Mani's Šābuhragān

Sundermann also wrote: "Only one important point I would like to touch upon: the order of the texts. I, too, have dealt with this problem and have come to results that deviate slightly.12 I believe that both the joining of the headings on the V (verso) and R (recto) sides, as well as the numerous mirror-image impressions of leaves that had lain upon one another, allow for a secure determination of their sequence in most cases. In my opinion, it is:
1. M 8256 (?), 2. M 519 + M 473, 3. M 475,
4. M 477, 5. M 482, 6. M 472,
7. M 535 + M 536, 8. M 470, 9. M 505 a + b + M 542.
For the reconstructed12 page headings, this results in:
A v / B r * ’br ’mdyšnyh * (concerning the coming)... (attested in M 519 V)
E v / F r . . . . . * ‘y h’mqyšwr * (of the whole world) (attested in M 535 R)
F v / G r * ’br ‘stptyh * (concerning the setting up)... (attested in M 535 V)
G v / H r * ’br rw’n’n * / [* ‘y dw]šqyrdg’n’n * (concerning the souls / of the evildoers) (attested in M 505 a R)."

Of the hitherto unpublished fragments mentioned, photographs of only M 505 a + b, M 535, and M 536 are preserved in Göttingen. To these I now turned and made a second provisional transliteration to submit to Sundermann. He then provided the texts of M 519, M 542 (and M 8256 I), and also made several revisions and improvements to my second provisional text. In particular, the piecing together of H and J, lines 337–426, from the fragments M 470 c, M 475 c, M 505 a and b, and M 542 b, is all his work.

Only when the third text so constituted was (as we thought) ready for press did Sundermann find time to devote himself to the remaining fragments of the Šābuhragān to provide the second part of this article. In the process, he was able to separate further fragments stuck together and to fit some of these, and others, into the main text. Thus, the two layers of M 487 b fit into E and F, M 497 b into G, and (previously unconnected) M 1745 into H, yielding new text (not available in Göttingen) for lines 208–15, 232–9, 256–63, 280–4, 303–10, 328–33, 351–5, and 375–9. All his readings from the manuscripts are indicated in the apparatus by the initial S.

Clearly, it would have been more practical and proper for Sundermann himself to have taken over the publication of the complete text of the preserved portions of the Šābuhragān. Instead, he has from the beginning encouraged me to go ahead with it, at the same time providing not only much new text and better readings but also invaluable notes to my translation. Mary Boyce also kindly read an early draft and suggested a number of improvements.

To place this apocalyptic portion of the Šābuhragān in context, one can do no better, besides referring to the works of Müller, Jackson, and Ghilain, than to quote Boyce’s introductory notes (Reader, 77) to text z: "The first fragment is concerned with the period just before the Second Coming of Jesus, the Great War being by then over. Much of the material in this and the following fragments derives from the apocalyptic prophecies in the Christian Gospels (Matthew XXIV, Mark XIII, Luke XXI)." Mani's vision of the End of the

12. From / in my above-mentioned first provisional transliteration. Note: It must be said that Sundermann’s use of round brackets for ‘doubtful’ letters is far more cautious than mine. I insert them only when there is real doubt as to the reading of a letter, whereas he appears to use them for letters to any extent, however little, incomplete.