Gesegnet sei dieser Tag. Manichaeische Festtagshymnen

The Manichaean literature includes a great number of hymns, poems and prayers. Some of the best preserved parts of them are dedicated to the Manichaean holy days, Sunday, Monday and the annual Bema festival. These holy days are primarily important because of the confessional rituals which took place at this time. Though most of the hymns are incompletely preserved they allow some conclusions on the distinction of these feast days. The hymns are in Parthian and in Middle Persian, but were presumably copied by Uigur scribes during the period of the 8^th to the 10^th centuries AD. In this volume nearly 50 fragments of book pages are edited and examined. Nearly all are published here for the first time. Some of them contain lists of initial lines, listed with regard to the contents or according to melodies. The detailed introduction deals with the Sitz im Leben of these hymns, a comparison with the relevant hymns in other languages such as Coptic, Chinese and Uigur and a description of versification and stylistic means. This material makes new Manichaean original sources available and extends our knowledge about the liturgical traditions of the Manichaean community on Central Asia.