Manichaeism (in Modern Persian Āyin e Māni; ) was
one of the major Iranian
Gnostic religions,
originating in Sassanid
Persia. Although most of the original writings of the
founding
prophet Mani (in
Persian: مانی,
Syriac: ,
Latin: Manes) (c.
216–276 AD) have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary
texts have survived. Manichaeism is distinguished by its elaborate
cosmology describing the struggle between
a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of
darkness. Through an ongoing process which takes place in human
history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and
returned to the world of light from which it came.
Manichaeism thrived between the third and seventh centuries, and at
its height was one of the most widespread religions in the world.
Manichaean
churches and scriptures existed as far east as China
and as far
west as the Roman Empire.
Manichaeism appears to have faded away after the 14th century in
southern China.
The original six sacred books of Manichaeism, composed in
Syriac Aramaic, were soon translated into other
languages to help spread the religion. As they spread to the east,
the Manichaean writings passed through
Middle Persian,
Parthian,
Sogdian, and ultimately
Uyghur and
Chinese translations. As they spread to the
west, they were translated into
Greek,
Coptic,
and
Latin. The spread and success of
Manichaeism were seen as a threat to other religions, and it was
widely persecuted in
Christian,
Zoroastrian,
Islamic, and
Buddhist
cultures.
Origins
Mani lived approximately AD 216–276 and
resided in Babylon
, which was
then a province of the Persian
Empire. According to the
Cologne Mani-Codex, Mani's parents were
Elcesaites of southern Mesopotamia. The
primary language of Babylon at that time was
Eastern Middle Aramaic,
which included three main dialects:
Judeo-Aramaic (the language of the
Talmud),
Mandaean Aramaic (the language of the
Mandaean religion), and
Syriac Aramaic, which was the language of Mani, as
well as of the
Assyrian
Christians. "
Mani" is a
Persian name found in all three Aramaic
dialects and therefore common among its speakers. Mani composed
seven writings, six of which were written in Syriac Aramaic.
The
seventh, the Shabuhragan, was written by
Mani in Middle Persian and presented
by him to the contemporary King of Sassanid Persia, Shapur
I in the Persian capitol of Ctesiphon
. Although there is no proof
Shapur I was a Manichean, he tolerated the spread
of Manicheanism and refrained from persecuting it in his empires
boundaries. According to one tradition Mani also created a unique
version of the Syriac script called
Manichaean script, which was used in all
of the Manichaean works written within the Persian Empire, whether
they were in Syriac or Middle Persian, and also for most of the
works written within the
Uyghur
Empire.
Manichaeism claimed to present the complete version of teachings
that were corrupted and misinterpreted by the followers of his
predecessors Adam, Zoroaster, Buddha and Jesus. Accordingly, as it
spread, it adapted new deities from other religions into forms it
could use for its scriptures. Its original Aramaic texts already
contained stories of Jesus. When they moved eastward and were
translated into Iranian languages, the names of the Manichaean
deities (or angels) were often transformed into the names of
Zoroastrian yazatas. Thus ("The Father of Greatness", the highest
Manichaean deity of Light), in
Middle
Persian texts might either be translated literally as
pīd ī
wuzurgīh, or substituted with the name of the deity
Zurwān. Similarly, the Manichaean
primal figure "The Original Man" was rendered "Ohrmazd Bay", after
the Zoroastrian god
Ahura Mazda. This
process continued to Manichaeism's meeting with
Chinese Buddhism, where, for example, the
original Aramaic "karia" (the "call" from the world of Light to
those seeking rescue from the world of Darkness), becomes
identified in the Chinese scriptures with
Guan
Yin ( or Avalokitesvara in Sanskrit, literally,
"watching/perceiving sounds [of the world]", the Chinese
Bodhisattva of Compassion).
The original six Syriac writings are not preserved, although their
Syriac names have been. There are also fragments and quotations
from them. A long quotation, brought by the Syrian
Nestorian Christian,
Theodor bar-Konai, in the eighth
century, shows that in the original Syriac Aramaic writings of Mani
there was no influence of Iranian or
Zoroastrian terms. The terms for the Manichaean
deities in the original Syriac writings are in Aramaic. The
adaptation of Manichaeism to the Zoroastrian religion appears to
have begun in Mani's lifetime however, with his writing of the
Middle Persian
Shabuhragan, his book
dedicated to the King Shapuhr. In it, there are mentions of
Zoroastrian deities such as Ohrmazd, Ahriman, and Az.
