View source for Manichaeism

{{Short description|Persian religion founded in the 3rd century AD}}
{{Redirect|Manichaean|the writing system|Manichaean script}}
{{distinguish|Mandaeism}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}}

{{Infobox religion
| name               = Manichaeism
| native_name        = {{lang|fa|آئینِ مانی}}<br>{{lang|zh|摩尼教}}
| image              = Seal_of_Mani_(cleaned_up)._Seal_with_figure_of_Mani,_possibly_3rd_century_CE,_possibly_Irak._Cabinet_des_Médailles,_Paris.jpg
| imagewidth         = 225
| alt                = Sealstone of Mani
| caption            = [[Sealstone of Mani]], [[Quartz|rock crystal]], possibly 3rd century AD, Iraq. [[Cabinet des Médailles]], Paris.<ref name="SPL160">{{cite book |last1=Grenet |first1=Frantz |title=Splendeurs des oasis d'Ouzbékistan |date=2022 |publisher=Louvre Editions |location=Paris |isbn=978-84-125278-5-8 |page=93}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Believers, Proselytizers, & Translators The Sogdians |url=https://sogdians.si.edu/believers-proselytizers-translators/ |website=sogdians.si.edu |access-date=26 March 2023 |archive-date=14 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014133244/https://sogdians.si.edu/believers-proselytizers-translators/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The seal reads "Mani, messenger of the messiah", and may have been used by Mani himself to sign his letters.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=GULÁCSI |first1=ZSUZSANNA |title=The Prophet's Seal: A Contextualized Look at the Crystal Sealstone of Mani (A.D. 216–276) in the Bibliothèque nationale de France |journal=Bulletin of the Asia Institute |date=2010 |volume=24 |page=164 |jstor=43896125 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/43896125.pdf |issn=0890-4464}}</ref><ref name="SPL160"/>
| type               = [[Religion#Morphological_classification|Universal religion]]
| main_classification = [[Iranian religions|Iranian religion]]
| scripture          = [[Manichaean scripture]]
| theology           = [[Dualism in cosmology|Dualistic]]
| area               = Historical: [[Europe]], [[East Asia]], [[Central Asia]], [[West Asia]], [[North Africa]], [[Siberia]]
| headquarters       = 
| language           = [[Middle Persian]], [[Classical Syriac]], [[Parthian language|Parthian]], [[Classical Latin]],
 [[Classical Chinese]], [[Old Uyghur language]], [[Tocharian B]], [[Sogdian language]], [[Greek language|Greek]]
| territory          = 
| founder            = [[Mani (prophet)|Mani]]
| founded_date       = 3rd century AD
| founded_place      = [[Parthian Empire]], [[Sasanian Empire]]
| separated_from     = [[Elcesaites|Elcesaite]] sect, and the teachings of [[Jesus in Manichaeism|Jesus]], [[The Buddha in Manichaeism|Shakyamuni Buddha]], and [[Zarathustra in Manichaeism|Zoroaster]]
| separations        = {{Collapsible list|title=''[[Manichaean schisms]]''|1=[[Chinese Manichaeism]]}}
| congregations      = 
| members            = 
}}
{{multiple image
| align = 
| header =
| direction = vertical
| total_width = 258
| image1 = Portrait of a Manichaean.svg
| alt1 = 
| caption1 = A portrait of a [[Persians|Persian]] Manichaean. Line drawing copy of two frescoes from cave 38B at [[Bezeklik Caves|Bezeklik Grottoes]].
| image2 = Image of a Manichaean Temple.svg
| alt2 = 
| caption2 = An image of a Manichaean temple with stars and seven [[firmament]]s. Line drawing copy of two frescoes from cave 38B at [[Bezeklik Caves|Bezeklik Grottoes]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Huashan |first1=Chao |title=New Evidence of Manichaeism in Asia: A Description of Some Recently Discovered Manichaean Temples in Turfan |journal=Monumenta Serica |date=1 January 1996 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=267–315 |doi=10.1080/02549948.1996.11731293}}</ref>
}}

{{Manichaeism sidebar}}

'''Manichaeism'''{{efn|Also spelled '''Manichaism'''{{sfn|Hascard|1685|page=13}}{{sfn|Dewar|1847|page=67}}{{sfn|Gaster|1925|page=87}} {{IPAc-en|ˌ|m|æ|n|ᵻ|ˈ|k|eɪ|ɪ|z|əm}} in accordance with the [[Koine Greek]] {{lang|grc|Μανιχαϊσμός}}{{sfn|Sophocles|1900|page=732}} {{transl|grc|Manikhaïsmós}} and its regular [[Latin language|Latinization]] {{lang|la|Manichaismus}}.{{sfn|Canz|1750|page=299}}}} ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|m|æ|n|ᵻ|ˈ|k|iː|.|ɪ|z|əm}};<ref>{{OED|manichaeism}}</ref> in {{langx|fa|آئین مانی|Āʾīn-i Mānī}}; {{lang-zh|c={{linktext|摩尼教}}|p=Móníjiào}}) was a [[Major religious groups|major]] [[World religions|world religion]] founded in the third century AD by the [[Parthian Empire|Parthian]]<ref>Yarshater, Ehsan ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 3 (2), The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983.</ref> [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mani {{!}} Prophet, Founder, Dualism {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mani-Iranian-religious-leader |access-date=2025-11-06 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> prophet [[Mani (prophet)|Mani]] (216–274) in the [[Sasanian Empire]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09591a.htm |title=Manichaeism |publisher=New Advent Encyclopedia |access-date=4 October 2013 |archive-date=8 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200508130002/https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09591a.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> It taught an elaborate [[dualistic cosmology]] describing the [[Conflict between good and evil|struggle]] between a good spiritual world of [[Divine light|light]], and an evil material world of darkness.<ref>{{Iranica|cosmogony-iii}}</ref> 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,<ref name="Turner-1993">{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Alice K. |title=The History of Hell |publisher=[[Harcourt Brace]] |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-15-140934-1 |edition=1st |location=United States |page=50 |language=en-US}}</ref> succeed, and surpass the "partial truths" of various prior faiths and belief systems, including [[Babylonian religion|Ancient Babylonian]] and other [[Ancient Mesopotamian religion|Mesopotamian]] traditions,<ref>Widengren, Geo ''Mesopotamian elements in Manichaeism (King and Saviour II): Studies in Manichaean, Mandaean, and Syrian-gnostic religion'', Lundequistska bokhandeln, 1946.</ref> [[Ancient Greek religion|Ancient Greek]] Traditions, [[Greco-Roman mysteries|Greco-Roman mystery]] traditions,<ref name="Hopkins-2001">{{Cite book |last=Hopkins |first=Keith |title=A World Full of Gods: The Strange Triumph of Christianity |date=July 2001 |publisher=[[Plume (publisher)|Plume]] |isbn=0-452-28261-6 |location=New York |pages=246, 263, 270 |oclc=47286228}}</ref><ref name="Arendzen-1910-1">Arendzen, John (1 October 1910). "[https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09591a.htm Manichæism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231201201326/https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09591a.htm |date=1 December 2023 }}". ''[[The Catholic Encyclopedia]]''. Vol. 9. New York: The Encyclopedia Press, Inc.</ref> [[Platonism]],<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Corrigan |first1=Kevin |title=Gnosticism, Platonism and the late ancient world: essays in honour of John D. Turner |last2=Rasimus |first2=Tuomas |date=2013 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-22383-7 |series=Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies |location=Leiden}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dardagan |first=Amer |date=2017-05-13 |title=Neoplatonism, The Response on Gnostic and Manichean ctiticism of Platonism |doi=10.31235/osf.io/krj2n |doi-access=free }}</ref> [[Ancient Iranian religion|Iranian]] and [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] traditions,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=BeDuhn |first1=Jason |author1-link=Jason Beduhn |title=The Co-formation of the Manichaean and Zoroastrian Religions in Third-Century Iran |journal=Entangled Religions |date=2020 |volume=11 |issue=2 |doi=10.13154/er.11.2020.8414 |url=https://er.ceres.rub.de/index.php/ER/article/view/8414}}</ref> <ref>{{cite book |last1=BeDuhn |first1=Jason |last2=Dilley |first2=Paul |editor1-last=Rose |editor1-first=Jenny |editor2-last=de Jong |editor2-first=Albert |editor3-last=Stewart |editor3-first=Sarah |title=The Zoroastrian World |date=2026 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781003168904 |pages=59–64 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003168904-9/manichaean-christian-mandaean-views-zoroastrianism-jason-beduhn-paul-dilley?context=ubx&refId=57532a68-ed98-4c6a-9711-83f77cfe9ba7 |chapter=Chapter 7: Manichaean, Christian, and Mandaean views of Zoroastrianism |doi=10.4324/9781003168904-9 }}</ref> [[Historical Vedic religion|Brahminism]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=BeDuhn |first1=Jason |editor1-last=Parry |editor1-first=Ken |editor2-last=Mikkelsen |editor2-first=Gunner |title=Byzantium to China: Religion, History and Culture on the Silk Roads: Studies in Honour of Samuel N.C. Lieu |date=2022 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004517981 |pages=15–16 |url=https://brill.com/display/title/58146 |chapter=Chapter 1: Nārāyaṇa Buddha: Adaptation of Manichaean Prophetology in South, Central, and East Asia}}</ref> Sramanic traditions including [[Jainism]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Deeg |first1=Max |last2=Gardner |first2=Iain |title=INDIAN INFLUENCE ON MANI RECONSIDERED THE CASE OF JAINISM |journal=International Journal of Jaina Studies |date=2009 |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=1–30 |url=https://www.soas.ac.uk/international-journal-jaina-studies}}</ref> and [[Buddhism]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gardner |first1=Iain |title=The Founder of Manichaeism Rethinking the Life of Mani |date=2020 |isbn=9781108614962 |pages=14–15 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/founder-of-manichaeism/AF850EC4B1377A173893C2561C841B3B}}</ref> both [[Hellenistic Judaism|Hellenistic]] and [[Rabbinic Judaism|Rabbinic Jewish]] traditions,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Moiseeva |first1=Evgenia |title=Genesis as a Hidden Source of Manichaeism |journal=Scrinium: Journal of Patrology and Critical Hagiography |date=2017 |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=199–212 |doi=10.1163/18177565-00131p16 |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/scri/13/1/article-p199_16.xml?ebody=Article%20details}}</ref> and [[Christianity|Christian]] traditions including [[Marcionism|Marcionite]],<ref name="Turner-1993" /> <ref>{{cite book |last1=Lieu |first1=Judith |title=Byzantium to China: Religion, History and Culture on the Silk Roads Studies in Honour of Samuel N.C. Lieu |date=2022 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-51798-1 |url=https://brill.com/display/title/58146 |chapter=Chapter 13 Between Marcion and Mani: Open Questions for a Continuing Conversation}}</ref> [[Bardaisan|Bardaisanite]], and [[Elcesaites|Elkesaite]]. Most forms of Manichaeism viewed Mani as the [[Last prophet|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]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gardner |first1=Iain |title=The Kephalaia of the Teacher: The Edited Coptic Manichaean Texts in Translation with Commentary |date=2020 |publisher=BRILL |isbn= 978-90-04-32891-4 |page=xiv |url=https://brill.com/display/title/2240?srsltid=AfmBOooaH5H7AVK7ASQ_nCqGS19_gU_n1ty5q9eOKeevUj9t6HS6N-eO&contents=editorial-content}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=BeDuhn |first1=Jason |title=Byzantium to China: Religion, History and Culture on the Silk Roads Studies in Honour of Samuel N.C. Lieu |date=2022 |publisher=Brill |isbn= 978-90-04-51798-1 |pages=1-4 |chapter=1 Nārāyaṇa Buddha: Adaptation of Manichaean Prophetology in South, Central, and East Asia}}</ref> The canon of Manichaean scripture included seven works originally written in [[Syriac language|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]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-10-18 |title=Manichaeism {{!}} Definition, Beliefs, History, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Manichaeism |access-date=2025-11-06 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> Manichaeism was quickly successful and spread throughout [[Aramaic]]-speaking regions,<ref name="BeDuhnMirecki2007">{{cite book|author1=Jason BeDuhn|author2=Paul Allan Mirecki|title=Frontiers of Faith: The Christian Encounter With Manichaeism in the Acts of Archelaus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JQd8b5s5QBUC&pg=PA6|year=2007|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-16180-1|page=6}}</ref> the Mediterranean, and the Middle East.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2025-10-18 |title=Manichaeism {{!}} Definition, Beliefs, History, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Manichaeism |access-date=2025-11-06 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> 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]].<ref>Andrew Welburn, ''Mani, the Angel and the Column of Glory: An Anthology of Manichaean Texts'' (Edinburgh: Floris Books, 1998), p. 68</ref> 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.<ref name="ReferenceC">R. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''. SUNY Press, 1998 {{ISBN|978-0-7914-3611-0}} p. 37</ref>

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 dynasty|Tang China]] in the seventh century, where it [[Chinese Manichaeism|developed into its own local form]]. Manichaeism was the official religion of the [[Uyghur Khaganate]] until its collapse in 830; 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.<ref name="Clarence, 2021">{{cite web |last1=Clarence |first1=Siut Wai Hung |title=The Forgotten Buddha: Manichaeism and Buddhist Elements in Imperial China |url=https://blog.nus.edu.sg/imperialchina/2021/12/23/research-2021-4/ |access-date=29 January 2024 |archive-date=29 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240129144330/https://blog.nus.edu.sg/imperialchina/2021/12/23/research-2021-4/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 

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.<ref>{{cite book|editor-first1=Iain |editor-last1=Gardner |editor-first2=Samuel N. C. |editor-last2=Lieu | author-link2=Samuel N. C. Lieu|title=Manichaean Texts from the Roman Empire |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=2004}}</ref>

==Terminology==
The spelling ''Manichaeism'' is a [[hypercorrection]] of ''Manichaism'',{{sfn|Hascard|1685|page=13}}{{sfn|Dewar|1847|page=67}}{{sfn|Gaster|1925|page=87}} which derives from [[Koine Greek]] {{lang|grc|{{math|Μανιχαϊσμός}}}}{{sfn|Sophocles|1900|page=732}}({{transl|grc|Manikhaïsmós}}) via [[Latin language|Latin]] {{lang|la|Manichaismus}}.{{sfn|Canz|1750|page=299}} The Greek word is built on {{lang|grc|{{math|Μανιχαῖος}}}} ({{transl|grc|Manikhaîos}}; 'Manichaeus'), one of the names of [[Mani (prophet)|Mani]] in Greek sources.

