Empson Peacock Angel

THE CULT OF THE
PEACOCK ANGEL
IMAGE OF THE PEACOCK

(Frontispiece)
THE CULT OF THE

PEACOCK ANGEL
''
'
SHORT ACCOUNT Q&

YEZIDI
R. H.
W. EMPSON
V.
WITH A COMMENTARY BY
SIR
RICHARD CARNAC TEMPLE,

C.B., F.B.A., F.S.A:,
HON! VICE-PRES. R.A.S.
ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
LONDON
H.
F.
326
gP G. WITHERBY
HIGH HOLBORN, W.C.
IQ28
BART.,
IMAC.K
Hi-
Tin'.
ru.\o>CK
THE CULT OF THE

PEACOCK ANGEL
A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE
YEZIDI TRIBES CF KURDISTAN
BY
R. H.
W. EMPSON
WITH A CO\01ENTARY BY
SIR

C.B., F.B.A., F.S.A.,
HON. VICE-PRES. R.A.S.
ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
LONDON
H.
F.
326
ftf
G.
WITHERBY
HIGH HOLBORN, W.C.

IQ28
BART.,
HP
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Printed for Messrs. //. ^\

G. Witherby by
Northumberland Press Ltd.^ Newcastle-upon-T^ne
*>
PREFACE
THE few pages
contained
in
volume are
this
the outcome of curiosity aroused in myself

the ancient faith of the
based on a
little
visit to their
known Yezidi
.as
to
tribes,
strongholds and amplified
by a little research amongst the existing literature

on the subject. A certain amount of local gossip
has been included and a few deductions drawn
from
the
little
information
available
origin of these remarkable people

their lives
to
the
their rites,
being so far removed from the march of
civilization.
From
a study of the Yezidis
be appreciated that
Melak
and
as
the
followers
it
will
themselves of
Peacock Angel, are unable

(perhaps unwilling) to throw much light on their
ancient history, and that it has been left to
Ta'us,
the
Christians
and Muhammadans
nebulous
theories
in
to crystallize certain
connection
must, therefore, suffice for us to
therewith.
know
religion has survived the vicissitudes of

7
"*>
It
that the
.at
least a
CULT OF THE PEACOCK ANGEL
thousand years
and, although the numbers of the
Yezidis have lately been

in
the
worship
reduced, their faith
Devil
the
of
unchanged by the
much
remains
serenely
conflict of the claims of three
of the great world religions which surround them.
The manuscript
of
book was
this
completed at Baghdad, and

arrival
London
in
interesting
subject.
that
it
virtually
was not
until
my
came across a most
book by Dr. Isya Joseph on the same

have, therefore, to some extent altered
the chapter dealing with the origin of these tribes

in
view of
this
American
of the theories already
His own contention

research,
original
The
and
is,
is
writer's careful analysis
advanced in
this
respect.
evidently the result of
so far as
am
much
aware, entirely an
one.
shown
photograph
as
frontispiece
represents a steel figure (originally in three pieces)

of a peacock, standing
on a
plinth, partly inlaid
with antimony on the body and the
tail
expanded
and ornamented with human and animal

in
the
lobed
alternately),
border
busts
(human
and the head gilt with
The image, which
is
35 J inches high,
figures
and
deer
turquoises.
is
said to
have been used by the Yezidi tribes of the district

of Halitiya, and to have come in 1882 from their
PREFACE
Dahadia
at
Temple
Kurdistan.
It
near
Diarbekr
Persian
of
is
9
in
origin,
North
and was
Museum by Mr. Imre
presented to the British
Schwaiger of Calcutta in 1912. It is reproduced

by kind permission of the Trustees of the British
Museum.
An
illustration
a peacock
of
resembling the
one shown appears facing page 39 of Anthropos,
Volume VI
accompanying an
(1911),
Pere Anastase Marie, entitled,
"
article
La decouverte
recente des deux livres sacres des Yezidis."
peacock, which
is
of iron,
Reshid Pasha in 1837.
is
It
'Ali,
Christian
who
called
sold
is
Mussulman
a few years later to a rich
Futhu'llah Abbud.
only of this peacock

I
it
This
one of four stolen by

found its way into an
antique shop in Baghdad, kept by a
named
by
The
base
of slightly different design.
have heard of only two other symbols, outside
One is now in the possession of

Mr. J. W. Dowden of Edinburgh, and the other
is in the State Museum of
Jeypore (Jaipur) in
a Yezidi shrine.
India.
I
have
to
thank Mr. Kenneth MacKenzie, Mr.
T. Spencer James and Mr. E. N. Fallaize for

their suggestions; and Squadron Leader G. S.
Trewin and Captain A. I. Sargon for their help
io
and
at
interest in the expedition to the

;
Sheikh Adi.
am
Holy Temple
also indebted to
Squadron
Leader V. R. Scriven and to Mr. A. Riley for

the reproduction of certain photographs, to the late
Miss Gertrude Bell
for additional facts concerning
and to
the Temple,
on the
past writers
certain
subject of Devil Worship.
On my
return
to
Oriental
England I visited the

and the Department of
Department
Ceramics and Ethnography
whose
J.
asked
return,
Museum,
wish to thank for their courtesy,
Mr. H.
particularly
my
officials
at the British
Braunholtz.
Richard
Sir
comment on my remarks, and
Further, after
Temple
as he did
to
so at
considerable length, with the object of adding as
much
as he could to the general
Yezidis,
as a
have appended his
knowledge of the
observations to mine
Commentary on my own
researches.
This Commentary has raised the question of

the
spelling
Richard
is
of
Temple remarked
differently
European
proper
Muslim names and words.
pronounced
nations
names,
characters
are
using
and
so
to
by
the
me
both
Arabic
Asiatic
language
accordingly
differently
that
the
Sir
and
and
its
Arabic
transliterated
by
Europ'ean scholars, that each writer has practically
PREFACE
to adopt his
own
ii
Thus, the name of the
spelling.
founder of Islam has been variously represented

in
Roman
Muhammad, Mahommed,
characters as
Mahomet, Mehemet, Mammet
more
all
or less
accurately representing a formal pronunciation of

the
name,
spelt
and
Shefket
In
these
also
the
represent
fairly
same
the
of
So
m-h-m-d.
Arabic,
Shauqat both
pronunciation
sh-w-q-t
in
Arabic
characters,
so do Evliya and Aulia represent Aw-l-ya.
he
circumstances
has
adopted
his
in
Commentary the spelling used for half a century

in his own journal, the Indian Antiquary, and by
In order, too, that the
the Government of India.
reader shall not be unduly puzzled,
the
same spelling wherever

been avoided,
however,
has,
known names
have adopted
possible.
and
Pedantry
certain
well-
are spelt as they are usually known,
Diarbekr,
Yezidi,
e.g.,
Sheikh, Medina, Mecca,
Reshid
Pasha,
Zemzem and
Jebel,
In
so on.
Melak Ta'us, Melak Isa and the

have adopted Melak as I heard the
the spelling of
like,
name pronounced
distinguished
it
mean "angel" and
to
from Malik,
though in Arabic script there

the
characters
Wetnhiyun,
used,
have
m-l-k.
left
the
"
lord
is
thus
or master,"
no difference
in
Also in the name
name
as I found
it
in
12
the
work
quoted, though Sir Richard
pointed out that
it
Temple has
must represent Watn Haiyun or
Watnu'l-Haiyun, the Land of the Serpents.

Sir Richard Temple has not always adopted
my own or my authorities' explanations, but I do
not look on this as a misfortune,
before us
which
to get at the truth,
is
as the object
is
often
accomplished by noting and eventually reconciling

differences of views on matters still but imperfectly
For
known.
this
reason he has not interfered with
any opinions expressed by myself.

A few further remarks are necessary as to the
title
of this
book
Melak Ta'us.
"
"
the Peacock Angel, representing
In the
word melak,
by me, we find ourselves
angel
worst of the
many enigmas
and
as a language,
in
to
me on
Arabic
one of the
in
that Arabic presents
cannot do better than quote
the following observations Sir Richard
made
translated
this point
"
:
Temple has
The word
spelt m-l-k
variously pronounced as malk, melk>
is
milk and mulk, and then means fundamentally

'
These
property.'
characters
m-l-k
are
pronounced as malik, melik and then mean

possessor of property, lord, master, king.'
also
'
the
They
pronounced malak, melek, melak and

Malaku'1-Maut is the Angel
then mean angel.'
are further
'
of Death,
PREFACE
13
Then
again ma-l-k, pro-
'Azra'il.
i.e.
nounced mdlik, malaky plural amlak, and also

Maliki-Maliku'Imalak, means
lord,
king.'
*
Mulk means
i.e.,
God.
'
of
King
There
forms and senses of
are further intricacies of the

this terrible
not be gone into here."
"Melak
Angel,"
(or
especially
Melak)
as
word which need
In view of the above
remarks, Sir Richard thinks

title,
the Kingdom,'
of
Kings
am
justified in
Ta'us,
any Arabic
the
my
Peacock
used by the
Yezidis would be a local dialect.

It is in
the hope that these pages
some small use
to
and strange customs,

theological
in
interest,
endeavouring
to
students
may be
of
of
strange peoples
that, apart
from any purely
must excuse
justify
their
my
temerity
inclusion
on a
bookshelf.
R. H.
W.
E.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE
PART
.'
.7
CHAP.
I.
II.
DEVIL WORSHIP
THE ORIGIN OF THE YEZIDI TRIBES
III.
SOME TRIBAL CUSTOMS AND HABITS
IV.
TRIBES AND THEIR STRONGHOLDS
V.
HISTORY OF THEIR FAITH
VI. RELIGION,
VII.
SHEIKH
IX.
SHEIKH
XI.
XII.
BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS
SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS ORDERS
VIII.
X.
MELAK
ADI,
'ADi,
THE SAINT
TA'tJS
THE HOLY BOOKS

CONCLUSION
27
49
66
70
-77
.....
.....
.....
THE SHRINE
PART
A
.21
SIR
INDEX
134
145
155
II
RICHARD TEMPLE ON MR.
EMPSON'S RESEARCHES
.......
BIBLIOGRAPHY
103
.112
....
......
COMMENTARY BY
89
15
l6l
223
225
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
IMAGE OF THE PEACOCK
....
Frontispiece
Facing
page
SHEIKHAN YEZIDIS
THE QAIM-MAQAM OF ALKOS (LEFT)
72
.
....
....
THE MIR'S KASR FROM BA IDHRA VILLAGE

5
THE TEMPLE AT SHEIKH ADI

THE KHANS AT SHEIKH ADI
17
Il6
120
124
132
PART
THE CULT OF THE PEACOCK ANGEL
CHAPTER
DEVIL WORSHIP
ACCORDING
to Christian missionaries, a
the Devil
is
worship of
world- wide; but probably nowhere
outside the territories south of the present Asiatic
Turkey, known as Kurdistan and the Sinjar, does
amount
to anything
more than a
it
cult which, in the
absence of a better term, might be termed a limited
Atheism.
true Atheist, however, according to
modern European standards, has no God, no belief

If
in the transmigration of souls, and no creed.
he has thought about the matter
at all,
he probably
regards the study of religion by others as the result

of a fear of the
unknown on
the part of
its
believers.
refusal to believe in another existence does not
therefore
religion,
encourage
and
toleration
in this respect
of
any
kind
the true Atheist
of
is
sincere.
What
is
loosely
known
as Devil
Worship may
be nothing more than a kind of Atheism. Missionaries and others have returned with stories of the
reverence paid to witch-doctors, medicine
21
men and
22
similar beings
and
in
of a
many
by semi-barbaric
other primitive parts there
form of Devil Worship.
taken that warding

in their minds,
the
in Africa,
tribes
due
off
It
the Evil
is
evidence
may, therefore, be
Eye
is
to innate distrust
uppermost
and fear of
unknown, and nothing more.

Of all the little peoples in Western Asia
who have
steadfastly
and
independence of the adherents of the
social
maintained
their
religious
great world religions, namely, Muslim, Jewish and
none
Christian,
1
By way
of
offer a
examples,
more
the
interesting study than
Santals
Bihar
of
in
India
and the Tehnelche Indians

and worship Gualichu, an
rather than the good spirit Manitu. The Kazaks
propitiate the malignant Bongas,

of South Patagonia used to fear
evil spirit,
and Kara Kirghiz
Khuda
also venerate the Devil, but recognize the
(God).
The people
of
Sikhim and the Ge-lug-pa, a Lamaist
sect of
Tibet, are also thorough-going demon worshippers living in

mountainous districts, also the Lushais of Assam amongst
others
worship demons
(huai),
but Satan
is
not,
however,
identified as one.
In Japan, stone foxes bearing hungry and malign expressions are sometimes placed in out-of-the-way spots, and prayers
are offered up in the form of propitiation.
" The ancient
Egyptians, even when at the height of their
in fact, in the language of the missionaries,
'
devil
uncultured African peoples, in
culture, were,
many
engaged like
worship.'
It
was not until the
relatively late times
of the
twenty-second or twenty-fifth Dynasty that theological

influence succeeded in weaning them from the primitive cult."
The Mothers,
1887, Vol. II, 755,
by
Briffault.
DEVIL WORSHIP
23
the Yezidis, or Devil Worshippers of Kurdistan.

"
Devil WorYet the popular appellation of
"
is rather a misnomer, however, as they
shippers
are not, in fact, so
One, as
much worshippers
of the
Evil
his propitiators.
Pagan these
tribes
undoubtedly
are,
and
it
might naturally be thought that they would offer

an ideal opportunity to the converter, but actually
the district
enterprise.
in
an unpromising field for missionary

In spite of efforts by Muslim tribes
is
the past to exterminate the
Yezidis by raids
these people remain steadfast in their traditional

faith,
which has survived for
at least a
thousand
This faith has become so instinctive and
years.
so ingrained in them, though traditional rather by
word
of
mouth than by any
definite writing
and
teaching, and has so played on their primitive and

therefore superstitious minds that Devil
will,
as
in
South
introduction of more
in
some form
India,
modern
despite
the
Worship
gradual
ideas, probably exist
or other and will be practised for a
1
long time to come.
1
It is not inappropriate to remark here that texts and
sometimes traditions preserved by " word of mouth " may be
even more trustworthy than those preserved by the " written
word."
See Grierson and Barnett's " ly^lavakhyani," and
" Word of
Late the Prophetess."
Temple's
24
As long
as the
Turks retained
their suzerainty
over the Yezidi districts in Asia Minor, no attempt
was made
to bring
world, and
of the
it
Turk
them
was not
into touch with the outside

until the recent
overthrow
in the southern portion of that region
have in any measure been brought into

contact with Western influences.
that they
The
Yezidis are probably Kurdish in race and
speak a curious dialect
they
language.
The
Most
Arabic.
Sinjar
tribes
of
the
Kurmanjt
also speak some
of the tribes can be grouped into
two main classes
those of an Indo-European type,
having a nearly white skin, a round skull, blue eyes

and light hair, and those with an Arab strain, who
have a darker skin, eyes widely set apart, thick

lips and dark hair. The poverty of written doctrine
is
doubtless explained by the fact that the few
who
can write are unfamiliar with Kurdish characters,
and
resort to those in use
therefore be seen
how
by the Arabs.
It will
laborious the compilation of
Yezidi books would be, as a Kurdish one would
A few common words of the

be nearly useless.
Yezidi are sometimes scribbled in Arabic on walls,
boulders, etc., but no pure Kurdish
seems
to
show
that
the
written
is
seen, which
word
in
language would be to them undecipherable.
their
DEVIL WORSHIP
25
Despite the primitive conditions under which
and they are mostly agriculturists

must not be thought that they are entirely
the Yezidis live

it
unintellectual.
Most
be
of the Sheikhs appear to
able to carry on lengthy conversations on local
and other subjects
politics
their
of interest to
though handicapped
activities,
agricultural
them; and
knowledge of modern research, are

thorough, and the produce is sufficient for their
by lack
own
of
use.
The
propitiation of the Devil
tinually in the
minds
almost con-
is
Even
of the Yezidis.
the
most commonplace incidents of their daily life are

bound up in a marked degree with observance of
their faith.
tranquil,
Their demeanour and conversation
and even
dignified,
and a
lost
is
temper and
cursing are against the tenets pf their religion.
Away from
power
their
own
of the Evil
people, they
One upon
may invoke
the
the heads of infidels,
but never amongst themselves.
Generally speaking, worship of idols and
animate things
is
on a par with Devil Worship, as
far as fanaticism is concerned.
that
primitive
make
due
in-
conditions
for the rejection of
of
new
It is
living
well
known
undoubtedly
schools of thought,
to the inherent distrust of the
unknown.
The
26
great world religions of to-day are based on certain
teachings which have been gradually built up on

a plinth of belief in the sincerity of their founders,
and similarly Devil Worship
is
primarily based on
the sincere belief that propitiation of the
Evil
this
is
most calculated
to
world and everlasting
make
life
Power
of
for happiness in
in the celestial one.
CHAPTER
II
THE ORIGIN OF THE YEZtDl TRIBES
UNTIL the beginning of the present century little

or nothing was known concerning the origin of the
collection of Devil- worshipping tribes
Within the
known
as the
few years, however, those

interested in primitive religions have been at pains
to advance theories which, however fantastic, are
Yezidis.
last
nevertheless full of historical possibilities.

of these are purely conjectural,
to
definitely
Some Muslims have

to the followers of the
Abu
I,
who followed
Sufian,
it
is
Many
difficult
narrow down the Yezidis' source of
origin to one tolerably certain.
Yezid
and
ascribed the
name Yezidi
'Umayid Caliph (Khalifa)

Mu'awiya I, ibn
was second of the
his father,
as Caliph.
He
According to one writer, before being known by their

present name, the Yezidis in Asia Minor were called
Wetnhiyun, or those practising a form of dualism, but later
changed their name as the worship of the Good Spirit waned.
1
of
Not to be confused with Yezid ibn

Mu'awiya, who died in A.D. 639.
27
Abu
Sufi^n, brother
28
1
Yezid I was con'Umayid Caliphs.
temporary with, and a disciple of, Muhammad, but
fourteen
there
no evidence that Yezid,
is
credited
by some, during
reign KA.D.
new
of
680-3),
religion,
out the teachings of
his three
has been
as
and a half years*
founded either the elements

or
by
any
means
carried
He
indeed
Muhammad.
is
credited with the murder of Husain, son of
Ali
and Fatima, and grandson of the Prophet, on

roth
October, A.D.
Medina
in
the
680; also with
following
year,
the
sack of
when he was
responsible for the death of eighty companions of
Muhammad and
Qur'an.
seven hundred
Readers of the
In addition, during the
last
year of his
he attacked the Ka'ba, the sacred temple at

Mecca. A section of Muslims, namely the Shi'as,
reign,
who
are professedly followers of 'Ali, has there-
fore sought to lay these crimes at the heels of this
Caliph's descendants, who, they aver, must expiate

their
founder's
misdeeds.
Certainly
the
chief
persecutors of the Yezidis for the last thousand

years have been the Muslims.
is
known
of
Although nothing
Yezid ibn Mu'awiya allying himself
'AM was the last Caliph, of the first or Orthodox Caliphate

which was followed by the 'Umayid (A.D. 661-749),
and 'Abbsid Caliphates (A.D. 749-1258).
1
(A.D. 632-661),
ORIGIN OF YEZID1 TRIBES
29
Muhammadan
with those embracing a heterodox
religion, the following fantastic story of his father
appears in the
of the Yezidis
Holy Books
Muhammad had a servant named
Mashaf Ras, one

:
Mu'awiya, and when
God saw
of the
Muhammad was
that
not upright before him, he afflicted him with a
The Prophet then asked
headache.
his servant to
shave his head, and as a result Mu'awiya cut his
head
in the process,
drawing blood.
Fearing that
the blood might drop to the ground, the servant

licked
it
up with
Muhammad
shall
said in effect,
oppose
I shall
my
On
his tongue.
sect."
"
not enter the next world;
God
afterwards
which
bit
sent
sinned; you
"
Mu'awiya
scorpions
this,
perceiving
You have
replied,
I shall
Then
not marry."
upon Mu'awiya,
him, causing his face to break out. Doctors
urged him to marry lest he die, and hearing this,

he consented. They brought him an old woman,
eighty years of age, in order that no child should
be born.
Mu'awiya knew
his
wife,
and
in
the
morning she, by the power of God, appeared as a

woman of twenty-five. She afterwards conceived
and bore the Yezidis' god, who
In connection with Yezid,
of the
"
seyen gods
"
made
is
it is
called Yezid.
alleged that one
the sanajiq (Turkish,
meaning standards) used by the Yezidis;
this
god
CULT; OF
30
is
THE PEACOCK ANGEL
also credited with giving
them
to
Solomon, who
bequeathed them to the first king. When the god

Yezid 1 was born he received these symbols with
great reverence and bestowed them upon the tribe.
The image
of
Yezid
thus thought to be per-
is
petuated in the form of their standard, which
The
peacock.
story
is,
is
of course, mythical, but
is
nevertheless interesting.
As
a matter of fact,
most European
writers, so
from giving Yezid, son of Mu'awiya and a

Bedouin woman, credit for devout practices, say
that he was merely an eager and skilful huntsman,
far
a gallant lover, fond of wine, music and sport, and

that religion entered very little into his
life,
and
the story mentioned must be, therefore, regarded as

It is,
pure legend.
however, true that the Yezidis
themselves believe they are descendants of the

Caliph,
but
this
may be
dismissed
as
due
to
ignorance and in order to escape the persecution

of the Sunnis,
same
who do not regard Husain
light as the Shi' as,
and
in the
to a desire to trace
descent from some noble personage.
An unknown
1
It is
later
writer has said that the
Arabs who
generally believed by Europeans that this god is a

invented to account for a title otherwise
creation,
inexplicable.
ORIGIN OF YEZIDI TRIBES

Muhammad
accepted
called
al-jahilin (ignoramuses),
those
al-jahilin (a tribe of
pagan Arabs)
and became the nucleus
did
not
and that among the un-
was Yezid ibn Mu'awiya.
believers
who
31
Many
rallied
of the
round him
He
of the sect of Yezidis.
also says that the Yezidis possess a genealogical
which they trace him back from

No mention is elsewhere made
their present Mir.
of this document, and whilst there is nothing to
by means
tree
of
prove that such a document does not exist, the

Yezidis are so anxious to trace their origin to a
titled
personage that evidence of
this
nature should
be sceptically received.
Some
of the Yezidis themselves assert that their
sect did not originally bear the
name
Yezidi.
They
say that after corruption entered their religion, a
named Yezid, son
Caliph
of
Mu'awiya ibn Abu
Sufian and a Christian female, hearing of one Sheikh

'Adi,
went
taught
J.
it
to
him, absorbed the
latter's religion
and
to his followers.
Regarding the Mu'awiya theory by itself, Sir

G. Frazer is more likely to be correct in saying
that the
name
Yezidi was given to the tribes by the
Muslims as a sign of reproach (owing to Husain's

murder by the Caliph Yezid), than Badger, who
thought that they adopted
this
name
"
to conciliate
32
Muhammadan
the bigotry and intolerance of their

*
rulers."
Certainly no toleration has been
shown
by the Sunni Muslims of Shekhan (the principal

Yezidi district in Kurdistan) whether they believe
the origin of the Devil Worshippers
is
due
to
Yezid
ibn Mu'awiya or no.
The Muhammadan dogmatics assert that

Yezidis are what is known as murtaddun,
the
or
renegades, infidels, according to their
apostates,
theology, in that they (the Yezidis) once accepted

the Islamic religion, and afterwards renounced
They
word
it.
cannot, however, explain the origin of the

"
Yezidi."
Some
of the visitors to the Yezidis' principal
shrine are of the opinion that certain parts of the
Temple which have escaped
destruction bear traces
of early Christian architecture,
them
to
has led
whose progressive ignorance brought
into their present condition.
that the
this
believe that the Yezidis were originally
Christians,
them
and
Temple may have
It is
originally
conceivable
been
built
by
Christians before the Yezidis, in one of their raids
on Christians
(in retaliation for their persecution),
seized the existing building and adapted

1
Nestorians and their Rituals, Vol.
Badger, 1852.
I,
p.
it
129,
to their
by
G. P.

own
use.
33
In this connection the Eastern Christians
say that the shrine
was
originally
Nestorian
monastery, but that the monks were tempted by
them
the Devil (who appeared to

the building.
may have
The
Saint
who
God) and
as
left
lived in the district
himself appeared as the apparition.
At
he prophesied to his followers that the

monks would leave the place, and they having done
any
so,
rate,
He
he himself entered.
to pull
down
instructed his followers
the altar in the Church and on his
death to bury him there, which was done. In support

of this theory of the origin of the buildings, the
Yezidis say that they have hidden

inscription they found
Then
on entering.
again, the tribe
is
said to take
from the Persian word Yazdan,

or the
good
spirit as against
If this is so,
it
is
God in one religion
well
(as
known
Yazdan
its
name
which means God
Ahriman, the
that
evil one.
what may be
in Persian),
spirit, supreme being or
good
away a Syrian
Lord
of
meaning
Heaven,
may be exactly
may be the case
the opposite in another, such as
whom
they worship would thus be their
evil spirit
1
with the Yezidis.
Therefore, the
Kurdish slave
is mentioned in Edition Pognon (pp. 221changing his name from Battai to Yazdant, that is,
" on a
par with the Gods." Mingana in Journal of Royal
222) as
Asiatic Society, 1916, Vol. II.
34
"
"
and be given the same appellation
god
as an
example, the Persian Parsees also worship Yezid
whom
Farfar,
they recognize as an Evil Spirit, the
Destroying God.
An
old Yezidi priest, on being questioned, said
supposed to have been

derived from their ancient Kurdish name for God,
that the
word Yezidi
namely 'Azed.
thought that as the counterpart
known
the Devil,
who
is
Kurdish as Yazed,
this
had something to do
This is, of course,
of 'Azed
in
He
is
with the
possible,
is
name
of the tribe.
colloquially
bearing in mind that probably in
its
form their religion was indistinguishable

from pure Dualism.
earliest
The most popular

obtained regarding the
has
hitherto
name Yezidi was
that the
belief
that
was founded by Sheikh 'Adi ibn Musafir,

who died about 1162, and to whom most of the
religion
present religious practices are ascribed, but
is
this
name were
long before his appearance.
Although
undoubtedly a fact that tribes of

existing
it
what may be called the Sheikh 'Adi theory
is
championed by a certain group, Dr. Joseph, an

American writer, is correct in saying that though
an Arab named Kasi Ahmad ibn Khallikan and
others
tell
us details of Sheikh 'Adi's religious
life,

it
35
does not follow that the Sheikh founded the
Yezidi sect.
Also, owing to their innate prejudice
and perhaps egoism, the Yezidis have raised Sheikh

'Adi to a deity, instead of properly regarding him
Dr. Joseph, indeed, a few years
ago put forward a new and interesting theory. In
merely as a
saint.
he says that the Yezidis are the followers

of Yezid ibn 'Unaissa, who was friendly with the
effect,
Muhakkamah 1
first
much
is
known
before the Azarika.
of this Yezid,
and
it is
Nothing
doubtful
if
any further information could be gleaned concernDr. Joseph bases his theory on
ing his works.
a statement
(A.D.
made by Muhammad
1074-1133),
of
the
and incidentally contemporary
with Sheikh 'Adi (A.D.

sidered
as-Sahrastani
highest
who
1072-1162),
authority
is
con-
among Arab
scholars on questions dealing with philosophical
and religious sects, and who adds that it is evident

Yezid was one of the al-Hawarij. The story goes
1
The
Muslim
first
sect
Muhakkamah
known as
name given
al-Hawarij, who
is
the
to a schismatic
disallowed
the
Hakaham, saying that judgment should be

judgment
God's. They say that every sin, small or great, is idolatry.
8
The al-Azar!ka were also a Muslim sect (heretical) who
of the
declared that
Muhammad's companions were
infidel.
Mingana does not share Dr. Joseph's confidence

statement ipso facto includes the modern Yezldts,
Professor
that this
and against as-Sahrastanl he

Bar-Kewan!.
sets the
writings of Theodore
36
God would
that Yezid ibn 'Unaissa believed that
send an apostle from Persia and would reveal to
him a book already written, and as a result he,

Yezid, would leave the religion of Muhammad, the
Chosen One, and follow the
mentioned in the Qur'an.
religion of the Sabaeans
But Yezid associates
himself with the people in the book,

the Chosen
One
who recognized
as a prophet, even though they
Yezid
did not accept his (Muhammad's) teaching.

said that the followers
.of
the ordinances in the
book were among those who agreed with him, but

that the others
who
(known
in
Arabic as Mushrik, those
give companions to God) were hiding in truth,
and that every sin, small or great, is idolatry.

