Mandaean literature Oral Traditions and Folklore

#1
..A. CREATION
...B. CREATION AND THE FLOOD
...C. THE CREATION OF MAN
...D. AND E. THE FLOOD
...F. THE MANDAEAN NATION
...G. ANOTHER VERSION OF THE RED SEA STORY

#2--OF ABRAHAM AND YURBA

#3--HOW HIBIL ZIWA FETCHED RUHA FROM THE DARKNESS

#4--THE STORY OF QIQEL AND THE DEATH OF YAHYA

#5-- NEBUCHADNEZZAR`S DAUGHTER

#6--SUN STORIES

#7-- THE BRIDGE AT SHUSTER

#8-- THE FIRE-WORSHIPPER AND ADAM BUL FARAJ

#9-- HOW DANA NUK VISITED THE SEVENTH HEAVEN
#10-- THE MILLENNIUM

#11-- CONCERNING THE MOUNTAIN OF THE MADDAI AND HOW THE TURKS CAME TO TAKE IT

#12-- HOW THE MANDAI AND THEIR GANZIBRA LEFT THE MOUNTAIN FOR A BETTER COUNTRY

#13-- THE CHILD CONCEIVED ON THE 29th NIGHT OF THE MOON

#14-- THE KANSHI UZAHLA

#15-- THE HAUNTINGS

#16-- THE PLAGUE IN SHUSTER

#17-- THE STONE-THROWING

#18-- THE KAFTAR

#19-- BIBI`S SONS AND THEIR STRANGE ADVENTURE

#20-- SHAIKH ZIBID

#21-- OF BEHOLDING EVENTS IN TRANCE

#22-- HOW EVIL SPIRITS ABUSE THE DEAD, ETC.

#23-- MEN WHO HAVE RETURNED FROM DEATH, ETC.
#24-- OF THE POWER T0 SEE SPIRITS

#25-- THE SIMURGH: THE TRUE HISTORY OF RUSTAM AND HIS SON

#26-- HIRMIZ SHAH

#27--THE MAN WHO SOUGHT TO SEE SIN THE MOON

#28-- THE SIMURGH AND HIRMIZ SHAH

Oral Traditions and Folklore

#16---THE PLAGUE IN SHUSTER

I told you of the darwish whose pulse continued to beat although he was a corpse, that darwish whose spirit talked wit 'Aziz 'Azun in raps. Well the ganzowra of Shuster had knowledge- more knowledge than 'Aziz 'Azun although one was more valiant, very valiant.

At the time the plague came to Shuster the ganzowra went to 'Aziza 'Azun and said "I wish to speak to the darwish", for the darwish had continued to communicate through rappings in that house: every night he came at about six of the night. And the ganzowra said to 'Aziz 'Azun "When the spirit comes send for me". At six of the night the darwish begins to rap and 'Aziz 'Azun sent word to the ganzowra who was waiting and slept not.

When the ganzowra arrived the spirit began to knock and said, "Why have you not been speaking with me ganzowra?"

The ganzowra replied, "I could not come to speak with you before I had permission to do so from Sin, who is of the night.' (As you know, Sin is not merely light, but rules the night, he and those with him. But the ganzowra had knowledge enough to talk with Shamish, the sun--see, lady, what power and knowledge they havel Yes, the ganzowra had spoken with Shamish from whom
Sin derives his power, and when a king gives permission, his minister gives permission also!)' Then the ganzowra said to the darwish, "From whence comes this affliction?" for the reason he had sought permission from Shamish. To converse with the spirit was that he was grieved about the coming of the plague to Shuster.

The darwish answered him, "lt is Pthahil's work, through his soldiers, the shiviahi. The shiviahi are sent to work this evil, led by one under the jurisdiction of Pthahil.

Then, as the ganzowra had permission to talk with spirits of the dark worlds, the darwish went from him and returned with the shiviahi leader, set over the rest by Pthahil. That shiviahi, when he heard that a man wished to speak to him, was surprised and exclaimed, "How! A man knows our secrets? What knowledge and understanding he must have!" They both came, and were visible to the eyes of the ganzowra, for there was a certain light about them though their substance was air. The ganzowra talked with the captain of the shiviah and the shiviah saluted him, saying, "Shloma illakh ya rabbey!" Th ganzowra returned the salutation saying, "Shloma illakh wa shlama rabba!" Ka afiakh hena?" asking him what it was that he and his tribe were sent to do in Shuster.

The shiviah replied, "Pthahil sent us hither to strike down the people of Shuster and take their souls."

In truth many were dying: as many as six hundred souls or more. Many houses had nothing but dead in them.

The ganzowra said to him, 'Have pity on the Nasurai and the Mandai: it is a sin to take them thus."

The shiviah replied, "I have no power over such matters: I take my orders from Pthahil, and it is not in my hand. But for your sake and the sake of Shamish, I will spare your people when I know they are yours. But they must remain in their houses and not go out and plunder the dead, or take money from the living." He said this be cause many Subba went into the houses of the dead and took their gold and their property. The shiviah said to the ganzowra further, "There must be this sign, so that my soldiers know which are the Mandai and which are not. Let the Mandai remain in their houses and not go forth; above all, let them not enter the houses of the dead. Then we will not strike them."

The next day the ganzowra bade the Mandai to remain in their houses and not to enter the houses of others, or take the money of others. He said to them, "Show not your faces before the shiviahi."

How wise the ganzowra was! The ganzowra of today have not this knowledge, for the Nasurai buried their books that they might save them. But mere reading is not everything, and there are those amongst us who still have knowledge. My father used to say, "To him who seeks knowledge continually, knowledge and certainty will come gladly, and his thought becomes enlightened."

The Mandai of Shuster obeyed the words of the ganzowra for three weeks, and the plague amongst them was abated. After that time, some of them went out and began to take money from others and rob the corpses of those who had died from the plague. Then all were struck again. When the ganzowra saw that, he took his relatives and there who had obeyed him and went away to a place far from Shuster, where there were gardens, trees, and water. There he and his family and their friends dwelt together and he made a mandi in his garden in which he conversed with spirits. Like a light they appeared before him. He called one to him and said to him, "l wish to speak to such and such a shiviah." The spirit went an brought the captain of the shiviah to whom he had spoke in 'Aziz 'Azun's house, and the ganzowra said to him, "Why were the Mandai struck with plague again?"

The shiviah replied,"I and my people did not strike them, but others came from the Melka ad eHshukha (King of Darkness) and how could they distinguish the Mandai from the rest of the people! Had they remained in their houses, and not gone forth to plunder the dead, they would not have been struck down. All is not in our hands--we take commands from Pthahil and he from Shamish, and Shamish from those above, and those from spirits higher still: each spirit obeys that set in authority over it and may not question the orders given to it."

The ganzowra was troubled and said, "When I am gone, who will be able to talk with the realms of light and guide my people!"

Then he set down an incantation, which he had learnt from the melki. When this incantation is read over salt and the salt is sprinkled about a house, the shiviah, the tantals, and mikrobat will depart from it. But at the time of the sprinkling all the inmates of the house must be clean and purify themselves. The ganzowra gave it to the Mandai so that they might sprinkle their houses with salts and keep evil away

And the meaning of the haunting of the darwish was this: if a soul has not learnt its way to God, it wanders.

The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran By E.S. Drower Clarendon Press, Oxford,1937 (Reprint Leiden:E.J. Brill 1962) pages 341-345
Narrator: Hirmiz bar Anhar