Mandaeans (Topical Term)

Worldmark encyclopedia of religious practices, 2015, via Credo Reference, Sept. 10, 2019: Iran (Mandaeans are a unique and small religious community in Khuzestan province, in southwestern Iran; religious sect of antiquity; Mandaeism testifies to a basic framework of dualism in which good and evil and light and darkness clash but also intertwine and, to some extent, recognize one another's claims; baptism can take place only in flowing water such as rivers, which are fed from the celestial World of Light; neglected as a Christian sect; believe that Adam was their first prophet; their last great teacher was John the Baptist; Writer William Kennett Loftus, who visited Dezfoul in 1852, reported that about 30 families of Mandaeans lived in the city; at the beginning of the early 21st century, there was only a small community of Mandaeans in Ahwaz, a provincial city; known as Sabaeans in Iran but are called Subbiyun in Khuzestan)