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Manichaeism has a rich tradition of visual art, starting with Mani himself writing Arzhang.
One of Mani's primary beliefs was that the arts (namely painting, calligraphy, and music) were of the same esteem as the Holy Spirit (Middle Persian: Mihryazd), believing that the creation of art was comparable to god's creation of living forms, and therefore the experience of art was more of a divine act than any other in the Universe. Throughout the history of Manichaeism, didactic books of paintings were used to illustrate the religion's teachings and beliefs. From the beginning, the prophet Mani envisioned his religion (which included the teachings of Zarathustra, Buddha, and Christ) as a universal and therefore “Transculturalism” entity, leading to its vast spread from Europe to Asia. The Manichaean mission employed multifaceted means of communication (including oral, textual, and pictorial) so the beliefs may adapt to the variety of cultures it entered. These picture books covered the primary themes of Manichaeism, such as its dualism of light and darkness, maps of a religious universe, the process of human salvation, as well as various Manichaean prophets and deities, and were considered principal pieces of the Manichaean canon.
On the subject of Mani's original paintings, Dr. 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 artManichaean Art in Berlin Collections, "Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum : Series Archaeologica et Iconographica" (vol. 1). Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2001 (The book translated into Persian by Sonia Mirzaie, Tehran: Iranian Academy of Arts, 2023 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.
==Illuminated manuscripts==
Manichaean illuminated manuscripts are best known from a series of four manuscripts found in Gaochang Xinjiang
They were collected in Germany Berlin Asian Art Museum, drawn during the 8th-9th centuries, Was discovered in Xinjiang by German Turpan expedition team in the early 20th century. They are illuminated manuscripts with illustrations on both sides
In addition the Sogdian-language Manichaean letter, also discovered in Xinjiang contains illustrations of two women dancing, it was found in the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves
== Murals, reliefs, and banners ==
Manichaeism has a rich legacy of temple art including Manichaean stone reliefs of Shangwan village, Manichaean temple banner MIK III 6286, Manichaean wall painting MIK III 6918, and Veneration of the Tree of Life
Manichaean temple banner MIK III 6286 and Manichaean wall painting MIK III 6918 were both found by the German Turfan expeditions in Gaochang Xinjiang
Veneration of the Tree of Life was found in Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, also in Xinjiang
The Manichaean stone reliefs of Shangwan village were discovered in Fujian in 2009 and the origins of the Buddha of Light at Cao'an were only rediscovered in the 1920s
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 didcatic 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.Dr. 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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