Chapter IX: Part 9

_History._--Manchu, as has been said, is not the name of the country but of the people who inhabit it. The name was adopted by a ruler who rose to power in the beginning of the 13th century. Before that time the Manchus were more or less a shifting population, and, being broken up into a number of tribes, they went mainly under the distinctive name of those clans which exercised lordship over them. Thus under the Cbow dynasty (1122-225 B.C.) they were known as Sewshin, and at subsequent periods as Yih-low, Wuh-keih, Moh-hoh, Pohai, Nüchih and according to the Chinese historians also as Khitan. Throughout their history they appear as a rude people, the tribute they brought to the Chinese court consisting of stone arrow-heads, hawks, gold, and latterly ginseng. Assuming that, as the Chinese say, the Khitans were Manchus, the first appearance of the Manchus, as a people, in China dates from the beginning of the 10th century, when the Khitans, having first conquered the kingdom of Pohai, crossed the frontier into China and established the Liao or Iron dynasty in the northern portion of the empire. These invaders were in their turn overthrown two centuries later by another invasion from Manchuria. These new conquerors were Nüchihs, and therefore direct ancestors of the Manchus. On assuming the imperial yellow in China their chief adopted the title of Kin or "Golden" for his dynasty. "Iron" (Liao), he said, "rusts, but gold always keeps its purity and colour, therefore my dynasty shall be called Kin." In a little more than a century, however, the Kins were driven out of China by the Mongols under Jenghiz Khan. But before the close of their rule a miraculous event occurred on the Chang-pai-Shan mountains which is popularly believed to have laid the seeds of the greatness of the present rulers of the empire. Three heaven-born maidens, so runs the legend, were bathing one day in a lake under the Chang-pai-Shan mountains when a passing magpie dropped a ripe red fruit into the lap of one of them. The maiden ate the fruit, and in due course a child was born to her, whom she named Aisin Gioro, or the Golden. When quite a lad Aisin Gioro was elected chief over three contending clans, and established his capital at Otoli near the Chang-pai-Shan mountains. His reign, however, was brief, for his subjects rose and murdered him, with all his sons except the youngest, Fancha, who, like the infant Haitu in Mongolian history, was miraculously saved. Nothing is recorded of the facts of Aisin Gioro's reign except that he named the people over whom he reigned Manchu, or "Pure." His descendants, through the rescued Fancha, fell into complete obscurity until about the middle of the 16th century, when one of them, Nurhachu by name, a chieftain of a small tribe, rose to power. Nurhachu played with skill and daring the rôle which had been played by Jenghiz Khan more than three centuries before in Mongolia. With even greater success than his Mongolian counterpart, Nurhachu drew tribe after tribe under his sway, and after numerous wars with Korea and Mongolia he established his rule over the whole of Manchuria. Being thus the sovereign of an empire, he, again like Jenghiz Khan, adopted for himself the title of Ying-ming, "Brave and Illustrious," and took for his reign the title of T'ien-ming. Thirteen years later, in 1617, after numerous border fights with the Chinese, Nurhachu drew up a list of "seven hates," or indictments, against his southern neighbours, and, not getting the satisfaction he demanded, declared war against them. The progress of this war, the peace hastily patched up, the equally hasty alliance and its consequences, being matters of Chinese history, are treated in the article CHINA.

Manchuria was claimed by Russia as her particular sphere of interest towards the close of the 19th century, and in the course of the disturbances of 1900 Russian troops occupied various parts of the country. Eventually a Manchurian convention was arranged between China and Russia, by which Russia was to evacuate the province; but no actual ratification of this convention was made by Russia. The Anglo-German agreement of October 1900, to which Japan also became a party, and by which it was agreed to "maintain undiminished the territorial condition of the Chinese empire," was considered by Great Britain and Japan not to exclude Manchuria; but Germany, on the other hand, declared that Manchuria was of no interest to her. The Anglo-Japanese treaty of 1902, however, was ostensibly directed towards the preservation of Manchuria in Chinese hands. British capital has been invested in the extension of the Chinese Northern railway to Niu-chwang, and the fact was officially recognized by an agreement between Great Britain and Russia in 1899. One result of the Russo-Japanese War was the evacuation of Manchuria by the Russians, which, after the conclusion of peace in 1905, was handed over by Japan to China.

See H. E. M. James, _The Long White Mountain_ (London, 1888); D.
Christie, _Ten Years in Manchuria_ (Paisley, 1895); F. E.
Younghusband, _The Heart of a Continent: a Narrative of Travels in
Manchuria_ (London, 1896); P. H. Kent, _Railway Enterprise in China_
(London, 1907). (R. K. D.)

MANCINI, PASQUALE STANISLAO (1817-1888), Italian jurist and statesman, was born at Castel Baronia, in the province of Avellino, on the 17th of March 1817. At Naples, where he studied law and displayed great literary activity, he rapidly acquired a prominent position, and in 1848 was instrumental in persuading Ferdinand II. to participate in the war against Austria. Twice he declined the offer of a portfolio in the Neapolitan cabinet, and upon the triumph of the reactionary party undertook the defence of the Liberal political prisoners. Threatened with imprisonment in his turn, he fled to Piedmont, where he obtained a university professorship and became preceptor of the crown prince Humbert. In 1860 he prepared the legislative unification of Italy, opposed the idea of an alliance between Piedmont and Naples, and, after the fall of the Bourbons, was sent to Naples as administrator of justice, in which capacity he suppressed the religious orders, revoked the Concordat, proclaimed the right of the state to Church property, and unified civil and commercial jurisprudence. In 1862 he became minister of public instruction in the Rattazzi cabinet, and induced the Chamber to abolish capital punishment. Thereafter, for fourteen years, he devoted himself chiefly to questions of international law and arbitration, but in 1876, upon the advent of the Left to power, became minister of justice in the Depretis cabinet. His Liberalism found expression in the extension of press freedom, the repeal of imprisonment for debt, and the abolition of ecclesiastical tithes. During the Conclave of 1878 he succeeded, by negotiations with Cardinal Pecci (afterwards Leo XIII.), in inducing the Sacred College to remain in Rome, and, after the election of the new pope, arranged for his temporary absence from the Vatican for the purpose of settling private business. Resigning office in March 1878, he resumed the practice of law, and secured the annulment of Garibaldi's marriage. The fall of Cairoli led to Mancini's appointment (1881) to the ministry of foreign affairs in the Depretis administration. The growing desire in Italy for alliance with Austria and Germany did not at first secure his approval; nevertheless he accompanied King Humbert to Vienna and conducted the negotiations which led to the informal acceptance of the Triple Alliance. His desire to retain French confidence was the chief motive of his refusal in July 1882 to share in the British expedition to Egypt, but, finding his efforts fruitless when the existence of the Triple Alliance came to be known, he veered to the English interest and obtained assent in London to the Italian expedition to Massawa. An indiscreet announcement of the limitations of the Triple Alliance contributed to his fall in June 1885, when he was succeeded by Count di Robilant. He died in Rome on the 26th of December 1888.

