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Pourdavoud Center Workshop: Current Trends in Manichaeism Studies Day 1
Mar 1, 2021 @ 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
The origin of the Manichaean religion stands at the intersection of multiple cultural worlds: Iranian, Semitic, & Greco-Roman. Its literary and artistic remains enrich our understanding of those cultures and the exchange that went on among them in late antiquity. The scholars assembled for this workshop offer the latest insights obtained from the painstaking work of extracting information from the fragmentary and effaced relics of this religion with the aid of new research technologies and approaches. They report on work in progress related specifically to conditions and developments in 3rd century CE Iran in which Mani and Manichaeism served as a cultural catalyst, explaining how these new insights are reshaping our understanding of both the religion and the world in which it emerged.
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Paul Dilley, Associate Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Religions at the University of Iowa
Paul Dilley, Associate Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Religions at the University of IowaAlso Schrieb Zarathustra? New Manichaean Sources for the “Law of Zarades” & His Otherworldly Journeys
The second volume of the Kephalaia, a Coptic papyrus manuscript held at the Chester Beatty library, is a major source for the history of early Manichaeism in its Iranian context. In this talk, I will give an overview of the multispectral imaging of the codex, reporting on the latest results which have significantly improved its legibility. I will then discuss the various references to and quotations of the so-called “Law of Zarades,” comparing them to both Iranian and Greco-Roman sources, and assess their rhetorical significance in the Kephalaia as well as their importance for understanding the Sasanian background of third-century Manichaeism. Finally, I will contextualize the Kephalaia passage on the journey to heaven and hell by Zarades and other apostles of light, connecting it to rival claims of inspired vision by Mani and Kartir.
About Paul Dilley
Paul Dilley is Associate Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Religions at the University of Iowa, Departments of Religious Studies and Classics. He specializes in Late Antique Christianity, including Manichaeism, with particular expertise in Egypt, Greek and Coptic philology, and the digital humanities. His first monograph, Monasteries and the Care of Souls in Late Antiquity: Cognition and Discipline, was published by Cambridge in 2017 and will soon appear in a softcover edition and a Romanian translation.
Zsuzsanna Gulácsi, Professor of Art History at Northern Arizona University
Zsuzsanna Gulácsi, Professor of Art History at Northern Arizona UniversityThe Footprint of Mani’s Book of Pictures in Late Antique Sources: An Assessment of Social & Geographical Data about Teaching with Images During the 3rd and 4th Centuries
Unlike other religions, Manichaeism had canonical images, not just canonical texts. Primary and secondary textual sources document that the Manichaean canon included a solely pictorial volume—a picture book—that was authored by Mani, circulated in multiple copies already during Mani’s life, and issued in many later editions. From late antiquity, 13 passages mention the Book of Pictures (Copt. Hikōn, Syr. Yuqnā, Parth. Ārdhang, MPers. Nigār). They convey that Mani commissioned its images to be painted as visual aids for teaching. The goal of this study is to assess who had access to this pictorial volume of the canon and where it was used during the first 120 years of Manichaean history. Mapping this data reveals the geographic footprint of teaching with images among the followers of Mani.
About Zsuzsanna Gulácsi
Gulácsi is professor of art history (Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff ), specializing in the contextualized study of pan-Asiatic religious art. A Guggenheim Fellow (2016) and a Getty Residential Scholar (2019), she is the author of Mani’s Pictures: The Didactic Images of the Manichaeans from Sasanian Mesopotamia to Uygur Central Asia and Tang-Ming China (Brill, 2015); Mediaeval Manichaean Book Art: A Codicological Study of Iranian and Turkic Illuminated Book Fragments (Brill, 2005), Manichaean Art in Berlin Collections (Brepols, 2001), and many articles on Manichaean, Eastern Christian, and Zoroastrian art.