Mandaean literature Oral Traditions and Folklore

#1
..A. CREATION
...B. CREATION AND THE FLOOD
...C. THE CREATION OF MAN
...D. AND E. THE FLOOD
...F. THE MANDAEAN NATION
...G. ANOTHER VERSION OF THE RED SEA STORY

#2--OF ABRAHAM AND YURBA

#3--HOW HIBIL ZIWA FETCHED RUHA FROM THE DARKNESS

#4--THE STORY OF QIQEL AND THE DEATH OF YAHYA

#5-- NEBUCHADNEZZAR`S DAUGHTER

#6--SUN STORIES

#7-- THE BRIDGE AT SHUSTER

#8-- THE FIRE-WORSHIPPER AND ADAM BUL FARAJ

#9-- HOW DANA NUK VISITED THE SEVENTH HEAVEN
#10-- THE MILLENNIUM

#11-- CONCERNING THE MOUNTAIN OF THE MADDAI AND HOW THE TURKS CAME TO TAKE IT

#12-- HOW THE MANDAI AND THEIR GANZIBRA LEFT THE MOUNTAIN FOR A BETTER COUNTRY

#13-- THE CHILD CONCEIVED ON THE 29th NIGHT OF THE MOON

#14-- THE KANSHI UZAHLA

#15-- THE HAUNTINGS

#16-- THE PLAGUE IN SHUSTER

#17-- THE STONE-THROWING

#18-- THE KAFTAR

#19-- BIBI`S SONS AND THEIR STRANGE ADVENTURE

#20-- SHAIKH ZIBID

#21-- OF BEHOLDING EVENTS IN TRANCE

#22-- HOW EVIL SPIRITS ABUSE THE DEAD, ETC.

#23-- MEN WHO HAVE RETURNED FROM DEATH, ETC.
#24-- OF THE POWER T0 SEE SPIRITS

#25-- THE SIMURGH: THE TRUE HISTORY OF RUSTAM AND HIS SON

#26-- HIRMIZ SHAH

#27--THE MAN WHO SOUGHT TO SEE SIN THE MOON

#28-- THE SIMURGH AND HIRMIZ SHAH

Oral Traditions and Folklore

#9--How Dana Nukh visited the
Seventh Heaven

Once on a time there was only one religion in the world. All the children of Adam were Mandai. Of these, there were twenty-four 'ulemƒ', twenty-four learned men, but one wise man, whose name was Dana Nuk, who was greater than them all. They came to him for advice, and he had all the sacred books which Hiwel Ziwa gave to Adam, and knew them by heart, no doubt. Among these books were the Ginza Rabba, the Sidra d Nishmatha, the Drasha d Yahia, the Asfar Malwasha, the Diwan Haran Gawaitha, the Diwan Awathur, the Alf Trisar Shiala, the Diwan Malkutha Ileytha, the Qulast'a, and the Iniani d Rahmi. The twenty-four learned men had various forms of knowledge, one had knowledge of Shamish, one knowledge of Water, one of Bel, one of Nirigh, and so forth, but the great one, Dana Nuk, he had knowledge of them all. Each planet had especial power over its votaries and those who loved and served it, but Dana Nuk, he had knowledge of them all. He had a room in his house in which he kept the writings which Hiwel Ziwa gave to Adam, and they were piled one upon the other. He always kept this room locked. One day, when he entered this room, he found a book placed above the others. It was in Mandai, but treated of another tariqah! -the Way of Sin. (Sin, the Moon-God.) He said 'No one could have entered this room to which I alone have the key! I will burn this book!' And he burnt it. Then he went out into the wilderness and sitting there under a tree, he began to think, 'How could that book have got into my room ?' Then, suddenly, he saw the book before him ! He took it : he tore it into pieces and threw the shreds into the river. He returned to his house, unlocked the door of the room and went in, and he saw the book lying above the other books as before. He said to himself, 'How can such a thing be ?' and was puzzled. He talked the matter over with the Nas'urai, saying, 'What can the meaning of this be ? The book appears above the Ginza Rabba! Perhaps, if we were to read it, we might learn something, but it treats of another Way.' They replied, 'As it lies above the other sacred writings, it must be right. The planets have ordered this thing! It must be lawful !'

Dana Nuk went back to sleep, and when he awoke, the book was beneath his head! He went to the Nas'urai and said to them, 'I destroyed this book twice, but here it is ! I found it below my head when I rose from sleep.' Some of them said, 'This must be from God. The book must be read !' They took the book and read it, and some of them accepted its Way, they and their women, and delighted in it. From thenceforth, they and their children worshipped the light of the Moon. And there are still those who worship the Moon, and the secrets of the Jews and their magic are of the Moon, and were learnt from that book. Yes,they and their children adored the Moon! After three weeks another book appeared in Dana Nuk's room above the other books, and this, too, he gave to the Nas'urai. It contained the Way of Kiwan, and some of the Nas'urai and their relatives with them, adopted that Way. In this manner came five more books, so that there were seven in all, and each contained a different Way. Some of the Nas'urai followed one, and some another. At last, a book appeared above the others which radiated light as it lay there. The heart of Dana Nuk went out to that book, and he read it and believed what was written in it, and saw that it contained the perfection of the knowledge of God. When he read it, his spirit was glad, and all fear left him. God gave him and all who read in it power. So he took this one for his Way.

