by Amin Maalouf
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Product Description
The Gardens of Light tells the life story of Mani, painter, doctor, and prophet born in Mesopotamia--modern day Iraq--in the early third century of the Christian era. He advocated "The Gospel of Light"-a religious system that was a mixture of Gnostic Christian beliefs, ancient Persian Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and some pagan elements. This came to be known as Manichaeism and attracted vast numbers of disciples. The mystic exercised a powerful attraction over his disciples-rulers and scholars, itinerant merchants, shippers, Baptists and sages who inhabited the shores of the Tigris-and was hated by the Magi, the high priests of Zoroastrianism who felt threatened and eventually had him imprisoned, tortured, and killed in 276 AD. Amin Maalouf brings life and color to the character and times of Mani. In the pages of The Gardens of Light, Mani's cry for tolerance can be heard echoing across the centuries of our times.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Enlighting Story and a parable for all time., 2008-10-11
"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.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Another masterpiece from Maalouf., 2008-05-29
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.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 It could have been so much more..., 2008-04-13
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...
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 The life of Mani put to novel, 2007-07-02
Maalouf always the humanist presents us with the life of Mani in the form of historical novel. Well written he brings to life the ancient East during this turbulant era of its history even the odd little bit previously unknown history (such as the Syrian or 'Arab' Ceasar (Even though Syria was not Arab at the time!))
His books are always a pleasent read, this is no exception.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
A light, beautiful tale of Mani..., 2007-03-21
...founder of Manichaeism, from his first encounters with his inner voice, his first communications with God. He founded a popular religion in Iran while making alliances with the rulers and suggesting a sort of pantheism, embracing aspects of Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism. Well-written and short, but certainly interesting.
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