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Shingilan
An uthra or ʿutra (, Neo-Mandaic ''oṯrɔ'', traditionally transliterated ''eutra''; plural: ʿuthrē, traditionally transliterated ''eutria'') is a "divine messenger of the light" in Mandaeism. Charles G. Häberl and James F. McGrath translate it as "excellency". Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley defines them as "Lightworld beings, called 'utras (sing.: 'utra 'wealth', but meaning 'angel' or 'guardian')." p8 Aldihisi (2008) compares them to the ''yazata'' of Zoroastrianism. According to E. S. Drower, "an 'uthra is an ethereal being, a spirit of light and Life." Uthras are benevolent beings that live in '' škinas'' (, "celestial dwellings") in the World of Light (''alma ḏ-nhūra'') and communicate with each other via telepathy. Uthras are also occasionally mentioned as being in ''anana'' ("cloud"; e.g., in ''Right Ginza'' Book 17, Chapter 1), which can also be interpreted as female consorts. Many uthras also serve as guardians (''naṭra''); for instance, Shilmai and Nidbai are the gu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zihrun Raza Kasia Eutria
Zihrun (; sometimes also spelled Zahrun or Zahroon), is an uthra (angel or guardian) in the World of Light. He is the main subject of the Mandaean scroll ''Zihrun Raza Kasia''. The uthra Zhir (meaning 'secured') is often mentioned as part of a pair with Zihrun. Zihrun is also a Mandaean male given name. Well-known historical Mandaean priests named Zihrun include the 19th-century priest Ram Zihrun. In Mandaean scriptures Zihrun is mentioned in ''Right Ginza'' 4 as Zihrun-Uthra (also called Yusmir-Kana, with ''Kana'' meaning 'source' or 'place') and ''Right Ginza'' 8, and in ''Mandaean Book of John'' 62 as a "morning star." Qulasta prayers 2, 3, 240, and 319 mention him as Zihrun Raza ("Zihrun the Mystery"). He is described as an uthra of radiance, light, and glory in Qulasta prayers 2 and 3, with prayer 2 mentioning Manda d-Hayyi as an emanation of Zihrun. Qulasta prayers 332, 340, 341, and 374 mention him as the name for a drabsha (banner), and prayer 347 mentions him as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yardna
In Mandaeism, a yardna () or yardena ([]; ) is a body of flowing fresh water (or in ; pronounced ''meyya heyyi'') that is suitable for ritual use as baptismal water. The masbuta and other Mandaean rituals such as the tamasha (ablution), tamasha can only be performed in a yardna. Water stagnation, Stagnant fresh water, brackish water, and seawater are not considered to be yardnas. Examples of yardnas Although etymologically related to the Canaanite languages, Canaanite word ''yarden'' (Hebrew language, Hebrew: ), or the Jordan River, a yardna in Mandaeism can refer to any flowing river. Traditionally, these were typically the Euphrates (Mandaic: ''Praš''), Tigris (Mandaic: ''Diglat''), and Karun (Mandaic: ''ʿUlat'') rivers. The Euphrates is called (; pronounced ) in the ''Ginza Rabba''. In Mandaean scriptures, the Euphrates is considered to be the earthly manifestation of the heavenly yardna or flowing river (similar to the Yazidi concept of Lalish being the earthly manifestat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syriac Language
The Syriac language ( ; ), also known natively in its spoken form in early Syriac literature as Edessan (), the Mesopotamian language () and Aramaic (), is an Aramaic#Eastern Middle Aramaic, Eastern Middle Aramaic dialect. Classical Syriac is the academic term used to refer to the dialect's literary usage and standardization, distinguishing it from other Aramaic dialects also known as 'Syriac' or 'Syrian'. In its West-Syriac Rite, West-Syriac tradition, Classical Syriac is often known as () or simply , or , while in its East-Syriac Rite, East-Syriac tradition, it is known as () or (). It emerged during the first century AD from a local Eastern Aramaic languages, Eastern Aramaic dialect that was spoken in the ancient region of Osroene, centered in the city of Edessa. During the Early Christian period, it became the main literary language of various Aramaic-speaking Christian communities in the historical region of Syria (region), Ancient Syria and throughout the Near East. As ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manichaeism
