To start with a study of Manichaeism we must examine the life of the founder of Manichaeism, Mani. Mani was born, acording to Manichaean documents, in 216 CE north of Babylon called Mardinu, which is now lost. His parents were Elchasaites, a Gnostic-Judeau-Christian sect which were vegetarian condemned animal sacrifice but followed all other Jewish law strictly. Furthermore, the Elchasaites were strict about their rites, abandoning the Jewish fire for the waters which they considered sacred, and had very strict laws of purity regarding who they could share food with and how such food was prepared. Other than that, little about this sect is known, but it is clear that Mani followed it until he was 25 and it shaped the practices of Manichaeism.

At 25, he supposedly had a revelation, the second of two, where he was told by an angel to reveal the true teachings (at least according to the Hagiography that has been passed down) and he declared his religion and began proselytizing throughout his area. This brought him into conflict with his community as his proselytization efforts took him to the houses of "pagans" and other "unclean" people where he would share their food and drink with them. The Elchasaites disagreed with this and confronted him, he objected to their practices on the grounds that Jesus and Paul did not follow such strict laws and thus he broke with the Elchasaites and moved deeper into Persia.

He traveled east and began establishing his first echoes of a church. Inspired by the apocryphal Acts of Thomas, he moved into India to meet with the Christian communities there and his preaching became popular in the two years he was there. His hagiography describes him as having converting a Buddhist king, but the event is likely apocryphal since, contrary to popular belief, Mani did not spend time in Buddhist circles or study Buddhism. His familiarity with Buddhist doctrine was likely quite slim and only really became part of Manichaean doctrine after his death. He did, however, encounter Buddhism, likely this is where he added the Buddha to his list of prophets (as the prophet of the East).

After two years in India, he returned to Persia where he formed ties with Zoroastrian mystics and began forming relationships with powerful leaders, sometimes taken as conversions (though they were likely not). That said, he did genuinely convert merchants and others who led conversion efforts and expanded his conversion efforts to multiple ethno-linguistic groups. Mani's new church sought to move beyond the barriers of language and nation, creating a universal church. The Kephalaia gives his mission thus;

He [Jesus] who elected his church in the West, his church has not reached the East. He [Buddha] who elected his church in the East, his election [ekloge] has not come to the West. My hope is to administer [my church] in such a way that it reaches the West and that it may be carried at the same time to the East. And the voice of its preaching will be heard in every language, and it will be announced in every city. My church is superior, in this primary respect, to preceding churches, for the preceding churches were elected only for particular places and particular cities. I administer my church in such a way that it comes to all cities and that its good news reaches all countries.

Mani unfortunately found his young church at a disadvantage after the death of the Persian King Shapur, who was quite sympathetic to him and tolerant of religious plurality. His son Bahram was a bit of a religious fundamentalist and upon taking charge force Mani and his followers out of the court. Mani began his dualistic and prophetic writings such as the Manichaean Book of Giants, which condemned tyrants and proclaimed his religion.

Near the end of his life Mani made a fatal error in converting Bat, the son of Bahram. Bahram had Mani brought to him where he was hung in chains for a period of time before succumbing to exhaustion and dying. Bahram arrested most of the other Manichaean leaders and had them killed. What happened to Mani's body is a matter of some debate with the most colorful stories involve his headless corpse stuffed and crucified in a cruel mockery of Jesus (which seems unlikely but was too colorful not to mention.)

However, Mani left behind a thriving religion and congregation.

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Mani's Congregation was split broadly into laity and the Elect (monks and a sort of hierarchical priesthood). The elect were further broken down into major and minor orders, with minor orders being monks and local officiators and the major orders being roughly analogous to bishops, patriarchs, arch bishops, and the like. Above them all was a sort of Pontiff called The Guide. This was somewhat of a fusion of how the Easter religions Mani encountered worked and the hierarchical structure in Western religions.

Entrance into the monastic life was only done after approval of a council, though it was open to all who applied, the higher echelons of the church had final say. This did mean that women could join the monastic order and they did, but they could not advance into the major orders. Monks, while they lived in monasteries, did not withdraw themselves from the world but rather became spiritual leaders and proselytizers. Monks followed a 5 part code given as; 1)truth, 2)nonviolence, 3)religious behavior, 4)purity, and 5)poverty. Nonviolence was meant in a very strict sense, monks weren't allowed to damage even the land. Similarly Religious behavoir and purity were both strict. The former meant a proper conduct of chastity and ascetic practices. The later was concerned with vegetarianism and abstinence from intoxicants.

The laity had five pillars, much like the Muslims later, being; 1)following commandments, 2) prayer, 3) alms, 4) fasting, 5) pilgrimage. These are largely identical to the Muslim pillars and are perhaps what inspired them. The commandments are similar, but not identical, to those in the old testament they are; 1)a rejection of idolatry, 2) having purity of speech by not lying and defending the innocent, 3) abstinence from meat and fermented beverages, 4) no blasphemy, 5) no adultery or polygamy, 6) don't be greedy, 7) do not be schismatic or listen to false prophets, 8) do not kill, fish, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds, 9) do not steal or commit fraud, 10) refrain from using charms, spells, or potions.

AS we can see, the organization was fairly complicated.

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Manichaean cosmology was complicated, it involved a struggle between light and dark that created the earth in a battle for the realm of light. In this cosmology, humans were made up of light and dark essence and the goal was to eliminate the dark through purity and become light again to live in the light realm. Essentially, and this is very abridged, the Great Father lived in the realm of light and the King of Dark lived in the realm of darkness. Each realm was divided into five, with the light realm being the spiritual and mental and the dark realm being physical elements. The King of the Dark decided he would invade the Light realm sending fear into the inhabitants. The Great Father called upon the Mother of Life who in turn called upon the Primordial Man to combat the King of the Dark and his "sons". The Primordial Man and his five "sons" went to combat the King of the Dark.

They found themselves outmatched and thus offered themselves as "food", which poisoned the King and his "sons". The Primordial Man and his sons had intelligence snatched from them after the King and his "sons" had feasted. Recovering, the Primordial Man prayed seven times for the aid of the Great Father. The Great Father called on his servants who called down the chain of command to the Living Spirit, who called on his sons; the Ornament of Splendor, Adamas of Light, the King of Glory, the Great King of Magnificence, and the Porter. The Living Spirit and his sons along with the Mother of Life called out to the Primordial man and brought him out from the darkness.

The Great Father retaliated and had the sons of the King of the Dark killed which created the earth and then sent his messenger to order it. The messenger ordered the planets to spin and revealed his true form, then ejaculated (to expel the sin of the Archons from his body) on the earth creating a serpent (which Adamas killed) and a grove of trees. The beauty of the Messenger's true form caused the King of Darkness' daughters, who were pregnant because that was apparently just how they were, to accidentally abort their fetuses who fell to the earth. The King of Darkness took those fetuses and gave them to his companion, most were eaten, but one conceived Adam and Eve with a daughter. Then Jesus went to Adam and revealed the truth of his birth and gave him the apple from the tree of knowledge causing him to realize the loss of purity.

This is all very complicated, but the essential message here is that humanity became dirtied not by some sin of our own, but through the darkness that makes up our bodies and infiltrates our soul. All goodness in the world came from the light that had become trapped in the material world and the ultimate goal was for that light to be filtered out and we could rejoin the realm of light. Our bodies are impure in that they are made of darkness as well as light. Thus, the entire thing is compared to the digestive system. Our bodies filter out the things we need and excrete the rest (the Manichaeans believed we were excreting the dark element and the light element sustained us.).