The Book of Religions / Comprising the Views, Creeds, Sentiments, or Opinions, of All the Principal Religious Sects in the World, Particularly of All Christian Denominations in Europe and America, to Which are Added Church and Missionary Statistics, Together With Biographical Sketches

by John Hayward

Mendæans, Mendaites, Mendai Ijahi, Or Disciples Of St. John, That Is, The Baptist.

From twenty to twenty-five thousand families of this sect still remain, chiefly in the neighborhood of Bassora, a city between Arabia and Persia, on the extremity of the desert of Irac. They are sometimes called Christians of St. John—a name which they probably received from the Turks, and to which they contentedly submit for the sake of the toleration it affords them; but they are better known in ecclesiastical history as Hemero (or every day) Baptists, from their frequent washings.