The Wedding of the Great Shishlam

The Wedding of the Great Šišlam (Classical Mandaic: ࡔࡀࡓࡇ ࡖࡒࡀࡁࡉࡍ ࡖࡔࡉࡔࡋࡀࡌ ࡓࡁࡀ Šarḥ ḏ-qabin ḏ-Šišlam Rba) is a Mandaean religious text. As a liturgical rather than esoteric text, it contains instructions and hymns for the Mandaean marriage ceremony. Traditionally, Mandaean priests recite the entire book at Mandaean 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.[1]

The Wedding of the Great Šišlam
Šarḥ ḏ-qabin ḏ-Šišlam Rabbā
Information
ReligionMandaeism
LanguageMandaic language
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Manuscripts and translations

Copies of the text include Manuscript 38 of the Drower Collection (DC 38), currently held at the Bodleian Library. A full transliteration, English translation, and commentary were published as a book by E. S. Drower in 1953.[2]

Manuscripts held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France include:

  • Code Sabéen 15 (Mark Lidzbarski's F manuscript) (partial copy)
  • Code Sabéen 25 (Mark Lidzbarski's E manuscript) (partial copy)

Contents

The DC 38 manuscript has five parts. However, since Part 5 is a duplicate of Part 1, there are only four unique parts.[2]

  • Part 1 (about 240 lines): instructions on how to perform each step of the Mandaean wedding ceremony, with ritual and Qolasta 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

See also
  • Qabin, the Mandaean wedding ritual
  • Gospel of Philip, which may have been used as a Valentinian wedding ritual text

References
  1. Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2002). The Mandaeans: ancient texts and modern people. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515385-5. OCLC 65198443.
  2. 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)
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