MANCIPLE, the official title of the caterer at a college, an inn of court, or other institution. Sometimes also the chief cook. The medieval Latin _manceps_, formed from _mancipium_, acquisition by purchase (see ROMAN LAW), meant a purchaser of stores, and _mancipium_ became used of his office. It is from the latter word that the O. Fr. _manciple_ is taken.

MANCUNIUM, the name often (though perhaps incorrectly) given as the Romano-British name of Manchester. Here, close to the Medlock, in the district still called Castlefield near Knott Mill, stood in Roman days a fort garrisoned by a cohort of Roman auxiliary soldiers. The site is now obscured by houses, railways and the Rochdale canal, but vestiges of Roman ramparts can still be seen, and other remains were found in 1907 and previous years. Traces of Romano-British inhabitation have been noted elsewhere in Manchester, especially near the cathedral. But there was no town here; we can trace nothing more than a fort guarding the roads running north through Lancashire and east into Yorkshire, and the dwellings of women-folk and traders which would naturally spring up outside such a fort. The ancient name is unknown. Our Roman authorities give both Mancunium and Mamucium, but it is not clear that either form is correct.

See W. T. Watkin's _Roman Lancashire_; C. Roeder's _Roman Manchester_,
and the account edited by F. Bruton of the excavations in 1907.
(F. J. H.)

MANDAEANS, also known as Sabians, Nasoraeans, or St John's Christians,[1] an Oriental sect of great antiquity, interesting to the theologian as almost the only surviving example of a religion compounded of Christian, heathen and Jewish elements on a type which is essentially that of ancient Gnosticism.

The Mandaeans are found in the marshy lands of South Babylonia (al-bataih), particularly in the neighbourhood of Basra (or Bussorah), and in Khuzistan (Disful, Shuster).[2] They speak the languages of the localities in which they are settled (Arabic or Persian), but the language of their sacred books is an Aramaic dialect, which has its closest affinities with that of the Babylonian Talmud, written in a peculiar character suggestive of the old Palmyrene.[3] The existence of the Mandaeans has been known since the middle of the 17th century, when the first Christian missionaries, Ignatius a Jesu[4] and Angelus a Sancto, began to labour among them at Basra; further information was gathered at a somewhat later date by Pietro della Valle[5] and Jean de Thévenot[6] (1633-1667), and in the following century by Engelbrecht Kaempfer (1651-1716), Jean Chardin (1643-1713) and Carsten Niebuhr. In recent times they have been visited by A. H. Petermann[7] and Albrecht Socin, and Siouffi[8] published in 1880 a full and accurate account of their manners and customs, taken from the lips of a converted Mandaean. For our knowledge of their doctrinal system, however, we still depend chiefly upon the sacred books already mentioned, consisting of fragments of very various antiquity derived from an older literature.[9] Of these the largest and most important is the _Sidra rabba_ ("Great Book"), known also as _Ginza_ ("Treasure"), consisting of two unequal parts, of which the larger is called _yamina_ (to the right hand) and the smaller _s'mala_ (to the left hand), because of the manner in which they are bound together. The former is intended for the living; the latter consists chiefly of prayers to be read at the burial of priests. As regards doctrine, the work is exhaustive; but it is diffuse, obscure, and occasionally self-contradictory, as might be expected in a work which consists of a number of unconnected paragraphs of various authorship and date. The last section of the "right-hand" part (the "Book of Kings") is one of the older portions, and from its allusion to "the Persian and Arabian kings" may be dated somewhere between A.D. 700 and 900. Many of the doctrinal portions may in substance well be still older, and date from the time of the Sassanids. None of the MSS., however, is older than the 16th century.[10]