Manichaeism (; in ; ) is an endangered former major world religion currently only practiced in China around Cao'an,R. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''. SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century CE by the Parthian prophet Mani (216–274 CE), in the Sasanian Empire. Manichaeism teaches an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process that takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light, whence it came. Mani's teaching was intended to "combine", succeed, and surpass the teachings of Platonism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Marcionism, Hellenistic and Rabbinic Judaism, Gnostic movements, Ancient Greek religion, Babylonian and other Mesopotamian religions, and mystery cults.Arendzen, John (1 October 1910).Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ziwa (Aramaic)
Ziwa (also transliterated as ''ziua'') is an Aramaic term that is typically translated as 'radiance' or 'splendor.' It is frequently used as an epithet for celestial beings and manifestations of God in Gnosticism, Gnostic religions such as Mandaeism and Manichaeism. The Hebrew cognate is ''Ziv (other), ziv'' (). Scripts ''Ziwa'' written in different scripts: *Hebrew alphabet: *Mandaic alphabet: *Syriac alphabet: *Arabic script: Mandaeism In Mandaeism, uthras (celestial beings) often have the Mandaic language, Mandaic term ''Ziwa'' / ''Ziua'' (, meaning 'Radiance'; Neo-Mandaic language, Neo-Mandaic pronunciation ) attached after their names, due to their origins from the World of Light. Pairs of uthras also typically have rhyming names (e.g., Adathan and Yadathan). Sometimes, one of the names within a pair may have an infixed consonant or syllable (e.g., Kapan and Kanpan). Uthras commonly referred to as "Ziwa" include: *Hibil Ziwa *Sam Ziwa (or Sam Smira Ziwa) *Ya ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classical Mandaic Language
Mandaic, or more specifically Classical Mandaic, is the liturgical language of Mandaeism and a South Eastern Aramaic variety in use by the Mandaean community, traditionally based in southern parts of Iraq and southwest Iran, for their religious books. Mandaic, or Classical Mandaic, is still used by Mandaean priests in liturgical rites. The modern descendant of Mandaic or Classical Mandaic, known as Neo-Mandaic or Modern Mandaic, is spoken by a small group of Mandaeans around Ahvaz and Khorramshahr in the southern Iranian Khuzestan province. Liturgical use of Mandaic or Classical Mandaic is found in Iran (particularly the southern portions of the country), in Baghdad, Iraq and in the diaspora (particularly in the United States, Sweden, Australia and Germany). It is an Eastern Aramaic language notable for its abundant use of vowel letters (''mater lectionis'' with ''aleph'', ''he'' only in final position, ''‘ayin'', ''waw'', ''yud'') in writing, so-called ''plene'' spelling (Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayin
''Ayin'' (also ''ayn'' or ''ain''; transliterated ) is the sixteenth letter of the Semitic scripts, including Phoenician ''ʿayin'' 𐤏, Hebrew ''ʿayin'' , Aramaic ''ʿē'' 𐡏, Syriac ''ʿē'' ܥ, and Arabic ''ʿayn'' (where it is sixteenth in abjadi order only). It is related to the Ancient North Arabian 𐪒, South Arabian , and Ge'ez . The letter represents a voiced pharyngeal fricative () or a similarly articulated consonant. In some Semitic languages and dialects, the phonetic value of the letter has changed, or the phoneme has been lost altogether. In the revived Modern Hebrew it is reduced to a glottal stop or is omitted entirely. The Phoenician letter is the origin of the Greek, Latin and Cyrillic letters O, O and O. It is also the origin of the Armenian letters Ո and Օ. The Arabic character is the origin of the Latin-script letter Ƹ. Origins The letter name is derived from Proto-Semitic "eye", and the Phoenician letter had the shape of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aleph
Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first Letter (alphabet), letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Phoenician ''ʾālep'' 𐤀, Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew ''ʾālef'' , Aramaic alphabet, Aramaic ''ʾālap'' 𐡀, Syriac alphabet, Syriac ''ʾālap̄'' ܐ, Arabic alphabet, Arabic ''ʾalif'' , and Ancient North Arabian, North Arabian 𐪑. It also appears as Ancient South Arabian script, South Arabian 𐩱 and Ge'ez script, Ge'ez ''ʾälef'' አ. These letters are believed to have derived from an Egyptian hieroglyph depicting an ox's head to Acrophony, describe the initial sound of ''*ʾalp'', the West Semitic languages, West Semitic word for ox (compare Biblical Hebrew ''ʾelef'', "ox"). The Phoenician variant gave rise to the Alpha (letter), Greek alpha (), being re-interpreted to express not the glottal consonant but the accompanying vowel, and hence the A, Latin A and A (Cyrillic), Cyrillic А and possibly the Armenian letter Ayb (Armenian le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proto-Semitic Language
