THE PROPHET OF LIGHT: The Rise and Disappearance of Manichaeism, the Forgotten World Religion
A prophet executed. A global religion forgotten. A mystery rediscovered.
In The Prophet of Light: The Rise and Disappearance of Manichaeism, the Forgotten World Religion, historian Adam Langweiler uncovers the extraordinary true story of Mani, the 3rd-century Persian visionary whose universalist faith once stretched from North Africa to China-only to be hunted, outlawed, and almost completely erased.
For over a thousand years, Manichaeism was one of the most widespread and influential religions on Earth, rivaling early Christianity and Buddhism in reach, complexity, and ambition. Its followers included emperors, merchants, monks, and scholars. Its scriptures were translated into a dozen languages. Its art adorned temples from Egypt to Mongolia. And its final prophet, Mani, dared to weave together the wisdom of East and West into a single, borderless faith.
Then it vanished.
Drawing on recent archaeological discoveries, long-lost manuscripts, Chinese imperial records, Roman edicts, and Middle Persian inscriptions, Langweiler reveals:
The dramatic life and imprisonment of Mani, whose teachings threatened the power of empires.
How Manichaean missionaries crossed deserts, mountains, and imperial borders, spreading the Religion of Light along the Silk Road.
Why Rome, Persia, and later the Islamic world feared and suppressed the faith with remarkable persistence.
How the religion survived for centuries in Egypt, Central Asia, and China before dissolving into history.
The astonishing modern rediscovery of Manichaean texts and art buried in desert sands for a millennium.
The quiet but enduring legacy of Mani's ideas in modern philosophy, politics, literature, and global religious thought.
Epic in scope and grounded in rigorous scholarship, The Prophet of Light is both a historical investigation and a meditation on the fragility of great ideas. It brings to life the rise and fall of a religion that once connected continents-only to be forgotten until our own time.
Perfect for readers of Yuval Noah Harari, Tom Holland, Bart D. Ehrman, and Peter Frankopan, this book illuminates one of the most remarkable stories in world history:
how a faith could spread across the known world-
shape the cultures of three empires-
and still disappear almost without a trace.
A lost religion. A rediscovered past.
A story that challenges everything we think we know about history.
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