Sealstone of Mani, rock crystal, possibly 3rd century AD, Iraq.Cabinet des Médailles, Paris.[1][2] The seal reads"Mani, the apostle of Jesus Christ", and may have been used by Mani himself to sign his epistles.[3][1]
The exact meaning of the name remains unsolved.[12] It may have derived from Babylonian-AramaicMânâ [luminescence]. Mandaeans used the termmânâ rabba, which means "Enlightened Lord/King".[13] Ancient Greek interpretations wereskeuos (σκεῦος,vessel, instrument) andhomilia (ὁμιλία, intercourse, company, communion, instruction).[clarification needed]
The same slightly contemptuous "a certain" (Manes quidam) also appears inHegemonius' Acta Archelai (4th century), however, Hegemonius contributes a detailed description of Mani's looks. Mani’s names became the object of uplifting transformation (Greek, Coptic Mannichaios, Latin Mannichaeus, i.e., Mannam fundens "pouring out Manna"). Alternatively, due to Mani's possible origins in anElchasai community, "Mani" could be aHypocorism of theHebrew nameMenahem ("the consoler" or "comforter").[14][15]
All other medieval and pre-medieval accounts of his life are either legendary or hagiographical, such as the account inFihrist byIbn al-Nadim, purportedly byal-Biruni, or were anti-Manichaean polemics, such as the 4th-centuryActa Archelai. Among these medieval accounts, Ibn al-Nadim's account of Mani's life and teachings is generally speaking the most reliable and exhaustive. Notably, the (in other accounts prominent) image of the "Third Ambassador" is only represented through a brief mention of the namebašīr, "messenger of good news", and the topos of "Mani the Painter" (which in other Islamic accounts almost completely replaces that of "the founder of a religion") is completely absent.[16]
Mani's Parents, a 14th/15th-century silk painting depicts Mani's parents sitting in a palatial building.
Detail ofMani's Birth, showing the newborn emerged from the chest of his mother
The execution of Mani as depicted in a 14th century illustration of theShahnameh
This work and other evidence discovered in the 20th century establishes Mani as a historical individual.[17] For an updated critique of the standard account and a radically alternative proposal see Iain Gardner'sThe Founder of Manichaeism: Rethinking the Life of Mani.[18]
Mani was raised in a heterodox environment in Babylon. The Elcesaite community was ostensibly Jewish Christian, though with someGnostic features due to theirEbionite heritage, such as the belief in recurring incarnations of heavenly apostles, one of whom was adocetic Christ. It is believed that his Christian roots might have been influenced byMarcion andBardaisan.[24] At ages 12 and 24 Mani had visionary experiences of a "heavenly twin" of his (syzygos), calling him to leave his father's sect and preach the true message of Jesus in a new gospel.[25][26] It is said that his appearance was a mixture of Iranian and Mesopotamian features. On the one hand he looked like a warrior, on the other like a magician. In some later texts he was described as lame, a characteristic possibly attributed to him by his opponents.[27]
Mani then travelled to India (Sakas in present dayAfghanistan), where he studiedHinduism and its various extant philosophies, as well asBuddhism.[9]Al-Biruni says Mani only traveled to India after being banished from Persia,[28] but this might be an error or a second journey.[9]
Returning in 242, Mani presented himself toShapur I, to whom he dedicated his only work written in Persian, known as theShabuhragan. Shapur was not converted to Manichaeism and remainedZoroastrian, but he favored Mani's teachings, which mixed Christianity, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism, and took him into his court.[9][29] Mani is said to have performedmiracles, includinglevitation,teleporting andhealing, which helped him to gain converts in the Iranian elite.[30] He was also famed as apainter.[9]
Shapur's successorHormizd I, who reigned only for one year, continued to patronize Mani, but his successorBahram I, a follower of the intolerant Zoroastrian reformerKartir,[31] began to persecute the Manichaeans. He incarcerated Mani, who died in prison within a month, in 274. According to sources, he passed his last days comforting his visiting disciples, teaching that his death would have no other consequence than the return of his soul to the realm of light.[9]
Mani's followers depicted Mani's death as acrucifixion in a conscious analogy to thecrucifixion of Jesus; al-Biruni says that Bahram ordered the execution of Mani. There is a story which claims that he was flayed, and his corpse suspended over the main gate of the great city of Gundeshapur;[32] however, there is no historical basis for this account.[33] It is more plausible that his body was mutilated via post-mortem decapitation, and his head put on display, which may be the original source of the embellishment.[15]
The canon of Mani includes six works originally written in Syriac, and one inPersian, theShapuragan. While none of his books have survived in complete form, there are numerous fragments and quotations of them, including a long Syriac quotation from one of his works, as well as a large amount of material in Middle Persian, Coptic, and numerous other languages.
Examples of surviving portions of his works include: theShabuhragan (Middle Persian), theBook of Giants (numerous fragments in many languages), theFundamental Epistle (quoted in length by Saint Augustine), a number of fragments of hisLiving Gospel (or Great Gospel), a Syriac excerpt quoted byTheodore Bar Konai, and hisLetter to Edessa contained in theCologne Mani-Codex. Mani also wrote the bookArzhang, a holy book of Manichaeism unique in that it contained many drawings and paintings to express and explain the Manichaeist creation and history of the world.