Manichaeism is often
presented as a Persian religion, mostly due to the vast number of
Middle Persian, Parthian, and Soghdian (as well as Turkish) texts
discovered by German researchers near Turpan
, in the
Xinjiang (Chinese Turkestan) province of
China, during the early 1900s. As far as its origins are
concerned, however, Manichaeism was no more a Persian or Iranian
religion than
Talmudic
Judaism or Babylonian Mandaeism, which were also written in
Aramaic in Babylon in roughly the third century AD.
Mani began
preaching at an early age and was possibly by contemporary
Babylonian-Aramaic movements such as Mandaeanism, and Aramaic translations of Jewish
apocalyptic writings similar to those found at Qumran
(such as the
book of Enoch literature). With
the discovery of the Mani-Codex, it also became clear that he was
raised in a Jewish-Christian baptism sect, the
Elcesaites, and was influenced by their writings
as well. According to biographies preserved by
Ibn al-Nadim and the Persian polymath
al-Biruni, he allegedly received a revelation as a
youth from a spirit, whom he would later call his
Twin,
his Syzygos, his Double, his Protective Angel or 'Divine Self'. It
taught him truths which he developed into a religion. His 'divine'
Twin or true Self brought Mani to
Self-realization and thus he became a
'gnosticus', someone with divine knowledge and liberating insight.
He claimed to be the '
Paraclete of the
Truth', as promised in the
New
Testament: the
Last Prophet and
Seal of the Prophets finalizing
a succession of figures including
Zoroaster,
Buddha,
and
Jesus. In the Orthodox Tradition the title
Paraclete was understood to refer to God in the person of the
Holy Spirit.

Manichaean Electae, Kocho, 10th
Century.
Another source of Mani's scriptures was original Aramaic writings
relating to the book of Enoch literature (see the
Book of Enoch and the
Second Book of Enoch), as well as an
otherwise unknown section of the book of Enoch called the "
Book of Giants". This book was quoted
directly, and expanded on by Mani, becoming one of the original six
Syriac writings of the Manichaean Church. Besides brief references
by non-Manichaean authors through the centuries, no original
sources of "The Book of Giants" (which is actually part six of the
"Book of Enoch") were available until the 20th century.
Scattered fragments of both the original Aramaic "Book of Giants"
(which were analyzed and published by
Józef Milik in 1976), and of the Manichaean
version of the same name (analyzed and published by W.B.
Henning in
1943) were found with the discovery in the twentieth century of the
Dead Sea Scrolls in the Judaean
Desert and the Manichaean writings of the Uyghur Manichaean kingdom in Turpan
.
Henning wrote in his analysis of them:
It is noteworthy that Mani, who was brought up and
spent most of his life in a province of the Persian empire, and
whose mother belonged to a famous Parthian family, did not make any
use of the Iranian mythological tradition.
There can no longer be any doubt that the Iranian names
of Sām, Narīmān, etc., that appear in the Persian and Sogdian
versions of the Book of the Giants, did not figure in the original
edition, written by Mani in the Syriac language.
From a careful reading of the Enoch literature and the Book of
Giants, alongside the description of the Manichaean myth, it
becomes clear that the "Great King of Glory" of this myth (a being
that sits as a guard to the world of light at the seventh of ten
heavens in the Manichaean myth), is identical with the King of
Glory sitting on the heavenly throne in the Enoch literature. In
the Aramaic book of Enoch, in the Qumran writings in general, and
in the original Syriac section of Manichaean scriptures quoted by
Theodor bar-Konai, he is called "malka raba de-ikara" (the great
king of glory).
While Manichaeism was spreading, existing religions such as
Christianity and
Zoroastrianism were
gaining social and political influence. Although having fewer
adherents, Manichaeism won the support of many high-ranking
political figures. With the assistance of the
Persian Empire, Mani began missionary
expeditions. After failing to win the favor of the next generation
of Persian royality, and incurring the disapproval of the
Zoroastrian clergy, Mani is reported to have died in prison
awaiting execution by the Persian Emperor
Bahram I. The date of his death is estimated at AD
276–277.
Later history

The spread of Manichaeism (AD 300–
500).
Map reference: World History Atlas, Dorling Kindersly.
Manichaeism continued to spread with extraordinary speed through
both the east and west. It reached Rome through the apostle Psattiq
by AD 280, who was also in Egypt in 244 and 251.
It was flourishing in
the Fayum
area of
Egypt in AD 290. Manichaean monasteries existed in Rome in
312 A.D. during the time of the Christian
Pope Miltiades.
