Mandaeans claim to have immigrated to present day Iraq and Iran from a place called Harran, with even more distant links to northern Israel and Egypt. Bar Koni tells us that the Dostei (Dosithians) Mandaeans were started by a beggar named Amo who was waited on by one Papa. It is said that a hut was built for him near the Karun river and the faithful began to congregate around him and that in this way the Mandaeans began. If there is truth to this story it may indicate that a Manichaean Elect, served by a Listener named Papa, (or perhaps an earliest  Elchasite priest) settled in the marshlands. The chief disciple of Mani was one Amo, and Papa was another of his main followers. They also were in the same area, at the same general time, as the Amo and Papa of Bar Koni's story. Zazai, the oldest copyist of many Mandaean texts, also lived about this time. He is said to have copied the Mandaean texts from the "Scroll of the First Life". This mysterious scroll may have been the Treasury of Life and other writings penned by the Great Apostle Mani who had just been executed a few years before Zazai's redactions. It is even possible that Mani's illustrations of the afterlife are partially preserved in the Mandaean Diwan Abathur. Links between Mandaean and Manichaean Psalms has also been proven, but who wrote what first is still open to debate.

To Nazoreans, Mandaeans are an imperfect offshoot of original Nazoreanism, an offshoot representing the surviving remnants of the Dosithian-Simon schism that goes back to John the Baptist but which rejected Yeshu. The Order sees many of the rituals and texts preserved by the Mandaeans as slight revisions of Nazorean originals -- texts which went thru alterations and revisions made by one Ramuia in the seventh century. At that time Ramuia removed most overt references to the name Yeshu and added a few derogatory insertions to steer seventh century Mandaeans away from Bryzantinian Christianity. He also added criticisms of Islam at that time. None of these additions were original to their texts which include:

• “Asafar Malwasha” – Book of the Zodiac
• Diwan of the First Life(Book of Souls)72 pages
• Baptism of Hibil Ziwa66 pages
• Shishlam Rba Scroll  (Coronation of Shislam Rba 37 pages)
• The Book of Kings and Book of John the Baptist 244 pages
• “Qulasta” 316 pages
• Greater First World 53 pages
• Lesser First World35 pages
• Nazorean Book of the Dead (Ginza Rba left)174 pages
• “Diwan Abathur” – Scrolls of Abathur 37 pages
• 1012 Questions - Haran Gawaitha, The Great Revelation (1012 Questions) 181 pages
• “Ginza” - The Treasure (Ginza Rba right) 422 pages