In English, an adherent of Manichaeism is called a ''Manichaean'', ''Manichean'', or ''Manichee''.<ref>{{cite dictionary |title=Definition of Manichaean |dictionary=Merriam-Webster.com |date=15 July 2023 |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Manichaean |url-status=live |access-date=12 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170104043053/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Manichaean |archive-date=4 January 2017 }}</ref>

== History ==
=== Life of Mani ===
{{main|Mani (prophet)}}

[[File:Manicheans.jpg|thumb|Manichaean priests, writing at their desks. Eighth or ninth century manuscript from [[Gaochang]], [[Tarim Basin]], China.]]
[[File:Birth of Mani.jpg|thumb|[[Yuan dynasty|Yuan Chinese]] silk painting ''Mani's Birth'']]

Mani was an [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]]{{efn|name=IranicaManiFounderManichaeism}} born in 216 AD in or near [[Ctesiphon]] (now [[al-Mada'in]], Iraq) in the [[Parthian Empire]].<ref>Mary Boyce, ''Zoroastrians: their religious beliefs and practices'', Routledge, 2001. p. 111: "He was Iranian, of noble Parthian blood&nbsp;..."</ref><ref>Warwick Ball, ''Rome in the East: the transformation of an empire'', Routledge, 2001. p. 437: "Manichaeism was a syncretic religion, proclaimed by the Iranian Prophet Mani&nbsp;...</ref> According to the [[Cologne Mani-Codex]],<ref name="Mani-Kodex">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.</ref> Mani's parents were members of the [[Jewish Christian]] [[Gnosticism|Gnostic]] [[sect]] known as the [[Elcesaites]].<ref name="Sundermann-2009a">{{Cite web |last=Sundermann |first=Werner |date=2009-07-20 |title=MANI |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/mani-founder-manicheism |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher=Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation |language=en-US |archive-date=14 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014133321/https://iranicaonline.org/articles/mani-founder-manicheism |url-status=live }}</ref>

Mani composed seven works, six of which were written in the late-[[Aramaic]] [[Syriac language]]. The seventh, the ''[[Shabuhragan]]'',<ref name="Shabuhragan">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.</ref> was written by Mani in [[Middle Persian]] and presented to the [[List of monarchs of the Sasanian Empire|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.<ref>Welburn (1998), pp. 67–68</ref>

According to [[Michel Tardieu]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tardieu|first=Michel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e9wk7DQRoPoC&q=Manichaean+alphabet&pg=PA33|title=Manichaeism|date=2008|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-03278-3|language=en}}</ref> 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 language|Mandaic]], the language of [[Mandaeism]]; and Syriac, which was the language of Mani and the [[Syriac Christianity|Syriac Christians]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Joosten|first=Jan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RrLe3e6Hx-QC&q=Syriac++Church|title=The Syriac Language of the Peshitta and Old Syriac Versions of Matthew: Syntactic Structure, Inner-Syriac Developments and Translation Technique|date=1996|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-10036-7|language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Shahname - Mani death (cropped).jpg|thumb|A 14th-century illustration of the execution of [[Mani (prophet)|Mani]]]]
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 AD.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|edition=1|title=The Founder of Manichaeism: Rethinking the Life of Mani|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781108614962/type/book|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2020-01-31|isbn=978-1-108-61496-2|doi=10.1017/9781108614962.004|first1=Iain|last1=Gardner|first2=Jason|last2=BeDuhn|pages=40|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

=== Influences ===
{{See also|Chinese Manichaeism|Docetism}}
[[File:Sermon on Mani's Teaching of Salvation. Cathayan Manichaean silk painting, 13th-century.jpg|thumb|''[[Sermon on Mani's Teaching of Salvation]]'', 13th-century Chinese Manichaean silk painting]]
Mani believed that the teachings of [[the Buddha]], [[Zoroaster]],<ref name="Harari-2015">{{Cite book |last=Harari |first=Yuval Noah |title=Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind |publisher=Penguin Random House UK |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-09-959008-8 |location=London |page=247 |translator-last=Harari |translator-first=Yuval Noah |oclc=910498369 |author-link=Yuval Noah Harari |translator-last2=Purcell |translator-first2=John |translator-last3=Watzman |translator-first3=Haim |translator-link=Yuval Noah Harari |translator-link3=Haim Watzman}}</ref> and [[Jesus of Nazareth]] were incomplete; that his revelations were meant to be shared [[Universalism|universally]]; and that his teachings comprised a new "religion of light".<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Reviving Manichaeism with the Evil God Challenge|journal=Religions|date=2025-11-09|issn=2077-1444|pages=1432|volume=16|issue=11|doi=10.3390/rel16111432|language=en|first=Zoheir|last=Bagheri Noaparast |doi-access=free }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Reeves1996">{{cite book|first=John C. |last=Reeves |title=Heralds of That Good Realm: Syro-Mesopotamian Gnosis and Jewish Traditions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ewM1xTuRQaoC&pg=PA6 |access-date=27 August 2012 |year=1996 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|BRILL]] |isbn=978-90-04-10459-4 |pages=6–}}</ref> Iain Gardner, in ''The Founder of Manichaeism'',<ref>{{Cite book|edition=1|title=The Founder of Manichaeism: Rethinking the Life of Mani|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781108614962/type/book|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2020-01-31|isbn=978-1-108-61496-2|doi=10.1017/9781108614962.002|first1=Iain|last1=Gardner|first2=Jason|last2=BeDuhn|pages=24|url-access=subscription}}</ref> argues that [[Jainism|Jain]] influence on Mani is likely due to the extreme [[asceticism]] and specific doctrines of [[Mahavira|Mahāvīra]]'s community, making it even more plausible than influence from the Buddha.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Jainism – Posadha |date=2017 |encyclopedia=Buddhism and Jainism |series=Encyclopedia of Indian Religions |page=585 |location=Dordrecht |publisher=Springer Netherlands|doi=10.1007/978-94-024-0852-2_100387 |isbn=978-94-024-0851-5 }}</ref> Richard C. C. Fynes, in 1996, argued that various Jain influences, particularly ideas on the existence of [[plant soul]]s, were transmitted from [[Western Satraps|Western Kshatrapa]] territories to [[Mesopotamia]] and then integrated into Manichaean beliefs.<ref name="FynesRCC">{{cite journal|last=Fynes|first=Richard C.C.|title=Plant Souls in Jainism and Manichaeism The Case for Cultural Transmission|journal=East and West|publisher=Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente (IsIAO)|volume=46|issue=1/2|year=1996|issn=0012-8376|jstor=29757253|pages=21–44|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/29757253|access-date=30 May 2024|archive-date=30 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240530144547/https://www.jstor.org/stable/29757253|url-status=live}}</ref> 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]].<ref name="Coyle2009">{{cite book |author=Coyle |first=John Kevin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wnFz3tI0qOwC&pg=PR13 |title=Manichaeism and Its Legacy |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-90-04-17574-7 |location=Leiden, The Netherlands |page=7 |access-date=27 August 2012}}</ref>

Mani began preaching at an early age and was possibly influenced by contemporary Babylonian-Aramaic movements like [[Mandaeism]]; Aramaic translations of [[Jewish canon|non-canonical]] [[Jewish eschatology|Jewish apocalyptic]] works similar to those found at [[Qumran]] (e.g., the [[Book of Enoch]]); and by the Syriac [[Dualism in cosmology|dualist]] Gnostic writer [[Bardaisan]] (who lived a generation before Mani).<ref name=":3" /> With the discovery of the Cologne Mani-Codex, it also became clear that his history with the Elcesaites influenced his writings.<ref name=":3" />

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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Kephalaia of the Teacher: the edited Coptic Manichaean texts in translation with commentary|publisher=Brill Academic Pub|date=1995|location=New York|isbn=978-90-04-10248-4|series=Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies|first=Iain|last=Gardner|publication-date=1 February 1995|pages=235–241}}</ref><ref name="EB-2023">{{Cite web |title=Manichaeism |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Manichaeism |access-date=2023-02-21 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |language=en |archive-date=8 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200508072403/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Manichaeism |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title=Mani and the Whale: a Buddhist Motif in the Coptic Manichaica and the Construction of Mani as Universal Apostle|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/vc/aop/article-10.1163-15700720-bja10113/article-10.1163-15700720-bja10113.xml|journal=Vigiliae Christianae|date=2025-11-20|issn=0042-6032|pages=1–23|doi=10.1163/15700720-bja10113|first=Håkon F.|last=Teigen|doi-access=free}}</ref>

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" ({{langx|arc|[[wikt:תְּאוֹמָא|תְּאוֹמָא]]|rtl=yes|translit=Tāʾūmā}}; {{ipa|arc|tɑʔwmɑ|pron}}); {{transliteration|grc-x-koine|Syzygos}} ({{langx|grc-x-koine|[[wikt:σύζυγος|σύζυγος]]|translation=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]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Mani and Augustine |first=Johannes |last=van Oort |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden, the Netherlands |date=2020 |chapter=The Paraclete Mani as the Apostle of Jesus Christ and the Origins of a New Church }}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse|John|14:16|NRSV}}</ref>

[[File:Jesus as a Manichaean Prophet, 13th century.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.75|''[[Manichaean Painting of the Buddha Jesus]]'' depicts Jesus as a Manichaean prophet.]]

According to the scholar of Manichaeism [[Samuel N. C. Lieu]], the theological roles of [[Jesus in Manichaeism]] were highly complex:
{{poemquote|Jesus in Manichaeism possessed three separate identities: 
#Jesus the Luminous, 
#Jesus the [[Christ (title)|Messiah]] and 
#Jesus {{transliteration|la|patibilis}} (the [[suffering Jesus]]).

1. As Jesus the Luminous&nbsp;... 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 [[Monophysitism|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 of Jesus|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 [[Mary, mother of Jesus|the Virgin]]? Jesus the Messiah, they believed, was truly born only at his baptism, as it was on that occasion that [[God the Father|the Father]] openly acknowledged his [[Son of God (Christianity)|sonship]]. The suffering, [[Crucifixion of Jesus|death]] and [[Resurrection of Jesus|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 {{sic?|Light-Particles}} 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 {{transliteration|la|patibilis}}) who was the life and salvation of Man. This {{transliteration|la|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.<ref name="SNC Lieu">{{cite book | author = Samuel N. C. Lieu | date = 1992 | title = Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China | publisher = J.C.B. Mohr | pages = 161– | isbn = 978-3-16-145820-0 | oclc = 1100183055 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hmNPz9teHqUC&pg=PA161 | access-date = 28 April 2023 | archive-date = 28 April 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230428154820/https://books.google.com/books?id=hmNPz9teHqUC&pg=PA161 | url-status = live }}</ref>}}

[[Augustine of Hippo]] also noted that Mani declared himself to be an "apostle of Jesus Christ".<ref>{{cite book | editor = Boniface Ramsey | author = Saint Augustine | date = 2006 | title = The Manichean Debate, Volume 1; Volume 19 | publisher = New City Press | pages = 315– | isbn = 978-1-56548-247-0 | oclc = 552327717 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=57nFeeC3GKoC&pg=PA315 | access-date = 28 April 2023 | archive-date = 13 May 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230513081717/https://books.google.com/books?id=57nFeeC3GKoC&pg=PA315 | url-status = live }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Kephalaia of the Teacher: the edited Coptic Manichaean texts in translation with commentary|publisher=Brill Academic Pub|date=1995|location=New York|isbn=978-90-04-10248-4|series=Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies|first=Iain|last=Gardner|publication-date=1 February 1995|pages=63}}</ref>{{more citations needed|date=December 2025}}

Academics note that much of what is known about Manichaeism comes from later 10th- and 11th-century [[Muslims|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]]."<ref name="Sundermann-EIranica-2012">{{iranica|eschatology-ii}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Stroumsa |first=Guy G. |title=The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2015 |location=Oxford |page=95}}</ref> 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").<ref>C. Colpe, "Das Siegel der Propheten: historische Beziehungen zwischen Judentum, Judenchristentum, Heidentum und frühem Islam", ''Arbeiten zur neutestamentlichen Theologie und Zeitgeschichte'', 3 (Berlin: Institut Kirche und Judentum, 1990), 227–243.</ref><ref>G. G. Stroumsa, ''The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity'', Oxford Studies in the Abrahamic Religions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 68.</ref>

[[File:ManichaeanElectaeKocho10thCentury.jpg|thumb|10th century Manichaean Electae in [[Gaochang]] (Khocho), China]]
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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/explore-the-archive/manuscript/1Q24-1?locale=en_US |title=The Dead Sea Scrolls – 1Q Enoch, Book of Giants |website=The Dead Sea Scrolls – 1Q Enoch, Book of Giants |language=en |access-date=7 October 2019 |archive-date=8 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108003418/https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/explore-the-archive/manuscript/1Q24-1?locale=en_US |url-status=live }}</ref>

Scattered fragments of both the original Aramaic ''Book of Giants'', which was analyzed and published by [[Józef Milik]] in 1976,<ref>J. T. Milik, ed. and trans., ''The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4'', Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.</ref> and the Manichaean version of the same name (analyzed and published by [[Walter Bruno Henning]] in 1943)<ref name="Henning">In: Henning, W. B., ''The Book of Giants'', BSOAS, Vol. XI, Part 1, 1943, pp. 52–74.</ref> were discovered along with the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]] in the [[Judaean Desert]] in the 20th century and the Manichaean writings of the [[Uyghurs|Uyghur]] Manichaean kingdom in [[Turpan]]. Henning wrote in his analysis of them:

{{blockquote|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]], [[Nariman (Shahnameh)|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.<ref name="Henning"/>}}

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 [[Enoch]]ic literature.<ref>Reeves, John C. ''Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony: Studies in the Book of Giants Traditions'' (1992)</ref> This literature describes the being who the prophets{{specify|date=December 2025}} 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.<ref>See Henning, ''A Sogdian Fragment of the Manichaean Cosmogony'', BSOAS, 1948</ref> In the Aramaic Book of Enoch, the Qumran writings, overall, and in the original Syriac section of Manichaean scriptures quoted by [[Theodore bar Konai]],<ref name="Konai"/> he is called ''malkā rabbā d-iqārā'' ("the Great King of Honor").{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}

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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ephraim |first1=Saint |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2JolCgAAQBAJ&q=Bardaisan&pg=PT250 |title=Of Mani, Marcion, and Bardaisan |last2=Press |first2=Aeterna |publisher=Aeterna Press |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Akshobya in His Eastern Paradise with Cross of Light.jpg|thumb|[[Akshobhya]] in the [[abhirati]] with the Cross of Light, a symbol of Manichaeism]]
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:

{{blockquote|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]].<ref>[[Richard Foltz]], ''Religions of the Silk Road'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2nd edition, 2010, p. 71 {{ISBN|978-0-230-62125-1}}</ref>}}

[[Lokaksema (Buddhist monk)|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]]" ({{lang-zh|c=淨土|p=jìngtǔ}}) itself, argued Peter Bryder.<ref>Peter Bryder, ''The Chinese Transformation of Manichaeism: A Study of Chinese Manichaean Terminology'', 1985.</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lieu |first=Samuel N. C. | author-link=Samuel N. C. Lieu|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yl2DteLY8jcC&q=Buddha+replaced |title=Manichaeism in Central Asia and China |date=1998 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|BRILL]] |isbn=978-90-04-10405-1 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Spread ===
====Roman Empire====
[[File:Spread of Manicheanism.png|alt=|thumb|A map of the spread of Manichaeism (300–500). ''World History Atlas'', Dorling Kindersly.]]
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]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Lieu |first=Samuel N. C. | author-link=Samuel N. C. Lieu|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O_vnAAAAIAAJ&q=Miltiades |title=Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China: A Historical Survey |date=1985 |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |isbn=978-0-7190-1088-0 |language=en}}</ref>

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:
{{blockquote|We have heard that the Manichaeans [...] have set up new and hitherto unheard-of sects in opposition to the older creeds so that they might cast out the doctrines vouchsafed to us in the past by the divine favour for the benefit of their own depraved doctrine. They have sprung forth very recently like new and unexpected monstrosities among the race of the Persians – a nation still hostile to us – and have made their way into our empire, where they are committing many outrages, disturbing the tranquility of our people and even inflicting grave damage to the civic communities. We have cause to fear that with the passage of time they will endeavour, as usually happens, to infect the modest and tranquil of an innocent nature with the damnable customs and perverse laws of the Persians as with the poison of a malignant (serpent) ... We order that the authors and leaders of these sects be subjected to severe punishment, and, together with their abominable writings, burnt in the flames. We direct their followers, if they continue recalcitrant, shall suffer capital punishment, and their goods be forfeited to the imperial treasury. And if those who have gone over to that hitherto unheard-of, scandalous and wholly infamous creed, or to that of the Persians, are persons who hold public office, or are of any rank or of superior social status, you will see to it that their estates are confiscated and the offenders sent to the (quarry) at [[Khirbat Faynan|Phaeno]] or the mines at [[Proconnesus (city)|Proconnesus]]. And in order that this plague of iniquity shall be completely extirpated from this our most happy age, let your devotion hasten to carry out our orders and commands.<ref>Iain Gardner and [[Samuel N. C. Lieu]], eds., Manichaean Texts from the Roman Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 117–18.</ref>}}

By 354, [[Hilary of Poitiers]] wrote that Manichaeism was a significant force in [[Roman Gaul]]. In 381, Christians requested that [[Theodosius I]] strip Manichaeans of their [[civil rights]]. Starting in 382, the emperor issued a series of edicts to suppress Manichaeism and punish its followers.<ref>[[Samuel N. C. Lieu|Lieu, Samuel]] (1992) ''Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China'' 2d edition, pp. 145–148</ref>

[[File:Tiffany Window of St Augustine - Lightner Museum.jpg|thumb|[[Augustine of Hippo]] was Manichaean as a young adult.]]
[[Augustine of Hippo]] (354–430) converted to Christianity from Manichaeism in the year 387. The Roman emperor [[Theodosius I]] had issued a decree ordering the execution of all Manichaean monks in 382, and would establish [[Christianity as the Roman state religion]] in 391. Due to Roman persecution, Manichaeism nearly disappeared from Western Europe in the fifth century and from the [[Byzantine Empire|eastern portion]] of the empire in the sixth century.<ref name="Wendy"/>

According to his ''[[Confessions (Augustine)|Confessions]]'', after nine or ten years of adhering to the Manichaean faith as a member of the group of "hearers", Augustine of Hippo became a Christian and potent adversary of Manichaeism (which he expressed in writing against his Manichaean opponent [[Faustus of Mileve]]), seeing adherents' belief that knowledge (i.e., [[gnosis]]) was salvific as too passive and unable to effect change in one's life.<ref>{{cite web |title=St. Augustine of Hippo |url=http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=418 |access-date=2012-08-18 |website=Catholic.org |publisher=Catholic Online |archive-date=25 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070925063207/http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=418 |url-status=live }}</ref>
{{blockquote|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&nbsp;... 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.<ref>''Confessions'', Book V, Section 10.</ref>}}
Some modern scholars{{Like whom?|date=December 2025}} 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 concept of hell; the separation of groups into 'elect', 'hearers', and 'sinners'; hostility toward human experience and sexual activity; and his dualistic theology.<ref>A. Adam, ''Das Fortwirken des Manichäismus bei Augustin''. In: ZKG (69) 1958, S. 1–25.</ref>

