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On Kings and on the Last Days in Seventh Century Iraq: a Mandaean Text and Its Parallels

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On Kings and on the Last Days in Seventh Century Iraq: a Mandaean Text and Its Parallels ARAM, 22 (2010) 133-170. doi: 10.2143/ARAM.22.0.2131035 ON KINGS AND ON THE LAST DAYS IN SEVENTH CENTURY IRAQ: A MANDAEAN TEXT AND ITS PARALLELS Prof. DAN D.Y. SHAPIRA (Bar-Ilan University) MANDAEAN HISTORY AND ESCHATOLOGY We are interested here in striking similarities of parts of the Weltgeschichte (world-history), as found in Book 18 of the Mandaean Ginza Rabba,1 to sev- eral Pahlavi apocalyptic texts and to Christian apocalyptic compositions from the seventh century Iraq (see the APPENDICES). If these similarities can be proven to be a result of the influence of the Pahlavi apocalyptic texts on the Mandaean literature, then one should guess that these Pahlavi texts have enjoyed a broader audience than is generally surmised. In the following we will bring forth contents of Book 18; a shorter parallel to be found at the end of Book 1 of GR. We are fully aware of the preliminary character of this comparison. According to Book 18, the world will exist for 480,000 years in all, begin- ning from the day Adam was created. Then the two other human couples, Ram and Rud and Surbai and Sarhabel, are described; the Flood and Noah’s Ark, following closely the Targumic-Aggadic version, with parallels in the Syriac (of Mesopotamian origin) Book of the Bee by Salomon of BaÒra;2 Sum (Sem) and Nhuraita his wife; it was then that Yorabba, “whom the Jews call Adunai”, his wife Ruha (the Holy Ghost) and the Seven demoniac Planets planned to found a sect, and they built Jerusalem,3 16 miles broad, recalling the enormous 1 The Mandaic source is quoted according to H. Petermann, Thesaurus s. Liber Magnus vulgo “Liber Adami” appellatus opus Mandaeorum summi ponderis, I-II, Leipzig 1868; Ginza Rabba is divided unto Ginza Yamina (“Right”, GR Y or GR I) and Ginza Smala (“Left”, GR S or GR II), published respectively in two parts. Here only Ginza Yamina is referred to, as GR I. The standard translation is German by M. Lidzbarski, Ginza Rabba, Der Schatze oder das grobe Buch der Mandäer, Göttingen 1925 [henceforth: Lidzbarski]. I adopted some readings from the text recently edited by the Australian Mandaean community: Ginza Rba (the Great Treasury), ed. by Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki, Rbai Haithim Mahdi Saaed, Brian Mubaraki, Sydney 1998. 2 The Book of the Bee. The Syriac Text Edited from the Manuscripts in London, Oxford, and Munich with An English Translation by Ernst A. Wallis Budge, M.A., Anecdota Oxoniensia: Semitic series, I: 2, Oxford 1886; reprinted by Gorgias Press 2006. ,”Celestial Race, the Jews :איו מזל לישראל“ ,On Mandaean attitudes to Jews see D. Shapira 3 Kabbala: International Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts 5 (Los Angeles 2000), p. 111-128; idem, “Anus and ¨Uqrâ Revised: Notes on Aramaic-Iranian Linguistic Interaction and Mystical Traditions”, Kabbala: International Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts, Vol. 6 (2001), p. 151-182; idem, “Iazuqaiia, Zoroastrians, Manichaeans, Jews and Other Heretics 993793_Aram_22_07_Shapira.indd3793_Aram_22_07_Shapira.indd 113333 118/10/118/10/11 115:145:14 134 ON KINGS AND ON THE LAST DAYS IN SEVENTH CENTURY IRAQ size given to this city in some Jewish texts of the Second Temple Period.4 It was only then that Abraham, the father of the Jews, was created; the descent of the Jews to Egypt, their sufferings there and their exodus are described, following rather closely the Biblical account, especially in the description of the crossing of the Red Sea; however, no Moses and no Torah are mentioned at all; then, 400 years later, Jesus son of Miriam was born in Jerusalem (and?) Jesus the head of the Christians; he created the Church and chose a commu- nity for himself.5 Similar striking ignorance of the most important details of Jewish history can be seen also in Pahlavi accounts on Jews and Jerusalem (APPENDIX II). Then there follows6 a mechanically inserted fragment of the Persian epic list of the legendary kings of old, together with a subsequent list of historical kings of Iran; both lists are distorted, with relatively correct information provided only about the later Sasanian kings; it seems that the list reflects popular traditions current among the non-Zoroastrian populations of Mesopotamia; certain details cause one to suggest that the source could have been a written one. The kings enumerated are: Arudan Gaimura†, 900 years;7 Zardanaia†a ™ahmura†, 600 years;8 LipriuÌ-ZiÒag / Lpr¨is-Zihnag, 750 years;9 no king for 100 years; Asdahag / Asdag, son of Aspag, called Bahran (*Wahram), 300 years;10 in Mandaean Texts”, Le Muséon 117:3-4 (2004), pp. 243-280. See also G. Mayer, Und das Leben ist siegreich: Ein Kommentar zu den Kapiteln 18-33 des Johannesbuch der Mandäer, Mannheim thesis (1996). 