The Book of Zodiac

ORIENTAL TRANSLATION FUND VOL. XXXVI THE BOOK OF THE ZODIAC (Sfart Malwaiia) De 31 1 Sfar or Asfar, “ a beck,” “ manuscript,” “writmg ” Translated by E. 8S. DROWER (author of * The Mandsans of Iraq and Iran”, Clarendon Press, Oxford ; ‘ Polk-Tales of Iraq.” Oxford University Press, and of translations from the Mandaic in the Royal Asiatic Society sJournal, in“ Orientalia”, etc.) THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY 56 QUEEN ANNE STREET, LONDON, W. 1 1 Jo4g: 1 NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION AND PRONUNCIATION Tt has been decided, on grounds ‘of expense and convenience, to use the English alphabet for purposes of transliteration from Mandaic characters. It has been usual to employ Hebrew, but there are objec- tions t~ this, not the least being that Mandaic knows only one h, except f a8 possessive suffix. Conventions replace letters for which there is no English equivalent, for instance _“y is transliterated ’ {to differentiate from ¢ ). Purely Mandaic letters or rather words compressed into a sign such as i (pronounced kath to thyme To with English hath) and the particle « , (pronouncedlike a d with a PROFESSOR SIDNEY SMI'TH, glottal stop before it) are rendered kt and g respectively. As for the in grateful acknowledgment of wise and friendly possessive ht it is denoted by a line placed beneath, h, and the counsel over many years 4p like the Arabic .¥ becomes 8. is No indication of pronunciation is given in the case of variable letters suchas _*y b, A t,and Vv p-f. forthe plain reason that lam unable to give the correct pronunciation in every case, nor is it certain in these degenerate times that the Mandesan priests themselves know the original pronunciation. Words in common use such as mashuta. (pronounced maswetta), gabra (gowra), ganzibra (ganzivra or ganzowra), buta (bitha) “nta (ntha), and the sacramental formula Zab taba Kabia (tai tava alta) are traditional. In reading and recitation the Vj k is often pronounced like the Arabic m and __( g like the Arabic é. The heavy letters yo _@_ are pronounced like Arabic vw and +. The _ 4} equals Arabic G and Hebrew p- The feminine plural termination -afa is pronounced dfha, but ata “he came” with a short a, dtha. The termination awe for abstract qualities is pronounced dha. The accent usually falls on the penultimate syllable. The finel a of the plural ending -ja is not pronounced, but rhymes with English he, STEPHEN AUSTIN AND Sone, LTD, ORIENTAL ANP GENFRAJ. PAINTERS, FORE STREET, HERTFORD, ABBREVIATIONS TABLE A. Sh. “ Tarikh Kaldo Athair” Mgr. Addi Scher, Beyrouth, 1913. Arabic Aas. Assyrian. B Astro). Rep « The Reportsof the Magiciansand Astrologers of Niniveh and Babylon,” 2vols. R. Campbell Thompson, K.A. (Luzac and Co, London, 1900). pg. of T. “Itinerary of R. Beryamin of Tudela, 1165-1173,” translated, with notes. into Arabic by Ezra H. Haddad (The Eastern Press. Baghdad. 19451. Cow. “ Aramaic Papyr of the Fifth Century, Bc.” A Cowley, Clarendon Press, 1923. Dal. “ Aramiisch-Neuhebriisches Handworterbuch zu Targum, Talmud und Midrasch.” Dr G H. Dalman, Frankfurt, 1922. rr & oo FA. “Dictionary of the Persian and English Languages.” Maulawi Fazl-i-‘Ali, Bombay. 1885, u, W, ¥ GR. (nr), G-R. (1). The right side and lefi side of the Ginza Rabba. respectively. IB Tbn Battita’s Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354, translated by H AR. Gibb. Routledge, Ltd., London, 1939. LH. “ Kitab Surat-alArd ~ Ibn Haukal, Lugdunt-Batavorum, 1938. L Kh. “ Kotdbnp 1888sdlik wal-Mamalik.” ,Ibn Khord&dhbeh, Lugduni-Bata- J « Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi and the Midrashic Literature * Marcus Jastrow. Verlag Choreb, Berlin. 1926. JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiaric Society Le Str. “The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate.” G Le Strange, Cambridge University Press, 1930. Low “ Araméische Planzennamen.” Immanuel Low, Leipzg, 1881. MMIL “* Mandaeans of ‘Irag and Iran” E. S Drower, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1937. .g calleeis + ym Mac. “Dictionary of the Dialects of Vernacular Synac.” A. J. Maclean, tzphéelbksaebbek Oxtord University Press, 1901. MB. “Ma‘jam alBuldin.” Yagit a)-Hamawi, Cairo, 1906. Mont “Tncantation Texts from Nippur.” J. A. Montgomery, Philadelplua, 1913. N. “* Mand&ische Grammatik.” Theodor Néldeke, Halle, 1895. Persian Ps. Both “ Thesaurus Syriacus”, by R. Payne Smith, and “ A Compendioua Syriac Dictionary”, by J Payne Smith Clarendon Press Oxford PS. Supp. Supplement to the same by J. Margoliouth, Clarendon Press, 1927. St. “ Persian-EnghshDictionary.” F. Steingass, Ph.D., Kegan Paul, London, 1930. Str. “ The Geography of Strabo in eight volumes.” H. L. Jones, Heinemann, London. 