Prolegomena to a History of Islamicate Manichaeism (Comparative Islamic Studies) - Softcover

John C. Reeves

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1781790388 ISBN 13: 9781781790380

Publisher: Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2013

Synopsis

Prolegomena to a History of Islamicate Manichaeism provides an annotated anthology of primary sources highlighting Manichaeism, a dualist religion emerging in Mesopotamia in the third century and which spread rapidly throughout the Roman and Sasanian empires until it was violently suppressed by both polities. It nevertheless continued to flourish - largely clandestinely - in the Near East, Central Asia, and China until it finally disappeared at the beginning of the seventeenth century. This book translates and assesses the importance of a number of Arabic, Persian, Syriac, and even Hebrew language testimonies for a better understanding of the cultural importance of what many scholars characterize as the first 'world religion'.

About this title

About the Author

John C. Reeves, Blumenthal Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, specializes in the study of the history of religions of the Near East in late antiquity and the medieval era. He is the author of Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony (HUC Press, 1992), Heralds of That Good Realm (Brill, 1996), and Trajectories in Near Eastern Apocalyptic (Society of Biblical Literature, 2005); editor of Tracing the Threads (Scholars Press, 1994) and Bible and Qur'an (Society of Biblical Literature, 2003); and has published numerous articles exploring aspects of the literary and historical relationships among the varieties of indigenous, Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian, Gnostic and Muslim communities.

Edition details

• Publisher: Equinox Publishing Ltd
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1781790388
• ISBN 13: 9781781790380
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352