4 Book of Revelation, 3:12 & 21:2; The Dead Sea Scrolls. A New Translation, M. Wise, M.G. Abegg & E. Cook, New York 1996, pp. 180-183. 5 ¨Esu br Mariam la¨taudal b¨uraslam haizak ¨taudal ¨Esu risaihun dkariÒ†iania usauia knista lnapsia ugaba ama lnapsia. 6 Lidzbarski, p. 411, GR 382. 7 There is no doubt that Gaimurat is Gayomard (on whom see Sh. Shaked, “First Man, First King: Notes on Semitic-Iranian Syncretism and Iranian Mythological Transformations”, Gilgul ,Studies in Honor of Zvi Werblovsky, ed. by S. Shaked, D. Shulman and G. Stroumsa .גלגול Leiden 1987, pp. 238-356, and APPENDIX III), but who’s Arudan? Though Faridun appears on the list later, it seems to me not impossible that Arudan is a distorted form of the same, compare a similar distortion in the Syriac Book of the Bee (see note 2 above), Syriac Yon†on / Mani†on < *Fre†on, see G. Widengren, Iranisch-semitische Kulturbegegnung in parthischer Zeit, Arbeits- gemeinschaft für Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Geisteswissenschaften, Heft 70, Westdeutscher Verlag, Köln & Opladen 1960, p. 46 n. 167; Armenian H®uden, cf. note 11 below. Fredon was certainly seen as the first king in local Iranian traditions, and was renowned for his long reign. Cf. note 94 below. 8 Tahmorath, another Iranian first king, whose reign is said to last a millennium (Ibn Qutaiba, Ma¨arif, 652; Tha¨alibi, 10; cf. also Maqdisi III.139-140); cf. note 92 below. Zardanaia†a is unfamiliar, but may contain a garbled reference to Zaratushtra or Zairivaira- / Zarer. 9 Not identifiable, if not a garbled form of [Azi-]Dahaka / Åahhak, on whom see below; the gap in royalty after his reign possibly hints in this direction. 10 Certainly this is Azi-Dahaka-, Avestan serpentine arch-demon; the name of his mother is given in some Pahlavi texts as *Odag, which is rather similar to Asfag, albeit we should not jump to conclusions (however, the name may contain the Iranian word asp- / asp-: *Bewarasp? *Xrudasp? Cf. Bundahisn 35.7, B.T. Anklesaria, Zand-Akasih, Iranian or Greater Bundahisn. Transliteration and Translation in English, Bombay, 1956, pp. 292-3: Dahag i Xrutasp i Zenigaw… az madaran 993793_Aram_22_07_Shapira.indd3793_Aram_22_07_Shapira.indd 113434 118/10/118/10/11 115:145:14 D.D.Y. SHAPIRA 135 Faridun / Puraidun, son of ™ibian, 450 years;11 Pasm Nariman, who chained Karkum, 500 years;12 Fraarase of ™uran13 / the king of the Persians of Traq / Dahag i Odag, “Dahag son of Xrutasp son of Zenigaw… from his mother’s side: Dahag son of Odag”; Mandaic Ur and Ruha belong to the pattern of Azdahak and his mother Otag, cf. G. Widengren, Iranisch-semitische Kulturbegegnung in parthischer Zeit, Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Geisteswissenschaften, Heft 70, Westdeutscher Verlag, Köln & Opladen 1960, p. 60 n. 216; S. Wikander, Vayu I. Texte und Untersuchungen zur Indo-Iranischen Religionsgeschichte, Lund, 1941, pp. 171-4. ™abari I, 209.7, has Utak. In our Mandaic text here, Azi-Dahaka- is identified here with *Warhran, Verethragna-, a dragon-slayer. This could be a result of mutual attraction of dragons and their slayers in mythological thinking (compare É. Benveniste & L. Renou, V®tra et V®thragna, Paris, 1934, p. 6ff, who analyzed V®tra- / V¢r¢thra- as “resistance”; cf. C. Watkins, How to Kill a Dragon in Avestan: Aspects of Indo- European Poetics, Oxford UP 1995). However, another possibility is that this strange identifica- tion is a result of the impact of Sasanian propaganda directed against the famous usurper Wah- ram Coben, of the late 6th century, pretty close to the times when our text has been edited. This assumption, in its turn, makes it possible to date this particular Mandaean passage. 11 Avestan Thraetaona, connected to Indic Trita; Middle Persian Fredon, Armenian (from Parthian) H®uden, cf. note 94 below. It is important that Fredon appears here with the name of his father (Athwia-, Vedic Aptya-, MPrs Asbian, NP Abtin. Mandaic ™ibian is a slight distor- tion of the latter, which demonstrates for how far we should sometimes take liberty to emend Mandaic spellings. The name “™ibian” will appear later on the list: Abas Yasdis ™ibian, called Ardban. The theme of the battle between Azi Dahag and Fredon is known from many sources, cf., e.g., Bnd 29.9, or the Armenian [Pseudo-]Movses Xorenacˆi (cf. R.W. Thomson, Moses Khorenats’i. History of the Armenians, Cambridge, Mass., 1980, pp. 126-8), who wrote in his “From the Fables of the Persians”: “…Then a certain H®uden bound him (Biurasp) with bronze links (sareokˆ p¥ndeokˆ) and led him to the mountain called Dembavend; and on the journey Hruden fell asleep and Biurasp dragged him to the hill; and Hruden woke up and led him to a cave in the mountain and bound him and placed himself there opposite him as a monument (zinkˆn andri ¢nddem nora hastatel); cowed by him, [Biurasp] remained subject to his chains (s¥tˆayicn; this is an Aramaic loan word, according to H.
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