Harran Gawaitha
The Harran Gawaitha legend is about the origin of the Mandaeans from a lost kingdom, Harran Gawaitha ("inner Harran"), which is said to be hidden in a mountain range Tura d'Madai ("Median mountains"). It is not a historical text, but a historical-mythological narrative that even Rudolf Macuch , who uses it as evidence of the Mandaeans' origins from Palestine, ascribes a maximum of five percent historical value. The text is largely confused and most of the biblical events are relocated to Mesopotamia . Due to the role played by the Arabs in the last part of the legend, as well as the Arabic form of the name "Jahja" and not least because of the importance of the city of Baghdad , the time of origin falls at the earliest in the time of the Abbasid caliphate .
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The legend itself begins with the establishment of the rule of King Ardban over a Mandaean empire in the Median Mountains "because there was no way for the Jewish rulers there". The birth of Jesus follows, who is seen as a false messiah. He and his brother set up an empire on Sinai. John the Baptist , who is always called Jahja in the Arabic form, was born on the mythical Mount Parwan, which is mentioned elsewhere than in the media , and works in Jerusalem . It is unclear whether this is actually the Jerusalem in Palestine or a Jerusalem that, according to this legend, is located in Babylonia on the banks of the Shatt al-Arab .
Persecutions by the Jews under Moses follow, whereupon the Jews are scattered, cross the Shatt-el-Arab in a reed sea miracle, Jerusalem is built on its banks and then destroyed again by the mythical figure Anuš- Uthra . The Jews in Jerusalem on the Shatt-el-Arab and in Baghdad are destroyed. A Mandaean empire emerges under the descendants of Ardban, which extends until the loss of rule to the "Hardubayē".
Mandaean influence is waning under both the Sassanids and the Arabs.
literature
- Ethel Stefana Drower: The Haran Gawaita and the Baptism of Hibil-Ziwa. The Mandaic text reproduced together with translation, notes and commentary (= Studi e testi, Vol. 176). Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, Vatican 1953.
- Majid Fandi al Mubaraki (ed.): Haran Gawaitha (= Mandaean Diwan series). Self-published, Sydney 2002, ISBN 1-876888-02-4 (Mandaean).