This Arab mentions the first century of Islam as
being the period in question.
is
Part of this story
borne out by another authority, ibn Hazm, who
hundred years
lived a
gives the
name
correlate
this,
earlier,
but this scholar

In order to
as Zaid ibn 'Ubaissa.
Dr.
Joseph
says
that
'Ubaissa should be read as 'Unaissa, as

that ibn
Hazm
is
traditionist of the
is
It is
evident
name
of
from the well-known

Tabari ibn 'Unaissa.
not clear which sect of Sabseans
immaterial.
it is
word
at pains to distinguish the author
of this unorthodox religion
the
is
intended, but
it

To
37
clinch the matter, Joseph tells us as-Sahrastani
definitely quotes that they (the Yezidis) are
the
followers (ashdb) of Yezid ibn 'Unaissa.

It is possible,
but by no means conclusive, that
may have become identified

now known as Yezidis, and there
the Yezid referred to
with the tribes

is
nothing
show
to
that
this
particular
theory
should have precedence over any other hitherto
expounded by those seeking

the chaff.
Who
is
to sift the
wheat from
the Persian apostle referred to
by Yezid ibn 'Unaissa?
It is not
Sheikh 'Adi,
supposed prediction was made over a

century from his time and moreover the Saint is
The Yezidis themselves
regarded as a Syrian.
for
the
are
still
him
to
waiting for the prophet to
be a Persian.
If
come and
any credence can be
placed on as-Sahrastani's statement

that the apostle
may
believe
it is
just likely
be a Persian, and in connec-
tion with this supposition, the following historical
may be worth
evidence
About
six
centuries
was a teacher and
Magian
religion,
their practices.
1
660
recording.
or
more
instructor
in
B.C.
Zoroaster
Persia
of
the
from which he borrowed some of
Many
Syrian Magi subsequently
Professor Jackson gives the date of Zoroaster's birth as

Mr. Springett gives the district
B.C., and his death 583 B.C.
of Adarbaijan, west of Media, as his birthplace.
38
travelled to Persia
He
a prophet.
and looked upon Zoroaster as
believed that at the beginning
Ahura Mazda
of things there existed two spirits,
(Ormazd) and Angra Mainyu (Ahriman), respectively Good and Evil, who were continually at war.
The
existence
of
evil
from
pre-supposed
in
all
the
world
he thus
Both
eternity.
spirits
possessed creative power which manifested
itself
one positively and in the other negatively.

Ormazd is light and life and all that is true and
in the
and
good,
truth,
and
and
all
and
in
ethical
world law, order and
his antithesis is
that
lies.
the
is
and
evil,
Each had
further believed that
darkness,
in the world, lawlessness
their
man, being a
spirits.
free agent^will
When
two were spoken of as a pair he did not
mean
from
He
minor
bring about the ultimate triumph of right.

the
death
filth,
twins,
this
though
Dualism
later
sects
sought to
rise
to a higher eternity (thus the
Zarvanites represented
Ormazd and Ahriman
as
twin sons proceeding from the fundamental principle of
Zarvana Akarana, or Limitless Time),
dentally the Parsees in and around
by Zoroaster as
their prophet,
Bombay hold
but their doctrine
has reached the stage of a pure monotheism.

1
Ormazd was
Inci-
the chief of seven.

The
followers of Zoroaster have continued their
practice of
in
39
Dualism
the provinces
in Persia to this day, principally

of
Yezd and
Seistan.
In the
Yezd, bearing the same name, there are

1,300 Zoroastrians, and a few miles to the west
capital of
there
live
in
twenty-two
villages
1879 the Zoroastrian community in
5,000,
this
but in
province
numbered 6,483 and in 1892 there were 6,908.

Thus, as a result of emigration to Western Syria
and Northern Kurdistan, the natural increase of
the population in Persia has
been thereby
dis-
counted.
Some
aspects of their religion are similar to
that practised
the
worship
four fire
by the present-day Yezidi, namely

of fire.
For instance, there are
temples in the city of Yezd,
and the
exempted from
Mr. H. C. Luke, at one time
Zoroastrians, like the Yezidis, are

military service.
Assistant Governor of Jerusalem,

in this district,
of
is
are derived from the Persian
also that the Yezidis
their cult of the
travelled
of the opinion that the principles
Good and Evil
Dualists;
who has
Sun from
birthplace of Zoroaster,
may have drawn
Persia, as Uramiah, the

is
very near the Yezidi
This emigration to Kurdistan has been

going on through persecution and oppression by
territory.
40
heavy taxation, and owing to the

difficult for
very
it
is
from the
to exact a living
because of the barrenness of the
soil
is
them
fact that
district.
It
a fact that the inhabitants of the province of
Seistan are only able to grow sufficient wheat for
supply each year and that the

remainder has to be bought at inflated prices from
months'
three
more favoured
districts.
over there
a number of Devil Worshippers,
are'
who worship mulberry
In this province more-
which are supposed to
trees
be inhabited
Indeed,
by the spirit of Satan.
worship was practised by followers of
nature
Zoroaster
times
in
and
in
Persia
this
until
comparatively
common
they shared
respect
recent
beliefs with the Yezidis.
Doubtless
west,
the
emigrant
from
recruited
their
in
Syria)
wanderings to the northelement
(to
some
lost
some
of
their
"extent
deep
convictions as to the power of the Prince of Light
due
to the fact that he, despite their invocations,
did
not
they
them
supply
therefore
relied
propitiation of the
well-being.
little
It
is
Prince of Darkness for their

possible
of their founder
after they
good harvests and

more and more on the
with
and
that
they
knew very
their origin,
emigrated from Yezd and other
and that
districts,
41
they eventually became the founders of the cult
known
as Worshippers of the Evil One.
In past times when the autocracy prevailing in

Persia was even greater than at present, larger
numbers probably left their country and settled in

territory where they could escape from what they
considered injustice, and what amounted to
little
more than
were
Their
slavery.
hiding-places
naturally in the then almost inaccessible mountain-
ous
districts
the
Sinjar
between Mosul, Aleppo and Lake Van,
Range
and
the
Caucasus
Range
bordering the Black Sea.
modern
writer
combats
this
religion resemble that of the Persians.
be true so far as modern

it
by
some phases does the YezidJ
stating that only in
concerned, but
theory
This
may
Yezidi practices are
obvious that other elements
is
have been since added, and that probably in its

most elementary form nature worship formed the
greater part
further
of
and asks
their
for
of other religions.
that these traces

J
AdJ
1
This writer goes
tenets.
an explanation of these traces
There
is
nothing to disprove
were not added
at the time
Sheikh
identified himself with the sect, but, generally
The Sinjar was not occupied by the Yezidls
fifteenth century.
prior to the
42
speaking, primitive people are prone to add and
take
which
doctrines
certain
away
consider
they
of
subsidiary
other
to
religions
their
main
belief.
What
far as
is
known
as
the
the present writer
Persian theory,
is
so
concerned, to some
word Yezd, denoting a

the same name.
Although
extent revolves around the
province and town of
Dr. Joseph admits

stock,
he
does
many
not
Yezidis are of Persian
consider
of
this
importance in tracing their origin,

the
opinion
that
their quota to
many
races
as
have
material
he
is
of
contributed
the religion under review.
It is,
however, true to say that the Yezidis of Kurdistan

are
regarded
do not
is
and they speak a
dialect
which
in
use in Persia north of Latitude 36.
think, however, that the
a vital one, as
it is
What
by nomads.
is
most numerous and most
the
is
influential,
common
as
language question
constantly being influenced
do consider of greater import
the fact that Persian Kurds, including those of
the Yezidi faith, form the majority of the border
and other
1
tribes
A German
all
along as far as the present
writer regards
Mardi, an old Persian sect

evil.
them
as descendants
who worshipped
of
the
the principle of

Turkish
The numbers
frontier.
Bedouins
embracing
negligible,
and
this fact
that this religion

of Sheikh 'Ad!
was
of Syrians
are
Yezidism
43
and
practically
does strengthen the theory
in existence before the
from the West, as
it is
coming
unlikely that
he converted the Persian Muslims to Yeztdism.

Professor
University,
A.
an
V.
W.
eminent
religions, declares that
of
Jackson
authority
Dualism
Columbia
on
Iranian
originally
formed
the basis of certain resemblances between the old
and the Yezidi
Persian
Yezidism
became
religions.
identified
with
As
the
to
how
Persians,
whether in their own country or in Kurdistan, it is

in accordance with human nature to believe that the
"
"
Persian Prophet
prediction made an impression
among them, and
that they consequently looked
Such views may

Persian pagan fire and devil
Yezidism as a native
at
have
led
many
cult.
worshippers and Zoroastrians to embrace the
new
and subsequently to regard it as peculiarly

their own.
Badger, moreover, says that the
religious systems of Yezidism and the old Magi
religion
took their rise from Zoroastrianism, and the later

history
1
of
the
Yezidis was
influenced
by
their
Mr. Springett says that the Lebanon YezidJs bear distinct
traces of Persian origin.
44
coming
into
contact
partial subjection to
for
variation
any
Whether
professed.
with
Christians
Muslim
from
their
which accounts
rule,
the
and
religion
originally
further research will tend to
corroborate this theory or whether one of the other

will
possibilities
alone will
be found more correct, history
tell.
In order to arrive at a logical conclusion of the

origin of the sect as a whole, a careful study of the
characteristics should
racial
be made, as
this
is
generally a surer guide to race origin in Asia Minor
than the history of their language and religion.
The
Yezidis, who, in point of fact,
know very
little
about themselves, have a tradition that they originally
came from Basra and
that they emigrated to
Syria and subsequently principally to the Jebel

Sinjar (meaning Bird), and to the hills they
inhabit, but their
is
method
now
of reasoning or deduction
non-existent.
Some
writers assert that bearing in
mind
the
peculiar nature of their tenets, they have a Sabaean

or
Chaldean
articles
of
origin,
the
but they admit that
Yezidi
borrowed from other
doctrine
sects.
As
are
decidedly
a matter of fact
Chaldean Christians and Sabseans

'Iraq
many
still
exist
in
the latter particularly along the banks of the
45
Euphrates, and although innocent of Devil Worship
common
they have certain characteristics in
with
the Yezidis, notably in the
ceremony of baptism.
One writer has also endeavoured to connect the
Yezidis,
who
Assyrians,
are
who on
their
with
hairy,
certainly
monuments
are
the
old
usually
depicted with beards.
As
owing
far as the Yezidis themselves are concerned,

to the lack of
documents and the ignorance
prevailing amongst them, they are unable to

to
any probable conclusion as
priests claim that they are
to their origin.
descendants of
come
The
Noah
supposed to be known as the

Malik Miran, or the King of the Mirs, but it may
through Na'umi,
be that they refer to his sons,
They add
that
Ham
Shem, another son
of
or Japheth.
Noah, who,
according to the Yezidi tradition, reyiled his father,
was himself the Father

exalting themselves
lower category.
So
far as
of all other nations, thus
and placing
others in a
all
legend and mythology
is
concerned,
the following story of these remarkable people,
however
1
fantastic, is of interest.
It is
believed by
Joseph mentions Seth as one of Noah's sons. This is

" one
of Adam's
probably a typographical error and should be
sons."
46
some
were seventy-two
ten thousand years.
of their tribes that there
Adams,
who
Between the
each
lived
lifetime of each
Adam, another ten
thousand years elapsed, during which time there

were no inhabitants on earth. Each Adam was
more perfect than the
last,
and the Yezidis claim
that they are descendants of the last of the seventy-
The world
two.
therefore, according to them,
is,
nearly one and a half million years old.
Adam
married Eve,
who was
The
last
barren, so a heavenly
named Huriya came from Paradise with a

Eve
cavalier named Jinnis, to be his second wife.
idamsel
was washing clothes in the river when these, two

appeared, and although Jinnis was rather abashed,
he explained his mission and introduced the maiden
to
Eve, naturally, averse from being sup-
Eve.
planted,
cunningly
that
suggested
she
herself
should go on ahead to the house and warn her
husband, and to prepare the place for the damsel's

It is recounted that she hurried home,
reception.
told
Adam
of the
meeting and made him swear that
he would not so much as look

latter, therefore, lived
a bride in
name
only.
with
Adam
at Hfiriya.
The
and Eve, but was
Naturally after a time there
was tension
in the household,
quarrel with
Adam,
and E&e, during a
declared that she alone ha'd the

of
power
reproduction,
nothing to do with
The
it.
Adam
that
adding
47
had
angel Jabra'il there-
upon placed blood from the forehead of Eve and

Adam into four jars, two for Eve and two for Adam.
were sealed, marked and placed in
camel dung and after nine months opened. Eve's
jars were barren, but Adam's contained a boy
These
jars
called Shahid Jayar
who were
suckled by
son of the
Adam
and from
of Huriya, but apparently
help bore Cain and Abel,
Pure fantasy
is
shown
Yezidi belief.
Some
was born when
Adam
Eve
whom the
some
in
with Shem's
two further examples of
think that the original Yezidi

first
The
spat.
of the tribes retail
their sacred
sprang
Yezidis disown.
supposed immediately to become a

story
whom
girl,
Legend does not say what
the race of the Yezidis.
became
and a
jar,
is
spittle
child.
was
Another
in connection with
symbol, Melak Ta'us.
In some way
they identify the god Yezid with Melak Ta'us, as

half angel
and
half
man.
remained a bachelor until
He
is
after
supposed to have
Adam's marriage.
Being half a divinity and unable to marry a mortal,

he induced Melak Ta'us to introduce him to a hfai>
from
whom
From
their race sprang.
the
maze
of conflicting information
things are certain; Yezidism
is
some
a survival of the
48
ancient pagans;
their religion as
Holy Names
this sect at
much
by the use of
escape persecution; and
as possible
in order to
in particular they
one time concealed
have always avoided the Persian
and Mesopotamian Muslims, who execrate them for

what they consider the infamous acts of their
alleged founder, Yezid ibn Mu'awiya.
1
The
religion of the Qizilbash of the
Angora
district in
"
probably another survival. They now
worship
a large black dog, in which they see the image of the Divinity."
Asia Minor
is
CHAPTER
III
SOME TRIBAL CUSTOMS AND HABITS
ALTHOUGH
the Yezidis will not receive converts to
some extent
their faith, they are to
of their religious
and secular
life,
willing- to talk
and within the
twenty years observers of their customs have

thrown a certain amount of light on their unwritten
last
would, however, require a long residence
laws.
It
among
the various tribes to be fully cognizant of
all their idiosyncrasies.
The
waters which flow through the
Temple
of
Sheikh 'Adi are alone used to perform the rite of

Children born close to the shrine are
baptism.
taken as soon as possible after seven days to the
sacred stream, placed on a plate shaped like a cock,
and there immersed three times.

immersion
the
priest
After the second
conducting
the
baptism
declares the child to be a follower of Yezid, and
hopes that the infant
may
or herself a martyr for
its faith.
49
in future
make
himself
Those born
in the
50
distant places are visited
by a
and baptized from a skin
filled
and other
Sinjar
Qauwal
(priest)
with the
Holy Water.
In addition
all
new
clothes
are baptized, and particularly devout Yezidis also
immerse
their knives
and razors
in Sheikh 'Adi
water before use.
No
one can enter the valley of Sheikh 'Adi

whether on feast days or, not, without having first
by means of water purified his body and clothes,

and arrangements for this exist a mile or so from
These washings are not thought to

emanated from the sacrament of Holy
the Temple.
have
Baptism, but are purely devotional
One
that
never
is
the
acts.
of the peculiarities regarding baptism
Christian
to
given
name
a boy,
of
as
(George)
is
some reason
it
Gurgis
for
is
objectionable.
All adults theoretically fast for forty days in the

Spring, but actually this
is
not observed, and one
1
person in a family can fast for the remainder.
In any case the fast is not so stringent as that
practised by pious Shi'as during
believe that
God commanded them
The Yezidis
who condemned
1
of Providence.
Ramazan.
Some
to fast, saying
in this respect follow the precepts of Zoroaster,

fasting as a criminal rejection of the best gifts
SOME TRIBAL CUSTOMS

in
"
Kurdish
Se rosh," meaning
and that the Muslims,
"thirty days."
God
said
said
deaf,
days.
The
three
days'
days,"
the
understanding
"
"
Si rosh
but
days,"
thirty
three
meaning,
variant of this belief
"
rather
that
is
who was
Yezid,
understood the period to be three

is
general opinion, however,
observed
fast
commemoration
Sheikh
He
thought
language,
not
"
51
of
fasts for a
Yezid's
month
that the
December
in.
death.
The
in the year, during
is
in
Chief
which
time he eats but once each twenty-four hours, and

then after sunset.
One
of the principal
duties (mentioned
where) of the Qauwals on tour
is
'else-
the collection of
These moneys are allocated as follows

for the support of the tomb of Sheikh 'Adi
offerings.
one half
a quarter to the Mir and the remaining quarter
shared by the Qauwals responsible for
is
its collec-
In practice there does not appear to be any
tion.
difficulty
is
about
this, as
unquestionable.
contributions
during
from
the honesty of the collectors
In addition to this there are

tribes
visiting
Sheikh
'Adi
festivals.
Although opinions
differ
on the subject, in the
absence of any written instructions to the contrary,

it
is
not considered unlawful for Yezidis to read
52
and
at
As a matter
write.
once
be realized
of fact, however,
that
such
it
will
accomplishments
are virtually unnecessary owing to the primitive
conditions
priests are the only class
matter
the
the
in
prevailing
and then
villages,
who show any

in
only
and
the
interest in
connection
with
In
and singing on festival days.
Layard's time there were only one or two who
could read and write, and even those learnt the
the chanting
art
only in order that they might preserve the
sacred books and refer to them

Until recent times
there
when
necessary.
was no recognized
and even to-day barter is to a great

extent indulged in.
Turkish and Indian coinage
currency,
is,
however, occasionally used.
The
Sind
in
ringlets
beard.
Yezidis, in fashion of the Baluch tribes of

India,
generally
let
their
hair
fall
in
and wear a straggling

Their disposition is frank and confident,
over
their
ears,
and they (especially the Persian element) usually

have short legs and a swarthy complexion. The
dress of the
men
resembles that of the Persian
Turkoman.
The
offerings
to
Melak Ta'us evince them-
selves in strange ways,
a notable case being at
Dair Ast in the Sin jar, where in a secret
cleft in
SOME TRIBAL CUSTOMS
53
the rocks the Yezidis have from time immemorial
In this cleft
thrown their tokens of propitiation.

also
"
those
Evil
afflicted
"
Eye
with
the
the
of
influence
deposit their gifts in order to alleviate
their misfortune.
The
is,
only sacrificial offering the Yezidis
strangely enough, not to
the Sun.
Every
make
Melak Ta'us but
to
year, during the July festival, a
white ox, dedicated to this God, whose
name
is
Sheikh Shamsu'ddin, the Sun of the Faith, is

x
.slain at Sheikh 'Adi and the flesh distributed to
'
poor pilgrims. The chosen animal has previously

been led round the base of the fluted spire of
the shrine erected near the
Holy Temple.
offerings in kind to the shrine chiefly
lamps and wood the

;
latter is
The
consist of
stacked at the south-
Temple, and is only used for

roasting the ox mentioned above.
During festivals, a noticeable custom consists
east corner of the
of
men and women
passing
their
right
hands
through the flame of the lamps held by the Faqirs

(priests),
and,
after
rubbing the right
eyebrow
with the part which has thus been purified, they
devoutly carry
it
to their lips.
It
was
at
one time
thought that this was part of the festival

but there
is
no special significance in
it
ritual,
beyond the
54
fact that the flame is
and
oil
is
is
from Sheikh 'Adi olive
thus reverenced.
Circumcision
it
lit
is
not universally carried out, and
believed the Yezidis originally instituted the
some
practice in order, to
followers of
extent, to conciliate the
Muhammad.
Males are circumcised
within twenty days of being baptized, after which

the child's father entertains
Later
made
are
gifts
present for a week.
all
two
the
to
officiating
priests.
The
qibla (orientation) of the Yezidis differs
from that of other religions and
is
the Pole Star,
whereas, of course, the Jews face Jerusalem and
Muslims the Ka'ba
White
linen
means much
he
will
spotlessly
to the
see
Mecca during
at
prayer.
and
clean
cared
for
average Yezidi, and at festivals
that
he
is
not
outshone
in
this
respect.
The
the
first
Yezidi
New
Wednesday
Year, called the Sarisdl,
in April,
when
the
is
womenkind
gather nosegays of red flowers and after three days
hang them on
The Qauwals
their doors
as a sign of baptism.
play timbrels on this day, but no
instruments of joy are allowed, as

1
that
One
it is
writer, however, states that it is
towards the sun.
God
is
supposed
" the
East," another
SOME TRIBAL CUSTOMS

to
be
on
sitting
55
his throne arranging decrees for
the coming year.
weekly holiday, and
their
is
Wednesday
this
day and Friday are Holy Days, but they are not
forbidden to work on these days if necessary.
Some
have special customs peculiar
tribes
For instance the Halitiya
themselves.
tribes
to
at
Diarbekr observe Eucharist in a crude manner,
Redwan do
The Haidi tribe when at
and those
used
not practise circumcision.
at
the height of their power
go through the following ceremony at

festivals at Sheikh 'AdJ.
All of the tribe having
arrived, they ascended the escarpment on either
side of the Temple, and those having firearms
to
small
placed
oak
twigs
in
muzzles
the
and
discharged them into the air for about half an hour.
They then congregated

again
their
fired
in
the outer
After
weapons.
inner court they went
court and
entering
the
through a martial dance.
This ended, a bull was led from the Temple.

