Ginza Rabba

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For other books with similar titles, see Books of Adam.

Ginza Rabba
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Salem Choheili reading the Left Ginza in Ahvaz, Iran
The Ginza Rabba (Mubaraki version) on the pulpit of a mandi

The Ginza Rabba (

Classical Mandaic: ࡎࡉࡃࡓࡀ ࡓࡁࡀ, romanized: Sidrā Rbā, lit. 'Great Book'), and formerly the Codex Nasaraeus,[1] is the longest and the most important holy scripture of Mandaeism
.

The Ginza Raba is composed of two parts: the Right Ginza (GR) and the Left Ginza (GL). The GR is composed of eighteen tractates and covers a variety of themes and topics, whereas the three tractates that make up the GL are unified in their focus on the fate of the soul after death. The GL is also occasionally referred to as the Book of Adam.[1]

Language and authorship

The language used is Classical

Syriac script. The authorship is unknown, and dating is a matter of debate, with estimates ranging from the first to third centuries.[2][3] Determining date and authorship is complicated by the late date of the earliest manuscripts, the potentially lengthy oral transmission of Mandaean religious texts prior to their being written, and that conclusions about the dating of some tractates or one either GR or GL may not carry over for material elsewhere in the Ginza.[4]
: 20 

Dating

The date of Mandaean texts remains hotly contested.[5]: 14  Even within the scope of the Ginza Rabba, the GL and GR are separate compositions with separate dates, making the Ginza Rabba a composite text of diverse origins. Furthermore, the individual tractates within these collections appear to have separate origins by virtue of their distinct genre, grammar, and according to their colophon evidence.[5]: 13  The GL has its own colophon, as do the first thirteen tractates of the GR. Each from the fourteenth through eighteenth subsequent tractates have their own colophons.[5]: 36  The current form and final compilation of the Ginza as a whole must come from Islamic times as it contains numerous references to Muhammad, the Islamic conquests, and related.[6]

Left Ginza

In 1949, Torgny Säve-Söderbergh argued that the third-century Coptic Manichaean Psalms of Thomas depend on the Left Ginza,[7] A recent re-evaluation suggests instead that both sources derived their shared material from a common source, perhaps Elcesaite poetry.[8]: 76–78 

In 1965, Rudolph Macuch argued for a third century date on the basis of a tradition saying Zazai of Gawazta copied important Mandaean texts 368 years prior to the Arab conquest of Iraq c. 640, or 272.[9]: 4 [10]: 89  However, this tradition, extant from one manuscript, only refers to an unspecified year of the hijri calendar and not the point in time before 640. This means that 272 is the earliest possible date if the very first hijri year is being referenced, though later dates are not excluded. The number 368 itself may be invented.[8]: 8–14 

Right Ginza

Book of Kings (GR 18)

GR 18, also known as the Book of Kings, says that "after the Persian kings there will be Arabian kings. They will reign seventy-one years."[7] Starting with Theodor Nöldeke, historians have widely interpreted this as a reference to the Islamic-era Arab rulers, and so have dated GR 18 to the Islamic era.[5]: 24–27  Recently, Häberl has argued from the colophons and external references that GR 18s dates to the rule of Lakhmid Arab kings in the pre-Islamic period. The latter is argued to place GR 18, separately from the rest of the Ginza Rabba, in the hands of a copyist at one point named Ennoš b. Danqā who appears to have worked in the mid-7th century, implying the text is no later than ~650. The Arab kings reigning for 71 years are identified to be the Lakhmid kings starting with Al-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'man, installed into power in 531 by Khosrow I (r. 531–579), to Khosrow II who deposed Al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir in 602. To supplement this observation, Häberl points to the absence of Arabic language on or explicit references to Islam in GR 18 unlike later Mandaean texts. The final Sassanid ruler mentioned by the text is interpreted to be Kavad II, who ruled until 628, roughly giving the date soon after which the text entered its current form. Häberl offers the following chronology for the events mentioned in GR 18, alongside the earlier chronology implied by Nöldeke's work.[5]: 2, 36–60 

Event Internal chronology Noldeke Häberl
Destruction of Jerusalem AP 1 214 BC 321/322 BC
Yazdiger, son of King Bahrān AP 594 ~380 AD 271/272 AD
Arab uprisings AP 792 ~578 AD 469/470 AD
King of the Arabs dies AP 793 ~579 470/471
Arabs become lords AP 795 ~581 472/473
False Messiah triumphs >AP 803 >589 >480/481
Beginning of Arab rule >AP 850 >636 >527/528
End of Arab rule >AP 921 >707 >598/599
End of the world AP 1001 ~786 678/679

Other tractates

An Islamic-era date for several tractates of the Right Ginza is evident from various references to Muhammad or Islam:

