Sidra d-Nishmata


The Sidra ḏ-Nišmata, also known as the Book of Souls or Book of Gadana, is a collection of Mandaean litugical prayers that constitutes the first part of the Qulasta. It is typically considered to consist of 103 prayers. The Sidra ḏ-Nišmata most likely constitutes the oldest stratum of Mandaean literature and dates to at least the 3rd century CE or earlier.
The Sidra ḏ-Nišmata contains the most important prayers used in core Mandaean rituals, namely the masbuta and masiqta.

Structure

Matthew Morgenstern and Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki considers the Sidra ḏ-Nišmata to contain 103 prayers, which correspond to the first 103 prayers in both Mark Lidzbarski's Mandäische Liturgien (1920) and E. S. Drower's Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans.
The Sidra ḏ-Nišmata consists of the following sections. Each of the three parts has its own colophon.
  • Part 1: Prayers 1–74
  • *Prayers 1–31: masbuta liturgy
  • *Prayers 32–72: masiqta liturgy
  • *CP 73–74: the 2 "Letter" prayers
  • Part 2: Prayers 75–77: 3 long prayers of praise
  • Part 3: Prayers 78–103: the "responses"

Types of prayers

Eric Segelberg lists the following types of prayers in the Sidra ḏ-Nišmata.
  • buta
  • *Prayers 1, 3, 5: prayers for the crown
  • *Prayer 7: prayer for the pandama
  • *Prayers 9–11: prayers at the river bank
  • *Prayers 22–24: prayers over the oil
  • *Prayers 25–28: buta haṭamta or "sealing prayer"
  • *Prayer 32: opening masiqta prayer
  • *Prayers 75–77: long baptismal prayers
  • qaiamta: Prayers 56–65
  • pugdama : Prayers 8, 14, 19, 34; also applies to Prayers 5, 47, 48
  • šrita : Prayers 2, 4, 6, 31, 55
  • draša
  • *Prayers 21, 30, 88–90
  • eniana
  • *Prayers 79–81: three hymns in the beginning of the baptismal rite
  • *Prayer 82: hymn after the acts in the water
  • *Prayer 83–87: hymns said after the sealing prayers

List of prayers

Below is a list of individual prayers of the Sidra ḏ-Nišmata based on the text of Drower, with additional notes from Segelberg and Buckley.
Litanies in the Sidra d-Nishmata include prayers 8, 9, 25, 58, 70, 71, 77, 80, and 81.

Maṣbuta liturgy

Masiqta liturgy

Engirta prayers

  • Prayer 73: long prayer about a sealed letter
  • Prayer 74: short prayer about the seal and word of Kušṭa

Three long prayers

[Eniania]