The book "Gardens of Light" is the story of Mani, a forgotten figure, yet his name is still, paradoxically, on everyone's lips. When we mention the word Manichaean or Manichaeism, we rarely think of that person from Mesopotamia, the painter, doctor, and prophet, who in the 3rd century AD had a new vision of the world, deeply humanistic and so daring that it soon became the subject of relentless persecution by all religions and empires. Why such fervor? What sacred barriers had Mani demolished? What prohibitions had he violated? "I came from Babylon," he said, "to make a cry echo to the ends of the world."

More than ever in this unenlightened era of ours, his cry deserves to be heard. And his face to be rediscovered. This book is dedicated to Mani, it tells his life. His life, or what one can still guess from his life, after so many centuries of falsehood and oblivion.