Manichaeism

Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: Culture Society History

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Manichaeism
The dualism preached by the Iranian prophet Mani (lived 216277 ce) was one of spirit (Greek:
pneuma, Latin: spiritus), equated to light, versus matter (Greek: hyle, Latin: corpus), equated to
darkness. Good was thought to be inherent in spirit and light; evil was believed to be inseparable
from matter and darkness. Mani drew upon Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian, Gnostic, Hindu, and
Buddhist doctrines, literature, and rituals to create a syncretistic faith that was intended to be
open to followers of all social, economic, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, and devotional backgrounds.

Originally preached in Mesopotamia (now southern Iraq) and Iran, it was spread by male and
female missionaries to Egypt and North Africa, to the Roman Empire, to Central Asia, and to
China. Manichaeism flourished in Egypt and North Africa into the sixth century ce before being
eclipsed by Christianity, but nonetheless influenced dualist Christian heresies such as the
Bogomils of the Balkans from the tenth through thirteenth centuries and the Cathars (also known
as the Albigensi) of Western Europe (especially Provence) in the eleventh to the thirteenth
centuries. Manichaeism became the religion of the Uighur state in Central Asia from 762840. It
continued to be practiced by Central Asians of Iranian and Turkic backgrounds, especially in
monasteries along the Tarim Basin, until the Mongol invasion of the thirteenth century. The
religion was recognized officially in China from 732 until 863 and continued to have a following
there into the fourteenth century.

IMPACT OF GENDER ON DOCTRINE AND

MYTHOLOGY
Distinct in both origin and essence, according to Manichaean cosmogony, spirit and matter or
light and darkness became mixed in the world through a sequence of violent events set into
motion by the devil, or Evil Spirit, known as Ahriman, who left his residence in the material hell
of darkness to attack the spiritual heaven of light. Salvation was thought to occur, at the end of
time, through the final reseparation of the good spirit, or light, from evil matter, or darkness. The
realm of light was supposed to be ruled by a god known as the Father of Greatness, or Pid i
Wuzurgih (known in Latin as Benignus Pater); he is also known as the Father of Light, or Pidar
Roshn and as Time, or Zurwan. So, for Manichaeans, the primordial universe was divided
between two masculine spirits, equally powerful but diametrically opposed to each other. The
Father of Greatness had as his consort the Holy Spirit, or Wakhsh Yojdahr, a female entity about
whom few details has survived. The Father of Greatness was surrounded by his twelve sons, the
Aeons, in the spiritual heaven of light. The Evil Spirit, who was both the personification and
prime manifestation of matter, dwelt in hell with a host of demons and demonesses.
As his first act of creation, it is believed that the Father of Greatness evoked the Mother of Life,
or Madar Zindagan, also known as the Mother of the Righteous, or Ardawan Mad. She, with aid
from the Father of Greatness, then created through divine words a spiritual son known as the First
Man. In Iranian sources the First Man was referred to as Ohrmizddrawing upon Zoroastrian
belief in a god (Ahura Mazda or Ohrmazd) by the same nameand, by extension, his mother
was referred to as the Mother of the God Ohrmizd. The First Man was overwhelmed by the forces
of darkness in battle, was imprisoned by Ahriman in hell, but succeeded in calling to his mother
for help. The Mother of Life turned to the Father of Greatness for her son's salvation. The
maternal image of intercession and assistance became a powerful indicator to female devotees of
an important religious role within the community and within their own families. The Mother of
Life, like the Father of Greatness, did not, however, create the First Manand other divinities
male and femalethrough a physical or sexual process. Her creations, like those of the Father of
Greatness, supposedly were evoked or summoned forth in absolute chastity and puritythat is,
creation by divine word rather than actions, from piety rather than sexuality. As such, she would
have been a powerful image to the Elect or clerical members of Manichaean congregations, men
and women for whom the third religious seal and one of the five religious commandments
complete abstinence from sex, marriage, and procreationwas prescribed as a prerequisite for
salvation. Influence of the emerging veneration of Mary the Mother of Jesus in Christianity
should not be overlooked when assessing the rise of the Manichaean Mother of Life as an ideal,
even stereotypical, model each female votary was supposed to emulate to achieve salvation of her
spirit from her material body.