The following sketch represents, as far as can be gathered from these heterogeneous sources, the principal features of the Mandaean system. The ground and origin of all things is _Pira_, or more correctly _Pera rabba_ ("the great abyss," or from [Hebrew: paar], "to split," cf. the Gnostic [Greek: buthos], or more probably cf. Heb. _peri_, "the great fruit"), associated with whom, and forming a triad with him, are the primal aeons _Ayar ziva rabba_, "the great shining aether," and _Mana rabba d'ekara_, "the great spirit of glory," usually called simply _Mana rabba_. The last-named, the most prominent of the three, is the king of light properly so called, from whom the development of all things begins. From him emanates _Yard^ena rabba_, "the great Jordan," which, as the higher-world soul, permeates the whole aether, the domain of Ayar. Alongside of _Mana rabba_ frequent mention is made of _D'mutha_, his "image," as a female power; the name "image of the father" arises out of the same conception as that which gives rise to the name of [Greek: ennoia] among the Greek Gnostics. _Mana rabba_ called into being the highest of the aeons properly so called, _Hayye Kadmaye_, "Primal Life," and then withdrew into deepest secrecy, visible indeed to the highest but not to the lowest aeons (cf. [Greek: Sophia] and [Greek: Propatôr]), yet manifesting himself also to the souls of the more pious of the Mandaeans after their separation from the body. Primal Life, who is properly speaking the Mandaean god, has the same predicates as the primal spirit, and every prayer, as well as every section of the sacred books, begins by invoking him.[11] The extremely fantastic delineation of the world of light by which _Hayye Kadmaye_ is surrounded (see for example the beginning of _Sidra rabba_) corresponds very closely with the Manichaean description of the abode of the "king of the paradise of light." The king of light "sits in the far north in might and glory." The Primal Light unfolds himself by five great branches, viz. "the highest purest light, the gentle wind, the harmony of sounds, the voice of all the aeons, and the beauty of their forms," all these being treated as abstractions and personified. Out of the further development and combination of these primary manifestations arise numerous aeons (_'Uthre_, "splendours," from [Hebrew: atar], "is rich"), of which the number is often stated to be three hundred and sixty. They are divided into a number of classes (kings, hypostases, forms, &c.); the proper names by which they are invoked are many, and for the most part obscure, borrowed doubtless, to some extent, from the Parsee angelology. From the First Life proceeds as a principal emanation the "Second Life," _Hayye Tinyane_, generally called _Yoshamin_. This last name is evidently meant to be Hebrew, "Yahweh of the heavens," the God of the Jews being of a secondary rank in the usual Gnostic style. The next emanation after _Yoshamin_ is "the messenger of life" (_Manda d'hayye_, literally [Greek: gnôsis tês zôês]), the most important figure in the entire system, the mediator and redeemer, the [Greek: logos] and the Christ of the Mandaeans, from whom, as already stated, they take their name. He belongs to the heathen Gnosis, and is in his essence the same as the Babylonian Marduk. _Yoshamin_ desired to raise himself above the Primal Light, but failed in the attempt, and was punished by removal out of the pure aetherial world into that of inferior light. Manda, on the other hand, continues with the First Life and _Mana rabba_, and is called his "beloved son," the "first born," "high priest" and "word of life." The "Life" calls into existence in the visible world a series of three great Helpers, Hibil, Shithil and Anosh (late Judaeo-Babylonian transformations of the well-known names of the book of Genesis), the guardians of souls. The last son of the Second Life is _Hayye t'lithaye_, the "Third Life," usually called father of the Uthre (_Aba d' 'Uthre_, _Abathur_). His usual epithet is "the Ancient" (_'Atiqa_), and he is also called "the deeply hidden and guarded." He stands on the borderland between the here and the hereafter, like the mysterious [Greek: preobutês tritos] or _senex tertius_ of Mani, whose becoming visible will betoken the end of the world. Abathur sits on the farthest verge of the world of light that lies towards the lower regions, and weighs in his balance the deeds of the departed spirits who ascend to him. Beneath him was originally nothing but a huge void with muddy black water at the bottom, in which his image was reflected, becoming ultimately solidified into P'tahil, his son, who now partakes of the nature of matter. The demiurge of the Mandaeans, and corresponding to the Ialdabaoth of the Ophites, he at the instance of his father frames the earth and men--according to some passages in conjunction with the seven bad planetary spirits. He created Adam and Eve, but was unable to make them stand upright, whereupon Hibil, Shithil and Anosh were sent by the First Life to infuse into their forms spirit from _Mana rabba_ himself. Hibil, at the instance of the supreme God, also taught men about the world of light and the aeons, and especially gave them to know that not P'tahil but another was their creator and supreme God, who as "the great king of light, without number, without limit," stands far above him. At the same time he enjoined the pair to marry and people the world. P'tahil had now lost his power over men, and was driven by his father out of the world of light into a place beneath it, whence he shall at the day of judgment be raised, and after receiving baptism be made king of the 'Uthre with divine honours.

The underworld is made up of four vestibules and three hells properly so called. The vestibules have each two rulers, Zartay and Zartanay, Hag and Mag, Gaf and Gafan, Anatan and Kin. In the highest hell rules alone the grisly king Sh'dum, "the warrior"; in the storey immediately beneath is Giv, "the great"; and in the lowest is Krun or Karkum, the oldest and most powerful of all, commonly called "the great mountain of flesh" (_Tura rabba d'besra_), but also "the first-born of darkness." In the vestibules dirty water is still to be met with, but the hells are full of scorching consuming fire, except Krun's domain, where is nought but dust, ashes and vacancy. Into these regions descended Hibil the brilliant, in the power of _Mana rabba_, just as in the Manichaean mythology the "primal man," armed with the elements of the king of light, descends to a contest with the primal devil. Hibil lingers, gradually unfolding his power, in each of the vestibules, and finally passing from hell to hell reaches Karkum. Hibil allows himself to be half swallowed by the monster, but is unhurt, and compels his antagonist to recognize the superiority of _Mana rabba_, the God of light, and to divulge his profoundest secret, the hidden name of darkness. Armed with this he returns through the successive hells, compelling the disclosure of every secret, depriving the rulers of their power, and barring the doors of the several regions. From the fourth vestibule he brought the female devil Ruha, daughter of Kin, and set her over the whole four. This Ruha, the mother of falsehood and lies, of poisoning and fornication is an anti-Christian parody of the Ruha d'Qudsha (Holy Spirit) of the Syriac Church. She is the mother of Ur, the personified fire of hell, who in anger and pride made a violent onset on the world of light (compare the similar occurrence in the Manichaean mythology), but was mastered by Hibil and thrown in chains down to the "black water," and imprisoned within seven iron and seven golden walls. By Ur, Ruha, while P'tahil was engaged in his work of creation, became mother of three sets of seven, twelve and five sons respectively; all were translated by P'tahil to the heavenly firmament (like the Archons of Mani), the first group forming the planets and the next the signs of the zodiac, while the third is as yet undetermined. Of the names of the planets Estera (Ishtar Venus, also called Ruha d'Qudsha, "holy spirit"), Enba (Nebo, Mercury), Sin (moon), Kewan (Saturn), Bil (Jupiter), and Nirig (Nirgal, Mars) reveal their Babylonian origin; Il or Il Il, the sun, is also known as Kadush and Adunay (the Adonai of the Old Testament); as lord of the planetary spirits his place is in the midst of them; they are the source of all temptation and evil amongst men. The houses of the planets, as well as the earth and a second world immediately to the north of it, rest upon anvils laid by Hibil on the belly of Ur.