[[File:Augustine Confessiones.jpg|thumb|A 13th-century manuscript from Augustine's book VII of ''[[Confessions (Augustine)|Confessions]]'' criticizing Manichaeism]]

====Central Asia====
[[File:Amitâbha in His Western Paradise with Indians, Tibetians and Central Asians, Symbols - Sun and Cross.jpg|thumb|[[Amitābha]] in his [[Western Paradise]] with [[Indian people|Indians]], [[Tibetan people|Tibetans]], and [[Central Asian peoples|Central Asians]], with two symbols of Manichaeism: Sun and Cross]]
Adherents existed in [[Sogdia]] in Central Asia{{when|date=December 2025}}.<ref>[http://222.87.106.4:90/~kjqk/xbmzyj/xbmz2002/0204pdf/020405.pdf 从信仰摩尼教看漠北回纥]{{dead link|date=May 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tanghistory.net/data/articles/d02/618.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070807002634/http://www.tanghistory.net/data/articles/d02/618.html|title=关于回鹘摩尼教史的几个问题|archive-date=7 August 2007}}</ref> [[Uyghur Khaganate|Uyghur khagan]] [[Bögü Qaghan]] (759–780) converted to the religion in 763 after a three-day discussion with preachers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bbs.sjtu.edu.cn/bbsanc,path,%2Fgroups%2FGROUP_5%2Fhistory%2FD4DE4789F%2FDA817325D%2FM.1026347406.A.html |title=九姓回鹘爱登里罗汨没蜜施合毗伽可汗圣文神武碑 |publisher=Bbs.sjtu.edu.cn |access-date=2014-02-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224091643/http://bbs.sjtu.edu.cn/bbsanc,path,%2Fgroups%2FGROUP_5%2Fhistory%2FD4DE4789F%2FDA817325D%2FM.1026347406.A.html |archive-date=24 December 2013 }}</ref><ref>TM276 [http://mehmetolmez.org/Yuklemeler_Downloads/Eski Uygurca_Alttuerkisch_Qedimi Uygurche/TT 2.pdf Türkische Turfan-Texte. ~]{{dead link|date=September 2016|bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> The Babylonian headquarters sent high-ranking clerics to the Uyghurs, and Manichaeism remained the state religion for about a century before the disestablishment of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

====South Siberia====
After the defeat of the Uyghur Khaganate by the [[Yenisei Kyrgyz]], Manichaeism spread north to the [[Minusinsk Hollow]]. Archaeological excavations in the [[:ru:%D0%A3%D0%B9%D0%B1%D0%B0%D1%82|Uybat]] valley revealed ruins of a Manichaean center there, which included six temples and five sanctuaries of the elements; architecturally, it was similar to the Sogdian structures in Tuva and Xinjiang. In the 1970s, a Manichaean temple dating to the 8th to 10th centuries was excavated 90&nbsp;km from the Uybat center in the Puyur-sukh valley. [[:ru:%D0%9A%D1%8B%D0%B7%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B2, %D0%9B%D0%B5%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B4 %D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87|L.R Kyzlasov]] interpreted the finds as evidence of the adoption of Manichaeism as an official religion in the [[Kyrgyz Khaganate]]. Few [[Khakassia]]n Manichaean epitaphs confirm this version; the Manichaean script also influenced the Yenisei runic script at a late stage of its development{{what?|date=December 2025}}. South Siberian Manichaeism existed before the Mongol conquest. Later, it influenced the formation of the culture of the Sayano-Altai Turks ([[Altai people|Altaians]], [[Khakas]], [[Tuvans]]), as well as the [[Khanty|Khants]], [[Selkup people|Selkups]], [[Ket people|Kets]] and [[Evenki people|Evenks]]. This influence affected the everyday beliefs of the indigenous peoples and the lexical composition of their languages.<ref>{{cite web | title=Древности Алтая | url=http://e-lib.gasu.ru/da/archive/2000/05/10.html }}</ref>

====China====
{{Main|Chinese Manichaeism}}

In the East, it spread along trade routes as far as [[Chang'an]], the capital of [[Tang dynasty|Tang China]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KMQeAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA309 |title=Encyclopedia of China: History and Culture |first=Dorothy |last=Perkins |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2013 |page=309 |isbn=978-1-135-93562-7}}</ref><ref name="S.N.C.L.">{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Yl2DteLY8jcC&pg=PA129|title= Manachaeism in Central Asia and China|author= [[Samuel N. C. Lieu]]|publisher= [[Brill Publishers]]|year= 1998|isbn= 978-90-04-10405-1|pages= 115, 129, 130}}</ref>

After the Tang dynasty, some Manichaean groups participated in [[peasant movement]]s. Many rebel leaders used religion to mobilize followers. In [[Song dynasty|Song]] and [[Yuan dynasty]] China, remnants of Manichaeism continued to leave a legacy, contributing to sects such as the [[Red Turban Rebellions|Red Turbans]]. During the Song dynasty, the Manichaeans were derogatorily referred by the Chinese as ''Chīcài shìmó'' ({{lang-zh|c=吃菜事魔}}, meaning that they "abstain from meat and worship demons").<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BZ8WAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA228|title= Pre-Modern East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History, Volume I: To 1800|author= Patricia Ebrey, Anne Walthall|publisher= [[Cengage]]|year= 2013|page= 228|isbn= 978-1-285-54623-0}}</ref><ref name="Xisha2011">{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Knui-SpO4GQC&pg=PA55|title= Popular Religion and Shamanism|author= Xisha Ma, Huiying Meng|publisher= [[Brill Publishers]]|year= 2011|pages= 56, 57, 99|isbn= 978-90-04-17455-9}}</ref>

An account in ''Fozu Tongji'', an important historiography of Buddhism in China compiled by Buddhist scholars during 1258–1269, states that the Manichaeans worshipped the "White Buddha" and that their leader wore a violet headgear, while their followers wore white costumes. Many Manichaeans participated in rebellions against the Song government, which were eventually quelled. After that, all governments suppressed Manichaeism and its followers, and the religion was banned in [[Ming dynasty|Ming China]] in 1370.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BZ8WAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA228|title= Pre-Modern East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History, Volume I: To 1800|author= Patricia Ebrey, Anne Walthall|publisher= [[Cengage]]|year= 2013|page= 228|isbn= 978-1-285-54623-0}}</ref><ref name="Xisha2011"/> While it had long been thought that Manichaeism arrived in China only at the end of the seventh century, a recent{{When|date=October 2024}} archaeological discovery demonstrated that it was already known there in the second half of the 6th century.<ref name="La Vaissiere">Étienne de la Vaissière, "Mani en Chine au VIe siècle", ''Journal asiatique'', 293–1 (2005): 357–378.</ref>

The nomadic [[Uyghur Khaganate]] lasted for less than a century (744–840) in the southern Siberian steppe, with the fortified city of [[Ordu-Baliq]] on the Upper [[Orkhon River]] as its capital.<ref name="CA, ABC-CLIO">{{cite book |last1=Hajianfard |first1=Ramin |title=Boku Tekin and the Uyghur Conversion to Manichaeism (763) |date=2016 |publisher=CA, ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara |isbn=978-1-61069-566-4 |id={{ISBN|978-1-61069-566-4}} |pages=409, 411}}</ref> Before the end of the year (763), Manichaeism was declared the official religion of the Uyghur state. Boku Tekin banned all shamanistic rituals previously in use. His subjects likely accepted his decision. That much results from a report that the proclamation of Manichaeism as the state religion was met with enthusiasm in Ordu-Baliq. In an inscription in which the Kaghan speaks for himself, he promised the Manichaean high priests (the "Elect") that if they gave orders, he would promptly follow them and respond to their requests. An incomplete manuscript found in the [[Turpan|Turfan Oasis]] gives Boku Tekin the title of ''zahag-i Mani'' ("Emanation of Mani" or "Descendant of Mani"), a title of majestic prestige among the Manichaeans of Central Asia.

Nonetheless, despite the apparently willing conversion of the Uyghurs to Manichaeism, traces of previous shamanistic practices persisted. For instance, in 765, only two years after the official conversion, during a military campaign in China, Uyghur troops called upon magicians to perform several specific rituals. Manichaean Uyghurs continued to treat with great respect a sacred forest in [[Otuken]].<ref name="CA, ABC-CLIO"/> The conversion to Manichaeism led to an explosion of manuscript production in the Tarim Basin and Gansu (the region between the Tibetan and the Huangtu plateaus), which lasted well into the early 11th century. In 840, the Uyghur Khaganate collapsed under the attacks of the [[Yenisei Kyrgyz]], and the new Uyghur state of [[Qocho]] was established with a capital in the city of [[Gaochang|Qocho]].

[[Al-Jahiz]] (776–868 or 869) believed that the peaceful lifestyle that Manicheism brought to the Uyghurs was responsible for their later lack of military skills and eventual decline. This, however, is contradicted by the political and military consequences of the conversion. After the Uyghurs migrated to Turfan in the ninth century, the nobility maintained Manichaean beliefs for a time before converting to Buddhism. Traces of Manicheism among the Uyghurs in Turfan may be detected in fragments of Uyghur Manichaean manuscripts. In fact, Manichaeism continued to rival Buddhism in influence among the Uyghurs until the 13th century. The [[Mongols]] gave the final blow to Manichaeism among the Uyghurs.<ref name="CA, ABC-CLIO"/>

====Tibet====
Manichaeism spread to Tibet during the [[Tibetan Empire]]. There was a serious attempt made to introduce the religion to the Tibetans, as the text ''Criteria of the Authentic Scriptures'' (a text attributed to the Tibetan Emperor [[Trisong Detsen]]) makes a great effort to attack Manichaeism by stating that Mani was a heretic who engaged in [[religious syncretism]] into a deviating and inauthentic form.<ref>{{cite book|title=Sources of Tibetan Tradition |last1=Schaeffer |first1=Kurtis |last2=Kapstein |first2=Matthew |last3=Tuttle |first3=Gray |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-231-13599-3 |location=New York |pages=95, 96}}</ref>

====Iran====
Manichaeans in Iran tried to assimilate their religion along with [[Islam]] in the Muslim [[caliphate]]s.<ref name="Andrew">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nae0AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA73 |title=The Islamic World |first=Andrew |last=Rippin |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-136-80343-7 |page=73 |author-link=Andrew Rippin}}</ref> Relatively little is known about the religion during the first century of Islamic rule. During the early caliphates, Manichaeism attracted many followers. It had a significant appeal among Muslim society, especially among the elites. A part of Manichaeism that specifically appealed to the [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanians]] was the names of the Manichaean gods. The names Mani assigned to the gods of his religion show identification with those of the Zoroastrian pantheon, even though some of the divine beings he incorporated are non-Iranian. For example, Jesus, Adam, and Eve were named Xradesahr, Gehmurd, and Murdiyanag. Because of these familiar names, Manichaeism did not feel completely foreign to the Zoroastrians.<ref name="Hutter-1993">{{Cite journal |last=Hutter |first=Manfred |date=1993 |title=Manichaeism in the Early Sasanian Empire |journal=Numen |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=2–15 |doi=10.2307/3270395 |jstor=3270395 |issn=0029-5973|doi-access=free }}</ref> Due to the appeal of its teachings, many Sasanians adopted the ideas of its theology and some even became dualists.

Not only were the citizens of the Sasanian Empire intrigued by Manichaeism, but so was the ruler at the time of its introduction, [[Shapur I]]. As the ''[[Denkard]]'' reports, Shapur, the first [[King of Kings]], was very well-known for gaining and seeking knowledge of any kind. Because of this, Mani knew that Shapur would lend an ear to his teachings and accept him. Mani had explicitly stated while introducing his teachings to Shapur, that his religion should be seen as a reform of [[Zoroaster]]'s teachings.<ref name="Hutter-1993" /> This was of great fascination to the king, for it perfectly fit Shapur's dream of creating a large empire that incorporated all people and their different creeds. Thus, Manichaeism became widespread and flourished throughout the Sasanian Empire for thirty years. An [[apologia]] for Manichaeism ascribed to [[ibn al-Muqaffa']] defended its [[Phantasmagoria|phantasmagorical]] cosmogony and attacked the [[fideism]] of Islam and other monotheistic religions. The Manichaeans had sufficient structure to have a head of their community.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/formationofislam0000berk |url-access=registration |title=The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East |first=Jonathan Porter |last=Berkey |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2003 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/formationofislam0000berk/page/99 99], 100 |isbn=978-0-521-58813-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ajwK7ejowwC&pg=PT86 |title=The Middle East |first=Bernard |last=Lewis |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4391-9000-5 |author-link=Bernard Lewis}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IenWAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA50 |title=State and Government in Medieval Islam |first=Ann K. S. |last=Lambton |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2013 |pages=50, 51 |isbn=978-1-136-60521-5}}</ref>

Tolerance toward Manichaeism decreased after the death of Shapur I. His son, [[Hormizd I]], who became king, still allowed for Manichaeism in the empire, but he also greatly trusted the Zoroastrian priest, [[Kartir]]. After Hormizd's short reign, his oldest brother, [[Bahram I]], became king. Bahram I held Kartir in high esteem, and he also had many religious ideals different from those of Hormizd and his father, Shapur I. Due to Kartir's influence, Zoroastrianism was strengthened throughout the empire, which in turn diminished Manichaeism. Bahram sentenced Mani to prison, and he died there.<ref name="Hutter-1993" />

====Arab world====
That Manicheism went further on to the Arabian Peninsula, up to the Hejaz and Mecca, where it could have possibly contributed to the formation of the doctrine of Islam, cannot be proven in pre-Islamic Arabia,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/manicheism-iv-missionary-activity-and-technique-|title=MANICHEISM v. MISSIONARY ACTIVITY AND TECHNIQUE: Manicheism in Arabia|access-date=2019-09-26|archive-date=2019-11-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191116235921/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/manicheism-iv-missionary-activity-and-technique-|url-status=live}}</ref> and there was no formal existence of Manichaeism in the Hejaz.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=tavakoli |first1=mohammadhadi |title=Investigating the possibility of Manichaean presence in Hejaz during the pre-Islamic |journal=Studies of Religions and Denominations |url=https://arj.urd.ac.ir/article_200127_e388d1dae7d4ecbb8b090fcf5512a71c.pdf?lang=en}}</ref> Under the eighth-century [[Abbasid Caliphate]], Arabic {{lang|ar-Latn|zindīq}} and the adjectival term {{lang|ar-Latn|zandaqa}} could denote many different things,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=tavakoli |first1=mohammadhadi |title=A Semantic Study of Common Zandaqa in Quraysh in Pre-Islamic Era |journal=History of Philosophy |date=1402 |volume=51 |issue=3 |url=http://hop.mullasadra.org/fa/Article/41534/FullText}}</ref> but it seems to have primarily—or at least initially—signified a follower of Manichaeism.<ref name="Zaman1997">{{citation|last=Zaman |first=Muhammad Qasim |title=Religion and Politics Under the Early 'Abbasids: The Emergence of the Proto-Sunni Elite |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0xkpdl6UVOwC&pg=PA64 |year=1997 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |pages=63–65 |isbn=978-90-04-10678-9}}</ref> From the ninth century, it is reported that Caliph [[al-Ma'mun]] tolerated a community of Manichaeans.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2501/is_n2_v16/ai_16502939/pg_5/ |work=Arab Studies Quarterly |first=Mahmood |last=Ibrahim |title=Religious inquisition as social policy: the persecution of the 'Zanadiqa' in the early Abbasid Caliphate |year=1994}}</ref>{{New archival link needed|date=April 2026}}

During the early Abbasid period, the Manichaeans underwent persecution. The third Abbasid caliph, [[al-Mahdi]], persecuted the Manichaeans, establishing an inquisition against dualists who, if found guilty of heresy, refused to renounce their beliefs and were executed. Their persecution was ended in the 780s by [[Harun al-Rashid]].<ref name="Christine">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aPgGBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA88 |title=Medieval Heresies |first=Christine Caldwell |last=Ames |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2015 |page= 88 |isbn=978-1-107-02336-9}}</ref><ref>Irfan Shahîd, ''Byzantium and the Arabs in the fourth century'', 1984, p. 425.</ref> During the reign of the caliph [[al-Muqtadir]], many Manichaeans fled from [[Mesopotamia]] to [[Greater Khorasan|Khorasan]] in fear of persecution, and the base of the religion was later shifted to [[Samarkand]].<ref name="Wendy"/><ref name="Jacques"/>

==== Bactria ====
The first appearance of Manichaeism in Bactria was during Mani's lifetime. While he never physically traveled there, he did send a disciple by the name of [[Mar Ammo]] to spread his gospel. Mani "called (upon) Mar Ammo, the teacher, who knew the Parthian language and script, and was well acquainted with lords and ladies and with many nobles in those places..."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Gnosis on the Silk Road: Gnostic texts from Central Asia |date=1993 |publisher=HarperSanFrancisco |first=Hans-Joachim |last=Klimkeit |isbn=0-06-064586-5 |edition=1st |location=San Francisco|oclc=28067600}}</ref>

Mar Ammo traveled to the previous Parthian lands of eastern Iran, which bordered Bactria. A translation of Persian texts states the following from the perspective of Mar Ammo: "They had arrived at the watch post of Kushān (Bactria), then the spirit of the border of the eastern province appeared in the shape of a girl, and he (the spirit) asked me, 'Ammo, what do you intend? From where have you come?' I said, 'I am a believer, a disciple of Mani, the Apostle.' That spirit said, 'I do not receive you. Return from where you have come.'"

