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Treasure Of Life
The ''Treasure of Life'' is one of the seven treatises of the prophet Mani, written and regarded as part of the major canon of Manichaeism. The title is possibly derived from Christ's parable of the hidden treasure from , which is followed by the parable of the pearl in ; incidentally, pearls are a major metaphor used in Mani's teaching. Also, the Syriac title, ''Simath Hayye'', is identical with the name of an uthra (celestial being) in Mandaeism called Simat Hayyi. It enjoyed popularity and was referred to by many anti-Manichaean polemic writers, including Hegemonius and Augustine of Hippo. The main theme appears to be Mani's anthropology of man, teaching “what parts of the Soul came from the pure Light, and what parts proceed from the vicious Darkness”. Duncan Greenlees states that Mani probably wrote ''The Treasure of Life'' while traveling through Greater Khorasan. ''The Treasure of Life'' is central to one miraculous event surrounding the prophet Mani: when Mar Am ...
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Seven Treatises Of Manichaeism
Manichaean scripture includes nine main books: the Seven Treatises of Manichaeism, all personally written by Mani in Syriac, the Shabuhragan written by Mani in Middle Persian, and the Arzhang, a series of illustrations painted by Mani. The Kephalaia are not scriptural but rather a secondary literature on Manichaeism commenting on the scripture. Seven Treatises Seven Treatises of Manichaeism, sometimes also referred to as the Manichaean Heptateuch, are seven scriptures personally written by the founder of Manichaeism, Mani, and are the scriptures of Manichaeism. Recognizing the shortcomings of the religions that preceded him, Mani was determined to create a world, unified religion. In Mani's view, the unity of religious thought in the past could only be achieved when the founders were alive. However, these founders did not write books themselves, and when they died, their disciples went their own way, leading their own religions into division and confusion. Mani said of Manichae ...
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Anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavior, while cultural anthropology studies cultural meaning, including norms and values. A portmanteau term sociocultural anthropology is commonly used today. Linguistic anthropology studies how language influences social life. Biological or physical anthropology studies the biological development of humans. Archaeological anthropology, often termed as 'anthropology of the past', studies human activity through investigation of physical evidence. It is considered a branch of anthropology in North America and Asia, while in Europe archaeology is viewed as a discipline in its own right or grouped under other related disciplines, such as history and palaeontology. Etymology The abstract noun ''anthropology'' is first attested in reference t ...
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3rd-century Books
The 3rd century was the period from 201 ( CCI) to 300 (CCC) Anno Domini (AD) or Common Era (CE) in the Julian calendar.. In this century, the Roman Empire saw a crisis, starting with the assassination of the Roman Emperor Severus Alexander in 235, plunging the empire into a period of economic troubles, barbarian incursions, political upheavals, civil wars, and the split of the Roman Empire through the Gallic Empire in the west and the Palmyrene Empire in the east, which all together threatened to destroy the Roman Empire in its entirety, but the reconquests of the seceded territories by Emperor Aurelian and the stabilization period under Emperor Diocletian due to the administrative strengthening of the empire caused an end to the crisis by 284. This crisis would also mark the beginning of Late Antiquity. In Persia, the Parthian Empire was succeeded by the Sassanid Empire in 224 after Ardashir I defeated and killed Artabanus V during the Battle of Hormozdgan. The Sassanids the ...
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Texts In Syriac
Text may refer to: Written word * Text (literary theory), any object that can be read, including: **Religious text, a writing that a religious tradition considers to be sacred **Text, a verse or passage from scripture used in expository preaching **Textbook, a book of instruction in any branch of study Computing and telecommunications *Plain text, unformatted text *Text file, a type of computer file opened by most text software *Text string, a sequence of characters manipulated by software *Text message, a short electronic message designed for communication between mobile phone users *Text (Chrome app), a text editor for the Google Chrome web browser Arts and media *TEXT, a Swedish band *''Text & Talk'' (formerly ''Text''), an academic journal *"Text", a 2010 song produced by J.R. Rotem, featuring Mann and Jason Derulo Jason Joel Desrouleaux (born September 21, 1989), known professionally as Jason Derulo (; formerly stylized as Derülo), is an American singer and songwrit ...
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Manichaean Texts
Manichaeism (; in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian prophet Mani (AD 216–274), in the Sasanian Empire. Manichaeism teaches an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process that takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light, whence it came. Its beliefs are based on local Mesopotamian religious movements and Gnosticism. It reveres Mani as the final prophet after Zoroaster, Gautama Buddha, and Jesus. Manichaeism was quickly successful and spread far through the Aramaic-speaking regions. It thrived between the third and seventh centuries, and at its height was one of the most widespread religions in the world. Manichaean ...
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Greco-Buddhism
Greco-Buddhism, or Graeco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed between the fourth century BC and the fifth century AD in Gandhara, in present-day north-western Pakistan and parts of north-east Afghanistan. It was a cultural consequence of a long chain of interactions begun by Greek forays into India from the time of Alexander the Great. A few years after Alexander's death, the Easternmost fringes of the empire of his general Seleucus were lost in a war with the Mauryan Empire, under the reign of Chandragupta Maurya. The Mauryan Emperor Ashoka would convert to Buddhism and spread the religious philosophy throughout his domain, as recorded in the Edicts of Ashoka. This spread to the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, which itself seceded from the Seleucid empire. Within its borders, the Greek fondness for statuary produced the first statues of the Buddha, leading ultimately to the modern tradition. Following the collapse of the Maur ...
