Sims-Williams et al., A Manichaean Prayer and Confession Book (Brepols)

NEW BOOK FROM BREPOLS PUBLISHER:

A Manichaean Prayer and Confession Book

Nicholas Sims-Williams, John S. Sheldon, Zsuzsanna Gulacsi

Pages: xxvi + 198 p.
Size: 210 x 297 mm
Illustrations: 128 col.
Language(s): English, Sogdian
Publication Year: 2023

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ISBN: 978-2-503-59790-4
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SUMMARY

The Manichaean Prayer and Confession Book is the best-preserved Manichaean book found in the Turfan area and the only one which survives in the form of a bound codex. It constitutes a precious treasure-trove of information on its three Iranian languages, on the Manichaean religion itself, and on Manichaean codicology and book-art. The surviving parts of this beautifully decorated miniature paper codex include Middle Persian and Parthian hymns and readings for the Bema festival, the high-point of the Manichaean liturgical calendar, followed by an elaborate confessional formula for the Elect in the Sogdian language. Until now this manuscript has been accessible for scholarship only from its 1937 edition in German by W. B. Henning, titled ‘Ein manichäisches Bet- und Beichtbuch’ (BBB). This new edition provides the first English translation by Nicholas Sims-Williams, the first codicological study by Zsuzsanna Gulacsi and an introduction by John S. Sheldon. It also includes the supplementary Sogdian texts which Henning added to his ‘BBB’. It incorporates magnificent colour photos, codicological diagrams, and digital reconstructions never seen before. This beautifully-produced volume appropriately inaugurates the Series Iranica of the Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum.

Cross-file under Manichean (Manichaean) Watch. For more on the discoveries at Turfan, see here (cf. here) and links. For more on the Sogdians and the Sogdian language, see here and here and links.

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