flies out from the breath, and that light is freed from its prison.”Bahram said,“If
that is so, then is death better than life?”Mani replied,“Death conveys a man to
eternal life. This transitory life is bound up with desire and sensuality.”^31
Hearing that Mani preferred death to life, Bahram acts on Mani’s agree-
ment with the former king to be executed upon his return. So he is skinned
alive, stuffed with straw, and hung on the city gate. Although the Chaghatai
author recounts Mani’s dramatic execution and display, the preceding
discussion of Mani’s awareness of not controlling mortality seems to
absolve the artistic presumption of imitating God’s creation. Mani admits
that no amount of painting can grant life.
The Quran describes the only exception to this rule through the double
miracle of Jesus–his birth, and his miraculous ability to give life through
the grace of God:
This is how God creates what He will: when He has ordained something, He only
says,“Be,”and it is...He will send [the son of Mary] as a messenger to the Children
of Israel:“I have come to you with a sign from your Lord: I will make the shape of a
bird for you out of clay, then breathe into it and, with God’s permission, it will
become a real bird.”(Q3:47–49)^32
The miracle is emphasized again:“By my leave, you fashioned the shape of
a bird out of clay, breathed into it, and it became, by my leave, a bird”
(Q5:110).^33 It echoes the description in the Gospel of Thomas the Apostle:
“When He had kneaded soft clay, He wrought thereof twelve birds...Then
Jesus clapped His hands, spoke unto the birds and told them:‘Fly off!’And
the birds spread their wings,flew off, and chirped.”^34 In contrast to
Firdausi’s condemnation, the anonymous narrative affirms Mani’s use of
images by implicating him in his own demise.
Nizami transforms Mani into the artist nonpareil, creator of theArtang,
the book of images depicting the path of the elect to light used by
Manicheans to instruct believers and often appearing as a large image or
scroll that could be viewed by many people.^35 Nizami’s conflation of a wall
with theArtangsuggests knowledge of this specific use, perhaps through
awareness of Manichean wall paintings in nearby regions.
Nizami avoids condemning theArtangby framing its deception within
another, transforming Mani’s painting into a revelation. Implicitly criticiz-
ing the narrowness of his own era, he underscores Mani as a model for
artists of the era of Alexander through a second story about Mani(^31) Gulácsi, 2015 : 167–168. (^32) Abdul-Haleem, 2004 : 38. (^33) Abdul-Haleem, 2004 : 79.
(^34) Barry, 2004 :7. (^35) Klimkeit, 1998 : 274.
144 Seeing through the Mirror