Breathing life into a dead language: what remains of colloquial Mandaic in Iraq
14 Nov 2024
In the Iraqi dialect, when someone says, “I went home”, tabeet al-bayt, or “I entered the house,” dasheet al-bayt, half of what they are saying is in the Mandaean language. When a folk poet recites a poem about his mother’s sheela, it is taken from sheyala, which is the head covering of a Mandaean woman. The same applies to a singer who begins with “Woe, Woe”. Breathing life into a dead language: what remains of Mandaean dialect in Iraq
The best hope is to learn the word of God and teach it.
–The Ginza Rabba
At fourteen, Rafid Zori, 40 years old, started learning Mindayutha, or classical Mandaic. His learning journey continued until his late thirties. Despite his effort and the help of his family in mastering the classical register, he was unable to learn Mandaic slang, which is the colloquial dialect, or the vernacular of Mandaic.
Zori has passed on his knowledge of the religious Mandaic register to his five children but spoke of its difficulty and the small number of people who speak colloquial Mandaic. “There are maybe 10 people who speak the colloquial Mandaic in Iraq. Even the clerics just read it, not speak it,” he told Jummar.
Religious Mandaic is the language of the holy book The Ginza Rabba and other Mandaean religious texts. When Zori was sat in his shop selling gold jewellery, which is the craft for which the people of this religion are known, he suggested that speaking on the language daily would help the possibility of learning the language. However, for him, its meanings and implications are only understood by scholars of the Mandaean religion, and it is like the languages in which the “heavenly books” were written: the Qur’an, the Bible, and the Torah.
Roots
In their study, “The Historical Roots of Mandaeans”, Ali Hadi Al-Mahdawi and Akram Abbas Imran, professors of language at the University of Babylon, note that the words Mandaean or Mandaean language appeared in Sumerian from the root ma-da which means “dwelling or land of worship.” The place of worship in the Mandaean religion is called Mandī from which the name of the people developed. It emerged in Akkadian in the form Mandū and which means “people of strong faith.”
The holy book for Mandaeans is The Ginza Rabba, meaning Great Treasure. Mandeans believe this text was revealed by Hib Ziwa, their word for the angel Gabriel, to Adam, Seth, Idris and Noah, and even John the Baptist. It is said in the Qur’an about John the Baptist, “O John, take firm hold of the Book, and We granted him sound judgement, when he is still a child.”
The Mandaeans also have a sacred emblem, called Darfash or Darbasha which means flag or banner, and is also called “banner of light” or “shining flag.” This emblem represents their prophet, John the Baptist, and is a cross of two pieces of wood crowned with myrtle branches covered with a white silk robe. It symbolises light illuminating the earth in its four directions. Mandaeans hold this cross when reciting prayers, positioning it towards running water.
Linguists classify Mandaic as one of the eastern dialects of Aramaic. It emerged alongside the Arameans three thousand years ago. The Mandaean dialect’s development was linked to the rise of the Aramaic civilization and its expansion towards the Elamites in the east, and the Ptolemies and Seleucids in the west, known as Syria and Palestine today.
In his research on Mandaic origins and influence, Dr. Sabah Malallah, a specialist in Mandaic and Gnostic studies at the University of London, described the alphabetical characteristics and standards followed in writing and speaking. He explained how Mandaic is distinguished by its alphabet – called A-Ba-Ga-Da – and is subject to the same standards of Aramaic in that it also relies more on consonants than vowels in writing. Most of its words are derived from a three-letter root origin. Like all Semitic languages, it is written from right to left.
The sanctity of the Mandaic letter, according to Malallah, lies in the way it is drawn, and the symbolism in the shape of the letter of light and darkness and the struggle between good and evil. These letters also have numerical values. The letter Alif has a value of one, the letter Ba has two, the letter Dal has four, and so on.
In an interview with Jummar, Dr. Saeed Al-Jaafar, a professor of linguistics at Dhi Qar University, shared that spoken Mandaic died and became a purely religious language, mastered only by clerics. After the spread of Islam into various countries, including Iraq, Arabic became dominant. The Mandaeans were forced to adapt the language they spoke.
