The
Mandaic language is the liturgical language of the
MandaeanMandaeism or Mandaeanism is a monotheistic religion with a strongly dualistic worldview. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Noah, Shem, Aram and especially John the Baptist....
religion. Classical Mandaic is used by a section of the Mandaean community in liturgical rites. However, a living, vernacular form developed from Classical Mandaic, known either as Neo-Mandaic or Modern Mandaic, is spoken by a small section of the Mandaean community around
AhvazThe city of Ahvaz or Ahwaz , is the capital of the Iranian province of Khūzestān. It is built on the banks of the Karun River and is situated in the middle of Khūzestān Province. The city has an average elevation of 20 meters above sea level...
,
KhūzestānKhūzestān is one of the 30 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq's Basra Province and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and covers an area of 63,238 km²...
,
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
. Speakers of Classical Mandaic are found in Iran,
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
(particularly the southern portions of the country) and in
diasporaA diaspora is any movement of a population sharing common ethnic identity. While refugees may or may not ultimately settle in a new geographic location, the term diaspora refers to a permanently displaced and relocated collective.Diasporic cultural development often assumes a different course from...
(particularly in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
). It is a variety of
AramaicAramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship...
, notable for its use of vowel letters (see
Mandaic alphabetThe Mandaic alphabet is based on the Aramaic alphabet, and is used for writing the Mandaic language.The Mandaic name for the script is Abagada or Abaga, after the first letters of the alphabet...
) and the striking amount of
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
influence in its grammar and lexicon.
Classical Mandaic is a
Northwest Semitic languageThe Northwest Semitic languages form a medium-level division of the Semitic language family. The languages of this group are spoken by approximately eight million people today. The group is generally divided into three branches: Ugaritic , Canaanite and Aramaic...
of the Eastern Aramaic sub-family, and is closely related to the language of the Aramaic portions of the Babylonian
TalmudThe Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
, as well as the language of the incantation texts and Aramaic
incantation bowlsIncantation Bowls, also known as demon bowls or devil trap bowls, are a form of early protective magic found in modern-day Iraq and Iran. Produced during the Late Antiquity from 6th to 8th century AD, the bowls were usually inscribed in a spiral beginning from the rim and moving towards the center....
found throughout Mesopotamia. It is also related to
SyriacSyriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from the 4th to the 8th centuries...
, another member of the Eastern Aramaic sub-family, which is the liturgical language of many Christian denominations throughout the Middle East.
Neo-Mandaic
Neo-Mandaic represents the latest stage of the phonological and morphological development of Mandaic, a Northwest Semitic language of the Eastern Aramaic sub-family. Along with the other surviving dialects of Aramaic, it is classified as Neo-Aramaic; these form a constellation of dialects ranging from
Lake VanLake Van is the largest lake in Turkey, located in the far east of the country in Van district. It is a saline and soda lake, receiving water from numerous small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. Lake Van is one of the world's largest endorheic lakes...
and
Lake UrmiaLake Urmia Lake Urmia Lake Urmia ( Daryâcheh-ye Orumiyeh; ; , ; ancient name: Lake Matiene is a salt lake in northwestern Iran near Turkey. The lake is between the provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, west of the southern portion of the similarly shaped Caspian Sea...
in the north to
DamascusDamascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and its current population is estimated at about 1,669,000...
and
AhvazThe city of Ahvaz or Ahwaz , is the capital of the Iranian province of Khūzestān. It is built on the banks of the Karun River and is situated in the middle of Khūzestān Province. The city has an average elevation of 20 meters above sea level...
in the south, clustered in small groups. Having developed in isolation from one another, most Neo-Aramaic dialects are mutually unintelligible and should therefore be considered separate languages; however, determining the exact relationship between the various Neo-Aramaic dialects is a difficult task, fraught with many problems, which arise from our incomplete knowledge of these dialects and their relation to the Aramaic dialects of antiquity.
