Yahia Bihram’s narrative colophons: Part 2: DC47

Abstract

This article presents an editio princeps and translation of a narrative colophon authored in 1249 AH (= 1833–4 CE) by the renowned Mandaean communal leader Yahia Bihram. The text describes events in his life in the period leading up to the great cholera epidemic of 1831–1832 and in its immediate aftermath. The narrative is composed in the idiom that is characteristic of this genre, i.e., a mixed literary language that combines classicising features with elements drawn from the vernacular. The accompanying notes examine particularly the post-classical elements and their relationship to contemporary Neo-Mandaic.