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The Arzhang ( /; ; , meaning "Worthy"), also known as the Book of Pictures, was one of the holy books of Manichaeism. It was written and illustrated by its prophet, Mani, in Syriac language, with later reproductions written in Sogdian language. It was unique as a sacred text in that it contained numerous pictures designed to portray Manichaean cosmogony, which were regarded as integral to the text.
The original Arzhang illustrated by Mani has been lost and its exact content is unknown. However, it is known that its illustrations were of appreciable quality, and copies were preserved in the Middle East as late as 1092 AD, when it is recorded that the library of Ghazni held a copy. Since the discovery of Manichaean artwork during the German Turfan expeditions, scholars began piecing together the style of the Arzhang and reassessed the influence of Manichaean art in general.
On the subject of Mani's original paintings, Zsuzsanna Gulácsi notes that the "paintings were created first in mid-third century Mesopotamia with direct involvement from Mani ... and were later preserved by being copied and adapted to a wide variety of artistic and cultural norms, as the religion spread across the Asian continent." Gulácsi points to the Yuan dynasty-era silk paintings Manichaean Diagram of the Universe and Sermon on Mani's Teaching of Salvation as examples of sinicized variations of Mani's tradition of using a Book of Pictures as a method of teaching, specifically providing insight into the cosmology of the era's Chinese Manichaeism. After the discovery of fragmentary pieces of Uyghur people-Manichaeism art in the ruins of Turfan, Western Regions, scholars began turning to the newly uncovered remains of Manichaean book art in order to assess through the fragments what could resemble the original style of the Arzhang.
The Buddhist practice known as e-toki (絵解き, meaning "picture deciphering, picture explaining") was used by the Japanese Pure Land Buddhists as a method of teaching, beginning in China as early as 931 AD. Etoki performances typically filled halls with vertical scrolls that illustrated the story of the Buddha and various Buddhist principles. Like Buddhism itself, this practice spread into Japan from China. The scrolls also often illustrated the life of Prince Shōtoku, who is credited as the founder of Japanese Buddhism. During the Yuan dynasty and the Ming dynasty (during which the Hongwu Emperor banned Manichaeism in 1370), the Monijiao Manichaeans in southern China became close to the Pure Land Mahayana Buddhists, synthesizing the tradition of didactic illustration that began with the Arzhang with the formal attributes of the hanging scrolls used in e-toki, while also Syncretism Buddhist and Manichaean beliefs.Char Yar. " Monijiao (Manichaeism) in China". academia.edu. Lecture presented at the Worldwide Conference for Historical Research, 2012.
An Islamic account of Mani's life described the prophet as a painter who founded a sectarian movement against the Zoroastrian state religion of Sassanid Empire under Shapur I. Prompted by threats, Mani fled to Turkestan, where he gained followers and painted a few temples (incidentally, a few paintings in Bamyan are attributed to Mani). Mani then spent a year in the solitude of a cave after telling his followers that he was going to heaven. After the year, Mani returned with the Arzhang, which he said he had brought down from heaven. After the death of Shapur, he and a large procession of followers returned to Persia. According to this account, the new king Bahram I received and favored Mani, but he was later flayed alive for his heresies.John M. Robertson, Pagan Christs (2nd ed. 1911), § 14. The Problem of Manichæus, online at http://www.sacred-texts.com In a 16th-century painting by Ali-Shir Nava'i from modern-day Uzbekistan, Mani is shown at the throne Bahram as the king inspects one of the prophet's illustrations.
In Islamic tradition (excluding Ibn al-Nadim's account of Mani's life) Mani is referred to as "Mani the Painter", almost always replacing the topos of "Founder of a Religion".W. Sundermann, " Al-Fehrest, iii. Representation of Manicheism." , Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1999. In addition, Arzhang Div is the name of the daeva (demon) in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh who takes Kay Kāvus to Mazanderan, and whom Rostam defeats in his sixth trial. The word "arzhang" meaning "worthy" in Middle Persian is likely the reason for the shared names, although it is coincidental (if Thomas W. Arnold's theory on the Manichaean origin of Persian miniature painting is correct) that the character of Arzhang first would've been illustrated in the style of the Arzhang.
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