Sidra d-Nishmata

*Sidra ḏ-Nišmata*
Sidra ḏ-Nišmata
Information
Religion	Mandaeism
Language	Mandaic language
Period	3rd century AD or earlier

The Sidra ḏ-Nišmata (Classical Mandaic: ࡎࡉࡃࡓࡀ ࡖࡍࡉࡔࡌࡀࡕࡀ, lit. 'Book of Souls'; Modern Mandaic: Sedrā d-Nešmāthā^[1]), also known as the Book of Souls or Book of Gadana, is a collection of Mandaean litugical prayers that constitutes the first part of the Qulasta. It is typically considered to consist of 103 prayers. The 'Sidra ḏ-Nišmata most likely constitutes the oldest stratum of Mandaean literature and dates to at least the 3rd century CE or earlier.^[2]

The Sidra ḏ-Nišmata contains the most important prayers used in core Mandaean rituals, namely the masbuta and masiqta.^[3]

Structure

Matthew Morgenstern (in the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon)^[4] and Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki (2010) considers the Sidra ḏ-Nišmata to contain 103 prayers,^[5] which correspond to the first 103 prayers in both Mark Lidzbarski's Mandäische Liturgien (1920)^[6] and E. S. Drower's Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans (1959).^[7]

The Sidra ḏ-Nišmata consists of the following sections:^[2]

Part 1: Prayers 1–74
- Prayers 1–31: masbuta liturgy
- Prayers 32–72: masiqta liturgy
- CP 73–74: the 2 "Letter" (engirta) prayers
Part 2: Prayers 75–77: 3 long prayers of praise
Part 3: Prayers 78–103: the "responses" (eniania)

Types of prayers

Eric Segelberg (1958) lists the following types of prayers in the Sidra ḏ-Nišmata.^[8]

buta (plural form: bauata; generic Mandaic term for prayers)
- Prayers 1, 3, 5: prayers for the crown
- Prayer 7: prayer for the pandama
- Prayers 9–11: prayers at the river bank
- Prayers 22–24: prayers over the oil
- Prayers 25–28: buta hatamta or "sealing prayer"
- Prayer 32: opening masiqta prayer
- Prayers 75–77: long baptismal prayers
qaiamta: Prayers 56–65
pugdama (lit. 'commandment, declaration'): Prayers 8, 14, 19, 34; also applies to Prayers 5, 47, 48
šrita (plural form: širiata) (loosening or deconsecrating prayers): Prayers 2, 4, 6, 31, 55
draša
- Prayers 21, 30, 88–90
eniana
- Prayers 79–81: three hymns in the beginning of the baptismal rite
- Prayer 82: hymn after the acts in the water
- Prayer 83–87: hymns said after the sealing prayers

List of prayers

Below is a list of individual prayers of the Sidra ḏ-Nišmata based on the text of Drower (1959),^[7] with additional notes from Segelberg (1958)^[8] and Buckley (2002).^[3]

Maṣbuta liturgy

3 sets of paired prayers for the burzinqa
- Prayer 1: prayer containing a creation narrative
- Prayer 2: šrita (loosening prayer) dedicated to Zihrun
- Prayer 3: prayer to Yawar Ziwa bar Nhur Hiia, Hamgai Ziwa bar Hamgagai Ziwa, Zihrun
- Prayer 4: šrita (loosening prayer)
- Prayer 5: prayer to Yufin-Yufafin, Eit Enṣibat Eutria, Eit Yawar bar Enṣibat Eutria
- Prayer 6: šrita (loosening prayer)

Prayer 7: pandama prayer
Prayer 8: longer incense (riha) prayer containing a litany

"Adjutores baptismi" (adiauria ḏ-maṣbuta) prayers
- Prayer 9: litany
- Prayer 10: short prayer about the yardna
- Prayer 11: short prayer to Yawar Ziwa and seven manas

Prayer 12: prayer of Yur bar Barit opening up the yardna
Prayer 13: descent to the yardna, attended by ʿuthria
Prayer 14: margna prayer (pugdama or declaration of the margna)

Exorcism prayers
- Prayer 15: prayer for binding demons
- Prayer 16: "perfected gem" prayer
- Prayer 17: invocation of ʿuthria so that evil spirits would flee