In his mid-twenties, Mani decided that salvation was possible through education, self-denial, fasting and chastity. According toAl-Biruni, a 10th-century Iranian scholar, Mani claimed to be theParaclete promised in theNew Testament, and theLast Prophet.[37] However according to Lodewijk J. R. Ort, the term last prophet may "in all probability derived from the Quran by Al-Buruni in order to formulate Mani's pretensions and religious claims".[38] Therefore Lodewijk J. R. Ort concludes that a definitive pronouncement about the final character of Mani's appearance is not mentioned in Manichaeistic scriptures.[39]
While his religion was not strictly a movement of ChristianGnosticism in the earlier mode, Mani did declare himself to be an "apostle of Jesus Christ",[34] and extant Manichaean poetry frequently extolsJesus and his mother,Mary, with the highest reverence. Manichaean tradition also claims that Mani was the reincarnation of different religious figures including Jesus,Zoroaster, and thehistorical Buddha.
Mani's followers were organized in a church structure, divided into a class of "elects" (electi) and "auditors" (auditores). Only theelecti are required to follow the laws strictly, while theauditores care for them, hoping to becomeelecti in their turn afterreincarnation.
The Western Christian tradition of Mani is based onSocrates of Constantinople, a historian writing in the 5th century. According to this account, oneScythianos, a Saracen, husband of an Egyptian woman, "introduced the doctrine ofEmpedocles andPythagoras into Christianity"; that he had a disciple, "Buddas, formerly namedTerebinthus", who travelled in Persia, where he alleged that he had beenborn of a virgin, and afterwards wrote four books, one of Mysteries, a second The Gospel, a third The Treasure, and a fourth Heads. While performing some mystic rites, he was hurled down a precipice by adaimon, and killed.[40]
A woman at whose house he lodged buried him, took over his property, and bought a boy of seven, named Cubricus. This boy she freed and educated, leaving him the property and books of Buddas-Terebinthus. Cubricus then travelled into Persia, where he took the name of Manes and gave forth the doctrines of Buddas Terebinthus as his own. The king of Persia, hearing that he worked miracles, sent for him to heal his sick son, and on the child's dying put Manes in prison. Thence he escaped, flying into Mesopotamia, but was traced, captured, and flayed alive by the Persian king's orders, the skin being then stuffed with chaff and hung up before the gate of the city.[40]
According toJerome, Archelaus wrote his account of his disputation with "Manichæus" in Syriac, whence it was translated into Greek. The Greek is lost, and the work, apart from extracts, subsists only in a Latin translation from the Greek, of doubtful age and fidelity, probably made after the 5th century. ByPhotius it is stated that Heraclean,bishop of Chalcedon, in his book against the Manichæans, said theDisputation of Archelaus was written by one Hegemonius, an author not otherwise traceable, and of unknown date.[40]
In the Latin narrative, "Manes" is said to have come, after his flight from court, from Arabion, a frontier fortress, to Caschar or Carchar, a town said to be inRoman Mesopotamia, in the hope of converting an eminent Christian there, named Marcellus, to whom he had sent a letter beginning: "Manichæus apostle of Jesus Christ, and all the saints and virgins with me, send peace to Marcellus." In his train he brought twenty-two (or twelve) youths and virgins.[40]
At the request of Marcellus, he debated on religion with bishop Archelaus, by whom he was vanquished, whereupon he set out to return to Persia. On his way he proposed to debate with a priest at the town of Diodorides. But Archelaus came to take the priest's place, and again defeated him, whereupon, fearing to be given up to the Persians by the Christians, he returned to Arabion.[40]
At this stage Archelaus introduces in a discourse to the people his history of "this Manes", very much to the effect of the recapitulation in Socrates. Among the further details are these: that Scythianus lived "in the time of the Apostles", that Terebinthus said the name of Buddas had been imposed on him, that in the mountains he had been brought up by an angel, that he had been convicted of imposture by a Persian prophet named Parcus, and by Labdacus, son ofMithra.[40]
Furthermore, that in the disputation he taught concerning the sphere, the two luminaries, the transmigration of souls, and the war of thePrincipia against God, that "Corbicius" or Corbicus, about the age of sixty, translated the books of Terebinthus. He made three chief disciples, Thomas, Addas, and Hermas, of whom he sent the first to Egypt, and the second to Scythia, keeping the third with him. The two former returned when he was in prison, and that he sent them to procure for him the books of the Christians, which he then studied. According to the Latin narrative, finally, Manes on his return to Arabion was seized and taken to the Persian king, by whose orders he was flayed, his body being left to the birds, and his skin, filled with air, hung at the city gate.[40]
Painter Mani presenting king Bukhram-Gur (Bahram) with his drawing. 16th-century painting byAli-Shir Nava'i, Shakrukhia (Tashkent).Statue of Mani in theCao'an temple,China
Mani is described as a painter who set up a sectarian movement in opposition to Zoroastrianism. He was persecuted byShapur I and fled toCentral Asia, where he made disciples and embellished with paintings aTchighil (orpicturarum domus Chinensis) and another temple calledGhalbita. Provisioning in advance a cave which had a spring, he told his disciples he was going to heaven, and would not return for a year, after which time they were to seek him in the cave in question. They then came back there after a year and found him, whereupon he showed them an illustrated book, calledErgenk, orEstenkArzhang, which he said he had brought from heaven.[40]
Whereafter he had many followers, with whom he returned to Persia at the death of Shapur. The new king, Hormisdas, joined and protected the sect, and built Mani a castle. The next king, Bahram or Varanes, at first favoured Mani. After getting him to debate with certain Zoroastrian teachers, caused him to be flayed alive, and his skin to be stuffed and hung up. Thereupon most of his followers fled to India and China.[40]
^Boyce, Mary (2001),Zoroastrians: their religious beliefs and practices, Routledge, p. 111,He was Iranian, of noble Parthian blood...
