Mandaeism or Mandaeanism (Mandaic: Mandaiuta, Arabic: مندائية Mandā'iyya) is a monotheistic religion. The religion has a strong dualistic world view. Its followers, the Mandaeans, think highly of Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Noah, Shem, Aram and especially John the Baptist.
Originally, Mandaeism was practiced mainly in the countries around the lower Euphrates and Tigris and the rivers that surround the Shatt-al-Arab waterway. Today, this area belongs to Iraq and Khuzestan Province in Iran. Because they were persecuted in that area, many Mandaeans have left that area and now live abroad. This is commonly called diaspora. Most left for Europe, Australia and North America.
There are thought to be between 60,000 and 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide, and until the 2003 Iraq war, almost all of them lived in Iraq. The 2003 Iraq War reduced the population of Iraqi Mandaeans to approximately 5,000 by 2007. Most Iraqi Mandaeans fled to Syria and Jordan under the threat of violence by Islamic extremists and the turmoil of the war.
The Mandaeans have remained separate and intensely private—what has been reported of them and their religion has come primarily from outsiders, particularly from the Orientalists J. Heinrich Petermann, Nicholas Siouffi, and Lady Ethel Drower.