Manichaeism

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Manichaeism originated in 3rd Century Babylon (a province of Persia at the time), and reached, over the span of the next ten centuries, from North Africa in the west, to China in the East. The original texts of Manichaeism were composed in Syriac-Aramaic. As they spread to the east, the writings of the religion passed through Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, and ultimately Uyghur Turkish and Chinese translations. As they spread to the west, they were translated into Greek, Coptic, and Latin. As Manichaeism passed through time, location, and language, it also adapted new religious deities from the surrounding religions into the Manichaean scriptures. Thus, as the original Aramaic texts moved eastward and were translated into Iranian languages, the names of the Manichaean deities (or angels) were often transformed into the names of Zoroastrian yazatas. Thus Abbā dəRabbūṯ�?("The Father of Greatness" - the highest Manichaean deity of Light), in Middle Persian texts might either be translated literally as pīd ī wuzurgīh, or substituted for by the name of the deity Zurwān. Likewise, the Manichaean primal figure Nāšā Qaḏmāyā "The Original Man" was rendered "Ohrmazd Bay", after the Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda. This development continued to Manichaeism's ultimate meeting with Chinese Buddhism, where, for example, the original Aramaic "karia" (the "call" from the world of Light to those seeking rescue from the world of Darkness), becomes identified in the Chinese scriptures with Guan Yin (觀�? literally, "hearing sounds [of the world]", the Bodhisattva of Compassion in Chinese Buddhism).

Because Manichaeism is a faith that teaches dualism, in modern English the word "manichaean" has come to mean dualistic, presenting or viewing things in a "black and white" fashion.