Aramaic became the
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
of the
Fertile CrescentThe Fertile Crescent is a region in the Near East, incorporating the Levant and Mesopotamia, and often incorrectly extended to Egypt. Mesopotamia is considered the cradle of civilization and saw the development of the earliest human civilizations and is the birthplace of writing and the wheel.The...
largely through the efforts of the Neo-Assyrians (ca. 934–609 BCE) and the Achaemenids (576–330 BCE) after them, who adopted it as an auxiliary language for both
international communicationInternational relations or International studies represents the study of foreign affairs and global issues among states within the international system, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , non-governmental organizations , and multinational corporations...
and internal
administrativeBureaucracy is the collective organizational structure, procedures, protocols, and set of regulations in place to manage activity, usually in large organizations and government...
use. It gradually came to supplant the native languages of the region, but due to its wide geographic distribution and political circumstances following the collapse of the empire, it soon evolved into two major sub-families—the Western sub-family, comprising Palestinian Talmudic, Christian Palestinian, and Samaritan, and the Eastern sub-family, comprising Late Babylonian,
SyriacSyriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from the 4th to the 8th centuries...
, and Mandaic.
Although no direct descendants of Syriac or Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic survive today, most of the Neo-Aramaic dialects spoken today belong to the Eastern sub-family; these include Central Neo-Aramaic (
The Mandaic language is the liturgical language of the MandaeanMandaeism or Mandaeanism is a monotheistic religion with a strongly dualistic worldview. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Noah, Shem, Aram and especially John the Baptist....
religion. Classical Mandaic is used by a section of the Mandaean community in liturgical rites. However, a living, vernacular form developed from Classical Mandaic, known either as Neo-Mandaic or Modern Mandaic, is spoken by a small section of the Mandaean community around
AhvazThe city of Ahvaz or Ahwaz , is the capital of the Iranian province of Khūzestān. It is built on the banks of the Karun River and is situated in the middle of Khūzestān Province. The city has an average elevation of 20 meters above sea level...
,
KhūzestānKhūzestān is one of the 30 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq's Basra Province and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and covers an area of 63,238 km²...
,
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
. Speakers of Classical Mandaic are found in Iran,
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
(particularly the southern portions of the country) and in
diasporaA diaspora is any movement of a population sharing common ethnic identity. While refugees may or may not ultimately settle in a new geographic location, the term diaspora refers to a permanently displaced and relocated collective.Diasporic cultural development often assumes a different course from...
(particularly in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
). It is a variety of
AramaicAramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship...
, notable for its use of vowel letters (see
Mandaic alphabetThe Mandaic alphabet is based on the Aramaic alphabet, and is used for writing the Mandaic language.The Mandaic name for the script is Abagada or Abaga, after the first letters of the alphabet...
) and the striking amount of
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
influence in its grammar and lexicon.
Classical Mandaic is a
Northwest Semitic languageThe Northwest Semitic languages form a medium-level division of the Semitic language family. The languages of this group are spoken by approximately eight million people today. The group is generally divided into three branches: Ugaritic , Canaanite and Aramaic...
of the Eastern Aramaic sub-family, and is closely related to the language of the Aramaic portions of the Babylonian
TalmudThe Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
, as well as the language of the incantation texts and Aramaic
incantation bowlsIncantation Bowls, also known as demon bowls or devil trap bowls, are a form of early protective magic found in modern-day Iraq and Iran. Produced during the Late Antiquity from 6th to 8th century AD, the bowls were usually inscribed in a spiral beginning from the rim and moving towards the center....
found throughout Mesopotamia. It is also related to
SyriacSyriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from the 4th to the 8th centuries...
, another member of the Eastern Aramaic sub-family, which is the liturgical language of many Christian denominations throughout the Middle East.