Prayer 18: long prayer blessing the yardna which begins with the invocation of Piriawis (main prayer said during the maṣbuta immersion)
Prayer 19: short prayer for crowning with the klila, and pronouncing ʿuthria names over the baptized person ("Manda created/called me")
Prayer 20: yardna prayer beginning with a blessing of the outer door (tira baraia), for deconsecrating the yardna
Prayer 21: ascent from the yardna; the prayer rejects the sun, moon, and fire as witnesses

Oil (miša) prayers
- Prayer 22: invocation of ʿuthria before anointing with oil
- Prayer 23: praising the oil
- Prayer 24: oil driving off evil spirits and healing illnesses

Sealing (haṭamta) prayers
- Prayer 25: long litany
- Prayer 26: short prayer sealing the baptized souls
- Prayer 27: prayer invoking ʿUṣar-Hai and Pta-Hai, Manda ḏ-Hiia, and Hayyi
- Prayer 28: prayer of healing and driving off illnesses

Prayer 29: short prayer of rising up
Prayer 30: prayer about conquering the mountain, fire, and sea (draša of the maṣbuta)
Prayer 31: final šrita (loosening prayer)

Masiqta liturgy

Prayer 32: short opening prayer
Prayer 33: mambuha prayer dedicated to the Water of Life
Prayer 34: shorter incense prayer
Prayer 35: long prayer ("I sought to lift my eyes"), used for versatile ritual applications

Pihta prayers
- Prayer 36: prayer to the Mana, Drop (Niṭufta), Šar, Pirun
- Prayer 37: prayer to the Cloud (Anana)
- Prayer 38: prayer to Yawar Ziwa
- Prayer 39: prayer to the šuta (declaration) of Yawar
- Prayer 40: prayer to ʿUṣar
- Prayer 41: prayer to ʿUṣar Nhur
- Prayer 42: prayer to the šuta (declaration) of Yawar
- Prayer 43: prayer to Manda ḏ-Hiia

Mambuha prayers
- Prayer 44: short prayer to Biriawiš
- Prayer 45: longer prayer

Masiqta prayers
- Klila prayers
  - Prayer 46: klila prayer (nhur nhura). Almost identical to Prayer 5, except that the first two words of Prayer 46 are nhar nhura instead of nhur nhura in Prayer 5. As a result, Lidzbarski (1920) omits Prayer 46 as a duplicate of Prayer 5, although Drower (1959) and Gelbert & Lofts (2025) keep the prayer.
  - Prayer 47: klila prayer (zhira u-mzahra)
- Prayer 48: oil prayer
- Prayer 49: prayer for the spirit and soul; Ṣauriel is invoked
- Prayer 50: prayer mentioning "Hamamulai"
- Prayer 51: investiture prayer
- Prayer 52: prayer invoking Yusmir
- Prayer 53: masiqta sealing prayer (obtaining a letter from Abatur)
- Prayer 54: prayer invoking Yukašar (entering the scales of Abatur)
- Prayer 55: short pandama loosening prayer
- Prayer 56: short living water prayer
- Prayer 57: short incense prayer
- Prayer 58: litany
- Prayer 59: short pihta prayer
- Prayer 60: short mambuha prayer
- Prayer 61: klila prayer
- Prayer 62: short prayer praising the Naṣoraeans
- Prayer 63: oil prayer
- Prayer 64: short prayer ("The Life dwells in its own radiance and light.")
- Prayer 65: raising up of souls
- Prayer 66: Left Ginza 3.43
- Prayer 67: prayer of ascension
- Prayer 68: Left Ginza 3.20
- Prayer 69: "go in peace"
- Prayer 70: litany
- Prayer 71: prayer of Shum (Shem), son of Noah, which contains a litany
- Prayer 72: prayer asking Manda ḏ-Hiia for the forgiveness of sins

Engirta prayers

Prayer 73: long prayer about a sealed letter
Prayer 74: short prayer about the seal and word of Kušṭa

Three long prayers

Prayer 75: "Mandaic targum" bearing many similarities to Psalm 114
Prayer 76: prayer of perfecting the souls
Prayer 77: litany

Eniania

Prayer 78: short prelude prayer
Prayer 79: short myrtle prayer (placing the klila on the margna)

"Hear me" (ʿunan ab ʿunian) litanies
- Prayer 80: longer "hear me" litany
- Prayer 81: shorter "hear me" litany
Prayer 82: short mambuha prayer

