[Mani] used to have recourse to religious knowledge that gave him [unequaled]
piety. He was also so skilled in drawing and making pictures that he used to spread
out a piece of Chinese silk with a length of more than twenty cubits (more than 9
meters), and pick up thekhama, the painter’s brush, and draw a line on the cloth
from the beginning to the end in such a way that the line never went beyond the
edge of a silken thread of the warp. He could draw a circle out of the hand, and
when one put the compass on it, it would exactly coincide with it...
He (Mani) often traveled through the wilder regions of China and its mountains,
and one day he passed by afissure in the mountain leading to a remote cave...
[where he retreated]...He had taken a scroll that resembled paper, but which was
veryfine and completely white. He painted it with remarkable images, and he drew
pictures of every (kind of) demon and crime, such as robbery, fornication, and so
on, and beside the crimes the required punishments and he drew underneath the
illustration of each demon and a picture of what it produces.
Then he came forth from the cave with the illustrated scroll in his hand. He said:
“I have been alone with my Lord, and He has commanded me to establish his
ordinances. This is the book that comes from God Most Exalted!”They looked at it
and saw that a human being would be incapable of producing its like or its equal,
and so they believed him. He named this (scroll)Arthang, and it still exists today in
the libraries of their rulers under the nameArthang of Mani. Its antiquity is
confirmed.^30
Marwazi underscores Mani’s prophecy through the revelation of a book in
a cave, analogous with Quranic revelation. Mani’s replacement of divine
speech offering earthly guidance with a didactic visual text emphasizes the
distinction between the auditory revelation of Islam and the visual revela-
tion of a neighboring religion. Similarly, an anonymous Chaghatai version
describes a work given to Mani in a cave, where he invents pages:“One of
his miracles is that he would cut out twenty ells of silk cloth equally, so that
when one measured them with a rod they would be absolutely the same.”
However, the Artang is held in a box hiding its form:
In India he made idols and led the people astray with his painting. On the way to
China there are many mountains...Finally, he took up residence in a cave. And on
the specified day Mani emerged with a box in his hands. He said,“I declare to you
the commands of the God of Heaven. The thing in my hand is a book (kitab)
revealed by the God of Heaven.”They called the book theArzang of Mani.That
box is still preserved in the treasury of the Chinese emperors...
[When he returned to Iran], Bahram summoned him asked,“What is your
intention and what is your faith?”Mani explained his doctrine and said,“A man’s
spirit is imprisoned inside his body. When his breath is cut off, the bird of his spirit
(^30) Gulácsi, 2015 : 161–162.
Nizami, the Paintings of Mani, and the Mirrors of Suhrawardi 143