However, historical sources documented that the first translation of The Ginza Rabba was by Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Salam, a client of Harun Al-Rashid, the fifth Abbasid caliph who died in 809 AD. Those same sources stated that that version was lost, and the book was not translated again until 1997, this time by the poet Abdul Razzaq Abdul Wahid. According to Rashid Khayoun’s book Religions and Sects in Iraq about Al-Rish Umma Sheikh Abdullah Najm, “It was blasphemy, and it is a crime against our religion, our book, and our sanctities.”
Learning Mandiac letters first makes learning the language easier, said Rafid Zori. He also stressed that starting from a young age is essential to learning quickly. More generally, Zori shared the secret to mastering Mandaic according to his experience with it, “If you learn but then drop it, you’ll lose it. But if you keep practising writing and keep it up for a year, it becomes natural, and you will not forget it. If you drop it, you’ll forget it.”
YouTube has proved an important resource for Mandaic. At the very least, it is used to prevent basic linguistic rules from being forgotten. There are YouTube channels and YouTubers who give lessons online and anyone who is curious about this sacred language can learn its secrets.
Ink
Mandaeans have documented their legacy in their own language, in which they collected their religious heritage through several books. These include The Ginza Rabba , the great treasure, Sidra Ad Nashmatha, the book of souls, Al-Niani, hymns and songs, Al-Qalista, the principles of marriage, Tarso Alf Shiala, twelve thousand questions, Harran Kuytha, the castle of Harran, Al-Ma Rishayeh, the formation of the world, Darash Ad Yahya, the teachings of Yahya, Sharh Baruna, on establishing of divinity for the souls of the dead, among others.
For Mandaeans, language is something sacred. It is never written on animal skins, since they attempt to atone and seek forgiveness after killing animals. Rather, it is written on paper, papyrus, stone, lead, or metals. For this reason, letters are sacred to them as well, as they represent life and light. Mandiac begins with the letter alif and ends with the letter alif. For them this represents the perfection of light and life, a perfection stemming from God’s creation.
Since letters are sacred, the ink with which they are written is also sacred. Only priests make ink, and only they are permitted to write religious texts with it. They call writing “Dayotha.” Each priest has his own way of producing that ink, as Rashid Khayoun described in Religions and Sects in Iraq. The sacred ink is prepared by mixing glue with river water, letting it dissolve, then boiling just below the point of evaporation for six days. What remains is collected and ground on the seventh day, then mixed with charcoal powder, at a ratio of one mithqal (about 3.5 grams) of charcoal to twenty-five mithqals (about 87.5 grams) of glue. This stage lasts four to five days. The product then is mixed with water until it turns into a paste, then boiled until it turns into crystals that are again mixed with river water. Then the Asotha Malka, the prayer of submission, is recited over it. After that, it is used to write Mandaic.
Dialect
In the Iraqi dialect, when someone says, “I went home”, tabeet al-bayt, or “I entered the house,” dasheet al-bayt, half of what they are saying is in the Mandaean language. When a folk poet recites a poem about his mother’s sheela, it is taken from sheyala, which is the head covering of a Mandaean woman. The same applies to a singer who begins with “Woe, Woe”. The same applies to the singer, who begins his sad song or his Mawwal with the words “wayla wayla” which is wail and in Mandaean means hell or torment. From there it was transferred to Arabic.
Sheikh Abdul Salam Jabbar, the Kanzbara, a high religious ranking and deputy head of the Mandaean religious community in Iraq, sees what others do not see. He believes that the Mandaean religious language is a living language, but the “dialect” is spoken by a small number of people in the world. He believes that there is no one in Iraq who is fluent in “dialect”, except for the Mandaeans in Ahwaz.
Kanzbara Jabbar added that religious Mandaean went through a renaissance in the 1980s, when educational courses and special schools were opened to teach the language, with self-support from the followers of the religion. He believes in Iraq 50 percent of Mandaeans currently speak classical Mandaean.
“A first-grade student comes with his mother and father – no problem – he comes to learn. A student could be a 40-year-old or a five-year-old in the same class to learn,” said Kanzbara Jabbar about the study atmosphere.
