Abdullah bar Sam

Not to be confused with Abdullah bar Negm or Abdullah Khaffagi.

Sheikh Abdullah bar Sam
Portrait of Ganzibra Sheikh Abdullah bar Sam at Ganzibra Dakhil Mandi
Title	Ganzibra
Personal life
Born	unknown; c. 1890? Qal'at Saleh, Ottoman Iraq
Died	1981 Baghdad, Iraq
Children	Abdul Jabbar Abdullah
Parent	Sam, son of Jabbar (father)
Citizenship	Iraqi
Other names	Adam Zihrun bar Sam
Occupation	Mandaean priest
Relatives	Sinan Abdullah (grandson)
Religious life
Religion	Mandaeism

Sheikh (Rabbi) Abdullah bar Sam (Arabic: عبدالله ابن سام; born in Qal'at Saleh, Iraq; died 1981, Baghdad, Iraq) was an Iraqi Mandaean priest.^[1] He is known as the priestly initiator of Jabbar Choheili and Salah Choheili,^[2] as well as the father of physicist Abdul Jabbar Abdullah.^[3]: 44

Life

Abdullah bar Sam was born into the Manduia and ‛Kuma families in Qal'at Saleh, Iraq, probably sometime just before the turn of the 20th century. His father's name was the Ganzibra Sam, son of Sheikh Jabbar. Abdullah bar Sam's Mandaean baptismal name was Adam Zihrun bar Sam (Classical Mandaic: ࡀࡃࡀࡌ ࡆࡉࡄࡓࡅࡍ ࡁࡓ ࡎࡀࡌ, romanized: Adam Zihrun br Sam).^[1]

Ganzibra Abdullah copied the Ginza Rabba by hand in 1928; as of 2010, that copy of the Ginza Rabba belonged to the Elmanahi family in New York state, United States.^{[1]: 65–66}

In 1948, he initiated Jabbar Choheili from Ahvaz, Iran into the priesthood.^[1] In 1976, he initiated Jabbar Choheili's son Salah Choheili as a tarmida at the Mandi of Dora, Baghdad.^[2]

Family

His son Abdul Jabbar Abdullah (1911–1969) was a well-known physicist and meteorologist, while his grandson is Sinan Abdullah.^{[3]: 44 [4]}

See also

• List of Mandaean priests

References

1. Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2010). The great stem of souls: reconstructing Mandaean history. Piscataway, N.J: Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-59333-621-9.
2. "Rishamma Salah Choheili, Chapter 2(Ba)". The Worlds of Mandaean Priests. Retrieved 2023-09-27 – via YouTube.
3. Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2023). 1800 Years of Encounters with Mandaeans. Gorgias Mandaean Studies. Vol. 5. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-4632-4132-2. ISSN 1935-441X.
4. "Birth Certificate" (PDF). Retrieved 12 December 2017.

External links

• Mandaic prayer recited by Abdullah bar Sam in the 1970s