Ionuţ Daniel Băncilă
Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany
Some Aspects of Manichaeism as Religion of Beauty
Abstract: The study investigates the aspects of Beauty in Manichaean teachings, following certain intuitions by Henry Corbin and Ilya Gershevitch. The Living Soul imprisoned in this material word, the Manichaean dissemination of the Zoroastrian figure of the Virgin of the Good Deeds, as well as the descriptions of the otherworldly ”Gardens of Light” offer as many instances and occasions for the Manichaeans to praise Beauty, although always as situated above and out of this world.
Keywords: Manichaeism; Beauty; Living Soul; Daēnā; Realm of Light.
A lot has been said about Manichaeism as bearing on a pessimistic Worldview, as a so-called “Gnostic Religion”, a vision that might have had its influence on the nowadays meaning of the word itself[1]. Rather provocative in a study published in Cahiers de l’Herne, Henry Corbin (1903-1978) has challenged this view, speaking on Manichaeism as a “Religion of Beauty”. Indeed, one may ask what was the Manichaean approach to the World and how did they understood the situation of one’s being in the world? Wouldn’t our preconception on the “Gnostic”-shaped Manichaeism darken a proper understanding of the Manichaean believers mere (religious) way of life? Could a Manichaean have an eye for Beauty at all?
The following analysis is trying to adduce some evidence on how could a Manichaean have felt about (created and uncreated) Beauty. Historical reference on the huge area where Manichaeism was religiously disseminated, as well as the complicated problems of the origins of the Manichaeism (even after the discovery of the Greek Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis) were left outside the concern of this paper.
Citing Abū Sakūr Sālimi’s (11th century) description of the Manicheans still living in the regions of China, Khotan and Tibet with their profound respect for all things that may be called beautiful, as epiphanies of the Divine Light, Henry Corbin continues:
“La Beauté est la lumière qui transfigure les êtres et les choses, sans s’y incorporer ni s’y incarner; elle est en eux á la façon de l’image irradiante, miroir qui est le lieu de son apparition. C’est pourquoi l’adoration de la Beauté est celle de la Lumière manifestée à travers le voile de chair périssable, sans être jamais un attribut inhérent à la matière ni une qualification de la chair ou de la matière. La Beauté est d’essence spirituelle; le phénomène de la Beauté est une apparition suprasensible”[2].
The Manichaean drama of Light is thus the drama of the Divine Beauty and of the Divine itself: following a special pattern (Ugo Bianchi’s so-called “principle of the homology of Light”[3]) which differs from the devolutionist scheme used in the Gnostic writings, the Manichaean “Prologue in Heavens” while starting from clearly defined “dualistic” premises develops the stages of a tightened combat to win back the divine essence which is entrapped in the matter in under the form of Light Particles. As expressed by Henri-Charles Puech, “partout et toujours il s’agira de la même substance lumineuse à sauver et se sauvant elle-même, de Dieu tout ensemble Sauveur et Sauvé”[4]. The best way to render the role and the position of the Cosmos in the Manichaean system would thus be through the image of a gigantic “alchemical apparatus” in which the “alchemical fusion and distillation processes”[5] activates the soteriological power hidden in the act of world-creation, itself the very “trick” of the Divine Light. This aspect of the Cosmology would account for the deep sense of the material existence in the common life of the Manichaean believer as well as his alleged meaning of Beauty.
But before acquiring the eschatological fulfillment of this cosmic work, the sad reality of the Divine Light-Beauty still trapped in the world is left: the Living Self. To name this reality Manichaeans used the symbol of the Jesus Passion, himself a still central concept in the whole Manichaean theological system. The designation Jesus patibillis appears most of the time in Christian polemic texts and it is used to express the suffering of the Divine Light-Beauty “crucified in the world”[6]. This suffering takes many forms, as seen in a Middle-Persian Manichaean text, edited by W. Sundermann[7], remindes one of some older Zoroastrian concepts. Although recognized as “noble”, the Living Self is still “bounded”, “enslaved” and “poor”[8]. The Meal Rituals performed by the Manichaean Electi were focused on releasing the Particles of Light from the material creation. Thus, the whole (religious) existence and ethos came to develop this idea.
