Manichaean scripture

In Mani's view, the unity of religious thought in the past could only be achieved when the founders were alive.

But my religion, however, thanks to its living classics, its preachers, bishops, friars, and laymen, and thanks to its wisdom and writings, will endure to the end.

Existing fragments of scriptures in Coptic, Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, Uighur and other languages have been discovered, but their specific ownership needs to be further studied.

The book was designed to present to Shapur an outline of Mani's new religion, which united elements from Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Buddhism [citation needed].

Original Middle Persian fragments were discovered at Turpan, and quotations were brought in Arabic by Biruni: It is the only work of Mani's not written in Syriac[19] This book is listed as one of the seven treatises of Manichaeism in Arabic historical sources, but it is not among the seven treatises in the Manichaean account itself.

Mani wrote this book in Middle Persian and presented it to Shabur I, the king of Persia, as an outline of the teachings of Manichaeism.

At this point, Mani believes that his religion is superior to the previous ones: "Indeed, all the apostles, my brothers who came before me, did not write a book.