Despite the initial rejection Mar Ammo faced, the text records that Mani's spirit appeared to Mar Ammo and asked him to persevere and read the chapter "The Collecting of the Gates" from ''The Treasure of the Living''. Once he did so, the spirit returned, transformed, and said, "I am Bag Ard, the frontier guard of the Eastern Province. When I receive you, then the gate of the whole East will be opened in front of you." It seemed that this "border spirit" was a reference to the local Eastern Iranian goddess [[Ardoksho]], who was prevalent in Bactria.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Scott |first=David |title=Manichaeism in Bactria: Political Patterns & East-West Paradigms |date=2007 |journal=Journal of Asian History |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=107–130 |jstor=41933456 |issn=0021-910X}}</ref>[[File:Manichaean Diagram of the Universe (Detail 12).jpg|thumb|The four primary prophets of Manichaeism in the ''[[Manichaean Diagram of the Universe]]'', from left to right: [[Mani (prophet)|Mani]], [[Zarathustra in Manichaeism|Zoroaster]], [[The Buddha in Manichaeism|Buddha]] and [[Jesus in Manichaeism|Jesus]]]]

=== Syncretism and translation ===
Manichaeism claimed to present the purified and completed teachings of Adam, [[Abraham]], [[Noah]], Zoroaster, the Buddha, and Jesus that had become corrupted and misinterpreted.<ref name="Turner-1993" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Carrasco |first1=David |title=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions |last2=Warmind |first2=Morten |last3=Hawley |first3=John Stratton |last4=Reynolds |first4=Frank |last5=Giarardot |first5=Norman |last6=Neusner |first6=Jacob |last7=Pelikan |first7=Jaroslav |last8=Campo |first8=Juan |last9=Penner |first9=Hans |publisher=[[Merriam-Webster]] |editor=[[Wendy Doniger]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-87779-044-0 |location=United States |page=689 |language=en |author-link=David Carrasco |author-link4=Frank Reynolds (academic) |author-link6=Jacob Neusner |author-link7=Jaroslav Pelikan}}</ref> Accordingly, as it spread, it adapted deities from other religions into forms it could use for its scriptures. Its original [[Eastern Middle Aramaic]] texts already contained stories of Jesus.

As the faith spread eastward and its scriptures were translated into Iranian languages, the names of the Manichaean deities were often transformed into those of Zoroastrian ''[[yazata]]''s. Thus, ''Abbā ḏəRabbūṯā'' ("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 ''[[Zurvan|Zurwān]]''.

Similarly, the Manichaean primordial figure [[Adam Kadmon#In Manichaeism|''Nāšā Qaḏmāyā'']] ("The Original Man") was rendered ''Ohrmazd Bay'' after the Zoroastrian god [[Ahura Mazda|Ohrmazd]]. This process continued in Manichaeism's meeting with [[Chinese Buddhism]], during which, for example, the original Aramaic {{lang|arc|קריא}} {{Transliteration|arc|qaryā}} (the "call" from the World of Light to those seeking rescue from the World of Darkness) is identified in the Chinese-language scriptures with [[Guanyin]] ({{script|Hant|觀音}} or [[Avalokiteśvara]] in Sanskrit, literally, "watching/perceiving sounds [of the world]", the [[bodhisattva]] of Compassion).{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}

Manichaeism influenced some early texts and traditions of [[proto-orthodox Christianity|proto-orthodox]] and other forms of early Christianity, as well as doing the same for branches of [[Zoroastrianism]], [[Judaism]], [[Buddhism]], and [[Islam]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hopkins |first=Keith |title=A World Full of Gods: The Strange Triumph of Christianity |date=July 2001 |publisher=[[Plume (publisher)|Plume]] |isbn=0-452-28261-6 |location=New York |page=245 |oclc=47286228}}</ref>

=== Persecution and suppression ===
{{See also|Manichaean schisms}}
Manichaeism was repressed by the [[Sasanian Empire]].<ref name="Andrew"/> 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 296, the Roman emperor [[Diocletian]] decreed that all the Manichaean leaders be burnt alive along with the Manichaean scriptures, and many Manichaeans in Europe and North Africa were killed. It was not until 372 with [[Valentinian I]] and [[Valens]] that Manichaeism was legislated against again.<ref>{{cite book|last=Coyle |first=J.K. |title=Manichaeism and its Legacy |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |date=2009 |page=19}}</ref>

[[Theodosius I]] issued a death decree for all Manichaean monks in 382.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/faithsacrosstime0001melt |url-access=registration |title=Faiths Across Time: 5000 years of Religious History |first=J. Gordon |last=Melton |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |year=2014 |page=[https://archive.org/details/faithsacrosstime0001melt/page/361 361] |isbn=978-1-61069-026-3}}</ref> The religion was vigorously attacked and persecuted by both the [[State church of Rome|Christian Church]] and the Roman state, and the religion almost disappeared from western Europe in the fifth century and from the eastern portion of the empire in the sixth century.<ref name="Wendy">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780877790440 |url-access=registration |title=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions |first=Wendy |last=Doniger |publisher=[[Merriam-Webster]] |year=1999 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780877790440/page/689 689], 690 |isbn=978-90-6831-002-3 |author-link=Wendy Doniger}}</ref>

[[File:Conversion of Bögü Qaghan (759-780 CE) to Manicheism in 762 (detailed of Bögü Qaghan in a suit of armour, kneeling to a Manichean high priest).jpg|thumb|Conversion of [[Bögü Qaghan]], third Khagan of the [[Uyghur Khaganate]], to [[Manicheism]] in 762: detail of Bögü Qaghan in a suit of armour, kneeling to a Manichean high priest. 8th century Manichean manuscript ([[Leaf from a Manichaean book MIK III 4979|MIK III 4979]])<ref name="RX577-578">{{cite book |last1=Rong |first1=Xinjian |title=The Silk Road and Cultural Exchanges between East and West |date=24 October 2022 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-51259-7 |pages=577–578 |language=en |chapter=Gaochang in the Second Half of the 5th Century and Its Relations with the Rouran Qaghanate and the Kingdoms of the Western Regions|doi=10.1163/9789004512597_006 }}</ref>]]
In 732, [[Emperor Xuanzong of Tang]] banned any Chinese from converting to the religion, calling it a heretical religion and confusing people by claiming it was Buddhism. However, the foreigners who followed the religion were allowed to practice it without punishment.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cO7g4WBBK9YC&pg=PA182 |title=Silk and Religion: An Exploration of Material Life and the Thought of People, AD 600–1200, Parts 600–1200 |first=Xinru |last=Liu |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1997 |page=182 |isbn=978-0-19-564452-4}}</ref> After the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840, which was the chief patron of Manichaeism (which was also the state religion of the Khaganate) in China, all Manichaean temples in China except in the two capitals and [[Taiyuan]] were closed down and never reopened since these temples were viewed as a symbol of foreign arrogance by the Chinese (see [[Cao'an]]). Even those that were allowed to remain open did not for long.<ref name="S.N.C.L."/>

The Manichaean temples were attacked by Chinese people who burned the images and idols of these temples. Manichaean priests were ordered to wear [[hanfu]] instead of traditional clothing, viewed as un-Chinese. In 843, [[Emperor Wuzong of Tang]] gave the order to kill all Manichaean clerics as part of the [[Huichang persecution of Buddhism]], and over half died. They were made to look like Buddhists by the authorities; their heads were shaved, they were made to dress like [[bhikkhu|Buddhist monks]], and then killed.<ref name="S.N.C.L."/>

Many Manichaeans took part in rebellions against the Song dynasty. They were quelled by Song China and were suppressed and persecuted by all successive governments before the Mongol [[Yuan dynasty]]. In 1370, the religion was banned through an edict of the [[Ming dynasty]], whose [[Hongwu Emperor]] had a personal dislike for the religion.<ref name="S.N.C.L."/><ref name="Xisha2011"/><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/manichaeisminlat00lieu |url-access=registration |title= Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China: A Historical Survey |first=Samuel N. C. |last=Lieu | author-link=Samuel N. C. Lieu|publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |year=1985 |page=[https://archive.org/details/manichaeisminlat00lieu/page/261 261] |isbn=978-0-7190-1088-0}}</ref> Its core teaching influences many religious sects in China, including the [[White Lotus Societies|White Lotus]] movement.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wLshRPD8lpsC&q=White+Lotus+movement.+manichaeism&pg=PA124 |title=The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Religious History |last=ter Haar |first=B. J. |date=1999 |publisher=[[University of Hawaii Press]] |isbn=978-0-8248-2218-7 |language=en}}</ref>

According to [[Wendy Doniger]], Manichaeism may have continued to exist in the [[Xinjiang]] region until the [[Mongol conquest of the Qara Khitai|Mongol conquest in the 13th century]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780877790440 |url-access=registration |title=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions |first=Wendy |last=Doniger |publisher=[[Merriam-Webster]] |year=1999 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780877790440/page/690 690] |isbn=978-90-6831-002-3 |author-link=Wendy Doniger}}</ref>

Manicheans also suffered persecution for some time under the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad. In 780, the third Abbasid Caliph, [[al-Mahdi]], launched a campaign of inquisition against those who were "dualist heretics" or "Manichaeans," known as the ''zindīq''. He appointed a "master of the heretics" ({{langx|ar|صاحب الزنادقة}} {{lang|ar-latn|ṣāhib al-zanādiqa}}), an official whose task was to pursue and investigate suspected dualists, who the Caliph then examined. Those found guilty who refused to recant their beliefs were executed.<ref name="Christine"/>

This persecution continued under his successor, Caliph [[al-Hadi]], and persisted for some time during the reign of [[Harun al-Rashid]], who finally abolished it.<ref name="Christine"/> During the reign of the 18th Abbasid Caliph [[al-Muqtadir]], many Manichaeans fled from [[Mesopotamia]] to [[Greater Khorasan|Khorasan]] from fear of persecution by him, and about 500 of them assembled in [[Samarkand]]. The religion's base was later shifted to this city, which became its new Patriarchate.<ref name="Wendy"/><ref name="Jacques">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YdUUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA658 |title=Papers in Honor of Professor Mary Boyce |first1=Jacques |last1=Duchesne-Guillemin |first2=Pierre |last2=Lecoq |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |year=1985 |page=658 |isbn=978-90-6831-002-3}}</ref>

Manichaean pamphlets were still in circulation in Greek in 9th-century [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] Constantinople, as the patriarch [[Photios I of Constantinople|Photios]] summarizes and discusses one that he has read by Agapius in his ''[[Bibliotheca (Photius)|Bibliotheca]]''.

=== Later movements associated with Manichaeism ===
During the Middle Ages, several movements emerged that were collectively described as "Manichaean" by the Catholic Church and persecuted as Christian heresies through the establishment of the [[Medieval Inquisition|Inquisition]] in 1184.<ref>[[Guy Stroumsa|Stroumsa, Gedaliahu G.]], "Anti-Cathar Polemics and the Liber de duobus principiis", in B. Lewis and F. Niewöhner, eds., ''Religionsgespräche im Mittelalter'' (Wolfenbütteler Mittelalter-Studien, 4; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1992), 169–183, p. 170</ref> They included the [[Cathar]] churches of Western Europe. Other groups, sometimes referred to as "neo-Manichaean," were the [[Paulicianism|Paulician]] movement, which arose in Armenia,<ref name="Fortescue-1911">Fortescue, Adrian (1 February 1911). "[https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11583b.htm Paulicians] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008091130/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11583b.htm |date=8 October 2018 }}". ''[[The Catholic Encyclopedia]]''. Vol. 9. New York: The Encyclopedia Press, Inc.</ref> and the [[Bogomilism|Bogomils]] in Bulgaria and Serbia.<ref name="Runciman"/> An example of this usage can be found in the published edition of the Latin Cathar text, the {{Lang|la|Liber de duobus principiis}} (''Book of the Two Principles''), which was described as "Neo-Manichaean" by its publishers.<ref>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)</ref> 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.<ref>Weber, Nicholas (1 March 1907). "[https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01267e.htm Albigenses] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425122018/https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01267e.htm |date=25 April 2023 }}". ''[[The Catholic Encyclopedia]]''. Vol. 1. New York: The Encyclopedia Press, Inc.</ref>

Manichaeism could 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 leveled at them by contemporary orthodox opponents, who often tried to make contemporary heresies conform to those combatted by the church fathers.<ref name="Runciman"/>

Whether the [[Dualistic cosmology|dualism]] of the Paulicians, Bogomils, and Cathars, and their belief that the world was created by a Satanic [[demiurge]], were influenced by 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 [[apocrypha]]l Christian works, such as the [[Acts of Thomas]], that would otherwise have been lost.<ref name="Runciman">Runciman, Steven, ''The Medieval Manichee: a study of the Christian dualist heresy''. Cambridge University Press, 1947.</ref>

==== Legacy in present-day ====
Some sites are preserved in [[Xinjiang]], [[Zhejiang]], and [[Fujian]] in [[China]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jnsy.com.cn/old/show.asp?id=150 |script-title=zh:明教在温州的最后遗存 – 温州社会研究所 |trans-title=The Last Remains of Mingjiao in Wenzhou – Wenzhou Institute of Social Research |language=zh |date=25 August 2013 }}</ref>{{New archival link needed|date=April 2026}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cxsz.cixi.gov.cn/art/2012/10/8/art_46137_948467.html |script-title=zh:崇寿宫记 |website=Cxsz.cixi.gov.cn |date=8 October 2012 |access-date=14 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513222832/http://cxsz.cixi.gov.cn/art/2012/10/8/art_46137_948467.html |archive-date=13 May 2013 }}</ref> The [[Cao'an]] temple is the most widely-known and best-preserved Manichaean building,<ref name="SNC Lieu" />{{rp|256–257}} though it later became associated with [[Buddhism]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mq.edu.au/research/centres_and_groups/ancient_cultures_research_centre/research/cultural_ex_silkroad/zayton/ |title=Manichaean and (Nestorian) Christian Remains in Zayton (Quanzhou, South China) ARC DP0557098 |publisher=Mq.edu.au |access-date=27 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808000234/http://www.mq.edu.au/research/centres_and_groups/ancient_cultures_research_centre/research/cultural_ex_silkroad/zayton |archive-date=8 August 2014}}</ref> Local villagers near Cao'an still worship Mani, albeit with little distinction between Mani-as-Buddha and Gautama Buddha.<ref name="Caoan">{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Yanbin |date=February 1, 2024 |title=Cao'an in the Ancestral World: Contemporary Manichaeism-Related Belief and Familial Ethics in Southeastern China |journal=Religions |volume=15 |issue=2 |publisher=MDPI |pages=185–213 |doi=10.3390/rel15020185 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Other temples in China associated with Manichaeism remain standing, including the [[Cangnan Stele|Xuanzhen Temple]], noted for its [[stele]].

