Tradition · Iranian & Dualist
Mandaeism
The last living Gnostics, a baptizing people who revere John the Baptist.
c. 100 CE → · Mesopotamia (Iraq & Iran) · Iranian & Dualist
Mandaeism is an ancient Gnostic religion surviving among small communities in Iraq and Iran, teaching a stark division between the World of Light and the World of Darkness and the soul’s longing to return home to the light. Its adherents venerate John the Baptist as the great prophet while rejecting Jesus and Muhammad, and their central practice is frequent baptism in flowing "living water." It is the only Gnostic tradition to have continued unbroken from antiquity.
Key figures
- John the Baptist (chief prophet)
- Hibil Ziwa (a being of light)
Texts
- The Ginza Rabba
- The Book of John
Beliefs
- A World of Light opposed to a World of Darkness
- The soul’s return to the realm of light
- John the Baptist, not Jesus, as the true teacher
Rituals
- Frequent baptism in flowing water
- Ritual meals for the dead
- Purity of white garments
Grew from
Connections in the atlas
- The Ginza Rba (Great Treasure)
- Purification by water (ritual)
- The Persians and Iranian peoples
- Prayer postures and fixed prayer times (ritual)