Manichaeism (; Persian: آئین مانی, romanized: Āʾīn-i Mānī; Chinese: 摩尼教; pinyin: Móníjiào) was a major world religion founded in the third century AD by the Parthian Iranian prophet Mani (216–274) in the Sasanian Empire. It taught an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good spiritual world of light, and an evil material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of the divine.
Mani's teachings were intended to integrate, succeed, and surpass the "partial truths" of various prior faiths and belief systems, including Ancient Babylonian and other Mesopotamian traditions, Ancient Greek traditions, Greco-Roman mystery traditions, Platonism, Iranian and Zoroastrian traditions, Brahmanism, Sramanic traditions including Jainism and Buddhism, both Hellenistic and Rabbinic Jewish traditions, and Christian traditions including Marcionite, Bardaisanite, and Elkesaite. Most forms of Manichaeism viewed Mani as the final prophet sent after succession of various prophets most prominently Zoroaster, The Buddha, and Jesus, each of whose teachings were later corrupted and distorted by people like Devadatta and Judas Iscariot. The canon of Manichaean scripture included seven works originally written in Syriac and attributed to Mani, who was said to have illustrated a canonical book of pictures. Manichaean sacramental rites included prayers, almsgiving, fasting, and most centrally the daily ritual meal of the elect. Communal life centered on confession and the singing of hymns.
With its message of universal salvation and emphasis on active proselytism, Manichaeism was quickly successful and spread throughout Aramaic-speaking regions, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. It thrived between the third and seventh centuries AD, 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 Roman Iberia. Before the spread of Islam, Manichaeanism was briefly the main rival to early Christianity. It was increasingly persecuted both by the Roman state and the nascent Christian church, largely disappearing from Roman lands by the end of the sixth century.
Manichaeism survived and expanded in the East. It maintained its historic presence in West Asia until being repressed by the latter Abbasid Caliphate rulers in the 10th century. Trade and missionary activity brought Manichaeism to Tang China in the seventh century, where it developed into its own local form. Manichaeism was the official religion of the Uyghur Khaganate until its collapse in 840; shortly thereafter, it was banned by the Tang court but experienced a resurgence under the later Mongol Yuan dynasty during the 13th and 14th centuries. Continued persecution by Chinese emperors led to Manichaeism becoming subsumed into Buddhism and Taoism before the end of the 14th century.
Some historic Manichaean sites still exist in China, including the temple of Cao'an in Jinjiang, Fujian, and the religion may have influenced later movements in the European Middle Ages, including Paulicianism, Bogomilism, and Catharism. While most original Manichean writings have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived.
Terminology
The spelling Manichaeism is a hypercorrection of Manichaism, which derives from Koine Greek Μανιχαϊσμός(Manikhaïsmós) via Latin Manichaismus. The Greek word is built on Μανιχαῖος (Manikhaîos; 'Manichaeus'), one of the names of Mani in Greek sources.
In English, an adherent of Manichaeism is called a Manichaean, Manichean, or Manichee.
History
Life of Mani
Mani was an Iranian born in 216 CE in or near Ctesiphon (now al-Mada'in, Iraq) in the Parthian Empire. According to the Cologne Mani-Codex, Mani's parents were members of the Jewish Christian Gnostic sect known as the Elcesaites.
Mani composed seven works, six of which were written in the late-Aramaic Syriac language. The seventh, the Shabuhragan, was written by Mani in Middle Persian and presented to the Sasanian emperor Shapur I by Mani himself. Although there is no evidence that Shapur I was a follower of Mani, he tolerated the spread of Manichaeism and refrained from persecuting it within his empire's boundaries.
According to Michel Tardieu, Mani invented the unique version of the Syriac script known as the Manichaean alphabet, which was used in all Manichaean works written within the Sasanian Empire, whether in Syriac or Middle Persian, as well as in most works written within the Uyghur Khaganate. The primary language of Babylonia—and the administrative and cultural language of the Empire—at that time was Eastern Middle Aramaic, which had three principle dialects: Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, the language of the Babylonian Talmud; Mandaic, the language of Mandaeism; and Syriac, which was the language of Mani and the Syriac Christians.
