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Mandeans I believe are the descendants of Babylonians who were not Persianized but did adopted Aramaic which eventually evolved into Mandaic their own dialect. The Mandean religion seems to have originated as a proto Jewish-Christian sect, that came in Mesopotamia, and was adopted as the main religion. I believe there is two main reasons for them having small numbers today, that you can not convert to Mandeanism you have to born, and their pacifist faith. In fact they are well known for pacifism and they are strict about this rule. Also conversion to mainstream Christianity, and later Islam have probably contributed to their small numbers of today. The interesting thing the Mandeans are probably the best proxy for the ancient Mesopotamian peoples. It's in these people's veins that the first civilization arose.
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