The basic concept of the Manichaean ethos was that of “mixture” (gumēzišn, gumēzagih, for the Middle-Iranian Manichaean) as the second state of the whole history of Man, Light and Divine Substance itself, this “mixture” motivating the daily spiritual struggle of every Manichaean believer as depicted through the formulas for the ritual Confession of Sins: “the Manichaean life was a dynamic process of noticing and identifying aspects of the complex, mixed self as part of one nature or the other (i. e. as part of the Light or Darkness). Knowledge of the self is derived from moral and ritual practice, and learned in the process of sin and repentance”[9]. This striving to spiritual fight and attention gives us some hints on the Manichaean Spirituality, which may have been the reason why the young truth-seeker Augustine have joined the sect[10].
Beauty gave the proper name not only to the Light-Particles scattered in the material world, but also to the very core of the Manichaean religious and ritual Spirituality: the alms-gifts, for the Ritual Meal “considered as an essential part of their salvational practice”[11]. At least a Bactrian designation of this ritual (the phrase ’wdyh ’lwg nyśt qyrd w(ß), as found by I. Gershevitch) gives us a clue “about the overriding role played by Beauty, with capital B, in the redemption of Man and indeed the World”[12]. Here the hapax legomenon w(ß) is the Middle Bactrian rendering of Old-Persian vafuś (from the Sanskrit vapuş) which had the meaning “beautiful shape”[13]. Moreover, there was suggested that the term ruwānagān, used to denote the Manichaean Food Ritual, might have had a broader meaning, including “other acts of piety … although the extant quotations do not explicitly refer to them”[14]. This “soul-work” (ruwānagān) was as “soul-meal” (üzüt ašï) translated in the Manichaean Uighur text TM 276 (v. 76) edited by Annemarie von Gabain and Willi Bang in 1929[15].
“Acting for your own soul” (and therefore for the Living Soul of the World[16]), was also understood as acting for the beauty of one’s spiritual self. The Manichaean conception(s) of the soul is still very complicate. In a Sogdian Turfan Fragment edited and translated by Werner Sundermann we can find the Beauty as designation of the fourth division of one’s spiritual self (ruvān), a structure paralleled by the body’s constitution:
“der Seele ist vergleichbar dem Leib, der in fünf Glieder geteilt ist, einem Kopf, zwei Arme, und zwei Füße. Auch die Seele ist ganz ebenso. Als das erste Gleid der Seele wird das Leben angesehen, als das zweite Gleid wird die Kraft angesehen, als das dritte Gleid wird das Licht angesehen, als das vierte Gleid wird die Schönheit angesehen, als das fünfte Gleid wird der Wohlgeruch angesehen ”[17].
Here, as Philippe Gignoux noticed, the five parts of the Soul are just a spiritual reflection of the five human senses[18]. The same list appears as the designation of another part of the Manichaean spiritual self, the gyān, in a Middle-Persian text, which may hint toward a certain lack of distinction between the two terms[19], with the Middle-Persian renderings paralleling those in Sogdian.
Therefore, the Beauty for the Manichaean believer was not to be located in the material life but only in its spiritual counterpart and in the good and pious action. This is clearly stated in another Middle-Iranian Text, edited and translated by Henning:
“denn in diesem Geburt-Tod[20] gibt es ja nichts Schönes außer allein den Verdienst und den frommen Taten, die die wissenden Menschen tun”[21] .
