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Mani (in Persian مانی), born in western Persia (approximately 210a href="276.html" title="276">276 A.D.), was a religious preacher and the founder of Manichaeism, an ancient gnostic religion that was once prolific but now considered extinct. Although the original writings of the founding prophet Mani have been lost, significant portions remain preserved in Coptic manuscripts from Egypt and in later writings of fully-developed Manichaeism in China. Mani was of Persian (Iranian) parentage. Mani's father, Pattig, was from Hamadan and his mother, Maryam, was of the family of the Kamsaragan, who claimed kinship with the Parthian royal house, the Arsacids. Mani first encountered religion in his early youth while living with a Jewish ascetic group known as the Elkasites. After receiving a revelation in his mid-twenties that came from his Syzygos— the accompanying heavenly Twin— he came to a belief that salvation is possible through education, self-denial, vegetarianism, fasting, and chastity. He later claimed to be the Paraclete promised in the New Testament, The Last Prophet and Seal of the Prophets, finalizing a succession of men guided by God, which included figures such as Seth, Noah, Abraham, Shem, Nikotheos, Enoch, Zoroaster, Hermes, Plato, Buddha, and Jesus. During his lifetime, Mani’s earliest missionaries were active in Persia, Palestine and Syria and in Egypt. Neo-Manichaeism is a modern revivalist movement not considered directly connected to the ancient faith but is sympathetic to the teachings of Mani. Until the later 20th century, the life and philosophy of Mani was pieced together largely from remarks by his detractors and from late productions. Then in 1969 in Upper Egypt a Greek parchment codex of ca AD 400, was discovered, which is now designated Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis (because it is conserved at the University of Cologne). It combines a hagiographic account of Mani's career and spiritual development with information about Mani’s religious teachings and contains fragments of his Living (or Great) Gospel and his Letter to Edessa. Mani presented himself as a saviour, the apostle of Jesus Christ’. During his lifetime, Mani’s first missionaries were active in Persia, Palestine, Syria and Egypt. In the 4th- century Manichaean Coptic papyri, Mani was identified with the Paraclete-Holy Ghost and he was regarded as the new Jesus. Mani was an exceptionally gifted child and he inherited his father's mystic temperament. It is said that communications of a supernatural character came to him. He travelled far and wide including Turkistan , India, Iran etc. with many disciples to carry out evangelism. After forty years of travel he returned with his retinue to Persia and converted Peroz, King Shapur's brother to his teaching. Mani, being influenced by Mandaeanism, began preaching at a young age. According to biographical accounts preserved in the 10th-century encyclopedia, the Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim, and by al-Biruni, during his youth, Mani received a revelation from a spirit whom he would later call the Twin, who taught him the divine truths of the religion. During this period, the large existing religious groups, most notably Christianity and Zoroastrianism, were competing for stronger political and social power. Mani also followed the holy books Puran and Kural. Although less in adherents than Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism won the support of high ranking political figures and with the aid of the Persian Empire, Mani would initiate missionary excursions. Mani's first excursion was to the Kushan Empire in northwestern India (several religious painting in Bamiyan are attributed to him), where he is believed to have lived and taught for some time. He is related to have sailed to the Indus valley area of India in 240 or 241 AD, and to have converted a Buddhist King, the Turan Shah of India. On that occasion various Buddhist influences seem to have permeated Manichaeism: "Buddhist influences were significant in the formation of Mani's religious thought. The transmigration of souls became a Manichaean belief, and the quadripartite structure of the Manichaean community, divided between male and female monks (the "elect") and lay follower (the "hearers") who supported them, appears to be based on that of the Buddhist sangha" (Richard Foltz, "Religions of the Silk Road") After failing to win the favor of the next generation, and being disapproved of by the Zoroastrian clergy, Mani is reported to have died in prison awaiting execution by the Persian Emperor Bahram I, while alternate accounts have it that he was either flayed to death or beheaded. It is theorized that the Manichees made every effort to include all known religious traditions. As a result they preserved many apocryphal Christian works, such as the Acts of Thomas, that would have been lost otherwise. Mani was eager to describe himself as a "disciple of Jesus Christ", but the orthodox church rejected him as a heretic. Mani declared himself, and was also referred to, as the Paraclete: a Biblical title, meaning "helper", which the Orthodox tradition understood as referring to God in the person of the Holy Spirit. The title was later applied to Muhammad, founder of the Islamic religion who may have extracted this knowledge about himself from the New Testament and claimed, falsely for non Muslims, to be the last of prophets. Muhammad said that his prophethood was revealed to him by an angel as Mani had claimed about himself. And as Mani claimed to be the successor to prophets like Jesus and other prophets whose teachings he said were locally corrupted (or corrupted by his followers), so too did Muhammad later claim to be the successor to prophets whose teachings he said were locally corrupted. Some fragments of a Manichaean book written in Turkish mention that in 803 the Khan of Uighur Kingdom went to Turfan and sent three Manichaean Magistrates to pay respects to a senior Manichaean cleric in Mobei. A Manichaean tp)tmn of the 8th century from Turfan written in Middle Persian mentions that most of the Khan's kinsmen were devoted to Manichaean faith. The Manichaean manuscripts found in Turfan were written in three different Iranian scripts, viz. Middle Persian, Parthian and Sogdian script. These documents prove that Sogdia was a very important centre of Manichaeism during the early mediaeval period and it was perhaps the Sogdian merchants who brought the religion to Central Asia and China. During the early 10th century Uighur emerged a very powerful empire under the influence of Buddhism with some Manichaean shrines converted into Buddhist temples. However, there was no denying the historical fact that the Uighurs were worshippers of Mani. The Arabian historian An-Nadim informs us that the Uighur Khan did his best to project Manichaeism in the Central Asian kingdom (of Saman). Chinese documents record that the Uighur Manichaean clerics came to China to pay tribute to the imperial court in 934. The envoy of Song Dynasty by the name of Wang visited Manichaean temples in Gaochang. It appears that the popularity of Manichaeism slowly declined after 10th century in Central Asia. Some scholars find that the influence of Manichaeism subtly influences in Christian thought, in the polarities of good and evil and tin he increasingly vivid figure of Satan, partly through the influence of Augustine of Hippo, who converted to Christianity from Manichaeism, and whose writings continue to be enormously influential among Catholic theologians. Mani was ranked #83 in Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history. See also
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