Ancient civilizations-2

Manichaeism

During the reign of Shāpūr I a new religious leader and movement made their appearance. Mani (216?–274?) was the offspring of a Parthian family resident in Babylonia (“a thankful disciple I am, risen from Babel’s land”) but was himself a speaker of Aramaic. Knowledge of his teachings was greatly increased by the discovery in the early 20th century of many fragments of Manichaean literature in eastern Turkistan. Subsequently a large part of the Kephalaia, a collection of the religious injunctions of Mani, was recovered in a Coptic version found in Egypt. These texts can now be collated with the versions of Manichaean doctrines as reported by the Church Fathers, including St. Augustine. From this cumulative documentation, to which other sources can be added, it appears, among other things, that Mani’s teachings were formulated under the strong influence of Gnostic ideas and philosophy. Mani proclaimed himself to be the last and greatest Apostle of Jesus as well as the Paraclete announced in the Gospel According to John. With the Gnostic interpretation of the Gospel, Mani tried to combine the doctrines of Zoroaster and Jesus in order to create a new religion of a universal character. There is a tradition that he made his first appearance as a teacher on the coronation day of Shāpūr (April 12, 240, or April 9, 243), but other evidence suggests that Mani was not necessarily in Iran at the time and may have been on a sea journey to India when he started preaching. He later returned and found many followers, among whom were Fīrūz (Pērōz) and Mihrshāh, governor of Maishān (Mesene), both brothers of Shāpūr. Even the king himself is said to have been impressed and to have granted the prophet several personal interviews. On the last such occasion, Mani presented the king with his first book, the Shāpuragān (Shabuhragan), a summary of his teachings (“dedicated to Shāpūr”) written in the Middle Persian language, which provides further evidence of a degree of royal favour. During Shāpūr’s reign the religion of Mani was thus propagated in and beyond Iran. The heir to the throne, Hormizd I, was also favourably disposed toward him. Shāpūr’s younger son, Bahrām I, however, yielded to pressure from the priestly establishment, and Mani was executed. After that, Manichaeism was persecuted and destroyed in Iran. Yet it maintained itself not only in the West, penetrating far into the Roman Empire, but also in the East, in Khorāsān and beyond the boundaries of the Sāsānian empire. There the seat of its leader was at Samarkand, whence it penetrated Central Asia.