''The Thousand and Twelve Questions'' ( ; Modern Mandaic: ''Alf Tressar Ešyāli'') is a Mandaean religious text. The ''1012 Questions'' is one of the most detailed texts on Mandaean priestly rituals. It is kept by

Mandaean priest A Mandaean priest or ''Tarmida'' () refers to an ordained religious leader in Mandaeism. Overview All priests must undergo lengthy ordination ceremonies, beginning with tarmida initiation. Mandaean religious leaders and copyists of religious text ...

s in the

shkinta In Mandaeism, a shkinta () or shkina (''škina'') is a celestial dwelling inhabited by uthras in the World of Light that is analogous to the shekhinah in Jewish mysticism. In Tibil (the physical earth), it refers to a reed or mud hut that is u ...

during certain rituals. The text contains detailed commentaries on Mandaean religious rituals, such as death masses (''

masiqta The masiqta () is a mass or ritual practiced in the Mandaean religion in order to help guide the soul ('' nišimta'') towards the World of Light in Mandaean cosmology. They are typically performed as funerary rites for Mandaeans who have just di ...

'') to help guide souls into the

World of Light In Mandaeism, the World of Light or Lightworld () is the primeval, transcendental world from which Tibil and the World of Darkness emerged. Description *The Great Life ('' Hayyi Rabbi'' or Supreme God/ Monad) is the ruler of the World of Ligh ...

, and the Mandaean wedding ceremony. It is written as a scroll. A detailed overview of the contents can be found in Drower (1941).

Manuscripts and translations

An English translation of the text was published by E. S. Drower in 1960, which was based on manuscript 36 of the

Drower Collection This article contains a list of Mandaic manuscripts, which are almost entirely Mandaean religious texts written in Classical Mandaic. Well-known Mandaean texts include the ''Ginza Rabba'' (also known as the ''Sidra Rabbā''), the ''Mandaean B ...

(abbreviated DC 36). DC 6 is an incomplete manuscript of ''The Thousand and Twelve Questions'' in the Drower Collection missing books 1 and 2, but DC 36 is the complete version with all 7 books included. Manuscripts from the

Rbai Rafid Collection This article contains a list of Mandaic manuscripts, which are almost entirely Mandaean religious texts written in Classical Mandaic. Well-known Mandaean texts include the ''Ginza Rabba'' (also known as the ''Sidra Rabbā''), the ''Mandaean B ...

(RRC) that correspond to parts of ''Alf Trisar Šuialia'' (DC 36) are:Morgenstern, Matthew (2013)
New Manuscript Sources for the Study of Mandaic
In: V. Golinets et. al (eds.), ''Neue Beiträge zur Semitistik. Sechstes Treffen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Semitistik in der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft vom 09.–11. Februar 2013 in Heidelberg''. AOAT, Ugarit Verlag. *RRC 2M: ''Diuan Mhita u-Asuta'' ("Blow and Healing"). Copied by Zihrun br Yahia Sam in 1086 A.H. (1675–1676 A.D.). Longest RRC manuscript. Contains

Neo-Mandaic Neo-Mandaic, also known as Modern Mandaic, sometimes called the "''ratna''" ( "jargon"), is the modern reflex of the Mandaic language, the liturgical language of the Mandaean religious community of Iraq and Iran. Although severely endangere ...

features. *RRC 3R: ''Tafsir u-Afrašta Kasita''. Copied in 1173 A.H. (1759–1760 A.D.). Transliterated text published online in the ''

Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon (CAL) is an online database containing a searchable dictionary and text corpora of Aramaic dialects. CAL includes more than 3 million lexically parsed words. The project was started in the 1980s and is currently ...

''. *RRC 6D: ''Sigia ḏ-Dihbaiia''. Copied in Šuštar in 1085 A.H. (1674–1675 A.D.).

Contents of the 7 parts of the ''1012 Questions'': *Book 1 (contains 207 sections) **Part 1: The Questions which

Shishlam In Mandaeism, Shishlam (;) is a figure representing the prototypical Mandaean priest or Mandaean. He is also frequently referred to in Mandaean texts as Šišlam Rabba (. Shishlam is sometimes identified with Adam Kasia, the "Perfect Man". I ...

-Rba and

Hibil In Mandaeism, Hibil () and/or Hibil Ziwa () and sometimes pronounced Hīwel is referred to an uthra ("excellency", an angel or guardian) from the World of Light or the son of Adam (then; only referred as Hibil). Hibil, the man, is considered to b ...

-Ziwa asked of their father

Nbaṭ In Mandaeism, Nbaṭ () is an uthra (angel or guardian) who is described as the "King of Air" or the "first great Radiance." He is also called Nbaṭ Rba ("the Great Nbaṭ" or "Great Sprout") or Nbaṭ Ziwa "the Radiant Nbaṭ", literally "Radia ...

(a ''diwan''; title as mentioned in section 201, p. 158) **Part 2: The explanation of the body (''Tafsir Pagra'') *Book 2 (contains 442 sections) **Part 3.1: Accidental impurity and its cure **Part 3.2: "The Three" **Part 4: The agreed form of the

Shitil In Mandaeism, Shitil () is an uthra (angel or guardian) from the World of Light. Shitil is considered to be the Mandaean equivalent of Seth. Prayers in the Qulasta frequently contain the recurring formula, "In the name of Hibil, Šitil, and An ...

; of the Ṭabahata and of the Dukrania **Part 5.1: Blow and healing (i.e., ritual errors and how to correct them) **Part 5.2: The celebration of the marriage of

-Rba, son of Lihdaia-Rba-Zadiqa **Part 6.1: Burial **Part 6.2: Of postulants and priesthood **Part 7: Concerning the postulant's first baptism – admonitions (similar to lines 970–1042 in the ''

Scroll of Exalted Kingship The ''Scroll of Exalted Kingship'' ( ; Modern Mandaic: ''Diwān Malkuthā Əlaythā'') is a Mandaean religious text. Written as a large illustrated scroll, the text consists of 1363 lines. The scroll is a commentary on the initiation of the tar ...

'')

Parallels in other religions

The ''1012 Questions'' has various similarities to

Jewish mysticism Academic study of Jewish mysticism, especially since Gershom Scholem's ''Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism'' (1941), draws distinctions between different forms of mysticism which were practiced in different eras of Jewish history. Of these, Kabbal ...

and

Kabbalah Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of Mysticism, mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ...

References

External links

Full text
at

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including websites, software applic ...

Photographed scroll (DC 6) from Digital Bodleian
(Mandaic text from the Mandaean Network)

(Mandaic text from the Mandaean Network)
Transliterated text
(''The

'') based on DC 36 {{DEFAULTSORT:Thousand and Twelve Questions Mandaean texts

Manuscripts and translations

Contents

Parallels in other religions

See also

References

External links