1930. Syn, Syriac. T.W. HE. Seyyid Taufiq Wehabi (seep 3. PREFACE Like most of the longer Mandaic manuscripts, the Book ¢ the Zodiac iS a miscellany, a group of manuscripts of varying source and date, the main subjects being astrology sal omens. At every new year Mandsan. priests meet together and peruse its pages carefully in an endeavour to pierce the veils of the near future for themselves and the community. In thus doing they carry on traditions of the country, for in ancient Babylon on the eighth and eleventh days of the New Year Festival, ceremonies to “ fix the fates” of the comi year took place in a part of the Nebo-temple.t In times of personal or national crisis, too, recourse was had to priest-astrologersand omen- readers, and so when during recent years Mandezan priests turned anxiously the pages of the Book of the Zodiac thev were following the example of those who lived on the same soil thousands of years ago and, in days of stress and war, hoped to find in the stars a promise of peace and better times. In form, the Sfar Malwaita is a kurasa, that is, a set of unbound pages kept within a pair of stiffcovers. ‘The last word of a page is repeated at the beginning of the first line of the next. My own manuscript:was completed by the copyist in the year 1247 ax. A copy of earlier date, 1212 AH, in the Bibkiothégue Nationale in Paris (library reference number CS. 26) was microphotographed for me ; and later on, in Baghdad, I was able to make a word-for-word comparison with a third copy dated 1350 a.4., lent me for the purpose by a Mandzan priest. Reference to these three MSS. is made respectively under “DC. 31” (my own), “CS. 26” (the Paris MSS.), and “A” (the ptiest’scopy). Accessto Germanlibrarieswas, unfortunately, impossible. My translation, therefore, is based on three copies. All three have mistakes, miscopyings, and omissions, but they are not of importance and in most cases it is pose to correct by comparison. Trifling differencesare only noted when thev mav affect sense or construction. The nucleus around which the fragments were originally assembled is, most probably, the first segment. It is racy in style and rich in idiom. Re verieieet Noldeke, in his Manddische Grammatik, speaks disparagingly of the Sfar Malwasta -— Hatten wir in diesen Stiicken wirklich einen modernen lebenden Dialekt, 80 waren sie von grosser Wichtigkeit ; aber sie bieten uns nur ein unerquickliches Gemisch von Formen der alten Sprache, welche man noch immer zu schreiben meint, und ganz jungen. Nicht bloss der Wortschatz, sondern auch die Grammatik ist von arabischen und persischen Elementen durchdrungen. - Die * See Myth ard Ritual, Chapter IUI, “Babylonian Myth and Ritual,” by C. J. Gadd, M.A., Oxford University Press, 1933. B Texte sind dazu grade wegen ihren Abweichungen von der alten ersonal freedom and independence and.are certainly persona of Orthographie und Grammatik durchweg sehr schwer verstandlich. Rnaracter. -ip : ae They are superstitious and regard certain people.as unlucky to I venture to think that Noldcke is mistaken, and that the language others from birth. The expression used is gita 1..., that is to sav is not artificially archaic, but represents a transitional period. In the “ dangerous to” others, in much the. same way as the waters of the later fragments, in which Arabic and Persian elements are, as he says, Cataract of the. Nile were,called NWP in;the ,Elephantine Aramaic very evident, we get something very near the spoken Mandzan of papyrit This unluckiness can be mitigated by, precautions taken at today. hence. philologically, it is of importance. On other counts birth, for instance, they are suckled by two or more wpmen, sometimes the book is certainly of valuc and is a rich minc of information by as many as seven, and occasionally specified as “a mother and for the anthropologist and folklorist. daughter” ; or else they,are taken gut at birth to the, country or In considering the fragments as a whole, it should be borne in desert. : aw: ' mind that most of them are probably, and some admittedly, transla- As for religion, they are not Moslems or orthodox Jews as they tions, or, it may be, translations of translations. worship alaha “‘ gods,""_,nor, in there anything to indicate that thgy are Arabic, Greek, Persian, and Pahlevi writers probably drew upon Mandeans. They are “ godfearing” and if the" eye of the gods ” ? older material. In some passages references to the “ King of kings” 1S fixed on an individual, he or she enjoys good fortune. and mention of certain place-names indicate a Sasanian epoch, and In later fragments, VI and VII for instance, the society is evidently much of the folklore and magic is a heritage from Babylon. a Moslem community, and the MSS are probably translations from Noldeke admits that translation is difficult, which makes apology the Arabic. concerning the present attempt superfluous, although since his tume, In the omen fragments the canvas is wide and includes distant recently-discovered MSS have shed a little light on obscurities.

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