The Church Fathers · c. 242; survives in fragments
The Shabuhragan
Mani · 216–274 or 277
What it is
Mani's own summary of his religion, written in Persian and presented to the emperor Shapur I. It opens with the claim that wisdom has come down through Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus in turn, and has now come complete through the seal of the prophets.
Why it lasted
The only book Mani wrote in Persian rather than Syriac, and the founding statement of a deliberately universal religion built by combining three existing ones — the pattern Islam would later be read against.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
Read next