Shapta Dbit Mishqal Ainia: From the forthcoming edition of M. Morgenstern.
The body text is founded upon RRC 1T, copied by Adam Yuhana br Sam br Bihram in Shushtar in 1196 AH (1782 CE). The manuscript is missing the first 33 lines of our edition (up to the letters mbal of the word uÊ¿thambal), and these have been supplemented from DC 28, copied by Yahia Bihram br Adam Yuhana br Sam in 1272 AH (1855-6 CE) in the marshlands. DC 28 would appear to be one of several copies that Yahia produced from his father’s manuscript (another being RRT 1W).
#1# DC 26, copied by Mhatam Yuhana b. Adam Zihrun b. Yahia Bihram (Sheikh Faraj) in 1355 CE (1936) in Baghdad, from whom Drower purchased it. The copying was poor, and was collated by Drower from the source in her own hand. The text is generally inferior, but as the only known witness to an alternative textual tradition the manuscript is occasionally helpful in establishing a coherent reading. Both traditions ultimately stem from a common ancestor that was already corrupt.
Drower employed DC 26 and DC 28 in her edition of this text,“ A Mandaean Phylactery (Qmaha ḏ Bit mišqal ainia)’, Iraq 5 (1938), 31—54, but both her readings and her translations are frequently erroneous.