Some platforms on the [[internet]] and social media are spreading some of the teachings of Manichaeism. Some people are registered in these electronic sources, and some scholars and students in the field of religious studies and the arts continue to study Manichaeism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hajianfard |first1=Ramin |title=Mani and the Foundation of Manichaeism: Great Events in Religion: An Encyclopedia of Pivotal Events in Religion History |date=2016 |publisher=CA, ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara |isbn=978-1-61069-566-4 |id={{ISBN|978-1-61069-566-4}} <!--DUPLICATE |pages= 188–193--> |page=193}}</ref>

In 2018, rituals were conducted for the Lin Deng 林瞪 (1003–1059), a Chinese Manichaean leader who lived during the Song dynasty in the three villages of Baiyang 柏洋村, Shangwan 上萬村, and Tahou 塔後村 in Baiyang Township, Xiapu County, Fujian.<ref>{{cite book | last1=Özertural | first1=Zekine | last2=Şilfeler | first2=Gökhan | title=Der östliche Manichäismus im Spiegel seiner Buch- und Schriftkultur - Gesamter Band | date=2024 | publisher=Göttingen Academy of Sciences | doi=10.26015/adwdocs-4686 | isbn=978-3-11-059145-3 | url=https://rep.adw-goe.de/handle/11858/2802 }}</ref>

== Teachings and beliefs ==
[[File:Manichaean clergymen, Khocho, Ruin alpha, 10th-11th century AD, wall painting - Ethnological Museum, Berlin - DSC01743.JPG|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Uyghur people|Uyghur]] Manichaean clergymen, wall painting from the Khocho ruins, 10th/11th century CE. Located in the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Humboldt Forum, Berlin.]]
[[File:Manichaean picture from cave 25 at Bezeklik Caves.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Worship of the [[Tree of Life]] in the World of Light; a Manichaean picture from the [[Bezeklik Caves]]]]

=== General ===
Mani's teaching addressed the origin of evil by focusing on a theoretical aspect of the [[problem of evil]]: denying the [[omnipotence]] of God and instead postulating two opposing divine powers. Manichaean theology teaches a [[Dualistic cosmology|dualistic]] view of good and evil. A fundamental belief in Manichaeism is that the powerful, though [[Theistic finitism|not omnipotent]], good power (God) was opposed by the eternal evil power (the devil). Humanity, the world, and the soul are seen as the by-product of the battle between God's proxy—Primal Man—and the devil.<ref name="Bevan, A. A. 1930">Bevan, A. A. (1930). "Manichaeism". ''[[Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics]]'', Volume VIII Ed. [[James Hastings]]. London</ref>

The human person is seen as a battleground for these powers: the soul defines the person, but is influenced by light and dark. This contention plays out across the world, and the human body—neither the Earth nor the flesh was seen as intrinsically evil, but instead both possessed both light and dark aspects. Natural phenomena such as rain were seen as the physical manifestation of this spiritual contention. Therefore, the Manichaean view explained the [[Problem of evil|existence of evil]] by positing a flawed creation in the formation of which God took no part and which constituted the product of a battle by the devil against God instead.<ref name="Bevan, A. A. 1930"/>

=== Cosmogony ===
[[File:Yüen dynasty Manichaean diagram of the Universe.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|''[[Manichaean Diagram of the Universe]]'' depicts the Manichaean [[religious cosmology|cosmology]].]]

Manichaeism presents an elaborate 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 detailing the Manichaean belief{{example needed|date=November 2024}}. Two portions of the scriptures are probably the closest thing to the original writings, in their original languages, that will ever be available: the Syriac quotation by the [[Church of the East]] Christian [[Theodore bar Konai]] in his 8th century Syriac [[scholion]], known as the ''Ketba de-Skolion'',<ref name="Konai2">Original Syriac in: Theodorus bar Konai, ''Liber Scholiorum, II'', ed. A. Scher, ''Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium scrip. syri'', 1912, pp. 311–8, {{ISBN|978-90-429-0104-9}}; English translation in: A.V.W. Jackson, ''Researches in Manichaeism'', New York, 1932, pp. 222–54.</ref> and the Middle Persian sections of Mani's ''[[Shabuhragan]]'' discovered at [[Turpan]]—a summary of Mani's teachings prepared for [[Shapur I]].<ref name="Shabuhragan2">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.</ref>

From these and other sources - the [[Hegemonius|''Acta Archelai'']] and the writings of [[Alexander of Lycopolis]], [[Titus of Bostra]], [[Severus of Antioch|Severus of Antiochia]], [[Theodoret]], and [[Augustine of Hippo|Saint Augustine of Hippo]] - [[Hans Jonas|Jonas Hans]] developed a working description of the Manichaean cosmogony.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Jonas |first=Hans |title=The Gnostic Religion: the message of the alien God and the beginnings of Christianity |publisher=Beacon Press |year=1958 |isbn=0-8070-5801-7 |location=United States of America |pages=210–237 |language=EN}}</ref> A complete list of Manichaean deities is outlined below{{Citation needed|date=November 2025}}. The unfolding of the universe in the Manichaean cosmogony took place in three phases:
; The First Creation
: Originally, good and evil existed in two completely separate realms: one, the World of Light ({{lang-zh|c=明界}}), ruled by the Father of Greatness together with his five ''[[Shekhinah|Shekhinas]]'' (i.e., divine attributes of light), and the other, the World of Darkness, ruled by the King of Darkness. At a point in the distant past, the Kingdom of Darkness noticed the World of Light, coveted it, and attacked it. The Father of Greatness, in the first of three "calls" or "creations", called to the Mother of Life, who sent her son, Original Man ({{langx|arc|Nāšā Qaḏmāyā}}), to battle with the attacking powers of Darkness, which included the Demon of Greed.

: The Original Man was armed with five different shields of light (reflections of the five ''Shekhinas''), which he lost to the forces of Darkness in the ensuing battle—described as a kind of "bait" to trick the forces of Darkness, who greedily consume as much light as they can. When the Original Man awakened, he was trapped among the forces of Darkness.

; The Second Creation
: The Father of Greatness then began the Second Creation. He called to the Living Spirit{{specify|date=November 2024}}, who then called to his sons and the Original Man, after which Call became a Manichaean deity proper. An answer — Answer — became another Manichaean deity, then went out from the Original Man into the World of Light. The Mother of Life, the Living Spirit, and the latter's five sons began to create the universe from the bodies of the evil beings of the World of Darkness and the light they had swallowed. Ten heavens and eight earths were created, all consisting of various mixtures of the evil material beings from the World of Darkness and the swallowed light.<ref name=":1" /> The sun, moon, and stars were all created from light recovered from the World of Darkness. The waxing and waning of the moon are described as the "moon filling with light", which passes to the sun, then through the [[Milky Way]], and eventually back to the World of Light.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Second Discourse to Hypatius against Mani and Marcion and Bardaisan: S. Ephraim's Prose Refutations of Mani, Marcion and Bardaisan. Transcribed from the Palimpsest B.M. Add. 14623 by C. W. MITCHELL, M.A., volume 1 (1912). |url=https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/ephraim1_2_hypatius2.htm |access-date=2025-11-26 |website=www.tertullian.org}}</ref><ref name=":2" />

; The Third Creation/[[Seduction of the Archons (Manichaeism)|Seduction of the Archons]]
: Great demons (called [[Archon (Gnosticism)|archons]] in bar-Konai's account) were hung over the heavens, and the Father of Greatness began the Third Creation. The light was recovered from the material bodies of evil beings and demons by arousing their greed with beautiful images of the beings of light, such as the Third Messenger and the Virgins of Light. In [[Augustine of Hippo]]'s account of Mani's writings, the Virgins of Light recovered light from the female and male archons by taking on the forms of both "beardless boys" and "beautiful virgins."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Scopello |first=Madeleine |url=https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004472228 |title=Women in Western and Eastern Manichaeism |date=2022-07-14 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-47222-8 |pages=1–2 |doi=10.1163/9789004472228 }}</ref> According to other sources, including [[Al-Biruni]]'s [[India (Al-Biruni)|Kitab al-Hind]] and [[Ephrem the Syrian]]'s ''Refutations of Mani'', the myth included only one being (the Maiden of Light) with a transient or androgynous gender who performed the seduction, and in other versions there were multiple beings (shining warriors) which were sexless.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Reeves |first=John C. |url=https://doi.org/10.1558/isbn.9781845538514 |title=Prolegomena to a History of Islamicate Manichaeism |date=2011-11-01 |publisher=Equinox Publishing |isbn=978-1-84553-851-4 |pages=14 |doi=10.1558/isbn.9781845538514 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Towers |first=Susanna |title=Constructions of gender in late antique Manichaean cosmological narrative |date=2019 |publisher=Brepols |isbn=978-2-503-58667-0 |series=Studia traditionis theologiae |location=Turnhout |pages=10}}</ref> However, as soon as the light was expelled from their bodies and fell to the earth (sometimes in the form of [[abortions]]: the source of [[Fallen angel|fallen angels]] in the Manichaean myth), the evil beings continued to swallow up as much of it as they could to keep the light inside themselves. The evil beings swallowed vast quantities of light, copulated, and produced [[Adam and Eve]]. The Father of Greatness then sent [[Jesus the Splendour]] to awaken Adam and enlighten him to the true source of the light trapped in his material body. Adam and Eve, however, also copulated and produced more human beings, trapping the light in humankind's bodies throughout human history. The appearance of the Prophet Mani was another attempt by the World of Light to reveal to humanity the true source of the spiritual light imprisoned within their material bodies.{{Citation needed|date=November 2025}}

{{gallery|align=center|mode=packed
|File:Analysis of Doctrinal Iconography of Mani’s Cosmology.jpg|Analysis of Mani's cosmology as illustrated in the [[Manichaean Diagram of the Universe|Manichaean Diagram]]
|File:Cathayan Manichaean Cosmology - Heaven Scene.jpg|Heaven scene from the Manichaean Diagram
|File:Virgin of Light (Manichaean Cosmology).jpg|"Maiden of Light" from the Manichaean Diagram
}}

==== Cosmology ====
In the sixth century, many Manichaeans saw the earth as "a rectangular [[parallelepiped]] enclosed by walls of crystal, above which three [sky] domes" existed, with the other two being above and larger than the first one and second one, respectively.<ref name="Gnostic">{{Cite book |last=Doresse |first=Jean |title=The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics |publisher=MJF Books |year=1986 |isbn=978-1-56731-227-0 |location=New York |page=269 |language=en-US}}</ref> These represented the "three [[heaven]]s" in [[Chaldea#Religion|Chaldean religion]].<ref name="Gnostic" />

=== Outline of the beings and events in the Manichaean mythology ===
From its creation by Mani, the Manichaean religion has included a detailed description of deities and events within its 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 Theodore bar Konai,<ref name="Konai"/> or the Latin terminology given by Saint Augustine from Mani's ''[[Fundamental Epistle|Epistola Fundamenti]]'', or the Persian and Chinese translations found as Manichaeism spread eastward. While the original Syriac retained Mani's original description, the translation into other languages and cultures produced incarnations of the gods not implied in the original Syriac writings. Chinese translations are especially syncretic, borrowing and adapting terminology common in [[Chinese Buddhism]].{{sfnp|Ma|Wang|2018}}

==== The World of Light ====
* ''The [[Father of Greatness]]'' (Syriac: {{lang|syr|ܐܒܐ ܕܪܒܘܬܐ}} {{Transliteration|syr|Abbā dəRabbūṯā}}; Middle Persian: ''pīd ī wuzurgīh'', or the Zoroastrian deity ''[[Zurvan|Zurwān]]''; Parthian: ''Pidar wuzurgift, Pidar roshn''; {{lang-zh|c=無上明尊|l=Unsurpassed Divinity of Light}} or {{lang|zh|薩緩}} {{lit|Zurvan}})
** ''His Four Faces'' (Greek: {{lang|el|ὁ τετραπρόσωπος πατήρ τοῦ μεγέθους}}; {{lang-zh|c=四寂法身|l=Four Silent [[Dharmakaya]]s}}){{sfnp|Ma|Wang|2018}}
*** ''Divinity'' (Middle Persian: ''[[Yazata|yzd]]''; Parthian: ''bg'''; {{lang-zh|c=清净}})
*** ''Light'' (Middle Persian and Parthian: ''rwšn''; {{lang-zh|c=光明}})
*** ''Power'' (Middle Persian: ''zwr''; Parthian: ''z'wr'''; {{lang-zh|c=大力}})
*** ''Wisdom'' (Middle Persian: ''whyh''; Parthian: ''jyryft''; {{lang-zh|c=智慧}})
** ''His Five [[Shekhinah|Shekhinas]]'' (Syriac: {{lang|syr|ܚܡܫ ܫܟܝܢܬܗ}} ''khamesh shkhinatei''; Chinese: {{nowrap|{{linktext|五|種|大}} ''wǔ zhǒng dà'',}} {{lit|five great ones}}):<ref>Chart from: E. Waldschmidt and W. Lenz, Die Stellung Jesu im Manichäismus, Berlin, 1926, p 42.</ref>{{sfnp|Ma|Wang|2018}}
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: 40px;"
|-
! scope="col" | Shekhina:
! scope="col" | Reason
! scope="col" | Mind
! scope="col" | Intelligence
! scope="col" | Thought
! scope="col" | Understanding
|-
|Syriac
|<span lang="syr" dir="ltr">{{linktext|ܗܘܢܐ}} ''hawnā''</span>
|<span lang="syr">{{linktext|ܡܕܥܐ}} ''madde{{okina}}ā''</span>
|<span lang="syr">{{linktext|ܪܥܝܢܐ}} ''reyānā''</span>
|<span lang="syr" dir="ltr">{{linktext|ܡܚܫܒܬܐ}} ''maḥšavṯɑ''</span>
|<span lang="syr" dir="ltr">{{linktext|ܬܪܥܝܬܐ}} ''tar{{okina}}iṯā''</span>
|-
|Parthian
|''bām''
|''manohmēd''
|''uš''
|''andēšišn''
|''parmānag''
|-
|Chinese
|{{nowrap|{{linktext|相}} ''xiāng'',}} {{grey|"phase"}}
|{{nowrap|{{linktext|心}} ''xīn'',}} {{grey|"heart-mind"}}
|{{nowrap|{{linktext|念}} ''niàn'',}} {{grey|"mindfulness"}}
|{{nowrap|{{linktext|思}} ''sī'',}} {{grey|"thought"}}
|{{nowrap|{{linktext|意}} ''yì'',}} {{grey|"meaning"}}
|-
|Turkic
|qut
|ög
|köngül
|saqinç
|tuimaq
|-
|Greek
|νοῦς (Nous)
|ἔννοια (Ennoia)
|φρόνησις (Phronēsis)
|ἐνθύμησις (Enthymēsis)
|λογισμός (Logismos)
|-
|Latin
|mens
|sensus
|prudentia
|intellectus
|cogitatio
|}
* ''The Great Spirit'' (Middle Persian: ''Waxsh zindag, Waxsh yozdahr''; Latin: ''Spiritus Potens'')

==== The first creation ====
* ''The Mother of Life'' ({{langx|syr|ܐܡܐ ܕܚܝܐ}} ''imā dəḥayyē''; {{langx|pal|mʾdrʾy zyndgʾn}}; {{lang-zh|c=善母佛|l=Good Mother Buddha}})
* ''The [[Adam|First Man]]'' ({{langx|syr|ܐܢܫܐ ܩܕܡܝܐ}} ''Nāšā Qaḏmāyā''; {{langx|pal|[[Ahura Mazda|Ohrmazd Bay]]}}, the Zoroastrian god of light and goodness; Latin: ''Primus Homo'')
** ''First Enthymesis'' ({{langx|pal|hndyšyšn nxwysṯyn}}; {{lang-zh|c=先意|l=First Understanding}})
** ''His five Sons'' (the five Light Elements; {{langx|xpr|panj rōšn}}; {{langx|pal|[[Amesha Spenta|Amahrāspandān]]}}; {{lang-zh|c=五明子}}){{sfnp|Ma|Wang|2018}}
*** ''Ether'' ({{langx|xpr|ardāw}}; {{langx|pal|frâwahr}}; {{lang-zh|c=氣}})
*** ''Wind'' (Parthian and {{langx|pal|wād}}; {{lang-zh|c=風}})
*** ''Light'' (Parthian and {{langx|pal|rōšn}}; {{lang-zh|c=明}})
*** ''Water'' (Parthian and {{langx|pal|āb}}; {{lang-zh|c=水}})
*** ''Fire'' (Parthian and {{langx|pal|ādur}}; {{lang-zh|c=火}})
** His sixth Son, the ''Answer-God'' ({{langx|syr|ܥܢܝܐ}} ''{{okina}}anyā''; Parthian and {{langx|pal|[[Xroshtag and Padvaxtag|xroshtag]]}}; {{lang-zh|c=勢至}} ''[[Mahasthamaprapta|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'' (Parthian and {{langx|pal|grīw zīndag}}, {{lang|pal|grīw rōšn}}; {{lang-zh|c=明性|l=Light Nature}}) The ''[[Anima mundi#Manichaeism|anima mundi]]'' made up of the five Light Elements, identical with the [[Suffering Jesus]] who is crucified in the world.

