Mani (;"Mani". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. – 2 March AD 274 or 26 February AD 277) was an Iranian.. prophet and the founder of Manichaeism, a religion most prevalent in late antiquity.
Mani was born in or near Ctesiphon (south of modern Baghdad) in Mesopotamia, at the time part of the Parthian Empire. Seven of his major works were written in Syriac, and the eighth, dedicated to the Sasanian emperor Shapur I, was written in Middle Persian.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." He died shortly after being imprisoned by Bahram I in Gundeshapur.
Etymology The exact meaning of the name, or rather title, of "Mani" remains unsolved.O. Klima, Manis Zeit und Leben, Prague, 1962. It may have derived from Babylonian-Aramaic Mânâ [luminescence]. Mandaeans used the term mânâ rabba, which means "Enlightened Lord/King".Arendzen, John (1910-10-01). "Manichæism". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: The Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Ancient Greek interpretations were (, "vessel, instrument") and (, "intercourse, company, communion, instruction").
The same slightly contemptuous "a certain" (Manes quidam) also appears in Hegemonius' 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 an Elchasai community, "Mani" could be a hypocorism of the Hebrew name Menahem ("the consoler" or "comforter").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.
Sources In 1969 in Upper Egypt a Greek parchment codex dating to was discovered. It is now designated Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis because it is conserved at the University of Cologne. Combining a hagiographic account of Mani's career and spiritual development with information about Mani's religious teachings, and containing fragments of his writings, it is now considered the most reliable source of information about the historical Mani.
All other medieval and pre-medieval accounts of his life are either legendary or hagiographical, such as the account in Fihrist by Ibn al-Nadim, purportedly by al-Biruni, or were anti-Manichaean polemics, such as the 4th-century Acta 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 name bašīr, "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.W. Sundermann, "Al-Fehrest, iii. Representation of Manicheism." , Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1999.
Life
This work and other evidence discovered in the 20th century establish Mani as a historical individual.Böhlig, Manichäismus, 5ff. For an updated critique of the standard account and a radically alternative proposal, see Iain Gardner's The Founder of Manichaeism: Rethinking the Life of Mani.Gardner, Iain. The founder of Manichaeism: rethinking the life of Mani. Cambridge University Press, 2020.
Early life Mani was born near Seleucia-Ctesiphon, perhaps in the town of Mardinu in the Babylonian district of Nahr Kutha; according to other accounts in the town Abrumya. Mani's father Pātik (Middle Persian: ;D. N. MacKenzie. A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary. Routledge Curzon, 2005. , Arabic: ), a native of Ecbatana (now Hamadan, Iran), was a member of the Jewish Christian sect of the Elcesaites. His mother was of Parthian descentW. 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). " (from "the Armenian Arsacid family of Kamsarakan".); her name is reported variously, among others Maryam. Mani was closely related on his mother's side to the famous Parthian ruling dynasty, the Arsacids.
Mani was raised in a heterodox environment in Babylon. The Elcesaite community was ostensibly Jewish Christian, though with some Gnostic features due to their Ebionite heritage, such as the belief in recurring incarnations of heavenly apostles, one of whom was a docetic Christ. It is believed that his Christian roots might have been influenced by Marcion and Bardaisan. 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. 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.
Travelling to India Mani then travelled to India (Sakas in present day Afghanistan), where he studied Hinduism and its various extant philosophies, as well as Buddhism. Al-Biruni says Mani only traveled to India after being banished from Persia, but this might be an error or a second journey.
Return from India Returning in 242, Mani presented himself to Shapur I, to whom he dedicated his only work written in Persian, known as the Shabuhragan. Shapur was not converted to Manichaeism and remained Zoroastrian, but he favored Mani's teachings, which mixed Christianity, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism, and took him into his court. Mani is said to have performed miracles, including levitation, teleporting and healing, which helped him to gain converts in the Iranian elite. He was also famed as a painter.
Imprisonment and execution Shapur's successor Hormizd I, who reigned only for one year, continued to patronize Mani, but his successor Bahram I, a follower of the intolerant Zoroastrian reformer Kartir, 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.
Mani's followers depicted Mani's death as a crucifixion in a conscious analogy to the crucifixion 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; however, there is no historical basis for this account.Bevan, A. A. (1930). "Manichaeism". Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Volume VIII. Ed. James Hastings. London. 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.
Works The canon of Mani includes six works originally written in Syriac, and one in Persian, the Shapuragan. 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: the Shabuhragan (Middle Persian), the Book of Giants (numerous fragments in many languages), the Fundamental Epistle (quoted in length by Saint Augustine), a number of fragments of his Living Gospel (or Great Gospel), a Syriac excerpt quoted by Theodore Bar Konai, and his Letter to Edessa contained in the Cologne Mani-Codex. Mani also wrote the book Arzhang, 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.
Teaching
Mani's teaching was intended to "combine", succeed, and surpass the teachings of Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Marcionism, Hellenistic and Rabbinic Judaism, Gnostic movements, Babylonian and other Mesopotamian religions,Widengren, Geo Mesopotamian elements in Manichaeism (King and Saviour II): Studies in Manichaean, Mandaean, and Syrian-gnostic religion, Lundequistska bokhandeln, 1946. and mystery cults. It is based on a rigid dualism of good and evil, locked in eternal struggle, which was a "familiar mytholog[ical]" element of the time in many spiritual traditions that Mani deliberately borrowed.
In his mid-twenties, Mani decided that salvation was possible through education, self-denial, fasting and chastity. According to al-Biruni, a 10th-century Iranian scholar, Mani claimed to be the Paraclete promised in the New Testament, and the Last Prophet.al-Biruni, Muhammad ibn Ahmad; Eduard Sachau ed.; The Chronology of Ancient Nations; p. 190; W. H. Allen & Co.; London: 1879 However according to Lodewijk J. R. Ort, the term last prophet may "in all probability derived from the Quran by al-Biruni in order to formulate Mani's pretensions and religious claims". Therefore Lodewijk J. R. Ort concludes that a definitive pronouncement about the final character of Mani's appearance is not mentioned in Manichaean scriptures.
While his religion was not strictly a movement of Christian Gnosticism in the earlier mode, Mani did declare himself to be an "apostle of Jesus Christ", and extant Manichaean poetry frequently extols Jesus 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 the historical Buddha.
Mani's followers were organized in a church structure, divided into a class of "elects" (electi) and "auditors" (auditores). Only the electi are required to follow the laws strictly, while the auditores care for them, hoping to become electi in their turn after reincarnation.
Christian and Islamic tradition Late Antique Christian accounts in the West The Western Christian tradition of Mani largely comes from St. Cyril of Jerusalem. According to his account, Scythianos, a Saracen, who dwelt in Alexandria and "imitated the life of Aristotle, wrote four books, the first, a Gospel, the second, a book of Chapters, the third a book of Mysteries, and the fourth, a book of Treasure. When Scythianos went to Palestine, God killed him with a disease. However, Scythianos had a disciple, Terebinthus, who travelled to Persia, where he changed his name to Buddas. While he was there, he angered the priests of Mithras, so he took refuge with a widow, he went to the rooftops and summoned the "demons of the air", he was then smote by God, and the widow buried his corpse.
The woman at whose house he lodged buried him, inherited his money, and bought a slave boy named Cubricus. This boy grew up surrounded by philosophers, and when his adoptive mother died, he inherited the surviving books of Scythianos, then travelled into Persia, where he took the name of Manes.St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, Lecture Six, Concerning the unity of God on the article, I believe in one God. Also concerning heresies., Chapters 22-24, p.170