Some members of the tribe rushed upon the animal
with shouts, and seizing
their Sheikh,
from
usually a sheep.
while
made
until the
whom
led
in
triumph to
they received a present,
it,
The women
it
of the tribe
mean-
tahlil (a shrill chant) without

ceasing
end of the proceedings.
This tribe was
56
formerly most powerful, but

so greatly reduced by wars
practice has
now
its
members have been
and oppression that the
ceased.
Oaths are administered by drawing a circle on

the ground round the person about to be sworn,
and he
of
told
is
"
All within this circle
Melak Ta'us,
answer
falsely
is
if
the property
you
Needless to say, the barest mention of

suffices to
One
draw out the
'dare."
this deity
truth.
exemption from
In 1872 the Turks wanted them
of their prized privileges is
military service.
to serve in their army, but fourteen reasons
advanced by them
doing and for paying
for not so
The
were
was signed by the

then Mir, Husain; Sheikh Nasir, Pir Sulaiman and
other chiefs of many villages in the Sheikhan
a tax instead.
district
including
petition
Musikan,
Hatara,
Baiban,
Dahkan, Huzran, Ba-qasra, Ba Sheikha, Hosaba,

Kara Pahu, Kabbara, 'Ain Sifni, Hairo and
Kibartu.
The
chief reason
Muslim twelve times a day
was as follows; every

is
accustomed to say,
"
"
Take refuge with Allah from Shaitdn ar-rashim

(Satan the Stoned), and a Yezidi who hears this
from one of his erstwhile comrades

to
either
therefore,
kill
him or commit
for
the
good
of
all
is
supposed
suicide.
concerned
It
is,
that
SOME TRIBAL CUSTOMS

the Yezidi need not serve
57
and thus be out
of
earshot.
When
imminent a day is mutually agreed on

the man to present a ring to the girl, and the
is
couple
for
marriage engagement of a young
the
remainder of the day
spent in rejoicings in the
is
Three days before the marriage all the

male friends and relations of the groom assemble
at his father's house and there indulge in festivities.
village.
'Arak, the national alcoholic drink,

freely, to the
accompaniment
women
Afterwards the
partaken of
is
of singing
together on
in pairs ride
When
horseback and likewise also the men.

reach the bride's house, the
men
and music.
they
discharge their
guns; hearing the sound the girl's father comes

out and asks them what they want. They reply in
unison,
"Your
then/ puts
daughter."
red
veil
over
The
her
girl's
daughter
together her parents lead her out.
boys
assembled
each
taking a spoon fronT the
putting
it
outside
the
mother
house
The
village
then
enter,
living-room and
in his turban.
The bridegroom now claims

her way to his father's house
the girl, and on
she
must make
obeisance at the shrine of every idol she
happen
and
to pass,
even though
it
may
be a Christian
58
On
Church. 1
he must
hit
arriving at the bridegroom's house
her with a small stone as a sign of his
Moreover, a loaf of bread
authority.
is
broken
over her head as a sign that she must love the poor
and needy.
the village,
from head
There are the customary dances in

and afterwards the bride is covered
by a thick
to foot
veil
and
is
placed
behind a curtain in the corner of a darkened room.
Here she remains
for three days, seeing
nobody
except a female servant, while the guests feast.
On
the afternoon of the third day the prospective
bridegroom is led in triumph by his friends from

house to house, receiving at each a trifling present.
He
then placed within a circle of dancers, and
is
the guests and bystanders,

stick
them on
his
wetting small coins,
forehead.
These are then
collected as they fall in an open handkerchief held

his
by
On
companions under
his chin.
the evening of the third day the priest,
usually a
but when there
Qauwal
able, the leading
man
is
not one avail-
of the village
solemnizes
the marriage, takes the bridegroom to the bride,
and, joining their hands, asks them whether they
wish to marry.
1
On
receiving an affirmative answer
In Kurdistan any Christian shrine, believed to be endowed
with healing properties,
is visited
by
all
races indiscriminately.
SOME TRIBAL CUSTOMS

he marks
and foreheads with red
their shoulders
and hands them a
59
which they break.

loaf of bread taken from a Kuchak's house
ink,
stick,
A
is
equally divided into two and given to the contract-
ing parties to eat, but should they so desire, they
may swallow
tomb as a
'Adi's shrine or
groom then gives a

to his bride.
some dust from Sheikh
in its stead
The
silk
bride
The
blessing.
bride-
handkerchief as a present
not usually veiled during
is
the ceremony.
The
bridegroom knocks
priest,
them
priest then locks
hearing
at the
following his example.
them home, and
a gun, the bystanders
The Qauwal now sends
as they cross the threshold of the
house in which they intend

in their honour.
No
Yezidi
The
door three times, and the
fires
this,
room.
in a
to live a
sheep
is
slain
For seven days they do no work.
may
cohabit with his wife on Tues-
day and Thursday nights, which are holy. Should

a Yezidi abduct the wife of another he must pay
the full price of the
woman
or give his sister,
daughter or mother instead.
Although concubines are not actually forbidden,

they are rarely heard of; and this is not surprising,
as a
man, with the consent
a wife every year
up
of his Sheikh,
to a limit of six
if
may have
he so
desires.
60
If the
husband
is
absent from his wife for a year
he cannot on his return claim her, as his marriage

automatically annulled.
is
Moreover he cannot
marry another woman without her parents' consent,

as they
would become
infidel.
Nowadays a discarded wife (aza) cannot marry

again, and when the Yezidis made their own
temporal laws, the wife was punished with death
for infidelity.
Married
women
at least for a year
or two after their marriage wear white clothes, and
they also wear a fine white handkerchief close up
under their chins.

the
month
is
Marriage
of April, except for
forbidden during
Qauwals.
Marriage was formerly a luxury, especially in

the Sinjar,
father
that
owing
to the insistence of the girl's
her dowry
provided
(alam)
by her
future husband or his parents should be ample, as
the custom in India.
he eloped with her, her

people could claim a double dowry. If an elopement was intended, the prospective husband hired
is
the strong
men
during the
flight.
If
Usually the
pursued them, and

bloodshed sometimes ensued.
relations
if
who
of his village,
protected
girl's
if
them
father and his
they were caught
On
the other hand,
they succeeded in escaping, they returned after
a time and were forgiven, as according to an old
SOME TRIBAL CUSTOMS

Kurdish
proverb,
is
"Everything
61
forgiven
the
brave."
Ideas as to dowry, of course, vary according

to the social position of the contracting parties,
but
no doubt that these were formerly much

1
too high.
Hamo Shero, the paramount Sheikh
there
is
of the Sinjar, is of the opinion that
hundred rupees
five
in
for the highest born.
the father's wealth.
be sold
.
had
to
like
kind or money
herself
sufficient
if
she refused she
by paying her father a sum
money, usually earned by her
of
is
Daughters may not inherit

In former days a girl could
an acre of land, and
redeem
one thousand
service.
Finally a layman cannot marry a Sheikh's or
daughter, nor can a Sheikh's or Pir's son
Pir's
Death
marry a layman's daughter.

punishment
for a
layman
if
is
the only
he violates the .law in
The Qauwal and Kuchak classes are,

however, regarded as common people.
The funeral ceremonies for departed Yezidis
this respect.
They vary according to age and rank

dead man, and to some extent in different
are quaint.
of the
The reason
for
high dowries
may have been
that in India
to prevent desertion of the wife. During cohabitation the

dowry is not demanded, but on divorce it becomes enforceable,
and
is
then ruinous to the husband.
62
The
tribes.
fairly
that of a
is
Yezidi after death
is
washed by
pure water, preferably running, or
able,
boiling,
Cakes
man
of
prosperous family living in the Sheikhan
district.
in
following account
and
on a
laid
kifri
his Pir
not obtain-
if
(white sheet).
Sheikh 'Adi clay are placed in his mouth,

under his arms and on other portions of his body,
of
and the sheet
breadth,
he
and ends.
side
tied
folded over and sewn up at the
is
is
then
strip of linen, four fingers in
wound
After being placed on a bier,
under the body.
is
twice round the sheet and
taken in procession to a prearranged place
The widow,
just outside the village.
attired in
white, on leaving her house throws dust over her
head, which
is
also
smeared with
clay,
and accom-
panied by her female friends she meets the

mourners, and
is
dance round the
all
bier.
official
The body
then taken to the cemetery, with the people
chanting the while, the widow accompanying the

procession with her late husband's sword or knife
in
one hand and long locks from her own hair in
the other.
The
procession having arrived at the
burial ground, the
lying on
south.
its
body
is
placed in an open grave,
right side, with the
The shroud
Sheikh 'Adi earth
is lifted
is
head towards the
from the face and more
sprinkled thereon.
The head
SOME TRIBAL CUSTOMS

is
now placed
63
scooped out at one

Large stones and boulders are
in a small hole
end of the grave.
placed in the grave to prevent the earth, as far as

possible, from touching the corpse, and the hole
then completely
with no apertures.
filled in,
On
the grave are placed loaves, cheese and a go pal (a
Faqir then prays, saying

having a crook).
the dead man, "When Nakir and Nakir (the
stick
to
Archangels) come to you, offer them bread and

cheese, and if they are not satisfied with this, beat
The two
them with the gopal"
archangels are
then supposed to descend, and one questions the

deceased, asking him his
name and what deeds he
has done, while the other writes
book
show
down
the answers
Sometimes gold coins

are buried with the body as a reward for their
in a
to
to
God.
services.
Mourning for the departed lasts three days, the

women meanwhile wailing and throwing Sheikh
'Adi earth over themselves.
is
Sometimes a Kuchak
hired for the funeral ceremony,
when he accom-
panies the body to the grave and places offerings
on other graves.
man's relatives
rebirth of the
room
He
for
is
then asked by the dead
particulars
dead man's
soul.
concerning
He
the
goes into a
set apart, prays to the Yezidi saints, falls into
(54
a kind of
fit,
foams
at the
mouth, and
is
supposed
to
communicate with the next world.
fit
has passed he sleeps quietly until revived with
After the
drink by the relatives of the dead man.
was
of
good
character,
and the
If the latter
offerings of the
relatives satisfactory, the soul's rebirth is allowed
to take place in
a bad man, the
Heaven, but
Kuchak informs
the relatives that
an animal.
the soul has passed into the
body
The
expiate this
relatives,
however,
may
sequent offerings to shrines.
was
the deceased
if
of
by sub-
In any case,
the
deceased's clothes and a year's maintenance must
be given
to his Sheikh,
and
the current year the poor
the dead man's name.
at
each
new moon
must be entertained
It therefore
for
in
appears to be
a somewhat expensive journey for the soul satisfactorily to reach its desired destination.
mark by which
distinctive
all
Yezidis
may
be recognized at a glance is the shirt, which, by

one of their laws, they are forbidden to wear open
in front,
and
the neck.
in
it
is
They
thus always kept closed
up
to
are told they will have a sister
the next world
who
is
directed to open the
neck-band.
Generally,
tribes
direct influence of the
farthest
removed from the
Mir have gradually adopted
SOME TRIBAL CUSTOMS

certain peculiarities in dress, customs
outlook.
Possibly, were
visits of the
it
65
and religious
not for the periodic
Sheikh 'Adi Qauwals, they would
in
time lose touch with the teachings expounded in

their
Holy Books,
copies of which are unobtainable.
CHAPTER
IV
TRIBES AND THEIR STRONGHOLDS
THE
total
number
of Yezidis in the early days of
the last century was probably 150,000, but through
oppression and massacre 40,000

at the present day.
Of
this
is
an outside figure
number, the Mosul
Vilayet contains about 25,000, of
17,500
whom
roughly
are comprised of sedentary tribes of the

2
Sinjar range
(about
fifty
miles long and nine miles
and about 7,500 are scattered along the

Jebel Maklub and the foothills of the Kurdistan
highlands, principally in the Sheikhan district,
broad),
where many of
their
Sheikhs are buried.
Tribes numbering perhaps 10,000 are found in
North Syria (Damascus), North Kurdistan (Boktan,

Kherzan, Diarbekr and Redwan), Aleppo and
Teheran
districts.
were nearly 15,000

1
The only
About twenty years ago there

in
South Russia living
definite figures I
chiefly
have come across are those
of
Dr. Joseph, giving the number of Yezfdl inhabitants as 42,000,

living in 86 villages and 650 tents.
1
About eighty-three miles from Mdsul.
66
TRIBES AND STRONGHOLDS
67
and on the slopes of the Caucasus, but

number has since been reduced to a third
in Tiflis
this
through the Bolshevik and subsequent revolutions.
The town
of Belad,
for its figs, in the

is
generally
as their secular headquarters, but there is
no organized system
by
famous
Mosul Vilayet,
Sirijar district of the
known
of administration as understood
civilized peoples.
The Paramount Sheikh
lives
at Milik near by.
The
districts
north and north-east of M6sul
which come more directly under the influence of

the Mir are Ba Idhra (where the Mir lives), Ba'zani
(their principal burial-place),
many
ing
The
Sheikhs' tombs),
purely religious
side
Ba Sheikha
(contain-
Semil and Derebun.

is
centred
chiefly
at
Sheikh 'Adi (the Mecca of Yezidi pilgrims) and

Mihrka (East Sin jar).
The
chief
tribes in
Kurdistan are Sheikhan
(sixteen villages), Dunadi, in the district of
Dohuk
Sohrani
Missuri
(fifteen villages),
(fifteen villages),
(about ten villages),
Samaki, in the
Midy&t
Amu'ad,
The
(six villages),
district
of
in the district of
British opened a school here in 1919.
It did
not long
survive, as four pupils were drowned .in a swollen stream

they were fording on their way there, and the Yezidls thus
regarded their innate aversion from learning to be divinely

vindicated.
68
al-Qaus (four hundred

district of Jezira
Havveri
tents).
tents),
Rashukn
(one hundred and
There are
The
name
general
important
to
isolated
The
and
Zakho (one hundred

nomadic tribes, the chief
also
is
for those tribes,
warrant
tent-living
tribes
There are
Kuchar.
fifty tents)
the
the district of
in
being the Huwari, whose district
The
in,
special
Zakho.
chiefly
not sufficiently
notice
is
Dasni.
known generally
are
as
also a few detached colonies
among Turks and
Christians.
chief tribes in the Sinjar are the
Heska,
Mendka, Hubaba, Mihrka (guarding the eastern

end
of the range), Bukra, a small but fierce tribe
guarding the northern end, al-Dakhi, also guarding
Samukha
to the north-west, guarding the
and the Kiran
to the south-west, guarding the
the north,
west,
Jowana, who occupy six

villages in the north, Gabara (two villages), and
the al-Daghi, Chalka, Faqtr, Jabri and Uleki, all
south.
of
Other
tribes are
one village each.

The extreme western part
of the Sinjar is chiefly
inhabited by the Kherraniya tribes.
The
Sinjar
has always been a refuge for the more oppressed

tribes to the north.
1
This
tribal
may
name
have been derived from Dasn&yt, the Syriac

Kurds.
of the Yezidi
TRIBES AND STRONGHOLDS

The
69
Sinjar tribes which appear to have died
out are the Balt-Khalad and the Amera.

possible that there
may be
It is also
other tribes living in
the fastnesses of the country south of the Caspian
Sea who
practise a form of Devil Worship, but
every decaHe or so in the past there has been conflict
between them and the followers of Islam, and only

those protected by their natural strongholds in the
mountains of Kurdistan exist in any number.
CHAPTER V
THE
religion of the worship of the Devil
is
probably
an offshoot of the doctrine of Dualism, which in the
dawn
of creation
peoples.
was professed by several ancient
They vaguely recognized
existence to
The
earthly
some extent was connected with the
Good and
warring elements of
offerings
that
must be made
to
and that
Evil,
the
spirits
of
both.
Mani (Manes,
principles of the religion of
Manichaeus), was to a certain extent a revival of

it
in the Syrian form,
in the fourth
and
fifth
and
system of religion
centuries became so powerful
this
There was
as almost to rival Christianity itself.
another sporadic revival of
it
in the twelfth century
in Syria.
undoubtedly a fact that at the beginning

of the fourth century Manichaeism in Western Asia
It is
was an almost universal
religion.
Dualistic and a certain part of
on Chaldaism, but
later
70
It
it
was
essentially
was founded
was impregnated with

Christian,
Parsic and perhaps
71
Buddhistic ideas.
In Manichaeism the Hellenic element was absent,

but
bore traces of the Chaldaeo-Persian religion.
it
known regarding the source of Mani's

beliefs, but the Magi to some extent shaped his
His name has not as yet been explained,
teachings.
Little is
nor
is it
known whether he
origin.
Eebatana
some
Persian
in A.D. 216,
of
of Persian or Semitic
is
name was born
this
at
where he may have absorbed
He was
of the ideas of the Persian Dualists.
educated at Ctesiphon, near Baghdad, and started

teaching in 242.
He returned
and was
seven years
crucified
Although
the
to Ctesiphon in 270,
later.
Manichaeistia system
largely of uncompromising Dualism,
it
consists
is
form of a fantastic philosophy of nature.
Adam
is
in the
Thus,
a discordant being, created in the image
him the stronger spark

of light.
Eve is given him by Satan as his companion who bore him Seth (a name meaning full
of Satan, but carrying within
of light).
The Manichaeans
Abel are not the sons

Satan and Eve.
of
believe that Cain
Adam
and
and Eve, but of
Heavenly bodies are regulated
by
different shares of light (something in the nature
of
an aura), and Satan was thus allotted a large
share.
72
Towards the
close
of the
tenth century the
Manichaeans in Persia and Mesopotamia had already

been in a large measure ousted from the towns and
had withdrawn
cult,
to the villages.
due to outside
From
this
time the
influences, steadily dwindled.
Dualistic practices are also found in the teachings

of Zoroaster,
religion.
who
It is
also absorbed
thought that
much
of the
Magian
Zoroastrianism was one
borrowed by Mani, and that during

becoming aware that Dualism was the
of the elements
his travels,
most popular religion among the people of Western

Asia, he added beliefs of his own and welded
them.
Devil Worship also existed in Shamanism, a
form of Animism. Indeed, this religion is sometimes called pure Devil Worship, but in reality the
Shaman
(Turkish, Kam),
who
is
a wizard-priest,
closely akin to the medicine-man of savage tribes

in other parts of the world, deals with
as evil spirits.
The
epithet of Devil
applied to Altaian-Shamanism
is
good as well
Worship as
so far justified that
man, Erlik, the king of the lower

world, from whom death and all evils come, is
much courted, addressed as father and guide, and
the great
enemy
of
propitiated with offerings.
He
is
not, however, a
power co-ordinate with the Good God, Kaira Khan,
w
K
01
72
Towards the
Manichseans
close
the
of
tenth
century the
and Mesopotamia had already

been in a large measure ousted from the towns and
had withdrawn to the villages. From this time the
cult,
due
in Persia
to outside influences, steadily dwindled.
Dualistic practices are also found in the teachings

of Zoroaster,
religion.
who
It is
also absorbed
much
of the
thought that Zoroastrianism
Magian
was one
borrowed by Mani, and that during

becoming aware that Dualism was the
of the elements
his travels,
most popular religion among the people of Western

Asia, he added beliefs of his own and welded
them.
Devil Worship also existed in Shamanism, a
form
of
Animism.
this religion is
Indeed,
some-
times called pure Devil Worship, but in reality the
Shaman
(Turkish, Kam),
who
is
a wizard-priest,
closely akin to the medicine-man of savage tribes

in other parts of the world, deals with
as evil spirits.
The
epithet of Devil
applied to Altaian-Shamanism
is
good
as well
Worship as
so far justified that
man, Erlik, the king of the lower

world, from whom death and all evils come, is
much courted, addressed as father and guide, and
the great
enemy
of
propitiated with offerings.
He
is
not, however, a
power co-ordinate with the Good God, Kaira Khan,

who
created Erlik and afterwards banished
underground
Many
him
for his evil deeds.
Orientals
originally Christians,
say
fact that
was the name
Dasni
of
the
that
who have
mental principles of their
on the
73
Yezidis
were
forgotten the funda-
faith,
basing this belief
(as they are generally
Nestorian
known)
diocese, which
disappeared at the time the Yezidis
first
appeared,
but they do not give the date of the occurrence.
They
also say that in the Sin jar there
is
an old
Syriac library guarded by the Yezidis, which
is
supposed to base been inherited from their forefathers, who, the Yezidis say, were originally
Eastern Christians.
Further, a few Yezidi villages
bear old Syriac names.

Dr. Joseph, basing his assertion on the statements
of as-Sahrastani, thinks that the Devil
the Yezidis
was
originally practised
Worship
by a Kharijite
sub-sect, akin to the Abadiya, bearing the

their founder,
Yezid ibn 'Unaissa.
He
common
name
of
says that
certain distinctive Kharijite peculiarities
have out-lived the
of
faith of Islam,
seem to
such as
the tolerant judgment of Jews and Christians and

the condemnation of every sin as implicit idolatry.
He
thinks that in their
new
seats in Kurdistan they
were drawn in the fourteenth century into the
74
movement
which Sheikh 'Adi was in his lifetime
of
He
the leader, and after his death the Saint.
on
goes
ended by
to say that this sub-sect eventually
making him the incarnation of God in the present

With this they joined elements drawn from
age.
Christianity, with here and there a trace of Judaism,
and with survivals
heathenism,
many
of the persistent old
Semitic
which they share with their
of
all creeds.
neighbours of
Whether we can take
that as-Sahrastani
it
is
correct or not in identifying the Kharijites with the
the propitiation of
Yezidis,
the
One was
Evil
avowedly one of the tenets of the old Persian
who
Dualists,
basis, grafted
also professed nature worship.
on
This
to the Shi'as' ideas of dissimulation
human
and transmigration
adopted from the pre-Islamic pagans, and the
teachings of the Jews who identified Ahriman the
of
doctrine,
evil
principle,
regarding
practices
with
sacrifice
and
Satan,
together
food-prohibition,
of
circumcision
their
and
principles
with
blood
their
offering
(obtained possibly from the Mosaic ritual), added

to
observance of Christian belief so far as the
divinity
they
of
its
consider
Founder
Melak
is
Tav'us
concerned
a
greater
although
spirit-
baptism, and a respect for the Sign of the Cross,

and the whole moulded by a form
practically makes up the principles
75
of Gnosticism,
of the Yezidis'
creed.
Little study is necessary to
make
it
abundantly
clear that their religion is syncretic, to
which at
various periods, the teachings of Sheikh 'Adi and

heretical
Christian,
pagan and Persian Dualistic
influences have undoubtedly contributed.
however,
difficult to
compound
imagine
how such
It is,
a strange
inspires the Yezidis with fortitude in face
of oppression, but the smallness of their population

is in
no small measure due
nearly
all
to the fact that they are
martyrs to their cause.
The two
big
massacres of 1845 an d 1892 would have put an end

to a sect less strongly
imbued with the
essential
spirit of unity.
by no means conclusively proved that any

one founder of a religion was indirectly the cause
It is
Worship, which first

strength to have a definite
of the rise of the Yezidi Devil
evinced
itself in sufficient
religious
centre
century.
On
far
to
about the middle of the tenth
the other hand, one has not to look
point to religions which were essentially
Dualistic.
Even now
the Yezidi creed does not
deny the existence of Jesus, though

propitiary form of worship
is
it is
true no
accorded him.
76

Owing
to the lack of authentic
documents deal-
ing with the rise and growth of this form of Devil
Worship, one
is
forced to admit that history has
apparently not considered these tribes worthy of

serious attention.
CHAPTER
VI
RELIGION, BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS
As
usually understood by civilized peoples, the
Yezidis have no religion and no God, but they have
a creed and form of worship of the Principle of

Evil, which
is
more propitiatory than
definitely recognize that all
They
"
eucharistic.
forms of "bad
by a deity whose very name

they are forbidden to mention, and they believe
that Shaitan is endowed with great power in this
luck
are instigated
respect.
ward
They
therefore conceive
it
their 'duty to
danger by a careful avoidance of anything

As their
likely to cause offence to the Evil One.
great object is to secure and retain the capricious
off
favour of this Deity,
towards the Devil
is
their
conciliatory
attitude
thus governed rather by fear
than love.
They, for the most part, believe that the Devil is

a fallen angel, but God reinstated him in heavenly
rank and forbade the angels to scorn him
mankind
should not therefore treat the power of evil lightly.

