Prolegomena To A History Of Islamicate Manichaeism

Book Summary

This book provides an anthology of sources highlighting, a gnostic religion which flourished largely clandestinely in the Near East, Central Asia, and China until the beginning of the seventeenth century. It translates and discusses the importance of a number of Arabic, Syriac, and Hebrew testimonies for a proper understanding of the cultural importance of what most scholars consider to be the first world religion. Many of these sources are translated here into English for the first time. This book provides an annotated anthology of primary sources highlighting Manichaeism, a dualist religion emerging in Mesopotamia in the third century and which spread rapidly throughout the Roman and Sasanian empires until it was violently suppressed by both polities. It nevertheless continued to flourish -- largely clandestinely -- in the Near East, Central Asia, and China until it finally disappeared at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The present work translates and assesses the importance of a number of Arabic, Persian, Syriac, and even Hebrew language testimonies for a better understanding of the cultural importance of what many scholars characterize as the first 'world religion.'

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