In 291, persecution arose in the Persian empire with the murder of
the apostle Sisin by
Bahram II,
and the slaughter of many Manichaeans. In AD 296,
Diocletian decreed against the Manichaeans: "We
order that their organizers and leaders be subject to the final
penalties and condemned to the fire with their abominable
scriptures", resulting in many martyrdoms in Egypt and North Africa
(see
Diocletian
Persecution). By AD 354,
Hilary of Poitiers wrote that the
Manichaean faith was a significant force in southern France. In AD
381 Christians requested
Theodosius I
to strip Manichaeans of their civil rights. He issued a decree of
death for Manichaean monks in AD 382.
When Christians first encountered Manichaeism, they deemed it a
heresy, since it had originated in a heavily
Gnostic area of the
Persian empire.
Augustine of Hippo (AD 354-430) converted
to
Christianity from Manichaeism, in
the year 387. This was shortly after the Roman Emperor
Theodosius I had issued a decree of death for
Manichaeans in AD 382 and shortly before he declared Christianity
to be the only legitimate religion for the Roman Empire in 391.
According to his
Confessions, after nine or
ten years of adhering to the Manichaean faith as a member of the
group of "hearers", Augustine became a
Christian and a potent adversary of Manichaeism
(which he expressed in writing against his Manichaean opponent
Faustus of Mileve), seeing their
beliefs that knowledge was the key to salvation as too passive and
not able to effect any change in one's life.
I still thought that it is not we who sin but some
other nature that sins within us.
It flattered my pride to think that I incurred no guilt
and, when I did wrong, not to confess it...
I preferred to excuse myself and blame this unknown
thing which was in me but was not part of me.
The truth, of course, was that it was all my own self,
and my own impiety had divided me against myself.
My sin was all the more incurable because I did not
think myself a sinner.
(Confessions, Book V, Section 10)
Some modern scholars have suggested that Manichaean ways of
thinking influenced the development of some of Augustine's ideas,
such as the nature of good and evil, the idea of hell, the
separation of groups into elect, hearers, and sinners, and the
hostility to the flesh and sexual activity.
How Manichaeism may have influenced Christianity continues to be
debated. Manichaeism may have influenced the
Bogomils,
Paulicians,
and
Cathars. However, these groups left few
records, and the link between them and Manichaeans is tenuous.
Regardless of its accuracy the charge of Manichaeism was levelled
at them by contemporary orthodox opponents, who often tried to make
contemporary heresies conform to those combatted by the church
fathers. Whether the
dualism of the
Paulicians, Bogomils, and Cathars and their belief that the world
was created by a Satanic
demiurge were due
to influence from Manichaeism is impossible to determine. The
Cathars apparently adopted the Manichaean principles of church
organization.
Priscillian and his
followers may also have been influenced by Manichaeism. The
Manichaeans preserved many
apocryphal
Christian works, such as the
Acts of
Thomas, that would otherwise have been lost.
Manichaeism maintained a sporadic and
intermittent existence in the west (Mesopotamia, Africa,
Spain
, France
, North
Italy
, the Balkans) for a thousand
years, and flourished for a time in the land of its birth (Persia)
and even further east in Northern India
, Western
China, and Tibet. While it had long
been thought that Manichaeism arrived in China only at the end of
the seventh century, a recent archaeological discovery demonstrated
that it was already known there in the second half of the sixth
century.
It was adopted by the
Uyghur ruler
Khagan Boku Tekin (AD 759–780) in 763, and
remained the state religion for about a century before the collapse
of the
Uyghur empire in 840.
In the
east it spread along trade routes as far as Chang'an
, the capital of the Tang
Dynasty in China
. In
the ninth century, it is reported that the Muslim
Caliph Al-Ma'mun tolerated a
community of Manichaeans.
In the Song and
Yuan
dynasties of
China remnants of Manichaeanism continued to leave a legacy
contributing to sects such as the Red
Turbans.
Neo-Manichaeism
During the middle ages, there emerged several movements which were
collectively described as "
Manichaean" by the Catholic Church, and
persecuted as Christian heresies through the establishment, in
1184, of the
Inquisition. They
included the
Cathar and
Albigensian churches of Western Europe. Other
groups sometimes referred to as "neo-Manichaean" were the
Paulician movement, which arose in Armenia, and
the
Bogomils in Bulgaria. An example of
this usage can be found in the published edition of the Latin
Cathar text, the
Liber de duobus principiis, (
Book of
the Two Principles), which was described as "Neo-Manichaean"
by its publishers. As there is no presence of Manichaean mythology
or church terminology in the writings of these groups, there has
been some dispute among historians as to whether these groups were
descendants of Manichaeism.
