Yahya Bihram

Yahya Bihram (also spelled Yahia Bihram; myz, ࡉࡀࡄࡉࡀ ࡁࡉࡄࡓࡀࡌ) was a 19th-century Mandaean priest. Although initially a learned layman (''yalufa''), he became known for reviving the Mandaean priesthood after a cholera epidemic had killed all living Mandaean priests in 1831. He is mentioned in the colophons of various Mandaean manuscripts.

Early life

Yahya Bihram was born around 1811 as the son of the Mandaean ''ganzibra'' (high priest) Adam Yuhana ( myz, ࡀࡃࡀࡌ ࡉࡅࡄࡀࡍࡀ), and belonged to the Qindila ("lamp"), Kamisia, and Riš Draz families. His father, Adam Yuhana, had previously served as an informant for the British Vice-Consul John George Taylor in Basra and taught him to read the ''Ginza Rabba''. Adam Yuhana also copied the manuscripts DC 12, 38, 39, 41, and 53, which are now held at the Bodleian Library's Drower Collection.

Yahya Bihram spent his childhood in Basra, in his father's large house next to Taylor's house. Taylor collected various Mandaean texts transcribed by Adam Yuhana, which were later donated to the British Library by Taylor's widow in 1860.

1831 cholera epidemic

From September 1831 A.D. (1247 A.H.) to January 1832, a catastrophic cholera epidemic, which Mandaeans call the ''muṭana'' ( myz, ࡌࡅࡈࡀࡍࡀ), ravaged the lower Euphrates and Tigris regions of what is now Iraq and Iran. In Shushtar, Iran, about half of the city's inhabitants died. The Mandaean community was hit particularly hard, and all of their priests died in the plague, including Yahya Bihram's own father and many of his relatives. Since Mandaean priests spent much more time in the river than laypeople did, they were especially vulnerable to cholera and all succumbed to the plague as a result. Yahya Bihram told Petermann that there were only 1,500 Mandaeans survivors immediately following the plague.

Mandaean priesthood revival

Yahya Bihram, along with his elder cousin and brother-in-law (paternal uncle's son) Ram Zihrun ( myz, ࡓࡀࡌ ࡆࡉࡄࡓࡅࡍ), were two ''šgandas'' (priest assistants) who were both also the surviving sons of deceased priests. Ram Zihrun was the son of Sam Bihram, and belonged to the ‘Aziz and Kupašia families. Together, the two of them went on to revive the Mandaean priesthood by initiating each other as ''tarmida'' (junior priests), and later as ''ganzibra'' (high priests), in Suq eš-Šuyuk, Iraq. As a result, Mandaean manuscripts mention Yahya Bihram as the son of Ram Zihrun, since the priestly initiators of priests and scribes are typically listed as "fathers" in Mandaean spiritual genealogical lineages, rather than their biological fathers. At Suq eš-Šuyuk, they also initiated 13 other ''yalufa'' (learned Mandaeans) as priests.

Immediately after the 1831 cholera epidemic, Yahya Bihram widely traveled in the Mandaean areas of Iraq and Iran as he worked to revive the community, including Muhammerah (Khorramshahr), Shushtar, Basra, and many other towns.

As priest

While Ram Zihrun served as a ''ganzibra'' priest in the towns of Shushtar and Dezful in Khuzestan, Yahya Bihram stayed on to serve as a ''ganzibra'' in the Mandaean quarter of Margab in Suq eš-Šuyuk ( ar, سوق الشيوخ), a village along the lower Euphrates located in what is now Dhi Qar Governorate in southern Iraq. In Suq eš-Šuyuk, Yahya Bihram and the Mandaean community endured persecution under the local tribal chieftain Thamir ibn Ghadban during the reign of Ottoman ruler Abdülmecid I, as they underwent forced circumcisions, robberies, murders, and starvation.

In 1854, the German philologist Julius Heinrich Petermann

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