Mandaean text
The Wedding of the Great Shishlam (Classical Mandaic: ࡔࡀࡓࡇ ࡖࡒࡀࡁࡉࡍ ࡖࡔࡉࡔࡋࡀࡌ ࡓࡁࡀ Šarḥ ḏ-qabin ḏ-Šišlam Rba) is a Mandaean text. As a liturgical rather than esoteric text, it contains instructions and hymns for the Mandaean marriage ceremony. Traditionally, Mandaean priests recite the entire book at marriage ceremonies. The hymns in the text often contain the refrain "When the proven, the Pure One Went." Unlike most other Mandaean ritual scrolls, The Wedding of the Great Šišlam is not illustrated.[1]
Manuscripts and translations
Copies of the text include Manuscript 38 of the Drower Collection (DC 38), currently held at the Bodleian Library. A full transliteration, English translation, and commentary were published as a book by E. S. Drower in 1950.[2]
Manuscripts held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France include:
- Code Sabéen 15 (Mark Lidzbarski's F manuscript) (partial copy)
- Code Sabéen 25 (Mark Lidzbarski's E manuscript) (partial copy)
Contents
The DC 38 manuscript has five parts. However, since Part 5 is a duplicate of Part 1, there are only four unique parts.[2]
- Part 1 (about 240 lines): instructions on how to perform each step of the Mandaean wedding ceremony, with ritual and Qolasta prayer sequences
- Part 2 (about 110 lines): hymns
- Part 3 (about 1,320 lines): hymns
- Part 4 (just over 170 lines): titled "The weekly forecast of hourly fortune," an astrological treatise dealing with the planets and times of the day and week
Part 2 has 16 hymns, and Part 3 has 55 hymns. They are not numbered in Drower (1950).