Neo-Mandaic
Neo-Mandaic represents the latest stage of the phonological and morphological development of Mandaic, a Northwest Semitic language of the Eastern Aramaic sub-family. Along with the other surviving dialects of Aramaic, it is classified as Neo-Aramaic; these form a constellation of dialects ranging from
Lake VanLake Van is the largest lake in Turkey, located in the far east of the country in Van district. It is a saline and soda lake, receiving water from numerous small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. Lake Van is one of the world's largest endorheic lakes...
and
Lake UrmiaLake Urmia Lake Urmia Lake Urmia ( Daryâcheh-ye Orumiyeh; ; , ; ancient name: Lake Matiene is a salt lake in northwestern Iran near Turkey. The lake is between the provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, west of the southern portion of the similarly shaped Caspian Sea...
in the north to
DamascusDamascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and its current population is estimated at about 1,669,000...
and
AhvazThe city of Ahvaz or Ahwaz , is the capital of the Iranian province of Khūzestān. It is built on the banks of the Karun River and is situated in the middle of Khūzestān Province. The city has an average elevation of 20 meters above sea level...
in the south, clustered in small groups. Having developed in isolation from one another, most Neo-Aramaic dialects are mutually unintelligible and should therefore be considered separate languages; however, determining the exact relationship between the various Neo-Aramaic dialects is a difficult task, fraught with many problems, which arise from our incomplete knowledge of these dialects and their relation to the Aramaic dialects of antiquity.
Aramaic became the
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
of the
Fertile CrescentThe Fertile Crescent is a region in the Near East, incorporating the Levant and Mesopotamia, and often incorrectly extended to Egypt. Mesopotamia is considered the cradle of civilization and saw the development of the earliest human civilizations and is the birthplace of writing and the wheel.The...
largely through the efforts of the Neo-Assyrians (ca. 934–609 BCE) and the Achaemenids (576–330 BCE) after them, who adopted it as an auxiliary language for both
international communicationInternational relations or International studies represents the study of foreign affairs and global issues among states within the international system, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , non-governmental organizations , and multinational corporations...
and internal
administrativeBureaucracy is the collective organizational structure, procedures, protocols, and set of regulations in place to manage activity, usually in large organizations and government...
use. It gradually came to supplant the native languages of the region, but due to its wide geographic distribution and political circumstances following the collapse of the empire, it soon evolved into two major sub-families—the Western sub-family, comprising Palestinian Talmudic, Christian Palestinian, and Samaritan, and the Eastern sub-family, comprising Late Babylonian,
SyriacSyriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from the 4th to the 8th centuries...
, and Mandaic.
Although no direct descendants of Syriac or Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic survive today, most of the Neo-Aramaic dialects spoken today belong to the Eastern sub-family; these include Central Neo-Aramaic (
The Mandaic language is the liturgical language of the MandaeanMandaeism or Mandaeanism is a monotheistic religion with a strongly dualistic worldview. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Noah, Shem, Aram and especially John the Baptist....
religion. Classical Mandaic is used by a section of the Mandaean community in liturgical rites. However, a living, vernacular form developed from Classical Mandaic, known either as Neo-Mandaic or Modern Mandaic, is spoken by a small section of the Mandaean community around
AhvazThe city of Ahvaz or Ahwaz , is the capital of the Iranian province of Khūzestān. It is built on the banks of the Karun River and is situated in the middle of Khūzestān Province. The city has an average elevation of 20 meters above sea level...
,
KhūzestānKhūzestān is one of the 30 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq's Basra Province and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and covers an area of 63,238 km²...
,
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
. Speakers of Classical Mandaic are found in Iran,
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
(particularly the southern portions of the country) and in
diasporaA diaspora is any movement of a population sharing common ethnic identity. While refugees may or may not ultimately settle in a new geographic location, the term diaspora refers to a permanently displaced and relocated collective.Diasporic cultural development often assumes a different course from...
(particularly in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
). It is a variety of
AramaicAramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship...
, notable for its use of vowel letters (see
Mandaic alphabetThe Mandaic alphabet is based on the Aramaic alphabet, and is used for writing the Mandaic language.The Mandaic name for the script is Abagada or Abaga, after the first letters of the alphabet...
) and the striking amount of
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
influence in its grammar and lexicon.
