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| Mandaean Oral Traditions and Folklore #4--THE STORY OF QIQEL AND THE DEATH OF YAHYA |
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| Qiqel was a yalufa (literate). He loved learning and piety and was devout. But his heart yearned to see, so that he might have certainty of the spiritual world. He dwelt in the wilderness and in the mountains, wandering from place to place and worshipping God continually. He took with him only a little food and a skin of water, and travelled like that-a darawish. He fared on and on, and in the midst of a desert place he saw a domed chamber and another darawish near it. The darwish had bulit the dome of clay, and had fashioned it so that just below the dome there were twelve round openings, thus the sun, as it travelled round the sky. lit each in turn. The place was clean and well tended. Qiqel gazed at the dome and the darwish asked him, 'What are you staring at-you?' Qiqel answered, 'My heart loves this building! It is beautiful!' Said the darwish, 'If your heart loves it, it is a sign that your honour is a one who knows'('alim). Said Qiqel, 'I should like to see what is within this shrine.' Answered the darwish, 'Khatrak! For your sake, I will show you!' And he opened the door and they gazed within. At first Qiqel saw nothing but an empty, clean place. Said the darwish, 'Enter and sit!' They entered, and Qiqel sat and the darwish with him. Then the darwish said to Qiqel, 'Gaze at that opening', and they both gazed, and the darwish recited prayers softly, recited softly. Qiqel listened, and by degrees it appeared to him that he was listening to Mandaean invocations. He recognized Mandaean words of prayer and incantation, and, as he glanced into the gloom of the room, there appeared before him suddenly something in the guise of a being of light. The light played and radiated. the he heard the darwish recite, 'In the name of the Great Life! I have purified my hands...' a prayer of the King of Light. Qiqel gazed and he saw light, more light, light, and spirits of light. The more the darwish read the more radiant the light became. The darwish said to him, 'There are ninety butha(prayers). Each time, thirty butha must be recited.' After the visions had passed, they talked to each other and Qiqel asked the darwish, 'Of what sect(milla), of what religion, is your honour?' The darwish replied, 'I am alone. There were others like me, but the Jews killed them.' Qiqel said, 'Nay, but you are a Mandai!' Said the darwish, 'From whence knew you the Mandai?' Qiqel answered him, 'I Qiqel, who sit before you, I am a Mandai!' When the darwish heard that, he fell into his arms and they kissed each other and wept, till the darwish said, 'Why weep? I am hapy! My heart rejoices!' Qiqel said, 'And I too am happy, for I have seen that which I have seen!' and he said to the darwish, 'We are brothers! Let us live and die together. Do not depart from me and I will not depart from you. We will pray always together.' So it was. They saw many visions. They saw a vision of Liwet Qadeshta (Venus the Sacred); they saw the likeness of Shamish and Sin, and the head of 'Ur which is lifted toward Abathur, and the 'uthri who are with the stars. They saw them in the clay room, from the openings. And after that they rose and collected some of the Nasurai and the Mandai who had been scattered in the district and they taught them. Ten men, ten pious men, they brought to be of their fellowship. And they made an image of him who they had seen in the sky-of him who they had gazed at through the opening. They made images of them all in stone, of Nirigh, of Bel, of Liwet and Sin, and this last, of the moon, had seven heads branching out like a tree. Of Shamish, the sun, they also made an image, but they were unable to make it aright, for he is all light, many-eyed, of various appearances, of different forms which turn and wheel and radiate. But they made an image of a person sitting, of extreme beauty, like one form of Shamish. When one sees Shamish in this form, a sweet wind breathes upon one, and one swoons away because of its great loveliness. All the images which were made and worshipped later in that place had their origin in the images which these two made. The name of that darwish was Bahram, and he had a special secret knowledge which he imparted to his pupils. When they knew it, they might be thrown in fire, and they would not burn, and into water, and they would not drown, nor would a sword eat them, for if a man drew a sword against them it was he who fell, not they. Such power came from them that it repulsed the sword. Their place was in the north-somewhere near Damascus, Jerusalem, and Egypt. At one time the Mandai were the masters of the north and of this