Grans is a commune of 4,078 people (2007). It is found in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the south of France.
Graveson
Graveson is a commune of 3,836 people (2008). It is found in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the south of France.
The village is very attractive for holidaymakers, because it is located between Arles and Avignon. Neighbour villages are Châteaurenard, Maillane and Rognonas.
Graveson is birthplace of the painter Auguste Chabaud.
Gréasque
Gréasque is a commune of 3,705 people (2004). It is found in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the south of France.
Istres
Istres is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in the south of France. About 45,000 people live there.
La fête des bergers (The shepherds' festival) is held at the end of November and beginning of December.
Jouques
Jouques is a commune of 3,321 people (1999). It is found in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the south of France.
Lamanon
Lamanon is a commune of 1,713 people (1999). It is found in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the south of France. It's known because of the archaeological site of Grottes de Calès, a cave dwelling from prehistoric to medieval times.
Lambesc
Lambesc is a commune of 7,934 people (2004). It is found in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the south of France.
Lançon-Provence
Lançon-Provence is a commune of 7,674 people (2007). It is found in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the south of France.
Maillane
Maillane is a commune of 2,013 people (2004). It is in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the south of France.
Mallemort
Mallemort is a commune of 5,501 people (2005). It is found in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the south of France.
Marignane
Marignane is a commune of 33,700 people (2005). It is found in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the south of France.
Mandaeism
Mandaeism or Mandaeanism (Mandaic: Mandaiuta, "Mandā'iyya") is a monotheistic religion. The religion has a strong dualistic world view. Its followers, the Mandaeans, think highly of Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Noah, Shem, Aram and especially John the Baptist.
Originally, Mandaeism was practiced mainly in the countries around the lower Euphrates and Tigris and the rivers that surround the Shatt-al-Arab waterway. Today, this area belongs to Iraq and Khuzestan Province in Iran. Because they were persecuted in that area, many Mandaeans have left that area and now live abroad. This is commonly called diaspora. Most left for Europe, Australia and North America.
There are thought to be between 60,000 and 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide, and until the 2003 Iraq war, almost all of them lived in Iraq. The 2003 Iraq War reduced the population of Iraqi Mandaeans to approximately 5,000 by 2007. Most Iraqi Mandaeans fled to Syria and Jordan under the threat of violence by Islamic extremists and the turmoil of the war.
The Mandaeans have remained separate and intensely private—what has been reported of them and their religion has come primarily from outsiders, particularly from the Orientalists J. Heinrich Petermann, Nicholas Siouffi, and Lady Ethel Drower.
Mandeism is the religion of the Mandaean people. It is based on a common history and heritage. There is no fixed set of religious creeds and doctrines. A basic guide to Mandaean theology does not exist. The corpus of Mandaean literature is quite large. It also covers topics such as eschatology, the knowledge of God, and the afterlife. It only does this in an unsystematic manner. Apart from the priests, very few people know it.
According to E.S. Drower, the Mandaean Gnosis is characterized by nine features, which also appear in various forms in other gnostic sects:
Mandaeans believe in marriage and procreation, and in the importance of leading an ethical and moral lifestyle in this world. They put a high priority on family life. Consequently, Mandaeans do not practice celibacy or asceticism. Mandaeans will, however, abstain from strong drink and red meat. They look forward to a future liberated from the influence of the Torah, which they consider to be evil in origin. While they agree with other gnostic sects that the world is a prison governed by the planetary archons, they do not view it as a cruel and inhospitable one.
The Mandaeans have many religious texts. The most important of them is the "Genzā Rabbā" or Ginza. The Ginza is a collection of history, theology, and prayers. The "Genzā Rabbā" is divided into two halves — the "Genzā Smālā" or "Left Ginza" and the "Genzā Yeminā" or "Right Ginza".
Before the printing press was invented, people copied texts by hand. The people doing this were called scribes. Each person's handwriting is special in certain ways. This was the same with scribes. A scribe might join two letters in a certain way, or he might do the dots on those letters that have them in a special way. Jorunn J. Buckley looked at these special marks the copyists left in the Left Ginza. That way he was able to show that the copying of that text goes back to the to the late 2nd or early 3rd century AD. These special marks show that the Mandaeans existed during the late Arsacid period at the very latest. A legend called "Harrān Gāwetā" also strengthens this. According to this legend, the Mandaeans left Palestine after the destruction of Jerusalem in the 1st century AD and settled inside the Arsacid empire. Although the Ginza continued to evolve under the rule of the Sassanians and the Islamic empires, few textual traditions can lay claim to such extensive continuity.
Other important books include the "Qolastā", the "Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans," which was translated by E.S. Drower. One of the most important works of Mandaean scripture is the "Draša d-Iahia" "the Book of John the Baptist". This book is accessible to both laymen and initiates. There are also many other religious texts such as ritual commentaries, which are generally only consulted by the members of the priesthood.
The language in which the Mandaean religious literature was originally written is known as Mandaic, and is a member of the Aramaic family of dialects. It is written in a cursive variant of the Parthian chancellory script. The majority of Mandaean lay people do not speak this language. Some members of the Mandaean community in Iran ( about 300-500 out of a total of ca. 5000 Iranian Mandaeans) continue to speak Neo-Mandaic, a modern version of this language.
Mandaeans have several prophets. Iahia or Iuhana "John the Baptist" has a special status, higher than his role in Christianity and Islam. Mandaeans do not consider John to be the founder of their religion. They only worship him as one of their greatest teachers. They trace their beliefs back to Adam.
Mandaeans maintain that Jesus was a "mšiha kdaba" "false messiah" who changed the teachings given to him by John. The Mandaic word "k(a)daba", however, comes from two roots: the first root, meaning "to lie," is the one traditionally given to Jesus; the second, meaning "to write," might provide a second meaning, that of "book". Some Mandaeans, who are motivated perhaps by an ecumenical spirit, maintain that Jesus was not a "lying Messiah" but a "book Messiah". The "book" in question presumably being the Christian Gospels. This seems to be a folk etymology without support in the Mandaean texts.