Nasser Sobbi ( fa, ناصر صبي; born March 13, 1924,

Khorramshahr Khorramshahr ( fa, خرمشهر , also romanized as ''Khurramshahr'', ar, المحمرة, romanized as ''Al-Muhammerah'') is a city and capital of Khorramshahr County, Khuzestan Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 170,976, in ...

; died December 22, 2018,

Flushing, Queens Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial and retail area, and the ...

) was an Iranian-American

Mandaean Mandaeans ( ar, المندائيون ), also known as Mandaean Sabians ( ) or simply as Sabians ( ), are an ethnoreligious group who are followers of Mandaeism. They believe that John the Baptist was the final and most important prophet. They ...

scribe, manuscript collector, and goldsmith who was known as one of the last remaining fully fluent native speakers of

Neo-Mandaic Neo-Mandaic, sometimes called the "''ratna''" ( ar, رطنة ''raṭna'' "jargon"), is the modern reflex of the Mandaic language, the liturgical language of the Mandaean religious community of Iraq and Iran. Although severely endangered, it sur ...

. He was a ''yalufa'' (learned Mandaean layman), though not a formally ordained

Mandaean priest A Mandaean priest or ''Rabbi'' refers to an ordained religious leader in Mandaeism. Overview All priests must undergo lengthy ordination ceremonies, beginning with tarmida initiation. Mandaean religious leaders and copyists of religious texts hol ...

Biography

Early life

Nasser Sobbi was born in Muḥammara (now known as

), Iran on March 13, 1924. His

Mandaean baptismal name Mandaean names can include both birth names (i.e., secular names) and baptismal (zodiacal) names (i.e., religious names), called ''malwasha'' () in Mandaic. Birth names Mandaean birth names are secular names that are given at birth and are used b ...

is Adam bar Mahnuš ( myz, ࡀࡃࡀࡌ ࡁࡓ ࡌࡀࡄࡍࡅࡔ, translit=Adam br Mahnuš, lit=Adam, son of Mahnuš). During his childhood and adolescence, he lived in both Khorramshahr and

Abadan Abadan ( fa, آبادان ''Ābādān'', ) is a city and capital of Abadan County, Khuzestan Province, which is located in the southwest of Iran. It lies on Abadan Island ( long, 3–19 km or 2–12 miles wide). The island is bounded ...

. In 1932, he was present at a

wedding ceremony A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding tradition African customs Ethiopia The Wedding procedure starts with the groom's side sending elders (Shimagle) who then request a union between the parties. The ...

in Khorramshahr that was attended by

E. S. Drower Ethel Stefana Drower ( Stevens; full name: Ethel May Stefana Drower; 1 December 1879 – 27 January 1972) was a British cultural anthropologist, orientalist and novelist who studied the Middle East and its cultures.Christa Müller-Kessler, Drowe ...

and Abdullah Khaffagi, and led by Ganzibra Masboob, the last Mandaean priest of Khorramshahr (and also the grandfather of Sheikh Fawzi Masboob of Detroit, United States). Starting from 1938, he was an apprentice at his uncle Abdolkarim Moradi's jewellery shop in Abadan. During World War II, Sobbi went to

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...

and

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

, Iraq to look for work, and returned to Iran in 1945. From 1952 to 1970, Sobbi and his family lived in Kuwait. They immigrated to New York, United States in 1970.

Mandaean manuscripts

On July 16, 1989, Sobbi finished copying a handwritten copy of the

Ginza Rabba The Ginza Rabba ( myz, ࡂࡉࡍࡆࡀ ࡓࡁࡀ, translit=Ginzā Rbā, lit=Great Treasury), Ginza Rba, or Sidra Rabba ( myz, ࡎࡉࡃࡓࡀ ࡓࡁࡀ, translit=Sidrā Rbā, lit=Great Book), and formerly the Codex Nasaraeus, is the longest ...

, the only one of its kind in North America. Sobbi also owned the largest private collection of Mandaean manuscripts in North America, including a handwritten manuscript of the

Mandaean Book of John The Mandaean Book of John (Mandaic language ࡃࡓࡀࡔࡀ ࡖࡉࡀࡄࡉࡀ ') is a Mandaean holy book in Mandaic Aramaic which is believed by Mandeans to have been written by their prophet John the Baptist. The book contains accounts of Jo ...

that was copied by Sheikh Mhatam bar Yahya Bihram on April 9, 1910. Sobbi also owned a copy of the ''

Haran Gawaita The ''Haran Gawaita'' (Mandaic ࡄࡀࡓࡀࡍ ࡂࡀࡅࡀࡉࡕࡀ "Inner Harran" or "Inner Hauran") also known as the ''Scroll of Great Revelation'', is a Mandaean text which recounts the history of the Mandaeans and their arrival in Media as ...

'' from 1930 that was copied by Mulla Sa’ad, the grandfather of

Jabbar Choheili Sheikh (''Rabbi'') Ganzibra Jabbar Choheili ( fa, جبار چحیلی, also known as Sheikh Jabbar Tawūsī Al-Kuhaili, ar, جبار طاووس الكحيلي; born 1923, died December 27, 2014) was the head of the Mandaean Council of Ahvaz, w ...

. Sobbi became acquainted with Norwegian-American scholar

Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley (born Jorunn Jacobsen in 1944 in Norway) is an American religious studies scholar and historian of religion known for her work on Mandaeism and Gnosticism. She was a former Professor of Religion at Bowdoin College. She is kn ...

in 1994. For decades, he assisted Buckley with her research on Mandaean manuscript colophons.

Mandaic language

Sobbi was a fluent native speaker, reader, and writer of Mandaic. He spoke

regularly with his wife Shukrieh, his brother Dakhil A. Shooshtary, and his uncle Abdolkarim Moradi, a resident of

Syosset, New York Syosset (also known as Little East Woods or Locust Grove) is a hamlet and census-designated place in the Town of Oyster Bay, in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 19,259 at the 202 ...

. Throughout the 2000s, Sobbi worked as

Charles G. Häberl Charles G. Häberl (born 1976 in New Jersey, United States) is an American religious studies scholar, linguist, and professor. He is currently Professor of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures ( AMESALL) and Religion ...

's Neo-Mandaic language informant for Häberl's 2006 Harvard doctoral dissertation ''The Neo-Mandaic Dialect of Khorramshahr'', which was later published as a monograph by

Harrassowitz Verlag Harrassowitz Verlag is a German academic publishing house, based in Wiesbaden. It publishes about 250 scholarly books and periodicals per year on Oriental, Slavic, and Book and Library Studies. The publishing house is part of the company Otto Ha ...

in 2009. Sobbi died on December 22, 2018, in Flushing at the age of 94.

Family

Nasser Sobbi was the father of one son, Isa, and four daughters, Freshteh, Juliette, Labiba, and Nabila. Labiba's husband grew up in a Neo-Mandaic-speaking household and could understand the language, but was not a fluent speaker himself. Sobbi married Shukrieh Sobbi in 1950. The couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2000. His brother, Dakhil A. Shooshtary (), was also a fluent speaker of Neo-Mandaic and compiled various Mandaic dictionaries, including an English-Mandaic dictionary, Arabic-Mandaic dictionary, and Farsi-Mandaic dictionary.

References