  • The first tractate (GR 1) refers to Muhammad by the name of "Ahmad" (a common name for Muhammad in Mandaean literature) as the son of a sorcerer named Bizbat.[6]
  • GR 2 claims that faith will disappear from the world after the coming of the Arab prophet Muhammad.[6]
  • GR 7 uses the name Yahyā for John, which is the form of the name John that appears in the Quran.[8]: 55–56  However, Häberl has argued that the use of this name is known in pre-Islamic Arabic text and so its presence does not conclusively argue for an Islamic-era dating.[5]: 44 
  • GR 9 speaks of how the Arab "Abdallah" (Muhammad) was given by Ruha "the book and discourse" around which he rallies servants and takes over and sacks the world.[6]

The Ginza may have been composed, at least partially, as a response to the Arab conquests, along with other pieces of Mandaean literature such as the Mandaean Book of John, and a study of the colophons of the Ginza date the emergence of the text to the second half of the seventh century.[6][11]

Structure

Further information: Right Ginza and Left Ginza

The Ginza Rabba is divided into two parts – the Right Ginza, containing 18 books, and the Left Ginza, containing 3 books. In Mandaic studies, the Right Ginza is commonly abbreviated as GR, while the Left Ginza is commonly abbreviated as GL.[12] Alternatively, sometimes the Right Ginza is abbreviated as GY after the Mandaic Ginza Yamin, while the Left Ginza is commonly abbreviated as GS after the Mandaic Ginza Smal.[13]

Ginza Rabba codices traditionally contain the Right Ginza on one side, and, when turned upside-down and back to front, contain the Left Ginza (the Left Ginza is also called "The Book of the Dead"). The Right Ginza part of the Ginza Rabba contains sections dealing with theology, creation, ethics, historical, and mythical narratives; its six colophons reveal that it was last redacted in the early Islamic Era. The Left Ginza section of Ginza Rabba deals with man's soul in the afterlife; its colophon reveals that it was redacted for the last time hundreds of years before the Islamic Era.[12][14]

There are various manuscript versions that differ from each other. The versions order chapters differently from each other, and textual content also differs.

Contents

The Ginza Rabba is a compilation of various oral teachings and written texts, most predating their editing into the two volumes. It includes literature on a wide variety of topics, including liturgy and hymns, theological texts, didactic texts, as well as both religious and secular poetry.[12]

For a comprehensive listing of summaries of each chapter in the Ginza Rabba, see the articles Right Ginza and Left Ginza.

Manuscript versions

See also: List of Mandaic manuscripts

Manuscript versions of the Ginza include the following. Two are held in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, three in the British Library in London, four in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, and others are in private ownership.[10] All extant manuscripts of the Ginza appear to derive from a few copies that were produced around 1500.[15]

  • Bodleian Library manuscripts
  • British Library manuscripts catalogued under the same title, Liber Adami Mendaice
    • Add. 23,599 (copied by female priests during the 1700s)
    • Add. 23,600 (copied by Yahya Bihram bar Adam, of the Manduia and ‛Kuma clans, in 1735-6, who also copied Paris Ms. D)
    • Add. 23,601 (copied by Adam Yuhana bar Sam in 1824)
  • Paris manuscripts, Bibliothèque nationale de France (consulted by Lidzbarski for his 1925 German translation)
    • Paris Ms. A (copied by Ram Baktiar in 1560)
    • Paris Ms. B (copied by Baktiar Bulbul in 1632; also called the "Norberg version," since it was used by Norberg during the early 1800s)
    • Paris Ms. C (copied by Yahya Adam in 1680)
    • Paris Ms. D (copied by Yahya Bihram in the early 1700s)

For his 1925 German translation of the Ginza, Lidzbarski also consulted other Ginza manuscripts that were held at Leiden (complete) and Munich (fragmentary).[16]

Abdullah Khaffaji,[16] the grandson of Ram Zihrun.[9]

Printed versions of the Ginza in Mandaic include:

Translations

Notable translations and printed versions of the Ginza Rabba include:

  • Norberg version (Latin, 1816): From 1815 to 1816, Matthias Norberg published a Latin translation of the Ginza Rabba, titled Codex Nasaraeus liber Adami appellatus (3 volumes). The original Mandaic text, based on MS Paris B, was also printed alongside the Latin translation.[1]
  • Lidzbarski version (German, 1925): In 1925, Mark Lidzbarski published the German translation Der Ginza oder das grosse Buch der Mandäer.[32] Lidzbarski translated an edition of the Ginza by Julius Heinrich Petermann from the 1860s, which in turn relied upon four different Ginza manuscripts held at Paris. Lidzbarski was also able to include some material from a fifth Ginza which was held at Leiden.
  • Baghdad version (Arabic, abridged, 2001): An Arabic version of the Ginza Rabba, similar to that of the Al-Saadi (Drabsha) version, was first published in Baghdad in 2001.[33]
  • Al-Saadi (Drabsha) version (English, abridged, 2012): Under the official auspices of the Mandaean spiritual leadership, Drs. Qais Al-Saadi and Hamed Al-Saadi published an English translation of the Ginza Rabba: The Great Treasure in 2012. In 2019, the second edition was published by Drabsha in Germany. The translation, endorsed by the Mandaean rishamas Salah Choheili (Salah Jabbar Tawos) and Sattar Jabbar Hilo, is designed for contemporary use by the Mandaean community and is based on an Arabic translation of the Ginza Rabba that was published in Baghdad.[34][35][36] However, it has been criticized for being overly abridged and paraphrased.[37]
  • Gelbert version (English translation in 2011; Arabic translation in 2021): The first full
    Mhatam Yuhana, the ganzibra or head-priest of the Mandaean Council of Ahvaz in Iran) and also on Mark Lidzbarski's 1925 German translation of the Ginza.[38] Gelbert's 2011 edition is currently the only full-length English translation of the Ginza that contains detailed commentary, with extensive footnotes and many original Mandaic phrases transcribed in the text. An Arabic translation (fourth edition) of the Ginza was also published by Gelbert in 2021, with the book also containing the original Mandaic text transcribed in Arabic script.[29]

