Codex Marshall 691

Codex Marshall 691
Codex Marshall 691
Bodleian Library
Also known as	Marsh. 691
Type	Codex
Date	September 5, 1529
Place of origin	Huwayza, Safavid Iran
Language(s)	Mandaic
Scribe(s)	Adam Zihrun, son of Bihram Šitlan (Adam Zihrun bar Bihram Šitlan)
Material	Leatherbound
Size	4 × 5 inches
Script	Mandaic
Contents	Mandaean prayers

Codex Marshall 691 (abbreviated Marsh. 691) is a Mandaic manuscript currently held at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It is the oldest Mandaic manuscript that is currently held at a European institutional library and is a prayerbook containing dozens of Mandaean prayers. The contents of the manuscript remain unpublished. Its colophons have been studied in detail by Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley.^[1]

Description

Codex Marshall 691 is a small leatherbound codex with 116 pages^[2] that measures approximately 4 inches by 5 inches.^[1]^: 55 As a prayerbook ("Qulasta"), it contains various Mandaean prayers, including the rahmia.^[3] According to its colophons, it was copied in September 5, 1529 A.D., in Huwayza^[4]^: 70 by Adam Zihrun, son of Bihram Šitlan.

Thomas Marshall's servant had donated the book (obtained by Marshall via Dutch merchants) to the Bodleian Library in 1689 or 1690, after Marshall's death.^[2]

The codex contains three colophons. In the third colophon of the codex, a blessing is given to Sayyid (Sultan) Badran (whose rule began in 1514) and his family, the Musha'sha' Shi'ite/Ghulat ruler of Khuzestan during the Safavid dynasty. Blessings given to Muslim rulers are rarely found in Mandaean colophons.^[1]^: 56

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2023). 1800 Years of Encounters with Mandaeans. Gorgias Mandaean Studies. Vol. 5. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-4632-4132-2. ISSN 1935-441X.
^ ^a ^b Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2010). The great stem of souls: reconstructing Mandaean history. Piscataway, N.J: Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-59333-621-9.
^ Morgenstern, Matthew (ed.). "Rahmi". The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon. Retrieved 2024-07-27.
^ van Bladel, Kevin (2017). From Sasanian Mandaeans to Ṣābians of the Marshes. Leiden: Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004339460. ISBN 978-90-04-33943-9.