Mambuha

{{Short description|Drinking water used in Mandaean rituals}}

File:Mamboha 05.jpg blessing the mambuha contained in a qanina (glass bottle) during the 2014 Parwanaya in Sydney, Australia]]

{{Mandaeism}}

In Mandaeism, mambuha ({{langx|myz|ࡌࡀࡌࡁࡅࡄࡀ}}), sometimes spelled mambuga ({{langx|myz|ࡌࡀࡌࡁࡅࡂࡀ}}), is sacramental drinking water used in rituals such as the masbuta (baptism).{{cite book|last=Buckley|first=Jorunn Jacobsen|title=The Mandaeans: ancient texts and modern people|publisher=Oxford University Press|publication-place=New York|year=2002|isbn=0-19-515385-5|oclc=65198443}}{{cite book|last=Burtea|first=Bogdan|title=Zihrun, das verborgene Geheimnis|publisher=Harrassowitz|publication-place=Wiesbaden|year=2008|isbn=978-3-447-05644-1|oclc=221130512|language=de|url=https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/%26Zihrun_das_verborgene_Geheimnis%26/titel_115.ahtml}}

The mambuha can be served in a kapta (pronounced kafta), a shallow brass drinking bowl{{cite book |last=van Rompaey |first=Sandra |title=Mandaean Symbolic Art |publisher=Brepols |publication-place=Turnhout |date=2024 |isbn=978-2-503-59365-4 |url=https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503593654-1}} that is 11 inches or less in perimeter, or in a qanina (glass bottle).Drower, Ethel Stefana. 1937. The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran. Oxford At The Clarendon Press.

Traditionally, mambuha is taken directly from the yardna (river, i.e. the Euphrates, Tigris, or Karun rivers), but the Mandaean diaspora often uses treated tap water.