The good things done during one’s existence, these are the true Beauty for the Manichaean. In a very fragmented Sogdian text we read about the experience one has, when dying: the encounter with 80[22] “girl angels” leading the way to Paradise. Together with these he will see his own acts in the shape of a beautiful virgin/girl:
“and his own action, as a wondrous, divine princess, a virgin, will come before his face, immortal … on her head a flowery …, she herself will set him on his way to Paradise …”[23]
This would be “the clearest expression of the Manichean teaching of the Virgin of the Good Deeds”[24], an idea borrowed from the Zoroastrianism[25] and eventually used by Mani himself in its much more literal meaning, as seen in the partially extant “Book of Giants”[26]. The Coptic-speaking Manicheans of Egypt used this image too. However, in the Coptic documents the Maiden of Light (i. e. the third member of the Manichaean Trinity[27]), the Light Form, the Beings that are leading the soul in Paradise and the Virgin of the Good Deeds seem to have contaminated each other, although there is not a definite distinction between the last three figures[28]. Curiously enough, the an-Nadim Arabic account on the Manichaean beliefs[29] seems to be very close to the Coptic sources[30]. In the Uighur texts too there can be similar images found[31]. Thus, the Manichaean conception regarding the soul’s “last journey” must have much more in common with the Iranian themes than it had been admitted before[32].
The Pahlavi texts on the Daēnā (i. e. the Virgin of the Good Deeds) offer us a glimpse on what the Beauty ideal in the Iranian world was: “brilliant, with superior body, white arms, strong, plump, that is young and tall, with prominent breast, delicate skin, noble that is generous, with royal lineage, that is she was descendent from gods, her body so beautiful and the most lovable of all creatures, her appearance most fitting”[33]. Further Persian literature of the Islamic period uses the same Daēnā image to describe the most beautiful girl’s appearance. Al-Tha’ālibī accounts:
“the best is that girl in the age between childhood and adulthood, not too big, not too small, not too thin, not too fat, well-built, with a beautiful face, beautiful in all aspects, with an even forehead, with arched brows, almond-shaped eyes, well-proportioned nose. Her lips thin and red like rubies, her mouth small and her teeth like pearls, with a gracious smile, rounded chin, a round and elegant neck, rosy cheeks, silken skin, jet black hair, breasts round like apples, wasp-waisted, with a well-formed belly, a navel formed as an ointment jar, large buttocks, small feet, well scented, of gentle voice, of few words, shy”[34].
The Daēnā motif found its way in the explicitly eschatological theme of the Qur’anic houris of the Paradise[35] and in some accounts of the Muhammad’s celestial ascension[36]. It seems that the Sufi mystic al-Hallaj, when asked were his good mood was coming from, although chained and waiting for his death, was reffering to the same Daēnā-Beauty, as his answer was: „this is the coquettery of Beauty, which draws its elect to meet it“[37]. It was also said that Oscar Wilde himself must have reworked the same pattern in one of his greatest novel[38].
The Manichaean soul cannot feed its thirst for Beauty in the material world, as this lesser-degree “beauty“ has only a perishable form, as depicted in a poetic Parthian text attributed to the Manichaean missionary Mār Ammō:
„Come yet nearer and not be fond of
this beauty that perishes in all (its) varieties
And it falls and melts as snow in the sunshine
And there is no abiding for any fair form
And it withers and fades as a borken rose
Has wist the sun, whose grace is destroyed“[39].
The true Beauty can be found only in the Realm of Light, Light which is itself Beauty (as stated early in the Avestan sources[40]). As abiding in the Light-Realm, all the Prophets of the True Religion (i. e. Manichaeism) have “a beautiful form, like the bright Sun God“[41]. Mani’s “beautiful appearance, wich is insatiable of admiring“ is also praised in an Uighur poem[42]. A Middle-Iranian text accounts the miraculos conversion of a King (Mihršāh, probably the brother of Shapur) after Mani gave him a short insight of the Gardens of Light:
“further a brother of Shapur, the King of Kings, became the lord of Mešun, and his name was Mihršāh. And on the religion of the apostle he was a fierce enemy. He had arranged a garden, good, fine and very spacious, to which none is equal […] Then to the Apostle he said: ’In the Paradise, which you praise, is there such a garden as this garden of mine?’ Then the Apostle knew (understood) this unbelieving thought. Then by (his) miraculous power [pd wrc in Ort’stranscribed text] he showed the Paradise of Light with all Gods, Dieties and the immortal Spirit of Life and garden(s) of every kind and other fine aspects which there are. Then he fell unconscious for (up to) three hours. And what he saw in (his) heart the memory has kept. Then, the Apostle put (his) hand on (his) head. He recovered consciousness. When he had risen, he fell at the feet of the Apostle, he seized (his) right hand […]“[43].