Theology
Manichaean theology was
dualistic in regards
to good and evil. A key belief in Manichaeism is that there is no
omnipotent good power . This addresses a theoretical part of the
problem of evil by denying the
infinite perfection of God and postulating two opposite powers. The
human person is seen as a battleground for these powers: the good
part is the
soul, which is composed of
light, and the bad part is the
body, composed of dark
earth. The
soul defines the person and is incorruptible, but it is under the
domination of a foreign power, which addressed the practical part
of the problem of evil.
Noting
Mani's travels to the Kushan Empire
(several religious paintings in Bamiyan
are attributed to him) at the beginning of his
proselytizing career, some postulate Buddhist influences in Manichaeism:
Buddhist influences were significant in the formation
of Mani's religious thought.
The transmigration of souls became a Manichaean belief,
and the quadripartite structure of the Manichaean community,
divided between male and female monks (the "elect") and lay
followers (the "hearers") who supported them, appears to be based
on that of the Buddhist sangha.
(Richard Foltz, Religions of the Silk
Road)
Cosmogony
Manichaeism presented an elaborate description of the conflict
between the spiritual world of light and the material world of
darkness. The beings of both the world of darkness and the world of
light have names. There are numerous sources for the details of the
Manichaean belief. There are two portions of Manichaean scriptures
that are probably the closest thing to the original Manichaean
writings in their original languages that will ever be available.
These are
the Syriac-Aramaic quotation by the Nestorian Christian Theodor bar-Konai, in his
Syriac "Book of Sects" (eighth century), and the Middle Persian
sections of Mani's Shabuhragan
discovered at Turpan
(a summary
of Mani's teachings prepared for Shapur
I). These two sections are probably the original Syriac
and Middle Persian written by Mani.
The Manichaean cosmogony has been described by
Mircea Eliade in his
A History of
Religious Ideas (Eliade is summarizing bar-Konai's Syriac
narration):
In the beginning...the two "natures" or "substances",
light and obscurity, good and evil, God and matter, coexisted,
separated by a frontier.
In the North reigned the Father of Greatness...in the
South, the Prince of Darkness...the "disorderly motion" of matter
drove the Prince of Darkness toward the upper frontier of his
kingdom.
Seeing the splendor of light, he is fired by the desire
to conquer it.
It is then that the Father decides that he will himself
repulse the adversary.
He...projects from himself, the Mother of Life,
who...projects a new hypostasis, the Primordial Man...With his five
sons, who are...his "soul" and "armor" made from five lights, the
Primordial Man descends to the frontier.
He challenges the darkness, but he is conquered, and
his sons are devoured by the demons...This defeat marks the
beginning of the cosmic "mixture", but at the same time it insures
the final triumph of God.
For obscurity (matter) now possesses a portion of
light...and the Father, preparing its deliverance, at the same time
arranges for his definitive victory against darkness.
In a second Creation, the Father "evokes" the Living Spirit, which,
descending toward obscurity, grasps the hand of the Primordial Man
and raises him to his celestial homeland, the Paradise of Lights.
Overwhelming the demonic Archontes, the Living Spirit fashions the
heavens from their skins, the mountains from their bones, the earth
from their flesh and their excretments...In addition, he achieves a
first deliverance of light by creating the sun, the moon, and the
stars from portions of it that had not suffered too much from
contact with obscurity.
Finally, the Father proceeds to a last evocation and projects by
emanation the Third Messenger. The latter organizes the cosmos into
a kind of machine to collect - and...to deliver - the still-captive
particles of light. During the first two weeks of the month, the
particles rise to the moon, which becomes a full moon; during the
second two weeks, light is transferred from the moon to the sun
and, finally, to its celestial homeland. But there were still the
particles that had been swallowed by the demons. Then the messenger
displays himself to the male demons in the form of a dazzling naked
virgin, while the female demons see him as a handsome naked young
man...fired by desire, the male demons...give forth their
semen, and, with it, the light that they had
swallowed. Fallen to the ground, their semen gives birth to all the
vegetable species. As for the female devils who were already
pregnant, at the sight of the handsome young man they give birth to
abortions, which, cast onto the ground, eat the buds of trees, thus
assimilating the light that they contained.