Maṣbuta prayers
- Prayer 83: short prayer about plants planted and raised by the yardna
- Prayer 84: short maṣbuta prayer about the baptizer
- Prayer 85: short maṣbuta prayer about Shilmai, Nidbai, and Anush Uthra
- Prayer 86: short maṣbuta prayer about the yardna
- Prayer 87: short maṣbuta prayer about priests
- Prayer 88: long prayer
- Prayer 89: long prayer
- Prayer 90: long prayer

Masiqta prayers
- Prayer 91: short prayer about crossing the waters of death
- Prayer 92: Left Ginza 3.4
- Prayer 93: short prayer about the Mana
- Prayer 94: Left Ginza 3.3
- Prayer 95: short prayer about Sunday, Kushta, and Zidqa (alms)
- Prayer 96: Left Ginza 3.2
- Prayer 97: short prayer about being taken to the World of Light
- Prayer 98: Left Ginza 3.7
- Prayer 99: prayer about the chosen ones
- Prayer 100: short prayer about fragrant trees
- Prayer 101: short prayer
- Prayer 102: short prayer about the building of Life
- Prayer 103: final masiqta prayer

References

^ Häberl, Charles (2022). The Book of Kings and the Explanations of This World: A Universal History from the Late Sasanian Empire. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1-80085-627-1.
^ ^a ^b Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2010). The great stem of souls: reconstructing Mandaean history. Piscataway, N.J: Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-59333-621-9.
^ ^a ^b Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2002). The Mandaeans: ancient texts and modern people. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515385-5. OCLC 65198443.
^ "Sidra d-Nishmata". The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon (in myz). Retrieved 2025-05-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
^ Al-Mubaraki, Majid Fandi; Mubaraki, Brian (2010). Qulasta - Sidra d Nishmata / Mandaean Liturgical Prayer Book (Book of Souls) (volume 1). Luddenham, New South Wales. ISBN 9781876888145.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) (1998 edition: ISBN 0-9585705-1-5)
^ Lidzbarski, Mark. 1920. Mandäische Liturgien. Abhandlungen der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, phil.-hist. Klasse, NF 17.1. Berlin.
^ ^a ^b Drower, E. S. (1959). The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
^ ^a ^b Segelberg, Eric (1958). Maṣbūtā: Studies in the Ritual of Mandaean Baptism. Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksell.

External links

Sidra d-Nishmata (primarily based on Code Sabéen 12; CP 5–10 are from Code Sabéen 15) in transliterated format at the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon

Audio recordings of prayers

Prayers recited by Rbai Rafid al-Sabti in the Netherlands
- Mn iardna silqit – "I rose up from the river" (Prayer 21) (RRC: AUDIO-A12)
- Nukraiia (Prayer 49) (RRC: AUDIO-A9)
- Zidana u-mzaudana (Prayer 96) (RRC: AUDIO-A22)
Prayers recited by Tarmida Yuhana Nashmi in Sydney, Australia
- Qadmaiia nukraiia (Prelude)
- Zhir u-mzahar Zihrun (Prayer 2)
- Riha ḏ-basim (Prayer 8)
- ʿsir iama (Prayer 15)
- Manda Qran (Prayer 19)
- Hal hiia qadmaiia (Prayer 34)
- Ṭab ṭaba l-ṭaba (Prayer 72)

[Häberl_2022-1] Häberl, Charles (2022). The Book of Kings and the Explanations of This World: A Universal History from the Late Sasanian Empire. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1-80085-627-1.

[Buckley2010-2] Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2010). The great stem of souls: reconstructing Mandaean history. Piscataway, N.J: Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-59333-621-9.

[Buckley_2002-3] Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2002). The Mandaeans: ancient texts and modern people. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515385-5. OCLC 65198443.

[4] "Sidra d-Nishmata". The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon (in myz). Retrieved 2025-05-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)

[Mubaraki_1-5] Al-Mubaraki, Majid Fandi; Mubaraki, Brian (2010). Qulasta - Sidra d Nishmata / Mandaean Liturgical Prayer Book (Book of Souls) (volume 1). Luddenham, New South Wales. ISBN 9781876888145.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) (1998 edition: ISBN 0-9585705-1-5)

[Liturgien-6] Lidzbarski, Mark. 1920. Mandäische Liturgien. Abhandlungen der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, phil.-hist. Klasse, NF 17.1. Berlin.

[Drower_1959-7] Drower, E. S. (1959). The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

[Segelberg-8] Segelberg, Eric (1958). Maṣbūtā: Studies in the Ritual of Mandaean Baptism. Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksell.

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