That this text resembles a classical “out of this world“ (i. e. shamanistic) experience was rightly noticed, probably pointing to the “shamanistic“ conflict between the chief Zoroastrian priest Kartīr and Mani[44], but for us what matters is the deep familiarity of Mani with the Realm of Light he preached. A fragment of the Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis seems to bring the same type of experience this time mediated by the Mani’s Spiritual Double (syzygos):
“da also hob mich der allerseligste und strahlende (Syzygos) in die Luft und brachte mich zu unsäglichen Orten, die man in den bewohnten Orten nicht kennt, in denen wir leben. Er zeigte mir alles was es dort gibt. Ich sah überhohe Berge und schöne Gärten [?] in der Nachbarschaft höchst liebliecher Flüsse und süßer Gewäser [?] … welche fremd und denen ungleich sind, die es hier in diesen Länder gibt“[45].
The Light-landscapes[46] very much cognate to the Sufi xwarenah-landscapes described by Henry Corbin[47] and not foreign to the ealy Zoroastrian other-wordly religious cartography[48] testifies for the importance of (such) pictures for the Manichaean Mind (νούς) and Thought[49] and maybe for Mani’s fame as artist painter.
The above proved Manichaean concern with the Beauty in this world or in the world to come, makes us comprehend Gershevitch’s challenging idea that Mani’s Dualism was a mere optical based Dualism[50], centered thus on the oposition of Light to Drakeness, of Ugliness to Beauty. Opticaly too, in the image of the Daēna, Manichaean Estetics is to be linked with the Ethics.
[1] On contemporary use of the term Manichaeism in various spheres of speech-meanings see Wolf B. Oerter, “Zur Verwendung des Begriffs ‘Manichäer’ im heutigen deutschen Sprachgebrauch”, in Walter Beltz, Ute Pietruschka und Jürgen Tubach, Sprache und Geist. Peter Nagel zum 65. Geburtstag (Hallesche Beitrage zur Orientwissenschaft 35), Halle, 2003, p. 167-184. The modern turn of the term’s use is much indebted to the French ecyclopaedist Pierre Bayle, as showed by Michael Stausberg, “Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) und die Erfindung des europäiachen Neomanichäismus”, in R. E. Emmerick, W. Sundermann und P. Zieme, Studia Manichaica IV. Internationaler Kongreß zum Manichäismus, Berlin 14-18 Juli, 1997 (Berichte und Abhandlungen der Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sonderband 4), Berlin, 2000, p. 582-590. See also, Michael Stausberg, Faszionaion Zarathustra. Zoroaster und die europäische Religionsgeschichte der frühen Neuzeit, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin – New York, 1998.
[2] Henry Corbin, “Manichéisme et religion de la Beauté”, in Les Cahiers de l’Herne. Henry Corbin, Editions de l’Herne, Paris, s. d., p. 170
[3] Short summarized as follows: “le Manichéisme conçoit une lumière compacte, divisible par fraction … mais non graduée au plan de la dignité ontologique” by Ugo Bianchi, “Sur la théologie et l’anthropologie de Mani”, in Per Bilde, Helge Kjaer Nielsen and Jørgen Podemann Sørensen, Apocryphon Severini, presented to Søren Giversen, Aarhus University Press, 1993, p. 26
[4] Henri-Charles Puech, Le Manichéisme: son fondateur, sa doctrine (Musée Guimet, Bibliothèque de Diffusion, tome 56), Civilisations de Sud, Paris, 1949, p. 73
[5] Gernot Windfur phrasing, in Paul Allan Mirecki, “The first two years of the SBL Consultation on Manichaeism, 1988-1989”, in Manichaean Studies Newsletter 1990/1, p. 9. I am grateful to Professor Kurt Rudolph (Marburg), who kindly facilitated me the access to the rare MSN series.
