The Wedding of the Great Shishlam

Copies of the text include Manuscript 38 of the Drower Collection (DC 38), currently held at the Bodleian Library. A full transliteration, English translation, and commentary were published as a book by E. S. Drower in 1950. Manuscripts held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France include: • Code Sabéen 15 (Mark Lidzbarski's F manuscript) (partial copy) • Code Sabéen 25 (Mark Lidzbarski's E manuscript) (partial copy) ==Contents==

The DC 38 manuscript has five parts. However, since Part 5 is a duplicate of Part 1, there are only four unique parts. • Part 1 (about 240 lines): instructions on how to perform each step of the Mandaean wedding ceremony, with ritual and Qulasta prayer sequences • Part 2 (about 110 lines): Qulasta prayers 179–199 • Part 3 (about 1,320 lines): Qulasta prayers 200–256 (including the kḏ azil bhira dakia prayers from 233–256) • Part 4 (just over 170 lines): titled "The weekly forecast of hourly fortune" (), an astrological treatise dealing with the planets and times of the day and week Part 2 has 16 hymns, and Part 3 has 55 hymns. They are not numbered in Drower (1950). ==Prayers==

The qabin prayers in the Qulasta constitute prayers 179–232, all of which are also duplicated in Parts 2 and 3 of The Wedding of the Great Shishlam. There are two sequences, with the latter sequence consisting of two series. • 180–199 (identical to 285–304): Qabin prayers (1st sequence) (Prayers 1–20 in Part 2 of the Oxford Collection in Mark Lidzbarski's Mandäische Liturgien (1920); also repeated in Part 2 of The Wedding of the Great Shishlam) • 181: putting the lbuša (garment) on Manda d-Hayyi • 182: putting the himiana (belt) on Manda d-Hayyi • 183: putting the ksuia (tunic) on Manda d-Hayyi • 184: putting the naṣipa (stole), named Šamašeil, on Manda d-Hayyi • 185: putting the taga (crown) on Manda d-Hayyi • 186: putting the šarwala (leggings), named Nṣab, on Manda d-Hayyi • 187: putting the margna (staff) on Manda d-Hayyi • 188: putting the klila (wreath) on Yawar • 200–214: Qabin prayers (2nd sequence, 1st series) (201–205 correspond to Prayers 21–33 in Part 2 of the Oxford Collection in Mark Lidzbarski's Mandäische Liturgien (1920); also repeated in Part 3 of The Wedding of the Great Shishlam ==Prayer sequence==

In Part 1 of The Wedding of the Great Shishlam, the prescribed sequence of Qulasta prayers (numbered below according to Drower's 1959 Canonical Prayerbook) to be recited is as follows. • 26–28 (1st repetition) • 26–28 (2nd repetition) • 179 • 173 • 26–28 (3rd repetition) • 35, 9 • 15–17 • 180 • 188 • 197–199 • 248 • 179 • 207–215 • 199 • kḏ azil bhira dakia prayers (253 is skipped) ==See also==