During the spread of Manichaeism, established religions like Zoroastrianism remained prevalent, while early Christianity was gaining both social and political influence. Despite having fewer followers, Manichaeism attracted the support of several high-ranking political figures. With the backing of the Sasanian Empire, Mani embarked on missionary expeditions. However, after failing to gain the favor of the next generation of Persian royalty and facing disapproval from the Zoroastrian clergy, Mani was imprisoned and ultimately died awaiting execution by the Persian emperor Bahram I. His death is estimated to have occurred around 276–277 CE.
Influences
Mani believed that the teachings of the Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus of Nazareth were incomplete; that his revelations were meant to be shared universally; and that his teachings comprised a new "religion of light". Manichaean writings indicate that Mani received revelations when he was 12 and again at 24, and that over this period he grew dissatisfied with the Elcesaites, the Gnostic sect of Jewish Christianity he was born into. Iain Gardner, in The Founder of Manichaeism, argues that Jain influence on Mani is likely due to the extreme asceticism and specific doctrines of Mahāvīra's community, making it even more plausible than influence from the Buddha. Richard C. C. Fynes, in 1996, argued that various Jain influences, particularly ideas on the existence of plant souls, were transmitted from Western Kshatrapa territories to Mesopotamia and then integrated into Manichaean beliefs. Mani wore colorful clothing, which was unusual for the time, and reminded some Romans of a stereotypical Persian magus or warlord, earning him ire in the Greco-Roman world.
Mani began preaching at an early age and was possibly influenced by contemporary Babylonian-Aramaic movements like Mandaeism; Aramaic translations of non-canonical Jewish apocalyptic works similar to those found at Qumran (e.g., the Book of Enoch); and by the Syriac dualist Gnostic writer Bardaisan (who lived a generation before Mani). With the discovery of the Cologne Mani-Codex, it also became clear that his history with the Elcesaites influenced his writings.
Mani taught that the soul of a righteous individual returns to Paradise upon death. In contrast, the soul of someone who indulges in earthly desires—such as fornication, procreation, accumulating possessions, cultivating the land, harvesting, eating meat, and drinking wine—faces condemnation and is destined to be reborn in a cycle of different bodies.
According to biographies preserved by ibn al-Nadim and the Persian polymath al-Biruni, Mani received a revelation as a youth from a spirit, whom he would later call his "Twin" (Imperial Aramaic: תְּאוֹמָא, romanized: Tāʾūmā; pronounced [tɑʔwmɑ]); Syzygos (Koine Greek: σύζυγος, lit. 'together-yoked'), in the Cologne Mani-Codex; "Double"; "Protective Angel"; or "Divine Self". This spirit taught him wisdom, which he later developed into a religion. It was his "twin" who brought Mani to self-realization. Mani claimed to be the Paraclete of the Truth promised by Jesus in the book of John 14:16 of the New Testament.
According to the scholar of Manichaeism Samuel N. C. Lieu, the theological roles of Jesus in Manichaeism were highly complex:
Jesus in Manichaeism possessed three separate identities:
- Jesus the Luminous,
- Jesus the Messiah and
- Jesus patibilis (the suffering Jesus).
1. As Jesus the Luminous ... his primary role was as supreme revealer and guide and it was he who woke Adam from his slumber and revealed to him the divine origins of his soul and its painful captivity by the body and mixture with matter.
2. Jesus the Messiah was an historical being who was the prophet of the Jews and the forerunner of Mani. However, the Manichaeans believed he was wholly divine, and that he never experienced human birth, as the physical realities surrounding the notions of his conception and his birth filled the Manichaeans with horror. However, the Christian doctrine of virgin birth was also regarded as obscene. Since Jesus the Messiah was the light of the world, where was this light, they reasoned, when Jesus was in the womb of the Virgin? Jesus the Messiah, they believed, was truly born only at his baptism, as it was on that occasion that the Father openly acknowledged his sonship. The suffering, death and resurrection of this Jesus were in appearance only as they had no salvific value but were an exemplum of the suffering and eventual deliverance of the human soul and a prefiguration of Mani's own martyrdom.
