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From Sign to Sound: How to Study Mandaean Music?

The study of the Mandaean written and musical heritage today raises more questions than answers to the "facts" of history, religion, and artistic culture that persist across Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, particularly in its southern region of Khuzistan. The purpose of this report is to draw researchers' attention to the traditional music of the Mandaeans as representatives of a distinct religious and ethnic community that speaks an Aramaic dialect, uses the Mandaean script, and practices rituals accompanied by the ancient acoustic code of Western Asia.