Asut Malkia
The Asut Malkia is one of the most commonly recited prayers in Mandaeism. In the prayer, the reciter wishes health and victory upon dozens of heavenly and ancestral figures. According to E. S. Drower, it is recited daily by priests and also before all baptisms, ritual meals, and various rites.
The Asut Malkia is numbered as Prayer 105 in E. S. Drower's version of the Qulasta, which was based on manuscript 53 of the Drower Collection.
Etymology
Asut or asuta can be literally translated as 'healing' and can also mean 'salutation' or 'greeting', while malkia means 'kings'.Similarly, Mandaeans typically greet other individual Mandaeans with the phrase:
Multiple people are greeted using the plural form:
Prayer
The formula is recited dozens of times in the prayer before the names of each uthra or set of uthras, Hayyi Rabbi, some of the prophets, and the reciter himself, almost all of whom are addressed as malka.Drower (1937)
Drower's version lists the following uthras, etc.The final part is translated in Drower as:
| Mandaic transliteration | English translation |
The word niṭufta originally means 'drop' and has sometimes also been translated as 'cloud'. It is also often used as an appellation to refer to the consorts of uthras.