Manichaeism

====Arab world====
Under the eighth-century [[Abbasid Caliphate]], Arabic {{lang|ar|zindīq}} and the adjectival term {{lang|ar|zandaqa}} could denote many different things, though it seems primarily (or at least initially) to have signified a follower of Manichaeism, however its true meaning is not known.<ref name="Zaman1997">{{citation|last=Zaman |first=Muhammad Qasim |title=Religion and Politics Under the Early 'Abbasids: The Emergence of the Proto-Sunni Elite |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0xkpdl6UVOwC&pg=PA64 |year=1997 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |pages=63–65 |isbn=978-90-04-10678-9}}</ref> In the ninth century, it is reported that Caliph [[al-Ma'mun]] tolerated a community of Manichaeans.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2501/is_n2_v16/ai_16502939/pg_5/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120711053736/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2501/is_n2_v16/ai_16502939/pg_5/ |archive-date=11 July 2012 |work=Arab Studies Quarterly |first=Mahmood |last=Ibrahim |title=Religious inquisition as social policy: the persecution of the 'Zanadiqa' in the early Abbasid Caliphate |year=1994}}</ref>

During the early Abbasid period, the Manichaeans underwent persecution. The third Abbasid caliph, [[al-Mahdi]], persecuted the Manichaeans, establishing an inquisition against dualists who if being found guilty of heresy refused to renounce their beliefs, were executed. Their persecution was finally ended in 780s by [[Harun al-Rashid]].<ref name="Christine">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aPgGBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA88 |title=Medieval Heresies |first=Christine Caldwell |last=Ames |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2015 |page= 88 |isbn=978-1-107-02336-9}}</ref><ref>Irfan Shahîd, ''Byzantium and the Arabs in the fourth century'', 1984, p. 425.</ref> During the reign of the Caliph [[al-Muqtadir]], many Manichaeans fled from [[Mesopotamia]] to [[Greater Khorasan|Khorasan]] from fear of persecution and the base of the religion was later shifted to [[Samarkand]].<ref name="Wendy"/><ref name="Jacques"/>