Alarmed by the Third Messenger's tactics, matter, personified as
Concupiscence, decides to create a stronger prison around the
still-captive particles of light. Two demons, one male, the other
female, devour all the abortions in order to absorb the totality of
light, and they then
couple. Thus
Adam and
Eve
were engendered.
Outline of the Beings and Events in the Manichaean Mythos
Beginning with the time of its creation by Mani, the Manichaean
religion had a detailed description of deities and events that took
place within the Manichaean scheme of the universe. In every
language and region that Manichaeism spread to, these same deities
reappear, whether it is in the original Syriac quoted by Theodor
bar-Konai, or the Latin terminology given by Saint Augustine from
Mani's
Epistola
Fundamenti, or the Persian and Chinese translations found
as Manichaeism spread eastward. While the original Syriac retained
the original description which Mani created, the transformation of
the deities through other languages and cultures produced
incarnations of the deities not implied in the original Syriac
writings. This process began in Mani's lifetime, with "The Father
of Greatness", for example, being translated into Middle Persian as
Zurvan, a Zoroastrian supreme being.
The World of Light
- The Father of Greatness (Syriac: ܐܒܐ ܕܪܒܘܬܐ
Abbā dəRabbūṯā; Middle Persian: pīd ī wuzurgīh,
or the Zoroastrian deity Zurwān;
Parthian: Pidar wuzurgift, Pidar roshn)
- His Five Shekhinas
(Syriac: ܚܡܫ ܫܟܝܢܬܗ khamesh shkhinatei; Chinese: 五种大
wu zhong da, "the five great ones")
- Reason (Syriac: ܬܪܥܝܬܐ taritha;
Parthian: Bam)
- Mind (Syriac: ܪܥܝܢܐ reyana; Parthian:
Manohmed)
- Intelligence (Syriac: ܡܕܥܐ mada;
Parthian: Ush)
- Thought (Syriac: ܡܚܫܒܬܐ makhshavta;
Parthian: Adeshishn)
- Understanding (Syriac: ܗܘܢܐ hauwna;
Parthian: Parmanag)
- The Great Spirit (Middle Persian: Waxsh
zindag, Waxsh yozdahr; Latin: Spiritus Potens)
The First Creation
- The Mother of Life (Syriac: ܐܡܐ ܕܚܝܐ ima
de-khaye)
- The First Man (Syriac: ܐܢܫܐ ܩܕܡܝܐ Nāšā
Qaḏmāyā; Middle Persian: Ohrmazd
Bay, the Zoroastrian god of light and goodness; Latin:
Primus Homo)
- His five Sons (the Five Elements; Middle
Persian: Amahrāspandan)
- Ether
- Wind
- Light
- Water
- Fire
- His sixth Son, the Answer-God (Syriac: ܥܢܝܐ
ania; Middle Persian: khroshtag; Chinese: 勢至
Shì Zhì "The Power of
Wisdom", a Chinese Bodhisattva). The answer sent by the First
Man to the Call from the World of Light.
- The Living Self (made up of the five Elements;
Middle Persian: Griw zindag, Griw roshn)
The Second Creation
- The Friend of the Lights (Syriac: ܚܒܝܒ ܢܗܝܖܐ
khaviv nehirei). Calls to:
- The Great Builder (Syriac: ܒܢ ܖܒܐ ban
raba). In charge of creating the new world which will separate
the darkness from the light. He calls to:
- The Living Spirit (Syriac: ܪܘܚܐ ܚܝܐ rūḥā
ḥayyā; Middle Persian: Mihryazd; Chinese: 净活风 jing huo feng;
Latin: Spiritus Vivens)
- His five Sons (Syriac: ܚܡܫܐ ܒܢܘܗܝ khamsha
benauhi)
- The Keeper of the Splendour (Syriac: ܨܦܬ ܙܝܘܐ
tzefat ziwa; Latin: Splenditenens). Holds up the
ten heavens from above.
- The King of Honour (Syriac: ܡܠܟ ܫܘܒܚܐ
melekh shubkha; Latin: Rex Honoris)
- The Adamas of Light
(Syriac: ܐܕܡܘܣ ܢܘܗܪܐ adamus nuhra; Latin: Adamas
). Fights with and overcomes an evil
being in the image of the King of Darkness.
