This historical study argues that the Mandaean religion originated under Sasanid rule in the fifth century, not earlier as has been widely accepted. It analyzes primary sources in Syriac, Mandaic, and Arabic to clarify the early history of Mandaeism. This religion, along with several other, shorter-lived new faiths, such as Kentaeism, began in a period of state-sponsored persecution of Babylonian paganism. The Mandaeans would survive to become one of many groups known as Ṣābians by their Muslim neighbors. Rather than seeking to elucidate the history of Mandaeism in terms of other religions to which it can be related, this study approaches the religion through the history of its social contexts.

Table of Contents

1 Early Contacts between Arab Muslims and Aramaean Mandaeans and the Date of Zazay

2 Theodore Bar Konay’s Account of Mandaean Origins (circa 792)

3 Three Sixth-Century Syriac References to Mandaeans by Name

4 On the Kentaeans and Their Relationship with the Mandaeans

5 The Account of al-Ḥasan ibn Bahlūl (Bar Bahlul), Second Half of Tenth Century

6 Identifying Abū ʿAlī

7 The Marshes of the Ṣābians

8 Other Reports on the Mandaeans after Abū ʿAlī

9 Back to the Question of Origins

10 Pre-Mandaean Nāṣoraeans

11 The Religious Environment of Sasanian Iraq

12 Mandaeism as a Changing Tradition

Review

"Van Bladel's book is a significant contribution to the field of Mandaeism and will hopefully spur further interest in its neglected texts. Its interdisciplinary import is no less substantial... Van Bladel's book is (...) not only a story of the Mandaean past, but a window into Sasanian Mesopotamia and the forging of "religious communities" beyond the "Greco-Roman" boundaries. For these reasons, it demands serious consideration among scholars interested in situating the Bavli in its Iranian context, the Church of the East, and the Sasanian Empire in general."

Jae H. Han in Ancient Jew Review, March 2018.

About the Author

Kevin T. van Bladel (Ph.D. 2004, Yale University), is Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at The Ohio State University. He is the author of many studies on the classical Near East including The Arabic Hermes (Oxford 2009).