"The Gardens of Light"

Prophet, painter, conscience-waker

"The Gardens of Light" introduces Mani, a third-century Babylonian prophet who founded the now-extinct Manichean religion and who preached nonviolence and tolerance across the Middle East. Very little about him has survived the passage of time, so Amin Maalouf dramatized his life and times in this work of historical fiction:

This book is dedicated to Mani. It [tries] to recount his life, or what can still be made out after so many centuries of lies and oblivion.

Minor spoilers below.

Mani was raised among the White-Clad Brethren, a particularly ascetic Christian sect concerned with purity through self-denial. As a boy, he has a vision of a mystic twin who tells him God's will is the creation of beauty and light, not rules and rituals and restrictions. After a final argument with the leaders of the Brethren, he sets out "to make a cry resound throughout the world" —

— a cry for peace, not war; for brotherhood between Zoroastrians and Christians, Buddhists and Jews; for recognition of the divine spark present in every doctrine exhorting people to embrace goodness and become their best, most holy selves. The rest of the novel describes Mani's travels and travails in his quest to befriend kings and become the conscience of an empire.

Interestingly, as the centuries have passed, "Manichean" has become an insult. Here are some examples from around the web:

• In the Manichean worldview, the end completely justifies the means, no questions asked. In the "good" world, there is no moral responsibility whatsoever. Just belonging to the "right faction" gives you total free reign.
• We must not insult the Creator by supposing, like the Manichean heretics, that the food he created is evil in itself.
• People with a Manichean mindset can't believe that not everyone thinks the way they do.
• The more insidious type of fallacious argument is black/white, or Manichean, thinking. Anyone who has studied propaganda will tell you that purveyors of that dark art work hard to eliminate nuance, and force "with us or against us" choices on people when the options are almost without exception more complex.
• What [George W. Bush] leaves behind, as Greenwald documents, is best described as a Manichean mindset, a simplistic and dangerous mental state which has spread like a disease to our media, the public and a great number of our government leaders from both parties.

It's an interesting contrast to the highly sympathetic picture that Maalouf paints. On balance, Mani's beliefs are surprisingly modern ones, and it amazes me that they could have gained such traction in antiquity. Less surprising is the controversy his successes caused among the ruling castes, particularly the Zoroastrian fire priests thirsting for power and conquest. I suppose Manichaeism and politics have been intertwined since the beginning.

My highly subjective rating: beautifully written and thought-provoking, "The Gardens of Light" evokes a time and place to which scant attention is paid in a way that will resonate with modern readers. Highly recommended.