- The Great King of Glory (Syriac: ܡܠܟܐ ܪܒܐ
ܕܐܝܩܪܐ malka raba de-ikara; Dead Sea Scrolls Aramaic: מלכא
רבא דאיקרא malka raba de-ikara; Latin: Rex
Gloriosus). A being which plays a central role in the Book of Enoch (originally written in Aramaic),
as well as Mani's Syriac version of it, the Book of Giants. Sits in the seventh heaven of the ten heavens and guards
the entrance to the world of light.
- Atlas (Syriac: ܣܒܠܐ sabala; Latin:
Atlas). Supports the
eight worlds from below.
- His sixth Son, the Call-God (Syriac: ܩܪܝܐ
karia; Middle Persian: padvakhtag; Chinese: 觀音
Guan Yin "watching/perceiving
sounds [of the world]", the Chinese Bodhisattva of Compassion).
Sent from the Living Spirit to awaken the First Man from his battle
with the forces of darkness.
The Third Creation
- The Third Messenger (Syriac: ܐܝܙܓܕܐ
īzgaddā)
- Jesus the Splendour (Syriac: ܝܫܘܥ ܙܝܘܐ
Yisho Ziwa). Sent to awaken Adam and Eve to the source of
the spiritual light trapped within their physical bodies.
- The Maiden of Light
- The Column of Glory
- The Great Nous
- His five Limbs
- Reason
- Mind
- Intelligence
- Thought
- Understanding
- The Just Justice
- The Last God
The World of Darkness
- The King of Darkness (Syriac: ܡܠܟ ܚܫܘܟܐ
melech kheshokha; Middle Persian: Ahriman, the Zoroastrian supreme evil
being)
- His five evil kingdoms
- His son (Syriac: ܐܫܩܠܘܢ ashaklun;
Middle Persian: Az, the Zoroastrian demon of greed)
- His son's mate (Syriac: ܢܒܪܘܐܠ
Nebroel)
- Their offspring - Adam and Eve (Middle
Persian: Gehmurd and Murdiyanag)
- Giants (Fallen Angels, also Abortions):
(Syriac: ܝܚܛܐ yakhte, "abortions" or "those that fell";
also: ܐܪܟܘܢܬܐ arkhonata, the Gnostic archons; Greek, Coptic:
’Εγρήγοροι Egrēgoroi, "Giants").
Related to the story of the fallen
angels in the Book of Enoch (which
Mani used extensively in his Book of
Giants), and the נפילים nephilim described in Genesis (6:1-4), on
which the story is based.
Sacred books
Mani wrote either seven or eight books, which contained the
teachings of the religion. Only scattered fragments and
translations of the originals remain.
Originally written in Syriac
- The Evangelion (Greek:
Ευαγγελιον, meaning roughly "good news"): Also known as the
Gospel of Mani. Quotations from the first chapter were
brought in Arabic by al-Nadim, who
lived in Baghdad at a time when there were still Manichaeans living
there, in his book the "Fihrist" (written in 938), a catalog of all
written books known to him.
- The Treasure of Life
- The Treatise
- Secrets
- The Book of
Giants: Original fragments were discovered at Qumran
(pre-Manichaean) and Turpan
.
- Epistles: Augustine brings quotations, in Latin, from Mani's
Fundamental Epistle in some of
his anti-Manichaean works.
- Psalms and Prayers. A Coptic
Manichaean Psalter, discovered in Egypt in the early 1900s, was
edited and published by Charles
Allberry from Manichaean manuscripts in the Chester Beatty collection and in the
Berlin Academy, 1938-9.
Originally written in Middle Persian
Other books
- The Ardahang, the "Picture Book". In
Iranian tradition, this was one of Mani's holy books which became
remembered in later Persian history, and was also called Aržang, a
Parthian word meaning "Worthy",
and was beautified with paintings. Therefore Iranians gave him the
title of "The Painter".
- The Kephalaia, "Discourses", found in Coptic translation.
- On the Origin of His Body, the title of the Cologne Mani-Codex, a Greek translation
of an Aramaic book which describes the early life of Mani.
Non-Manichaean works preserved by the Manichaean Church
Later works
In later
centuries, as Manichaeism passed through eastern Persian speaking
lands and arrived at the Uyghur
Empire, and eventually the Uyghur kingdom of Turpan
(destroyed
around 1335), long hymn cycles and prayers were composed in Middle
Persian and Parthian. A translation of one of these produced
the Manichaean Chinese Hymnscroll (the 摩尼教下部贊, which Lieu
translates as "Hymns for the Lower Section [i.e. the Hearers] of
the Manichaean Religion"), now available in its entirety (see the
external links section).
