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كنزا ربا .jpg
Ginza Rba; the longest of the many holy scriptures of Mandaeism
ScriptureGinza Rba, Qolusta, and Mandaean Book of John
ModeratorSattar Jabbar Hilo al-Zahrony[2]
RegionIraq and Iran
LanguageMandaic language[3]
OriginFirst three centuries CE[4]
Southwestern Mesopotamia or Levant[4]
Membersc. 60,000[5] - 70,000[6]
Other name(s)Sabianism

Mandaeism or Mandaeanism (Classical Mandaic: ࡌࡀࡍࡃࡀࡉࡉࡀ‎, romanized: mandaiia; Arabic: مَنْدَائِيَّة‎, Mandāʾīya or مَنْدَعِيَّة, mandaʿīya), also known as Sabianism (Arabic: صَابِئِيَّة‎, Ṣābiʾīyah), is a monotheistic and gnostic religion[1]:4 with dualistic cosmology. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Noah, Shem, Aram, and especially John the Baptist. The Mandaeans have been counted among the Semites and speak a dialect of Eastern Aramaic known as Mandaic. The name 'Mandaean' is said to come from the Aramaic manda meaning "knowledge".[7][8] Within the Middle East, but outside of their community, the Mandaeans are more commonly known as the Arabic: صُبَّةṢubba (singular: Ṣubbī) or Sabians. The term Ṣubba is derived from the Aramaic root related to baptism, the neo-Mandaic is Ṣabi.[9] In the Quran, the "Sabians" (Arabic: الصَّابِئُون‎, aṣ-Ṣābiʾūn) are mentioned three times alongside Jews and Christians. Occasionally, Mandaeans are called "Christians of Saint John".[10]

According to most scholars, Mandaeaism originated sometime in the first three centuries AD, in either southwestern Mesopotamia or the Syro-Palestinian area.[4] However, some scholars take the view that Mandaeanism is older and dates from pre-Christian times.[11] Mandaeans assert that they predate Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as a monotheistic religion.[12]

The religion has been practised primarily 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. There are thought to be between 60,000 and 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide.[13] Until the Iraq War, almost all of them lived in Iraq.[14] 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.[15] By 2007, the population of Mandaeans in Iraq had fallen to approximately 5,000.[14]

The Mandaeans have remained separate and intensely private. Reports of them and of their religion have come primarily from outsiders: particularly from Julius Heinrich Petermann, an Orientalist[16] as well as from Nicolas Siouffi, a Syrian Christian who was the French vice-consul in Mosul in 1887,[17][18] and British cultural anthropologist Lady E. S. Drower. There is an early if highly prejudiced account by the French traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier[19] from the 1650s.



The words deism and theism are both derived from words meaning "god": Latin deus and Greek theos (θεός). The word déiste first appears in French in 1564 in a work by a Swiss Calvinist named Pierre Viret[21] but was generally unknown in France until the 1690s when Pierre Bayle published his famous Dictionary, which contained an article on Viret.[22]

Other scholars[who?] derive the term mandaiia (Classical Mandaic: ࡌࡀࡍࡃࡀࡉࡉࡀ‎) from Mandā d-Heyyi (Classical Mandaic: ࡌࡀࡍࡃࡀ ࡖࡄࡉࡉࡀ‎) "Knowledge of Life," in reference to the chief divinity Hayyi Rabbi (Classical Mandaic: ࡄࡉࡉࡀ ࡓࡁࡉࡀ‎) "the Great Life" or "Great Living God" or from the word Beth Manda,[1]:81[1]:167 which is the cultic hut in which many Mandaean ceremonies are performed (such as the baptism, which is the central sacrament of Mandaean religious life).