[6] “Not only the language of crucifixion, but the event itself, was universalized to become a constant fact through all the space and time of mixture”, Iain Gardner, “The Manichaean Account of Jesus and the Passion of the Living Soul”, in A. van Tongerloo and Søren Giversen (eds.), Manichaica selecta Studies presented to Professor Julien Ries on the occasion of his seventieth birthday (Manichaean Studies 1), Louvanii, 1991, p. 80
[7] Werner Sundermann, “Die vierzehn Wunden der Lebendigen Seele”, Altorientalische Forschungen 12 (1985), p. 288-295
[8] Iris Colditz, “Aspects of the Social Terminology in the Middle Persian and Parthian Manichaean Texts from Turfan”, in Luigi Cirillo, Alois van Tongerloo (a cura di), Atti del terzo Congresso Internazionale di studi ‘Manicheismo e Oriente Cristiano Antico’, Arcavacata di Rede – Amantea, 31 agosto – 5 settembre 1993, (Manichaean Studies 3), Brepols, Louvain-Napoli, 1997, p. 34
[9] Jason David BeDuhn, “The Near Eastern Connections of Manichaean Confessionary Practice”, in ARAM 16 (2004), p. 176
[10] Jean de Menasce, “Augustin manichéen”, in Freundesgabe für Ernst Robert Curtius, Franke Verlag, Bern, 1956, p. 79-93, reprinted in Études iraniennes, Paris, 1985, p. 19-34; E. Feldmann, “Christus-Frömmigkeit der Maniß Jünger. Der suchende Student Augustinus in ihrem Netz?”, in E. Dassmann und K. S. Frank (Hrsg.), Pietas. Festschrift für Bernhard Kötting (Jarbuch für Antike und Christentum, Supplement Series 8), Münster, 1980, p. 198-216.
[11] Jason David BeDuhn, “Eucharist or Yasna? Antecedents of Manichaean Food Ritual”, Studia Manichaica IV, p. 15
[12] Ilya Gershevitch, “The Bactrian Fragment in Manichaean Script”, in J. Harmatta (ed.), From Hecataeus to al-Huwārizmī. Bactrian, Pahlavi, Sogdian, Persian, Sanskrit, Syriac, Arabic, Chinese, Greek and Latin Sources for the History of Pre-Islamic Central Asia, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1984, p. 279
[13] Ilya Gershevitch, “Beauty as the Living Soul in Iranian Manichaeism”, in From Hecataeus to al-Huwārizmī, p. 283
[14] Shaul Shaked, “’For the sake of the soul’: a Zoroastrian idea in transmission into Islam”, in Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 13 (1990), p. 22, reprinted in S. Shaked, From Zoroastrian Iran to Islam. Studies in Religious History and Intercultural Contacts, Variorum, Norfolk, 1995
[15] W. Band und A. von Gabain, “Türkische Turfan Texte II”, Sitzungsberichte der Kgl. Preußischen Akademie der Wissesnschaften (Phil.-hist. Kl.), 1929, p. 418 (text), 419 (translation), 412 (comment)
[16] “The history of the Living Soul is really that of each individual”, I. Gardner, “The Manichaean Account of Jesus and the Passion of the Living Soul”, p. 76
[17] Werner Sundermann, Mitteliranische manichäische Texte kirchengeschichtlichen Inhalts (Berliner Turfantexte 11), Akademie Verlag, Berlin, 1981, p. 37-38
[18] Philippe Gignoux, “Sur le composé humain du Manichéisme à l’Ismaélisme”, in Études irano-aryennes offertes à Gilbert Lazard (Studia Iranica, Cahier 7), Paris, 1989, p. 140
[20] The Parthian and Middle-Persian term z’dmwrd is a genuine translation of the Sanskrit meaning of samsara (“the round of rebirths”) and means literally “life-death” denoting thus the human existence on the Earth. Alois van Tongerloo, “Buddhist Indian Terminology in the Manichaean Uighur and Middle-Iranian Texts”, in Wojciech Skalmowski and A. van Tongerloo (eds.), Middle Iranian Studies. Proceedings of the International Symposium organized by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven from the17th to the 20th May 1982 (Orientalia Louvanensia Analecta 16), Uitgeverij Peeters, Leuven, 1984, p. 246
[21] F. C. Andreas und W. Henning, “Mitteliranische Manichaica aus Chinesisch-Turkestan III“, in Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosopisch-historische Klasse 27 (1934), p. 856
