Manawiyya

The Manichaeans, followers of Mani ibn Fatik. Ibn al-Nadim says that he drew his doctrine from Magianism and Christianity. ²

In their view the principle of the world is two existences, one light and the other darkness, each separate from the other. The first great light is the god, king of the paradises of light, who has five limbs: forbearance, knowledge, reason, the unseen and discernment, and five further spiritual ones: love, faith, loyalty, manliness and wisdom. With him are two eternal things: air and earth. The other existence is darkness, whose limbs are five: vapour, fire, the wind of poison, poison and darkness. The luminous existence is adjacent to the dark one with no barrier between them. ²

Ibn al-Nadim mentions ten obligations for the listeners and three seals, the fasting of seven days each month, and belief in the four manifestations: God, His light, His power and His wisdom. Among the obligations are abandoning the worship of idols, lying, miserliness, killing, adultery and theft. Their prayers are four or seven, at midday, between midday and sunset, after sunset and at night. ³

The first of the Manichaean religions, apart from the Samaniyya, to enter the lands beyond the Oxus. When Khosrow killed Mani and his companions, they fled until they crossed the river of Balkh and entered the kingdom of the Khan, king of the Turks. They returned in the days of the Umayyads, and Khalid ibn Abd Allah al-Qasri took care of them, and their leadership was established in Babylon. ⁴

About five hundred men of them gathered in Samarqand. The ruler of Khurasan wanted to kill them, but the king of China wrote to him that there were many times more Muslims in his lands than there were people of his faith in his, and swore that if he killed one of them he would kill them and destroy the mosques. He held back from them and took the poll tax from them. ⁵

Ibn al-Nadim knew about three hundred of them in the City of Peace in the days of Mu'izz al-Dawla. In his time there were only five of them at the court. ⁶

He says that the Barmakids were among heretics, except Muhammad ibn Khalid, and that al-Mahdi killed his secretary Muhammad ibn Ubayd Allah after he confessed to heresy. Ibn al-Nadim read in the hand of the people of the doctrine that al-Ma'mun was one of them, and he denied it. ⁶