Two Errors in Arabic Accounts of Manichaeism
Document Type : pajoohesh
Authors
10.22081/jap.2026.80502
Abstract
In this short article, Walter Bruno Henning attempts to correct two passages in Arabic writings concerning Mani and his religion. The first passage concerns Mani’s ancestry and the years preceding the beginning of his mission. According to Henning, Ibn al-Nadīm—or his source—confused Mani’s life with that of Mārī, the bishop of Dayr Qunnā. The second passage is taken from al-Yaʿqūbī, who reports that, according to the Manichaeans, the highest sphere revolves upon a jabal māʾil (“inclined mountain”). Henning argues that this reading is incorrect and has no parallel in Manichaean traditions. In his view, the correct reading is jabbār māʾil (“inclining giant”). The term jabbār here refers to Atlas, one of the Manichaean deities, upon whose head, hands, and shoulders the celestial spheres rest.
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