According to the Mandaean text the Haran Gawaita, the recorded history of the Mandaeans began when a group called the Nasoreans (the Mandaean priestly caste as opposed to the laity), left Judea/Palestine and migrated to Mesopotamia in the 1st century CE.[4] The reason given for this was their persecution in Jerusalem. The emigrants went first to Haran (probably Harran in modern-day Turkey), or Hauran and then the Median hills in Iran, before finally settling in the southern provinces of Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). According to Edmondo Lupieri, as stated in his article on Encyclopædia Iranica, "The possible historical connection with John the Baptist, as seen in the newly translated Mandaean texts, convinced many (notably R. Bultmann) that it was possible, through the Mandaean traditions, to shed some new light on the history of John and on the origins of Christianity. This brought about a revival of the otherwise almost fully abandoned idea of their Palestinian origins. As the archeological discovery of Mandaean incantation bowls and lead amulets proved a pre-Islamic Mandaean presence in southern Mesopotamia, scholars were obliged to hypothesize otherwise unknown persecutions by Jews or by Christians to explain the reason for Mandaeans’ departure from Palestine."[23] At the beginning of the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia, the leader of the Mandaeans, Anush son of Danqa appeared before Muslim authorities showing them a copy of the Ginza Rabba, the Mandaean holy book, and proclaiming the chief Mandaean prophet to be John the Baptist, who is also mentioned in the Quran as Yahya Bin Zakariya. This identified Mandaeans with the Sabians who are mentioned in the Quran as being counted among the Ahl al-Kitāb (People of the Book). This provided Mandaeans a status as a legal minority religion within the Muslim Empire. The Mandaeans were henceforth associated with the Sabians and the Jewish Christian group the Elcesaites, on account of the location of all three in Mesopotamia in the early centuries CE, and the similarities in their beliefs. The importance of baptism in the rituals of all three is particularly marked. Like the Mandaeans, the Sabians were also said to be gnostics and descended from Noah. Mandaeans continue to be identified with Sabians up to the present day, but the exact relationship between the three groups remains unclear. Around 1290, a learned Dominican Catholic from Tuscany, Ricoldo da Montecroce, or Ricoldo Pennini, was in Mesopotamia where he met the Mandaeans. He described them as follows:




Mandaeism, as the religion of the Mandaean people, is based on a set of religious creeds and doctrines. The corpus of Mandaean literature, though quite large, covers topics – such as eschatology, the knowledge of God and the afterlife.[25][need quotation to verify]

Fundamental tenets[edit]


  1. A supreme formless Entity, the expression of which in time and space is creation of spiritual, etheric, and material worlds and beings. Production of these is delegated by It to a creator or creators who originated It. The cosmos is created by Archetypal Man, who produces it in similitude to his own shape.
  3. The soul is portrayed as an exile, a captive; his home and origin being the supreme Entity to which he eventually returns.
  5. A savior spirit or savior spirits which assist the soul on his journey through life and after it to ‘worlds of light’.'
  6. A cult-language of symbol and metaphor. Ideas and qualities are personified.
  7. ‘Mysteries’, i.e. sacraments to aid and purify the soul, to ensure his rebirth into a spiritual body, and his ascent from the world of matter. These are often adaptations of existing seasonal and traditional rites to which an esoteric interpretation is attached. In the case of the Naṣoraeans this interpretation is based on the Creation story (see 1 and 2), especially on the Divine Man, Adam, as crowned and anointed King-priest.


Image of Abatur from Diwan Abatur

As noted above Mandaean theology is not systematic. There is no one single authoritative account of the creation of the cosmos, but rather a series of several accounts. Some scholars, such as Edmondo Lupieri,[27] maintain that comparison of these different accounts may reveal the diverse religious influences upon which the Mandaeans have drawn and the ways in which the Mandaean religion has evolved over time.

