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Gardens of Light

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The Gardens of Light is the sort of book which lingers in one's mind long after he has set it down. A historical novel, it reconstructs the life and trials of Mani, the true life third century prophet of a new religion, Manichaeism. A sophisticated religion which sees "light" and "darkness" in all things, and creation itself the product of their mixture, Manichaeism is unique in that it respects all religions and their prophets, whether Jesus or the Buddha. The title itself is an allusion to mani's conception of heaven, a "garden of light."

Beautifully written in verse which at times reads like poetry, the story recounts Mani's life from the time he was raised by a fanatical group of Nazarine monks in Mesopotamia to his ultimate martyrdom. Along the way he forms an unusual alliance with Shapur, the great King of Kings of Persia. the book is fascinating for the glimpse it gives of the ancient Persian court, and the relationship Mani forms with Shapur... how Shapur accepted mani's teachings, since Mani taught tolerance and harmony. Shapur shared these goals, but not merely because of his character - such a religion would help bind the various peoples of his vast empire together, much as Constantine adopted Christianity to help unite his. And here lies the true beauty of this book - it's exploration of what motivates men of power, and of faith. Ultimately, Mani's true story is a meditation on the nature of beauty, faith, and tolerance.

Never ever boring, The Gardens of Light will introduce the reader to strange religions, important historical personages such as Shapur, and exotic places such as the Persian Empire and India in the third century. I consider the time I spent reading this book to have been uplifting and educational. I highly recommend this book.

I read Amin Malouf's historical novel "The Gardens of Light" after reading Paul Kriwackek's high praise for it in his recent book about Zoroastrianism, "In Search of Zarathustra: Across Iran and Central Asia to find the Worlds' First Prophet." Maalouf has written a rare book about a historical period and figure that will be obscure to many readers. He has told an inspring story that may keep readers awake through many a late night.

"The Gardens of Light" was Maalouf's first novel. He is a Lebanese author who writes in French and now lives in France. The book has been ably translated by Dorothy Blair who also provides a useful chronology of Mani's times. I am told by a friend who reads French that Maalouf writes in a highly formalized, literary style unusual among current French authors.

Mani (216-274 A.D.) was a Persian prophet and mystic, the founder of a teaching known as Manichaenism, which attracted many followers, East and West, for centuries before dying out. Little is known of Mani's life. But Maalouf has woven a beautiful story of Mani which integrates the sparse details of his life with a history of the dynasties of Persia. Maalouf's book is a meditation on religion, philosophy and art. His novel shows the dualism -- the belief that the world is a battleground between forces of good and pure light and evil and that it is man's work to strive for the triumph of good -- that was Mani's most famous (and notorious) teaching. Maalouf also shows Mani as a syncretist -- a thinker who tries to combine the best of a number of seemingly disparate religious systems. In Mani's case, his doctrine is primarily a synthesis of Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Christianity. Maalouf also shows Mani as a pacifist, artist,vegetarian, and follower of the life of the intellect.

In Maalouf's telling, Mani spends most of the first 24 years of his life in a small Christian ascetic community known as the Palm Grove of the White Clad Bretheren. Mani's father, Patek, had abandoned his pregnant wife, Mariam, to join the Bretheren, and Mani is abducted as an infant to live in the Palm Grove. He reads in the library, learns of his genius as an artist, and hears prophetic voices from his "other" which precipitate his leaving the Order at the age of 24.

Mani begins spreading his message of peace, the equality of religions, toleration, dualism, and beauty. He travels to India and forms a friendship with Hormisdas, the liberal-minded younger son of the Sassnian ruler, Shapur. He also incurrs the lasting enmity of the priestly caste and of Bahram, Hormisdas' older brother. The Persian King Shapur grants Mani an audience, allows him to preach, and the two form a tortured and difficult friendship, as Mani's message becomes entangled with a well-meaning ruler and with war and the ways of the world. The favor Mani enjoys comes to an end with the ascension of Bahram to the throne, following Shapur's death and the assassination of Hormisdas. Many is tortured and put to death.

This book gives an excellent picture of the Persian dynasty, readily accessible to those with no background in this area. There is an intriguing treatment of the relationship between Persia and the latter Roman Empire. Maalouf also offers a nuanced picture of Zoroastrianism, noted by Paul Kriwackek in his study. But the book is ultimately about Mani and his message and his failed dream. As Maalouf portrays it, Mani's vision retains its power to stimulate the mind and move the heart. The teachings of beauty, mind, peace, and religious synthesis will remain in the reader's mind long after completing this outstanding novel.

