Mani

3rd century prophet and founder of Manichaeism

  • Fame59.8
  • Momentum1.4
  • Wikipedia21.4K
Source-basedStable
Lived 216–274, aged 58
AcademicsAcademic
  • Wikipedia
    69 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    216–274
    Aged 58
Summary
Updated 2026-06-08

He built a religion designed to replace all others — fusing Christ, Buddha, and Zoroaster into a cosmic war between light and dark. For three centuries Manichaeism spread from Roman North Africa to Tang China, then vanished almost completely.

Biography

About

Mani was born around April 216 near Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia, then under Parthian rule. He wrote seven major works in Syriac and dedicated an eighth, in Middle Persian, to the Sasanian emperor Shapur I. His synthesis pulled from multiple traditions and claimed universal scope. Bahram I had him imprisoned in Gundeshapur, where he died — sources differ on whether it was March 2, 274, or February 26, 277. The faith he founded would outlive him by centuries before fading into obscurity.

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By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Stable
59.8
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum1.4
Historical24.4
Now attention31.8
Source confidence60.0
Completeness60.0
Global rank
Country rank
Category rank
Receipts

Sources

  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence