Abū Hilāl al-Dayhūri was a
Manichaean
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 Empire, Parthian ...
leader. Of
North African origin, he served as
archegos
Archegos Capital Management was a limited partnership family office that managed the personal assets of Bill Hwang, at one time managing over $36 billion in assests. On April 27, 2022 Hwang was indicted and arrested on federal charges of fraud ...
, the traditional leader of the Manichaean sect seated in
Seleucia
Seleucia (; grc-gre, Σελεύκεια), also known as or , was a major Mesopotamian city of the Seleucid empire. It stood on the west bank of the Tigris River, within the present-day Baghdad Governorate in Iraq.
Name
Seleucia ( grc-gre, Σ ...
-
Ctesiphon
Ctesiphon ( ; Middle Persian: 𐭲𐭩𐭮𐭯𐭥𐭭 ''tyspwn'' or ''tysfwn''; fa, تیسفون; grc-gre, Κτησιφῶν, ; syr, ܩܛܝܣܦܘܢThomas A. Carlson et al., “Ctesiphon — ܩܛܝܣܦܘܢ ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modi ...
some time during the mid-to-late eighth century.
Origins
al-Dayhūri hailed from North Africa, once a major center of Manichaean activity.
[Glassé, Cyril. ''The New Encyclopedia of Islam.'' Page 64. Rowman & Littlefield, 2008.] He then travelled to present-day
Iraq. It is unknown, however, whether he converted to Manichaeism after his arrival there or had originally been a Manichaean in Africa. As such, it is difficult to use him to gauge the health of Manichaeism in eighth-century North Africa.
[Lieu, Samuel N.C. ''Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China: a Historical Survey.'' Pages 83, 164. Manchester University Press, 1985.] He may have been a
Berber
Berber or Berbers may refer to:
Ethnic group
* Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa
* Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages
Places
* Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile
People with the surname
* Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
.
Significance
During the reign (754-775) of the second
Abbasid caliph,
Al-Mansur, al-Dayhūri attained the status of archegos, "the traditional seat of the supreme head of the Manichaean church" in Seleucia-Ctesiphon.
[Gardner, Iain & Samuel N.C. Lieu (eds.) ''Manichaean Texts from the Roman Empire.'' Page 43. Cambridge University Press, 2004.]
He is most important for temporarily resolving a major rift in the sect between the followers of two previous archegos, those of the orthodox-minded Miqlās (the "Miqlāsiyya") and those of the more compromising Mihr (the "Mihriyya").
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abu Hilal Al-Dayhuri
Manichaeans
8th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate
Ctesiphon