They may have been among the earliest religious groups to practice baptism, as well as among the earliest adherents of Gnosticism, a belief system of which they are the last surviving representatives today. Mandaeans ( Classical Mandaic: ࡌࡀࡍࡃࡀࡉࡉࡀ, lit.'Gnostics, Knowers, Enlightened Ones') ( Arabic: المندائيون al-Mandāʾiyyūn), also known as Mandaean Sabians ( الصابئة المندائيون al-Ṣābiʾa al-Mandāʾiyyūn) or simply as Sabians ( الصابئة al-Ṣābiʾa), are an ethnoreligious group, native to the alluvial plain of southern Mesopotamia, who are followers of Mandaeism.
