Manichaean script is an
abjad-based writing system rooted in the Semitic family of alphabets and associated with the spread of
Manichaean religion from southwest to central Asia and beyond, beginning in the 3rd century CE. It bears a sibling relationship to early forms of the
Pahlavi script, both systems having developed from the
Imperial Aramaic alphabet, in which the
Achaemenid court rendered its particular, official dialect of the Aramaic language. Unlike Pahlavi, Manichaean script reveals influences from
Sogdian script, which in turn descends from the Syriac branch of Aramaic. Manichaean script is so named because Manichaean texts attribute its design to
Mani himself.