The Center for the Revival of Arab Scientific Heritage at the University of Baghdad has organized a panel discussion entitled (Religious Ranks of the Sabian Mandaeans) delivered by Dr. Wassan Hussein Muhaimid, Head of the Department of Manuscripts at the center.
She talked about their six religious ranks, namely the Halal (Ashkanda), who helps a higher cleric during religious rituals, and the Bisaq where this rank is no longer existed because of the lack of appropriate conditions for it, and the Termidah who is graduating from the rank of Halal to the rank of Termidah after completing the requirements of that rank, including the study and understanding of religious sciences and in a special ritual, and the Kunzbara who should be a married and a fertile man, then comes the rank of Reshma (i.e. the head of the nation) that is not existed at present because of the lack of its conditions. Dr. Wassan Hussein stated that the Mandaeans believe in Yahya ibn Zakariya (John the Baptist) and the clergy usually wear clothes white in color, having many rituals that they practice in their lives such as eating food only cooked by them or by their wives after being baptized, besides many other customs of their own.