[22] The number of the “girls” has been recently read as 84,000, with the help of Buddhist symbolic material; see Christiane Reck, “84 000 Mädchen in einem manichäischen Text aus Zentralasien?”, in Petra Kieffer-Pülz and Jens-Uwe Hartmann (eds.), Bauddhavidyāsudhākarah. Studies in Honour of Heinz Bechert on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday (Indica et Tibetica 30), Swisstal-Olendorf, 1997, p. 543-550
[23] W. B. Henning, “Sogdian Tales”, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 11 (1945), 3, p. 477
[24] Werner Sundermann, “Die Jungfrau der guten Taten”, in Recurrent Patterns in Iranian Religions: from Mazdaism to Sufism. Proceedings of the Round Table held in Bamberg, 30th September – 4th October 1991 (Studia Iranica, Cahier 11), Paris, 1992, p. 166
[25] Firouz-Thomas Lankarany, Daēnā im Avesta. Eine semantische Untersuchung (Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik, Monographie 10), Verlag für orientalische Fachpublikationen, Reinbeck, 1985
[26] “the Hearer who gives alms (to the Elect), is like unto a poor man that presents his daughter to the king “: W. B. Henning, “The Book of Giants”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 11 (1943), 1, p. 63
[27] Described by Alois van Tongerloo, “Manichaean Female Divinities”, Atti del terzo Congresso Internazionale di studi ‘Manicheismo e Oriente Cristiano Antico’, p. 361-374
[28] Against the identification of the Maiden of Light with the Iranian Daēnā (thus against another Religionsgeschichtliche Schule assumption), see Carsten Colpe, “Daēnā, Lichtjungfrau, Zweite Gestalt. Verbindungen und Unterschiede zwischen zarathustrischer und manichäischer Selbst-Anschauung”, in R. van den Broek and M. J. Vermaseren (eds.), Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religions presented to Gilles Quispel on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday (Études preliminaries aux religions orientales dans l’Empire Romain 91), E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1981, p. 58-76. The Maiden of Light as Diety and the Maiden of Light as part/image of the (Living) Soul, must be also very well distinguished in the Coptic texts, as stated by Paul van Lindt, The Names of Manichaean Mythological Figures. A Comparative Study on Terminology in the Coptic Sources (Studies in Oriental Religions 26), Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1992, p. 175
[29] Gustav Flügel, Mani, seine Lehre und seine Schriften, Leipzig, 1862 (reprinted Osnabrück, 1969), p. 100-101
[30] Christiane Reck, “Die Beschreibung der Daēnā in einem soghdischen manichäischen Text”, in Carlo G. Cereti, Mauro Magi and Elio Provasi (eds.), Religious themes and texts of pre-Islamic Iran and Central Asia. Studies in honor of Professor Gherardo Gnoli on the occasion of his 65th birthday (Beiträge zur Iranistik 24), Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2003, p. 328
[31] Hans-Joachim Klimkeit, “Der Licht-NOΥΣ im Korpus der uigurischen Manichaica”, in A. van Tongerloo (ed.), The Manichaean NOΥΣ. Proceedings of the International Symposium organized in Louvain from 31 July to 3 August 1991 (Manichaean Studies 2), Louvanii, 1995, p. 172-173
[32] “Die Seeleneschatologie bleibt im Rahmen der jüdisch-christlichen apokalyptischen Tradition”: Eugenia Smagina, “Manichäische Eschatologie”, in Holger Preißler und Hubert Seiwert (Hrsg.), Gnosisforschung und Religionsgeschichte. Festschrift für Kurt Rudolph zum 65. Geburtstag, Diagonal Verlag, Marburg, 1994, p. 297
[33] Translated by A. Vahman, “A Beautiful Girl”, in Papers in Honor of Professor Mary Boyce II, (Acta Iranica 25), Leiden, 1985, p. 666 with further examples. Another Pahlavi work gives almost the same description: Davoud Monchi-Zadeh, “Xusrōv i kavātān ut rētak. Pahlavi text, transcription and translation”, in Monumentum Georg Morgenstierne II (Acta Iranica 22), E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1982, p. 82
[35] Sura XXXVIII, 52; LVI, 37(36); LXXVIII, 33; LVI, 23(24); W. Sundermann, “Die Jungfrau der guten Taten”, p. 170.
