The Wedding of the Great Shishlam (Classical Mandaic: ࡔࡀࡓࡇ ࡖࡒࡀࡁࡉࡍ ࡖࡔࡉࡔࡋࡀࡌ ࡓࡁࡀŠarḥ ḏ-qabin ḏ-Šišlam Rba) is a Mandaean text. As a liturgical rather than esoteric text, it contains instructions and hymns for the Mandaean marriage ceremony. Traditionally, Mandaean priests recite the entire book at marriage ceremonies. The hymns in the text often contain the refrain "When the proven, the Pure One Went." Unlike most other Mandaean ritual scrolls, The Wedding of the Great Šišlam is not illustrated.[1]
Copies of the text include Manuscript 38 of the Drower Collection (DC 38), currently held at the Bodleian Library. A full transliteration, English translation, and commentary were published as a book by E. S. Drower in 1950.[2]
The DC 38 manuscript has five parts. However, since Part 5 is a duplicate of Part 1, there are only four unique parts.[2]
Part 1 (about 240 lines): instructions on how to perform each step of the Mandaean wedding ceremony, with ritual and Qolasta prayer sequences
Part 2 (about 110 lines): hymns
Part 3 (about 1,320 lines): hymns
Part 4 (just over 170 lines): titled "The weekly forecast of hourly fortune," an astrological treatise dealing with the planets and times of the day and week
Part 2 has 16 hymns, and Part 3 has 55 hymns. They are not numbered in Drower (1950).