The Mandaeans

Karen L. King
— Harvard Divinity School
"Edmondo Lupieri's excellent introduction to the Mandaeans both fills an important gap in contemporary historical scholarship on religion and offers an opportunity for a broad audience to become acquainted with this fascinating people and their tradition. Among the most ancient of the world's living religions, the Mandaeans have preserved their tradition through periods of persecution and plenty. Lupieri's well-researched book tells this story and introduces the texts of this tradition in a finely written style."

Pheme Perkins
— Boston College
"This book makes an important contribution to the study of a religion whose modern adherents are largely unknown and whose ancient sources are not accessible to students of religion with access to a scholarly library. For the scholar, Lupieri's careful analysis of the historical information about Mandaeanism provides a new look at how this movement was shaped by the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The annotated anthology of selections from Mandaean texts provides a readable guide for the novice. Its attention to texts that refer to the religion of others will be particularly valuable to students of comparative religion."

Michael A. Williams
— University of Washington
"Lupieri's eminently readable and highly informative introduction to the Mandaeans fills a large gap in academic treatments of this still understudied tradition, whose origins and history are both fascinating and shrouded in considerable mystery. His engaging style of analysis offers an insightful framework for understanding the nature and evolution of Mandaean culture and its relation to other religious cultures — Jewish, Christian, and Islamic — among which and over against which it has shaped its own identity. This book should be very useful in helping students to see Mandaean religion as not merely an obscure curiosity but as one case study with some remarkable relevance for exploring the dynamics of religion and ethnicity in our world at large."