From Sasanian Mandaeans to Ṣābians of the Marshes

Early contacts between Arab Muslims and Aramaean Mandaeans and the date of Zazay -- Theodore Bar Konay's account of Mandaean origins (circa 792) -- Three sixth-century references to Mandaeans by name in text : "Syriac references" -- On the Kentaeans and their relationship with the Mandaeans -- The account of al-Hasan ibn Bahlul (Bar Bahlul), second half of tenth century -- Identifying Abu Ali -- The marshes of the Ṣābians -- Other reports on the Mandaeans after Abu Ali -- Back to the question of origins -- Pre-Mandaean Naoraeans -- The religious environment of Sasanian Iraq -- Mandaeism as a changing tradition -- Appendix 1. Bar Konay on the Kentaeans, Dostaeans, and Nerigaeans, in English -- Appendix 2. Ibn Wasiya on Aramaic dialects.

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.