In the Mandaean representation the sky is an ocean of water, pure and clear, but of more than adamantine solidity, upon which the stars and planets sail. Its transparency allows us to see even to the pole star, who is the central sun around whom all the heavenly bodies move. Wearing a jewelled crown, he stands before Abathur's door at the gate of the world of light; the Mandaeans accordingly invariably pray with their faces turned northward. The earth is conceived of as a round disk, slightly sloping towards the south, surrounded on three sides by the sea, but on the north by a high mountain of turquoises; behind this is the abode of the blest, a sort of inferior paradise, inhabited by the Egyptians who were saved from drowning with Pharaoh in the Red Sea, and whom the Mandaeans look upon as their ancestors, Pharaoh himself having been their first high priest and king. The total duration of the earth they fix at four hundred and eighty thousand years, divided into seven epochs, in each of which one of the planets rules. The _Sidra Rabba_ knows of three total destructions of the human race by fire and water, pestilence and sword, a single pair alone surviving in each case. In the Mandaean view the Old Testament saints are false prophets; such as Abraham, who arose six thousand years after Nu(Noah) during the reign of the sun, Misha (Moses), in whose time the true religion was professed by the Egyptians, and Shlimun (Solomon) bar Davith, the lord of the demons. Another false prophet and magician was Yishu M'shiha, who was in fact a manifestation of the planet Mercury. Forty-two years before his day, under King Pontius Pilate, there had appeared the true prophet Yahya or John son of Zechariah, an incarnation of Hibil, of whose birth and childhood fantastic stories are told. Yahya by a mistake gave baptism to the false Messiah, who had feigned humility; on the completion of his mission, after undergoing a seeming execution, he returned clothed with light into the kingdom of light. As a contemporary of Yahya and the false Messiah Hibil's younger brother Anosh 'Uthra came down from heaven, caused himself to be baptized by Yahya, wrought miracles of healing and of raising the dead, and brought about the crucifixion of the false Messiah. He preached the true religion, destroyed Jerusalem ("Urashlam," i.e. "the devil finished it"), which had been built by Adunay, dispersed over the world the Jews who had put Yahya to death, and previous to his return into the worlds of light sent forth three hundred and sixty prophets for the diffusion of the true religion. All this speaks of intense hatred alike of Jews and Christians; the fasts, celibacy and monastic and anchoret life of the latter are peculiarly objectionable to the Mandaeans. Two hundred and forty years after the appearing of the false Messiah there came to the world sixty thousand saints out of Pharaoh's world to take the place of the Mandaeans, who had been completely extirpated; their high priest had his residence in Damascus. The last false prophet was M'hammad or Ahmat bar Bisbat (Mahomet), but Anosh, who remained close beside him and his immediate successors, prevented hostilities against the true believers, who claim to have had in Babylonia, under the Abbasids, four hundred places of worship. Subsequent persecutions compelled their withdrawal to 'Ammara in the neighbourhood of Wasit, and ultimately to Khuzistan. At the end of the world the devil Ur will swallow up the earth and the other intermediate higher worlds, and thereupon will burst and fall into the abyss of darkness where, along with all the worlds and powers of darkness, he will ultimately cease to be, so that thenceforward the universe will consist of but one everlasting world of light.

