Qulasta
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Qulasta

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Qulasta

The Qulasta, also spelled Qolastā in older sources (Classical Mandaic: ࡒࡅࡋࡀࡎࡕࡀ, romanized: Qulasta; Modern Mandaic: Qōlutā), is a compilation of Mandaean prayers. The Mandaic word qolastā means "collection".

The prayerbook is a collection of Mandaic prayers regarding baptisms (maṣbuta) and other sacred rituals involved in the ascension of the soul (masiqta). In Mandaic, individual prayers are generally called buta (plural form: bawata), although some prayers also known as qaiamta, šrita (loosing or deconsecration prayers), and other Mandaic designations. There is no standardized version of the Qulasta; different versions can contain varying numbers of prayers, and ordering of the prayers can also vary. The most commonly used Qulasta versions are those of E. S. Drower (1959 English translation) and Mark Lidzbarski (1920 German translation). Excluding duplicates, the most complete versions have approximately 340 prayers, depending on how variants and duplicates are counted.

Eric Segelberg (1958) contains a detailed study of many of the first 90 Qulasta prayers (many of which are known in Mandaic as buta) as used in Mandaean rituals.

The Qulasta, and two other key texts to Mandaic literature, the Mandaean Book of John and the Ginza Rabba, may have been compiled together. However, their date of authorship is heavily debated, some believing it to be during the second and third centuries, and others believing it to be conceived during the first century. A study of the colophons of this text would appear to push back a date to the third century at the latest.

In the first colophon of the Qulasta (directly after prayer 74), Nukraya, son of Šitil, a scribe from the earliest part of the Islamic period, wrote that he copied the text while consulting at least seven manuscripts (ṭupsia). One of them belonged to "a library in a house of 'a People of the Book'" (anašia ḏ-ktiba), while another originated from "a town of Byzantines" (i.e., Byzantine Christians), indicating that Mandaean liturgical texts were being kept in non-Mandaean libraries at the start of the Islamic period.

In 1949, Torgny Säve-Söderbergh argued that at many passages in the Manichaean Psalms of Thomas were paraphrases or even word-by-word translations of Mandaean prayers in the Qulasta. Säve-Söderbergh also argued that the Manichaean psalms had borrowed from Mandaean sources rather than vice versa. As a result, much of the Qulasta can be dated to before the 3rd century, i.e. before Mani's lifetime. However, some scholars such as Kevin van Bladel believe that the material shared with the Psalms of Thomas may only be the use of a common source (perhaps Elkesaite funerary hymns), and that the text as a whole may date considerably later. Van Bladel also argues that the present form of the text must post-date the early Muslim conquests at minimum, given the references made in the Qulasta to the advancement of the Arab armies.

In 1867, Julius Euting published a printed Mandaic version of the Qolasta.

The Qulasta has been translated into English by E. S. Drower in 1959 and by Mark Lidzbarski into German in 1920. Lidzbarski's translation was based on two manuscripts, including Ms. Syr. F. 2 (R) held at the Bodleian Library, which he called "Roll F."

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