Mandaeans The descendants of one of Mesopotamia's ancient civilization

Who are Mandeans?Mandaeans (Arabic: ةَئِمْندَائِيُّون ٱل َّصابٱل romanized: aṣ-Ṣābiʾah alMandāʾiyūn) are an ethnoreligious group native to the alluvial plain of southern Mesopotamia and are followers of Mandaeism a monotheistic Gnostic religion. They were probably the first to practice baptism and are the last surviving Gnostics from antiquity. The Mandaeans were originally native speakers of Mandaic a Semitic language that evolved from Eastern Middle Aramaic before many switched to colloquial Iraqi Arabic and Modern Persian. Mandaic is mainly preserved as a liturgical language. In the aftermath of the Iraq War of 2003 the Mandaean community of Iraq which used to number 60000–70000 persons collapsed; most of the community relocated to nearby Iran Syria and Jordan or formed diaspora communities beyond the Middle East. The other community of Iranian Mandaeans has also been dwindling as a result of religious persecution over that decade.