^Ball, Warwick (2001),Rome in the East: the transformation of an empire, Routledge, p. 437,Manichaeism was a syncretic religion, proclaimed by the Iranian Prophet Mani.
^abcdefSundermann, Werner (2009-07-20),"MANI",Encyclopedia Iranica, Sundermann,According to the Fehrest, Mani was of Arsacid stock on both his father's and his mother's sides, at least if the readings al-ḥaskāniya (Mani's father) and al-asʿāniya (Mani's mother) are corrected to al-aškāniya and al-ašḡāniya (ed. Flügel, 1862, p. 49, ll. 2 and 3) respectively. The forefathers of Mani's father are said to have been from Hamadan and so perhaps of Iranian origin (ed. Flügel, 1862, p. 49, 5–6). The Chinese Compendium, which makes the father a local king, maintains that his mother was from the house Jinsajian, explained by Henning as the Armenian Arsacid family of Kamsarakan (Henning, 1943, p. 52, n. 4 = 1977, II, p. 115). Is that fact, or fiction, or both? The historicity of this tradition is assumed by most, but the possibility that Mani's noble Arsacid background is legendary cannot be ruled out (cf. Scheftelowitz, 1933, pp. 403–4). In any case, it is characteristic that Mani took pride in his origin from time-honored Babel, but never claimed affiliation to the Iranian upper class.
^Bausani, Alessandro (2000),Religion in Iran: from Zoroaster to Baha'ullah, Bibliotheca Persica Press, p. 80,We are now certain that Mani was of Iranian stock on both his father's and his mother's side.
^Henning, W.B.,The Book of Giants, BSOAS, Vol. XI, Part 1, 1943, pp. 52–74: "...Mani, who was brought up and spent most of his life in a province of the Persian empire, and whose mother belonged to a famous Parthian family, did not make any use of the Iranian mythological tradition. There can no longer be any doubt that the Iranian names of Sām, Narīmān, etc., that appear in the Persian and Sogdian versions of the Book of the Giants, did not figure in the original edition, written by Mani in the Syriac language."
^J. Tubach and M. Zakeri ‘Mani’s Name,’ in J van Oort, O Wermelinger and G Wurst editors, Augustine and Manichaeism in the Latin West: Proceedings of the Fribourg-Utrecht International Symposium of the IAMS (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 49), Leiden, 2001, pg 274-275.
^abSundermann, Werner (2009-07-20)."MANI".Encyclopædia Iranica. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation. Retrieved2023-03-02.
^Henning, Walter Bruno (1943).The Book of the Giants. University of London. pp. 52–74.It is noteworthy that Mani, who was brought up and spent most of his life in a province of the Persian empire, and whose mother belonged to a famous Parthian family, did not make any use of the Iranian mythological tradition. There can no longer be any doubt that the Iranian names of Sām, Narīmān, etc., that appear in the Persian and Sogdian versions of theBook of the Giants, did not figure in the original edition, written by Mani in the Syriac language.
^W. Eilers (1983), "Iran and Mesopotamia" in E. Yarshater, The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 500: "Mani, a Parthian on his mother's side, was born at Ctesiphon in the last decade of the Arsacid era (AD 216). "
^Hajianfard, Ramin (2016).Mani and the Foundation of Manichaeism: Great Events in Religion: An Encyclopedia of Pivotal Events in Religion History. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 188.ISBN9781610695657.OCLC938999818.
^Widengren, GeoMesopotamian elements in Manichaeism (King and Saviour II): Studies in Manichaean, Mandaean, and Syrian-gnostic religion, Lundequistska bokhandeln, 1946.
^Mani: a religio-historical description of his personality. By L. J. R. Ort. Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1967. pp. 123–124.
^L. J. R. Ort (1967).Ibid Mani: A Religio-historical Description of His Personality. p. 124.Unfortunately the text breaks off after the coming of Mani is mentioned [...] we cannot say if this contained a pronouncement about the final character of Mani's appearance
Amin Maalouf,The Gardens of Light [Les Jardins de Lumière], translated from French by Dorothy S. Blair, 242 p. (Interlink Publishing Group, New York, 2007).ISBN1-56656-248-1
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