Manichaeism

Manichaeism is an extinct religion, a branch of the Judeo‐Christian tradition that had a presence in Asia and North Africa from the third to fourteenth centuries, with some traces surviving in China up to modern times. Its dualist understanding of the cosmos and human condition provided the rationale for a system of personal discipline and community ritual life, with two distinct levels of commitment structuring adherent expectations and duties. Previously known primarily from the polemical reports of other religions, Manichaeism now has much better documentation, due to the recovery of significant quantities of the religion's literature and art in the twentieth and twenty‐first centuries. This material permits the reconstruction of the religion's history and regional variation, stretching from Algeria and Tunisia, through Egypt, Iraq, and Iran, into Central Asia, and on to China.