Robin Friedman

Maalouf's historical novel brims with insight into the ideas and times of the religious leader Mani. I had studied historians'conclusions on the prophet, and much of the minimalist period evidence available as compiled by GRS Mead. But this novel brought those belief systems to life in new and fascinating ways. A bold project, artfully executed. Read and enjoy.

Maalouf's glorious novel vivifies the age and the mind of the prophet, Mani. The Roman Empire is weak. Persian kings are intermittently strong. The deserts, oases, gardens, roads and cities brim with the excitements of new ways of thinking and new ways of living. Christianity, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, the followers of Mani, and other communities of shared belief, vie not just for converts, but for existence.

Military power, Roman or Persian, will nurture only a faith conducive to a perpetuation of that power. The thought of Mani, gloriously, fosters universal tolerance of belief and worship, in a world obsessed with the dominance and mastery of one, one power, one faith, one way. Those who create the powerful seem as crookedly straight as those who bear the power. Mani has concerns greater almost than power.

This novel portrays a tremendously vivid and vital world of merchants, kings, priests, powers and places. Maalouf admirably ranges the Mediterranean and Middle East and with his central character, Mani, (portrayed sympathetically but not over-indulgently so) aims not for mass conversion but for understanding and education. The fluctuation in support that Mani receives from his most powerful admirers seems to genuinely express the fickle nature of the relationship that exists between wisdom and power.

Maalouf has authored a fine historical novel that avoids at all times plodding plotting and tedium. With plausible characters, relationships, ideas, and a clear appreciation for the subject, the author has made this novel an opportunity for a meaningful reading experience of high quality.

The title of my review might be misleading, this is not an actual biography. This is a story, a story about one of the most elightened yet obscure prophets the world has ever seen. As far as history is concerned, there is not that many records left about Mani. But this book is as historically accurate as you can get. My name is Mani and I had always wondered about Mani the prophet, his teachings, and his lifestory. This book brings all of those elements together.

As far as the story and the plot of the book go, it is an incredible journey of self-discovery and internal battles. Mani's life is far from the ordinary and the story was so good that I finished this book in a week. The language of the story is also beautiful and describes the era and Mani's journeys masterfully.

My only complaint is that the author had focused more on Mani's painting talents. But besides that, this book is a great story and although a lot of the conversations might be the fabrications of author's imagination, if you want to know more about Mani or just about ancient Iran this book is a great place to start.

Mani A.

"I sometimes wonder if it is not the Prince of Darkness who inspires religions, with the sole aim of distorting the image of God." These are the words which Amin Maalouf puts into the mouth of the founder of Manicheanism, the second-century sage Mani, in his book THE GARDENS OF LIGHT (p. 83). He has good reason. Consider how the religion of Christ had first offered hope to the oppressed of the Roman Empire, only to be embraced by the Roman emperors and transformed into a force for oppression, which would eventually crush Mani's heirs in the bloody Albigensian Crusade. Think of Zoroastrianism, the first "Manichean" or dualistic religion, which ended up erecting a tyrannical priesthood and murdering its greatest heir. Think of the Buddhists, who seek to end human suffering by and avoidance of confrontation with the authors of that suffering and an escapist quest for nirvana.

In contrast to these varied examples of religion gone astray, Maalouf presents a very appealing portrait of Mani. As a man who was raised as an Arab Christian in Lebanon, the most religiously diverse of Middle Eastern countries, he brings a unique perspective to bear on his subject. As an historian, whose excellent THE CRUSADES THROUGH ARAB EYES I have already reviewed for Amazon, he is well-qualified for the task of revealing the true history of this little-known and misunderstood figure. The reader is drawn in by the singularity of Mani's birth as the son of the member of a fundamentalist sect, who is seized from his distraught mother as soon as he is weaned to be raised in a community of dour puritans. Despite the absence of any joy in God's creation or aesthetic appreciation in this community, the limping boy grows up to be an excellent painter, who believes that "all beauty is a reflection of His beauty" (p. 48). Despite the intolerance of his father's sect, he teaches toleration and an end to religious bigotry, to religions which preach hatred and "only show their solidarity by confrontations with others." (p. 142) Though an heir of one of the highest Parthian castes, Mani says, "In my eyes neither race nor caste exists" (p. 80), and "It is only through the Light within him that a man is great" (p.148). By "the Light within," Mani means the soul, which is an emanation of the God of Light. But even when he attains a following which includes the King of the Great Sassanian Empire of Persia, Mani knows all to well the strength of the forces of Darkness. Thus he refuses to accompany the Great King on his campaign to subdue the Roman Empire, preferring to listen to his own conscience. That conscience, which expresses itself as a "Twin" who speaks words of wisdom to him, reveals the essence of the Manichean relgion in the following words, drawn from it by the eternal question, "Is God omnipotent"?

