Manichaeans

Manichaeans are followers of Manichaeism, a religious movement founded by the Persian prophet Mani in the 3rd century CE in the Sasanian Empire. Mani presented himself as the final prophet in a line that includes Jesus, Zarathustra, and Buddha, proposing a universal doctrine and a distinctive corpus of scriptures.

Manichaeism teaches a dualistic cosmos in which two eternal powers—Light and Darkness—contend for control. The material world is the creation of Darkness and serves as a prison for trapped light. Salvation comes through gnosis, the knowledge of truth, enabling the light to be liberated. The soul originates in the world of light and can be restored to its heavenly home after death, sometimes through reincarnation or successive stages of purification.

Followers were organized into two orders: the Elect, who pursued strict asceticism and imparted doctrine, and the Hearers, who supported them and observed a milder code. Rites included initiations and baptism, as well as liturgical instruction. The movement produced a substantial body of scriptures in several languages and drew on elements from Christian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, and other traditions.

From its Sasanian base, Manichaeism spread along the Silk Road to the Roman world, Central Asia, and China, where it interacted with Nestorian Christianity and Buddhism. It experienced periods of imperial support and persistent persecution, and by the medieval era it had largely disappeared as a distinct faith. Surviving texts and fragments influenced later Gnostic and dualistic currents, and the tradition was widely discussed by Christian polemicists such as Augustine.