He was executed about 276 CE, and his death apparently was followed by persecution of his adherents.
At least seven works have been ascribed to him, including the Shapurakan, another work titled "The Living Gospel," and the Epistula Fundamenti, which, on the evidence of Augustine, was used by north African Manichaeans as a handbook of doctrine. To these some Western authorities add the Kephalaia, which is extant in Coptic. Resources for the study of Manichaeism—once limited to the information supplied by such opponents as Augustine and Titus of Bostra and to excerpts in the works of Theodore bar Konai, in Hegemonius's Acta Archelai, and in such Arabic sources as the Fihrist of En-Nadim—had in the twentieth century been enriched by discoveries of original Manichaean documents in Turkestan and Egypt. The fragments discovered at Turfan include texts in several Iranian dialects, Turkish, and Chinese, while the Egyptian discovery includes Coptic versions of the Kephalaia, a psalmbook, and a collection of homilies.
The System of Mani
The chief characteristic of Mani's system is a consistent dualism that rejects any possibility of tracing the origins of good and evil to one and the same source. Evil stands as a completely independent principle against Good, and redemption from the power of Evil is to be achieved by recognizing this dualism and following the appropriate rules of life.
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