Marwan Jubouri - Baghdad
Sami Zahron sits alone in his home in Karrada district, east of Baghdad, after all his family left for Australia, but he was unable to leave his home and home where he was born and raised, he says.
Zuhron, who is over 60, is one of the Sabean Mandaeans who decided to stay in Iraq, despite the departure of most members of the community. Despite his feeling of loneliness now, his hesitation on the community temple in Qadisiyah area west of Baghdad allows him to communicate with his relatives and friends who have not migrated so far .
This citizen expects that Iraq will be free of Sabean in the next ten years. The years after the American invasion and successive waves of violence that targeted them, like others, drove them out of the country in search of security and stability in countries that granted them asylum.
According to many statistics, Sabians are the smallest and most peaceful Iraqi sects, and their history in Mesopotamia dates back thousands of years.
They were known for their crafting of gold and silver. Among them were many prominent names in various fields, such as the late poet Abdul Razak Abdul Wahid, the poet of Maysa Abbas Tawfiq Amara, the former president of Baghdad University Abduljabbar Abdullah, the artist Anwar Abdel Wahab and others.
Their presence is concentrated in the cities of Basra, Maysan and Nasiriyah in the south of the country alongside Baghdad. They maintain a private temple in most of the cities where they have a presence, known as al-Mandi.
| Religious clerics at a religious event (Al Jazeera) |
Challenges and problems
Many Sabeans have been attacked by militant groups and people have taken over their homes and property, increasing their emigration from Iraq.
The Iraqi constitution, passed in 2005, gives a special quota for Sabians - their Christian, Yazidis and Shabak counterparts - granting them the right to have a representative in the House of Representatives and the Baghdad Provincial Council.
According to the representative of the community in parliament, MP Nofal Sharif Gouda, there are no precise statistics for the numbers of Mandaeans currently, but the approximate figures indicate the presence of about 12 thousand inside Iraq, and between 50 and 60 thousand outside.
He added to the island that the migration of his community from Iraq did not stop, although they stopped in their collective form, noting that many immigrants in the West are bringing their relatives and their families.
He pointed out that there are currently no threats facing Mandaeans since they were subjected in previous years to many of the attacks, direct or indirect, and he himself was exposed to that, where he wrote on his house the words "required blood" but refused to leave Iraq, he said.
Today, the religious rituals of the Mandaeans are practiced freely, and the phenomenon of overtaking their homes has stopped.
The representative of the community does not believe that the size of political representation is fair, calling for a representative in the north and one in the center and the third in the south.
| Sabian temple in Qadisiyah area west of Baghdad (Al Jazeera) |
Peaceful minority
The Sabians, Yahya peace be upon them, keep their prophet, keep a holy book known as the "treasure" and other books and travels. They also perform the prayer three times a day and are keen to have a presence near the rivers to practice one of their most important rituals: baptism.
Sabians are one of the most assimilated minorities in the surrounding communities. They are not much different from Muslims, and their wives - especially the elderly - are like the clothes of the inhabitants of the areas where they live.
The clergy of this sect call their heads and hair, but they are not obliged to do so. And the majority of Sabean overwhelming in Iraq, with a small presence in the region of Ahwaz in western Iran.
According to the head of the community council Akram Salman, the tribes now have five temples in Baghdad, Amarah, Nasiriyah, Kirkuk, Erbil (north) and sixth under construction in the city of Diwaniya (south).
Salman adds that the bleeding of migration has stopped slightly because of the international circumstances that no longer help, and not because of the improvement in the situation in Iraq, and that most of those who remain older or those who have conditions prevent them from leaving.
Sabean is used in their Mandaean prayers, an ancient Semitic language that is no longer used to communicate today except in a very limited scope, and replaced by Arabic, but Mandaean remained used to religious rites.