77
78
It is largely this belief that
has given rise to the
idea that they are purely Devil Worshippers.
At
same time they do not deny the existence of

Jesus and Muhammad, but their full power in this
the
world they believe to be very limited and they are

therefore
God
is
relegated
to
the position
of
prophets.
considered to be a remote Being, and not
of this world.
Shaitan
is
the Arabic for Satan, and the utter-
ance of this word
is
apparently a disrespect to the
Prince of Darkness, of which no Yezidi would be

guilty.
Neither would he malign the Devil and
make him
the scapegoat for his
Followers of this belief
may
own
his (Shaitan's) virtues are negative,

evil
qualities
may
be
shortcomings.
be said to agree that
rendered
but that his

negative
by
propitiation also.
The
Yezidis' belief in the transmigration of
The
souls has an interesting origin.

that a sister of
1
It is,
Mansur
al-Hallaj
was
story goes
filling
her
however, the case that owing to the geographical
most of their tribes, the Yezidis actually show

some surviving traces of the old Devil Worship anathematized
by Zoroaster.
3
Husain ibn Mansur al-Hallaj (the wool-carder) was
position of
executed at Bagdad on 26th March, 922, for pretending he

was God. The usual story is that the Caliph ordered him to
be decapitated and his head to be thrown in the Tigris.
RELIGION
when
a river
jar in
the soul of her brother
and entered the
floating along
79
jar.
came
After drinking
the water, she became pregnant and gave birth to
a son.
Mansur
is
al-Hallaj
one of
for the origin of
also held responsible
their fetishes.
When
head of Mansur was thrown into the water,
the
it
gurgled, and for this reason they never use drinking vessels having narrow mouths, as they also
gurgle
when being
There
is
pray in their
Melak Ta'us
filled
from running water.
no order of prayer or command to

holy books, and as they believe that
is sufficiently
powerful to save them,
Yezidis are never seen at prayer, which they regard

as a superfluous form of worship.
entirely consists of the
and the religious
Actual worship
hymns sung by the Qauwals
rites
practised
by pilgrims
at
festivals.
They have commandments concerning

ness, but not godliness.
There
is
cleanli-
no implied order
for a Yezidi to love his neighbour as
it
has to come
from his heart.
Nearly every thought and action

centres on the shrine of Sheikh 'Adi, and in this
connection he
told to obey
and pay the
priests.
5th and 2Oth September all must

Sheikh 'Adi, when Sheikh 'Adi dust must be
Thus, between
visit
is
1
eaten daily; moreover, they must possess some at
8o
Religious duties take up a considerable
death.
amount of time and money, and
computed that
the average Yezidi spends a quarter of his income
in fees, doles and alms connected with the shrines.
It is
it is
unusual for uncharitableness to exist in any
and they are firm

believers in charity beginning at home.
For
instance, he must kiss his brother's hand daily, also
degree
amongst
their
that of his Pir, also

for over a year
if
tribes
he goes to another place
and afterwards returns,
forbidden him, and anyone
who
his wife
is
him a wife
gives
is infidel.
Amongst
civilized
communities
it
is
usual to
think of the Devil as a Spirit and Hell as his
abode, but with the Yezidis the latter
Melak Ta'us
is
mentioned in
having ascended into Heaven.
their
is
not so, as
writings
as
In support of their
disbelief in Hell they say that the
consuming fires
1
were extinguished by a child called Abrik Shautha,
who, being diseased in eyes, nose, ears, hands and
feet, cried for
seven years into a yellow
the jar was full he emptied
it
over the
jar.
When
fires,
which,
Dr. Joseph says Ibrik al-Asfar, a religious man, was

responsible, whilst a Tifiis Yezidi gives the following version :
Satan wept in seven vessels to quench the seven hells of his
1
seven thousand years' exile, and has

Heaven.
now been
reinstated in
RELIGION
81
no longer torment mankind. For

Shautha was thanked by the Seven Gods.
since then,
act
Paradise to the Yezidi mind

of the souls of those
to
those
the destination
are freed from the
body
and
an
future
are
past
open
these freed souls, and they are helpers of
The
in this world.
book
who
is
this
earthly
bound souls
still
here
struggling
below.
The more prominent

pagan
beliefs of the Yezidis are
as the worship of Nature goes
in origin,
back to the dawn of ages.

so strong that
tombs
at
it
is
of the
Sun
is
thought the smaller of the two
Sheikh 'Adi was erected in
and that the Sun
is
known by
the
its
title
honour,
of Sheikh
Running water also has a signifithe minds of the Yezidis, co-eval with that
Shamsu'ddin.
cance in
Worship
of trees, and the particular spring at Sheikh 'Adi,

1
Shams
is
Arabic for the Sun.
Soine writers assert that
the tomb of Shamsu'ddin was erected in
memory of an earthly
personage, Sheikh Shams 'Ali Beg al-Farisl. This theory is
further exemplified by Dr. Joseph, who thinks that the spirit
of the seven angels worshipped by the Yezidis originally
existed in the bodies of men whose tombs are in the neighbourhood of the Temple of Sheikh 'Adi. Thus, one of the divinities
worshipped is supposed to be the spiritual remains of Sheikh
Hasan of Basra, a celebrated theologian who died A.D. 728.
Another spirit, Kamush, is given as. that of Fakhru'ddin, a
doctor who preached in Arabic and Persian, born at Kai in
Tabaristan
A.D. 1150,
and who died
at
Herat in
A.D. 1210.
82
with
its
beneath the
sanctuary
is
Temple,
so
worshipped by the Yezidis, that a legend has

come to be believed in connection with it.
They
are
now
firmly convinced that
has an underground
it
passage communicating with the famous well of

Zemzem at Mecca. At Ba'zani there is a sacred
dedicated
spring
Sheikha there
small
cave
is
to
also a spring
the
in
Sheikh
foothills
Mand, and
at
Ba
which issues from a
and
is
very
much
reverenced.
Tree-worship
1
is
professed by the Yezidis to this
Again and again one comes across
day.
trees
protected by a low wall of stones in their districts.
Mulberry
tion, as
seem
to claim their adora-
they are thought to be endowed with sacred
qualities
power
trees especially
to
and are generally regarded as having

cure disease.
Thus, at Ba Sheikha and
Kabbara, there are two mulberry trees; the one at

Ba Sheikha is called Sitt Nafisa and that at Kabbara
is
called
They
common
Abdi Rash.
are thus raised above the ordinary level of
trees
and are
believe that they have
sick,
who
powers of healing.
At
visited
by the
It is interesting to observe that in regard to the reverence

paid by the Yezidis to trees that Yazid, a deity of the Tarh6ya
tribe of Kurds, who are not Devil Worshippers, is supposed
to be identified with the worship of trees.
RELIGION
83
a mulberry tree near a spring which

the Yezidis believe to be particularly endowed with
Ba'zani there
is
This tree
special power.
is
called Sheikh Baliko,
an even higher degree of honour.

regain their health
make
their
tie
a rag to
vows before
remain until they
fall
The
branches and
its
These pieces of rag

from exposure, and bread is
it.
The
cast into the spring for the fish.
mulberry trees
Sick wishing to
sick visit the
at Khasia.
Yezidis believe that the period since the
now
flood until
seven thousand years.
is
Khuda (Kurdish and
believe that
They
Persian for God)
created the universe and produced seven angels
upon whom
its
maintenance
devolved.
Each
thousand years one of the angels descends

establish rules
his abode.
(? Lucifer),
and laws,
The
who
after
was Lasifarus
also bears the mantle of
when
this
among them he dwelt longer than any

and confirmed the Yezidi
They
and
1
also say that
Amshaps
angel lived
of the others,
saints before ascending.
is
that of
Melak
Ta'iis.
may have originally been regarded

or immortal spirits mentioned in the
These seven divinities
A-vesta of Zoroaster.
Melak
he spoke the Kurdish tongue
that the present age
as the seven
to
which he returns to
principal of these
Ta'us, and they believe that
84
The
other
to
fashion)
the
be,
the
Moon,
are
angels
order
in
(Sabaean
the
of
Sun,
power:
Vault of Heaven, the Morning
Paradise and Hell. 1
Star,
supposed
believe these
They
angels control the universe, and for this reason

the Yezidis kiss the spot where the Sun's
morning
rays
first
rest
each
also sacrifice at Sheikh
Adi a white
Sun (Sheikh Shamsu'ddm).
of the
is
hours.
twenty-four
They
bull in
honour
This custom
probably derived from the Zoroastrians.
New
Yezidis allege that on
on
his throne
and
calls the
their reports as to
Year's
The
Day God
sits
angels to him, hearing
the well-being of his earthly
people.
most important
the
of
Yezidi
is
belief in the
that
if
everyday
life
one of their number
pronounces the name Shaitan, he or she will be

This fanaticism even goes so far as
struck blind.
forbid
to
khait
words with similar

Also,
(string).
as
sounds,
there
is
such
as
an intimate
connection in their minds between the Devil and

curses,
they
are
forbidden
to
pronounce
the
These angels are sometimes referred to by the names of

departed personages with whom they appear to be in some
way connected For example, Sheikh 'Adi, Yezld ibn
Mu'awiya, Sheikh Shamsu'ddln (Artaniis), Melak Fakhru'ddln
(Kamush) and Sheikh Nasru'ddin (Nisroch).
1
RELIGION
Kurdish term
for
"
85
"
curse
(la no)
and
its
various
forms.
The Unmentionable
chief
of
the
is
Host,
Angelic
be
the
suffering
the
believed
now
to
punishment for his rebellion against the jDivine

Will (in connection with Adam's nourishment),
but in spite of this he
is still
all-powerful and will
be restored hereafter to his high estate in the

celestial world.
They
believe in the origin of the world as put
and
forward in Genesis,
other events in the
in
the
Deluge and
in
The New
Old Testament.
Testament and the Qu'ran are not rejected in th'eir

entirety, and there are passages from the latter
inscribed in their
Abraham
Holy
Places.
Muhammad and
are merely minor prophets in their eyes,
but they expect the second coming of Christ and

recognize the Twelfth
The
Imam (Mahdt
of the Shi'as).
Devil Worshippers believe that there were
two floods, and that as the water of the second

Noah's) flood rose and the ark floated,
Mount Sin jar, where it ran aground
pierced by a rock.
The
it
came
(or
to
and was
serpent on board there-
upon twisted itself into a cake and stopped the

This may explain
hole and the ark moved on.
their
veneration of the serpent on
Feast Days,
86
when
to
pilgrims
Sheikh
leaded image carved on the
They appear
to
'Adi
the
kiss
Temple
black-
wall.
come
to believe that Christ will
govern the world, but that eventually a Sheikh
Medi (Mahdi)
rule with
will
over the Yezidis.
They
jurisdiction
special
say that
God
has three
thousand and three names, of which they know two

thousand, and add that the remainder are unknown
As they
to anyone.
other
all
believe that at
some time or
Yezidis have sinned, they lay
down
that
before entering Heaven, an expiatory period must

first
be passed in another place, but that no one
be punished eternally.
will
Instances of superstition are legion.

that
Yezidis
believe
that
Sheikh
One
living
is
at
Giranjak near Mosul has the hereditary power of

charming folk, or casting spells, even from a
distance.
for a lady's
asked him
story goes that a disappointed suitor
hand came
to
see this Sheikh arid
for a consideration to render his
more
successful rival impotent after marriage, which
was
supposed to have been done through pure magic.

When the husband apparently discovered what had
been done to him, he went to the Sheikh and

offered
to
him a
charm
his
larger
sum and implored
impotence away.
the Sheikh
RELIGION
87
The
Another concerns a different Sheikh.
descendants of Sheikh Ruhsit, so called after a

ruined village of the same name, between Baiban
and Nasari
the
in
Mosul Vilayet, believe they
have inherited from their ancestor certain magic

powers. They live at Baiban and are regarded as
snake charmers.
exchange for
gifts.
This power they are willing to
The
transference of power
is
who wish
to
simply effected by spitting at people

acquire
it.
notable
exists in their
They do
survival
of
their
pagan
not admit those
who
is
a certain dignity
their daily habits,
us
which
is
who have been brought
faith.
originally professed
other religions to their community,
reason there
religion
law regarding converts to their
and
for
this
and reserve about
impressive to those of
into touch with Christian
evangelists.
Unmentionable Being
fortunately stops short of imitation, as they have
"
"
works
no
on earth to perform, and they feel
Their
homage
to
the
they are under no obligation to
Good.
name
1
It
is
make Evil
their
only out of respect for the great
of their Deity that
it is
never uttered, though
In this respect they resemble

originally followers of Zoroaster.
the
Parsees,
who were

possibly the fear of being struck blind has had
something to
pagan
do
with this
curious
survival
of
belief.
Intolerance by other people of these so-called

peculiar religious principles has been the cause of
much massacre from
the
dawn
of creation,
religious fanaticism has almost continually
and
been one
of the chief factors of tribal unrest in Kurdistan.
The
Yezidis
have
always
been
abhorred
by
and they are regarded less
than the beasts, much in the same way as witches
were regarded by Protestant Reformers, but to-day
Muslims as
outcasts,
with the spread of Christianity more tolerance
being shown to these
tribes,
who,
is
after all, purely
from a religious point of view are self-supporting

and make no claim on the outside world.
CHAPTER
VII

LESS than a century ago, the Yezidis hacl their
own independent
the last of
chiefs,
whom,
'Alt
Beg, was beloved by the Sheikhan tribes, as he

was sufficiently brave and skilful in war to defend
them
for
many
Kurds and
years against the attacks of the
Muslims
of
the
plains.
Finally,
however, the powerful Bey of Rowanduz in 1832

united most of the Kurdish tribes in his immediate
neighbourhood and resolved to crush the hated

sect.
In the conflict which followed, 'Ali Beg fell
into his persecutor's
his
The
followers fled
hands and was put to death

and were pursued to Mosul.
;
boat-bridge having been removed, owing to
the spring floods in the river, very few got across
and most were massacred
at
Kuyunjik (Slaughter
of the Sheep).
'All's son, Husain, was carried by
his mother to the mountains and thus
escaped the
general massacre; but his power was limited, for
shortly afterwards,
particularly
89
during the years
go
to
1838
1844,
Hafiz Pasha
Muhammad
Pasha and
Reshid
continued the tale of oppression and
massacre, and the population was reduced by three-
In
fourths.
intervened
and
Lord
however,
1847,
the
got
tribes
military service, which concession
Stratford
from
exempted
is
still
in force.
Farther north, for a time the Yezidis escaped

Turk's clutches,
the
and
at
man named Mirza Agha was

chief.
independent
He
Redwan
set
is chiefly
strong
up as a semiremembered by
a church he built for the Armenian Christians of
Redwan
the
tion
and
a pleasing example of tolera-
district,
liberality,
of the world.
which
is
unusual in
this part
Unfortunately he was eventually
murdered by the above-mentioned Reshid Pasha,

This
who had the widow placed in his harem.
woman, however, did not

in
live
long and soon died
Mirza Agha was buried on the banks

This
stream to the west of Redwan.
bondage.
the
of
oppression, which existed through the nineteenth

century,
was
chiefly
due
to
the
fact
that
the
"
Muslims regarded them as infidel,

having no
Book," and their choice was between conversion
1
Dr. Forbes,
who was
in the Sinjar in 1838, states that the
were then no more than bandits, and that Hafiz,

Pasha of Diarbekr, was forced to intervene.
Yezidis

and the .sword.
their refusal to
Muslim
91
Other contributory causes were

join the Turkish Army and to the
belief that they
used to worship secretly
manner
the goddess of Semiramis (Semiram) in the
the Syrian Nusairis used to do.
Again
in 1892, Lieutenant-General Farik
'Umar
Pasha, a Turk, endeavoured to induce them to
They would
give up Devil Worship.
and many
chiefs
Pasha's son,
not, however,
'Umar
were thrown into prison.
'Umar Bey,
also slew five
hundred
Yezidis in their villages, carried off their young
women, and
'Ali
down
tore
Beg, in spite of
this,
was
Through
later released,
to
were
only
Katamuni, near
British intervention
he
but this was virtually the end
of the Yezidis' temporal power,
they
Mir,
did not change his belief,
and was therefore banished

Constantinople.
The
their shrines.
to
be
and
found
in
for
many
the
years
mountain
fastnesses of the higher ranges of Armenia.
In
return for this shelter, they hid, during the 1914-
1918 war, hundreds of Armenian refugees,
who
crawled from Dairu'z-Zor to the Jebel Sin jar, and

refused to surrender them to the Turks.
What
a
personage
Emir
authority remains
little
styled
or Mira).
He
the
is
is
now
vested in
Mir (sometimes
called
a kind of Prince-Pope and
92
said to descend from Yezid.

In a small
"
he had the
Divine Right," both temporal
is
religious, over his subjects, but
nowadays
the
of
Sa'id Beg, son of 'Ali
is
and
this is
usually only exercised on the religious side.
present Mir
way
The
Beg (grandson
independent chief) who, with two

were sons of the Mir, Husain Beg.
last
brothers,
Incidentally, 'Ali
Beg was,
it is
believed, murdered
any rate he died very

Sa'id Beg comes from the family of
suddenly.
Choi Beg, well known in the Sheikhan district.
The males of this family always marry Pesmir
about a dozen years ago
at
women
(a
noble caste).
His aunt was
for
many
years the Khatun, or female keeper, of the shrine

at
Sheikh 'Adi.
Sa'id's cousin,
Isma'il,
was very
active during the 1920 rebellion of Mesopotamia,
and called himself the Mir whilst away from his

2
Another
people, but he is not heard of now.
cousin,
Husain,
lives with the present
Mir, and
although he has no near claim to the position, in
an
unofficial
power
1
One
in
way he wields
the
Mir's
.a
certain
household.
writer definitely states that he
was
amount of
Husain
is
killed in 1913
by
a Muhammadan Agha, named Safar.

3
On one occasion he called on Colonel Cunliffe-Owen at
Baquba near Baghdad. On his visiting card was inscribed
"Emir Sheikh Isma'il Bey," surmounted by a peacock.

pleasing personality; he
bearing,
is
intelligent,
93
has a fine
and would, one imagines, make an
ideal
chief.
Sa'id Beg, with
whom
conversed through an
interpreter, is about thirty years of age,
and wears
the shafiya (head-dress) and agl (camel-hair fastening) of the orthodox Arab,
(cloak).
of chief,
He
a gentle, sad, and a depressing sort

with slim hands and a silky black beard,
is
and he has a perpetually
He
expression.
From
It is
household
rumoured
and lack-lustre
one eye.
he has been under the direct
of his mother,
all the
irresolute
has, moreover, a cast in
his earliest days
influence
keeps
but without the abba
Mai'yam Khanim, who

affairs
under her thumb.
also that she, in conjunction with a
paramour, connived at the sudden death of her

late
husband.
She
is
of particularly aristocratic
appearance and above the average stature of Yezidl

women. By all accounts, she encourages the use
and alcohol by her son, hoping

reason that he will in time become
of drugs
incapable
of
carrying
out
his
duties
for
some
entirely
and thus
become an easy prey to a more ambitious successor.

The Mir's word is absolutely final in all secular
matters,
and not being bound down by the laws
of polite civilization, could, of course,
make almost
94
There
impossible demands with success.
another chief
Beg
may
call
that he occasionally goes to
been as
that
He
never be seen again.
will
far
as
farther afield.
how-
one day soor

himself Mir, and then Sale
always the possibility
ever,
is,
informed me
Mosul and had once
Baghdad, but had not travelled

The Yezidis seldom wander aboul
and townsmen keep aloof from the

His cousin, on the othei
despised sect's district.
hand, was more versed in the modern developin the towns,
ments of the country to the south, and, indeed,

had for a period served as an officer in the Arab
married, and has a pleasant-
Sa'id
Beg
is
looking wife,
who
lives in a
has
personal
Army.
Ba
wing of the
fort a1
Idhra.
The
Mir
authority
over
the
disposition of three of the sanajiq, or images oi
Melak Ta'us, but does not usually

of the privilege.
It
should perhaps be explained
that whilst each tribe has

is
the religious
avail himseli
its
own
chief,
head of the whole sect and
therefore treated with great reverence
Although the office

if
the eldest son
the Mil
is
times chose another
is
supposed
to
b;e
and
is
respect.
hereditary,
unsuitable, the Yezidis some-
member
of the family.
As
the Mir can do no wrong, the probable successoi

generally harbours designs against his
95
con-
life;
sequently few Mirs die in their beds.

after the Mir,
Immediately
his temporal influence,
The
of the Sinjar.
who
and with some
of
comes the paramount Sheikh
present
man
is
Hamo
Shero,
about ninety years old, and lives at Milik
is
During the war he was
in the centre of the Jebel.
a Faqir, but was later appointed by the British

"
Ra'is of the Jebel
"
and
These rather pretentious
"
Wakil
of
Belad Sinjar."
no doubt impressed
his followers, who appointed him their paramount
He is very unorthodox, which is unlike
Sheikh.
a true Yezidi, but
titles
In
not lacking in personality.
is
Hamo's unorthodoxy brought him into

with the Chief of the Mihrka tribes of the
April, 1925,
conflict
Da'ud
Sinjar,
al
that the British

result
was
that
a fugitive.
Da'ud, and so bitter was the feud
were forced
Hamo
It is
surrendered and Da'ud
is
Fines were, however, levied on the
followers of both,
reigns.
The
to intervene.
and
for
the present quietude
probable, however, that this
is
the
end of Hamo's power, and that the orthodox Da'ud

will eventually become the paramount Sheikh of
the Sinjar.
The
orders of priesthood as laid
centuries are four in
down
for
many
number; they are hereditary,
96
who, when enjoying

them, are treated with the same respect and con
and may descend
male holders of the
sideration as the
The
sacerdotal
highest
who
Sheikh,
of the
to females,
Margahi; he
sect.
is
He
known
is
as the Ikhti'ar-i
appointed by the Mir, and
by the Yezidis. to be a
Hasan
descendant
He is distinguished
He receives fees paid
al-Basri.
of families at times of birth, marriage

fees
believec
is
Iman
of
black turban.
also
Granc
the
is
the patriarch or supreme pontif
is
whole
order
posts.
and
aj
larg*
by group!
and burial
:
in
paid to shrines, to priests
trouble and misfortune,
by
time o
at thanksgivings.
H<
has power to issue fatwas, or religious decrees
and has certain
and temporal powers
spiritual
including excommunication.
and gloves.
The Grand
He
wears a specia
belt
known
Sheikh
as the Sheikhs,
has
usually
each of
whom
is
assistants
chosen
bj
the head of a family to act as advocate in the nex
world.
They
are usually
known
as
"
heavenb
brothers," and have to be near- their employers a
the time of death.
These
officials
allow their hand:
be kissed daily by the head of the family ii

white
question. In dress, they are allowed to wear
to
say Sheikh 'Adi was his forefather.

is Arabic for old man or elder.
Sheikh

except the skull-cap, which must be black.
wear round the body a band
also
97
They
and yellow
Those living near Sheikh 'Adi
or orange plaid.
of red
watch over the tomb, receive pilgrims, take charge

(in rotation) of offerings, and sell clay balls (special
balls
made
made
into
of earth
from the tomb

Sheikh
with
paste
regarded as sacred).
of
'Adi
It is difficult to
Sheikh 'Adi
and
water
place a Sheikh
in order of precedence as far as the priesthood
concerned, as he
is
is
a kind of offshoot, and the
is
office
not hereditary.
The
next
means
literally
hereditary priest,
the
are
Pirs,
men."
"old
which in Kurdish
The
and receives half
Pir
as
is
much
in
dues as the Sheikh, but has few temporal duties.
He
is
supposed to possess the power of curing
disease and insanity.
He
leads a
life of
sanctity
and honesty, and is looked up to with great

His duties being practically nominal,
reverence.
the office
is
regulations
a sinecure, and in spite of the stringent

as to
apply to his
priests'
office.
He
wearing apparel, none

usually wears a white
turban, with a black plume.
The most numerous grade of priests are

2
Qauw&ls.
They are able to play and teach
1
Pir
is
Persian for abbot.
Qauw&l
is
Kurdish
for chanter or orator.
the
the
98
playing of drums, flutes and tambourines, and they

are also singers.
They go on
missions with
Melak
Ta'us, and being young and therefore active, they
dance
at festivals.
They
also instruct the
young
They are
dancing and religious pleasure.
allowed to wear coloured fabrics, but white is more
in
Both
usual.
their turbans
and skull-caps are black.
Usually they are well dressed, as they are given

clothes by pilgrims to wear for two months. These
are then returned sanctified.
The
1
grade are the Faqirs or Mullas, some-
last
times colloquially called Qarabash (meaning blackheads),
who
They wear
are akin to the Levites of the Jews.
a khurqa (black cloth, or canvas coat)
reaching to the knee and
fitting
according to the Yezidis, hung on

a disturbance or brawl.
The
cloth
tightly,
is
dyed with a
made from Chinar
special fast colour
which,
a tree will stop
leaves,
by
for twelve
boiling the cloth in a solution of this dye
hours.
The duties
of the Faqirs consist in guarding
the books and mysteries of their religion and of

filling
and trimming the lamps placed
the courtyard walls.
They
in niches in
usually serve in squads
are
*Faqir is Arabic for a poor man or a beggar. They
who
or
master
for
Kak
a
teacher),
administered by
(Persian
lives in
a holy place in the province of Aleppo.