There is no accurate official data on the number of Mandaeans in Iraq. According to Sheikh Sattar Jabbar Al-Helou, the leader of the Mandaean Sabean sect in Iraq and globally, their number before 2003 was about 75 thousand. This number has since decreased to 15-20 thousand due to displacement.
There are simplified books for teaching the language, which is the Mandaic basic curriculum, similar to the Khaldunian curriculum for the first grade of primary school. Kanzbara Jabbar indicated that they do not receive any government support for teaching their ancient language, and that the level of interest in this field is low. “While Syriac and Hebrew are taught in Iraqi colleges, Mandaic does not have a specialised department, though you can find it among postgraduate students with that minor.”
Before COVID, Rafid Zori started study circles with a friend to teach Mandaic to children, “They were nice sessions, but didn’t continue because of COVID. We would sit every Sunday for an hour and a half or two and start with the letters.”
The book Al-Anfous is the easiest Mandaic book for those who want to learn the language, according to Zuri. It is also popular among the clergy, who use it for education and worship.
Exclusion
According to Father Martin Hormuz, the official spokesman for the Christian, Mandaean and Yazidi Endowments Office in Iraq, there is a government move to revive the Mandiac and to integrate it into special curricula in college language departments. These efforts are encouraging educated members of the community to teach the language and preserve it; “because it is a very old language and is considered one of the original languages in the region.” But for the everyday Mandaean individual, they must use Arabic because it is the language of broader society, employment and work.
Article 2 of the Iraqi constitution stipulates that “the Islamic identity of the majority of the Iraqi people is to be preserved, and also guarantees the full religious rights of all individuals to freedom of belief and religious practice, such as Christians, Yazidis and Mandaean Sabeans.”
Despite the constitution’s guarantee of their rights, which include language rights, a sense of marginalisation and exclusion prevails among the followers of this religion. According to Sheikh Sattar Jabbar Al-Helou, leader of the Mandaean Sabean sect, Mandaeans “have faced discriminatory practices based on sect and ethnicity in all Iraqi government institutions.”
There, where the first beginnings began, and close to the Furat Ziwa or Euphrates River, in the city of Nasiriyah, there is a Mandaean cemetery. To this day, the tombstones are engraved in Mandaic, the language they believe Adam first spoke.
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The best hope is to learn the word of God and teach it.
–The Ginza Rabba
At fourteen, Rafid Zori, 40 years old, started learning Mindayutha, or classical Mandaic. His learning journey continued until his late thirties. Despite his effort and the help of his family in mastering the classical register, he was unable to learn Mandaic slang, which is the colloquial dialect, or the vernacular of Mandaic.
Zori has passed on his knowledge of the religious Mandaic register to his five children but spoke of its difficulty and the small number of people who speak colloquial Mandaic. “There are maybe 10 people who speak the colloquial Mandaic in Iraq. Even the clerics just read it, not speak it,” he told Jummar.
Religious Mandaic is the language of the holy book The Ginza Rabba and other Mandaean religious texts. When Zori was sat in his shop selling gold jewellery, which is the craft for which the people of this religion are known, he suggested that speaking on the language daily would help the possibility of learning the language. However, for him, its meanings and implications are only understood by scholars of the Mandaean religion, and it is like the languages in which the “heavenly books” were written: the Qur’an, the Bible, and the Torah.
Roots
In their study, “The Historical Roots of Mandaeans”, Ali Hadi Al-Mahdawi and Akram Abbas Imran, professors of language at the University of Babylon, note that the words Mandaean or Mandaean language appeared in Sumerian from the root ma-da which means “dwelling or land of worship.” The place of worship in the Mandaean religion is called Mandī from which the name of the people developed. It emerged in Akkadian in the form Mandū and which means “people of strong faith.”
The holy book for Mandaeans is The Ginza Rabba, meaning Great Treasure. Mandeans believe this text was revealed by Hib Ziwa, their word for the angel Gabriel, to Adam, Seth, Idris and Noah, and even John the Baptist. It is said in the Qur’an about John the Baptist, “O John, take firm hold of the Book, and We granted him sound judgement, when he is still a child.”
