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Two Unidentified Fragments of Mandaean Ritual Scrolls in the British Museum

Publication |
2020

Abstract

The Middle Eastern religious-ethnic minority group known as the Mandeans uses several ritual texts and commentaries during its religious practice. Only a limited number of copies and versions of Mandaic manuscripts are available for Western researchers.

In the text presented here, the author identifies fragments of two different ritual commentaries that have been neglected for more than one hundred and fifty years. Despite the fact that these are rare variants of important and well-known texts of the Mandaean cult, no one had yet pointed out their existence and their interesting differences.

The author adds his own translations and transliterations, which is provided with commentary and footnotes containing textual variants. He also evaluates the importance of such fragments and their contribution to the reconstruction of Mandaean history.