In contrast with the religious texts of the western Gnostic sects formerly found in Syria and Egypt, the earliest Mandaean religious texts suggest a more strictly dualistic theology, typical of other Iranian religions such as Zoroastrianism, Zurvanism, Manichaeism, and the teachings of Mazdak. In these texts, instead of a large pleroma, there is a discrete division between light and darkness. The Mandaean God is known as Hayyi Rabbi (The Great Living God). Other names used are Mare d'Rabuta (Lord of Greatness) and Melka d'Nhura (King of Light).[28][29]

Ptahil (Classical Mandaic: ࡐࡕࡀࡄࡉࡋ‎), the third emanation, alone does not constitute the demiurge but only fills that role insofar as he is the creator of the material world. Rather, Ptahil is the lowest of a group of three emanations, the other two being Yushamin (Classical Mandaic: ࡉࡅࡔࡀࡌࡉࡍ‎; first emanation a.k.a. Joshamin) and Abathur (Classical Mandaic: ࡀࡁࡀࡕࡅࡓ‎), the second emanation. Abathur's demiurgic role consists of his sitting in judgment upon the souls of mortals. The role of Yushamin, the first emanation, is more obscure; wanting to create a world of his own, he was severely punished for opposing the King of Light. The name may derive from Iao haš-šammayim (in Hebrew: Yahweh "of the heavens").[30]


Chief prophets[edit]

Mandaeans recognize several prophets. Yahia-Yohanna, known in Christianity as John the Baptist, is accorded a special status, higher than his role in Christianity and Islam. Mandaeans do not consider John to be the founder of their religion but revere him as one of their greatest teachers, tracing their beliefs back to Adam.

Mandaeans do not believe in the sanctity of Abraham, Moses or Jesus,[31] but recognize other prophetic figures from the Abrahamic religions, such as Adam, his son Seth, and his grandson Anush (Enosh), as well as Nuh (Noah), Sam (Shem), and Ram (Aram), whom they consider to be their direct ancestors.

Mandaeans also do not recognize the Holy Spirit in the Talmud and Bible, who is known in Mandaic as Ruha, Ruha d-Qudsha, or Ruha Masțanita, in the same way. Instead of being viewed positively as a holy spirit, she is viewed negatively as the personification of the lower, emotional, and feminine elements of the human psyche.[32]


Image of Abatur at the scales from Diwan Abatur

The Mandaeans have a large corpus of religious scriptures, the most important of which is the Ginza Rba or Ginza, a collection of history, theology, and prayers.[33][need quotation to verify] The Ginza Rba is divided into two halves—the Genzā Smālā or "Left Ginza", and the Genzā Yeminā or "Right Ginza". By consulting the colophons in the Left Ginza, Jorunn J. Buckley has identified an uninterrupted chain of copyists to the late second or early third century.[citation needed] The colophons attest to the existence of the Mandaeans or their predecessors during the late Parthian Empire at the very latest.

The oldest texts are lead amulets from about the third century CE, followed by magic bowls from about 600 CE. The important religious manuscripts are not older than the sixteenth century, with most coming from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.[34]


Another important text is the Haran Gawaita which tells the history of the Mandaeans. 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.




Mandaean Darfash, symbol of the Mandaean faith

The two most important ceremonies in Mandaean worship are baptism (masbuta), and a mass for the dead or 'ascent of the soul ceremony' (masiqta). Unlike other Abrahamic religions, baptism is not a one-off event but is performed every Sunday, the Mandaean holy day. Baptism usually involves full immersion in flowing water, and all rivers considered fit for baptism are called Yardena (after the River Jordan). After emerging from the water, the worshipper is anointed with holy oil and partakes of a communion of bread and water. The ascent of the soul ceremony can take various forms, but usually involves a ritual meal in memory of the dead. The ceremony is believed to help the souls of the departed on their journey through purgatory to the World of Light. Mandaean pray three times a day.[36][37]

A mandī (Arabic: مندى‎) (Beth Manda) or Mashkhanna[38] is a place of worship for followers of Mandaeism. A mandī must be built beside a river in order to perform maṣbuta (or baptism) because water is an essential element in the Mandaean faith. Modern mandīs sometimes have a bath inside a building instead. Each mandi is adorned with a darfash, which is a cross of olive wood half covered with a piece of white pure silk cloth and seven branches of myrtle. The cross is not identified with the Christian cross. Instead the four arms of the cross symbolise the four corners of the universe, while the pure silk cloth represents the Light of God.[39] The seven branches of myrtle represent the seven days of creation.