They wear a black
of ten weekly.
which
is
tied a red handkerchief,
a chain round; their necks
renounced
all
it
earthly vanities.
99
turban, over
and
they wear
if
signifies
they have
They
also clean
the various buildings of the shrines and generally
At one time they used to fast for

eighty days each year (forty days in summer and
forty in winter), when they only eat once each
do menial work.
twenty-four hours.
Whilst fasting they sleep on
grass mattresses.
In addition to these Orders, there

interesting
usually,
body known
who
as
is
also
an
nomadic
Kuchaks,
are regarded as seers, visionaries,
mediums and miracle workers.
They
are supposed
powers from a hereditary source,

be possessed, nevertheless, by an
to receive these
but they
outsider.
may
They
fall into
trances and see visions.
Their power in olden times was practically unlimited, and if they were popular they could become
Grand Sheikhs. One, named Beru, was approached

by the leaders of some of the tribes during a particularly dry season,
to the district.
The
who asked him
to
send rain
story goes that this
Kuchak
he went up to Heaven that evening and

there saw Sheikh 'Adi and invoked his help.
said that
Together they referred the matter
to a
heavenly
ioo
priest
named
God.
Isaac (Ishaq),
.The priest,
who was
who had
sitting beside
evidently had
many
appeals of this nature from his earthbound brethren,
informed the Kuchak through Sheikh 'Adi that he
would cause rain
to fall within
seven days.
chiefs duly waited for this period, but
still
The
no rain
The Kuchak was brought before them, and

he thereupon explained that so many calls had been
made on Heaven for the desired rainfall that each
fell.
apparently had to wait
seemed
its
This explanation
turn.
to satisfy the chiefs, but the
implored to do
all
he could
of rainfall was fulfilled.
Kuchak was
to see that the
By
promise
sheer luck rain fell
and the Kuchak's alleged

powers were vindicated and he was hailed with
within a
short time,
acclamation by the tribes of the
district.
Another, a shepherd, recently impressed the

Mir's mother with his aspirations.
She told her
son to get a Chaldean priest from Tel Uskof to
test the shepherd's powers at Ba Idhra in the
presence of the people, but no miracles were per-
formed, and his potential power over the people
He
was assassinated shortly afterwards;

but so credulous are the people at the mention of
vanished.
the
word Kuchak
that these alleged miracle-workers
nearly always have a following.
Kuchaks wear

black, and
marry within
101
their caste like Sheikhs
and Faqirs, but are not circumcised. 1
The
saints venerated
of precedence
by the
priests are in order
Muhammad
Sheikh 'Adi, Yezid,
Rashan, and Sheikh Mand.
sacred spring
is
dedicated to the last-named at Ba'zani, and his
descendants are said to be able to pick up poisonous

snakes with impunity.
snakes are
unknown
It is nevertheless a fact that
in this district.
The Archangels worshipped by the Yezidis are

Jabra'il (Gabriel), who bears the word of God
(i)
prophets and believers;
to
who
(2)
Mikha'il (Michael),
brings rains, snow, wind and hail;
(3) Azra'il,
the archangel of death; (4) Dedra'il; (5) Rapha'il;
Shamka'il;
(6)
(8) Azrafil,
(7) Azazil, also said to
be Azrafil;
who announces minor messages with
a,
Nekir and Nukir (properly

Nakir, for Munkir, and Nakir), who examine men's
trumpet;
(9
and
10)
souls at their death.
According
to
Heard,
some Yezidis believe
Mikha'il, Azra'il, Dedra'il, Shamka'il
The
and
Isrifil to
having the immediate charge of the shrine

Menial duties at
Shawish, and are unmarried.
Sheikh 'Adi are also carried out by women called Kab&na and
1
are
priests
called
Fuqraiya, the latter chiefly at festivals. These servants are

also unmarried. The Faqirs are known locally as Farrash
(Arabic for sweeper).
102
be incarnated in the Sheikhs Abubakr, Salju'ddin,

Hasan al-Basri, Nasru'ddin and Shamsu'ddin respectively,
memory
at
some
of
whom
have shrines
to
their
Sheikh 'Adi.
According
to Yezidi teaching,
Melak
Ta'iis was,
however, originally regarded as the incarnation of

Yazid,
and
whom
the priests
inferior to
It is
when
of as a saint
Sheikh 'Adi.
worth noting that, according to tradition,
the Yezidis were naturally powerful they had
a royal house.
(A,D.
now speak
Sabur
I (A.D.
224-272) and Sabur II
309-379) are mentioned by them, and
it
is
said that the first five kings reigned together over
one hundred and
fifty
years (A.D.
224-379),
an ^
were the ancestors of the present family of Mirs,

known locally as Mairi Khan. There is, however,
no trace of such a royal house
of their history.
at
any
later period
CHAPTER
SHEIKH
So
little
is
VIII
THE SAINT
'ADl,
known about Sheikh
that has found its
way
into
much
'Adi that
books about him must
Even
be laid at the heels of conjecture.
the
present-day Yezidis cannot, or will not, definitely

say much about his birth, life and death, and it has
been
left
to the present writer to
narrow down
possibilities to certain definite schools of thought,
which bear characteristics that would indicate their

probability.
The
Saint's full
name
is
given variously by
Eastern scholars who have endeavoured to trace
The consensus
ancestry.
of opinion is that
he was
called Sarafu'ddin Abu'l-Fadail 'Adi ibn Musafir
ibn Isma'il ibn
Marwzin.
is
Musa
Thus
agreement
as
ibn
Marwan
ibn.
al-Hasan ibn
for at least six generations there

to
his
forefathers,
and
it
is
unnecessary to go farther back than this.

1
One Oriental continues to trace his ancestry five further
ibn al-Hakan
generations, namely ibn Muhammad ibn Marwan
ibn al-'Ass ibn 'Umayya, but the name of the ninth (al-Hakan)
alone
is
corroborated by any other authority.
103
104
As
to
how
the
Yezidis,
'Adi
became
themselves
tribes
with
identified
are
believe that he was a Syrian Magian,
the
inclined
who
to
in the
tenth century took refuge with the Yezidis,
who
were already established in the Kurdish highlands.

He was a man of some learning and wrote holy
books
for
them, and on his death a shrine in the
Temple was
set apart for his
re-named Sheikh 'Adi.

'Adi maintain that this
As
tomb and the Temple
the
Qauwals
shrine was built
some credence must be given

the other hand,
from generation
it
Sheikh
at
A.D;.
to this story.
960,
On
may have been handed down

and owing
to generation,
to their
inborn credulity the Yezidis probably refuse to

believe that this
Most
is
not the case.
of the available information
on
this subject,
however, inclines one to credit the following story.
The
shrine at Sheikh 'Adi, as originally conceived,
was not the religious centre of the Yezidis, but the

site of the Christian Church of Mar Yuhannan
and Mar Yshoh Sabran.
In the twelfth century
monks employed a Tarhoya Kurd of the

Beni-'Umaya tribe named 'Adi, son of Musafir alChristian
Hakkari, as an agent to collect their
tithes.
After
a time, realizing the importance of his position, he
conspired with his
own and
the
Zednaya
tribe,
SHEIKH
'ADI,
THE SAINT
105
overpowered the monks and seized the monastery.

The story goes that he eventually married a
Mogul woman and had
Fakhru'ddin and Shamsu'ddin, who
Muhammad
thereafter
three sons, Sharafu'ddin,
lived
at
the
He
monastery.
then
founded a religion based on doctrines from various

faiths, resembling a form of paganism, with a deity
named Yazid as the central figure, and regarded
himself as a prophet.
his family
In order that the origin of
should not bear subsequent investigation,
he forbade the arts of reading and writing.
His
period of influence, however, did not last long, and
he was taken prisoner by the Amir Gengis Khan,

was deported to Persia and subsequently executed
at
Maragha.
His sons shortly afterwards
fled
from
the district, the eldest, Sharafu'ddin, being killed
Fakhru'ddin established himself in the Sinjar district,

and the youngest, Shamsu'ddin, and his wife settled
For a time the monastery was closed,

but a son of Shamsu'ddin having reached maturity,
in
Damascus.
successfully petitioned the Tartar Sultan that he
might regain possession, and erected the present

shrine to his now-illustrious grandfather.
The
chief
bone of contention
in the
above story,
and that believed by the Yezidis themselves, is that

Sheikh 'Adi was not a Kurd, but a Syrian, and
106
an Arab scholar named Kasi
curiously enough,
Ahmad
name, a Sufi
this
man
of
was born
at
ibn Khallikan of Mosul, says that a
and mystic
saint
Bait Far near Baalbek in Syria in the early part of
He
the twelfth century.
is
supposed to have gone
into retreat to a ruined Christian monastery in the

Sinjar,
where he died and was interred in
He
1162-3.*
says that Musafiru'd-din,
Arbil, near Mosul, said that
Sheikh 'Adi
man
of
at
Mosul.
medium
size
when
A.D.
King
of
a boy he saw
According to him he was a

and tawny complexion, and
died at the age of ninety.
same man,
If this is the
then the Yezidis are two hundred years out in their

calculations,
but
it
is
noteworthy that Syria
is
"
mentioned in their assumed scripture, the

Black
Book." This Sufi was a pupil of Sheikh Abdu'l-
Kadir of Gilan in Persia, was born
founded the Kadiri dervishes, died
was buried
at
Sheikh 'Adi.
From
s&f,
Arabic
for
wool,
1078-9,
164-5, an d
This Sheikh 'Adi once
went on a pilgrimage with him

1
A.D.
A.D.
to
Mecca
for four
meaning a wool-weaver,
typifying simplicity of life. Sufism, which is eclectic, is the

antithesis of Manchseism, which is dogmatic. It came into
prominence during the eighth century A.D., and afterwards

gained adherents in Persia.
3
Soane mentions Sheikh 'Adi's burial-place as the valley
of Kenwi Lash (meaning body) in the Hakkari range, near
Mosul.
SHEIKH
He
years.
'ADI,
THE SAINT
afterwards led a wandering
107
life
and
professed strange doctrines.
Thus
the Yezidis
own and on
to their
memory
grafted his cult on
his death erected a shrine to his
in the well-watered valley
Sheikh 'Adi.
name
may have
like the
It is,
now known
as
moreover, recorded that his
Tarhoya Kurd was
also ibn Musafir
al-Hakkari, but the discrepancy of two centuries in

the date of the shrine
is difficult
to account for.
has been suggested that a possible explanation
It
is
that the present-day Yezidis are correct in stating
monastery (not the shrine itself) was built in

the tenth century, but that it was in use for the
that the
hundred years as a Christian

when it was seized by the Sinjar
intervening two
monastery,
Yezidis,
for
it
who adapted
Sheikh 'Adi.
was a
the buildings as a shrine
certain Mosuli once said that
local tradition that
Ba Idhra and
Sheikh 'Adi died near
that he thought this
more
likely than
that Sheikh 'Adi died in a Christian monastery in
the Sinjar.
Miss Gertrude Bell says that she

clear about the
districts of
Saint's origin,
is
not at
all
and mentions the
Aleppo and the Hauran
(also
mentioned
by Muhammad Amin al-'Umari) as his birthplace

and the date of his death as A.D. 1162. His Sufi
io8
teaching was in accordance with that received by
Mansur
who
al-Hallaj,
suffered
martyrdom
for
asserting the permeation of all created things by

"
Definite
the Deity, with the phrase
I am God."
evidence
that
the
which
building,
Yezidis' religious headquarters,
Church
is difficult to:
1897, found the
who
the
not surpristhe place in
e'difice in ruins.
is
that Sheikh
lived near Mosul, fled before the Tartar
invasion of
at
is
who visited
Another tradition the Yezidis have

'Adi,
now
was once a Christian
produce, but this
ing as the late Lord Percy,
is
King Arghun, intending
to take refuge
Aleppo, but on the road he was captured by the
men
of the Sinjar,
who
afterwards revered him as
a holy man, naming him Nabi (Prophet), and later

Sheikh 'Adi. On his return to his country (now
Sheikhan) he died and was buried on Mount Lalish

(the present shrine at
So much
Sheikh
'Adi).
for evidence based
on a certain amount
of research in connection with the period of the

Saint, but legendary stories in connection with his
One which the

by no means lacking.
Yezidis firmly believe is that he was responsible for
life
are
bringing the springs
now
rising in the valley in
which his tomb stands from the well of

at
Mecca.
Zemzem
SHEIKH
The
'ADI,
THE SAINT
109
mythical power of Sheikh 'Adi attributed to
him by the Yezidis
is
symbolic of their general
tendency to create a mystical atmosphere around

anything
connected
following
is
with
religion.
The
They
believe
typical of their beliefs.
on the Last Day, carry un-
that the Saint will,
questioned
their
all
the then living followers of
Melak
Ta'us (whether worthy or unworthy) to Heaven on

a tray, but they cannot explain exactly how the feat
is to be accomplished.
Some, however, believe
life bitter
was a mere mortal, who had in

experience of the devilment of Melak
Ta'us,, for
when he was
that Sheikh 'Adi
at
Mecca on
Melak Ta'us impersonated him and

visibly to
When
Heaven.
a pilgrimage,
finally
ascended
Sheikh 'Adi returned,
he was supposed to have been slain as an impostor,

but Melak Ta'us reappearing, confessed his trick
and gave orders that Sheikh 'Adi was henceforth

to
be honoured as a
saint.
Another legend concerning Sheikh 'Adi is that

he and his followers and horses were invited; by
God
to
was no straw
some
to
On
Heaven.
arrival,
he discovered there
for the party to rest on, so
he ordered
be sent from his home on earth.
way some was

firmament and
spilt,
is
now
On
the
which was scattered in the

"
The Milky Way."
io
Investigations on these lines could be carried out
indefinitely, but
difficult to sift
it is
the wheat from
Rejecting references to his
the chaff.
Holy Books
of the Yezidis, wherein he
as a Prophet of the highest,
it
is
name
is
in the
portrayed
impossible to
point to sufficient evidence that he was the author of

the cult of
his
Melak Ta'us.
It is
more
likely that in
youth he was a devout searcher for an unorthodox
wanderings across Syria came in

touch with the Yezidis, threw in his lot with them,
religion,
and
in his
and they, on
about
A.D.
his death, immortalized his
1163 by
placing his
tomb
memory
in the already
existing temple at Sheikh 'Adi.
Muhammadan
'Umari,
who
writer,
Yasin al-Hatib
al-
lived in Mosul, says that a Chaldean
manuscript in the Church of Karmalis near Mosul
(supposed to have been written by a thirteenthcentury Bishop of Arbil in honour of the Chaldean
Saints) bears out the fact that the Nestorians
do
not share the same opinion of Sheikh 'Adi as the

Yezidis themselves.
Muhammadan,
1
In the
Poem
historical value
of
He
supposed to have been

a descendant of Hagar, who
is
Sheikh 'Adi, which
down
is
we
not of sufficient
are informed
in
lay
precepts,
verse 57 that the Saint is 'Adi as-Shami (the Syrian). The
poem says that he is the son of Musafir, who according to
Yezidi
tradition,
mother
is
to
is
supposed
to
a venerated personage.
have come from Basra.
Sheikh
'Adi's
SHEIKH
deceived
their
them,
'ADI,
and
THE SAINT
finally
took
monastery in which he
in
of
possession
consecrated
illicit
things.
The following variant of the story is attributed

to Mr. Thomas Mugerditchian, an Armenian dragoman of Diarbekr, who, from childhood, made a
special study of the rites of the Yezidis.
that
it is
He
states
recorded in the Chronicles of the Nestor-
ians that a certain 'Adi, a
monk
in the
monastery of
al-Qaus, in consequence of a quarrel with a superior,

seized the monastery
now known
as 'Adi (said to
have been originally consecrated to Mar Addai 1 )
at
which he converted to his use, compiled the

This
sacred books and founded their religion.
/Lalish,
authority also says the
monk
in question possibly
impersonated the Syrian Saint of that name.
As
far as
can ascertain there are no relics
appertaining to the Saint, but, until

the
Turks
in 1892, there
it
was a copper
was
sieve,
as a takhi or seat, kept at Ba'zani on.
reputed Sheikh 'Adi used to
judgment
sit
whilst he
to his people.
1
Saint Thaddaeus.
stolen
by
known
which
it
is
was giving
CHAPTER
SHEIKH
ON
'ADl,
IX
THE SHRINE
the few existing large scale maps, the
Sheikh 'Adi
may be
seen, but to call this a village
would scarcely be correct,

the Temple.
There are,
like dwellings in the
name
as the only building

it
is
is
a few cave-
true,
immediate neighbourhood, in
but they are uninhabited except at
partial ruin,
festivals.
Reference to Sheikh 'Adi indicates the Temple

and the Inner and Outer Courts, the entire area of
which
is
not
much more than an
small valley in which the
Temple
approximately Latitude N. 37
E. 43
To
1 8'
at
about 3,100 feet
arrive there
acre.
is
The
situated
is
and Longitude
above sea-level.
46'
from the south, starting from
Mosul the pontoon bridge spanning the Tigris is

crossed, and after a mile one turns off nearly due
north at the south-east corner of Kuyinjik, on'e of
the two
1
The
mounds comprising Nineveh. 1

other
is
The road
Nebi Unis, and associated with Jonah.
112
SHEIKH
surface
one of the best in the
is
is
difficulty
THE SHRINE
'ADI,
district,
113
and no
experienced in passing the Christian
Tel Kaif, Batinai and Tel Uskof. A

few miles farther on the surface becomes more
villages of
and care
stony,
of
outcrop
hills
is
necessary
consisting
of
in
negotiating an
marble and
soft
gypsum running nearly due east and west, called

the Jebel Kand.
A short distance on the far side
of this
low range
of Sharafiya
is
encountered the small village
and between here and the Kurdish
village of al-Qaus, the country is typically undula-
ting with long easy slopes.

fairly large
but primitive collection of stone huts,
situated at the foot of the
which
from
which
is
this
is
Al-Qaus boasts of a
first
large range of hills
met with when approaching Kurdistan

direction.
At the edge of the village,
a veritable sun-trap, a sharp turn
to the right
and three miles
recess in the mountains.
farther
on
At the end
lies
is
taken
a great
of this pocket
one of the most interesting Christian relics in

these regions, namely, the Chaldean monastery of
is
Rabban Hormuzd, dating from
the eighth century,
which has always been inhabited since

tion, but
it
is
now
its
founda-
only the succursale of the big
modern monastery on the
plains a mile or so to
the south.
ii4

From now onwards
a Ford car should have no
numerous wddis
trouble in negotiating the
(dried
watercourses) encountered, but for heavier vehicles

careful handling
the
first trip
is
made
Incidentally I
necessary.
Royce car between al-Qaus

mile or two from Ba Idhra
in a Rolls
and Ba Idhra.
two tiny villages, Baiban and Jerehiya, to the

right and left respectively, are passed before the
In
track descends and becomes more difficult.
this
a few Assyrians
may be found
district
emigrated to South America

escape
persecution,
way back
speech
to
this
betrays
and
traces
years ago to
many
afterwards
out-of-the-way
of
their
who
found their
Their
spot.
residence
in
Spanish-speaking country.
Dominating the
the country for
village of
many
miles,
Ba
is
Idhra, and indeed
the fortress of
of the religious chief of the Yezidis.
Kasr
It is situated
on a plateau and immediately catches the eye

as one tops the last ridge.
The village itself, a
distance of sixty-two miles by road from Mosul,
is
not at once visible, as
it
nestles
in
a long,
winding valley and is watered by a small stream

which runs horseshoe fashion along its boundaries.
Buildings of a more superior type than are^seen
en route are
evidence of the prosperity of the
SHEIKH
THE SHRINE
'ADI,
115
inhabitants and are surrounded by olives, almonds
Near the
and mulberries.
village
is
a particularly
noticeable sacred tree, walled in with stones,
and
in the
The
is
typical of
castle
many
or fort,
neighbourhood.
which has two
uftdressed stone,
and
its
floors,
is
built of
main entrance, surmounted
by gazelle antlers, leads into a rectangular courtyard where building operations were, in 1925,
being
apparently
carried
out.
to
Turning
the
and passing under a narrow archway there is

another small courtyard with stalls and loose
right
boxes.
The women's
quarters and the
the Mir's personal sanjdq
and
at the
far
end of
is
kept, are on the
this
courtyard
of rough steps leading to a balcony.

.side of this
room where
is
left,
a flight
On
either
veranda or porch are the guest rooms.
Beneath these are situated quarters for servants

and minor officials. The main guest room is a
fairly lofty
apartment and quite devoid of ornament.
There are a few rough inscriptions on the whitewashed walls, which I was unable to decipher, as
they were of a Kurdish dialect and written in
Arabic characters.
Two
or
three rough
seats,
covered with clean cotton covers, placed against

It is an interesting fact that horns of bulls are sometimes
placed on houses in Malta to ward off the Evil Eye.
1
n6 CULT OF THE PEACOCK ANGEL

the walls together with a small table, unpainted
or polished, comprises the furniture.
After a few minutes, Sa'id Beg, the Mir of the
and the usual presentations

Husain
having been made, coffee was served.
Beg, a cousin of the Mir, superintended this, and
Yezidis,
appeared,
indeed appeared
be the
to
We
establishment.
were
Mir's mother, a well-set-up
major-domo of the
later
presented to the
woman
of about fifty,
of striking appearance, but the Mir's wife

visible.
The
was not
Mir's agent, a Chaldean Christian,
one Abdu'1-Ahad Effendi, in conjunction with our
Arab
interpreter, then
made known
to Sa'id
our intentions for the following day.

therefore
made
for
Beg
Plans were
us to stay the night
at
the
We
were most hospitably entertained,

were presented to several of the local Sheikhs, and
made a tour of the village.
A most elaborate
fortress.
dinner was prepared by the Mir's mother for our
consumption;
it
was
sufficient for a
company
of
and the remains were given to the household servants. The night was spent in the courtinfantry,
yard on divans provided by the Mir, and a guard
watched over us whilst we
slept.
Early the following morning, before the sun had

appeared,
we
rose
and proceeded by Ford car
to

the walls together with a small table, unpainted
or polished,
comprises the furniture.
After a few minutes, Sa'id Beg, the Mir of the

Yezidis,
appeared,
and
the
usual
presentations
Husain
having been made, coffee was served.
Beg, a cousin
indeed
of the Mir,
appeared
to
We
establishment.
be
superintended
the
were
and
of
the
major-domo
presented to the
later
Mir's mother, a well-set-up
this,
woman
of about fifty,
of striking appearance, but the Mir's wife

visible.
The
Mir's agent, a Chaldean Christian,
one Abdu'1-Ahad Effendi,
Arab
interpreter, then
in conjunction with our
made known
to Sa'id
our intentions for the following day.

therefore
was not
made
for
Beg
Plans were
us to stay the night
at
the
We
were most hospitably entertained,

were presented to several of the local Sheikhs, and
made a tour of the village.
A most elaborate
fortress.
dinner was prepared by the Mir's mother for our
consumption
it
was
sufficient
for a
and the remains were given

The night was spent
hold servants.
infantry,
company
to the
of
house-
in the court-
yard on divans provided by the Mir, and a guard
watched over us whilst we
slept.
Early the following morning, before the sun had

appeared,
we
rose and proceeded by
Ford
car to
SHEIKH
Ain
Sifni
'ADI,
miles.
to
(according
building-place of the
It is
THE SHRINE
ark)
Yezidi
117
the
tradition
a distance
of
twelve
worthy of note regarding the qualities
of this type of motor-car, that prior to the spring
no motor vehicle had ever attempted the

journey to Ain Sifni, and it is probable that
only a Ford could have accomplished it without
of 1925
mechanical
The
trouble.
track
stony
of
is
unpromising nature, ravines and

Indeed at times it
deep ruts being numerous.
seemed miraculous how the car remained on its
and
tortuous
was the going.

an hour we espied Ain
four wheels, so rough
shaken
after
Bruised and
having
two
collections
of
stone
hovels, dignified by
passed
the names of Esiyau and Beristek.
Ain Sifni is
a
typical
Turkoman
village,
and
Sifni,
is
now
The
headquarters of an Arab police detachment.

stage of the journey was
last
leaving the Ford
now
the
reached,
and
we immediately mounted hardy
Arab ponies or Kurdish mules with
their picturesque
trappings.
Through the kindness

Police a mounted escort
more
avoiding Ain
1
track
is
direct
route from
Sifni, but
Chief of
consisting of
a Qaim-
Ba Idhra may be
followed,
saving in time is gained, as the

and even dangerous.
little
in places difficult
local
of the

government representative or deputy)
and four other ranks was provided. Two police-
maqam
(local
men preceded
the party and two remained in the
This sparsely populated district has be'en

for hundreds of years a happy hunting ground for
bandits, and the escort was a necessary precaution.
rear.
As we topped each
ridge the two leading policemen
galloped ahead to
make
sure the route was clear.
After an hour's going, crossing several wddis, the
and suddenly the

pass through which our way lay became visible.
Without a guide progress would have been
track
became more
Huge
impossible.
able,
tortuous,
boulders
made
the track indefin-
but by careful going and keeping well in
touch, at last the entrance of the pass
The
scenery as
we ascended became
and a sense of the
was made.
awe-inspiring,
terrible lawlessness of the past,
which has made the beautifully wooded Kurdish

hills scenes of bloody massacre, was now felt.
Picking their way carefully,
now and
again slipping
and stumbling, our steeds zigzagged their way

along the narrow path on the side of the hills
without guiding rein.
although
the
sun
Up
and up we rode, and
was now
fairly
high
in
heavens, so steep was the face of the hillside,
were
still
in shadow.
The
cool,
the
we
stimulating air
SHEIKH
was welcome
'ADI,
THE SHRINE
119
after the hot aridness of the plains,
and mountain oak, pomegranates both of the wild

and cultivated variety, sloes, figs, olives, tobacco,
vines, water-melons, giant thistles, rhododendrons,
hawthorn,
pistachios,
galls,
varieties of trees
tamarisk,
jasmines,
poplars,
crab-apples
and
and plants were
walnuts,
many
visible
other
growing
along our path.