country also. Their origin was of the mountains, and they always loved mountains better then the plains, for in the hills there are springs with which to bathw, in winter warm, and in summer cool. For our people have always loved bathing and washing. But of these darwish, Bahram, Qiqel, and their brethren. Once a tribe, a people, came upon them and asked, 'Who are ye?' They replied, 'We are darwish who have settled here.' They said, 'Darwish! What is your occupation?' They answered, 'We till the ground, and harvest and pray. That is all.' For they had no wives. They had knowledge of those who travel in arks (the planets) and had acquired knowledge of their speech, for all the stars talk in Mandaean. (Each star is far from the other and has a great world attached to it. But one star sees its fellows from afar off, perfectly, and they talk, one with another, through space. When they pray, it is like the singing of birds. All the stars pray. The northern stars pray twelve butha and the rest seven buwath. A pure soul can hear the prayers of the Sun and the prayers of the stars in their places, like the singing of birds. But one day of the year they chant the name of God in unison, and the music of it is like the music the Angrezi (English) make (in orchestras). If a man is pure and knowing, he hears it, he starts from his sleep and prays with them, but men who are not knowing they hear nothing. A man who hears, does not so with his physical ears, he hears the singing within him (the narrator struck his head). Lady! a man who knows, hears the sound of prayer always, for everything that exists, 'uthri, stars, all creation, prays continually! The strange tribe said to the darawish, 'Teach us your knowledge or we shall kill you!' They denied the possession of knowledge. The people and their leader rose and made a huge fire and said, 'Bring them here and throw them on the fire!' They threw them on the fire, but the darwish began to walk about on the fire and were not burnt. Then they threw more of them into the fire, but they did not burn: they walked in the fire. The leader gazed, and he thought he saw a light descending from the sky which turned about each one of them. These men could not be killed for their power was from God. Qiqel smiled at their king from the midst of the fire. The King said to Qiqel, 'Why do you smile?' Qiqel replied, 'You rule this people, yet have no understanding. You can not kill us or harm us, indeed, you should fear us! Are you not afraid of such people as we? The king's advisors said to him, 'Baba! We are afraid of them! Let us depart! Better let us departe!' But there was with the king a man who had knowledge, but of Darkness. The king said, 'Bring that one!' They brought him. The king asked, 'What are these people whom we are unable to burn?' The man replied, 'These worship Melka ad Ziwa and Malka ad Anhura. They have knowledge of the Light and of the Darkness.' The king said, 'Can you not prevail against them?' The man said, 'Never! For they do not use magic, but knowledge. Their power, it is of God.' Said the king, 'Will they not teach us their knowledge?' The other replied, 'No, they never teach it!' The king said, 'Can you do nothing against them?' The wizard said, 'By day I cannot harm them, for my power is of the Darkness.' Said the king, 'Good! Harm them by night. I want to test the power of your learning.' The magician arose, and in the night he strewed sand round the Mandai. They looked and understood perfectly what he was doing. The sand changed and became soldiers, each with a sword in his hand. When the king saw it, he was delighted, and cried, 'Now we can fall upon them!' He went to the Mandai again, and said to them, 'Either teach us or these soldiers will kill you!' Bahram answered, 'These soldiers can kill your soldiers nut not us!' Said the king, 'How so? Bahram said, 'A little patience, and you will see. You and your people are slow of understanding.' Then Qiqel read a butha of Ptahil. The soldiers advanced against them and were hurled back. They could not even come near them! Bahram said, 'Let no harm come to these! Let them return to their place!' The king went to the magician and said, 'See, your soldiers are being repulsed. they are retreating!' The magician replied: 'My soldiers can do nothing because the power of these men is stronger. Let us depart from them: it will be better.' Then the king went to Bahram and Qiqel and said, 'I am your suppliant! I crave to know how to get such a result, that, and that only.' They answered him, 'We are darawish! God gave us the knowledge which we possess through prayer. All our power is of God!' The king said, 'With such power, why do you not become sultans?' They replied, 'Why shold we become sultans? What are sultans? God is the