A literary history of Persia

160 THE SASANIAN PERIODmortification imposed by the religion, the "saints and ascetics"amongst them, who were commanded " to prefer poverty toriches, to suppress cupidity and lust, to abandon the world, tobe abstinent in it, continually to fast, and to give alms as muchas possible," were called " "Siddlq, the Faithful(pi.Siddlqiirf).This word isArabic, but the original Aramaic form was probablySaddlqai, which in Persian became Zandik, the replacement ofthe dd by nd finding its parallel in the Persian shanbadh(modern shanba) for Sabbath^ and the conversion of theSanskrit Siddhdnta into Sindhind. According to this view,Zandlk (Arabicised into Zlndlq]ismerely the Persianisedform of the Aramaic name applied to the fullyinitiatedManichaeans, and, primarily applied to that sect exclusively,was only later used in the sense of " heretic " in general. Aninteresting parallel, as Professor Bevan points out, is suppliedby the derivation of the German Ketzer, " heretic," fromKaOapoi,"the pure." 'The Manichaeans, as we have seen, like the followers ofMarcion and Bardesanes, were reckoned by Muhammadanwriters amongstthe "Dualists." But since theDhe ZoroastrianMa^cha:ans religion is also essentially dualistic,whence arose the violent antagonism between itand the Manichaean doctrine ? The answer is not far toseek. In the former the Good and the Evil Creation, therealm of Ahura Mazda and that of Anra Mainyush (Ahriman),each comprised a spiritual and a material part.Not only theAmshaspands and Angels, but also the material elements andall animals and plants useful to man, and of mankind those whoheld " the Good Religion," fought on the side of Ahura Mazdaagainst the dlvs and drujes, the khrafstars, or noxious animals,the witches and warlocks, the misbelievers and heretics, whoconstituted the hosts of Ahriman. In general the Zoroastrianreligion, for all its elaborately systematised Spiritual Hierarchies,1Cf. C. Schmidt's Hist, et doctrine de la Secte des Cathares ou Albigeois(Paris, 1849).