Prolegomena to a History of Islamic Manichaeism

This book provides an anthology of sources highlighting Manichaeism, a gnostic religion which flourished largely clandestinely in the Near East, Central Asia, and China until the beginning of the seventeenth century. It translates and discusses the importance of a number of Arabic, Syriac, and Hebrew testimonies for a proper understanding of the cultural importance of what most scholars consider to be the first 'world religion.' Many of these sources are translated here into English for the first time.