==== The second creation ====
* ''The Friend of the Lights'' ({{langx|syr|ܚܒܝܒ ܢܗܝܖܐ}} ''ḥaviv nehirē''; {{lang-zh|c=樂明佛|l=Enjoyer of Lights}}){{sfnp|Ma|Wang|2018}} Calls to:
* ''The Great Builder'' ({{langx|syr|ܒܢ ܖܒܐ}} ''ban rabbā''; {{lang-zh|c=造相|l=Creator of Forms}}) In charge of creating the new world that will separate the darkness from the light. He calls to:
* ''The Living Spirit'' ({{langx|syr|ܪܘܚܐ ܚܝܐ}} ''ruḥā ḥayyā''; {{langx|pal|[[Mithra|Mihryazd]]}}; {{lang-zh|c=淨活風|p=Jìnghuófēng}}; {{langx|la|Spiritus Vivens}}; {{langx|el|Ζων Πνευμα}}). Acts as a [[demiurge]], creating the structure of the material world.
** ''His five Sons'' ({{langx|syr|ܚܡܫܐ ܒܢܘܗܝ}} ''ḥamšā benawhy''; {{lang-zh|c=五等驍健子|l=Five Valiant Sons}})
*** ''The Keeper of the Splendour'' ({{langx|syr|ܨܦܬ ܙܝܘܐ}} ''ṣfat ziwā''; {{langx|la|Splenditenens}}; {{lang-zh|c=催光明使|l=Urger of Enlightenment}}). Holds up the ten heavens from above.
*** ''The King of Glory'' ({{langx|syr|ܡܠܟ ܫܘܒܚܐ}} ''mlex šuvḥā''; {{langx|la|Rex Gloriosus}}; {{lang-zh|c=地藏}} ''[[Kṣitigarbha|Dìzàng]]'' "Earth Treasury", a Chinese [[bodhisattva]]).
*** ''The Adamas of Light'' ({{langx|syr|ܐܕܡܘܣ ܢܘܗܪܐ}} ''adamus nuhrā''; {{langx|la|Adamas}}; {{lang-zh|c=降魔使|p=Jiàngmó shǐ}}). Fights with and overcomes an evil being in the image of the King of Darkness.
*** ''The Great King of Honour'' ({{langx|syr|ܡܠܟܐ ܪܒܐ ܕܐܝܩܪܐ}} ''malkā rabbā dikkārā''; [[Dead Sea Scrolls]] {{langx|arc|מלכא רבא דאיקרא}} ''malka raba de-ikara''; {{langx|la|Rex Honoris}}; {{lang-zh|c=十天大王|p=Shítiān Dàwáng|l=Ten Heavens Great King}}). A being that 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 [[Seven Heavens|seventh heaven]] of the ten heavens (corresponding to the [[celestial spheres]], the first seven of which house the [[classical planets]]) and guards the entrance to the world of light. In the Syriac Aramaic account, the guarded entrance is called [[maṭarta]] ({{langx|syr|ܡܛܪܬܐ}} ''maṭarta'').
*** ''Atlas'' ({{langx|syr|ܣܒܠܐ}} ''sebblā''; {{langx|la|[[Atlas (mythology)|Atlas]]}}; {{lang-zh|c=持世主|p=Chíshìzhǔ}}). Supports the eight worlds from below.
** His sixth Son, the ''Call-God'' ({{langx|syr|ܩܪܝܐ}} ''qaryā''; {{langx|pal|[[Xroshtag and Padvaxtag|Padvaxtag]]}}; {{lang-zh|c=觀音}} ''[[Guanyin]]'' "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'' ({{langx|syr|ܐܝܙܓܕܐ}} ''izgaddā''; {{langx|pal|narēsahyazad}}, {{langx|xpr|hridīg frēštag}}; {{lang|la|tertius legatus}})
* ''[[Jesus the Splendour]]'' ({{langx|syr|ܝܫܘܥ ܙܝܘܐ}} ''Isho{{okina}} Ziwā''; {{lang-zh|c=光明夷數|l=Jesus of Bright Light}} or {{lang|zh|夷數精和}} {{lit|Jesus the Essence of Harmony}}). He was sent to awaken Adam and Eve to the source of the spiritual light trapped within their bodies.
* ''The Maiden of Light'' (Middle Persian and {{langx|xpr|qnygrwšn}}; {{lang-zh|c=謹你嚧詵}}, a phonetic loan from Middle Persian)
* ''The Twelve Virgins of Light'' ({{langx|syr|ܬܪܬܥܣܪܐ ܒܬܘܠܬܐ}} ''trat{{okina}}esrā btultē''; {{langx|pal|kanīgān rōšnān}}; {{lang-zh|c=日宮十二化女|p=Rìgōng shí'èr huànǚ|l=Sun Palace Twelve Maidens of Transformation}}).{{efn|These are apparently the 'twelve centuries clothed with flowers and full of melodies' (''duodecim saecula floribus convestita et canoribus plena'') at St Augustine, ''Contra Faustum'' 15.5<ref>Augustine, ''[https://archive.org/stream/corpusscriptoru27wissgoog#page/n435/mode/2up Contra Faustum 15.5]''</ref>}}{{sfnp|Ma|Wang|2018}} Reflected in the twelve constellations of the [[Zodiac]].
* ''The Column of Glory'' ({{langx|syr|ܐܣܛܘܢ ܫܘܒܚܐ}} ''esṭun šuvḥā''; {{langx|pal|[[Sraosha|srōš-ahrāy]]}}; {{lang-zh|c=蘇露沙羅夷|p=Sūlù shāluóyí}} and {{lang|zh|盧舍那}}, ''{{lang|zh-Latn|Lúshěnà}}'', both phonetic from {{langx|pal|srōš-ahrāy}}). Souls' path to the World of Light corresponds to the [[Milky Way]].
* ''The Great [[Nous]]''
** ''His five Limbs'' ({{lang-zh|c=五體}}) (See "His Five Shekhinas" [[#The World of Light|above]].)
*** ''Reason''
*** ''Mind''
*** ''Intelligence''
*** ''Thought''
*** ''Understanding''
* ''The Just Judge'' ({{langx|xpr|d'dbr r'štygr}}; {{lang-zh|c=平等王|l=Impartial King}}){{sfnp|Ma|Wang|2018}}
* ''The Last God''

==== The World of Darkness ====
* ''The [[Prince of Darkness (Manichaeism)|Prince of Darkness]]'' (Syriac: {{lang|syr|ܡܠܟ ܚܫܘܟܐ}} ''mlex ḥešoxā''; Middle Persian: ''[[Angra Mainyu|Ahriman]]'', the Zoroastrian supreme evil being)
** ''His five evil kingdoms'': Evil counterparts of the five elements of light, the lowest being the kingdom of Darkness.
** ''His son'' (Syriac: {{lang|syr|ܐܫܩܠܘܢ}} ''Ashaklun''; Middle Persian: ''Az'', from the Zoroastrian demon, ''[[Zahhak|Aži Dahāka]]'')
** ''His son's mate'' (Syriac: {{lang|syr|ܢܒܪܘܐܠ}} ''[[Yaldabaoth|Nevro'el]]'')
** Their offspring – ''[[Adam and Eve]]'' (Middle Persian: ''[[Keyumars|Gehmurd]]'' and ''[[Mashya and Mashyana|Murdiyanag]]'')
* ''Giants'' (Fallen Angels, also Abortions): (Syriac: {{lang|syr|ܝܚܛܐ}} ''yaḥtē'', "abortions" or "those that fell"; also: {{lang|syr|ܐܪܟܘܢܬܐ}}; {{lang|el|Ἐγρήγοροι}} ''[[Watcher (angel)#Grigori|Egrēgoroi]]'', "Giants"). Related to the story of the [[fallen angel]]s in the [[Book of Enoch]] (which Mani used extensively in [[The Book of Giants]]), and the {{lang|he|נפילים}} ''[[nephilim]]'' described in Genesis (6:1–4).

== The Manichaean Church ==
=== Organization ===
The Manichaean Church was divided into the Elect, who had taken upon themselves the vows of Manichaeism, and the Hearers, those who had not, but still participated in the Church. The Elect were forbidden to consume alcohol and meat, as well as to harvest crops or prepare food, due to Mani's claim that harvesting was a form of murder against plants. The Hearers would therefore commit the sin of preparing food, and would provide it to the Elect, who would in turn pray for the Hearers and cleanse them of these sins.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rdwallin/syl/GreatBooks/202.W99/Augustine/AugManich.htm |title=Augustine and Manichaeism |website=www-personal.umich.edu |access-date=5 April 2020 |archive-date=28 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200528123518/http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rdwallin/syl/GreatBooks/202.W99/Augustine/AugManich.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The terms for these divisions were already common since the days of [[early Christianity]], however, it had a different meaning in Christianity. In Chinese writings, the Middle Persian and Parthian terms are transcribed phonetically (instead of being translated into Chinese).<ref>G. Haloun and W. B. Henning, ''The Compendium of the Doctrines and Styles of the Teaching of Mani, the Buddha of Light'', Asia Major, 1952, pp. 184–212, p. 195.</ref> These were recorded by [[Augustine of Hippo]].<ref name="Arendzen-1910-1"/>
* The Leader (Syriac: <span lang="syr">[[wikt:ܟܗܢܐ|ܟܗܢܐ]]</span> {{ipa|/kɑhnɑ/}}; Parthian: ''yamag''; {{lang-zh|c=閻默|p=yánmò}}), Mani's designated successor, seated as [[Archegos (Manichaeism)|Patriarch]] at the head of the Church, originally in [[Ctesiphon]], from the ninth century in [[Samarkand]]. Two notable leaders were [[Mār Sīsin]] (or Sisinnios), the first successor of Mani, and [[Abū Hilāl al-Dayhūri]], an eighth-century leader.
* 12 [[Apostles (Manichaeism)|Apostles]] (Latin: ''magistrī''; Syriac: <span lang="syr">[[wikt:ܫܠܝܚܐ|ܫܠܝܚܐ]]</span> {{ipa|/ʃ(ə)liħe/}}; Middle Persian: ''možag''; {{lang-zh|c=慕闍|p=mùdū}}). Three of Mani's original apostles were Mār Pattī (Pattikios; Mani's father), [[Akouas]] and [[Mar Ammo]].
* 72 [[Bishop]]s (Latin: ''episcopī''; Syriac: <span lang="syr">[[wikt:ܐܦܣܩܘܦܐ|ܐܦܣܩܘܦܐ]]</span> {{ipa|/ʔappisqoppe/}}; Middle Persian: ''aspasag'', ''aftadan''; {{lang-zh|c=薩波塞|p=sàbōsāi}} or {{lang-zh|c=拂多誕|p=fúduōdàn}}; see also: [[seventy disciples]]). One of Mani's original disciples who was specifically referred to as a bishop was Mār Addā.
* 360 [[Presbyter]]s (Latin: ''presbyterī''; Syriac: <span lang="syr" dir="rtl">[[wikt:ܩܫܝܫܐ|ܩܫܝܫܐ]]</span> {{ipa|/qaʃʃiʃe/}}; Middle Persian: ''mahistan''; {{lang-zh|c=默奚悉德|p=mòxīxīdé}})
* The general body of the Elect (Latin: ''ēlēctī''; Syriac: <span lang="syr" dir="rtl">[[wikt:ܡܫܡܫܢܐ|ܡܫܡܫܢܐ]]</span> {{ipa|/m(ə)ʃamməʃɑne/}}; Middle Persian: ''ardawan'' or ''dēnāwar''; {{lang-zh|c=阿羅緩|p=āluóhuǎn}} or {{lang-zh|c=電那勿|p=diànnàwù}})
* The Hearers (Latin: ''audītōrēs''; Syriac: <span lang="syr">[[wikt:ܫܡܘܥܐ|ܫܡܘܥܐ]]</span> {{ipa|/ʃɑmoʿe/}}; Middle Persian: ''niyoshagan''; {{lang-zh|c=耨沙喭|p=nòushāyàn}})

== Religious practices ==
=== Prayers ===
From Manichaean sources, Manichaeans observed daily prayers: four for the hearers or seven for the elect. The sources differ about the exact time of prayer. The ''Fihrist'' by [[al-Nadim]] appoints them afternoon, mid-afternoon, just after sunset, and at nightfall. [[Al-Biruni]] places the prayers at dawn, sunrise, noon, and dusk. The elect additionally prayed at mid-afternoon, half an hour after nightfall, and midnight. Al-Nadim's account of daily prayers is probably adjusted to coincide with the public prayers for the Muslims, while Al-Biruni's report may reflect an older tradition unaffected by Islam.<ref>J. van (Johannes) Oort, Jacob Albert van den Berg ''In Search of Truth. Augustine, Manichaeism and Other Gnosticism: Studies for Johannes Van Oort at Sixty'' BRILL, 2011 {{ISBN|978-90-04-18997-3}} p. 258</ref><ref>Jason BeDuhn ''New Light on Manichaeism: Papers from the Sixth International Congress on Manichaeism, Organized by the International Association of Manichaean Studies'' BRILL, 2009 {{ISBN|978-90-04-17285-2}} p. 77</ref>

When Al-Nadim's account of daily prayers was the only detailed source available, there was a concern that Muslims only adopted these practices during the [[Abbasid Caliphate]]. However, it is clear that the Arabic text provided by Al-Nadim corresponds with the descriptions of Egyptian texts from the fourth century.<ref name="ReferenceA">Johannes van Oort ''Augustine and Manichaean Christianity: Selected Papers from the First South African Conference on Augustine of Hippo, University of Pretoria, 24–26 April 2012'' BRILL, 01.08.2013 {{ISBN|978-90-04-25506-7}} p. 74</ref>

Every prayer started with an [[ritual purification|ablution]] with water or, if water was not available, with other substances comparable to [[ablution in Islam]],<ref>Charles George Herbermann ''The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church, Band 9'' Universal Knowledge Foundation, 1913 Digit. 16. Aug. 2006 p. 594</ref> and consisted of several blessings to the apostles and spirits. The prayer consisted of prostrating oneself to the ground and rising again twelve times during every prayer.<ref>New Light on Manichaeism: Papers from the Sixth International Congress o p. 78</ref> During the day, Manichaeans turned towards the Sun and during the night towards the Moon. If the Moon is not visible at night, they turned towards the north.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

Evident from [[Faustus of Mileve]], [[Celestial bodies]] are not the subject of worship themselves but are "ships" carrying the light particles of the world to the [[Father of Greatness|supreme god]], who cannot be seen, since he exists beyond time and space, and also the dwelling places for [[Emanationism|emanations]] of the supreme deity, such as [[Jesus the Splendour]].<ref name="ReferenceB">Johannes van Oort ''Augustine and Manichaean Christianity: Selected Papers from the First South African Conference on Augustine of Hippo, University of Pretoria, 24–26 April 2012'' BRILL, 01.08.2013 {{ISBN|978-90-04-25506-7}} p. 75</ref> According to the writings of [[Augustine of Hippo]], ten prayers were performed, the first devoted to the Father of Greatness, and the following to lesser deities, spirits, and angels and finally towards the elect, to be freed from rebirth and pain and to attain peace in the realm of light.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Comparably, in the [[Uyghurs|Uyghur]] confession, four prayers are directed to the supreme God (''Äzrua''), the God of the Sun and the Moon, and fivefold God and the [[Buddha (title)|buddhas]].<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

== Primary sources ==
[[File:Image of Buddha on a Manichaean Pictorial Roll.jpg|thumb|upright|An image of the [[Buddha]] as one of the primary prophets on a Manichaean pictorial roll fragment from [[Gaochang|Chotscho]], 10th century]]{{main|Manichaean scripture}}

Mani wrote seven books, which contained the teachings of the religion. Only scattered fragments and translations of the originals remain, most having been discovered in Egypt and Turkistan during the 20th century.<ref name="EB-2023" />

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, preserved by the eighth century [[Nestorianism|Nestorian Christian]] author [[Theodore Bar Konai]],<ref name="Konai">Original Syriac in: Theodorus bar Konai, ''Liber Scholiorum, II'', ed. A. Scher, ''Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium scrip. syri'', 1912, pp. 311–8, {{ISBN|978-90-429-0104-9}}; English translation in: A.V.W. Jackson, ''Researches in Manichaeism'', New York, 1932, pp. 222–54.</ref> shows that in the original Syriac Aramaic writings of Mani there was no influence of Iranian or [[Zoroastrianism|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 [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian emperor]], [[Shapur I]].<ref name="Shabuhragan"/>

In it, there are mentions of Zoroastrian divinities such as [[Ahura Mazda]], [[Angra Mainyu]], and Āz. Manichaeism is often presented as a Persian religion, mostly due to the vast number of Middle Persian, Parthian, and [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]] (as well as Turkish) texts discovered by German researchers near [[Turpan]] in what is now [[Xinjiang]], China, during the early 1900s. However, from the vantage point of its original Syriac descriptions (as quoted by Theodore Bar Khonai and outlined above), Manichaeism may be better described as a unique phenomenon of Aramaic Babylonia, occurring in proximity to two other new Aramaic religious phenomena, [[Talmudic Academies in Babylonia|Talmudic Judaism]] and [[Mandaeism]], which also appeared in Babylonia in roughly the third century.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}