The Mandaeans also have a sacred emblem, called Darfash or Darbasha which means flag or banner, and is also called “banner of light” or “shining flag.” This emblem represents their prophet, John the Baptist, and is a cross of two pieces of wood crowned with myrtle branches covered with a white silk robe. It symbolises light illuminating the earth in its four directions. Mandaeans hold this cross when reciting prayers, positioning it towards running water.
Linguists classify Mandaic as one of the eastern dialects of Aramaic. It emerged alongside the Arameans three thousand years ago. The Mandaean dialect’s development was linked to the rise of the Aramaic civilization and its expansion towards the Elamites in the east, and the Ptolemies and Seleucids in the west, known as Syria and Palestine today.
In his research on Mandaic origins and influence, Dr. Sabah Malallah, a specialist in Mandaic and Gnostic studies at the University of London, described the alphabetical characteristics and standards followed in writing and speaking. He explained how Mandaic is distinguished by its alphabet – called A-Ba-Ga-Da – and is subject to the same standards of Aramaic in that it also relies more on consonants than vowels in writing. Most of its words are derived from a three-letter root origin. Like all Semitic languages, it is written from right to left.
The sanctity of the Mandaic letter, according to Malallah, lies in the way it is drawn, and the symbolism in the shape of the letter of light and darkness and the struggle between good and evil. These letters also have numerical values. The letter Alif has a value of one, the letter Ba has two, the letter Dal has four, and so on.
In an interview with Jummar, Dr. Saeed Al-Jaafar, a professor of linguistics at Dhi Qar University, shared that spoken Mandaic died and became a purely religious language, mastered only by clerics. After the spread of Islam into various countries, including Iraq, Arabic became dominant. The Mandaeans were forced to adapt the language they spoke.
However, historical sources documented that the first translation of The Ginza Rabba was by Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Salam, a client of Harun Al-Rashid, the fifth Abbasid caliph who died in 809 AD. Those same sources stated that that version was lost, and the book was not translated again until 1997, this time by the poet Abdul Razzaq Abdul Wahid. According to Rashid Khayoun’s book Religions and Sects in Iraq about Al-Rish Umma Sheikh Abdullah Najm, “It was blasphemy, and it is a crime against our religion, our book, and our sanctities.”
Learning Mandiac letters first makes learning the language easier, said Rafid Zori. He also stressed that starting from a young age is essential to learning quickly. More generally, Zori shared the secret to mastering Mandaic according to his experience with it, “If you learn but then drop it, you’ll lose it. But if you keep practising writing and keep it up for a year, it becomes natural, and you will not forget it. If you drop it, you’ll forget it.”
YouTube has proved an important resource for Mandaic. At the very least, it is used to prevent basic linguistic rules from being forgotten. There are YouTube channels and YouTubers who give lessons online and anyone who is curious about this sacred language can learn its secrets.
Ink
Mandaeans have documented their legacy in their own language, in which they collected their religious heritage through several books. These include The Ginza Rabba , the great treasure, Sidra Ad Nashmatha, the book of souls, Al-Niani, hymns and songs, Al-Qalista, the principles of marriage, Tarso Alf Shiala, twelve thousand questions, Harran Kuytha, the castle of Harran, Al-Ma Rishayeh, the formation of the world, Darash Ad Yahya, the teachings of Yahya, Sharh Baruna, on establishing of divinity for the souls of the dead, among others.
For Mandaeans, language is something sacred. It is never written on animal skins, since they attempt to atone and seek forgiveness after killing animals. Rather, it is written on paper, papyrus, stone, lead, or metals. For this reason, letters are sacred to them as well, as they represent life and light. Mandiac begins with the letter alif and ends with the letter alif. For them this represents the perfection of light and life, a perfection stemming from God’s creation.