Mandaeans believe in marriage and procreation, and in the importance of leading an ethical and moral lifestyle in this world. 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 2nd century CE.[40] There is evidence for women priests, especially in the pre-Islamic era.[41] They also place a high priority upon family life. Mandaeans do not practice asceticism and detest circumcision.[28] Mandaeans will, however, abstain from strong drink and red meat.




There are three grades of priesthood in Mandaeism: the tarmidia (Classical Mandaic: ࡕࡀࡓࡌࡉࡃࡉࡀ‎) “disciples” (Neo-Mandaic tarmidānā), the ganzibria (Classical Mandaic: ࡂࡀࡍࡆࡉࡁࡓࡉࡀ‎) “treasurers” (from Old Persian ganza-bara "id.," Neo-Mandaic ganzeḇrānā) and the rišamma (Classical Mandaic: ࡓࡉࡔࡀࡌࡀ‎) “leader of the people”. This last office, the highest level of the Mandaean priesthood, has lain vacant for many years. At the moment, the highest office currently occupied is that of the ganzeḇrā, a title which appears first in a religious context in the Aramaic ritual texts from Persepolis (c. 3rd century BCE) and which may be related to the kamnaskires (Elamite <qa-ap-nu-iš-ki-ra> kapnuskir "treasurer"), title of the rulers of Elymais (modern Khuzestan) during the Hellenistic age. Traditionally, any ganzeḇrā who baptizes seven or more ganzeḇrānā may qualify for the office of rišamma, though the Mandaean community has yet to rally as a whole behind any single candidate.


In 2009, there were two dozen Mandaean priests in the world, according to the Associated Press.[43] However, according to the Mandaean Society in America the number of priests has been growing in recent years.

Relations with other groups[edit]

The Mandaeans have been identified with several groups, in particular the Sabians and the Elkasaites. Other groups such as the Nazarenes and the Dositheans have also been identified with the Mandaeans. The exact relation of all these groups to one another is a difficult question. But they do share many common beliefs, in accordance with other ancient Middle Eastern religions such as Yazdaism[dubious ] and Judaism, such as belief in a formless deity, reincarnation and rejection of meat or red meat either completely or during religious times. While it seems certain that a number of distinct groups are intended by these names, the nature of these sects and the connections between them are less than clear. At least according to the Fihrist (see below), these groups seem all to have emerged from or developed in parallel with the "Sabian" followers of El-Hasaih; "Elkasaites" in particular may simply have been a blanket term for Mughtasila, Mandaeans, Sabians and even Manichaeans.[citation needed]


The Quran makes several references to the Sabians, who are frequently thought to be Mandaeans. Sabians are counted among the Ahl al-Kitāb (People of the Book), and several hadith feature them. Arab sources of early Quranic times (7th century) also make some references to Sabians. Some scholars hold that the etymology of the root word 'Sabi'un' points to origins either in the Syriac or Mandaic word 'Sabian', and suggest that the Mandaean religion originated with Sabeans who came under the influence of early Hellenic Sabian missionaries, but preferred their own priesthood. The Sabians believed they "belong to the prophet Noah";[44] Similarly, the Mandaeans claim direct descent from Noah.

An Assyrian Christian writer[who?][when?] said that the true 'Sabians' or Sabba lived in the marshes of lower Iraq. The Assyrian writer Theodore Bar Konai (in the Scholion, 792) described a "sect" of "Sabians", who were located in southern Mesopotamia.[45][full citation needed]



The Haran Gawaita uses the name Nasoraeans for the Mandaeans arriving from Jerusalem. Consequently, the Mandaeans have been connected with the Nasaraeans described by Epiphanius, a group within the Essenes.[47] Epiphanius says (29:6) that they existed before Christ. That is questioned by some, but others accept the pre-Christian origin of this group.