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Sogdia
Sogdia (Sogdian language, Sogdian: ) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian peoples, Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemenid Empire, and listed on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great. Sogdiana was first conquered by Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, and then was annexed by the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great in 328 BC. It would continue to change hands under the Seleucid Empire, the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, the Kushan Empire, the Sasanian Empire, the Hephthalite Empire, the Western Turkic Khaganate and the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana. The Sogdian city-states, although never politically united, were centered on the city of Samarkand. Sogdian language, Sogdian, an Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian language, is no longer spoken, but a descendant of one of its dialects, Yaghnobi language, Ya ...
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Mar Ammo
Mar Ammo was a 3rd-century Manichean disciple of the prophet Mani. According to Manichaen tradition he spread Manichaeism eastward into Sogdiana during the time period when Mani was living. Mar Ammo is well known as the apostle of the east in Manichean literature nevertheless his exact origins are unknown. His Syriac name (from ʿAmmānūēl) may denote that he was Aramaic in origin. However, a Parthian origin may also be seen and is mentioned by some scholars, especially due to his outstanding role in establishing the Parthian language as the official language of the eastern Manichean Church, later to be replaced by Sogdian in the sixth century. Furthermore, Mar Ammo is widely regarded as the composer of the Manichaean Parthian hymn-cycles (''Huwīdagmān'' and ''Angad Rōšnan''). Missionary work On his way to eastern Iran, Mar Ammo was accompanied by the Parthian prince Ardavan. According to Manichaean tradition, when he reached the river Oxus on the Sogdian frontier the spi ...
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Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorāsān,Dabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 or Khorāsān ( pal, Xwarāsān; fa, خراسان ), is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plateau between Western and Central Asia. The name ''Khorāsān'' is Persian and means "where the sun arrives from" or "the Eastern Province".Sykes, M. (1914). "Khorasan: The Eastern Province of Persia". ''Journal of the Royal Society of Arts'', 62(3196), 279-286.A compound of ''khwar'' (meaning "sun") and ''āsān'' (from ''āyān'', literally meaning "to come" or "coming" or "about to come"). Thus the name ''Khorasan'' (or ''Khorāyān'' ) means "sunrise", viz. " Orient, East"Humbach, Helmut, and Djelani Davari, "Nāmé Xorāsān", Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz; Persian translation by Djelani Davari, published in Iranian Languages Studies Website. MacKenzie, D. (1971). ''A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary'' (p. 95). London: Oxford University ...
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Duncan Greenlees
Thomas Richard Duncan Greenlees (1899–1966) was a British writer, theosophist and teacher. Early life Duncan Greenlees was born in Grahamstown, Cape Colony, the son of Scottish physician Thomas Duncan Greenlees (of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire) and Edith White Greenlees of Norwich. He had his early education in England. Greenlees received his MA degree in 1922 from Oxford, where he studied Egyptian, Coptic and Arabic. For a brief period during 1925 he was a staff member of Harvard University/Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition to Giza in Egypt. On 2 April 1925, Greenlees was appointed Assistant Curator of Egyptian Art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. On completion of his studies, he moved to India, working as a schoolteacher (he taught English at Madanpalle High School) and was a headmaster in South India from 1926 onwards. While working in India, he was drawn towards the Theosophical Movement and served in one of the schools which Annie Besant founded. Indian independence mov ...
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Augustine Of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. His many important works include ''The City of God'', '' On Christian Doctrine'', and '' Confessions''. According to his contemporary, Jerome, Augustine "established anew the ancient Faith". In his youth he was drawn to the eclectic Manichaean faith, and later to the Hellenistic philosophy of Neoplatonism. After his conversion to Christianity and baptism in 386, Augustine developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and perspectives. Believing the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freed ...
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Mani (prophet)
Mani (in Middle Persian: 𐭌𐭀𐭍𐭉/𐭬𐭠𐭭𐭩/𐮋𐮀𐮌𐮈/𐬨𐬁𐬥𐬌/𐫖𐫀𐫗𐫏 ''Māni'', New Persian: ''Māni'', Chinese language, Chinese: ''Móní'', Syriac language, Syriac ''Mānī'', Koine Greek, Greek , Latin '; also , Latin ', from Syriac ''Mānī ḥayyā'' "Living Mani", –2 March AD 274 or 26 February AD 277) was an Iranian peoples, Iranian prophet and the founder of Manichaeism, a religion most prevalent in late antiquity strongly influenced by Gnosticism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism, which was once widespread but is now confined to small areas of China, such as Fujian. Mani was born in or near Seleucia-Ctesiphon (south of modern Baghdad) in Mesopotamia, at the time part of the Parthian Empire. Seven Scriptures of Mani, Seven of his major works were written in Syriac language, Syriac, and the eighth, dedicated to the Sasanian Empire, Sasanian emperor Shapur I, was written in Middle Persian.Henning, W.B., ''The ...
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