3. The pain suffered by the imprisoned Light-Particles [sic?] in the whole of the visible universe, on the other hand, was real and immanent. This was symbolized by the mystic placing of the Cross whereby the wounds of the passion of our souls are set forth. On this mystical Cross of Light was suspended the Suffering Jesus (Jesus patibilis) who was the life and salvation of Man. This mystica crucifixio was present in every tree, herb, fruit, vegetable, and even stones and the soil. This constant and universal suffering of the captive soul is exquisitely expressed in one of the Coptic Manichaean psalms.
Augustine of Hippo also noted that Mani declared himself to be an "apostle of Jesus Christ". Manichaean tradition is noted to have claimed that Mani was the reincarnation of religious figures from previous eras, including the Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus himself.
Academics note that much of what is known about Manichaeism comes from later 10th- and 11th-century Muslim historians like al-Biruni and ibn al-Nadim in his al-Fihrist; the latter "ascribed to Mani the claim to be the Seal of the Prophets." However, given the Islamic milieu of Arabian Peninsula and Persia at the time, it stands to reason that Manichaeans would regularly assert in their evangelism that Mani, not Muhammad, was the Seal of the Prophets. In reality, for Mani, the metaphorical expression "Seal of Prophets" was not a reference to his finality in a lineage of prophets as it means in Islam, but rather as final to his followers (who attest to his message as a "seal").
Other textual sources of Mani's scripture were the Aramaic Jewish Book of Enoch, 2 Enoch, and The Book of Giants. Mani quoted the latter directly and expanded upon it, making it—a specifically Manichaean version—one of the six original Syriac writings of the Manichaeans. Besides short references by non-Manichaean authors through the centuries, no original editions of the Manichaean Book of Giants were available until the 20th century.
Scattered fragments of both the original Aramaic Book of Giants, which was analyzed and published by Józef Milik in 1976, and the Manichaean version of the same name (analyzed and published by Walter Bruno Henning in 1943) were discovered along with the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Judaean Desert in the 20th century 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.
By comparing the cosmology of the books of Enoch to the Book of Giants, as well as the description of the Manichaean myth, scholars have observed that the Manichaean cosmology can be described as being based, in part, on the description of the cosmology developed in detail within the Enochic literature. This literature describes the being who the prophets saw in their ascent to Heaven as a king who sits on a throne in the highest of the heavens. In Manichaean myth, this being, the "Great King of Honor", became a deity who guards the entrance to the World of Light, placed at the seventh of ten heavens. In the Aramaic Book of Enoch, the Qumran writings, overall, and in the original Syriac section of Manichaean scriptures quoted by Theodore bar Konai, he is called malkā rabbā d-iqārā ("the Great King of Honor").
Mani was also influenced by writings of the gnostic Bardaisan (154–222 CE), who, like Mani, wrote in Syriac and presented a dualistic interpretation of the world in terms of light and darkness in combination with elements from Christianity.
Noting Mani's travels to the Kushan Empire (several religious paintings in Bamyan are attributed to him) at the beginning of his proselytizing career, Richard Foltz postulates 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.
Lokakṣema, a Buddhist monk living in second-century Kushan, began translating the scriptures of Pure Land Buddhism into Chinese during the century preceding Mani's advent. Extant Chinese Manichaean texts frequently employ uniquely Buddhist terms taken from the Pure Land scriptures, including the term "pure land" (Chinese: 淨土; pinyin: jìngtǔ) itself, argued Peter Bryder. However, the central object of veneration in Pure Land Buddhism, Amitābha, the "Buddha of Infinite Light", does not appear in Chinese Manichaeism and seems to have been replaced by another deity.
Spread
Roman Empire
Manichaeism reached Rome through the apostle Psattiq in 280, who had been in Egypt in 244 and 251. The religion was flourishing in the Faiyum in 290. Manichaean monasteries existed in Rome in 312 during the reign of Pope Miltiades.
In 291, persecution arose in the Sasanian Empire with the murder of the apostle Mar Sisin orchestrated by Emperor Bahram II and the slaughter of many Manichaeans. In 302, the first official Roman state reaction and legislation against Manichaeism was issued under Diocletian. In an official edict entitled De Maleficiis et Manichaeis, compiled in the Collatio Legum Mosaicarum et Romanarum, and addressed to the proconsul of Africa, Diocletian wrote: