Mandaean Texts
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Mandaean Texts
This article contains a list of Mandaic manuscripts, which are almost entirely Mandaeism, Mandaean religious texts written in Classical Mandaic language, Mandaic. Well-known Mandaean texts include the ''Ginza Rabba'' (also known as the ''Sidra Rabbā''), the ''Mandaean Book of John'', and the ''Qulasta''. Texts for Mandaean priests include ''The 1012 Questions'', among others. Some, like the ''Ginza Rabba'', are codex, codices (bound books), while others, such as the various diwan (poetry), ''diwan''s, are illustrated scrolls. Background Mandaean copyists or scribes (Mandaic: ''sapra'') may transcribe texts as a meritorious deed for one's own forgiveness of sins, or they may be hired to copy a text for another person. Mandaean sacred scriptures, such as the ''Ginza Rabba'' are traditionally kept in wooden chests wrapped in layers of white cotton and silk cloth. These protected manuscripts are generally not touched by ordinary laypeople, although learned laymen (''yalufa'') who ...
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Unicode
Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Character (computing), characters and 168 script (Unicode), scripts used in various ordinary, literary, academic, and technical contexts. Unicode has largely supplanted the previous environment of a myriad of incompatible character sets used within different locales and on different computer architectures. The entire repertoire of these sets, plus many additional characters, were merged into the single Unicode set. Unicode is used to encode the vast majority of text on the Internet, including most web pages, and relevant Unicode support has become a common consideration in contemporary software development. Unicode is ultimately capable of encoding more than 1.1 million characters. The Unicode character repertoire is synchronized with Univers ...
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Ligature (writing)
In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes or letters are joined to form a single glyph. Examples are the characters and used in English and French, in which the letters and are joined for the first ligature and the letters and are joined for the second ligature. For stylistic and legibility reasons, and are often merged to create (where the tittle on the merges with the hood of the ); the same is true of and to create . The common ampersand, , developed from a ligature in which the handwritten Latin letters and (spelling , Latin for 'and') were combined. History The earliest known script Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieratic both include many cases of character combinations that gradually evolve from ligatures into separately recognizable characters. Other notable ligatures, such as the Brahmic abugidas and the Germanic bind rune, figure prominently throughout ancient manuscripts. These new glyphs emerge alongside the prolife ...
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Mandaic Script
The Mandaic alphabet is a writing system primarily used to write the Mandaic language. It is thought to have evolved between the second and seventh century CE from either a cursive form of Aramaic (as did Syriac) or from Inscriptional Parthian. The exact roots of the script are difficult to determine. It was developed by members of the Mandaean faith of Lower Mesopotamia to write the Mandaic language for liturgical purposes. Classical Mandaic and its descendant Neo-Mandaic are still in limited use. The script has changed very little over centuries of use. The Mandaic name for the script is ''Abagada'' or ''Abaga'', after the first letters of the alphabet. Rather than the traditional Semitic letter names (''aleph'', ''beth'', ''gimel''), they are known as ''a'', ''ba'', ''ga'' and so on. It is written from right to left in horizontal lines. It is a cursive script, but not all letters connect within a word. Spaces separate individual words. During the past few decades, Ma ...
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Typesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text for publication, display, or distribution by means of arranging physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or '' glyphs'' in digital systems representing '' characters'' (letters and other symbols).Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 23 December 2009Dictionary.reference.com/ref> Stored types are retrieved and ordered according to a language's orthography for visual display. Typesetting requires one or more fonts (which are widely but erroneously confused with and substituted for typefaces). One significant effect of typesetting was that authorship of works could be spotted more easily, making it difficult for copiers who have not gained permission. Pre-digital era Manual typesetting During much of the letterpress era, movable type was composed by hand for each page by workers called compositors. A tray with many dividers, called a case, contained cast metal '' sorts'', each with a single letter or symbol, bu ...
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Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki
Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki () is an Iraqi-Australian writer and researcher based in the Sydney metropolitan area. He is known for his publications of Mandaic texts, including the Ginza Rba and Qulasta. Biography Al-Mubaraki is a Mandaean who was born in Iraq. He was trained as an engineer. Al-Mubaraki emigrated to Australia before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he lived in Northbridge, but later moved to Luddenham. The full Ginza Rba in printed Mandaic script, compiled primarily from the Mhatam Zihrun br rbai Adam manuscript from Iraq (copied in 1898 and dated 6 July 1899), was first published by Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki, Brikha Nasoraia (as Rbai Haitham Saeed), and Brian Mubaraki in Sydney in March 1998 during Parwanaya. A Roman transliteration of the entire Ginza Rba was also published in 1998 by Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki and Brian Mubaraki. The '' Concordance of the Mandaean Ginza Rba'' was published by Brian Mubaraki and Majid Fandi Al-Muba ...
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Colophon (publishing)
In publishing, a colophon () is a brief statement containing information about the publication of a book such as an "imprint" (the place of publication, the publisher, and the date of publication). A colophon may include the device (logo) of a printer or publisher. Colophons are traditionally printed at the ends of books (see History below for the origin of the word), but sometimes the same information appears elsewhere (when it may still be referred to as colophon) and many modern (post-1800) books bear this information on the title page or on the verso of the title leaf, which is sometimes called a ''biblio page'' or (when bearing copyright data) the '' copyright page''. History The term ''colophon'' derives from the Late Latin ''colophōn'', from the Greek κολοφών (meaning "summit" or "finishing touch"). The term colophon was used in 1729 as the bibliographic explication at the end of the book by the English printer Samuel Palmer in his ''The General History of Prin ...
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Masbuta
Maṣbuta (; pronounced ''maṣwottā'' in Neo-Mandaic) is the ritual of immersion in water in the Mandaean religion. Overview Mandaeans revere John the Baptist and practice frequent baptism (''masbuta'') as ritual purification, not of initiation. They are possibly one of the earliest peoples to practice ritual baptism. Mandaeans undergo baptism on Sundays (''Habshaba'', ), wearing a white sacral robe ('' rasta''). Baptism for Mandaeans consists of a triple full immersion in water, a triple signing of the forehead with water (in which the priest puts his fingers on the baptized person's forehead and moves it from right to left), and a triple drinking of water. The priest (''rabbi'') then removes a ring made of myrtle (''klila'') worn by the baptized and places it on their forehead. This is then followed by a handclasp ('' kušṭa'', "hand of truth") with the priest, using right hands only. The final blessing involves the priest laying his right hand on the baptized person's he ...
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Masiqta
The masiqta () is a mass or ritual practiced in the Mandaean religion in order to help guide the soul ('' nišimta'') towards the World of Light in Mandaean cosmology. They are typically performed as funerary rites for Mandaeans who have just died. Although usually translated as "death mass", a few types of ''masiqta'' are also performed for living people, such as when priests are ordained. Masiqtas are also used to consecrate houses of worship ('' bit manda''). Purpose The complex ritual involves guiding the soul through the '' maṭarta'', or toll houses located between the Earth ( Tibil) and the World of Light, which are guarded by various uthras and demons. A successful masiqta merges the incarnate soul ( ; roughly equivalent to the '' psyche'' or " ego" in Greek philosophy) and spirit ( ; roughly equivalent to the ''pneuma'' or "breath" in Greek philosophy) from the Earth ( Tibil) into a new merged entity in the World of Light called the ''ʿuṣṭuna''. The ''ʿuṣṭun ...
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