2002). The Mandaeans: ancient texts and modern people. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515385-5. OCLC 65198443.
  4. "Sidra d-Nishmata". The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon (in myz). Retrieved 2025-05-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  5. Al-Mubaraki, Majid Fandi; Mubaraki, Brian (2010). Qulasta - Sidra d Nishmata / Mandaean Liturgical Prayer Book (Book of Souls) (volume 1). Luddenham, New South Wales. ISBN 9781876888145.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) (1998 edition: ISBN 0-9585705-1-5)
  6. Lidzbarski, Mark. 1920. Mandäische Liturgien. Abhandlungen der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, phil.-hist. Klasse, NF 17.1. Berlin.
  7. Drower, E. S. (1959). The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
  8. Segelberg, Eric (1958). Maṣbūtā: Studies in the Ritual of Mandaean Baptism. Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksell.
  9. Gelbert, Carlos; Lofts, Mark J. (2025). The Qulasta. Edensor Park, NSW: Living Water Books. ISBN 978-0-6487954-3-8.
  10. Bacher, W. (1892). "The Mandaic Version of Psalm CXIV". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 4 (3). [University of Pennsylvania Press, Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania]: 508–508. ISSN 0021-6682. JSTOR 1450286. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  11. Bancila, Ionut Daniel. Die Stellung der 114. Psalmes in Qolasta.
  12. Greenfield, Jonas Carl (1981). A Mandaic 'Targum' of Psalm 114. In: Jakob J. Petuchowski and Ezra Fleischer (eds.) Studies in Aggadah, Targum and Jewish Liturgy in Memory of Joseph Heinemann. Jerusalem: Magnes.
  13. Gärtner, Bernd (2013). "Ein Tauftext aus der Frühgeschichte der Mandäer (ML XC = CP 90) und seine Beziehungen zum Judenchristentum". Durch Dein Wort ward jegliches Ding! (in German). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-06973-1. OCLC 856902570.
Audio recordings of prayers