Manichaean theology is best understood as taking the basic scaffolding of reality from Persian, especially Zoroastrian, religion and then filling that structure with its own myths. At the heart of this inheritance stands a radicalized form of Iranian dualism: two co‑eternal, opposed principles of Light and Darkness, analogous to Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, but rendered into two uncreated realms locked in permanent tension. The familiar Zoroastrian contrast of truth and lie, light and darkness, becomes in Manichaeism not only ethical but ontological, with light treated as a real substance imprisoned within the dark fabric of matter. This dualism is not merely an abstract doctrine; it shapes the entire Manichaean vision of the cosmos, the human condition, and the path of liberation.

Persian influence is also evident in the mythic narrative of cosmic conflict and its final resolution. Zoroastrian patterns of a long struggle culminating in a world‑renewing victory, expressed in ideas such as Frashokereti and a structured, finite cosmic timeline, reappear in Manichaeism as a staged history of separation, mixture, and eventual re‑separation of Light and Darkness. The Manichaean story of the Father of Greatness and the Prince of Darkness, and the promised final purification in which Light is gathered back and Darkness sealed off, echoes the Iranian sense of history as a divinely ordered drama moving toward judgment and restoration. This eschatological framework, with its emphasis on a decisive end to the mingling of good and evil, gives Manichaean piety its urgent, world‑historical tone.

The inner architecture of the Manichaean divine world also bears the imprint of Persian models. Just as Zoroastrianism presents Ahura Mazda surrounded by Amesha Spentas and numerous yazatas in a kind of celestial hierarchy, Manichaeism portrays the Father of Greatness encircled by emanations such as the Mother of Life, the Primal Man, the Living Spirit, and others. This structured “spiritual bureaucracy” provides a way to narrate how the transcendent realm of Light engages in the cosmic struggle, and how various divine figures participate in the rescue of trapped light. Even when names and stories differ, the pattern of a ranked community of good beings opposing demonic hosts is recognizably Iranian in form.

Persian religious sensibilities also shaped Manichaean ethics and religious identity. Zoroastrian concern with purity and pollution, especially regarding the elements and the defiling power of evil, is transformed into a rigorous Manichaean purity code aimed at preventing further entanglement of light in matter. Practices such as strict vegetarianism and celibacy for the elect serve this metaphysical ethic of non‑harm to the imprisoned light. At the same time, Mani’s self‑presentation as a universal prophet who completes the line of earlier messengers, including Zoroaster, shows how deeply his movement was framed within an Iranian prophetic and linguistic world, even as it reached beyond Persia to integrate Christian, Gnostic, and Buddhist motifs into that inherited Persian theological skeleton.