Sources
Until discoveries in the 1900s of original sources, the only
sources for Manichaeism were descriptions and quotations from
non-Manichaean authors, either Christian, Muslim, or Zoroastrian.
While often criticizing Manichaeism, they also quoted directly from
Manichaean scriptures. This enabled
Isaac de Beausobre, writing in the 18th
century, to create a comprehensive work on Manichaeism, relying
solely on anti-Manichaean sources. Thus quotations and descriptions
in Greek and Arabic have long been known to scholars, as have the
long quotations in Latin by Saint Augustine, and the extremely
important quotation in Syriac by Theodor bar-Khonai.
An example of how inaccurate some of these accounts could be is
seen in the account of the origins of Manichaeism contained in the
Acta Archelai. This was a Greek anti-manichaean work
written before 348, most well-known in its Latin version, which was
regarded as an accurate account of Manichaeism until the end of the
19th century:
In the time of the Apostles there lived a man named
Scythianus, who is described as coming
'from Scythia,' and also as being 'a Saracen by race' ('ex genere
Saracenorum').
He settled in Egypt, where he became acquainted with
'the wisdom of the Egyptians,' and invented the religious system
which was afterwards known as Manichaeism.
Finally he emigrated to Palestine, and, when he died,
his writings passed into the hands of his sole disciple, a certain
Terebinthus.
The latter betook himself to Babylonia, assumed the
name of Budda, and endeavoured to propagate his master's
teaching.
But he, like Scythianus, gained only one disciple, who
was an old woman.
After a while he died, in consequence of a fall from
the roof of a house, and the books which he had inherited from
Scythianus became the property of the old woman, who, on her death,
bequeathed them to a young man named Corbicius, who had been her
slave.
Corbicius thereupon changed his name to Manes, studied
the writings of Scythianus, and began to teach the doctrines which
they contained, with many additions of his own.
He gained three disciples, named Thomas, Addas, and
Hermas.
About this time the son of the Persian king fell ill,
and Manes undertook to cure him; the prince, however, died,
whereupon Manes was thrown into prison.
He succeeded in escaping, but eventually fell into the
hands of the king, by whose order he was flayed, and his corpse was
hung up at the city gate.
A. A. Bevan, who quoted this story, commented that it 'has no claim
to be considered historical.'
In the early 1900s, original Manichaean writings started to come to
light when German scholars began excavating at the ancient site of
the Manichaean Uyghur Kingdom near Turpan, in Chinese Turkestan
(destroyed around AD 1300). While most of the writings they
uncovered were in very poor condition, there were still hundreds of
pages of Manichaean scriptures, written in three Persian languages
(Middle Persian, Parthian, and Sogdian) and old Turkish. These
writings were taken back to Germany, and were analyzed and
published at the
Preußische
Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin. While the vast majority
of these writings were written in a version of the Syriac script
known as
Manichaean script, the
German researchers, perhaps for lack of suitable fonts, published
most of them using Hebrew letters (which could easily be
substituted for the 22 Syriac letters).
Perhaps the most comprehensive of these publications was
Manichaeische Dogmatik aus chinesischen und iranischen
Texten (
Manichaean Dogma from Chinese and Iranian
texts), by Waldschmidt and Lentz, published in Berlin in 1933.
More than any other research work published before or since, this
work printed, and then discussed, the original key Manichaean texts
in the original scripts, and consists chiefly of sections from
Chinese texts, and Middle Persian and Parthian texts transcribed
with Hebrew letters. (After the Nazi party gained power in Germany,
the Manichaean writings continued to be published during the 1930s,
but the publishers no longer used Hebrew letters, instead
transliterating the texts into Latin letters.)
Additionally, in the early 1900s, German researchers in Egypt found
a large body of Manichaean works in Coptic. Though these were also
damaged, many complete pages survived and were published in Berlin
before World War II. Some of these Coptic Manichaean writings were
destroyed during the war.
After the success of the German researchers, French scholars
visited China and discovered what is perhaps the most complete set
of Manichaean writings, written in Chinese. These three Chinese
writings are today kept in London, Paris, and Beijing. The original
studies and analyses of these writings, along with their
translations, first appeared in French, English, and German, before
and after World War II. The complete Chinese texts themselves were
first published in Tokyo, Japan in 1927, in the
Taisho Tripitaka, volume 54. While in the
last thirty years or so they have been republished in both Germany
(with a complete translation into German, alongside the 1927
Japanese edition), and China, the Japanese publication remains the
standard reference for the Chinese texts.