[37] Cyril Glassé, “Crypto-Manichaeism in the ‘Abbasid Empire”, Atti del terzo Congresso Internazionale di studi ‘Manicheismo e Oriente Cristiano Antico’ , p. 105
[38] “I cannot help it thinking that Oscar Wilde must have drawn the inspiration for his Picture of Dorian Gray from the Zoroastrian story of the Daēnā”: I. Gershevitch, “Beauty as the Living Soul”, p. 284
[39] Mary Boyce, The Manichaean Hymn Cycles in Parthian (London Oriental studies 3), London, 1954, p. 156 (Parthian text), 157 (translation)
[41] A. van Tongerloo’s translation of the Uighur text edited by Albert von le Coq in 1912: Alois van Tongerloo, “An Odour of Sanctity”, in Apocryphon Severini, presented to Søren Giversen, p. 251
[43] Ort’s English translation of the text edited by F. W. K. Müller in 1904, in L. J. R. Ort, Mani. A religio-historical Description of his Personality (Dissertationes ad historiam religionum pertinentes 1), E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1967, p. 69
[44] James R. Russell, “Kartīr and Mānī: a shamanistic Model of their Conflict”, in Iranica Varia. Papers in Honor of Professor Eshan Yarshater, (Acta Iranica 30), E. J. Brill, Leiden , 1990, p. 180-193
[45] The text is edited and translated by Claudia Römer, “Manis Reise durch die Luft”, in Luigi Cirillo (a cura di), Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis. Atti del Secondo Simposio Internazionale (Cosenza 27-28 maggio 1988), (Studi e Ricerche 5), Marra Editore, Cosenza, 1990, p. 82-83 (text), 84 (german translation).
[46] For a useful comparison of the Middle Iranian, Coptic, Chinese and Arabic description of the Realm of Light, see the final additions of Badri Gharib’s study “New Light on Two Words in the Sogdian Version of the ‘Light Paradise or the Realm of Light’”, in Studia Manichaica IV, p. 266-267
[47] Henry Corbin, Terre céleste et corps de rérurection de l’Iran Mazdéen à l’Iran Shî’ite, (Collection La Barque du Soleiel), Bouchet/Chastel, 1960, p. 55-56
[48] For comparison see Gernot L. Windfuhr, “Where Guardian Spirits watch by Night and Evil Spirits fail: the Zoroastrian Prototypical Heaven”, in Carol L. Meyers and M. O’Connor (eds.), The Word of the Lord shall go forth. Essays in Honor of David Noel Freedman in Celebration of his Sixtieth Birthday (American Schools of Oriental Research, Special Volume Series 1), Eisenbrauns, Indiana, 1983, p. 625-645
[49] “Das Bild ist also schon mehr als Illustration, es ist schon selbst ein Weg der Erkenntnisvermittlung”, Hans-Joachim Klimket, Manichäische Kunst an der Seidenstraße. Alte unde neue Funde (Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Geisteswissenschaftliche Vortäge 338), Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen, 1996, p. 65