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THE MANICHAEAN LITERATURE IN MIDDLE IRANIAN

BY

MARY BOYCE

I. INTRODUCTORY Three factors separate the Manichaean texts from other Midd.le Iranian writings. One is script. The Manichaean books were all written in a variant of the Palmyrenean script, familiar to at his birthplace near Babylon, which was applied by him to Midd.le Persian and sub­ sequently used for other . 1 This script is a clear and elegant one; and with it the Iranian Manichaeans evolved an excellent scribal tradition. A second factor is that of content. Although the Ma­ nichaean MSS., like the Zoroastrian ones, contain some general matter, the proportion is in their case minnte. In the main they are strictly religious; and the Manichaean religion, although preached by a prophet of Iranian blood, bad Semitic and Graeco-Semitic elements, which give it in some respects a foreign character, both in doctrine and literary forms. The third factor is that of date of discovery, and nature of the material. The Manichaean writings were first discovered in the early decades of this century, among the sand-buried ruins of monasteries in the Turfan basin, in Chinese Turkestan. 2 The MSS. were of various kinds-the bound book, the scroll and the Indian-type po/hi; and were made of leather, silk or (mostly) of excellent paper, written with fine ink and often beautifully illuminated. Part of one tiny MS. survives almost undamaged (M 801 a); but otherwise all the MSS. have been reduced to fragments, probably largely through the zeal of Muslim conquerors,

1 See HENNING Handbuch I, IV 1 73, with references. • Most of the material was discovered by 4 German expeditions sent out in 1902-3, 1904-5, 1905-7 and 1913-14 by the Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin. The !arger part of it is now in the Institut für Orientforschung, Berlin; and about a fourth part in the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz. A small number of fragments discovered by Russian archaeologists is in Leningrad; and a few others were found by Japanese and Chinese expeditions. There is one small fragment in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (see HENNING BSOAS XI 4 (1946) 713 n. 6), and some half-dozen in the British Museum. The fragments in Man. script found by the German expeditions have been catalogued in A Catalogue of the Iranian MSS. in Manichean Script in the German Turfan Collection(Berlin, 1960), and a bibliography is given there, pp. V-VI. 68 IRANISTIK- LITERATUR

during the rnth-14th centuries. 1 There are a number of almost perfect MS.-sheets; but many of the pieces are not only torn and irregular, but also scorched, stained by water, worm-eaten or otherwise damaged. The loss involved is great, and not only for theological studies. The Manichaean remains include the oldest written literary works, apart from inscriptions, in the ; and these are in a script which (unlike Pahlavi) provides clear evidence for vocabulary and pronun­ ciation. 2 Even in fragments, therefore, these writings are of the greatest value for Iranian studies. The Turfan discoveries include Manichaean texts in three well-known Middle Iranian languages, namely , Parthian 3 and Sogdian. 4 The last was the local language, the two fortner were church­ languages in Central Asia. There is one small fragment in Bactrian. For writing Sogdian, the Sogdian script-an adaptation, like Pahlavi, of the Achaemenian chancery script-was sometimes used. Among the texts in are some in New Persian. 5 Publication of the Manichaean material began in 1904, with the pioneer work of F.W.K. MÜLLER;and was carried on largely by C. SALEMANN and the pupils of F. C. ANDREAS,namely W. LENTZand W. B. HENNING. Latterly HENNING has been chiefly responsible for publication. 6 For various reasons a considerable amount of material remains unpublished. Studies of the MPers. and Parth. verb have been made by HENNING7 and A. GHILAIN,8 and a Grammar of Manichean Sogdianhas been written by I. GERSHEVITCH;9 but no general revision of MPers. grammar has been undertaken in the light of the Turfan material. The collection suffered minor damage at the end of the 1939-45 war, since when it has been re­ ordered and catalogued. Each fragment has now its number, following the general signatures M for Manichaica (fragments in Manichaean script) and So. for Sogdica (those in Sogdian script). Brief descriptions of each fragment, and details of publication, are given in the printed catalogue

1 One MSS.-library was excavated which had been undamaged until this century, when water seeping through from new irrigation-works bad rotted the piles of books. • On the value of this evidence for linguistic studies see HENNINGHandbuch I, IV i 73-7. • See HENNING ibid. 92 ff.; M. Persian and Parthian are both Western Iranian languages, Sogdian is an Eastern Iranian one. ' See HENNINGibid. 105 ff . • See HENNINGibid. 77; and below, p.16. • For publications see LENTZ ZDMG 1 6 ii (1956), • 3• ff.; and the bibliography in Cat. . MSS., XXXII-XXXIV. [Note: standar abbreviations of publications used in this article are explained in the Catalogue, XXXV.] ' ZII IX 2 (1933), 158-253 (indexed by GHILAINLe Muslon L (1937), 367-95). • Essai sur la langue parthe, Louvain, 1939, reprinted 1966. • Oxford. 1954 (Publications of the London Philological Society).