[2] In the postclassic Mesoamerican era it was home to the Tutul-Xiu Maya[2] dynasty, which moved their capital here from Uxmal in the 13th century.

[3] Maní served as the main religious center in honor of the deity Kukulcan (Cukulcan, Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl)[4][5] for the Maya with an annual chic kaban[6] festival until 1341.

[8] On 12 July 1562,[9] Friar Diego de Landa, who held the office of inquisitor before the Monastery of San Miguel Arcángel, held an auto de fe Inquisitional ceremony in Maní, burning a number of Maya hieroglyphic books and a reported 5000 idols, saying that they were "works of the devil".

This act and numerous incidents of torture at the monastery were used to speed the mass adoption of Roman Catholicism throughout the region.

[10]Maní was involved in part of the multi-decade conflict in the Guerra de Castas, the Caste War of the Yucatán.