Crest after crest appeared, and
The
valley hid from sight.

called
Geli
still
the sacred
apologies for villages
Hudaida and Avriva, inhabited by
nomadic Yezidis, were now passed, and at a small

open space a halt was made and also inquiries of
the police as to the distance
As we were informed
still
to
be traversed.
that another twenty minutes
would see the party at its destination, we soon

remounted and after altogether two and a half
hours' steady going
track on the
with shady
left
oak
we came
of a
trees.
across a well-worn
mountain stream overhung

We now had ascended
nearly 1,500 feet since leaving Ain Sifni and our

efforts
were well rewarded, for
at the
very end of
winding path in this secluded valley we came

upon two white-washed fluted spires of the Temple
this
of Sheikh
Adi, the most sacred sanctuary of the
Yezidis, emerging from plane, mulberry, fig
and
120
Abruptly we pulled up
a crumbling stone doorway.
were now
other shade-giving trees.

at
We
within
which
is
extant,
and avowedly dedicated to

Evil himself.
Nothing more
specifically
Author
the
of the only temple
the precincts
incongruous
of
could
be
possibly
It
imagined.
appealed to us more as an earthly paradise than

as
the
Malignant One.
Having been
cousin
of
Sa'id
the
of
headquarters
worship
the
by
greeted
it
the south-west
fairly
large
stone
bath
spring water imaginable.
of the
was noticed that our
immediate surroundings disclosed

at
the
custodian,
and the members
Beg,
various orders of priesthood,
yard,
of
narrow court-
.a
corner of which was
containing
the
clearest
Dismounting, our syces
(grooms) retired with the ponies and mules to the

stables (partially underground),
Qauwals.
The water
and
left
us with the
in the aforesaid tank,
which
supposed to travel miraculously from Mecca and

never to run dry, soon proved an irresistible
is
attraction
and we assuaged our
thirst
in its cool
depths, despite the presence therein of numerous
water
Our
cameleons
and
frags
of
vivid
interpreter having presented us to a
perhaps fourteen (who,
it
was
later
colours.
boy of
understood, was
120
Abruptly we pulled up
a crumbling stone doorway.
We were now
other shade-giving trees.

at
within
which
the
the
is
the
of
precincts
only temple
extant,
and avowedly dedicated to

Evil himself.
Nothing more
specifically
Author
incongruous
of
could
be
possibly
imagined.
It
appealed to us more as an earthly paradise than

as
the
Malignant One.
Having been
cousin
of
Sa'id
the
of
headquarters
worship
the
by
greeted
various orders of priesthood,
it
custodian,
members
and the
Beg,
of
the
of the
was noticed that our
immediate surroundings disclosed a narrow courtyard, at the south-west corner of which was a
large
fairly
stone
bath
spring water imaginable.
containing
the
clearest
Dismounting, our syces
(grooms) retired with the ponies and mules to the

stables (partially underground),
Qauwals.
The
and
left
us with the
water in the aforesaid tank, which
supposed to travel miraculously from Mecca and

never to run dry, soon proved an irresistible
attraction and we assuaged our thirst in its cool
is
depths, despite the presence therein of numerous
water
Our
cameleons
and
frogs
of
vivid
interpreter having presented us to a
perhaps fourteen (who,
it
was
later
colours.
boy of
understood, was
SHEIKH
THE SHRINE
'ADI,
huge
pipe, led the
of crumbling
masonry and
the acting Sheikh) smoking a
way along an avenue
121
through an open gateway to a kind of platform,

above which grew masses of mulberry foliage.
Steps then led
down
of the west wall of the
on
lies
its
itself.
Temple
intentional,
but
is
be dictated by the nature of the
more
site,
on the northern
as the shrine itself is
authority considers that the
model
The Temple
longer axis due east and west.
was possibly
as a
Court in front
to the Inner
of the Persian
This
likely
to
especially
side.
One
Temple was conceived

Audience Hall.
we found Faqirs and others

long Kurdish pipes, who with
In the Inner Court
smoking
their typical
we imagined quietly watched our

Soon we were bidden to be seated on
less curiosity
entrance.
than
the mats spread out on the stone floor, and greetings
were exchanged
of the
all
round.
Presently the keeper
shrine called for refreshments, the usual
custom before entering the Temple proper, and

shortly afterwards we were regaled with numerous
cups of sweet tea and bowls of shenini or curds
and whey.
After smoking a cigarette or two, a
Qauwal informed us that we could, if we wished,
now
enter the shrine.
It is
probable that during
the refreshment interval advantage
had been taken
122
of putting out of sight
any object in the Temple
was considered we should not
it
The door
of the
of the west wall, is
see.
Temple, which is on the left

interesting on account of the
symbolic engravings cut on the portico, including

crude peacocks, crescents, stars, hatchets and
combs.
insignia
(A hatchet forms part of the Mir's

when fully arrayed for performing religious
and a comb
rites,
is
supposed to guard against
To
witches by entangling their hair.)
the right of
the doorway, immediately arresting our attention,

is
cut a large black figure of a serpent, showing
up
on the white masonry. Prior to 1 892 when

the Temple was sacked, a seven-branched sceptre
clearly
was carved on the wall
On
to the right of the serpent.
either side of the pillars
of withered red flowers stuck
were small bunches
on the stonework with
bitumen and Sheikh 'Adi earth made into a paste

by pilgrims, who look on this offering as a symbol
of
and
blood
sacrifice.
shoes,
we were bidden
Faqir's
movements and
single
stone
The
file
at
first
we
the
Having removed our

watch
carefully
the
to follow his footsteps.
In
to
carefully stepped over the
entrance ,and entered the
impression of the interior
bareness and dampness.
Our
is its
eyes,
sacred
Temple.
shabbiness,
unaccustomed
SHEIKH
THE SHRINE
'ADI,
123
were vaguely conscious of a quite

bare greasy floor with water trickling from under
the wall on the left and a tiny rivulet running from
to the obscurity,
a basin immediately to the right of the door to

a large tank situated a few yards
away near the
junction of the south and west walls.
solemn
down
In slow,
state the procession turned to
the right,
a single step to the lower of two naves, into
which the central hall
is
Water
divided.
also
appeared to be issuing from the stone flags with
which
the southern nave,
this,
ing along
its
length
is
we became
lamps hanging from the

wicks, burning pure olive
paved.
Continu-
conscious of open
roof, with lighted floating

oil.
We
later
heard that
the wicks and oil were manufactured in the sacred
Unoccupied niches were made in the south

wall, and about half-way along there appeared to
be a larger opening in the wall where a dim lamp
valley.
was
lit,
in which,
it
was understood, was usually
kept on non-festival days the headquarter peacock,

but neither then nor later was this story confirmed.
Certainly nothing was to be seen.
Having
traversed
the
length
of
the
nave,
they sometimes call God, I am given to

has
a
understand,
place of honour in the Temple, in conjunction
with Melak Ta'us. A lamp burns in this spot and texts are
1
Yezid,
whom
written on the wall invoking the mercy of the
Supreme Being
i2 4
which
supported by four or
is
five
we
arches,
and carefully stepping over

another threshold stone of a low doorway, we found
turned to
the
left,
ourselves in a small chamber, quite bare, serving

as a kind of ante-room.
To
the left of this
is
another open doorway which communicates with a
second chamber or chapel in which stands
tomb
of Sheikh 'Adi himself.
shak
is
fluted
the
This chamber or
surmounted with the larger of the two

spires.
(The other spire which rises a few
yards from the Temple enclosure
is
dedicated to
Sheikh Shamsu'ddin.) But for the presence of an

attendant carrying an oriental lamp lighted with
eerily flickering wicks, it was so gloomy as to be
difficult to distinguish
rays of light
The
anything clearly.
which normally enter
this
only
chamber
The tomb,
come through small
holes in the roof.
about
an old four-poster bed, was
the
covered
size
of
faded
with
red
and green
cloth
(the
upon them. In the dim light it was impossible to see whether

this was the place of honour referred to, but it is probable this
niche is not the one in question, as Badger mentions seeing a
lighted niche outside the
to Yezid and Sheikh 'Adi.
1
Some
Temple with
inscriptions referring
have a vague belief that he is not the

mentioned as coming from Syria, but regard
Yezidis
historical person
name as one of the names of the Deity. In

tomb is a myth and the word " Sheikh " added
the Muharnmadans.
his
this case the
to conciliate
SHEIKH
'ADI,
THE SHRINE
125
Sheikh's colours), which was reverently kissed by

the Faqir.
It is
understood that beneath
is
some
wonderful wood carving bearing Surah II of the

Qur'an, but
tomb
we were not allowed
closer to inspect
it.
to approach the
In a whispering voice
the priest pointed out one or two details, but as
was evident our presence was a great
privilege,
it
we
did not too closely pursue this delicate subject,

the Saint being in the eyes of the Yezidis to
some
Melak Ta'us, though not

much worship.
At festivals a small
extent connected with
requiring so
plaster case
is
placed close to the tomb containing
Beyond was a
small balls of Sheikh 'Adi clay.
closed door leading to the oil store where the olive

oil is
kept in large earthenware jars resting against
the walls.
On
we
retracing our steps into the smaller chamber,
noticed the low door which communicates with
the subterranean cave, which
Yezidis even
is
venerated by the
more than the tomb
It is situated in the east
of
Sheikh 'Adi.
wall and leads
down about
dozen steps into a small dark chamber.

Here, issuing from the north wall, is the spring
half a
which the Devil Worshippers believe to originate

from the well Zemzem. The stream, which is in
reality a
mere
trickle of water, runs
through a small
SHEIKH
'ADI,
THE SHRINE
125
Sheikh's colours), which was reverently kissed by

the Faqir.
It is
understood that beneath
is
some
wonderful wood carving bearing Surah II of the

Qur'an, but
tomb
we were not allowed
closer to inspect
it.
to approach the
In a whispering voice
the priest pointed out one or two details, but as
was evident our presence was a great

did not too closely pursue this
privilege,
it
we
delicate subject,
the Saint being in the eyes of the Yezidis to
some
Melak Ta'us, though not

much worship.
At festivals a small
extent connected with

requiring so
plaster case is placed close to the
small balls of Sheikh 'Adi clay.
tomb containing
Beyond was a
closed door leading to the oil store where the olive

oil is
kept in large earthenware jars resting against
the walls.
On
we
retracing our steps into the smaller chamber,
noticed the low door which communicates with
the subterranean cave, which
is
venerated by the
Yezidis even more than the tomb of Sheikh 'Adi.

It is situated in the east
wall and leads
down about
dozen steps into a small dark chamber.

Here, issuing from the north wall, is the spring
half a
which the Devil Worshippers believe to originate

from the well Zemzem. The stream, which is in
reality a
mere
trickle of water, runs
through a small
126
hole in the wall at the east end and turns

the left on the far side.
south, and bearing off
low passage now leads

to the left, admits one to a
first,
which
Holy Yezidi ground.
The
second chamber, slightly larger than the

is
the veriest
sacred
clay
Holy
of
off to
given to pilgrims comes from
this
chamber, which was at some period built over
The
water, whilst passing through,
possess certain healing qualities.
it.
supposed to
At the end of
is
passage and to the left of it reappears the

streamlet, which runs a yard or two across the
this
turns
floor,
off
to the
left
through a crevice in the
again,
east
and flows out
wall,
eventually
joining the main stream in the valley below.
As
pilgrims follow
the
stream,
and are not
allowed to retrace their steps through the central

a
small
door
constructed in
this
wall,
through which they pass into the open aif.

water-chambers just described have only
The
hall,
is
been
by one or two Christians; and even Layard

was ignorant of their existence.
A pace or two
visited
to the right
of the
and one comes
Temple, near which
to the south-east corner

is
carefully stacked, in
an enclosure, about seventy-five years' accumulation of wood logs, offerings of pilgrims.

This
wood
is
only burnt during the annual sacrifice of
SHEIKH
many more
is
are brought than
logs
127
Sun God, and
sacred white bull to the
the
it
THE SHRINE
'ADI,
as
are required,
probable that a fatwa or proclamation
is
necessary every century or so to dispose of the

surplus.
the
Surrounding
1
are
itself
Temple
guest-
and a bazaar consisting of

a row of khans or small caves, where at times of
houses,
stables, stores
pilgrimage
may be
sweetmeats.
a
number
On
obtained
fruit,
the hillsides near the
of caves, each
named
after
and
tobacco
-a
Temple
are
Sheikh and
supposed to be his tomb. They are lighted at dusk

during festivals, but the oil is not replenished
5"
during the night.
where the pilgrims
There are
live
also a
during the
the exception of the porch of the
few buildings
feasts.
With
Temple
itself,
which has been practically rebuilt within the last

fifteen years, little restoration has been carried out
for
many
years,
and parts
crumbling away.
It
is
of the walls are already
extremely unlikely that
the collection of buildings
was
at
any time much
greater than at the present time, as the configuration
of
the
ground prevents
extension.
With
to
Badger tells us that he, in 1844, was the first European

spend the night in one of these buildings.
3
It has been computed that over three hundred and fifty
lamps are lighted in the valley during the principal
feast.
128
regard to
its
Temple was
the Yezidis agree that their
origin,
and that the Valley of

a
holy
by Christian workmen,
Sheikh 'Adi must have been
originally built
the
before
long
place
either
days
of
They, however, admit that

Christian monks may have had a settlement in the
Christians or Yezidis.
valley at the time of the
Towards
Roman Empire.
the end of the nineteenth century the
Turks made a determined attempt to destroy the

place, and in 1897, when the late Lord Percy
visited the
Temple, he found
it
a result of the 1892 attack.
in partial ruin as
Certainly portions,
particularly part of the north wall, appear to be
much
older than others, but
much
of the stonework
has been merely rebuilt from fallen stones.
almost entire lack of inscriptions,
the
to
extremely
of
its
difficult
it
is
accurately to fix even the date
foundation.
The most
formed
Assembly.
its
important of the ceremonies
at the festivals held at
times a year
and
Owing
is
Sheikh Adi three
the April feast, called the Feast of
Layard, in the
Remains, and in
first
volume
fully describes the rites
To
which
representatives
lasts
of-
his later work,
and Babylon,
this feast,
per-
Nineveh
Nineveh
he witnessed.
a week or ten days, come
from as many Yezidi
tribes
as
SHEIKH
THE SHRINE
'ADI,
The ceremony,
which
129
is
performed
between the 1 5th and 2Oth of April, begins an hour
after sunset.
Sheikh 'Adi's sanjdq is first exhibited
possible.
to
the visiting
Sheikhs and chief
Qauwals then sing and play
The
priests.
their instruments in
the Inner Court, during which time the Sheikhs
and others form a procession in pairs, led by the

chief priest, which marches round in a .circle and
sings to the praise of Sheikh 'Adi and afterwards
Melak
of
Isa
(Jesus
The
Christ).
gradually increases, the
women
in the
excitement
Outer Court
becomes
voices,
the
chanting
and
the
procession
moves
much stamping
of feet
until the leader gives the signal to stop.
This
their
raise
louder
and
shrill
louder,
quicker and quicker with
all kiss
ceremony having ended,
the Serpent near
Temple, and one member from

on the walls small bunches of
the entrance to the
each tribe fixes
The Mir
then
of the visiting Sheikhs,
who
flowers gathered from their villages.
receives the
homage
his
hand.
Sheikh's
hand.
kiss
The
villagers
then
kiss
their
The younger men and women
continue the dancing and singing in the Outer
Court until a late hour.
The
next morning the Sheikhs utter a short
prayer inside the Temple.
This done, they remove
130
the cloth cover from Sheikh 'Adi's
through the Inner to
it
the
tomb and carry
Outer
Qauwals playing the tambourines the
Court,
the
while.
All
those assembled endeavour to kiss the cloth and
make
as
many
the
After the cover has been replaced,
offerings.
as possible sit
round the Inner Court and
Kuchaks bring food and
is
now taken
of
meat are
Sheikhs,
for the
it is
The
collection
Dishes
of the shrine.
signify their acceptance
and afterwards
of priests.
brought by pilgrims for their
also
who
upkeep
drink.
by
tasting,
distributed to the lower grades
pilgrims usually return to their
homes during the afternoon.
On
the last day of these ceremonies the oldest
sometimes stripped and dressed in a goatskin, and small bells are hung round his neck. He
Faqir
is
then walks round the courts on

noises supposed to
all fours,
uttering
represent a he-goat.
Those
present are supposed to be particularly sanctified.
On
what
is
known
as Qauwal's
Road Day,
the
Faqirs wear a rope round their shoulders for carrying and lifting the
the
shrine,
wood brought by
which
is
then
pilgrims to
stacked
near
the
Temple.
New
Year's Day,
known
as Sarisil,
other hand, quietly celebrated.
No
is,
on the
music other
SHEIKH
THE SHRINE
'ADI,
than the funereal variety
is
131
played by the Qauwals,
as the Yezidis believe that
God
is
on
sitting
his
throne decreeing their destiny for that year and

not
to
Bunches
be disturbed.
of
red
is
flowers,
in
particularly wild red anemones, which abound
the neighbourhood, are brought by pilgrims to the
tomb
its
of their saint
entrance.
and fastened or stuck on near
These are
In addition to their
also
own
observe Christmas
the
Christ),
left until
they
fall.
feast days, the Yezidis
Day
(of
the
Bahrams and the Id
"
"
Prophet
of the
Prophet
Elijah.
The Faqir in charge

for
to
of the shrines
is
responsible
making a nightly inspection with bitumen flares

see that the tomb is intact, and is allowed to
expend moneys in the upkeep of the Temple. He

also receives pilgrims' fees, and in former times fees
at festivals
For these
of
this
must have been a lucrative
privileges
he pays the Mir a varying sum
money based on
previous years.
He
his takings for a

is
to
number
of
also responsible for the safe
keeping of the headquarter sanjaq.
removed
affair.
Mosul without
It
was once
his knowledge, but
it
reappeared before the next festival and the priest

escaped with a mild punishment.
Idhra,
the
question
of permission
Whilst
at
to view
Ba
this
32
image was broached to Sa'id Beg, who said he

would mention the matter to the guardian of the
tomb.
As we
expected, nothing further was said
in our presence at Sheikh 'Adi of the image,
our guide informed us in English that

to
be allowed
to inspect
if
Melak Ta'us,
would have said so himself.
and
we were
the
Mir
decree from the
Mir alone would remove any scruples from the
mind
of the priest as to the advisability of
exhibition before Christians.
We
like to press the matter again,
had been allowed

freely,
and we
felt
its
did not therefore

especially as
we
wander round the courtyards

there was nothing to be gained
to
by further questionings.
Having again sipped another cup of the excellent

brew of tea offered us, we made our salaams to the
and attendants, gave a pilgrim's offering to
In
Faqir and Qauwal, and mounted our beasts.
priests
single
file
we
slowly rode
accompanied as
down
the sacred gorge,
far as the outer entrance
smiling young Sheikh,
still
smoking
by the
his full-sized
pipe.
Turning
in the saddle, I caught a last
momentary
glimpse through the trees of the fluted spires of

strangely situated shrine dedicated to the
of
this
memory
Sheikh 'Adi, and then crossing the stream a
S^^W^r
Q
<
5s
^
i-H
w
s:
5-
130
the cloth cover from Sheikh 'Adi's
through the Inner to
it
the
tomb and carry
Outer
Qauwals playing the tambourines the
Court,
the
while.
All
those assembled endeavour to kiss the cloth and
make
as
many
the
is
as possible sit
round the Inner Court and
Kuchaks bring food and
now taken
of
After the cover has been replaced,
offerings.
for the
meat are
Sheikhs,
also
who
The
collection
Dishes
of the shrine.
brought by pilgrims for their
it is
homes during the
On
signify their acceptance
and afterwards
of priests.
upkeep
drink.
by
tasting,
distributed to the lower grades
pilgrims usually return to their

afternoon.
the last day of these ceremonies the oldest
sometimes stripped and dressed in a goatskin, and small bells are hung round his neck. He
Faqir
is
then walks round the courts on

noises supposed to
all fours,
uttering
represent a he-goat.
Those
present are supposed to be particularly sanctified.
On
what
is
known
as Qauwal's
Road Day,
the
Faqirs wear a rope round their shoulders for carrying and lifting the
the
shrine,
wood brought by
which
is
then
pilgrims to
stacked
near
the
Temple.
New
Year's Day,
known
as Sarisal,
other hand, quietly celebrated.
No
is,
on the
music other
SHEIKH
'ADI,
than the funereal variety
THE SHRINE
is
131
played by the Qauwals,
as the Yezidis believe that
God
is
sitting
on
his
throne decreeing their destiny for that year and

not
to
is
Bunches of red flowers,
be disturbed.
abound
particularly wild red anemones, which
in
by pilgrims to the
and fastened or stuck on near
the neighbourhood, are brought
tomb
its
of their saint
These are
entrance.
In addition to their
also
own
observe Christmas
Christ), the
left until
fall.
they
feast days, the Yezidis

"
"
Day
(of
Bahrams and the
the
Prophet
'Id of the
Prophet
Elijah.
The Faqir
for
to
in charge of the shrines
is
responsible
making a nightly inspection with bitumen flares

see that the tomb is intact, and is allowed to
expend moneys in the upkeep of the Temple. He

also receives pilgrims' fees, and in former times fees
at festivals
For these
of
this
must have been a lucrative
privileges he pays the
money based on
previous years.
He
Mir a varying sum
to
of
also responsible for the safe
keeping of the headquarter sanjdq.
removed
number
his takings for a

is
affair.
Mosul without
his
It
was once
knowledge, but
it
reappeared before the next festival and the priest

escaped with a mild punishment.
Idhra,
the
question
of permission
Whilst
to
at
view
Ba
this
132

tomb.
As we
if
and
we were
be allowed to inspect Melak Ta'us, the Mir

A decree from the
to

mind of the priest as to the advisability of its
We
had been allowed

freely,
and we
felt
did not therefore

especially as
we

to

In
priests
single
file
we
slowly rode
accompanied as
down
the sacred gorge,
far as the outer entrance
still
smoking
by the
his full-sized
pipe.
Turning
momentary

of
this
memory
a
<
B
^
I-H
w
a
c/)
32

tomb.
As we

to
if
and
we were
be allowed to inspect Melak Ta'us, the Mir
decree from the
mind
of the priest as to the advisability of
We
did not therefore
had been allowed

freely,
and we
felt
its
especially as
we

to

In
priests
single
file
we
slowly rode
accompanied as
down
the sacred gorge,
far as the outer
still
entrance by the
smoking
his full-sized
pipe.
Turning
momentary

of
this
memory
'
C'i'-i'
**.
SHEIKH
THE SHRINE
'ADI,
133
hundred yards or so farther on, our path led into

a wider valley, where our procession re-formed.
Unimaginative as Englishmen are supposed to
be, I think
left
we
was the nearest approach
of Kurdistan, far
where time
is
of little or
believe in their faith and

of their
for myself,
an
who
lives in seclu-
rightly or
who honour
the
most devout departed.
after
Northern Traq,
just
to our conception of
no account,
sion a handful of fanatics,
one
we had
Tucked away in the mountains

from modern ideas of civilization,
earthly paradise.
of
the valley
all felt that
wrongly
memory
Speaking
a journey across the plains of
never hope to set eyes upon a
more peaceful scene than the place which we had

just left.
Following the same track as in our outward

journey, after a ride of about two hours in the heat
of the day,*
Ba
Idhra.
we reached Ain
Sifni
and eventually
CHAPTER X
MELAK
IN order to avoid the
first
difficulty
the
experienced in referring to Satan,
Yezidis
it
at
became
necessary to them to choose as an appellation a
word which by the wildest stretch of imagination

could not be put under the self-imposed ban forbidding the utterance of words having a sound similar
to Shaitan.
symbol
Thus
it
that the sacred
Master and Lord became a
of the Mir's
tfius (from the
came about
2
Greek tads ') or peacock, 3 and the
Sometimes known
as The Tempter, Beelzebub, The Prince

The Strong One, The Wicked One, The Enemy, The
Hostile One, The Malignant One and The Prince of Darkness.
3
One writer thinks ta'tis is a contraction of the name of
the God Tammuz.
1
of Devils,
8
Hera, the Greek goddess, appears with a peacock, her
sacred bird, perched near her, in a group which is in the
Palazzo degli Conservator! at Rome. The peacock of He"fvis

mentioned in an article on symbolism in the Encyclopedia
" The
of Religion and Ethics, Vol. XI, p. 141.
peacock,
134
MELAK
TA'US
135
Devil, Satan, Shaitan, or the Evil or Fallen
him what you
call
the
or
Ta'us,
spoken of as Melak
1
Peacock.
(The Yezidis
will
Angel
is
would not recognize the usual horned,

hoofed and forked-tail representative.)
The word
td'us
through Persia, and
Ta'us
is
cloven-
probably reached the Yezidis

it
is
significant that
some
were made in that country.
their sandjiq
One
of
Melak
considered by the Yezidis to be the master
of this earth, all-powerful
and
all-present.
They
regard the Deity, not as continually warring against
Heaven, but rather as having been granted power

over this world by God's decree.
They conveniently
disregard
the
facts
that
Melak Ta'us
power so as to give Adam much pain

and abandoned him, and that it was necessary for
abused
this
an act of
God
remedy the angel's false counsel.

Prosperity and health, as well as sickness and
disease, are in his power, and those who serve and
to
worship him prosper,

It is
suffer.
which
is
symbol
Greek
and those who curse him
believed by his followers that certain
art,
belonged to
Hra, became
to Christians a
of the resurrection, probably because the flesh of the
peacock was supposed not to decay."