The chief depositaries of these Mandaean mysteries are the priests,
who enjoy a high degree of power and social regard. The priesthood has
three grades: (1) the _Sh'kanda_ or deacon is generally chosen from
episcopal or priestly families, and must be without bodily blemish.
The candidate for orders must be at least nineteen years old and have
undergone twelve years' preparation; he is then qualified to assist
the priesthood in the ceremonies of religion. (2) The _Tarmida_ (i.e.
"Talmida," "initiated") or priest is ordained by a bishop and two
priests or by four priests after a long and extremely painful period
of preparation. (3) The _Ganzivra_ ("treasurer") or bishop, the
highest dignitary, is chosen from the whole body of the Tarmidas after
a variety of tests, and possesses unlimited authority over the
clergy. A supreme priestly rank, that of _Rish 'amma_, or "head of the
people," is recognized, but only in theory; since the time of Pharaoh
this sovereign pontificate has only once been filled. Women are
admitted to priestly offices as well as men. The priestly dress, which
is all white, consists of drawers, an upper garment, and a girdle with
the so-called _taga_ ("crown"); in all ceremonies the celebrants must
be barefoot. By far the most frequent and important of the religious
ceremonies is that of baptism (_masbutha_), which is called for in a
great variety of cases, not only for children but for adults, where
consecration or purification is required, as for example on all
Sundays and feast days, after contact with a dead body, after return
from abroad, after neglect of any formality on the part of a priest in
the discharge of his functions. In all these cases baptism is
performed by total immersion in running water, but during the five
days' baptismal festival the rite is observed wholesale by mere
sprinkling of large masses of the faithful at once. The Mandaeans
observe also with the elements of bread (_pehta_) and wine (_mambuha_,
lit. "fountain") a sort of eucharist, which has a special sanctifying
efficacy, and is usually dispensed at festivals, but only to baptized
persons of good repute who have never willingly denied the Mandaean
faith. In receiving it the communicant must not touch the host with
his finger; otherwise it loses its virtue. The hosts are made by the
priests from unleavened fine flour. The Mandaean places of worship,
being designed only for the priests and their assistants (the
worshippers remaining in the forecourt), are excessively small, and
very simply furnished; two windows, a door that opens towards the
south so that those who enter have their faces turned towards the pole
star, a few boards in the corner, and a gabled roof complete the whole
structure; there is neither altar nor decoration of any kind. The
neighbourhood of running water (for baptisms) is essential. At the
consecration of a church the sacrifice of a dove (the bird of Ishtar)
has place among the ceremonies. Besides Sundays there are six great
feasts: (1) that of the New Year (_Nauruz rabba_), on the first day of
the first month of winter; (2) _Dehwa h' nina_, the anniversary of the
happy return of _Hibil Ziva_ from the kingdom of darkness into that of
light, lasting five days, beginning with the 18th of the first month
of spring; (3) the _Marwana_, in commemoration of the drowned
Egyptians, on the first day of the second month of spring; (4) the
great five days' baptismal festival (_pantsha_), the chief feast, kept
on the five intercalary days at the end of the second month of
summer--during its continuance every Mandaean, male and female, must
dress in white and bathe thrice daily; (5) _Dehwa d'daimana_, in
honour of one of the three hundred and sixty 'Uthras, on the first day
of the second month of autumn; (6) _Kanshe Zahla_, the preparation
feast, held on the last day of the year. There are also fast days
called m'battal (Arab.), on which it is forbidden to kill any living
thing or eat flesh. These, however, are really "rest-days," as fasting
is forbidden in Mandaeism. The year is solar, and has twelve months of
thirty days each, with five intercalary days between the eighth and
the ninth month. Of the seven days of the week, next to Sunday
(habshaba) Thursday has a special sacredness as the day of _Hibil
Ziva_. As regards secular occupation, the present Mandaeans are
goldsmiths, ironworkers, and house and ship carpenters. The _Sidra
Rabba_ lays great stress upon the duty of procreation, and marriage is
a duty. In the 17th century, according to the old travellers, they
numbered about 20,000 families, but at the present day they hardly
number more than 1200 souls. In external appearance the Mandaean is
distinguished from the Moslem only by a brown coat and a
parti-coloured headcloth with a cord twisted round it. They have some
peculiar deathbed rites: a deacon with some attendants waits upon the
dying, and as death approaches administers a bath first of warm and
afterwards of cold water; a holy dress, consisting of seven pieces
(rasta), is then put on; the feet are directed towards the north and
the head turned to the south, so that the body faces the pole star.
After the burial a funeral feast is held in the house of mourning.

The Mandaeans are strictly reticent about their theological dogmas in
the presence of strangers; and the knowledge they actually possess of
these is extremely small. The foundation of the system is obviously to
be sought in Gnosticism, and more particularly in the older type of
that doctrine (known from the serpent symbol as Ophite or Naassene)
which obtained in Mesopotamia and Further Asia generally. But it is
equally plain that the Ophite nucleus has from time to time received
very numerous and often curiously perverted accretions from Babylonian
Judaism, Oriental Christianity and Parsism, exhibiting a striking
example of religious syncretism. In the Gnostic basis itself it is not
difficult to recognize the general features of the religion of ancient
Babylonia, and thus we are brought nearer a solution of the problem as
to the origin of Gnosticism in general. It is certain that Babylonia,
the seat of the present Mandaeans, must be regarded also as the cradle
in which their system was reared; it is impossible to think of them as
coming from Palestine, or to attribute to their doctrines a Jewish or
Christian origin. They do not spring historically from the disciples
of John the Baptist (Acts xviii. 25; xix. 3 seq.; _Recog. Clem._ i.
54); the tradition in which he and the Jordan figure so largely is not
original, and is therefore worthless; at the same time it is true that
their baptismal praxis and its interpretation place them in the same
religious group with the Hemerobaptists of Eusebius (_H. E._ iv. 22)
and Epiphanius (_Haer._, xvii.), or with the sect of disciples of
John who remained apart from Christianity. Their reverence for John is
of a piece with their whole syncretizing attitude towards the New
Testament. Indeed, as has been seen, they appropriate the entire
personale of the Bible from Adam, Seth, Abel, Enos and Pharaoh to
Jesus and John, a phenomenon which bears witness to the close
relations of the Mandaean doctrine both with Judaism and
Christianity--not the less close because they were relations of
hostility. The history of religion presents other examples of the
degradation of holy to demonic figures on occasion of religious
schism. The use of the word "Jordan," even in the plural, for "sacred
water," is precisely similar to that by the Naassenes described in the
_Philosophumena_ (v. 7); there [Greek: ho megas Iordanês] denotes the
spiritualizing sanctifying fluid which pervades the world of light.
The notions of the Egyptians and the Red Sea, according to the same
work (v. 16), are used by the Peratae much as by the Mandaeans. And
the position assigned by the Sethians ([Greek: Sêthianoi]) to Seth is
precisely similar to that given by the Mandaeans to Abel. Both alike
are merely old Babylonian divinities in a new Biblical garb. The
genesis of Mandaeism and the older gnosis from the old and elaborate
Babylonio-Chaldaean religion is clearly seen also in the fact that the
names of the old pantheon (as for example those of the planetary
divinities) are retained, but their holders degraded to the position
of demons--a conclusion confirmed by the fact that the Mandaeans, like
the allied Ophites, Peratae and Manichaeans, certainly have their
original seat in Mesopotamia and Babylonia. It seems clear that the
trinity of Anu, Bel, and Ea in the old Babylonian religion has its
counterpart in the Mandaean Pira, Ayar, and Mana rabba. The D'mutha of
Mana is the Damkina, the wife of Ea, mentioned by Damascius as [Greek:
Dankê], wife of [Greek: Ahos]. Manda d'hayye and his image Hibil Ziva
with his incarnations clearly correspond to the old Babylonian Marduk,
Merodach, the "first-born" son of Ea, with his incarnations, the chief
divinity of the city of Babylon, the mediator and redeemer in the old
religion. Hibil's contest with darkness has its prototype in Marduk's
battle with chaos, the dragon Tiamat, which (another striking
parallel) partially swallows Marduk, just as is related of Hibil and
the Manichaean primal man. Other features are borrowed by the Mandaean
mythology under this head from the well-known epos of Istar's
_descensus ad inferos_. The sanctity with which water is invested by
the Mandaeans is to be explained by the fact that Ea has his seat "in
the depths of the world sea."