Sultan. Moreover, we have no wish for servants to do this and that for us. We work for ourselves and prepare our food with our own two hands. The king said to them, 'Good! And if I worship and pray?' They said, 'If you pray and exercise justice, you will become a good man.' He went that king, and he left everything, and he became a darwish, taking nothing with him but a bag and a bowl. Only he took some precious stones with him, so that if he were in need , who could sell them and get what was necessary. He journeyed and journeyed, until he came to the Jordan, where Yahya was baptizing. When the King saw Yahya, he said to him, 'Baptize me!' and Yahya baptized him. When the baptism was over, Yahya began to question him, ' Who are you? Whence came you?' He answered, 'I am So-and-So and I saw such-and-such darawish in the desert', telling him what had happened. Yahya said, 'These people are sacred, for they know the true name of God, and fire cannot burn them nor water drown them, nor the sword eat them.' The king said, 'Your honour-are you not like them?' Yahya replied, 'Aye, I am one of them...' Now as the king and Yahya were talking together a little child aged about three years approached Yahya, and said to him, 'Come, baptize me!' The king was astonished, and said to Yahya, 'He asks to be bapstized at his age!' Yahya said, 'I am tired and wish to sleep now. Come tomorrow and I will baptize you, for I have baptized many today and need twelve hours' sleep.' The boy said, 'Aye, come out of the water now and sleep!' John came out, and the child gazed at him, and immediately Yahya sank into a deep sleep on the shore of the river. The king stared at the child, who, though so little, had caused Yahya to sleep by looking at him- a strange thing. And Yahya slept the sleep of a night the space of half an hour. Then he awoke and said to the child, 'Still waiting? and I have slept a long time! Have you kno people? Why did you not go to them? The child replied, 'My people are everywhere.' Said Yahya, 'Your people are everywhere? How can that be?' The child said, 'Baptize me now, and I will tell you!' Yahya entered the water, but when the boy stepped into the Jordan, the water rose like a mountain and retreated before him, leaving dry land. The fishes lifted their heads from the water and prayed . Yahya cries, 'Your honour is no boy! The water flees from before you!' The child said, 'Baptize me!' Yahya replied, 'I cannot! The water rises and departs from you.' The birds saw and came and hovered over their heads crying out the names of God, 'Yukhawar Ziwa!' 'Manda-t-Haiy!' again and again. Yahya said to the child, 'I am your suppliant! You are no little boy! Disclose to me your nature and your name!' The child replied, 'Have no fear! I am Manda-t-Haiy (Manda d Hiia), did you not hear the birds proclaim it?' (And, lady, when the birds cry in the morning, they cry the name of God, each in his own particular tongue- the sparrow, the hoopooe, the vulture, each has his own cry- one sound, whereas the sons of Adam have many different cries and sounds. Yes, one sparrow cries like another! But God gives them the power of distinguishing each other, and a cock-sparrow knows his wife out of thousands!) The child said, 'I am Manda-t-Haiy and I have come to take your soul above.' (He came in the shape of a little child, but he could take any shape that it pleased him- fire, cloud, or anything. For just as when you think of a thing it takes shape in your mind, so great spirits can think of things, and they are!) The child took the hand of Yahya in his, and the soul of Yahya left him and his body died in the river. The king departed, having seen all, and been enlightened, he went, and spoke to all he met of what he had seen and heard. Now, when he had left his body Yahya looked down and saw his corpse in the water. The birds descended uopn it and began to peck at it, for it began to decay. The vulture flew down, and began to pluck out the eyes. Yahya gazed at it, and Manda-t-Haiy said, 'Why gaze on that? That is a corrupt thing, of the earth!' And Manda-t-Haiy seized earth and buried it. Yahya was glad, for he had loved his earthly body, which we call paghra or ostuna, and did not wish it harmed. And the grave still appears above the Jordan like a mound, and the Mandai know it for Yahya's grave. But he was taken and borne to the Realm of Light, and to Shamish and the Lord of Radiance, and joined in the perpetual worship of the Light King. |
| The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran By E.S. Drower Clarendon Press, Oxford,1937 (Reprint Leiden:E.J. Brill 1962) pages 273 -282 Narrator: Hirmiz bar Anhar |
| I would like to thank "elchasai" who scanned and placed this selection on the Mandaean World Research eg-roup in Nov. 2003 |