''The Wedding of the Great

Shishlam In Mandaeism, Shishlam (;) is a figure representing the prototypical Mandaean priest or Mandaean. He is also frequently referred to in Mandaean texts as Šišlam Rabba (. Shishlam is sometimes identified with Adam Kasia, the "Perfect Man". I ...

'' ( ) is a Mandaean text. As a liturgical rather than esoteric text, it contains instructions and hymns for the Mandaean marriage ceremony. Traditionally,

Mandaean priest A Mandaean priest or ''Tarmida'' () 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 text ...

s 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.

Manuscripts and translations

Copies of the text include Manuscript 38 of the

Drower Collection This article contains a list of Mandaic manuscripts, which are almost entirely Mandaean religious texts written in Classical Mandaic. Well-known Mandaean texts include the ''Ginza Rabba'' (also known as the ''Sidra Rabbā''), the ''Mandaean B ...

(DC 38), currently held at the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

. A full transliteration, English translation, and commentary were published as a book by E. S. Drower in 1950.Drower, E. S. 1950.
Šarḥ ḏ qabin ḏ šišlam rba (D. C. 38). Explanatory Commentary on the Marriage Ceremony of the great Šišlam
'. Rome: Ponteficio Istituto Biblico. (text transliterated and translated) Manuscripts held at the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

include: *Code Sabéen 15 (Mark Lidzbarski's F manuscript) (partial copy) *Code Sabéen 25 (Mark Lidzbarski's E manuscript) (partial copy)

The DC 38 manuscript has five parts. However, since Part 5 is a duplicate of Part 1, there are only four unique parts. *Part 1 (about 240 lines): instructions on how to perform each step of the Mandaean wedding ceremony, with ritual and

Qulasta The Qulasta, also spelled Qolastā in older sources (; ), is a compilation of Mandaean prayers. The Mandaic word ''qolastā'' means "collection". The prayerbook is a collection of Mandaic prayers regarding baptisms ('' maṣbuta'') and other sa ...

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).

References

External links

Full text
at

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including websites, software applic ...

Diwan Sharh d-Qabin d-Shishlam Rba
(Mandaic text from the Mandaean Network)

(Mandaic text from the Mandaean Network) {{DEFAULTSORT:Wedding of the Great Shishlam Mandaean texts Works about weddings

Manuscripts and translations

Contents

See also

References

External links