It happened, after that, that he was in his garden, praying, when he saw a being of light descending from Awathur and it stopped before him. He prostrated himself before the being who said to him : 'Those who have taken the other books, their souls will remain bound to the earth when resurrection comes (lammâ taqâm ad-dunya) and they will not rise, or know the way to Awathur. But you will rise, because your book is of Shamish, and Shamish is of God only, and there is no evil influence with him. Those who read that book will understand [all things]. Have you read it to others ?' Dana Nuk replied, 'Only my family and I have read it.' Then the being said, 'I must take your soul to the World of Light, so that you may understand the truth of matters, and then return to this world to tell others of what you have seen.'

He conducted the sage to a place where there was a chamber built amongst trees, amidst cultivation, and left him there, saying 'Sleep !' Dana Nuk slept gladly, for he wished to see the World of Light. The being gave him a form of air, of his own shape, and Dana Nuk's soul entered into it. But he was not visible to the sons of Adam. His body was sleeping and his pulses beating, but his soul was away.

The being took him to Pthahil, and Pthahil rose before him, saying, 'Rejoice that thou hast come to this place!' And he told the 'uthri and melki to guide him and show him the underworlds with their demons and the places of purification in Mat'aratha. Next, the melki took him to the abode of Sera (Sira, the moon), and that of Liwet (Venus), for their places are beautiful. Next they went to the place which God gave to Ruha, a place which is of God and of great loveliness. Then they took him to Shamish, a place all of light, in the World of Light, and of a radiance past description. Then they bore him upwards-up, up, up ! until he reached Paradise, the place of God, and that was yet lovelier than all he had seen hitherto. Dana Nuk cried to them, 'I want to stay in this place and never leave it !' But they took him higher yet, to the place where the Four Great Ones abide, and their names are Arham Haiy, En Haiy, Shom Haiy, and Ziwa Haiy. When he saw them in their beauty he cried to Hiwel Ziwa, for it was Hiwel Ziwa who had appeared to him in the garden, 'I cannot go farther! Let me rest here !' Hiwel Ziwa said, 'No, you must go yet farther!' They rose and they came to the place of Melka d Anhura, and that was vast, and all of light. There were four suns, always stationary and not turning like our sun, and their power is of Melka Ziwa. It is a place of wonder and power.

But Hiwel Ziwa took him up yet higher, and they came to another heaven, also lit with four suns, but yet greater and more brilliant. Dana Nuk asked, 'Of whom is this ?' Hiwel Ziwa answered, 'This is my place ('shkhinta' in Mandaean). But we must go yet higher.' They continued their way upwards and they came to a place full of 'uthri, where there was a sea of light. Its waters were of light only, and about it were melki, male and female, adoring God. Dana Nuk said to Hiwel Ziwa, 'I see no babies in this world of light, where are they ?' He replied, 'Within the womb of that sea, the Yardna of light, they grow, and when they are ready to pray, they issue from its waters, for we are not like you in the matter of our reproduction. Our seed is in the waters of the ocean of Light. They eat of the trees of Paradise, and there is no corruption or waste (tilf) from what they eat. All is power and light.' when Dana Nuk had seen this heaven of heavens, he cried to Hiwel Ziwa, 'I will not go from hence ! Leave me here !' Hiwel Ziwa said to him, 'Did I not say that you must return to tell men what you have seen, so that they will know the Way and believe and not deny?' So Dana Nuk returned, but he wept. The other said to him, 'You shall return here one day, but now your place is in the world.'

Now his journey had taken fourteen years, and his body had remained in the same place, and no one had touched it, for Hiwel Ziwa had protected it and neither animal nor man could approach it. He descended into his body on Sunday. Now the Nasurai and learned men had foreseen his return in a dream, and when each person rose in the morning and told his dream to his fellows, women as well as men, all said, 'It cannot be deception ! He must return to-day.' His soul returned into Dana Nuk's body, and he sat up and kissed Hiwel Ziwa's hand, saying, 'Ask Shamish, Liwet, and Nirigh to look after me and protect me-ask all those who have an ark ( full) (I.e. the planets).'

Hiwel Ziwa replied, 'If I tell Shamish, he will order that all of them protect you, for they are all obedient to him. Shamish himself will watch over you and protect you. He will say, "My eye will be always upon him", and not one of them, the Moon, or Venus, nor any of them, will be able to harm you, but will take care of you.' So Hiwel Ziwa departed from Dana Nuk and he wept. The people had assembled to come and find him, and they approached softly to see whether he were living or not. A woman came first, and peeped through an aperture in the wall. She saw him weeping, and cried, 'Come, come ! He is alive!' His wife came running, for she had not spoken with him for fourteen years! She came to him, and when he saw her, he stopped weeping and began to talk to her and to all of them, speaking of what he had seen. His name was Dana Nuk. At one time the Sikhs began to worship him, but he said to them, 'Do not worship my image, worship God !' They replied, 'We will worship Baba Nânak-Allah!' As for the people of Râmrâm, they have an idol which they made in the form of him who died and returned.

The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran By E.S. Drower Clarendon Press, Oxford,1937 (Reprint Leiden:E.J. Brill 1962) page 300-308
Narrator: Hirmiz bar Anhar