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STORY OF QIQEL
IV. THE STORY OF QIQEL AND THE
DEATH OF YAHYA
Qiqel was a yaluja (scholar). He loved learning and piety
and was devout. But his heart yearned to see, so that he
might have certainty of the spiritual world. He dwelt in
the wilderness and in the mountains, wandering from
place to place and worshipping God continually. He took
with him only a little food and a skin of water, and travelled
like that—a darwish.
He fared on and on, and in the midst of a desert place
he saw a domed chamber and a darwJsh near it. The
darwtsji had built the dome of clay, and had fashioned it
so that just below the dome there were twelve round
openings, thus the sun, as it travelled round the sky, lit
each in turn.^ The place was clean and well-tended. Qiqel
gazed at the dome and the darwish asked him, ‘What are
you staring at—you.^’
Qiqel answered, ‘My heart loves this building! It is
beautiful!’
Said the darwlsJi^ ‘If your heart loves it, it is a sign that
your honour is one who knows’ (^dlim).
Said Qiqel, ‘I should like to see what is within this
shrine.’
Answered the darwisjk^ ^Khdtrak\ For your sake, I will
show you!’ And he opened the door and they gazed
within. At first Qiqel saw nothing but an empty, clean
place.
Said the darwish^ ‘Enter and sit!’ They entered, and
Qiqel sat and the darwish with him.
Then the darwisji said to Qiqel, ‘Gaze at that opening’,
and they both gazed, and the darwish recited prayers softly,
recited softly. Qiqel listened, and by degrees it appeared
to him that he was listening to Mandaean invocations.
He recognized Mandaean words of prayer and incantation,
and, as he glanced into the gloom of the room, there
appeared before him suddenly something in the guise of
a being of light. The light played and radiated. Then he
heard the darwisjt recite, ‘In the name of the Great Life!
I have purified my hands . . . ’ a prayer of the King of Light.
Qiqel gazed and he saw light, more light, light, and
spirits of light. The more the darwisJi read the more
radiant the light became.
The darwisjt said to him, ‘There are ninety butjia
(prayers). Each time, thirty butjka must be recited.’
After the visions had passed, they talked to each other,
and Qiqel asked the darwish, ‘Of what sect {milld), of
what religion, is your honour.?’
The darwisJi replied, ‘I am alone. There were others
like me, but the Jews killed them.’
Qiqel said, ‘Nay, but you are a Mandail’
Said the darwish, ‘From whence knew you the Mandai .?’
Qiqel answered him, ‘I Qiqel, who sit before you, I am
a Mandail’
When the darwisjt heard that, he fell into his arms and
they kissed each other and wept, till the darwiji said,
‘Why weep.? I am happy! My heart rejoices!’
Qiqel said, ‘And I too am happy, for I have seen that
which I have seen!’ and he said to the darwish, ‘We are
brothers! Let us live and die together. Do not depart
from me, and I will not depart from you. We will pray
always together.’
So it was. They saw many visions. They saw a vision
of Liwet Qadeshta (Venus the Sacred); they saw the like-
ness of Shamish and Sin, and the head of 'Ur which is
lifted towards Awathur, and the 'a/An who are with the
stars. They saw them in the clay room, from the openings.
And after that they rose and collected some of the
Nasurai and Mandai who had been scattered in the district
and they taught them. Ten men, ten pious men, they
brought to be of their fellowship. And they made an
image of him whom they had seen in the sky—of him at
whom they had gazed through the opening. They made
images of them all in stone, of Nirigh, of Bel, of Liwet and
Sin, and this last, of the moon, had seven heads branching
out like a tree. Of Shamish, the sun, they also made an
image, but they were unable to make it aright, for he is
all light, many-eyed, of various appearances, of different
forms which turn and wheel and radiate. But they made
an image of a person sitting, of extreme beauty, like one
form of Shamish.^ When one sees Shamish in this form,
a sweet wind breathes upon one, and one swoons away
because of its great loveliness. All the images which were
made and worshipped later in that place had their origin
in the images which these two made.3
The name of that darwt^ was Bahram, and he had a
special secret knowledge which he imparted to his pupils.
When they knew it, they might be thrown into fire, and
they would not burn, and into water, and they would not
drown, nor would a sword eat them, for, if a man drew
a sword against them it was he who fell, not they. Such
power came from them that it repulsed the sword. Their
place was in the north—somewhere near Damascus,
Jerusalem, and Egypt.