Cf. K. Kessler's article, "Mandäer," in Herzog-Hauck's
_Realencyklopädie_, and the same author's paper, "Ueber Gnosis u.
altbabylonische Religion," in the _Abhandh. d. funften internationalen
Orientalisten-congresses zu Berlin_ (Berlin, 1882); also W. Brandt's
_Mandäische Religion_ (Leipzig, 1889), and M. N. Siouffi's _Études sur
la religion des Soubbas_ (Paris, 1880). (K. K.; G. W. T.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The first of these names (not Mendaeans or Mandaites) is that
given by themselves, and means [Greek: gnostikoi], followers of
Gnosis ([Hebrew: mandaia], from [Hebrew: manda], Hebr. [Hebrew:
madda]). The Gnosis of which they profess themselves adherents is a
_personification_, the æon and mediator "knowledge of life" (see
below). The title Nasoraeans (Nasoraye), according to Petermann, they
give only to those among themselves who are most distinguished for
knowledge and character. Like the Arabic Nasara, it is originally
identical with the name of the half heathen half Jewish-Christian
[Greek: Nazoraioi], and indicates an early connexion with that sect.
The inappropriate designation of St John's Christians arises from the
early and imperfect acquaintance of Christian missionaries, who had
regard merely to the reverence in which the name of the Baptist is
held among them, and their frequent baptisms. In their dealings with
members of other communions the designation they take is Sabians, in
Arabic Sabi'una, from [Hebrew: tzva] = [Hebrew: tzeva], to baptize,
thus claiming the toleration extended by the Koran (Sur, 5,.73; 22,
17; 2, 59) to those of that name.

[2] In 1882 they were said to have shrunk to 200 families, and to be
seeking a new settlement on the Tigris, to escape the persecutions to
which they are exposed.

[3] See T. Nöldeke's admirable _Mandäische Grammatik_ (Halle, 1875).

[4] _Narratio originis, rituum, et errorum Christianorum S. Joannis_
(Rome, 1652).

[5] _Reisebeschreibung_, part iv. (Geneva, 1674).

[6] _Voyage au Levant_ (Paris, 1664).

[7] _Reisen im Orient_, ii. 447 seq.

[8] M. M. Siouffi, _Études sur la religion ... des Soubbas_ (Paris,
1880).

[9] Mandaean MSS. occur in the British Museum, the Bodleian Library,
the Bibliothèque Nationale of France, and also in Rome, Weimar and
Berlin. A number of Mandaean inscriptions relating to popular beliefs
and superstitions have been published by H. Pognon, _Inscriptions
mandaites_ (2 vols., Paris, 1898-1899), also by M. Lidzbarski in his
_Ephemeris_ (Giessen, 1900 seq.).

[10] The first printed edition and translation of the _Sidra rabba_,
by Matth. Norberg (_Codex Nazaraeus, liber Adami appellatus_, 3
vols., Copenhagen, 1815-1816, followed by a lexicon in 1816, and an
onomasticon in 1817), is so defective as to be quite useless; even
the name Book of Adam is unknown to the Mandaeans. Petermann's
_Thesaurus s. Liber magnus, vulgo "Liber Adami" appellatus, opus
Mandaeorum summi panderis_ (2 vols., Berlin and Leipzig, 1867), is an
excellent metallographic reproduction of the Paris MS. A German
translation of about a quarter of this work has been published in W.
Brandt's _Mandäische Schriften_, with notes (Göttingen, 1893). A
critical edition still remains a desideratum. Next in importance to
the _Sidra rabba_ is the _Sidra d'Yahya_, or "Book of John,"
otherwise known as the _D'rasche d'Malke_, "Discourses of the Kings,"
which has not as yet been printed as a whole, although portions nave
been published by Lorsbach and Tychsen (see _Museum f. bibl. u.
orient. Lit._ (1807), and Stäudlin's _Beitr. z. Phil. u. Gesch. d.
Relig. u. Sittenlehre_ 1796 seq.). The _Kolasta_ (Ar. _Khulasa_,
"Quintessence"), or according to its fuller title _'Enyane uderashe
d'masbutha umassektha_ ("Songs and Discourses of Baptism and the
Ascent," viz. of the soul after death), has been admirably
lithographed by Euting (Stuttgart, 1867). It is also known as _Sidra
d'neshmatha_, "Book of Souls," and besides hymns and doctrinal
discourses contains prayers to be offered by the priests at sacrifice
and at meals, as well as other liturgical matter. The Mandaean
marriage service occurs both in Paris and in Oxford as an independent
MS. The _Diwan_, hitherto unpublished, contains the ritual for
atonement. The _Asfar malwashe_, or "Book of the Zodiac," is
astrological. Of smaller pieces many are magical and used as amulets.

[11] The use of the word "life" in a personal sense is usual in
Gnosticism; compare the [Greek: Zôê] of Valentin and _el-hayat
el-muallama_, "the dark life," of Mani in the _Fihirst_.

