Iranian painting has always been the stage for showing the stories of poets who have had their hearts in Iranian stories. Throughout history, versions of the poems of precious poets such as Ferdowsi, Nizami, Saadi, Khajovi Kermani, etc. have been depicted. Shahnameh is a great epic work of the famous poet Ferdowsi, visualized many times by Iranian painters. Throughout history, Iranians have respected this great work and passed it down to the next generations. Paying attention to human values, national identity, good and evil, and good and bad have been among the themes of Shahnameh. A large number of Shahnamehs were painted in the Mughal period. The most important Shahnameh commissioned by the Mughal patriarchs in this period was the great Shahnameh recited and illustrated with the names of Ilkhani’s Great Shahnameh, Abu Saidi, Damut, Bahadri, Mostofi, and Rashidi. On the other hand, the Mani religion has been one of the great and challenging religions. Mani’s beliefs were based on good and evil, light and darkness. Manoism believed in the absolute duality between matter and spirit.
Manichaeism, which ultimately led to its founder’s execution, is depicted in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh through Mani’s conversation with Shapur and Mobadan, reflecting Ferdowsi’s perspective in the poem. In the meantime, the artist depicted this picture with the influence of Ferdowsi’s poetry, which was unique in its kind. The question arises regarding how the contrast between Mani and Ferdowsi’s perspectives is depicted in the image of Mani hanging from Ilkhani’s grand Shahnameh. This research is a descriptive-analytical method and data collection has been done in the form of a library and using internet sites. From the obtained results, it seems that Mani was hanged because he thought of mixing different religions and rituals, which did not please the taste of the Shah and the religious people of that time and caused the Shah to resent Mani and the debate between Mani and Mobdan was inconclusive. In Shahnameh, Ferdowsi showed his monotheistic attitude and opposition to dualistic thinking. Therefore, Mani’s hanging was inevitable. In the meantime, the painter tried to show a picture of the execution of Mani, based on this, Ferdowsi had his narrative of the opposition of monotheism and dualism, and the painter only represented Ferdowsi’s poetry.