Preface

...the changes are likely due more to the fact that, through personal interaction with colleagues here, a new part of the Orient began to open up to me. My esteemed colleague Friedrich Carl Andreas Friedrich Carl Andreas (1846–1930) was a prominent Orientalist specializing in Iranian languages; his work was crucial in deciphering texts found in Central Asia. spent many a long night translating for me the invaluable remains of Manichaean religious documents from the Turfan fragments The Turfan fragments are a collection of manuscript remains found in East Turkestan (modern Xinjiang, China) at the start of the 20th century, containing vital texts from Manichaeism and other Silk Road religions. and discussing them with me. My colleague Mark Lidzbarski Mark Lidzbarski (1868–1928) was a specialist in Semitic languages who produced the first modern translations of Mandaean scriptures. unprompted offered to let me, though a near-stranger to him, review his translations of the Mandaean Genzā The Genzā Rabbā (Great Treasure) is the primary sacred scripture of the Mandaeans, a Gnostic group from Mesopotamia. and then went through the important liturgical collections with me, the printing of which has finally begun. During visits to Berlin, Prof. F. W. K. Müller, who first unlocked Manichaean literature for us, most generously made available not only the treasures of the Museum of Ethnology, but even his own notes and preliminary work. Furthermore, Prof. Albert von Le Coq, with inexhaustible kindness and readiness to help, made new finds from his specialty available to me or helped me pursue old ones, while Prof. Kurt Sethe stepped in as a new, never-failing advisor on questions of Egyptology.

The one-sidedness—not due to an "Egyptomania" original: "Ägyptomanie" on my part, but rather to the limited traditions of the Orient that were previously accessible to me—was overcome. A new source of knowledge for the Hellenistic ideas and terms in early Christian literature was opened. Three basic facts, which I first pointed out in the essay "The Goddess Psyche in Hellenistic and Early Christian Literature" (Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften 1917, Abhandlung 10), found their fullest confirmation:

1. Already during the period of Persian rule, Iranian religious ideas were spread everywhere, and Hellenism continued this to an even greater degree.
2. The Manichaean religion A major dualistic religion founded by the prophet Mani in the 3rd century AD, combining elements of Christianity, Gnosticism, and Zoroastrianism. adopted and passed on an immense amount of ancient folk traditions almost unchanged.
3. Mandaeism and Manichaeism, despite all their differences, stand in the closest connection and must always be explained in relation to one another.

Thus, further works lie completed in manuscript form or have been preliminary established in their main features; I must