- published: 25 Oct 2015
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Mandaeism or Mandaeanism (Modern Mandaic: מנדעיותא Mandaʻiūtā; Arabic: مندائية Mandāʼīyah) is a gnostic religion with a strongly dualistic worldview. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Noah, Shem, Aram and especially John the Baptist, but reject Abraham, Moses and Jesus. The Aramaic manda means "knowledge," as does Greek gnosis.
According to most scholars, Mandaeans migrated from the Southern Levant to Mesopotamia in the first centuries CE, and are of pre-Arab and pre-Islamic origin. They are Semites and speak a dialect of Eastern Aramaic known as Mandaic. They may well be related to the Nabateans who were pagan, Aramaic-speaking indigenous pre-Arab and pre-Islamic inhabitants of southern Iraq.
Mandaeans appear to have settled in northern Mesopotamia, but the religion has been practised primarily around the lower Karun, Euphrates and Tigris and the rivers that surround the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, part of southern Iraq and Khuzestan Province in Iran. There are thought to be between 60,000 and 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide. Until the 2003 Iraq war, almost all of them lived in Iraq. Many Mandaean Iraqis have since fled their country (as have many other Iraqis) because of the turmoil created by the 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation by U.S. armed forces, and the related rise in sectarian violence by Muslim extremists. By 2007, the population of Mandaeans in Iraq had fallen to approximately 5,000. Most Mandaean Iraqis have sought refuge in Iran, with fellow Mandaeans there. Others have moved to northern Iraq. There has been a much smaller influx into Syria and Jordan, with smaller populations in Sweden, Australia, the United States and other Western countries.
It's not my desire, it's not my choice
It's not intentional, I'm hypnotized by your voice
The same old thing but always new
It's unbelievable how strongly I feel for, towards you
It's more like magnetism than anything else
I can't fight, I'm pulled against my will
It was not my decision, if you couldn't tell
It's more like magnetism, I can't even control myself
Cannot keep away, I feel the tension grow
It's getting stronger now, it's getting stronger now
It's getting stronger now, you're all I see
You have so much power over me
It's more like magnetism than anything else
I can't fight, I'm pulled against my will
Oh, it was not my decision, if you couldn't tell
It's more like magnetism, can't even control myself, myself
It's more like magnetism between you and me
I can't fight, I'm pulled against my will, yeah
My appetite to coincide with you grows stronger every night
And I can't fight magnetism, you know I can't even control myself