Qulasta: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Collection of Mandaean prayers}}

{{Mandaeism}}

The '''Qulasta''',<ref name="Buckley2010"/> also spelled '''Qolastā''' in older sources<ref name="Liturgien"/> ({{lang-myz|ࡒࡅࡋࡀࡎࡕࡀ|translit=Qulasta}}; {{lang-mid|Qōlutā|script=Latn}}), is a compilation of [[Mandaeism|Mandaean]] prayers. The Mandaic word ''qolastā'' means "collection".<ref name="Drower 1959">{{Cite book|title=The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans|last=Drower|first=E. S.|publisher=E. J. Brill|year=1959|location=Leiden}}</ref>

 

In the first colophon of the Qulasta (directly after prayer 74), Nukraya, son of Šitil, a scribe from the earliest part of the Islamic period, wrote that he copied the text while consulting at laest seven manuscripts (''ṭupsia''). One of them belonged to "a library in a house of 'a [[People of the Book]]' (''anašia ḏ-ktiba''), while another originated from "a town of Byzantines" (i.e., Byzantine Christians), indicating that Mandaean liturgical texts were being kept in non-Mandaean libraries at the start of the Islamic period.<ref name="Buckley2010"/>{{rp|175}}

 

 

However, some scholars such as Kevin van Bladel believe that the material shared with the Psalms of Thomas may only be the use of a common source (perhaps [[Elkesaite]] funerary hymns), and that the text as a whole may date considerably later.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Bladel |first=Kevin Thomas van |title=From Sasanian Mandaeans to Ṣābians of the marshes |date=2017 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-33943-9 |series=Leiden studies in Islam and society |location=Leiden Boston (Mass.) |pages=}}</ref>{{rp|76–78}} The present form of the text must post-date the [[early Muslim conquests]] at minimum, given the references made in the Qulasta to the advancement of the Arab armies.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|8–9}}

[[Carlos Gelbert]] has also translated the 103 prayers from Lidzbarki's ''Mandäische Liturgien'' into Arabic.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gelbert|first1=Carlos|url=https://livingwaterbooks.com.au/product/mandaean-prayers-and-hymns/|title=Mandaean Prayers and Hymns|lang=ar|location=Edensor Park, NSW, Australia|publisher=Living Water Books|year=2002|isbn=0958034605}}</ref> A typesetted Mandaic version has also been published in 1998 by [[Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Al-Mubaraki | first=Majid Fandi | title=Qulasta : The Mandaean Liturgical Prayer Book | publisher=Majid Fandi al-Mubaraki | publication-place=Northbridge, NSW | date=1998 | isbn=0-9585705-0-7}} (set of 2 volumes)</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=Sidra ḏ Nišmata: book of souls (volume 1) | publisher=Al-Mubaraki | publication-place=Northbridge, NSW | date=1998 | isbn=0-9585705-1-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Al-Mubaraki | first=Majid Fandi | title='Niania and Qabin: responses & marriage (volume 2) | publisher=Al-Mubaraki | publication-place=Northbridge, NSW | date=1999 | isbn=0-9585705-4-X}}</ref>

 

==={{anchor|Mandäische Liturgien}}''Mandäische Liturgien'' (Lidzbarski 1920)===

Part 1 of [[Mark Lidzbarski]]'s ''[https://archive.org/details/mandaschelitur00lidzuoftMandäische Liturgien]'' (1920) (commonly abbreviated ''ML'' in Mandaic studies), titled the Qolastā, has only 103 prayers. Part 2 includes 4 books from the "Oxford Collection," with 60, 33, 20, and 20 prayers respectively for books 1-4. All of the prayers have the original Mandaic transcribed in Hebrew letters side-by-side with their respective German translations.<ref name="Liturgien"/>

;''[[s:Translation:Qolasta|Mandäische Liturgien]]'' (1920) contents

*Part 1: Qolastā

*Part 2: [[s:Translation:Qolasta/Oxford Collection|Oxford Collection]]

**Book 3: 19 prayers

 

Lidzbarski's ''Mandäische Liturgien'' differs substantially from Drower's ''Canonical Prayerbook'', since different manuscripts had been consulted.<ref name="Liturgien"/>

! Prayer numbers !! Section

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

| 104 || ''[[Rušma]]'' (Daily ablution prayer)

*''Part 8'': CP 305–329: priest initiation prayers

*''Remaining part'' (no colophon): CP 330–414

 

Note that a ''zhara'' ({{lit|warning}}) is a name insertion used by the person reciting the prayer.

 

*Ktaba ḏ-[[Eniania]] (Book of Responses) (Volume 2, Part 1)

**''[[rušuma]]'': 104

**''[[asut malkia]]'': 105

**''abatar bauata ḏ-iumia'' (after the daily prayers)

***''zhara''

***178

***410

*Ktaba ḏ-[[Qabin]] (Book of Marriage) (Volume 2, Part 2)

**''zharia ḏ-hušbania ḏ-iumua'' (''zharia'' for reckoning of days)

***Sunday to Saturday ''zharia''

***''zhara ḏ-nasakia'' (''zhara'' of scribes)

***''zhara''

 

 

In Mandaean rituals, many prayers are frequently recited in sets. Common sets of prayers listed in ritual texts such as the ''[[Scroll of Exalted Kingship]]'', ''[[The Coronation of the Great Shishlam]]'',<ref name="Buckley 2002"/> the ''[[Alma Rišaia]]'' texts,<ref name="pair">Drower, E. S. 1963. ''[https://archive.org/details/pairofnaoraeanco0000unse A Pair of Naṣoraean Commentaries: Two Priestly Documents, the Great First World and the Lesser First World]''. Leiden: Brill.</ref> and ''[[Zihrun Raza Kasia]]''<ref name="DC27">{{cite book|last=Burtea|first=Bogdan|title=Zihrun, das verborgene Geheimnis|publisher=Harrassowitz|publication-place=Wiesbaden|year=2008|isbn=978-3-447-05644-1|oclc=221130512|language=de|url=https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/%26Zihrun_das_verborgene_Geheimnis%26/titel_115.ahtml}}</ref> are given below. Drower's and Lidzbarki's numberings are equivalent for these prayers, since the first 103 prayers are nearly identical in both versions.

*25–28 (sealing peayers, or ''haṭamta'')

*32–34 (masiqta prayers)

*59–60 (masiqta prayers for the [[pihta]] and [[mambuha]])

*71–72 (masiqta prayers for the souls)

 

==Correspondences with the ''Ginza Rabba''==

 

{| class="wikitable sortable"

| 98 || 3.7

|}

 

Some marriage hymns (''hadaiata'') in the ''Canonical Prayerbook'' also correspond to some hymns in Book 12 of the ''[[Right Ginza]]'' (GR 12):<ref name="GR Gelbert"/>

*[[Psalms]]

*{{slink|Tarmida|Prayer sequence}}

 

==References==

*[[commons:File:Qolasta Euting 1867.pdf|1867 Qolastā]] by [[Julius Euting]] (from Wikimedia Commons)

*[https://mandaeanpriests.exeter.ac.uk/items/show/92 Sydney 2014 Sidra ed Neshmatha (the Book of Souls) for Baptism (Days 3 and 4)] (The World of Mandaean Priests, University of Exeter)

 

;Mandaean Network texts in Mandaic

{{Mandaeism footer}}

 

[[Category:Mandaean prayer|*]]

[[Category:Mandaean texts]]

[[Category:Hymns]]

[[Category:Funerary texts]]