Maani and Manecheism

During Shapur’s reign, a Babylonian man called Maani claimed to be a prophet. Maani was born of a Christian mother and a Zoroastrian father. His religion was a modification of Zoroastrianism mixed with mythology and flavoured by Christian theories. In a short time, Maani’s religion gained a tremendous amount of support throughout the empire, and even Shapur himself accepted his message, maybe trying to rid himself of growing Zoroastrian clerical power. Still, Maani and his teachings were greatly opposed by Zoroastrian priests. They opposed his ideas of instability of world and teachings of rigour and self-discipline. Maani was finally executed under the pressure of priests and all his followers were exiled to eastern Iran, in the present day province of Sin Kiang in China. Many of their scholarly works like transliteration of Sasanian and Parthian texts into their alphabet and also translations of major works of literature into Pahlavi and Soghdi have been of great use to archaeologists.

The reign of Shapur’s son’s and grandson’s until 302 was spent mostly between wars with Rome and reforms in the country. During the reign of Shapur’s son Vahram I and his son Vahram II, Tansar, the High Priest, became the most powerful person in the empire as a result of the victory over Maani and also extreme religiosity of Hormozd I. Tansar created a Zoroastrian priestly class which controlled the administration of religious properties independently of the central government. He also was the emperors’ top advisor as he mentions in his inscription on the walls of Kaaba of Zaratushter. Tansar gained so much power that he is pictured behind the emperor in a bas-relief in Naghsh-e Rajab, at the moment that the emperor is receiving his crown from the god.

Hormozd II, son and successor of Narsi I and a grandson of Shapur I took his turn on the throne in the year 302. Hormozd is described as the most pious of Sasanian emperors. His short and uneventful reign was an era of peace and prosperity, and maybe a temporary quite period for the terrible reign of his son, Azar Narsi.

Azar Narsi, shoulder to shoulder with the Achaemenid Artakhshir III and the Roman Emperor Caligula, stands on top of the mountain of cruel rulers. During his incredibly short reign from March to August of 309, he managed to slaughter almost all of his courtiers and most of his relatives, putting himself above Artakhshir III and just coming short of Caligula’s achievements. It was when he attempted to kill his pregnant step-mother that he saw his end. Fed up with his red coloured antics, the coutiers took the upper hand and let him taste the taste of his own sword.

Hormozd’s pregnant widow was saved, and a crown was placed on his belly, electing his unborn son as the next emperor. Lucky for the courtiers, the queen managed to give birth to a son whom she called Shapur. She later married Vahram, the ruler of Kushan kingdom and a vassal of Sasanians, proving that queen’s need not to stay widowed forever.