In Egypt
a small codex was found and became known
through antique dealers in Cairo
.
It was
purchased by the University of Cologne
in 1969. Two of its scientists, Henrichs and
Koenen, produced the first edition known since as the
Cologne Mani-Codex, which was published
in four articles in the
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und
Epigraphik. The ancient
papyrus
manuscript contained a
Greek text
describing the life of Mani. Thanks to this discovery, much more is
known about the man who founded one of the most influential world
religions of the past.
See also
References
- Welburn (1998), p. 68
- BeDuhn (2000), p. IX
- Manichaeans were the original Zindīqs. See: Mahmood Ibrahim, Religious
Inquisition as Social Policy: The Persecution of the 'Zanadiqa' in
the Early Abbasid Caliphate, in Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ),
Vol. 16, 1994.
- L. Koenen and C. Römer, eds., Der Kölner Mani-Kodex. Über
das Werden seines Leibes. Kritische Edition, (Abhandlung der
Reinisch-Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften: Papyrologica
Coloniensia 14) (Opladen, Germany) 1988.
- Middle Persian Sources: D. N. MacKenzie, Mani’s
Šābuhragān, pt. 1 (text and translation), BSOAS 42/3, 1979,
pp. 500-34, pt. 2 (glossary and plates), BSOAS 43/2, 1980, pp.
288-310.
- Welburn (1998), p. 67-68
- Original Syriac in: Theodorus bar Konai, Liber Scholiorum,
II, ed. A. Scher, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum
Orientalium scrip. syri, 1912, pp. 311-18, ISBN
978-90-429-0104-9; English translation in: A.V.W. Jackson,
Researches in Manichaeism, New York, 1932, pp.
222-54.
- Bevan, A. A. (1930). "Manichaeism". Encyclopaedia of Religion
and Ethics, Volume VIII Ed. James Hastings. London
- J. T. Milik, ed. and trans., The Books of Enoch: Aramaic
Fragments of Qumran Cave 4, Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1976.
- In: Henning, W.B., The Book of Giants", BSOAS,Vol. XI, Part
1, 1943, pp. 52-74.
- See Henning, A Sogdian Fragment of the Manichaean
Cosmogony, BSOAS, 1948
- Catholic Online
- A. Adam, Das Fortwirken des Manichäismus bei Augustin.
In: ZKG (69) 1958, S. 1–25.
- Runciman, Steven, The Medieval Manichee: a study of the
Christian dualist heresy. Cambridge University Press,
1947.
- http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11583b.htm
- Dondaine, Antoine. O.P. Un traite neo-manicheen du XIIIe
siecle: Le Liber de duobus principiis, suivi d'un fragment de
rituel Cathare (Rome: Institutum Historicum Fratrum
Praedicatorum, 1939)
- http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01267e.htm
- Eliade, Mircea. (1982). A History of Religious Ideas,
Volume Two: From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of
Christianity. Chicago and London
- See, for example, Boyce, Mary The Manichaean hymn-cycles in
Parthian (London Oriental Series, Vol. 3). London: Oxford
University Press, 1954.
- Lieu, Samuel N. C., Manichaeism in Central Asia and
China, 1998, p. 50.
- de
Beausobre, Isaac, Histoire critique de Manichée et du
Manichéisme, 1734–1739, Amsterdam.
- Bevan, A. A. (1930). "Manichaeism". Encyclopaedia of
Religion and Ethics, Volume VIII Ed. James Hastings.
London
- Waldschmidt, E., and Lentz, W., Manichäische Dogmatik aus
chinesischen und iranischen Texten (SPAW 1933, No. 13)
- Schmidt-Glintzer, Helwig, Chinesische Manichaeica,
Wiesbaden, 1987
Books and Articles
- (Cahiers D'Orientalism XVI) 1988a
- (Cahiers D'Orientalism XVI) 1988b
- (Original Manichaean manuscripts found since 1902 in China,
Egypt, Turkestan to be seen in the Museum of Indian Art in
Berlin.)
- Heinrichs, Albert; Ludwig Koenen, Ein griechischer
Mani-Kodex, 1970 (ed.) Der Kölner Mani-Codex ( P.
Colon. Inv. nr. 4780), 1975–1982.
- Mani (216–276/7) and his 'biography': the Codex Manichaicus
Coloniensis (CMC):
External links
Outside articles
Manichaean sources in English translation
Secondary Manichaean sources in English translation
Manichaean sources in their original languages
Secondary Manichaean sources in their original languages