According to the Fihrist of ibn al-Nadim, the Mesopotamian prophet Mani, the founder of Manichaeism, was brought up within the Elkesaite (Elcesaite or Elchasaite) sect, this being confirmed more recently by the Cologne Mani Codex. None of the Manichaean scriptures has survived in its entirety, and it seems that the remaining fragments have not been compared to the Ginza Rba. Mani later left the Elkasaites to found his own religion. In a comparative analysis, the Egyptologist Säve-Söderbergh indicated that Mani's Psalms of Thomas were closely related to Mandaean texts.[48] This would imply that Mani had access to Mandaean religious literature, or that both derived from the same source.


They are connected with the Samaritan group, the Dositheans, by Theodore Bar Kōnī in his Scholion.

Number of adherents[edit]

Mandaean Beth Manda (Mashkhanna) in Nasiriyah, southern Iraq in 2016

Official numbers estimate that the current population of Mandaeans numbers between 60,000 and 70,000 people.[citation needed] Their proportion in their native lands has collapsed because of the Iraq War, with most of the community relocating to nearby Iran, Syria, and Jordan.

In 2011, Al Arabiya put the number of hidden and unaccounted for Iranian Mandaeans in Iran as high as 60,000.[49] According to a 2009 article in The Holland Sentinel, the Mandaean community in Iran has also been dwindling, numbering between 5,000 and at most 10,000 people.

Of the Mandaeans tallied in official numbers, many have formed diaspora communities outside the Middle East, especially Australia, where some 10,000[50] now reside, mainly around Sydney, representing 15% of the total world Mandaean population.

Approximately 1,000 Iranian Mandaeans have emigrated to the United States since the US State Department in 2002 granted them protective refugee status, which was also later accorded to Iraqi Mandaeans in 2007.[citation needed] A community estimated at 2,500 members live in Worcester, Massachusetts, where they began settling in 2008. Most emigrated from Iraq.[51]

Mandaeism does not allow conversion, and the religious status of Mandaeans who marry outside the faith and their children is disputed.[43]

See also[edit]


