Note 13:2 — PART I. Pre-Islamic Persian Philosophy.

Some Eastern sources of information about Mānī's Philosophy (e.g. Ephraim Syrus mentioned by Prof. A. A. Bevan in his Introduction to the Hymn of the Soul) tell us that he was a disciple of Bardesanes, the Syrian gnostic. The learned author of "al-Fihrist", however, mentions some books which Mānī wrote against the followers of the Syrian gnostic. Burkitt, in his lectures on Early Eastern Christianity, gives a free translation of Bardesanes' De Fato, the spirit of which I understand, is fully Christian, and thoroughly opposed to the teaching of Mānī. Ibn Ḥazm, however, in his Kitāb al-Milal w’al-Niḥal (Vol. II, p. 36) says, "Both agreed in other respects, except that Mānī believed darkness to be a living principle."