Page "Manichaeism" Paragraph 9

Mani composed seven writings, six of which were written in Syriac Aramaic.

The seventh, the Shabuhragan, was written by Mani in Middle Persian and presented by him to the contemporary King of Sassanid Persia, Shapur I in the Persian capital of Ctesiphon.

Although there is no proof Shapur I was a Manichaean, he tolerated the spread of Manicheanism and refrained from persecuting it in his empire's boundaries.

According to one tradition it was Mani himself who invented the unique version of the Syriac script called Manichaean script, which was used in all of the Manichaean works written within the Persian Empire, whether they were in Syriac or Middle Persian, and also for most of the works written within the Uyghur Empire.

The primary language of Babylon ( and the administrative and cultural language of the Sassanid Empire ) at that time was Eastern Middle Aramaic, which included three main dialects: Judeo-Aramaic ( the language of the Talmud ), Mandaean Aramaic ( the language of the Mandaean religion ), and Syriac Aramaic, which was the language of Mani, as well as of the Syriac Christians.

" Mani " is a Sanskrit name used in all three Aramaic dialects and therefore common among their speakers.