  1. ^ a b c d Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2002), The Mandaeans: ancient texts and modern people (PDF), Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780195153859
  2. ^ Patriarch and Worldwide Head of The Sabian Mandeans; His Holiness Ganzevra Sattar Jabbar Hilo al-Zahrony, the worldwide head of The Sabian Mandeans, is a member of the Interfaith Network of the Global Imams Council.
  3. ^ Ethel Stefana Drower, The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran (Leiden: Brill, 1937; reprint 1962); Kurt Rudolph, Die Mandäer II. Der Kult (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; Göttingen, 1961; Kurt Rudolph, Mandaeans (Leiden: Brill, 1967); Christa Müller-Kessler, Sacred Meals and Rituals of the Mandaeans”, in David Hellholm, Dieter Sänger (eds.), Sacred Meal, Communal Meal, Table Fellowship, and the Eucharist: Late Antiquity, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity, Vol. 3 (Tübingen: Mohr, 2017), pp. 1715–1726, pls.
  4. ^ a b c d "Mandaeanism | religion".
  5. ^ Bell, Matthew
  8. ^ The Light and the Dark: Dualism in ancient Iran, India, and China Petrus Danker John Williams – 1990 "Although it shows Jewish and Christian influences, Mandaeism was hostile to Judaism and Christianity. Mandaeans spoke an East-Aramaic language in which 'manda' means 'knowledge'; this already is sufficient proof of the connection of Mandaeism with the Gnosis...
  9. ^ Häberl 2009, p. 1 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHäberl2009 (help)
  12. ^ "The People of the Book and the Hierarchy of Discrimination".
  13. ^ Iraqi minority group needs U.S. attention Archived 2007-10-25 at the Wayback Machine, Kai Thaler, Yale Daily News, 9 March 2007.
  14. ^ a b "Save the Gnostics" by Nathaniel Deutsch, 6 October 2007, New York Times.
  15. ^ Iraq's Mandaeans 'face extinction', Angus Crawford, BBC, 4 March 2007.
  16. ^ Foerster, Werner (1974). Gnosis: A Selection of Gnostic texts. 2. Oxford University Press. p. 126. ISBN 9780198264347.
  18. ^ Häberl, Charles (2009). The Neo-Mandaic Dialect of Khorramshahr. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 18. ISBN 978-3447058742. In 1873, the French vice-consul in Mosul, a Syrian Christian by the name of Nicholas Siouffi, sought Mandaean informants in Baghdad without success.
  19. ^ Tavernier, J.-B. (1678). The Six Voyages of John Baptista Tavernier. Translated by Phillips, J. pp. 90–93.
  21. ^ Viret described deism as a heretical development of Italian Renaissance naturalism, resulting from misuse of the liberty conferred by the Reformation to criticise idolatry and superstition.Viret, Pierre (1564). Instruction Chrétienne en la doctrine de la foi et de l'Évangile (Christian teaching on the doctrine of faith and the Gospel). Viret wrote that a group of people believed, like the Jews and Turks, in a God of some kind - but regarded the doctrine of the evangelists and the apostles as a mere myth. Contrary to their own claim, he regarded them as atheists.
  22. ^ Bayle, Pierre (1820). "Viret". Dictionnaire historique et critique (in French). 14 (Nouvelle ed.). Paris: Desoer. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
  23. ^ "MANDAEANS i. HISTORY". Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  27. ^ Lupieri (2002), pp. 38–41.
  28. ^ a b Drower, Ethel Stefana. The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran. Oxford At The Clarendon Press, 1937.
  29. ^ Rudolf, K. (1978). Mandaeism. Leiden: Brill.
  30. ^ Lupieri (2002), pp. 39–40, n. 43.
  31. ^ Lupieri (2002), p. 116.
  32. ^ Aldihisi, Sabah (2013). The Story of Creation in the Mandaean Holy Book the Ginza Rba. ProQuest LLC. p. 188. OCLC 1063456888.CS1 maint: location (link)
  34. ^ Edwin Yamauchi (1982). "The Mandaeans: Gnostic Survivors". Eerdmans' Handbook to the World's Religions, Lion Publishing, Herts., England, page 110
  35. ^ "The Ginza Rba – Mandaean Scriptures". The Gnostic Society Library. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  36. ^ Baker, Karen (September 28, 2017). The Mandaeans—Baptizers of Iraq and Iran. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 9781498246200 – via Google Books.
  37. ^ "The Edinburgh Review". A. and C. Black. April 26, 1880 – via Google Books.
  38. ^ Secunda, Shai, and Steven Fine. Secunda, Shai; Fine, Steven (2012-09-03). Shoshannat Yaakov. ISBN 978-9004235441. Brill, 2012.p345
  39. ^ "Iraq: Old Sabaean-Mandean Community is Proud of Its Ancient Faith".
  40. ^ Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen. The Mandaeans: Ancient Texts and Modern People. Oxford University Press, 2002.p4
  41. ^ Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen. The Evidence for Women Priests in Mandaeism. April 2000. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 59(2)
  43. ^ a b Contrera, Russell (8 August 2009). "Saving the people, killing the faith". Holland Sentinel. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015.
  46. ^ "Extracts from E. S. Drower, 'Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran'". Archived from the original on 2011-12-04. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  47. ^ Drower, Ethel Stephana (1960). The secret Adam, a study of Nasoraean gnosis (PDF). London UK: Clarendon Press. xvi. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 March 2014., p. xiv.
  48. ^ Torgny Säve-Söderbergh, Studies in the Coptic Manichaean Psalm-book, Uppsala, 1949
  49. ^ Ahmed Al-Sheati (6 December 2011). "Iran Mandaeans in exile following persecution". Al Arabiya News. Archived from the original on 31 July 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
  50. ^ "Meet the Mandaeans: Australian followers of John the Baptist celebrate new year – RN – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)".


  • Buckley. J.J. "Mandaeans" in Encyclopædia Iranica
  • Segelberg, Eric, 1990, "Mandæan – Jewish – Christian. How does the Mandæan tradition relate to Jewish and Christian tradition? in: Segelberg, Gnostica Madaica Liturgica. (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Historia Religionum 11.) Uppsala 1990.

External links[edit]

Mandaean scriptures[edit]

Books about Mandaeism available online[edit]