Bāmyazd (Rāzī Wuzurg); The God of Tékhnē and Architecture in Manichaean Theology and Mythology

Abstract

Relying on theological and mythological sources in Manichaean religion, this essay studies and analyzes the action of "Bāmyazd" as a deity who holds the position of Architect of the Gods. Mani's birth and subsequent upbringing in a region that was a crossroads of Persian and Roman cultures and the Zoroastrian, Christian, Buddhist, Babylonian and Chaldean religions led to his tendency towards a kind of eclectic mysticism. But there is no doubt that Mani and Manichaeism, in their tendency towards dualism, which is a prominent feature of the Gnostic schools, are more influenced than any other religion by the Mithraic Zoroastrianism propagated by the Zoroastrian Magis in Mesopotamia. Accordingly, the eternal confrontation between the two gems of Good and Evil in the Manichaean theology and mythological literature, especially in the narrative of creation, has a special place and the three stages of creation in Mani’s religion in the arena of confrontation of the grandfather as the gem of Good and the prince of darkness as a gem Turned into a demon. Bāmyazd plays the role of the great secret of the Gods and in the arena of this mythical opposition and in the various stages of the process of creation from the Manichaean point of view. The results of the research show that the function of the God of Art and Architecture in Manichaean theology and mythology is to save man from the captivity of the pieces of demonic darkness on the one hand and to build a heavenly paradise for the virtuous and hell to imprison the demons on the other. This paper, which is done using analytical method and text-based studies, first studies the doctrine of dualism in Manichaean and then investigates the position of the god of art and architecture in Manichaean theology and mythology.

Keywords

• manichaeism
• creation
• dualism
• architecture
• bāmyazd