Classical Mandaic is a
Northwest Semitic languageThe Northwest Semitic languages form a medium-level division of the Semitic language family. The languages of this group are spoken by approximately eight million people today. The group is generally divided into three branches: Ugaritic , Canaanite and Aramaic...
of the Eastern Aramaic sub-family, and is closely related to the language of the Aramaic portions of the Babylonian
TalmudThe Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
, as well as the language of the incantation texts and Aramaic
incantation bowlsIncantation Bowls, also known as demon bowls or devil trap bowls, are a form of early protective magic found in modern-day Iraq and Iran. Produced during the Late Antiquity from 6th to 8th century AD, the bowls were usually inscribed in a spiral beginning from the rim and moving towards the center....
found throughout Mesopotamia. It is also related to
SyriacSyriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from the 4th to the 8th centuries...
, another member of the Eastern Aramaic sub-family, which is the liturgical language of many Christian denominations throughout the Middle East.
Neo-Mandaic
Neo-Mandaic represents the latest stage of the phonological and morphological development of Mandaic, a Northwest Semitic language of the Eastern Aramaic sub-family. Along with the other surviving dialects of Aramaic, it is classified as Neo-Aramaic; these form a constellation of dialects ranging from
Lake VanLake Van is the largest lake in Turkey, located in the far east of the country in Van district. It is a saline and soda lake, receiving water from numerous small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. Lake Van is one of the world's largest endorheic lakes...
and
Lake UrmiaLake Urmia Lake Urmia Lake Urmia ( Daryâcheh-ye Orumiyeh; ; , ; ancient name: Lake Matiene is a salt lake in northwestern Iran near Turkey. The lake is between the provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, west of the southern portion of the similarly shaped Caspian Sea...
in the north to
DamascusDamascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and its current population is estimated at about 1,669,000...
and
AhvazThe city of Ahvaz or Ahwaz , is the capital of the Iranian province of Khūzestān. It is built on the banks of the Karun River and is situated in the middle of Khūzestān Province. The city has an average elevation of 20 meters above sea level...
in the south, clustered in small groups. Having developed in isolation from one another, most Neo-Aramaic dialects are mutually unintelligible and should therefore be considered separate languages; however, determining the exact relationship between the various Neo-Aramaic dialects is a difficult task, fraught with many problems, which arise from our incomplete knowledge of these dialects and their relation to the Aramaic dialects of antiquity.
Aramaic became the
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
of the
Fertile CrescentThe Fertile Crescent is a region in the Near East, incorporating the Levant and Mesopotamia, and often incorrectly extended to Egypt. Mesopotamia is considered the cradle of civilization and saw the development of the earliest human civilizations and is the birthplace of writing and the wheel.The...
largely through the efforts of the Neo-Assyrians (ca. 934–609 BCE) and the Achaemenids (576–330 BCE) after them, who adopted it as an auxiliary language for both
international communicationInternational relations or International studies represents the study of foreign affairs and global issues among states within the international system, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , non-governmental organizations , and multinational corporations...
and internal
administrativeBureaucracy is the collective organizational structure, procedures, protocols, and set of regulations in place to manage activity, usually in large organizations and government...
use. It gradually came to supplant the native languages of the region, but due to its wide geographic distribution and political circumstances following the collapse of the empire, it soon evolved into two major sub-families—the Western sub-family, comprising Palestinian Talmudic, Christian Palestinian, and Samaritan, and the Eastern sub-family, comprising Late Babylonian,
SyriacSyriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from the 4th to the 8th centuries...
, and Mandaic.
Although no direct descendants of Syriac or Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic survive today, most of the Neo-Aramaic dialects spoken today belong to the Eastern sub-family; these include Central Neo-Aramaic (
{{unicodeTuroyo/Surayt is traditionally spoken in eastern Turkey and north-eastern Syria by the Assyrian/Syriac people.-Etymology:From the word , meaning 'mountain', is the mountain tongue of the Tur Abdin in southeastern Turkey....
and
Mla{{unicodeMlahsô is a Modern West Syriac language, a dialect of Aramaic. It was traditionally spoken in eastern Turkey and north-eastern Syria by members of the Assyrian/Syriac people....
), Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (the largest Neo-Aramaic group, which includes various Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialects, and the dialects of the
AssyrianAssyrian Neo-Aramaic is a modern Eastern Aramaic language. Assyrian Neo Aramaic is neither to be confused with Assyrian Akkadian, nor the Old Aramaic dialect that was adopted as a lingua franca in Assyria in the 8th century BC. Although this latter Aramaic is also an Aramaic language, it is...
and
Chaldean ChristiansChaldean Neo-Aramaic is a Northeastern Neo-Aramaic language. Chaldean Neo-Aramaic is spoken on the Plain of Mosul in northern Iraq, as well as by the Chaldean communities worldwide...
), and Neo-Mandaic. The only surviving remnant of the Western sub-family is
Western Neo-AramaicWestern Neo-Aramaic is a modern Aramaic language. Today, it is spoken in three villages in the Anti-Lebanon mountains of western Syria. Western Neo-Aramaic is the only modern living Aramaic language drawn from the branch of Western Aramaic languages...
, spoken in the villages of
Ma{{unicodeMa'loula is a town in Syria dominated by speakers of Western Neo-Aramaic. With two other nearby towns Bakh'a and Jubb'adin , it is the only place where the Western branch of the Aramaic languages is still spoken...
, Bakh{{unicode|ʿ}}a, and Jubb {{unicode|ʿ}}Adīn to the northeast of
DamascusDamascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and its current population is estimated at about 1,669,000...
. Of all of these dialects, Eastern or Western, only Neo-Mandaic can be described with any certainty as the direct descendent of one of the Aramaic dialects attested in Late Antiquity. For this reason, it is potentially of great value in reconstructing the history of this sub-family and the precise genetic relationship of its members to one another.
In terms of its
grammarIn linguistics, grammar is the set of logical and structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology,...
, Neo-Mandaic is the most conservative among the Eastern Neo-Aramaic dialects, preserving the old Semitic "suffix" conjugation (or perfect). The
phonologyPhonology is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use. Just as a language has syntax and vocabulary, it also has a phonology in the sense of a sound system...
, however, has undergone many innovations, the most notable being the loss of the so-called "guttural" consonants.
Neo-Mandaic survives in three subdialects, which arose in the cities of
ShûshtarShûshtar is an ancient fortress city in the Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran. It is approximately 92 km away from Ahvaz, the centre of the province. It had an estimated population of 89,255 in 2005. -History:...
,
Shāh WāliUstad Shah Wali is a renowned musician from Afghanistan. He was born in 1952, in Tagab, Kapisa Province of Afghanistan....
, and
Dezful{{Expand|date=December 2008}}{{Expand|date=December 2008}}{{Expand|date=December 2008}}{{Expand|date=December 2008}}{{Expand|date=December 2008}}{{Expand|date=December 2008}}{{Infobox Settlement|official_name = Dezful...
in northern
KhūzestānKhūzestān is one of the 30 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq's Basra Province and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and covers an area of 63,238 km²...
,
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
. The Mandaean communities in these cities fled persecution during the 1880s and settled in the Iranian cities of
AhvazThe city of Ahvaz or Ahwaz , is the capital of the Iranian province of Khūzestān. It is built on the banks of the Karun River and is situated in the middle of Khūzestān Province. The city has an average elevation of 20 meters above sea level...
and
KhorramshahrKhorramshahr is a port city in Khūzestān Province in southwestern Iran. It is approximately north of Abadan. The city extends to the right bank of the Shatt al-Arab waterway near its confluence with the Karun river....
. While Khorramshahr boasted the largest Mandaic-speaking population until the 1980s, the Iran-Iraq War caused many to flee into diaspora, leaving
AhvazThe city of Ahvaz or Ahwaz , is the capital of the Iranian province of Khūzestān. It is built on the banks of the Karun River and is situated in the middle of Khūzestān Province. The city has an average elevation of 20 meters above sea level...
the only remaining Mandaic-speaking community.
External links
{{neo-aramaic}}
{{Iraq topics}}