The original, but now lost, six sacred books of Manichaeism were composed in [[Syriac language|Syriac Aramaic]], and translated into other languages to help spread the religion. As they spread to the east, the Manichaean writings passed through [[Middle Persian]], [[Parthian language|Parthian]], [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]], [[Tocharian languages|Tocharian]], and ultimately [[Uyghur language|Uyghur]] and [[Chinese language|Chinese]] translations. As they spread to the west, they were translated into [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Coptic language|Coptic]], and [[Latin]]. Most Manichaean texts survived only as Coptic and Medieval Chinese translations of their original, lost versions.{{sfnp|Augustine|1991|loc=p. xxviii}}

[[File:Jinjiang Cao'an 20120229-10.jpg|thumb|Statue of prophet Mani as the "[[Amitabha|Buddha of Light]]" in [[Cao'an]] Temple in [[Jinjiang, Fujian]], "a Manichaean temple in Buddhist disguise",<ref name="Sundermann-2009b-1">{{Cite web |last=Sundermann |first=Werner |date=2009-07-20 |title=MANICHEISM i. GENERAL SURVEY |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/manicheism-1-general-survey |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher=Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref> which is considered "the only extant Manichean temple in China"<ref name="Lieu-2011">{{Cite web |last=Lieu |first=Samuel |date=2011-10-17 |title=CHINESE TURKESTAN vii. Manicheism in Chinese Turkestan and China |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/chinese-turkestan-vii |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher=Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref>]]
[[Walter Bruno Henning|Henning]] describes how this translation process evolved and influenced the Manichaeans of Central Asia:
{{blockquote|Beyond doubt, [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]] was the national language of the Majority of clerics and propagandists of the Manichaean faith in Central Asia. Middle Persian (Pārsīg), and to a lesser degree, Parthian (Pahlavānīg), occupied the position held by [[Medieval Latin|Latin in the medieval church]]. The founder of Manichaeism had employed Syriac (his own language) as his medium, but conveniently he had written at least one book in Middle Persian, and it is likely that he himself had arranged for the translation of some or all of his numerous writings from Syriac into Middle Persian. Thus the Eastern Manichaeans found themselves entitled to dispense with the study of Mani's original writings, and to continue themselves to reading the Middle Persian edition; it presented small difficulty to them to acquire a good knowledge of the Middle Persian language, owing to its affinity with Sogdian.<ref>W. B. Henning, ''Sogdica'', 1940, p. 11.</ref>}}

=== Originally written in Syriac ===
* the ''[[Gospel of Mani]]'' (Syriac: <span lang="syr">[[wikt:ܐܘܢܓܠܝܘܢ|ܐܘܢܓܠܝܘܢ]]</span> {{IPA|/ʔɛwwanɡallijon/}}; {{langx|grc-x-koine|εὐαγγέλιον}} "good news, gospel"). Quotations from the first chapter were brought in [[Arabic]] by [[ibn al-Nadim]], who lived in Baghdad at a time when there were still Manichaeans living there, in his 938 book, the ''Fihrist'', a catalog of all written books known to him.
* ''The [[Treasure of Life]]''
* ''[[Pragmateia|The Treatise]]'' (Coptic: [[wikt:πραγματεία|πραγματεία]], ''pragmateia'')
* ''[[The Book of Mysteries (Manichaeism)|Secrets]]''
* ''[[The Book of Giants]]'': Original fragments were discovered at [[Qumran]] (pre-Manichaean) and [[Turpan]].
* [[The Epistles (Manichaeism)|Epistles]]: Augustine brings quotations, in Latin, from Mani's ''[[Fundamental Epistle]]'' in some of his anti-Manichaean works.
* [[Psalms and Prayers]]: A Coptic [[Manichaean Psalm Book]], discovered in Egypt in the early 1900s, was edited and published by [[Charles Allberry]] from Manichaean manuscripts in the [[Chester Beatty Library|Chester Beatty collection]] and in the Berlin Academy, 1938–39.

=== Originally written in Middle Persian ===
* The ''[[Shabuhragan]]'', dedicated to [[Shapur I]]: Original Middle Persian fragments were discovered at [[Turpan]], quotations were brought in Arabic by [[al-Biruni]].

=== Other books ===
* The ''[[Arzhang|Ardahang]]'', the "Picture Book". In Iranian tradition, this was one of Mani's holy books that became remembered in later Persian history, and was also called ''Aržang'', a [[Parthian language|Parthian]] word meaning "Worthy", and was beautified with paintings. Therefore, Iranians gave him the title of "The Painter".
* The [[Kephalaia of the Teacher]] ({{lang|grc|Κεφαλαια}}), "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 that describes the early life of Mani.<ref name="Mani-Kodex"/>

===Non-Manichaean works preserved by the Manichaean Church===
* Portions of the [[Book of Enoch]] literature such as the [[Book of Giants]]
* Literature relating to the [[Thomas the Apostle|apostle Thomas]] (who by tradition went to India, and was also venerated in Syria), such as portions of the Syriac [[Acts of Thomas|The Acts of Thomas]], and the [[Psalms of Thomas]]. The [[Gospel of Thomas]] was also attributed to Manichaeans by Cyril of Jerusalem, a fourth-century Church Father.<ref>''"Let none read the gospel according to Thomas, for it is the work, not of one of the twelve apostles, but of one of [[Mani (prophet)|Mani's]] three wicked disciples."''—[[Cyril of Jerusalem]], ''Catechesis'' V (4th century)</ref>
* The legend of [[Barlaam and Josaphat]] passed from an Indian story about the Buddha, through a Manichaean version, before it transformed into the story of a Christian Saint in the west.

=== Later works ===
[[File:摩尼教文獻.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|摩尼教文獻 The Chinese Manichaean "Compendium"]]
[[File:Manichaean miniature image depicting two female musicians, from a Sogdian-language text.jpg|thumb|Two female musicians depicted in a Manichaean text]]
In later centuries, as Manichaeism passed through [[Greater Iran|eastern Persian-speaking lands]] and arrived at the [[Uyghur Khaganate]] (回鶻帝國), and eventually the Uyghur kingdom of [[Turpan]] (destroyed around 1335), Middle Persian and Parthian prayers (''āfrīwan'' or ''āfurišn'') and the Parthian hymn-cycles (the ''Huwīdagmān'' and ''Angad Rōšnan'' created by [[Mar Ammo]]) were added to the Manichaean writings.<ref>See, for example, {{cite book|last=Boyce |first=Mary |author-link=Mary Boyce |title=The Manichaean hymn-cycles in Parthian |series=London Oriental Series |volume=3 |location=London |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=1954}}</ref> A translation of a collection of these produced the ''Manichaean Chinese Hymnscroll'' ({{lang-zh|c=摩尼教下部讚|p=Móní-jiào Xiàbù Zàn}}, which [[Samuel N. C. Lieu|Lieu]] translates as "Hymns for the Lower Section [i.e. the Hearers] of the Manichaean Religion"{{sfn|Lieu|1998|p=50}}).

In addition to containing hymns attributed to Mani, it contains prayers attributed to Mani's earliest disciples, including Mār Zaku, Mār Ammo and Mār Sīsin. Another Chinese work is a complete translation of the ''Sermon of the Light [[Nous]]'', presented as a discussion between Mani and his disciple Adda.<ref>"The Traité is, despite its title (Moni jiao cao jing, lit. "fragmentary [Mathews, no. 6689] Manichean scripture"), a long text in an excellent state of preservation, with only a few lines missing at the beginning. It was first fully published with a facsimile by [[Édouard Chavannes|Edouard Chavannes]] (q.v.) and [[Paul Pelliot]] in 1911 and is frequently known as Traité Pelliot. Their transcription (including typographical errors) was reproduced in the Chinese translation of the [[Taishō Tripiṭaka|Buddhist Tripiṭaka]] (Taishō, no. 2141 B, LIV, pp. 1281a16-1286a29); that text was in turn reproduced with critical notes by Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer (1987b, pp. T. 81–86). A more accurate transcription was published by Chen Yuan in 1923 (pp. 531–44), and a new collation based on a reexamination of the original photographs of the manuscript has now been published by Lin Wu-shu (1987, pp. 217–29), with the photographs", {{iranica|chinese-turkestan-vii|Chinese Turkestan vii. Manicheism in Chinese Turkestan and China}}</ref>

=== Critical and polemic 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, Buddhist, or Zoroastrian ones. 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.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k76039w.texteImage |title=Histoire critique de Manichée et du manichéisme |trans-title=Critical history of Manichae and Manichaeism |last=de Beausobre |first=Isaac |publisher=J. Frederic Bernard |year=1734 |volume=1 |location=Amsterdam |language=FR |access-date=6 December 2018 |archive-date=6 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181206103352/https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k76039w.texteImage |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k760403 |title=Histoire critique de Manichée et du manichéisme |last1=Beausobre |first1=Isaac de |last2=Formey |first2=S. |publisher=J. Frederic Bernard |year=1739 |volume=2 |location=Amsterdam |language=FR |trans-title=Critical history of Manichae and Manichaeism |access-date=6 December 2018 |archive-date=6 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181206103210/https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k760403 |url-status=live }}</ref> 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 [[Theodore Bar Konai]].{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}

==== Patristic depictions of Mani and Manichaeism ====
[[Eusebius]] commented as follows:
{{blockquote|''The error of the Manichees, which commenced at this time.''|In the mean time, also, that madman Manes, (Mani is of Persian or Semitic origin) as he was called, well agreeing with his name, for his demoniacal heresy, armed himself by the perversion of his reason, and at the instruction of Satan, to the destruction of many. He was a barbarian in his life, both in speech and conduct, but in his nature as one possessed and insane. Accordingly, he attempted to form himself into a Christ, and then also proclaimed himself to be the very paraclete and the Holy Spirit, and with all this was greatly puffed up with his madness. Then, as if he were Christ, he selected twelve disciples, the partners of his new religion, and after patching together false and ungodly doctrines, collected from a thousand heresies long since extinct, he swept them off like a deadly poison, from Persia, upon this part of the world. Hence the impious name of the Manichaeans spreading among many, even to the present day. Such then was the occasion of this knowledge, as it was falsely called, that sprouted up in these times.<ref>Eusebius. ''The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus, Bishop of Caesarea'', Translated from the originals by Christian Frederick Cruse.1939. Ch. XXXI.</ref>}}

==== ''Acta Archelai'' ====
An example of how inaccurate some of these accounts could be can be 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 refuted by Isaac de Beausobre in the 18th century:

<blockquote>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 that 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 that 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 that 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.</blockquote>

A. A. Bevan, who quoted this story, commented that it "has no claim to be considered historical".<ref>Bevan, A. A. (1930). "Manichaeism". ''Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics'', Volume VIII. Ed. [[James Hastings]]. London.</ref>

==== View of Judaism in the ''Acta Archelai'' ====
According to [[Hegemonius]]' portrayal of Mani, the [[Dimurgos|evil demiurge]] who created the world was the Jewish [[Yahweh]]. Hegemonius reports that Mani said,{{blockquote|"It is the [[Prince of darkness (Manichaeism)|Prince of Darkness]] who spoke with [[Moses]], the [[Jews]] and their [[kohen|priests]]. Thus the [[Christians]], the Jews, and the Pagans are involved in the same error when they worship this God. For he leads them astray in the lusts he taught them." He goes on to state: "Now, he who spoke with Moses, the Jews, and the priests he says is the [[archon]]t of Darkness, and the Christians, Jews, and pagans (ethnic) are one and the same, as they revere the same god. For in his aspirations he seduces them, as he is not the god of truth. And so therefore all those who put their hope in the god who spoke with Moses and the prophets have (this in store for themselves, namely) to be bound with him, because they did not put their hope in the god of truth. For that one spoke with them (only) according to their own aspirations.<ref>{{cite web |title=Classical Texts: Acta Archelai of Mani |url=http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~iranian/Manicheism/Manicheism_II_Texts.pdf |page=76 |publisher=Iranian Studies at [[Harvard University]] |access-date=3 December 2008 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924032939/http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~iranian/Manicheism/Manicheism_II_Texts.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

=== Central Asian and Iranian primary sources ===
In the early 1900s, original Manichaean writings started to come to light when German scholars led by [[Albert Grünwedel]], and then by [[Albert von Le Coq]], began excavating at [[Gaochang]], the ancient site of the Manichaean Uyghur Kingdom near Turpan, in Chinese Turkestan (destroyed around 1300&nbsp;CE). While most of the writings they uncovered were in very poor condition, there were still hundreds of pages of Manichaean scriptures, written in three Iranian languages (Middle Persian, Parthian, and Sogdian) and old Uyghur. These writings were taken back to Germany and were analyzed and published at the [[Prussian Academy of Sciences]] in Berlin, by Le Coq and others, such as [[Friedrich W. K. Müller]] and [[Walter Bruno Henning]]. 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 the [[Hebrew alphabet]] (which could easily be substituted for the 22 Syriac letters).
<ref>See this representative example, with the texts being published with Hebrew letters in 1932 and 1933, and in Latin letters in 1934: [https://www.academia.edu/154976562/Mitteliranische_Manichaeica_1932_1934_SPAW Mitteliranisch Manichaeica, SPAW 1932, 1933, 1934]</ref>

Perhaps the most comprehensive of these publications was {{lang|de|Manichaeische Dogmatik aus chinesischen und iranischen Texten}} (''Manichaean Dogma from Chinese and Iranian texts''), by [[Ernst Waldschmidt]] and Wolfgang Lentz, published in Berlin in 1933.<ref>[[Ernst Waldschmidt|Waldschmidt, E.]], and Lentz, W., ''Manichäische Dogmatik aus chinesischen und iranischen Texten'' (SPAW 1933, No. 13)</ref> 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 the Hebrew alphabet. 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.<ref>See this representative example, with the texts being published with Hebrew letters in 1932 and 1933, and in Latin letters in 1934: [https://www.academia.edu/154976562/Mitteliranische_Manichaeica_1932_1934_SPAW Mitteliranisch Manichaeica, SPAW 1932, 1933, 1934]</ref>

=== Coptic primary sources ===
Additionally, in 1930, German researchers in Egypt found a large body of Manichaean works in Coptic. Though these were also damaged, hundreds of complete pages survived and, beginning in 1933, were analyzed and published in Berlin before [[World War II]], by German scholars such as [[Hans Jakob Polotsky]].<ref>[[Hans Jakob Polotsky]] and Karl Schmidt, ''Ein Mani-Fund in Ägypten, Original-Schriften des Mani und seiner Schüler''. Berlin: Akademie der Wissenschaften 1933.</ref> Some of these Coptic Manichaean writings were lost during the war.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Mirecki |first1=Paul Allan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MjHagtUE5toC |title=Emerging from Darkness: Studies in the Recovery of Manichaean Sources |last2=BeDuhn |first2=Jason David |date=31 December 1996 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |isbn=978-90-04-10760-1 |page=vii |language=en}}</ref>

=== Chinese primary sources ===
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, all found at the [[Mogao Caves]] among the [[Dunhuang manuscripts]], and all written before the 9th century, are today kept in London, Paris, and Beijing. Some of the scholars involved with their initial discovery and publication were [[Édouard Chavannes]], [[Paul Pelliot]], and [[Aurel Stein]]. 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 [[Taishō Tripiṭaka]], 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),<ref>{{cite book|last=Schmidt-Glintzer |first=Helwig |title=Chinesische Manichaeica |language=de |trans-title=Chinese Manichaica |location=Wiesbaden |date=1987}}</ref> and China, the Japanese publication remains the standard reference for the Chinese texts.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}

=== Greek life of Mani, Cologne codex ===
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 {{lang|de|Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik}}. The ancient [[papyrus]] manuscript contained a [[Greek language|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.<ref name="Sundermann-2011">{{Cite web |last=Sundermann |first=Werner |date=2011-10-26 |title=COLOGNE MANI CODEX |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/cologne-mani-codex-parchment |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher=Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation |language=en-US |archive-date=2 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230302211738/https://iranicaonline.org/articles/cologne-mani-codex-parchment |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Figurative use ==
{{seealso|Other (philosophy)}}
The terms "Manichaean" and "Manichaeism" are sometimes used figuratively as a synonym of the more general term "[[Dualism in cosmology|dualist]]" with respect to a philosophy, outlook, or world-view.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |article=Manichaean – definition of ''Manichaean'' in English |dictionary=The Oxford Dictionaries |url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/Manichaean |title=Manichaean |access-date=31 July 2011 |archive-date=25 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110925054455/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/Manichaean }}</ref> The terms are often used to suggest that the worldview in question simplistically reduces historical events to a struggle between good and evil. For example, [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]] used the phrase "Manichaean paranoia" in reference to U.S. president [[George W. Bush]]'s worldview (in ''[[The Daily Show with Jon Stewart]]'', 14 March 2007); Brzezinski elaborated that he meant "the notion that he [Bush] is leading the forces of good against the '[[Axis of evil]].{{' "}} Author and journalist [[Glenn Greenwald]] followed up on the theme in describing Bush in his book ''[[A Tragic Legacy]]'' (2007).

