[nukkad] Mysterious Mani : 2

[zaverirm <>]

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  Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.  
                 - Mark Twain
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Hello,
To continue the saga of Mani :

In 242 A.D. Mani returned to Persia, where he gained an audience with King
Shapur I. Although Shapur did not become a convert, he was well impressed
with Mani and permitted him to teach his new religion throughout the Persian
empire. This later Persian Empire is sometimes called the Sassanid Empire,
after a new dynasty established about 226. For the next thirty years or so,
under Shapur I and Hormizd I, Mani preached without hindrance and gained
large number of followers. During this period, missions were also sent to
foreign countries. However Mani's success aroused antagonism of the priests
of the Zoroastrian religion, which became the state religion of Persia
during the Sassanid dynasty. Around 276, after a new king, Bahram I,
ascended the throne, Mani was arrested and imprisoned. After a cruel 26 day
ordeal, he died.

During his lifetime, Mani wrote several books, one in Persian, the other in
Syriac ( a semitic language closely related to the Aramaic of jesus' time ).
These became the canonical books of the Manichaean religion. After the
religion became extinct, the Manichaean scriptures were destroyed by the
marauding armies of Islam, however, some have been rediscovered during the
last century.
>From the beginning, Manichaeism was a vigorously proselytizing religion.
During the Prophet Mani's own lifetime his religion gained adherents from
India to Europe. After he died, it continued to grow, eventually spreading
as far west as Spain and as far east as China. In the west it reached its
height in the fourth century A.D. at which time it was a serious challenger
to Christianity which was then struggling to secure foothold.  St. Augustine
was an adherent of Manichaeism for nine years. But after Christianity became
the state religion of the Roman empire, Manichaeism was severely persecuted,
and by about 600, it was largely eliminated from the West.
It was still strong however in Mesopotamia, Asia Minor and Iran. From there
it spread to central Asia, Turkestan and western China. In the late eighth
century it became the official religion of  the Uighurs, who controlled a
substantial region in western China and Mongolia. It also spread to China
proper, all the way to the coast and from there to the island of Taiwan. But
the advent of Islam in the seventh century ultimately resulted in the
decline of Mani's religion. Starting in the eighth century, the Abbasid
Caliphs in Baghdad severely persecuted Manichaeism and after a while it died
out in Mesopotamia and Iran. From the nineth century on, it declined in
Central Asia as well, and the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century
practically finished it off. Nevertheless, Marco Polo records having
countered Manichaean communities in eastern China in about 1300.
Meanwhile, various sects deriving from Manichaeism arose in Europe. The
Paulicians appeared in the Byzantine Empire starting in the seventh century.
The Bogomils, who were strongest in the  Balkans, appeared about the tenth
century. But the most notable of these European offshoots were the Cathari
 better known as the Albigensians, after the French town of Albi, which was
one of their strongholds). In the twelfth century, the Cathari gained a wide
following in Europe, particularly in southern France. The Albigensians,
though their doctrines more closely resembled Manichaeism, considered
themselves Christians; the orthodox church authorities considered them to be
heretics. Eventually, Pope Innocent III, the most powerful and the least
tolerant of medoeval popes, called for a crusade against them. The crusade
began in 1209, and by 1244, after an appalling loss of life and the
devastation of a large part of southern France, the Albigensians were
thoroughly crushed. Nevertheless, Catharism did not become extinct in Italy
until the fifteenth century.
Any religion has a large effect upon the lives of its sincere adherents. For
this reason, the founder of even a minor religion is frequently a person of
considerable influence. Manichaeism, although now extinct, was for a time a
major religion and Mani was thus a very influential person.
Mani's personal role in the creation of the new religion was overwhelming.
He founded it, devised its theology and prescribed its moral code. It is
true that many of his ideas were not original, (strictly speaking) and were
derived from earlier thinkers, but it was Mani who combined these separate
strands of thought into a distinctive new system. He also made many converts
to his faith by his incessant preaching, created its ecclesiastical
organization, and wrote its holy scriptures. Rarely it has occured that an
important mass movement been so strikingly the creation of a single founder
contributor.
It is very obvious that the religion he founded would never have come into
existence without him.

Rohit Zaveri.



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