"How could he be simultaneously good and all-powerful? Is it he who created leprosy and war? Is it he who lets children die and the innocent be ill-treated? Is it he who created the Prince of Darkness and his world?... If he could destroy him at one blow, would he not do so? If he does not wish to destroy the realm of Darkness, it is because he is not infinitely good; if he wishes to destroy it and cannot do so, then he is not infinitely powerful... It is to man that he has entrusted the creation. IT IS UP TO HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE TO FORCE THE DARKNESS TO RETREAT." (p. 128)

This seems to me the only religious creed which is genuinely ACTIVIST, the only one which can make sense of the world, of Mani's own martyrdom and that of Jesus, whom he reveres. Why did Jesus die? To "save our souls" as is often heard? As if God cares about the petty sins of which most people are guilty! As if He would condemn innocent people, or those who have not known or understood His word, to everlasting damnation! No, surely, Jesus died in order to show that the soul, "the Light within", is eternal, so that we might have the courage to confront our oppressors. However, Mani's words and actions in Maalouf's book leave an essential question unanswered: How is one to confront evil?

It is easy to understand Mani's reaction to Shapur's invitation to go along with him on his military campaign, with the promise of conversion if Mani assents: "My words shall shed no blood. My hand shall bless no blade." (p. 184) But history, and Maalouf, have spared Mani the necessity of responding to the following all-too-common dilemma: what if an innocent being, or an entire people, are groaning under an oppressor's yoke? What if one can "force the Darkness to retreat" only by shedding of the blood of one who is, to use the term which Mani turns against his enemy, the Magus Kerder, "a two-legged wolf"? Maalouf, like the majority of Neo-Manicheans, has dodged this eternal objection to pacifism. To be sure, the taking of innocent lives is always wrong. To be sure, it is best to atone for the taking of any life by the surrender of one's own. But are there not circumstances in which personal martyrdom must be combined with the striking down of oppressors?

That is my one objection to Maalouf's book. But there is hope in it as well. For those of use who reject pacifism, Mani's message is clear: to serve the God of Light by fighting evil here on earth, by whatever means are necessary. For although He may be everlasting in the World Beyond, as John F. Kennedy-- perhaps himself a martyr-- said in his inaugural address, "Here on earth, God's work must truly be our own."

... for anyone interested the politics of religion and the emergence of a new religion. It certainly has the makings of a good movie script.

I confess to a certain bias towards Mani since my Swiss-German ancestors bore that name.

"Why can't we all get along"... All the religions that is. This has been a theme and a question that every sensible human being has asked for as long as humanity can remember. This is why we have listened and believed in those humanitarian prophets. Mani was one of them... This major second century prophet only survives in one very diminutive word Manicheism.

Amin Maalouf is a master at recreating dead worlds for our imagination to visit for a while.

He took us to to exotic places like 15th century southern Spain during the Reconquista with Leo Africanus or the 19th century in the Otoman empire with The Rock of Tanios which received the highest literary prize in France in 1993.

This is yet another masterpiece from Amin Maalouf on the middle-eastern history. Amin is a master story-teller on fictions based on middle age history of the middle-east. This book tells the history of Mani the prophet. However, I must concide that Maalouf is not his best in this book as he is in Leo The Africanus or Samarkand. And the translation is also not good.

Having had my hopes dashed by Samarkand and then this book, I have given up on Maalouf for the time being. The subjects he chooses for his historical novels are fascinating (Omar Khayyam, Mani, the founder of the Manicheans,) but his stories are flimsy and left me unsatisfied. They don't offer enough depth of characterization and plot development to be great literature (and they are on the short side, which precludes them from being the awesome historical epics they could be.) And although somewhat informative, they don't offer enough historical detail to make up for in teaching power what they lack in literary craft. This book on Mani was a teasing taste of just how cool a really great book on such an obscurely fascinating character could be. Gore Vidal, if you are reading this...