In stark contrast to the Mother of Life stood the demonic female spirit Az or Concupiscence. Az
was feared as the diabolic feminine manifestation of insatiable lust and avarice. Az was coupled
with the Evil Spirit and other ghouls in phrases such as "Concupiscence, the Evil Spirit, the
demons, witches, demons of wrath, giants, and archfiends" (Manichaean Middle Persian or
Parthian Text 487 b I). This demoness was deemed, by Manichaean doctrine, to have produced
male and female human bodies as well as sexual intercourse to serve as material prisons for the
spirit or light of godtraps that were multiplied across the world and through time through sex
and childbirth. She had "to be cast off" by members of both strata of the Manichaean community;
Hearers, or laypersons; and Elect, or clerics, for their spirits to escape the material confines of
their bodies and return to the realm of light (M 505a). At the end of time Manichaeans hoped Az
would be defeated and bound with her paramour Ahriman in an eternal prison. Devotees were
told that Az was assisted in her quest to enslave the divine spirit present within human bodies by
desire, hunger, thirst, pain, disease, famine, and torment, much like her Zoroastrian demonic
counterpart. Az's direct evil connection to women was established by scriptural passages in which
it was claimed that Concupiscence modeled the first mortal woman's physical form as a parody
on the spiritual image of a benevolent female divinity called Kanag Roshn, or Maiden of Light.
Menstruation, because it was associated with the reproductive cycle, was said to have been
generated by Az in women as a form of "filth of the female demons" specifically for polluting
women and transmitting impurity to men so that they would not be ritually pure for religious
duties (Sogdian Text 9 R II).

MAJOR CONSEQUENCES OF GENDER AND

SEXUALITY ON COMMUNAL PRACTICES
All members of Manichaean communities were enjoined "to fight lust and evil" by focusing on
the spiritual realm rather than the corporeal one (M 49 II). Manichaean communities followed a
sectarian social order composed of Hearers, or auditors whose ranks included all individuals who
performed secular occupations, and Elect, or clergy whose ranks included elders, bishops, and
religious teachers. Men and women could belong to both segments and all ranks within each
community.

Manichaeans, owing to the dark corporeality ascribed to Ahriman and the lewd insatiability
ascribed to Az, viewed procreation as a means whereby the spirit from god was entrapped in each
human's body and polluted through physical impurities. Therefore, they despised the human body
as "a prison" (S 9 R ii 30). Manichaean theologians seeking to ensure every portion of divine
spirit or light could be saved were compelled to conclude, despite the close connect they
perceived between Az and women through sexuality and menstruation, that the spirit trapped
within female bodies could be salvaged when women cast off their material desires or affiliation
with Az, became members of the Elect, and sought salvation beyond matter and darkness. Hymn
cycles often were cast in the style of praise uttered by the souls of nuns gazing down upon the
corpses and mortal desires they had abandoned at death. So, although still only Hearers, women
were instructed to serve the community and restrain their sexual desire and greedthereby
ensuring that they presented no danger and temptation through thoughts, words, deeds, and
physical form to the male members of the Elect. Such circumspect behavior, it was thought,
would result in those women or "sisters perfecting themselves with fulfillment" so that they could
become "holy virgins" as the female Elect or clerics were called (M 36).

Given such negative perceptions of the feminine as a major source of lust and greed, it is
hardly surprising that all members of the Elect, both men and women, were expected to
remain chaste. Elect individuals were expected to practice celibacy, monasticism, and
proselytism because they had "abjured the whole world," including secular careers and pleasures
(M 8251 I). The residences of those clerics were monasteries, their family included other bearers
of faith, or Dendaran, and each individual cleric depended on "a hearer who brings alms" (M
221). Lay persons or hearers, called Niyoshagan, could live within family units but were
encouraged to disavow that social arrangement in favor of an austere life focusing on the spirit.
Hearers were urged to renounce sexual intercourse if at all possible so as to separate themselves
from sin. However, the clergy recognized that sexuality and women were required for the bearing
of children so souls yet in metempsychosis could be redeemed. Hence, sexual intercourse was
permitted among the laity or Hearers, who could marry and have children. Yet, as a token of faith,
they too were required to abstain from all material acts, including sex, for 1 day each week.

Manichaean women were expected to be particularly cautious not to spread ritual pollution to the
community while menstruating nor to sexually arouse men by their appearances and actions. The
best women were said to be "holy virgin sisters," or elect women (M 801). The worst women, like
their male auditor counterparts, were those who could not obey the injunction to "keep away from
lewdness and fornication" (M 49 I). Consequently, physical beauty was not accorded praise by
Manichaeans, whereas temperate behavior was extolled. Ultimately, the purpose of life was
supposed to center around the need to liberatethrough abstinence, celibacy, purification, and
attaining of mystical religious knowledge or gnosisthe spirit or light trapped by the evil spirit,
Ahriman, within the darkness of matter and passed through cycles of human birth by the
demoness Az.
VAZNE KNJIGE----BIBLIOGRAPHY

Asmussen, Jes P. 1975. Manichaean Literature. Delmar, NY: Scholars'

Facsimiles and Reprints.

BeDuhn, Jason D. 2000. The Manichaean Body: In Discipline and

Ritual. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Choksy, Jamsheed K. 2001. "Dualism of the Feminine in Manichaeism:

The Mother of Life and the Demoness of Concupiscence" In Third
International Congress Proceedings. Bombay: K. R. Cama Oriental
Institute.

Sims-Williams, Nicholas. 1985 "The Manichaean Commandments: A

Survey of the Sources." In Acta Iranica, vol 25: Papers in Honor of
Professor Mary Boyce, ed. A. D. H. Bivar and J. R. Hinnels. Leiden, the
Netherlands: E. J. Brill.