1
Some think that the title should be translated King
(Malik) Peacock, but the Yezidis regard the symbol purely as
an angel.
i.36
power over the material world

not capable of witchery and sorcery
limits are set to his
and that he
is
such as were alleged to exist at the time of the

Christian Martyrs.
of
Melak Ta'us
to
be
limitless,
Black Book,
On
the other hand, the power
in the celestial regions is
supposed
requiring much worship, and in the
this
angel
is
credited, after
Adam had
been on the earth three hundred years, with the

creation of the Yezidi nation as far as
its
rulers are
concerned.
is
known
in
Peacock Angel, as it
modern times, was probably founded a
Although the
cult of the
long time prior to the period of Sheikh 'Adi, it is

possible that the image or sanjdq did not then
occupy such a prominent position as it does to-day,

and it is interesting to see that when the Sheikh
Melak Ta'us, according to a legend, gained

ascendancy over the people, bade all to honour his
died,
(Sheikh 'Adi's) memory, and was obeyed.
seem
that the Sheikh's successor took
It
would
on the mantle
Melak Ta'us and issued a symbolic fatwa
of
or
ukase in his name.
The
image
1
Yezidis are careful to point out that the
of the
Angel
The M6ri Clan
peacock when
alive.
is
of the
merely a symbol, and not an

Bhls
of Central India
worship the
MELAK
TA'OS
mind
idol of their faith, but to the lay
be reverenced by pagan
that the
sounds
this
unusual for birds to
It is not
like splitting hairs.
137
and
tribes,
symbol of the Yezidis
is
it
thought
in substance the
is
faruhar of Zoroastrianism.
Very
(symbols)
little
now
is
known
in use,
of
and
it
the
is
actual
doubtful
sanajiq
if
half a
dozen people outside the Yezidi faith have ever set

eyes on any one of them. The following information throws some light on the question of their use
connection
in
with the
religious
ceremonies
at
Sheikh 'Adi and elsewhere.

In Layard's time, the image consisted of a brass,
bronze or copper stand, of a shape somewhat
similar to the candlesticks generally used in the
Mosul
which was surmounted by a rude image

of a bird in the same metal, and more like an Indian
liwd,
idol than a peacock.
on
it,
pieces
There were no
inscriptions
and the bird and stand were made

for
convenience during
transit.
in three
This
is
The actual shape to some extent varies. The sketch made

Mrs.
by
Badger of the one she and her sister-in-law saw at Ba
Sheikh^ on aoth April, 1850, depicts the stand portion having
1
two seven-pointed bowls
(the top one slightly larger), which

are intended to be used as receptacles for oil, and are ignited
on special occasions. The image of the bird also was of less
crude design than the one Layard describes.
138
probably
still
the case with the images used by the
travelling Qauwals, but the headquarter sandjiq are
now more imposing and
richly
carved.
(See
frontispiece.)
At
the festivals held at Sheikh 'Adi, all the
sandjiq on the spot are exhibited to the visiting

priests,
except one which remains with the Mir and
carried with
is
Another
is
Sheikhan
district.
him wherever he may journey.
used by the outlying tribes in the
When
distance to collect
tomb and the
money
Qauwals are sent
to
for the support of the
priests, they are furnished with
of the small images (called ta'uskztshis)
shown by them
to those
authority for their mission.
whom
they
among
Halitiya (south-east of
districts:
of such
(Georgia).
faith,
Sinjar,
Mardin and near Redwan
Diarbekr), Mallia (Aleppo) and Sarahdar or
The Melak Ta'us
carried
is
as an
visit
There are four
four
one
which
Qauwals, who instruct young Yezidis in the
and are divided
any
in
Moskov
by the
Qauwals is usually protected by a red coverlet.

These missions take place every four months. The
ceremony varies according
to the district
and the
Possibly the tribes who live east of the confluence of the

Tigris and the Batwan Su and those south and west of
1
Jaziratu-l-'Umar (Tigris).
MELAK
TA'tXS
139
time of year, but the following account gives a

general idea of what takes place.
On
approaching
a village in the district about to be visited, the
Qauwal responsible
for
the exhibition
Melak
of
Ta'us sends an assistant on ahead on horseback to
warn the inhabitants of

their best clothes
those
move
who
The
and collect outside the
latter
is
don
village, all
are not Yezidis being excluded.
off in
Qauwal
his arrival.
They
a procession to the place where the
On
meeting him, bidding

among those present takes place for the honour of
waiting.
The
having the sanjaq exhibited at his house.

highest bid having been made, the
Qauwal removes
a saddlebag (containing the image) from his horse
which
it
usually the property of a Pir, and places
is
across the shoulders
The
of the waiting recipient.
procession then re-forms, with the
the holder of the sanjaq at
its
head.
Qauwal and
On
arriving
Qauwal removes
red cover and places the
at the latter's house, the visiting
the saddlebag
symbol
its
in a dish (tesht) of water, covering
square of
The
and
it
with a
silk.
eldest
Qauwal now asks the assembly
whether any are non-believers, and on being assured

that only those of the Yezidi belief are in the room,
he removes the cover and proceeds to go into a
140
He then
kind of trance, foaming at the mouth.
chants a hymn until his head droops near the bird.
Dead
silence
and
round
now
gaze
reigns,
at
Although the Qauwal
and
all
present crouch
and the image.

apparently unconscious, he
the
is
priest
begins to sing very softly and a slight commotion

is
seen in the water.
The Qauwal then
informs the worshippers that the
rises
spirit of
and
Melak
Ta'us has entered the image through the water.
He
then questions Melak Ta'us,
who
is
supposed
to answer.
Later,
the
Qauwal places the peacock on a
pedestal and each of those present kneels and kisses

it,
placing his gift on a plate before the Qauwals,
who
also kneel near by.
All having propitiated the Devil with offerings,
music and dancing follow, and the image is sometimes made to dance.
The peacock remains in the
house overnight, guarded by the owner and the
Qauwals
until
it is
removed the next day
to continue
its itinerary.
The
sanajiq on tour are carefully guarded by the
visiting
Qauwals, and on more than one occasion
during troublous times ruses have had to be resorted

to for their safe custody.
stood,
Until 1892,
it is
no image had ever been stolen or
under-
lost,
but
MELAK
a rumour has
TA'OS
141
that about that time the principal
it
peacock was removed from the shrine by a Kurd

and taken to Mosul, where it was, however, discovered and supposed to have been returned to
Sheikh 'Adi.
story is also current that in the
same year when the Turks
tried to convert the
Yezidis living near Sheikh 'Adi to
Muhammadan-
ism, they took five of the images with them, but the
Yezidis themselves have always maintained that they
were imitations. 1
On
another occasion trouble was experienced in
this respect,
when, during the Bolshevik revolution
of 1917, the Caucasus image disappeared and has
not been heard of since.
Indeed,
it is
any Yezidi settlements of any size

the country bordering the Black Sea.
if
doubtful
exist in
still
Formerly, in order that in times of trouble the

travelling peacocks
should not be captured and
exhibited by aliens, they were
made
of
wax
so that
they could be easily melted and so destroyed; but
had the obvious disadvantage of coninvoluntary replacements due to their melting
this practice
tinual
during the fierce heat experienced in the
summer
The images were dedicated to Hadrat Di'ud, Sheikh

Shamsu'ddin, Yezid ibn Mu'awiya, Sheikh 'Adi, and Sheikh
1
Hasan
al-Basrt.
42
Also there was no guarantee that they

were genuine, as it was a comparatively easy matter
months.
used by
for counterfeits to be
infidels
bent on
collecting contributions.
imagine why such inordin-
It is rather difficult to
ate secrecy obtains in this respect, as
from the point
of intrinsic value the travelling sandjiq are worth
perhaps a couple of shillings or so, and if regarded

from any other point of view, including that of the
Yezidi priests themselves, until the
spirit of
Melak
Ta'us has entered therein, they are merely symbols

of their order.
an
act
may be
of desecration
Christian or
emblem
It
that the
Qauwals imagine
committed in allowing
is
Muslim eyes
to regard this strange
of their faith, and this
their primitive
mode
of life
is
feasible
is
when
taken into considera-
tion.
Melak Ta'us
at
one time had a
flag,
of three horizontal strips of red, green
The
composed
and white.
Yezidis believed that this had certain curative
powers.
For
instance,
when a woman became
insane, the flag was put into
water and the
woman on
some Sheikh 'Adi
drinking
it
was supposed
to be healed.
I
have come across the following information in
a legend concerning the origin of the choice of a
MELAK
TA'ttS
143
1
It is said that the Divine
peacock by the Yezidis.
Will ordered the creation of seven spirits, who were
to be responsible for the governance of the world.
The first and foremost of these was Melak

who was to reign for ten thousand years, of
Ta'us,
which,
so the story goes, four thousand have yet to pass.
The
Seven sheep are his sacrificial offering.
second spirit is Melak Isa (Jesus) whose reign has
Melak
not yet begun. One sheep is his offering.
Isa will also reign ten thousand years
Ta'us had finished, and so on.
The
when Melak
first
coming of
Christ was premature and failed to break the power

of evil.
Christ, according to this legend, did not die
2
upon the cross, as Melak Ta'us snatched him away.
Here we meet the first official explanation to account
Melak Ta'us being represented as a peacock.

When the Maries came to the empty tomb and
for
found nobody, Melak Ta'us appeared as a dervish

and related what he had done.
To silence their
This somewhat differs from the Yezidis' general belief, as

they put the reign of the seven angels at one thousand years,
and, moreover, they do not believe that Melak 'Istl is a spirit,
but an angel.
1
In this respect the legend agrees with their belief in

ienying his crucifixion, and it is also in accordance with
Muhammad's teaching (Kuran
iv. 156).
authority on Kurdistan, confirms
this.
Soane, the well-known
144
doubts, he took a dead cock and restored

in their sight.
them
that
worshipped
He
then vanished,
henceforth
in the
birds, the peacock.
he
would
first
it
to life
informing
choose
to
be
form of the most beautiful of
CHAPTER
XI
THE HOLY BOOKS
As
be imagined, the written word as far as
will
Yezidi doctrines are concerned,
almost unknown.
is
Ignorance of writing has for a long time been

fostered by the Mirs, and
that this
such
is
it
was
at
was one of the tenets of
not the case.
one time believed

their religion, but
Fanatics and semi-fanatics
are apt to be sceptical of books,
and the refusal of
the Yezidis to believe anything that has not been
handed down from generation
to generation is the
chief stumbling block to their enlightenment.
In
addition to this, the Yezidis hide themselves

in difficult country, far
away
from modern inventions, and
thus are able to preserve their individuality.
Some
Qauwals have a smattering of the

arts of reading and writing, but although the existence of Holy Books is an open secret, it is only
of the
recently that anything definite has been discovered
about their contents.
No Muslim
145
is
allowed to see
146
or hear of them, in fact this

that
a Yezidi who,
it
was so
rigidly enforced
transpired,
had revealed
information concerning them was punished with

death.
No Yezidis other than the public readers
may
read these books, but those
Arabic
may
listen to extracts read
who understand
by the Qauwals
in that language.
I.
Mashaf Rds (Kurdish), Kitdb al-Aswdd

The Black Book
This book
is
(Arabic):
supposed to have been completed
by Sheikh Hasan al-Basri about A.D. 1342. It is

in the keeping of Sheikh 'All, of Kasr'azu'ddin,
near Semil.
For a long time
it
was supposed
to
be
all
references to the Evil
carefully deleted.
(It
"
"
because the word
Shaitan
was called "black"
the Qur'an in Arabic, with
One
The book
is
is
twenty-eight
blacked
out.)
centimetres
long
and twenty-one centimetres wide, but the written

portion only measures eleven centimetres from top
one hundred and fifty-two lines
of disjointed phrases.
The language is an archaic
Kurdish dialect.
The cover is of wood.
The
to bottom, bearing
book, when not in use,
is
covered with linen and a
THE HOLY BOOKS

material dyed red,
begun soon
after
made from
Muhammad's
than probable that in

but few lines, and
may have
In
The
it
is
goat's wool.
death.
original
form
It
It is
it
was
more
contained
possible that Sheikh 'Adi
contributed to
present form
its
its
147
it.
a mass of contradictions.
it is
Yezidi belief in the creation of
man
varies
considerably, as the disjointed tribal jottings found

in the
Mashaf Rds
contain statements to the effect
was responsible for this

after he broke the great pearl from which the
universe came into being, and later on God Himself
that the angel Fakhru'ddin
is
mentioned in the book as having created
the elements brought
by
Jabra'il.
man from
Incidentally,
it
mentions that Sheikh 'Adi ibn Musafir will come
from Syria
of the
to inhabit Lalishi (the hills in the district
Holy Temple).
The power of evil is represented as tempting

man to disobey God's commands, with the permission of God.
universe, again
both
Regarding the creation of the
Mashaf Rds
God and Fakhru'ddin
responsible.
heavens,
.contradicts itself, as
are mentioned as being
Later also, when speaking of the
God,
Jabra'il
and the
first
of
the six
created gods are credited with the achievement.
In
this
book
it
says that
God
caused nipples to
148
Adam
grow on
boy and
girl (the first
adds that
he might suckle the

Yezidis) born in jars, and
in order that
reason
this is the
why man has
contains a statement that the
It also
of the Yezidis are
were conceived by
as having afterwards
first
fathers
Noah and Enoch, who
Seth,
Adam
nipples.
only.
Adam
is
mentioned
known Eve, who bore him
two children, male and female, and that from these

all
other religions
descended.
are
mentioned as a servant of
Yezid
is
Mu'awiya is
Muhammad, and his son
their god.
Several interesting tabus are found in
its
pages,
This
notably the wearing of the colour blue.

is
considered by Muslims to have power to
off
the Evil Eye, and the book seems to
colour
ward
assume that devotees
of
the worship
Melak
of
Ta'us are immune from
this particular evil.
eating of certain foods
is
lettuce,
also
forbidden;
The
firstly
the tabu being said to have originated
during Sheikh "Adi's lifetime.
The
story
is
that he
was passing a garden and called to this vegetable,

He then
which, of course, did not answer him.
called out huss (worthless)
eat
it.
Another reason
lettuce is that the
and forbade Yezidis

given
word sounds
a Yezidi prophetess, Hassia.
for
not
like the
to
eating
name
of
Other foods, which
THE HOLY BOOKS
149
are similarly tabu, are fish, out of reverence for

the prophet Jonah; gazelle,
believed to be the
sheep of one of the prophets; cock, representing

the image of the peacock; pumpkin, haricot beans,
and bdmiya (marrow).

Public baths and latrines are forbidden, and
Yezidis are enjoined to urinate sitting
to pull
on
all
down and
their nether
In addition to
garments standing up.

a veto on the use of the full word
Shaitan, words having a similar sound are also
forbidden such as kaitan, thread; shatt, river (for
which nahr
coming."
is
"
substituted) ; sharr,
slang for curse
(it
also
and na'l-band, a
Kitdb
al-filwa
Ktebi Jalwe
This book
about A.D.
to
malun meaning
words such as
similar sounding
2.
the
Other tabued words connected with the
idea of Shaitan are
shoe),
meaning
accursed, and
la' an,
cursed
ndl,
means sandal, and horsefarrier.
(Arabic),
sometimes rendered
The Book
of Enlightenment
Revelation.
or
supposed to have been written

1162 by Sheikh Fakhru'ddin, secretary
is
Sheikh 'Adi, at his dictation.
It is
much revered
150
Few
by the Yezidis.
read
of the rank
and
file
have ever
pages, and the priests jealously guard
its
its
whereabouts.
The book
and
is
written in an old dialect of Kurdish,
in special characters in its
more
secret portions.
Whilst extolling the power of Melak Ta'us, who

speaks throughout in the
first
person,
it
down
lays
no precepts or codes, but simply promises reward

to the devotees of the
Lord
who reverence
of Evil,
who do
him, and a calamitous end to those
Each page
consists of sixteen lines,
not.
and
am
given to understand that the book consists of loose

pieces
of
parchment
made
from
gazelle-skin,
measuring twenty-seven by nineteen centimetres, of

which the written portion, consisting of sixteen lines,
takes
up seventeen by eleven
centimetres.
Symbolic
designs appear, such as a crescent, the planets, a
horned human head, and a multi-tongued flame of

fire.
The original copy, wrapped up in linen and
wrappings, was (for a time at least) kept in
silk
the house of the Mulla Haidar of
Ba
Idhra, and
twice a year, during the April and October feasts,

it
is
taken to Sheikh 'Adi.
Most
gleaned
of
what
is
known
to-day of this work was
by Pere Anastase
Carmelite,
originally
Marie,
through
Baghdadi
Yezidi
named
THE HOLY BOOKS
151
This
Habeb, between the years 1898 and 1900.

Yezidi,
who has
since died, desired instruction in
the Christian faith from the
Pere, and revealed
certain secrets of his renounced religion.
Before
he died he informed the learned Father that the

books were then in the care of a librarian and lay
hidden in the Sinjar.
Subsequently the librarian
was found, who offered for a consideration of five

hundred francs to make tracings of the books, a
laborious process, as he was only allowed access
them during the quarterly feasts. The task took

two years to complete, and was most carefully done.
to
Not even the Yezidis themselves know
of the
whereabouts of either of these books, except during
when they are exhibited to the Qauwals.

No Christian or Muslim has even been permitted
festivals,
even to see them.
In times of danger the manu-
scripts are kept locked in a
wooden and
silver box,
measuring thirty-three centimetres long, twentytwo centimetres wide, and seven centimetres high,
hidden in a cave having a concealed
Three keys are in existence, one each
entrance.
which
is
being held by the Mir, the Grand Sheikh and the

librarian himself.
On
the lid of the box are silver
images of the seven angels, as follows

centre
is
in
the
a silver peacock, the symbol of Melak
152
Ta'us
to
its
right
is
the
Sun
to the left
In each corner are symbols, also in

ing the earth,
air, fire
is
Moon.
silver, represent-
There
and water.
the
is
also an
eighth image, situated just above the peacock, in the

shape of a star, which it is believed was fixed at
a later date,
3.
There
its
significance being rather obscure.
The Poem
is also,
of Sheikh 'Adi
or was, a
volume consisting
of
a few tattered leaves containing a rhapsody on the
merits
and
attributes
recitation,
singular
of
Sheikh 'Adi.
verse
in
58,
In
this
'Adi
Sheikh
expressly says that the All-merciful, meaning the
Creator of
all things,
the Yezidis admit
gerent
the
of
him
has given him names, and

to
Almighty,
fallacy that Sheikh 'Adi
and the same

This
he
disposing
of
the
and the Almighty are one
work contains
is
thus
in the eyes of the Yezidis.
extolling his virtues.

that
be a prophet or a vice-
He
eighty
lines
or
verses
informs us in verse 57
'Adi as-Shami ('Adi the Syrian), which
supposed by a translator to be the Damascene,

and is the son of Musafir. In verse 17 allusion is
is
THE HOLY BOOKS

made
Book of Enlightenment, and in verse

"
mentioned the
Book that comforteth the
to the
is
42
153
supposed to be the same

work, namely the falwe, containing the theology and
oppressed,"
which
is
religious laws.
Most
careful
and annotated translations of the
two chief Holy Books are given in volume
six of.
Anthropos, 1911.
Parts of the original text are
also
including the secret alphabet
used.
1
given there,
1
Professor A.
Mingana
is of
the opinion that Pere Marie's
Kurdish translation of the Ktebi falwe, together with those of

Professor E. G. Browne (Arabic, 1895), Mr. J. B. Chabot and
Mr. S. Giamil (Syriac, 1900), and Dr. I. Joseph (Arabic, 1909),
are all based on documents, the authenticity of which he doubts.
Mingana gives the name of one Shammas Jeremias Shamir, a
deserter from the monastery at Rabban Hormuzd, who died in
1906, as their probable author, and states that from their
construction they are not much more than half a century old.
Certainly their contents were unknown in the sixties of last
century, though Dr. Forbes, when on a visit to the Sinjar in
1838, heard of the Black Book, and was told that Sheikh 'Adi
was the author. The Rev. A. N. Andrus of Mardin also casts
doubt on the genuineness of A. Marie's discovery, and asks
why the books were not under the care of the Mir at Ba Idhra.
In the absence of proof to the contrary, the scepticism of
Professor Mingana must be respected. A story is current that
the genuine documents were lost in 1849 from the Sinjar, and
accidentally discovered in 1889 in India. It is not known if
they were subsequently returned. Captain G. R. Driver also
mentions the fact that the works purporting to be the sacred

books of the Yezidi were being circulated in 'Iraq a few years
ago, but
it is
considered that they were forgeries.
154
There are
are chanted during festivals,
been
it
set
and hymns which

but none of these have
also several prayers
down
in writing,
would be a waste
able to read them.
and indeed
of time, as
if
they were,
no Yezidi would be
CHAPTER
XII
CONCLUSION
IN a discussion on origin of
origin of species,
there
is
much
to
it is
faith,
no
less
than
well not to dogmatize, but
be said for the belief that the
beginnings of the worship of the Devil by the

Yezidis sprang from the rituals of the Zoroastrians,
who have
for centuries
been becoming
ous and influential in Asia.
The
less
numer-
points of similarity
between the Yezidis and the Zoroastrians include

the veneration of fire and the sun, also the worship
of
mulberry trees and a horror of the Evil Eye.
The
Persian Manes,
disciple of Zoroaster,
who may be regarded as a

added beliefs of his own to
those of the Persian Dualists and moulded them,
giving Satan precedence over
all
other heavenly
bodies.
The
cult of
Manes dwindled
at the close of the
tenth century, and for nearly two hundred years
Dualism was
at a
on the coming
of
low ebb in Persia, consequently,

Sheikh 'Adi from the Zoroastrian
155
156
element in Western Persia, the wilder people were

ready to accept anything in the nature of a new
doctrine;
but
as
powerful in that
found
more suited
have
Shi'as
district, it is
dissatisfied tribes
territory
the
it
always
been
conceivable that the
desirable to emigrate to
to the cultivation of, after all,
The " Persian Prophet "

prediction had undoubtedly made an impression on
the Persians, who under Sheikh Adi's influence
an unorthodox
religion.
'
adopted the new doctrine as a native cult, a little

removed from purely pagan belief. As the fame
of the Saint grew, large, numbers flocked to the
hilly districts outside Shi'a influence,
unknown
they were originally

other tribes,
am
and although
as Yezidis
of the opinion that,
by the
owing
to
new dwellings being situated chiefly in

Kurdistan, they became known as the Worshippers
their
of
Yazed (Kurdish
for Devil).
Moreover, though the Arabian Muslims have

from time to time produced heretical sects, the
on which
practice of Dualism,
Yezidis
based
their
early
it
may be
beliefs,
originated in Persia long before the
said the
undoubtedly
Kuran was
written.
Muhammad,
in
laying
down
precepts for his
followers, counted on undivided support, and taking
CONCLUSION
157
into consideration the plastic religious state of the
Middle East
possible.
new
at the time,
The
tribes
he secured
who
it
as far as
was
did not entirely embrace
formed a small minority, and never

at any time had any great hold over the mass of
Arabian peoples, as the schismatics had nothing
the
religion
lasting with
which to replace Muhammad's teach-
Thus
ings.
their
sporadic
rebellions
came
to
nothing.
Some
meaning Good
Evil
word Yazdan,
writers connect the Persian
Spirit,
Spirit,
and Yezid Farfar, a certain
worshipped by the
element, with the
name
Persian
Also
of Yezidi.
Parsee
it
must
not be forgotten that numbers of Zoroastrians from

the Persian province of
that
Yezd have emigrated from
country to adjacent
territories.
possible, therefore, that one or
similar
more
It
is
just
of these nearly
words may have contributed
to the tribes
under review adopting the name they now bear.

One has only to live among the Kurdish tribes for
a short time to realize
how
the Persian type of
Yezidi predominates.
Finally, authorities like
Badger and Professor
Jackson identify the Zoroastrian Dualists with the

old Persian Yezidis to such a degree that it is
highly probable that the eleventh and twelfth
CULT, OF
158
due
centuries,
of
THE PEACOCK ANGEL
Sheikh 'Adi, saw the
from
little
rise of a faith
emerging
more than Dualism and Nature Worship.
Although
it is
true that the Yezidis themselves
how
the Saint became con-
faith, the
reverence paid to him
cannot explain exactly

nected with their
is
welding influence
to the mystical
such that one cannot for a
moment
neglect to
believe that without his presence amongst them, the
emigrant Persian tribes would have continued their

wanderings, leaving no trace of another religion in
Kurdistan.
Since then, however,
it
has for
many
centuries been reinforced
by oppressed neighbourfrom Persia, 'Ir&q and Syria, who absorbed

the essential teachings of Sheikh 'Adi. A check
ing tribes
on immigration has occurred during recent years,

owing to continual hostility of the Turkish Muslims
to the Yezidis in Asia Minor, but
it is
fairly safe to
prophesy that as long as the tribes of this strange

sect do not themselves stir up religious feeling,
British protection will at least prevent a repetition of
the massacre which occurred during the nineteenth

century.
PART
II
A COMMENTARY
BY
SIR

F.B.A., F.S A.,
HON. VICE-PRES.
BART., C.B
R.A.S.
A COMMENTARY
I
AM asked
to write a
Commentary, which
be perfunctory, on the
the Yezidis, usually
of Kurdistan.
known as
I feel
in this subject, as so
hands
latest first-hand
account of
the Devil Worshippers
some
diffidence in intervening
many
scholars have tried their
at elucidating the Yezidi rites, yet
it.
may
it
cannot
so far succeeded
be said that research has

exhausting
shall not
in
note here that the term for
these Devil Worshippers in the index, though not

in the text, oi \heEncy do p<zdia;Britannica, eleventh
edition, is Yezedi.
Driver, Religion of the Kurds,
School of Oriental Studies,

them the Yezidi Kurds.
in the Bulletin 6f the

calls
commence my remarks by
I will
does also the author of

in
Muslim environment
just
as
Dr.
A.
Worship
0.
pointed
this
book
asserting
as
that the Yezidis
are not Devil Worshippers,
out
in
1894,
when
editing
BurnelPs manuscripts on the Devil
of the
Tuluvas
in
161
South Western India,

L
i-62
that they,
Hindu enyironment, did not
in
too,
Yet another race
worship the Devil.

