mani

Mani was a 3rd-century CE Persian prophet and the founder of Manichaeism, a major religious movement that sought to synthesize elements of a number of faiths and spread widely across the ancient world. The historical details of his life are drawn from later sources and vary in emphasis, but he is generally placed in the Sassanian Empire in Mesopotamia and is believed to have presented himself as a final prophet echoing earlier religious figures.

Manichaeism, ascribed to Mani, is characterized by a dualistic cosmology in which light and truth are locked in a perennial struggle against darkness and deceit. The religion teaches that knowledge and ethical living can liberate light from the material world. Mani claimed to receive revelations that incorporated and reinterpreted aspects of contemporaneous traditions, including Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Judaism. The movement organized communities of lay followers and ascetic practitioners and produced scriptures in multiple languages.

Mani’s teachings rapidly attracted followers and established a network that extended along the Silk Road, reaching parts of the Roman Empire, Central Asia, and, according to some sources, even China. After his death, Mani’s successors continued to propagate Manichaeism for several centuries, but the movement faced sustained persecution from both Sassanian authorities and later states in Christian and Islamic spheres. The religion gradually declined, though it persisted in various forms in different regions and left a lasting imprint on religious thought, including references in early Christian polemics and in East Asian sources.

The name Mani has been rendered in various languages and contexts; it is commonly associated with the figure who purportedly conveyed a universal, salvation-centered message suitable for diverse audiences.