The term is frequently used by critics to describe the attitudes and foreign policies of the United States and its leaders.<ref>{{cite web |last=Kennedy |first=Douglas |date=2017-04-26 |title=Ode to a Philistine: Howard Jacobson's Pussy |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2017/04/ode-philistine-howard-jacobsons-pussy |access-date=2023-05-01 |website=[[New Statesman]] |archive-date=20 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020084018/https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2017/04/ode-philistine-howard-jacobsons-pussy |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Fred |last=Kaplan |date=21 October 2004 |title=Paul Nitze |website=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/obit/2004/10/paul_nitze.html |access-date=20 October 2017 |archive-date=16 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016131409/http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/obit/2004/10/paul_nitze.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Nick |last=Bryant |date=10 July 2015 |title=The decline of US power? |publisher=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33440287 |access-date=21 July 2018 |archive-date=3 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603090150/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33440287 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Philosopher [[Frantz Fanon]] frequently invoked the concept of Manicheanism in his discussions of violence between colonizers and the colonized.<ref>{{cite web |title=Frantz Fanon |website=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor1-first=James |editor1-last=Fieser |editor2-first=Bradley |editor2-last=Dowden |location=Martin, TN |publisher=[[University of Tennessee at Martin]] |url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/fanon/ |url-status=live |access-date=25 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160815233029/http://www.iep.utm.edu/fanon/ |archive-date=15 August 2016}}</ref>

In ''[[My Secret History]]'', author [[Paul Theroux]]'s protagonist defines the word Manichaean for the protagonist's son as "seeing that good and evil are mingled." Before explaining the word to his son, the protagonist mentions [[Joseph Conrad|Joseph Conrad's]] short story "[[The Secret Sharer]]" at least twice in the book, the plot of which also examines the idea of the duality of good and evil.<ref>{{cite book |first=Paul |last=Theroux |date=1989 |title=My Secret History |pages=[https://archive.org/details/mysecrethistor00ther/page/471 471], 473 |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons |location=New York |isbn=0-399-13424-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/mysecrethistor00ther |url-access=registration}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Gnosticism}}
{{Columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* [[Manichaean art]]
*[[Athinganoi]], a purportedly related movement
* [[Abū Hilāl al-Dayhūri]] (8th century)
* [[Agapius (Manichaean)]] (4th or 5th century)
* [[Akouas]]
* [[Ancient Mesopotamian religion]]
* [[The Buddha in Manichaeism]]
* [[Chinese Manichaeism]]
* [[Good and evil]]
* [[Dualism in cosmology]]
* [[Hiwi al-Balkhi]]
* [[Indo-Iranians#Religion|Indo-Iranian religion]]
* [[Jesus in Manichaeism]]
* [[Mar Ammo]] (3rd century)
* [[Mazdak]]
* [[Ming Cult]]
* [[Moral realism]]
* [[Abu Isa al-Warraq]]
* [[Yazdânism]]
* [[Yazidi]]
* [[Zurvanism]]
}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist|refs=
{{efn|name=IranicaManiFounderManichaeism|"According to the ''Fehrest'', Mani was of [[Parthian Empire|Arsacid]] stock on both his father's and his mother's sides, at least if the readings al-ḥaskāniya (Mani's father) and al-asʿāniya (Mani's mother) are corrected to al-aškāniya and al-ašḡāniya (ed. Flügel, 1862, p. 49, ll. 2 and 3) respectively. The forefathers of Mani's father are said to have been from Hamadan and so perhaps of Iranian origin (ed. Flügel, 1862, p. 49, 5–6). The ''Chinese Compendium'', which makes the father a local king, maintains that his mother was from the house Jinsajian, explained by Henning as the Armenian Arsacid family of Kamsarakan (Henning, 1943, p. 52, n. 4 1977, II, p. 115). Is that fact, or fiction, or both? The historicity of this tradition is assumed by most, but the possibility that Mani's noble Arsacid background is legendary cannot be ruled out (cf. Scheftelowitz, 1933, pp. 403–4). In any case, it is characteristic that Mani took pride in his origin from time-honored [[Babylon|Babel]], but never claimed affiliation to the Iranian upper class." – {{iranica|mani-founder-manicheism}}}}
}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

=== Works cited ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Augustine |title=Confessions |title-link=Confessions (Augustine) |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1991 |isbn=0-19-281779-5 |location=New York |language=en |translator-last=Chadwick |translator-first=Henry |translator-link=Henry Chadwick (theologian)}}
* {{cite book |last=Beausobre, de |first=Isaac |author-link=Isaac de Beausobre |title=Histoire critique de Manichée et du Manichéisme |year=1734–1739 |location=Amsterdam |isbn=978-0-8240-3552-5 |publisher=Garland Pub.}}
* {{cite book |last=BeDuhn |first=Jason David |title=The Manichaean Body: In Discipline and Ritual |isbn=978-0-8018-7107-8 |year=2002 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore}}
* {{cite book|last=Canz|first=Israel Gottlieb|authorlink=Israel Gottlieb Canz|year=1750|title=Meditationes philosophicae|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=83nhe363bekC}}
* {{cite book|last=Dewar|first=Daniel|authorlink=Daniel Dewar|year=1847|title=The Holy Spirit: His Personality, Divinity, Office, and Agency, in the Regeneration and Sanctification of Man|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSX8K0veEGYC|location=London}}
* {{cite book |last=Foltz |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Foltz |title=Religions of the Silk Road |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=978-0-230-62125-1 |year=2010}}
* {{cite book |last1=Gardner |first1=Iain |last2=Lieu |first2=Samuel N.C. |author-link2=Samuel N. C. Lieu |title=Manichaean Texts from the Roman Empire |isbn=978-0-521-56822-7 |year=2004 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge}}
* {{cite book|last=Gaster|first=Moses|authorlink=Moses Gaster|year=1925|title=The Samaritans: Their History, Doctrines and Literature|url=https://ia902300.us.archive.org/30/items/samaritanstheirh00gast/samaritanstheirh00gast.pdf|location=London|publisher=Oxford University Press}}
* {{cite book|last=Hascard|first=Gregory|authorlink=Gregory Hascard|year=1685|title=A Discourse about the Charge of Novelty Upon the Reformed Church of England|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xUA3AAAAMAAJ|location=London}}
* La Vaissière, Etienne de, "Mani en Chine au VIe siècle", ''Journal Asiatique'', 293–1, 2005, p.&nbsp;357–378.
* {{cite book |last=Lieu |first=Samuel N.C. |author-link=Samuel N. C. Lieu |title=Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China |year=1992 |publisher=[[Mohr Siebeck]] |location=Tübingen |isbn=978-0-7190-1088-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/manichaeisminlat00lieu}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Ma |first1=Xiaohe |last2=Wang |first2=Chuan |title=On the Xiapu Ritual Manual Mani the Buddha of Light |journal=Religions |date=2018 |volume=9 |issue=7 |page=212 |doi=10.3390/rel9070212 |doi-access=free}}
* {{cite book |last=Runciman |first=Steven |author-link=Steven Runciman |title=The Medieval Manichee: a study of the Christian dualist heresy |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1982 |orig-date=1947 |isbn=978-0-521-28926-9}}
* {{cite dictionary|last=Sophocles|first=Evangelinos Apostolides|authorlink=Evangelinos Apostolides Sophocles|year=1900|entry=μανιχαϊσμός|title=Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine Periods (from B. C. 146 to A. D. 1100)|location=New York|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons}}
* {{cite book |last=Welburn |first=Andrew |title=Mani, the Angel and the Column of Glory |isbn=978-0-86315-274-0 |year=1998 |publisher=Floris |location=Edinburgh}}
* {{cite book |last=Widengren |first=Geo |title=Mani and Manichaeism |year=1965 |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |location=London}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* Baker-Brian, Nicholas J. (2011). ''Manichaeism: An Ancient Faith Rediscovered.'' London and New York. T&T Clark. 
* {{cite book |last=Beatty |first=Alfred Chester |editor=Charles Allberry |title=A Manichean Psalm-Book, Part II |year=1938 |location=Stuttgart}}
* {{cite book |last=Cross |first=F. L. |author2=E. A. Livingstone |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |year=1974 |location=London: Oxford UP |isbn=978-0-19-211545-4 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780192115454}}
* {{cite conference |last=Favre |first=Francois |date=2005-05-05 |title=Mani, the Gift of Light |conference=Renova symposium |location=Bilthoven, The Netherlands}}
* {{cite book |first=Richard |last=Foltz |author-link=Richard Foltz |title=Religions of Iran: From Prehistory to the Present |publisher=Oneworld publications |location=London |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-78074-308-0}}
* {{cite book |last1=Gardner |first1=Iain |year=2020 |title=The Founder of Manichaeism. Rethinking the Lives of Mani |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge}}
* <!--ref name="1988a"-->{{cite book |last=Giversen |first=Soren |title=The Manichaean Coptic Papyri in The Chester Beatty Library Vol. III: Psalm Book part I. |edition=Facsimile |year=1988 |publisher=Patrick Crammer |location=Geneva}} (Cahiers D'Orientalism XVI) 1988a
* <!--ref name="1988b"-->{{cite book |last=Giversen |first=Soren |title=The Manichaean Coptic Papyri in The Chester Beatty Library ''Vol. IV: Psalm Book part II''. |edition=Facsimile |year=1988 |publisher=Patrick Crammer |location=Geneva}} (Cahiers D'Orientalism XVI) 1988b.
*[[Rene Grousset|Grousset, Rene]] (1939), tr. Walford, Naomi (1970), ''The Empire of the Steppes: A History of [[Central Asia]]'', New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers.{{ISBN|978-0-8135-1304-1}}.
* {{cite book |last=Gulácsi |first=Zsuzsanna |author-link=Zsuzsanna Gulácsi |title=Manichaean art in Berlin Collections |year=2001 |location=Turnhout}} (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.
* {{cite book |first=Hugo |last=Ibscher |editor=[[Charles Allberry|Allberry Charles R. C.]] |title=Manichaean Manuscripts in the Chester Beatty Collection: Vol II, part II: A Manichaean Psalm Book |year=1938 |publisher=W. Kohlammer |location=Stuttgart}}
* {{cite book |last=Legge |first=Francis |title=Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity, From 330 B.C. to 330 A.D. |url=https://archive.org/details/forerunnersrival00legg |url-access=registration |orig-date=1914 |year=1964 |publisher=University Books |location=New York |id=LC Catalog 64-24125}} reprinted in two volumes bound as one
* Mani (216–276/7) and his 'biography': the Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis (CMC):
* {{cite book |last=Melchert |first=Norman |title=The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy |url=https://archive.org/details/greatconversatio00norm |url-access=registration |publisher=McGraw Hill |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-19-517510-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Skjaervo |first=Prods Oktor |title=An Introduction to Manicheism |url=https://archive.org/details/skjaervo-2006-intro-manicheism |year=2006}}
* Towers, Susanna (2019). ''Constructions of Gender in Late Antique Manichaean Cosmological Narrative.'' Brepols. Turnhout.
* {{cite journal |last=Wurst |first=Gregor |date=July 2001 |title=Die Bema-Psalmen |journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies |volume=60 |issue=3 |pages=203–204 |doi=10.1086/468925}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{EB1911 poster|Manichaeism}}

=== Outside articles ===
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09591a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia – Manichæism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200508130002/https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09591a.htm |date=8 May 2020 }} public domain, published 1917.
* [http://www.manichaeism.de International Association of Manichaean Studies] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040815192919/http://www.manichaeism.de/ |date=15 August 2004 }}
* [http://www.anchist.mq.edu.au/doccentre/Zayton.htm Manichaean and Christian Remains in Zayton (Quanzhou, South China)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080719190544/http://www.anchist.mq.edu.au/doccentre/Zayton.htm |date=19 July 2008 }}
* [http://www.iranchamber.com/religions/articles/manichaeism1.php Religions of Iran: Manichaeism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218170011/http://www.iranchamber.com/religions/articles/manichaeism1.php |date=18 December 2007 }} by I.J.S. Taraporewala
* [http://www.guoxue.com/study/monijiao/mxh_001.htm 专题研究–摩尼教研究] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304195504/http://www.guoxue.com/study/monijiao/mxh_001.htm |date=4 March 2016}}
* [http://vip.book.sina.com.cn/book/chapter_41799_25418.html 《光明皇帝》明尊教背景书(1)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200105130610/http://vip.book.sina.com.cn/book/chapter_41799_25418.html |date=5 January 2020 }}

=== Manichaean sources in English translation ===
* [http://gnosis.org/library/Mani.html A summary of the Manichaean creation myth] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051102024812/http://gnosis.org/library/Mani.html |date=2 November 2005 }}
* [http://gnosis.org/library/manis.htm Manichaean Writings] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050708025929/http://www.gnosis.org/library/manis.htm |date=8 July 2005 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071206031128/http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~iranian/Manicheism/ Manicheism]. Complete bibliography and selection of Manichaean source texts in PDF format:
** [http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~iranian/Manicheism/Manicheism_I_Intro.pdf A thorough bibliography and outline of Manichaean Studies]
** [http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~iranian/Manicheism/Manicheism_II_Texts.pdf A number of key Manichaean texts in English translation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924032939/http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~iranian/Manicheism/Manicheism_II_Texts.pdf |date=24 September 2015 }}
* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/giants/giants.htm The Book of the Giants] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717115151/http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/giants/giants.htm |date=17 July 2019 }} by [[W.B. Henning]], 1943
* [https://brill.com/view/serial/NHMS Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211116123250/https://brill.com/view/serial/NHMS |date=16 November 2021 }} (NHMS) series from [[Brill Publishers|Brill]] (various volumes containing English translations of Manichaean texts)

=== Secondary Manichaean sources in English translation ===
* [[s:Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume IV/Manichaean Controversy/Against the Epistle of Manichaeus/Chapter 1|St. Augustine Against the Fundamental Epistle of Manichaeus]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081223141441/http://www4.nau.edu/manichaean/acta.htm Acta Archelai]

=== Manichaean sources in their original languages ===
* [http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/ifa/NRWakademie/papyrologie/Manikodex/bildermani.html Photos of the Entire Koeln Mani-Kodex] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070313225637/http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/ifa/NRWakademie/papyrologie/Manikodex/bildermani.html |date=13 March 2007 }} (Greek).
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110711161236/http://www.hebrewchinese.com/maninaya.pdf The Syriac Manichaean work quoted by Theodor bar Khonai]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070403174337/http://www.bbaw.de/forschung/turfanforschung/dta/m/dta_m_index.htm Photos of the Original Middle Persian Manichaean Writings/Fragments Discovered at Turpan] (The index of this German site can be searched for additional Manichaean material, including photos of the original Chinese Manichaean writings)
* [http://armazi.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/iran/miran/manich/sermseel/serms.htm "Sermon of the Soul", in Parthian and Sogdian] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224092154/http://armazi.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/iran/miran/manich/sermseel/serms.htm |date=24 December 2013}}
* [http://www.azargoshnasp.net/languages/Pahlavi/pahlavi.htm Middle Persian and Parthian Texts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070731043114/http://www.azargoshnasp.net/languages/Pahlavi/pahlavi.htm |date=31 July 2007 }}
* D. N. MacKenzie, ''Mani's Šābuhragān'', pt. 1 (text and translation), BSOAS 42/3, 1979, pp.&nbsp;500–34,{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120322023046/http://www.essenes.net/pdf/Mani%27s%20Sabuhragan.pdf]}} pt. 2 (glossary and plates), BSOAS 43/2, 1980, pp.&nbsp;288–310 {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120324163131/http://www.essenes.net/pdf/Mani%20SabuhraganII%20.pdf]}}.
* Chinese Manichaean Scriptures: [http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/BDLM/sutra/chi_pdf/sutra22/T54n2141B.pdf 摩尼教殘經一] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101214161301/http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/BDLM/sutra/chi_pdf/sutra22/T54n2141B.pdf |date=14 December 2010 }} ("Incomplete Sutra one of Manichaeism") & [http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/BDLM/sutra/chi_pdf/sutra22/T54n2141A.pdf 摩尼光佛教法儀略] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622010736/http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/BDLM/sutra/chi_pdf/sutra22/T54n2141A.pdf |date=22 June 2011 }}("The Mani Bright Buddha teaching plan") & [http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/BDLM/sutra/chi_pdf/sutra22/T54n2140.pdf 下部讚] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622010809/http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/BDLM/sutra/chi_pdf/sutra22/T54n2140.pdf |date=22 June 2011 }}("The Lower Part Praises")

=== Secondary Manichaean sources in their original languages ===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060629224313/http://www.sant-agostino.it/latino/contro_lettera_mani/index.htm Augustine's Contra Epistolam Manichaei] (Latin)

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