The
project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research
Board.
The
three volume dictionary is being compiled by Professor Nicholas
Sims-Williams of SOAS, Dr. Gunner Mikkelsen and a number
of other scholars. The first volume entitled “Texts from
the Roman Empire” was published in early 1999, and the
remaining volumes are now in course of preparation,
covering the texts from Iraq, Iran, Central Asia and
China.
The
aim of the Dictionary of Manichaean Texts is to provide a
linguistic key to the complete corpus of materials. It
will be presented in the form of a series of glossaries,
each covering one language, and a consolidated index,
enabling to locate any name, term or concept, in whatever
language it occurs.
The
Manichaean religion was founded in the third century by
Mani, a Persian from Babylon province, and fuses many
different elements; it once extended through northern Iranian
provinces of Central Asia from the Mediterranean to
southern China. Its sources are found in texts in Parthian
and Sasanian Pahlavi (Middle-Persian), New Persian,
Chinese, Latin, Coptic, Greek, Syriac, Sogdian, Bactrian,
Tocharian and Turkish.
Mani
proclaimed himself the last prophet in a succession that
included prophet Zoroaster, Buddha, and Jesus, whose
partial revelations were, he taught, contained and
consummated in his own doctrines. Besides Zoroastrianism
and Christianity, Manichaeism reflects the strong
influence of Gnosticism.