MANDALAY, formerly the capital of independent Burma, now the headquarters of the Mandalay division and district, as well as the chief town in Upper Burma, stands on the left bank of the Irrawaddy, in 21° 59´ N. and 96° 8´ E. Its height above mean sea-level is 315 ft. Mandalay was built in 1856-1857 by King Mindon. It is now divided into the municipal area and the cantonment. The town covers an area of 6 m. from north to south and 3 from east to west, and has well-metalled roads lined with avenues of trees and regularly lighted and watered. The cantonment consists of the area inside the old city walls, and is now called Fort Dufferin. In the centre stands the palace, a group of wooden buildings, many of them highly carved and gilt, resting on a brick platform 900 ft. by 500 ft., and 6 ft. high. The greater part of it is now utilized for military and other offices. The garrison consists of a brigade belonging to the Burma command of the Indian army. There are many fine pagodas and monastic buildings in the town. The population in 1901 was 183,816, showing a decrease of 3% in the decade. The population is very mixed. Besides Burmese there are Zerbadis (the offspring of a Mahommedan with a Burman wife), Mahommedans, Hindus, Jews, Chinese, Shans and Manipuris (called Kathe), Kachins and Palaungs. Trains run from Mandalay to Rangoon, Myit-kyina, and up the Mandalay-Kunlong railway. The steamers of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company also ply in all directions. There are twenty bazaars, the chief of which, the Zegyo, was burnt in 1897, and again in 1906, but rebuilt.

The MANDALAY DISTRICT has an area of 2117 sq. m. and a population (1901) of 366,507, giving a density of 177 inhabitants to the square mile. About 600 sq. m. along the Irrawaddy river are flat land, nearly all cultivated. In the north and east there are some 1500 sq. m. of high hills and table-lands, forming geographically a portion of the Shan table-land. Here the fall to the plains averages 3000 to 4000 ft. in a distance of 10 m. This part of the district is well wooded and watered. The Maymyo subdivision has very fine plateaus of 3000 to 3600 ft. in height. The highest peaks are between 4000 and 5000 ft. above sea-level. The Irrawaddy, the Myit-ngè and the Madaya are the chief rivers. The last two come from the Shan States, and are navigable for between 20 and 30 m. There are many canals, most of which have fallen greatly into disrepair, and the Aungbinle, Nanda and Shwepyi lakes also supply water for cultivation. A systematic irrigation scheme has been undertaken by the government. The Sagyin hills near Madaya are noted for their alabaster; rubies are also found in small quantities. There are 335 sq. m. of forest reserves in the district, but there is little teak. The climate is dry and healthy. During May and June and till August strong winds prevail. The thermometer rises to about 107° in the shade in the hot weather, and the minimum in the month of December is about 55°. The rainfall is light, the average being under 30 in.

The DIVISION includes the districts of Mandalay, Bhamo, Myit-kyina, Katha and Ruby Mines, with a total area of 29,373 sq. m., and a population (1901) of 777,338, giving an average density of 30 inhabitants to the square mile. (J. G. Sc.)

MANDAMUS, WRIT OF, in English law, a high prerogative writ issuing from the High Court of Justice (named from the first word in the Latin form of the writ) containing a command in the name of the king, directed to inferior courts, corporations, or individuals, ordering them to do a specific act within the duty of their office, or which they are bound by statute to do, and performance whereof the applicant for the writ has a specific legal right to enforce. Direct orders from the sovereign to subjects commanding the performance of particular acts were common in early times, and to this class of orders _mandamus_ originally belonged. It became customary for the court of king's bench, in cases where a legal duty was established but no sufficient means existed for enforcing it, to order performance by this writ. Under the Judicature Acts and the _Crown Office Rules_, 1906 (r. 49), the powers of the court of king's bench as to the grant of the prerogative writ of mandamus are exercisable only in the king's bench division of the High Court.

The writ though of right is not of course: i.e. the applicant cannot have it merely for the asking, but must satisfy the High Court that circumstances exist calling for its issue. The procedure regulating the grant and enforcement of the writ is determined by the _Crown Office Rules_, 1906 (rr. 49-68, 125).

_Mandamus_ has always been regarded as an exceptional remedy to
supplement the deficiencies of the common law, or defects of justice.
Where another legal or equitable remedy exists, equally appropriate,
convenient, speedy, beneficial and effectual, the writ will as a rule
be refused. It is occasionally granted even when a remedy by
indictment is available: but is not issued unless the existence of the
duty and refusal to perform it are clearly established, nor where
performance in fact has become impossible. The writ is used to compel
inferior courts to hear and determine according to law cases within
their jurisdiction, e.g. where a county court or justices in petty or
quarter sessions refuse to assume a jurisdiction which they possess to
deal with a matter brought before them. It has in recent years been
employed to compel municipal bodies to discharge their duties as to
providing proper sewerage for their districts and to compel
anti-vaccinationist guardians of the poor to appoint officers for the
execution of the Vaccination Acts; and it is also employed to compel
the promoters of railway and similar undertakings to discharge duties
imposed upon them towards the public by their special acts, e.g. with
reference to highways, &c., affected by their railways or other
undertakings. The courts do not prescribe the specific manner in which
the duty is to be discharged, but do not stay their hands until
substantial compliance is established.

Besides the prerogative common-law writ there are a number of orders,
made by the High Court under statutory authority, and described as or
as being in the nature of mandamus, e.g. mandamus to proceed to the
election of a corporate officer of a municipal corporation (Municipal
Corporations Act 1882, s. 225); orders in the nature of mandamus to
justices to hear and determine a matter within their jurisdiction, or
to state and sign a case under the enactments relating to special
cases.