Since letters are sacred, the ink with which they are written is also sacred. Only priests make ink, and only they are permitted to write religious texts with it. They call writing “Dayotha.” Each priest has his own way of producing that ink, as Rashid Khayoun described in Religions and Sects in Iraq. The sacred ink is prepared by mixing glue with river water, letting it dissolve, then boiling just below the point of evaporation for six days. What remains is collected and ground on the seventh day, then mixed with charcoal powder, at a ratio of one mithqal (about 3.5 grams) of charcoal to twenty-five mithqals (about 87.5 grams) of glue. This stage lasts four to five days. The product then is mixed with water until it turns into a paste, then boiled until it turns into crystals that are again mixed with river water. Then the Asotha Malka, the prayer of submission, is recited over it. After that, it is used to write Mandaic.
Dialect
In the Iraqi dialect, when someone says, “I went home”, tabeet al-bayt, or “I entered the house,” dasheet al-bayt, half of what they are saying is in the Mandaean language. When a folk poet recites a poem about his mother’s sheela, it is taken from sheyala, which is the head covering of a Mandaean woman. The same applies to a singer who begins with “Woe, Woe”. The same applies to the singer, who begins his sad song or his Mawwal with the words “wayla wayla” which is wail and in Mandaean means hell or torment. From there it was transferred to Arabic.
Sheikh Abdul Salam Jabbar, the Kanzbara, a high religious ranking and deputy head of the Mandaean religious community in Iraq, sees what others do not see. He believes that the Mandaean religious language is a living language, but the “dialect” is spoken by a small number of people in the world. He believes that there is no one in Iraq who is fluent in “dialect”, except for the Mandaeans in Ahwaz.
Kanzbara Jabbar added that religious Mandaean went through a renaissance in the 1980s, when educational courses and special schools were opened to teach the language, with self-support from the followers of the religion. He believes in Iraq 50 percent of Mandaeans currently speak classical Mandaean.
“A first-grade student comes with his mother and father – no problem – he comes to learn. A student could be a 40-year-old or a five-year-old in the same class to learn,” said Kanzbara Jabbar about the study atmosphere.
There is no accurate official data on the number of Mandaeans in Iraq. According to Sheikh Sattar Jabbar Al-Helou, the leader of the Mandaean Sabean sect in Iraq and globally, their number before 2003 was about 75 thousand. This number has since decreased to 15-20 thousand due to displacement.
There are simplified books for teaching the language, which is the Mandaic basic curriculum, similar to the Khaldunian curriculum for the first grade of primary school. Kanzbara Jabbar indicated that they do not receive any government support for teaching their ancient language, and that the level of interest in this field is low. “While Syriac and Hebrew are taught in Iraqi colleges, Mandaic does not have a specialised department, though you can find it among postgraduate students with that minor.”
Before COVID, Rafid Zori started study circles with a friend to teach Mandaic to children, “They were nice sessions, but didn’t continue because of COVID. We would sit every Sunday for an hour and a half or two and start with the letters.”
The book Al-Anfous is the easiest Mandaic book for those who want to learn the language, according to Zuri. It is also popular among the clergy, who use it for education and worship.
Exclusion
According to Father Martin Hormuz, the official spokesman for the Christian, Mandaean and Yazidi Endowments Office in Iraq, there is a government move to revive the Mandiac and to integrate it into special curricula in college language departments. These efforts are encouraging educated members of the community to teach the language and preserve it; “because it is a very old language and is considered one of the original languages in the region.” But for the everyday Mandaean individual, they must use Arabic because it is the language of broader society, employment and work.
Article 2 of the Iraqi constitution stipulates that “the Islamic identity of the majority of the Iraqi people is to be preserved, and also guarantees the full religious rights of all individuals to freedom of belief and religious practice, such as Christians, Yazidis and Mandaean Sabeans.”
Despite the constitution’s guarantee of their rights, which include language rights, a sense of marginalisation and exclusion prevails among the followers of this religion. According to Sheikh Sattar Jabbar Al-Helou, leader of the Mandaean Sabean sect, Mandaeans “have faced discriminatory practices based on sect and ethnicity in all Iraqi government institutions.”
There, where the first beginnings began, and close to the Furat Ziwa or Euphrates River, in the city of Nasiriyah, there is a Mandaean cemetery. To this day, the tombstones are engraved in Mandaic, the language they believe Adam first spoke.
