The manuscript was purchased by E. S. Drower from Sheikh Nejm bar Zahroon in 1939[3] and was copied in 1270 A.H. (1853 A.D.) in the marshlands in the territory of the Kit bin Sa'ad, by Yahia Bihram br Adam Yuhana. DC 23b contains a variant of one of the qmahas.[4]
A brief study of the manuscript has been published by Bogdan Burtea (2005).[5]
Contents
Also known as the Poor Priest's Treasury,[6] the manuscript is a Mandaic-language scroll consisting of qmahas used for exorcism and magic. The contents are as follows, with links also provided to transliterated texts in the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon (CAL).
^Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2010). The great stem of souls: reconstructing Mandaean history. Piscataway, N.J: Gorgias Press. ISBN978-1-59333-621-9.
^Morgenstern, Matthew (2013). New Manuscript Sources for the Study of Mandaic. In: V. Golinets et. al (eds.), Neue Beiträge zur Semitistik. Sechstes Treffen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Semitistik in der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft vom 09.–11. Februar 2013 in Heidelberg. AOAT, Ugarit Verlag.
^Müller-Kessler, Christa (2010). "A Mandaic Incantation Against an Anonymous Dew Causing Fright: Drower Collection 20 and Its Variant 43 E". ARAM (22). Peeters: 453–476. ISBN9789042929579.
^Morgenstern, Matthew (ed.). "Qmaha ḏ-Gastata". The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon. Retrieved 2024-07-27.
^Bogdan Burtea, 'Ein mandäischer magischer Text aus der Drower Collection', in B. Burtea, J. Tropper, H. Younansardaroud, Studia Semitica et Semitohamitica. Festschrift Rainer Voigt zum sechzigsten Geburtstag, (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 317. Münster, 2005), pp. 93–123.
^Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2002). The Mandaeans: ancient texts and modern people. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-515385-5. OCLC65198443.