At one time the Mandai were the masters of the north
and of this country also. Their origin was of the moun-
tains, and they always loved mountains better than the
plains, for in the hills there are springs in which to bathe,
in winter warm, and in summer cold. For our people
have always loved bathing and washing.
But of these darawisk, Bahram, Qiqel, and their
brethren. Once a tribe, a people, came upon them and
asked, ‘Who are ye ?’
They replied, ‘We are daraviisji who have settled here.’
They said, 'Dardwt^ ! What is your occupation ?’
They answered, ‘We till the ground, and harvest and
pray. That is all.’ For they had no wives. They had
become learned in the knowledge of those who travel in
arks (i.e. the planets) and had acquired knowledge of their
speech, for all the stars talk in Mandaean. (Each star is
far from the other and has a great world attached to it. But
one star sees its fellows from afar off, perfectly, and they
talk, one with another, through space. When they pray,
it is like the singing of birds. All the stars pray. The
northern stars pray twelve butha and the rest seven
buwatju^ A pure soul can hear the prayers of the Sun and
the prayers of the stars in their places, like the singing of
birds. But one day of the year they chant the name of God
in unison, and the music of it is like the music which the
Angrezi (English) make (in orchestras). If a man is pure
and knowing, he hears it, he starts from his sleep and
prays with them, but men who are not knowing they hear
nothing. A man who hears, does not so with his physical
ears, he hears the singing within him (the narrator struck
his head). Lady! a man who knows, hears the sound of
prayer always, for everything that exists, 'uthri, stars, all
creation, prays continually!)
The strange tribe said to the darawish, ‘Teach us your
knowledge, or we shall kill you!’
They denied the possession of knowledge.
The people and their leader rose and made a huge fire
and said, ‘Bring them here and throw them on the fire!’
They threw them on the fire, but the darawisji began
to walk about in the fire and were not burnt. Then they
threw more of them into the fire, but they did not burn
they walked in the fire.
The leader gazed, and he thought he saw a light
descending from the sky which turned about each one of
them, so that the fire could not touch them ; and a radiance
shone about them. These men could not be killed for
their power was from God. Qiqel smiled at their king
from the midst of the fire.
The king said to Qiqel, ‘Why do you smile ?'
Qiqel replied, ‘You rule this people, yet have no under-
standing. You cannot kill us or harm us, indeed, you
should fear us ! Are you not afraid of such people as we ?’
The king’s advisers said to him, ‘Baba! We are afraid
of them! Let us depart! Better let us depart!’ But there
was with the king a man who had knowledge, but of Dark-
ness. The king said, ‘Bring that one!’ They brought him.
The king asked, ‘What are these people whom we are
unable to burn
The man replied, ‘These worship Melka ad Ziwa and
Melka ad Anhura. They have knowledge of the Light
and of the Darkness.’
The king said, ‘Can you not prevail against them ?’
The man said, ‘Never! For they do not use magic, but
knowledge. Their power, it is of God.’
Said the king, ‘Will they not teach us their knowledge ?’
The other replied, ‘No, they never teach it!’
The king said, ‘Can you do nothing against them?’
The wizard said, ‘By day I cannot harm them, for my
power is of the Darkness.’
Said the king, ‘Good! Harm them by night. I want to
test the power of your learning.’
The magician arose, and in the night he strewed sand
round the Mandai. They looked and understood per-
fectly what he was doing. The sand changed, and became
soldiers, each with a sword in his hand. When the king
saw it, he was delighted, and cried, ‘Now we can fall upon
them!’
He went to the Mandai again, and said to them, ‘Either
teach us, or these soldiers will kill you!’
Bahram answered, ‘These soldiers can kill your soldiers
but not usl’ Said the king, ‘How so?’ Bahram said, ‘A
little patience, and you will see. You and your people are
slow of understanding.’ Then Qiqel read a I’utha of
Pthahil. The soldiers advanced against them
and were hurled back. They could not even come near
them!
Bahram said, ‘Let no harm come to these! Let them
return to their place!’
The king went to the magician and said, ‘See, your
soldiers are being repulsed, they are retreating!’ The
magician replied: ‘My soldiers can do nothing because
the power of these men is stronger. Let us depart from
them: it will be better.’
Then the king went to Bahram and Qiqel and said, T
am your suppliant! I crave to know how you get such a
result, that, and that only.’
They answered him, ‘We are darawish God gave us
the knowledge which we possess through prayer. All our
power is of God!’