Häberl (2022) is a translation of the Book of Kings, the final book of the Right Ginza.[39]

In 2021 (1400 A.H.), Salem Choheili completed a Persian translation of the Ginza Rabba.[40]

See also

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Wikiquote has quotations related to Ginza Rabba.

References

  1. ^ a b c Norberg, Matthias. Codex Nasaraeus Liber Adami appellatus. 3 vols. London, 1815–16.
  2. ^ Drower, Ethel Stefana (1937). The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran. Oxford At The Clarendon Press, pg. 20.
  3. ^ "Sod, The Son of the Man" Page iii, S. F. Dunlap, Williams and Norgate – 1861
  4. ^ Drower, Ethel Stefana (1937). The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran. Oxford At The Clarendon Press.
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-1-80085-627-1
    .
  6. ^ a b c d e Hart, Jennifer (2009). "The Influence of Islam on the Development of Mandaean Literature". In Jacobsen, Anders-Christian (ed.). The Discursive Fight Over Religious Texts in Antiquity. Aarhus University Press. pp. 178–184.
  7. ^
    S2CID 162738440
    .
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-90-04-33943-9
    .
  9. ^
    OCLC 65198443
    .
  10. ^
    ISBN 978-1-59333-621-9
    .
  11. ISBN 978-1-59333-338-6
    .
  12. ^
    doi:10.7282/T3C53J6P
  13. OCLC 1272858968
    .
  14. ^ Aldihisi, Sabah (2008). The story of creation in the Mandaean holy book in the Ginza Rba (PhD). University College London.
  15. ISBN 978-1-59333-338-6
    .
  16. ^
    ISBN 9780958034630
    .
  17. ISSN 1935-441X
    .
  18. ^ Mhatam Yuhana, ed. (2004). Ginza Rba. Ahvaz: Mandaean Council of Ahvaz. (Right Ginza: 497 pp.; Left Ginza: 177 pp.)
  19. ISBN 978-1-61719-398-9
    .
  20. ^ Petermann, Heinrich. 1867. Sidra Rabba: Thesaurus sive Liber Magnus vulgo "Liber Adami" appellatus, opus Mandaeorum summi ponderis. Vols. 1–2. Leipzig: Weigel.
  21. ISBN 978-1-4632-1222-3
    .
  22. ISBN 978-1-59333-526-7
    .
  23. ISBN 978-1-59333-527-4
    .
  24. ISBN 978-1-59333-700-1
    .
  25. ISBN 0-646-35222-9
    .
  26. ISBN 0-9585705-2-3
    .
  27. ISBN 0-9585705-2-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  28. ISBN 1-876888-09-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  29. ^
    ISBN 9780648795407
    .
  30. OCLC 1351435847.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  31. ^ "Holy book publication (RRC 6R); ࡂࡉࡍࡆࡀ ࡖ ࡄࡉࡉࡀ book design". Ardwan. 24 July 2022. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  32. ^ Lidzbarski, Mark (1925). Ginza: Der Schatz oder Das große Buch der Mandäer. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht.
  33. OCLC 122788344
    . (Pages 1–136 (2nd group: al-Yasār) are bound upside down according to Mandaean tradition.)
  34. ^ Al-Saadi, Qais Mughashghash; Al-Saadi, Hamed Mughashghash (2012). Ginza Rabba: The Great Treasure. An equivalent translation of the Mandaean Holy Book. Drabsha.
  35. ^ "Online Resources for the Mandaeans". Hieroi Logoi. 30 May 2013. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  36. ^ Al-Saadi, Qais (27 September 2014). "Ginza Rabba "The Great Treasure" The Holy Book of the Mandaeans in English". Mandaean Associations Union. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  37. OCLC 1000148487
    .
  38. ^ "About the author". Living Water Books. Retrieved 5 September 2021. He has translated Lidzbarski's books from the German to two different languages: English and Arabic.
  39. ISBN 978-1-80085-627-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link
    )
  40. ^ "سالم چحیلی". اطلس اقلیت‌های دینی ایران (in Persian). Retrieved 2 February 2024.

External links

Mandaean Network texts
Petermann Ginza
Paris Ginza manuscripts
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