The Gardens of Light

The Gardens of Light tells the life story of Mani, painter, doctor, and prophet born in Mesopotamia—modern day Iraq—in the early third century of the Christian era. He advocated “The Gospel of Light”—a religious system which was a mixture of Gnostic Christian beliefs, ancient Persian Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and some pagan elements. This came to be known as Manichaeism and attracted vast numbers of disciples. The mystic exercised a powerful attraction over his disciples—rulers and scholars,...