Mani (prophet)

Prophet
Mani
مانی
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]
Preceded byJesus
Personal
Bornc. April AD 216
Ctesiphon, Parthian Empire[4] (modern-day Iraq)
Died2 March AD 274 or 26 February AD 277[5]
(aged 57–58 or 60–61)
Gundeshapur, Sasanian Empire (modern-day Iran)
Cause of deathDuring imprisonment, or by execution, on the orders of Bahram I
ReligionManichaeism
NationalityIranian
Parent(s)Pātik, Mariam
Citizenship Sasanian Empire
Notable work(s)Manichaean scripture
Organization
Founder ofManichaeism
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Mani[a] (/ˈmɑːni/;[6] c. April AD 216 – 2 March AD 274 or 26 February AD 277) was an Iranian[7][8][9][10] 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,[4] 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.[11] He died shortly after being imprisoned by Bahram I in Gundeshapur.

  1. ^ a b Grenet, Frantz (2022). Splendeurs des oasis d'Ouzbékistan. Paris: Louvre Editions. p. 93. ISBN 978-8412527858.
  2. ^ "Believers, Proselytizers, & Translators The Sogdians". sogdians.si.edu.
  3. ^ GULÁCSI, ZSUZSANNA (2010). "The Prophet's Seal: A Contextualized Look at the Crystal Sealstone of Mani (216-276 C.E.) in the Bibliothèque nationale de France" (PDF). Bulletin of the Asia Institute. 24: 164. ISSN 0890-4464. JSTOR 43896125.
  4. ^ a b Taraporewala, I.J.S., Manichaeism, Iran Chamber Society, retrieved 2015-01-12
  5. ^ SASANIAN DYNASTY, retrieved 2015-01-12
  6. ^ "Mani". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
  7. ^ Boyce, Mary (2001), Zoroastrians: their religious beliefs and practices, Routledge, p. 111, He was Iranian, of noble Parthian blood...
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ Sundermann, 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.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ 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."


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