The king said, ‘With such power, why do you not
become sultans
They replied, ‘Why should we become sultans ? What
are sultans.'’ God is the Sultan. Moreover, we have no
wish for servants to do this and that for us. We work for
ourselves and we prepare our food with our own two hands.’
The king said to them, ‘Good ! And if I worship and
pray ?’
They said, ‘If you pray and exercise justice, you will
become a good man.’
He went, that king, and he left everything, and he
became a darwish, taking nothing with him but a bag
and a bowl. Only, he took some precious stones with him
so that, if he were in need, he could sell them and get what
was necessary. He journeyed and journeyed, until he
came to the Jordan, where Yahya was baptizing.
When the king saw Yahya, he said to him, ‘Baptize me !’
and Yahya baptized him. When the baptism was over,
Yahya began to question him, ‘Who are you.-* Whence
came you.^’ He answered, ‘I am So-and-So and I saw
such-and-such dardwisji in the desert’, telling him what
had happened.
Yahya said, ‘These people are sacred, for they know
the true name of God, and fire cannot burn them nor
water drown them, nor the sword eat them.’
The king said, ‘Your honour—are you not like them.?’
Yahya replied, ‘Aye, I am one of them. . . .’*
Now, as the king and Yahya were talking together a
little child aged about three years approached Yahya, and
said to him, ‘Come, baptize me!’
The king was astonished, and said to Yahya, ‘He asks
to be baptized at his agel’
Yahya said, ‘I am tired and wish to sleep now. Come
to-morrow, and I will baptize you, for I have baptized
many to-day, and need twelve hours’ sleep.’
The boy said, ‘Aye, come out of the water now and
sleep!’
John came out, and the child gazed at him, and im-
mediately Yahya sank into a deep sleep on the shore of
the river. The king stared at the child, who, though so
little, had caused Yahya to sleep by looking at him—
strange thing. And Yahya slept the sleep of a night in
the space of half an hour.
Then he awoke and said to the child, ‘Still waiting.^
and I have slept a long time 1 Have you no people } Why
did you not go to them ?'
The child replied, ‘My people are everywhere.’
Said Yahya, ‘Your people are everywhere.? How can
that be.?’
The child said, ‘Baptize me now, and I will tell you!’
Yahya entered the water, but when the boy stepped
into the Jordan, the water rose like a mountain and re-
treated before him, leaving dry land. The fishes lifted
their heads from the water and prayed.
Yahya cried, ‘Your honour is no boy! The water flees
from before you!’
The child said, ‘Baptize me!’
Yahya replied, ‘I cannot! The water rises and departs
from you.’
The birds saw and came and hovered over their heads
crying out the names of God, ‘Yukhawar Ziwa!’^ ‘Man-
da-t-fiaiyl’ again and again.
Yahya said to the child, ‘I am your suppliant! You are
no little boy! Disclose to me your nature and your name!’
The child replied, ‘Have no fear! I am Manda-t-Haiy
(Manda d Hiid), did you not hear the birds proclaim it .?’
(And, lady, when the birds cry in the morning, they
cry the name of God, each in his own particular tongue
the sparrow, the hoopoe, the vulture, each has his own
c^—one sound, whereas the sons of Adam have many
different cries and sounds. Yes, one sparrow cries like
another! But God gives them the power of distinguishing
each other, and a cock-sparrow knows his wife out of
thousands!)
The child said, ‘I am Manda-t-Haiy and I have come
to take your soul above.’
(He came in the shape of a little child, but he could take
any shape that it pleased him—fire, cloud, or anything.
For just as when you think of a thing it takes shape in your
mind, so great spirits can think of things, and they are I)
The child took the hand of Yahya in his, and the soul
of Yahya left him and his body died in the river.
The king departed, having seen all, and been en-
lightened, he went, and spoke to all he met of what he
had seen and heard.
Now, when he had left his body Yahya looked down
and saw his corpse in the water. The birds descended
upon it and began to peck at it, for it began to decay. The
vulture flew down, and began to pluck out the eyes.
Yahya gazed at it, and Manda-t-Haiy said, ‘Why gaze
on that? That is a corrupt thing, of the earth!’ And
Manda-t-Haiy seized earth and buried it. Yahya was glad,
for he had loved his earthly body, which we call paghra
or ’ostuna, and did not wish it harmed. And the grave
still appears above the Jordan like a mound, and the
Mandai know it for Yahya’s grave.
But he was taken and borne to the Realm of Light, and
to Shamish and the Lord of Radiance, and joined in the
perpetual worship of the Light King.