Proto-Semitic is the Linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed common ancestor of the Semitic languages. There is no consensus regarding the location of the linguistic homeland for Proto-Semitic: scholars hypothesize that it may have originated in the Levant, the Sahara, the Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, or northern Africa. The Semitic language family is considered part of the broader macro-family of Afroasiatic languages. Dating The earliest attestations of any Semitic language are in Akkadian language, Akkadian, dating to around the 24th to 23rd centuries BC (see Sargon of Akkad) and the Eblaite language, but earlier evidence of Akkadian comes from personal names in Sumerian language, Sumerian texts from the first half of the third millennium BC. One of the earliest known Akkadian inscriptions was found on a bowl at Ur, addressed to the very early pre-Sargonic king Meskiagnunna of Ur (–2450 BC) by his queen Gan-saman, who is thought to have been from Akkad. The earli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Attar (god)
Attar, also known as ittar, is an essential oil derived from botanical or other natural sources. Most commonly these oils are extracted via hydrodistillation or steam distillation. Attar can also be expressed by chemical means but generally natural perfumes which qualify as attars are distilled with water. The oils are generally distilled into a wood base such as sandalwood and then aged. The aging period can last from one to ten years depending on the botanicals used and the results desired. Technically attars are distillates of flowers, herbs, spices and other natural materials such as baked soil over sandalwood oil/liquid paraffins using hydrodistillation technique involving a still () and receiving vessel (). These techniques are still in use at Kannauj in India. History The word 'attar' is believed to have been derived from the Persian word . The Persian physician Ibn Sina was the first to derive the attar of flowers and used distillation to do so. The earliest recorded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Religion In Pre-Islamic Arabia
In pre-Islamic Arabia, the dominant religious practice was that of Arab polytheism, which was based on the veneration of various deities and spirits, such as the god Hubal and the goddesses al-Lāt, al-‘Uzzā, and Manāt. Worship was centred around local shrines and temples, most notably including the Kaaba in Mecca. Deities were venerated and invoked through pilgrimages, divination, and ritual sacrifice, among other traditions. Different theories have been proposed regarding the role of "Allah" (a word in Arabic that is now chiefly associated with God in Islam) in the Meccan religion. Many of the physical descriptions of the pre-Islamic gods and goddesses are traced to idols, especially near the Kaaba, which is said to have contained up to 360 of them. Other religions—namely Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism—were also represented in the region. The influence of the Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Aksum enabled the nurturing of Christianity in pre-Islamic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semitic Root
The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or " radicals" (hence the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowels and non-root consonants (or "transfixes"), which go with a particular morphological category around the root consonants, in an appropriate way, generally following specific patterns. It is a peculiarity of Semitic linguistics that many of these consonantal roots are triliterals, meaning that they consist of three letters (although there are a number of quadriliterals, and in some languages also biliterals). Such roots are also common in other Afroasiatic languages. While Berber mostly has triconsonantal roots, Chadic, Omotic, and Cushitic have mostly biconsonantal roots; and Egyptian shows a mix of biconsonantal and triconsonantal roots. Triconsonantal roots A triliteral or triconsonantal root (; , ';, '; , ') is a root containing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
