The Canon · No. 034
Manichaeism
The religion of Light
c.240 – c.1600 CE · Iranian · Extinct · From Roman Africa to China
IV. THE CLASSICAL & IMPERIAL WORLD — c.200 BCE – 500 CE
How many
None. Extinct.
Who began it
Mani (c.216–274 or 277 CE), born in Mesopotamia, raised in a Jewish-Christian baptising sect, who received revelations from his heavenly Twin at twelve and twenty-four.
What it is for
To be the final and universal religion. Mani is the first founder in history known to have deliberately designed a world religion: he wrote his own scriptures to prevent corruption, ordered translations, commissioned illustrated books for the illiterate, and explicitly framed Zoroaster, Buddha and Jesus as his predecessors whose messages had been local and garbled.
What it worships
The Father of Greatness, ruler of the Realm of Light, opposed by the King of Darkness. Mani is the Paraclete promised in John's gospel and the Seal of the Prophets — a title Islam later applied to Muhammad.
What it holds
Absolute dualism of Light and Darkness as two eternal, co-original principles. Darkness attacked Light; particles of Light became trapped in matter, including in human beings and, importantly, in plants. History is the mechanical process of extracting that Light. Ethics follows directly from the physics: anything that further entangles Light in matter — sex, procreation, killing, farming — is wrong.
What it does
A two-tier structure. The Elect kept total celibacy, strict veganism, no farming, no harvesting, no cooking, and constant prayer and fasting; their digestion was understood to literally release Light from food. The Hearers did the sinful work of growing and preparing food, gave it to the Elect, and were rewarded with a better rebirth. Four daily prayers, weekly confession, and the annual Bema festival commemorating Mani's death.
After death
The Elect go directly to the Realm of Light. Hearers are reborn, ideally as Elect. The wholly wicked are bound to the lump of darkness forever. At the end, a Great Fire burns the world for 1,468 years, the last recoverable Light is drawn off, and Light and Darkness are permanently separated — the reverse of Zoroastrian universal restoration, since here the Darkness is not redeemed but sealed away.
Its texts
Mani wrote seven works himself, including the Living Gospel, the Shabuhragan and the illustrated Arzhang. Nearly all were destroyed. Recovered fragments come from Turfan in Xinjiang, Medinet Madi in Egypt, and the tiny Cologne Mani Codex. Substantial material also survives through Augustine, a Hearer for nine years before converting to Christianity.
Its branches
Western (Latin, Greek, Coptic) and Eastern (Middle Persian, Sogdian, Uyghur, Chinese) transmissions.
Of note
The word Manichaean now means simplistic black-and-white thinking, which is a poor summary of what was one of the most intellectually elaborate systems ever constructed. It also came genuinely close to becoming the world religion — it ran from Carthage to the Pacific.
Its timeline
- c.240 CE Mani begins preaching in the Sasanian empire; travels to India.
- c.274–277 CE Executed under Bahram I at Zoroastrian instigation; the body displayed.
- 297 CE Diocletian orders Manichaean leaders burned with their books — one of Rome's earliest anti-religious edicts.
- 373–382 CE Augustine of Hippo is a Manichaean Hearer; his later anti-Manichaean writings preserve the doctrine and also shape Christian ideas of evil.
- 694 CE Manichaeism reaches Chang'an, the Tang capital.
- 763–840 CE Adopted as the state religion of the Uyghur Khaganate — the only state in history to do so.
- 843, 845 CE Suppressed in China alongside Buddhism.
- c.1300–1600 CE Survives underground in Fujian; the Cao'an temple near Jinjiang, still standing, holds a Mani statue reclassified as a buddha.
- 1900s CE Turfan and Egyptian manuscript discoveries allow Manichaeism to be studied from its own texts.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.