ABSTRACT
Mani/Manes or Manichaios/Manichaeus was an Aramaic-speaking visionary, a healer, preacher and public sage. He was born in Mesopotamia ca 216 ce and brought up in a religious community characterized by close adherence to a law of formalized purification, including repeated ritual washing or baptism. In his youth he experienced revelations from a heavenly Twin (variously described as an angel or the paraclete-spirit) so that by the age of 24 he embarked on a life of mission and teaching, declaring himself to be the “Apostle of Jesus Christ.” Mani travelled extensively through the Sasanian Persian empire between the Caucasus and north-west India, while his teachings achieved substantial success, including access to the courts and aristocracy during the reign of Shapur I. Opposition from the Magian hierarchy and a change of imperial policy led to his trial, imprisonment, and death under Bahram I ca 277 ce with the ascendancy of his rival the chief priest Kartir.