At common law mandamus lies only for the performance of acts of a
public or official character. The enforcement of merely private
obligations, such as those arising from contracts, is not within its
scope. By s. 68 of the Common Law Procedure Act 1854, the plaintiff in
any action other than replevin and ejectment was empowered to claim a
writ of mandamus to compel the defendant to fulfil any duty in the
fulfilment of which the plaintiff was personally interested. By s. 25
(8) of the Judicature Act 1873 a mandamus may be granted by an
interlocutory order of the High Court in all cases in which it shall
appear to the court just or convenient that such an order should be
made. This enactment does not deal with the prerogative mandamus but
empowers the king's bench and the chancery divisions to grant an
interlocutory mandamus in any pending cause or matter by an order
other than the final judgment and even by an order made after the
judgment. S. 68 of the act of 1854 has been repealed and replaced by
Order LIII. of the _Rules of the Supreme Court_. The remedy thus
created is an attempt to engraft upon the old common law remedy by
damages a right in the nature of specific performance of the duty in
question. It is not limited to cases in which the prerogative writ
would be granted; but mandamus is not granted when the result desired
can be obtained by some remedy equally convenient, beneficial and
effective, or a particular and different remedy is provided by
statute. An action for mandamus does not lie against judicial officers
such as justices. The mandamus issued in the action is no longer a
writ of mandamus, but a judgment or order having effect equivalent to
the writ formerly used.

_Mandatory Injunction._--The High Court has a jurisdiction derived
from the court of chancery to grant injunctions at the suit of the
attorney-general or of private persons. Ordinarily these injunctions
are in the form of prohibition or restraint and not of command. But
occasionally mandatory injunctions are granted in the form of a direct
command by the court.

_Specific Performance._--The jurisdiction of the High Court, derived
from the court of chancery, to decree specific performance of
contracts has some resemblance to mandamus in the domains of public or
quasi-public law.

_Ireland._--The law of Ireland as to mandamus is derived from that of
England, and differs therefrom only in minor details.

_British Possessions._--In a British possession the power to issue the
prerogative writ is usually vested in the Supreme Court by its charter
or by local legislation.

_United States._--The writ has passed into the law of the United
States. "There is in the federal judiciary an employment of the writ
substantially as the old prerogative writ in the king's bench
practice, also as a mode of exercising appellate jurisdiction, also as
a proceeding ancillary to a judgment previously rendered, in exercise
of original jurisdiction, as when a circuit court having rendered a
judgment against a county issues a mandamus requiring its officers to
levy a tax to provide for the payment of the judgment." And in the
various states mandamus is used under varying regulations, mandate
being in some cases substituted as the name of the proceeding.

MANDAN, a tribe of North American Indians of Siouan stock. When first met they were living on the Missouri at the mouth of the Heart river. At the beginning of the 19th century they were driven up the Missouri by the Sioux. In 1845 they joined the Gros Ventres and later the Arikaras, and settled in their present position at Fort Berthold reservation, North Dakota. The Mandans have always been agricultural; they are noted for their ceremonies, and from the tattooing on face and breast were described in the sign language as "the tattooed people."

MANDARIN, the common name for all public officials in China, the Chinese name for whom is _kwan_ or _kwun_. The word comes through the Portuguese from Malay _mantri_, a counsellor or minister of state. The ultimate origin of this word is the Sanskrit root _man-_, meaning to "think," seen in "man," "mind," &c. The term "mandarin" is not, in its western usage, applied indiscriminately to all civil and military officials, but only to those who are entitled to wear a "button," which is a spherical knob, about an inch in diameter, affixed to the top of the official cap or hat. These officials, civil and military alike, are divided into nine grades or classes, each grade being distinguished by a button of a particular colour. The grade to which an official belongs is not necessarily related to the office he holds. The button which distinguishes the first grade is a transparent red stone; the second grade, a red coral button; the third, a sapphire; the fourth, a blue opaque stone; the fifth, a crystal button; the sixth, an opaque white shell button; the seventh, a plain gold button; the eighth, a worked gold button; and the ninth, a worked silver button. The mandarins also wear certain insignia embroidered on their official robes, and have girdle clasps of different material. The first grade have, for civilians an embroidered Manchurian crane on the breast and back, for the military an embroidered unicorn with a girdle clasp of jade set in rubies. The second grade, for civilians an embroidered golden pheasant, for the military a lion with a girdle clasp of gold set in rubies. The third grade, for civilians a peacock, for the military a leopard with a clasp of worked gold. The fourth grade, for civilians a wild goose, for the military a tiger, and a clasp of worked gold with a silver button. The fifth grade, for civilians a silver pheasant, for the military a bear and a clasp of plain gold with a silver button. The sixth grade, for civilians an egret, for the military a tiger-cat with a mother-of-pearl clasp. The seventh grade, for civilians a mandarin duck, for the military a mottled bear with a silver clasp. The eighth grade, for civilians a quail, for the military a seal with a clear horn clasp. The ninth grade, for civilians a long-tailed jay, for the military a rhinoceros with a buffalo-horn clasp.

The "mandarin language" is the Chinese, which is spoken in official and legal circles; it is also spoken over a considerable portion of the country, particularly the northern and central parts, though not perhaps with the same purity. Mandarin duck (_anas galericulata_) and Mandarin orange (_citrus nobilis_) possibly derive their names, by analogy, from the sense of superiority implied in the title "mandarin."

See _Society in China_, by Sir R. K. Douglas; _L'Empire du milieu_, by
E. and O. Reclus.

MANDASOR, or MANDSAUR, a town of Central India, in the native state of Gwalior, on the Rajputana railway, 31 m. S. of Neemuch. Pop. (1901), 20,936. It gave its name to the treaty with Holkar, which concluded the Mahratta-Pindari War in 1818. It is a centre of the Malwa opium trade.

Mandasor and its neighbourhood are full of archaeological interest. An inscription discovered near the town indicated the erection of a temple of the sun in 437, and at Sondani are two great monolith pillars recording a victory of Yasodharma, king of Malwa, in 528. The fort dates from the 14th and 15th centuries. Hindu and Jain remains are numerous, though the town is now entirely Mahommedan.