"
with
Worshippers
a
number
of years
whom
were so
the Devil that the
Devil
was once familiar
the Nicobarese,
Eastern Animists
"
of
"
worship
are Far-
from worshipping
far
"
who
for
really consisted of
ceremonial acts to scare away evil
spirits.
These
were performed in connection with images set

up in their houses and elsewhere, which were in
reality spirit-scar ers.
They were taught by missionacts
aries of various
and they
still
kinds to
call these
so call them
Mr.
people.
are numbers
Empson
"
images
when speaking
devils,"
to English
states in addition that there
Devil
Worshippers in Persian
Seistan, whence the people have a tendency to
In their case the
migrate towards Kurdistan.
worship
is
of
of
mulberry trees containing
of Satan," i.e.,
trees in India
an
and
evil spirit, just as
farther
the Spirit
innumerable
East are held to do.
In one sense the entire
Hindu India may be
"
illiterate
population of
called Devil Worshippers,
though the term is always a misnomer. The general

feeling in such people is that there is a Supreme
Being who governs human life and its surroundings
and
is
beneficent,
natural beings
and there are
who can do harm
also other super-
in various degrees
A COMMENTARY
but the Supreme Being
is
163
very far removed and the
lesser supernatural beings are always close at hand,.
So harm might be
vene.
inflicted before
It is therefore
harmful
beings
inter-
well to propitiate the lesser
while
always,
Supreme Being on
good could
worshipping
set occasions.
It
seems
to
the
me
that these observations represent the feelings which
permeate the minds of the Yezidis
also.
They
propitiate the Evil Spirit while believing in the
existence of God.
It
must be remembered, how-
ever, in applying generalities to illiterate peoples
among them
that
strong they
may
all
be,
religious
are
feelings,
however
vague and subject
to
unintelligent obedience to custom.

It
has been observed above that the environment
of the Yezidis
is
Muhammadan, and
therefore in
regard to their religious beliefs they are best studied

as a
Muhammadan
sect, just as are the Nusairis,
Qizilbashis, Baqtashis,
heretical sects,
them
in
the
of orthodox Islam.
in this light, they should
Ghulat, or
if it is
singular
Ghaliyas.
eclectic
which have beliefs and customs
removed from those

at
and a host of other
Looking
be classed as
desired to use that plural term
with
an Anglicized
The Arabic term
ghulat, signifies
far
plural
as
ghaVi, gMliya, plural,
an extremist, one who exaggerates
64
or goes
beyond
all
bounds, particularly in reverence
for certain things or individuals, as

sects,
e.g.,
son-in-law
the 'Aliyu'llahi,
'Ali
and
his
raised
when
certain
Muhammad's
descendants
or
chief
followers, the 'Alids, to the rank of incarnations

of the Deity (Allah)
certain
other
or as
sects
when
adopted
same and
the
beliefs
to
foreign
Islam, like incarnation (hulul) or metempsychosis

(tanasukK) and so on.
propose in
this
Commen-
tary to treat the Yezidis at Ghulat, as I think
be shown that the basis of their religion
is
it
can
Islamic,
with a large admixture of other faiths with which

they have
e.g.,
come
in contact at
some time or other:
aboriginal Paganism, Nestorian Christianity,
and Zoroastrianism
in
some form.
This
is
really
the history of almost any heterodox Islamic sect one
may mention.
The tendency
of
the
Yezidis to
extremist belief, however pagan in
shown
in a story of
one of
its
adopt any
nature,
is
their leaders given
by
Mr. Empson, Mirza Agha, who, during the Turkish
persecution of the Yezidis in 1832-47, set up as
an independent Yezidi chief for a while in Redwaii,

in
Armenian Asia Minor, and

"
secretly worshipped
goddess Semiramis in the

manner that the Syrian Nusairis used to do."
Semfram,
i.e.,
the
A COMMENTARY
165
In Islam heterodoxy began in the very days of
Muhammad
himself, for he
was not by any means
allowed to have his
own way
without opposition.
Sects at the very
in things religious
first
sprang
up in numbers; as soon, in fact, as his followers

had time to look into the Qur'an and endeavour to
The great
meaning of the texts.
Sunni or orthodox traditionists, and also,
interpret the
schism of
as they
and
may be
called, followers of
Shi'a, or followers of 'Ali,
began
Muhammad,
at the latest
immediately after the death of the Prophet, and

largely from political causes has continued ever
Another way of looking at these two chief

divisions of Islam is to hold that, very roughly, the
since.
Sunni sects are the puritans and that the Shi'a are
In this view the
the ritualists of the religion.
sects, presenting
have risen up
in
an
infinite variety of opinion, that
immense numbers on the

more
ritualistic,
produce and
absorb extreme ideas than those on the Sunni side;
i.e.,
the
Shfa
side, are
likely to
and, as I read history, this has been the case.
Indeed,
among them every
possible sort of extra-
vagance and divergence from the original tenets

and fundamental beliefs of Islam has occurred.
The unorthodox
ideas attributed to the Yezidis are
by no means the most estranged, and
it is
not more
66
difficult to
include them in the
Muslim
fold than
many another heterodox community.

Mr.
Empson
the
describes
Yezidis
an
as
unpromising field for Christian missionary enterI can well believe this to be the case.
prise.
Centuries of minority combined with persecution
have caused their

their
faith to
have an undue value in
eyes and roused the martyr's
even without any attempt
at
ill-treatment,
quite possible for missionary efforts to

"
Devil Worshippers,"
call
or,
But
spirit.
it
fail
is
with
as I should prefer to
them, Animists, believers in the power of
"
Spirits."
In the Nicobar Islands of the Bay of
Bengal, where no kind of coercion has been used,
on the part of
several European Christian creeds and nations
Roman Catholic, Protestant, Moravian failed to
two centuries of missionary
have any
effect
effort
whatever on the Nicobarese, beyond
giving them a few names, such as Devil for a Spirit
and also
for a Spirit-scaring image,
Chief of the
Spirits,
execution by a sort of
to
and Devil-murder
communal law
be possessed by an
evil spirit
undesirable to the community.

lately that
Deuse
of
for the
for
the
one deemed
and thus gravely

It is
only quite
Protestant Christianity has taken any
hold in one of the islands, Car Nicobar,
A COMMENTARY
Like
the
of
rest
world
the
167
including
extremist sects of whatsoever kind or nation
all
the
Yezidis have a tendency to split into sub-sects,
which follow,
at
orthodox leader
There
eyes.
any rate for a time, some ununorthodox,
is
one
that
mentioned
such
Yezidi
in
is,
by
Mr.
Empson in Hamo Shero of Milik, who is

old man and has a following of his own.
If, then, we may class the Yezidis as a
sect of
Shfa Ghulat or Extremists,
further
necessary
is
to
into
that
is
the details of their
be found to consist of foisting

an Islamic base bits of all kinds of beliefs,
It will
heterodoxy.
on
to inquire
all
a very
do the Lalbegi scavengers of Northern

"
"
and have a creed of
outcastes
India, who are
just
their
as
own
shadowy
deity,
object of their veneration.
perhaps
we had
"books."
On
better call
Lai Beg, being the
They have
them
priests, or
leaders,
and some
inquiring into their belief in 1883
(Legends of the Panfab, I, 529 ff.), I found that it

had a Hindu basis, on to which were grafted ideas
from Islam and Christianity, and that it really consisted in holding to be holy anything that was found
to
be considered holy by the people with
they came in contact.
It
whom
was indeed Hagiolatry,
of course, in a garbled fashic-n.
This
is
precisely
68
what the Yezidis have apparently done with a

Muslim basis. Their action has been the outcome
There
of a natural process of the human, brain.
has been no imagination to speak
of,
but a deter-
mination on the part of some independent intellect

"
peculiar," and
gone by to become
found a sect, of which he is naturally to be the
of the days
leader.
Later on he, or at any rate certain others^
by the leading, and so the sect

ran on, as everywhere, and especially in the East,
profited personally
such persons have always found followers.
One can
see, in fact,
how
the Yezidis and their
came about from the study of an analogous

There is in that region a
story in the Panjab.
Muslim shrine with a special cult famous all over
religion
the
province,
Sarwar
at
erected
to
Nigaha, in the
a saint
named Sakhi
foothills of the
Range in the Dera Ghazi Khan District.

has a Hindu basis with a strong Muslim
is
typical of those of
alias
Salaiman
The
cult
gloss,
and
Guru Guza and Shah Madar
Ghazi Miyan of Northern India and Oudh.
Indeed, in their cases there
is
a 'dual personality
one Hindu and one Muslim.

Sakhi Sarwar
is
The
very popular and has
shrine
still
of
a large
following.
Sakhi Sarwar as a name means the Lord of
A COMMENTARY
169
Generosity, the Bringer of Wealth, and. his story

in outline
is
an
perhaps
as follows:
Isma'iliya,
About 1120
and
a holy
man,
Shi'a,
from
so
Baghdad, with the title of ZainuTabidin settled at

Shahkot in the Jhang District of the Panjab.
There he married among the Hindu Khokars and

had a son, Sayyid Ahmad, who went to Dhaunkal
Gujranwala District where a family of Mona
Jatts became his followers, and this aroused enmity
in this Hindu clan.
He fled to Multan and thence
in the
to
Nigaha, where he
at forty-six years of
settled,
age in
and was
1 1
74 in a faction fight
over division of property with" the

of
his
father's
Indian family.
followers
interested
finally killed
Hindu
After his
death,
and some members
family set up a shrine to his
memory
at
heirs
Nigaha,
inaugurated a special cult and established a

in April,
India
in a
and
hagiology.
manner which
familiar
The
to
shrine
all
is
is
very
students
still
hereditary mujawirs, or attendants,
Although
followers
the
Hindu
traditions
cult
belong to
basis
is
is
all
of
in
Indian
maintained
by
and wandering
professedly
castes
fair
common
bharams, or bards, who act as missionaries

the
his
of
(da'is).
Muslim,
and creeds,
its
and
clear throughout the ceremonies,
and customs, and
also in the stories told
70
An
by the bards.
shrine and
their
serve
will
examination of the Yezidis, and

the customs connected with
show the reader
to
mutandis
mutatis
have
that
a history
it,
they
must
the
same
of
nature.
The
of
the
case
of
situation
universal
in
the
Yezidis
own.
their
position has been discovered in
tribal
conditions
totally
Yezidis, and
from
differing
fact,
heterodox tribes
local
which have founded a sect of
in
is,
similar
Burma
those
of
in
the
recorded in the present writer's
is
study of the Thirty-Seven Nats, 1906 (page
19),
"
Andrew Lang in his

Custom and Myth has correctly laid down an
where
axiom
is
it
'
:
grasped,
stated
What
it
that
the
does
not
This accounts
as
subordinates or disguises
ideas.'
instinct
religious
rule
when
it
once
has
abandon,
but
reaches higher
the
for
phenomenon in
cultivated and the wild
Burma, both among the

tribes of to-day, of an overlay of Buddhism on the
indigenous Animism in so
and
or
many
of the practices
beliefs connected with the worship of the

Spirits.
As
Europe and as
Asia, so Buddhism in Burma
Christianity
Muhammadanism
in
Nats
in
has strongly tinged, but not 'destroyed, the older
form of
belief.
story told in Smeaton's
Loyal
A COMMENTARY
171
Karens of Burma, explains the whole
situation
whether observed in Burma, India, or elsewhere.

It relates
in
how some
children, left
their parents
by
a safe place out of the reach of beasts of prey,
were, nevertheless, so frightened at the approach

of a tiger that, to save themselves, they took
some
had been placed in the

and threw them down for the
them
shelter with
pigs that
devour.
to
tiger
'
Their eyes, however/ so the story runs, were

fixed not on the tiger, but on the path by which
they expected to
hands fed the
see their
tiger
from
Their
come.
father
but their ears were
fear,
eagerly listening for the twang of their father's
bow-string which would send the arrow quivering
And
into the tiger's heart.
although
we have
our hearts are
still
to
make
hearts
are
sacrifices to
who
who have
past become largely Christian.

well with both
afflict
demons,
must throw
but our
us,
is
the
for a long time
It is
God and Mammon
Karens,
Such
God.'
ever looking for
reasoning of the Karens,
We
God.
true to
sops to the foul demons
so, say the
good
is
to stand
the practical
reasoning, too, of the masses
all
[including the Yezidis].
are always eclectic,
They
the world over
so far as their general ignorance permits.
By way
of
explaining
how
the
religion
of
172
Eastern peoples appeared to the early European

"
"
Devil Worship
travellers and how the term
some remarks may be

quoted from a forthcoming work of my own on
name
arose as a
for
it,
He
the Italian traveller, Varthema.
East
the
Arabia,
and
Indian
Persia,
wandereid in
farther
from
Indian coasts, and the Malay Archipelago
1502 to 1508, and produced his book in 1510, so
one of the
he
is
on
travel in the East.
earliest of the
He
European
writers
gives a quaint account
of the religion of the people in South India in
the following words
"
:
The King
pagan and worships the devil

shall
He
hear."
must,
various ceremonies at
them up with
Spanish, were
in
have observed
fact,
Hindu temples and mixed
known
India
in
to
Varthema's
is
giving
voice
to
especially
many mamluk
a God,
acknowledge
the heaven and the earth and
here
manner you
European languages,
that there
is
in the
is
recollections of conversations with
educated people.
slaves
in
of Calicut
all
his
time:
who
(foreign)
"They
has created
the world."
impressions
He
after
inquiry about educated Hindus, and then he passes
on
or
an account of the belief in the Hindu godling

devata, who does both good and evil to
to
mankind
and
is
therefore
much
propitiate'd
A COMMENTARY
"
The
Devil they
Tamarani,"
call
the
i.e.,
Deumo and God
name
Under
the
they call
for the godling is
and that for the Supreme God

or Master.
173
is
title of
devan
Tamburan, Lord
Sathanas (Satan)
he describes the images of the terrible goddess

Kali, and as to his account of her worship, he must
have looked on at some ceremonies of the lower
"
nowadays classed together as

Worship," and far removed from the
orders,
observances
the
of
There
Hindu.
is,
philosophic
and
Devil
religious
thoughtful
however, evidence to show that
he applied the term Sathanas to any prominent
Hindu image.
"
dancing
cornfield,
Varthema
"
devil-
ceremonies used at the planting of a
and on exorcising the
to possess those
The
also notices the
who
evil spirit
are seriously
supposed
ill.
Yezidi Kurds have attracted a good deal
of attention
to the
European description
of
them as Devil Worshippers, but as a matter

sober fact, they do not differ greatly from some
of
owing
of
the neighbouring Kurdish ghulat in their extremism.
The
Qizilbashis or
Redcap Kurds, who
are Shi'a
ghulat, have, for instance, a large Black Dog,
"
in
which they see the image of the Divinity," and

worship him with obscene rites.
They go, in
fact, to greater extremities in their
heterodoxy than
174
do the Yezidis with
their Peacock,
Muslim Devil.
representing Shaitan, the

in their cult, as
have
we
as Driver, Bulletin of the
School of Oriental Studies (1922,

Zaza
in the tribes of
which
Kurds,
and have
forest,
Again,
shall see, of trees, the Yezidis
their counterparts
pointed out
Melak Ta'us,
198),
has
Asia Minor, probably
worship
altars
II,
the
trees
the
of
formed of rude blocks
of
stone like dolmens or menhirs in the recesses of

their country, but nevertheless are
Shi'a
Muslims.
THE
It
accounted to be
may be
attitude
YEzlDls' DEITIES
safely stated that the
towards the
Supreme Being who
Deity
is
modern Yezidi
that
there
is
God, together with minor

gods that have other names and separate origins,
and all must be worshipped and propitiated. The
Yezidis'
name
appellation
known
as
for
is
God
is
the Persian and Turkish
Khuda,
Lord.
Yezid,
Sheikh
Shamsu'ddin,
Fakhru'ddin,
The
other gods
'Adi,
and
and
Sheikh
are
Sheikh
Hasan
A COMMENTARY
al-Basri.
There are
therefore
consequence
also
of
175
and
equal power
Melak Ta'us,
Lord
the
Peacock or Peacock Angel, and Shaitan, Satan or

the Devil.
It must be repeated here that their
ideas as to a deity, his attributes and his powers,
are
all
We
very vague.
hear but
little
God, Khuda, as he
of
He
too remote and not of this world.
comes
Year's
(Sarisal) to sit
Day
on
to
New
earth at the chief temple or shrine on
the
is
and
his throne there
On this occasion
destiny for the coming year.
funereal music is played, and in this fact there is
fix
the very ancient
a hint of a recollection of
Tammuz,
Babylonian hero-god, of
whom more
Khuda coming
Nevertheless the legend of

the
earth
Year's
at
Day
the
anon.
Yezidi temple on
chief
refers to a belief that is
and there
to
New
practically
an almost exact parallel to

it among the Burmese, who are now a Buddhist
people, and yet they have a general faith in
universal,
supernatural
Nats.
beings
is
or
Spirits,
These Nats are
relics
before they became Buddhists.
be useful to quote here what

in
my
seems
whom
of
their
explain
the
religion
It will, therefore,
is
said about
Thirty -seven Nats (1906), pages 69

to
call
they
religious
attitude
them
ff.,
of
as
it
the
176
"
Yezidis.
Thagya
Nat
common
the
by
is,
Burman, the prince of the

whatever nature or degree: the No. i of
acceptation of every
Nats
all
of
The
Nats.
antiquity of his cult
is
indicated by
name, Thagya, which represents the Sanskrit

word Shakra, and not Sakka, the Pali equivalent
his
thereof, thus throwing the date of the cult

to
the
early
form
(Sanskrit)
Burma and
(Pali)
when
times
of
before
form began
debased Northern
the
Buddhism
the
back
was
present
current
purer
Southern
The Shakra
to prevail.
in
of the
Indian Buddhism was the great god Indra of the
Brahmans, the Lord of the Firmament, turned by

the Buddhists into the lowest of the three great
ruling angels of the heavens,
whom
they set up
on adapting the old Brahmanic cosmogony to

"
reformed ideas/
their
'
In the Buddho-Brahmanic mythology connected

"
with Thagya Nat,
the Tavatimsa Heaven (the
Tawadentha
of the
Burmese)
seven removed from the earth.
is
the second out of
...
It is
inhabited
by the Sakka or Thagya angels, of which the

archangel, or king, is the deposed god Shakra or
Indra of the older Brahmans and the Thagya Nat
of
the
Burmese.
beneficial influence
Thagya
exercises
wholly
on mankind, and when a good
A COMMENTARY
man
struggling with adversity, the fact
is
known
He
177
to
then comes in disguise to the
sufferer.
...
In the
made
throne becoming hot.
his
Thagya by
is
Burma
relief
of the
of the present day,
Thagya, who takes the most

important place and is the Nat that is the Lord
it
is
of
Life,
as
Shakra,
the Recording Angel,
the
supernatural
At the
being most revered and most respected.
commencement
or
Water
of the year,
Festival,
residents in
so
Burma, he
during the Thingyan
familiar
visits
Burmese War,
all
foreign
the earth for three
days for the general good; and

in the last
to
well recollect,
that in the afternoon of
the most important of these days, at the beginning

of the year 1250 B.E. (April,
sudden and vivid
1888),
flash of lightning,
there
was a
followed by
crashing thunder, which gave great satisfaction to

the people of the royal city of Mandalay, because
it
was
positive evidence to
among them
their
of the presence
Thagya himself in the days of

(Third Burmese War, 1885-89),
of
adversity
a notion having
them
its
roots in the very foundation of
Indian belief."
Yezid, whence Yezidi,
and as such he has a place

conjunction with
is
the
name
in the great
for
God,
Temple
Melak Ta'us and Sheikh
in
'Adi.
i;8
He
has a lamp of his
own
there and texts dedicated
mercy of God. At the same

not held to be so unapproachable as
to him, invoking the
time he
is
Khuda.
of
It
the
may be
is
who
Kurds,
Tarhoya
Worshippers,"
here noted that Yazid, a deity
not
are
Devil
identified with tree worship,
that trees are frequently worshipped
and
by the Yezidis,
especially the mulberry as a healer.
'even
They
(Lady) Nafisa and 'Abdi Rash

the Black Slave).
One mulberry tree near a
have names as
(?
"
Sitt
spring, called Sheikh Baliko,
honoured,
when
even more highly
is
and vows are made
rags are tied to
its
wide animistic fashion.
to
it
for health,
branches in the world-
This gives one origin for
the term Yezid, God, and a derivation of the
title
Yezidi, but there are others which will be discussed

later,
"
and
Books
"
it
the
should be said that in the Yezidi
god Yezid
is
stated to be Yezid ibn
Mu'awiya, the fourth Caliph, from

is
generally said to come.
Sheikh 'Adi
the
name
for
is
whom
their title
a term for God, or rather as
a god
Yezidi mind than either
much more
Khuda
often
or Yezid
the
in
is
on a
a different footing altogether, because a Sufi saint

of that
with
name
the
actually lived,
founding
of
the
and had much

sect
of
the
to
do
Yezidis.
A COMMENTARY
179
Sheikh 'Adi ibn Musafir (1072-1160) was a Syrian

saint and contemporary of the great hagiologist
He
was a Sufi mystic

and founded the al-'Adawiya Order
as-Sahrastani (1074-1133).
and
pantheist,
of ascetics, being believed
by his followers
an incarnation (kulul) of the Deity.
He
to
be
has been
Such action
adopted by the Yezidis as a god.
constitutes them Ghulat par excellence, though it
is
to
by no means unique. There seems, however,

be still some memory of Sheikh 'Adi as a man
an ordinary human being, since he

has a burial-place in the chief temple, which every
who died
like
Yezidi must visit between 1 5th and 2Oth September,

"
Sheikh 'Adi dust," and possess some of it at
eat
death as a means of ensuring divine favour.

The " tomb " may, nevertheless, be only
"
shrine
"
set
followers, as
that
it
up
is
by
of holy
as,
personages
many
the
is
The
'Adi's
Near East
to be, the
existing
.at
same personage
shrines in their honour,
some forgotten devotees.

Sheikh 'Adi
Sheikh
and believed
various places dedicated to

are really
of
often the case in the
what are known
"tombs"
some
erected by
shrine or
tomb
of
believed by the Yezidi priests or
missionaries to have been built for Sheikh 'Adi
himself in 960,
i.e.,
two centuries before the date
t8o
There
of his death!
that a
monk
also a Nestorian story
is
named
of al-Qaus,
who had
'Adi,
quarrelled with his superior, personated the Syrian

Sufi
saint
Sheikh
dedicated
monastery
now
where the shrine
converted
stands
founded the Yezidi
it
Hasan
with a special
He
temple.
own use and
to his
in a
chamber
to
to
whom
white ox,
a sacrifice
is
is
when procurable
and the
flesh
to
sectional
Here we seem
chief
(sheikh)
Zoroastrians' land
much
to
concoction of
in
haoma
reward.
back to very
the Yezidis occupy a
which the
do with
for
a harking
see
to
ancient Zoroastrian custom
had
great
poor pilgrims, otherwise a white

seized at the annual festival and taken
distributed
is
the
Sun (Shams), and
represents the
Yezidis.
a god
is
himself in
for the purpose, is sacrificed annually
bull
Sheikh
to
Sheikh Shamsu'ddin
the only supernatural being to
made by
St.
i.e.,
minor position
Fakhru'ddin and Sheikh
Shamsu'ddin,
al-Basri.
religion.
There are three other gods

Sheikh
seized
Musafir,
Mar Addai,
to
Thaddaeus, at Lalishi
'Adi
ibn
'Adi
the
fat of
great
a white ox
ceremony
of
as the Elixir of Life.
The god Shamsu'ddin may, however,

Sheikh 'Adi, be, after
all,
like
merely a remembrance
A COMMENTARY
181
some holy personage, said to have been named

Sheikh Shams 'Ali Beg'al-Farisi (the Persian).
of
Fakhru'ddin
shrine at the great

to
who has
another vague god,
is
Temple, and
variously said
is
have been the secretary of Sheikh 'Adi and the
angel
responsible conjointly
for the creation of the universe.
called
Kamush, and
is
God (Khuda)
with
As
a god he
is
then said to be Fakhru'ddin,
a preacher at Herat (1150-1220), born at Kai in

Tabaristan.
It
may
also
be that he
is
a recollec-
tion of Fakhru'ddin ibn
great
Druse leader,
Qurqmas (1572-1635)
who with his mother,
Nasiba,
created an
immense sensation
regions
in
his
One
lifetime.
conjecture here that Sitt
in
the
Sitt
these
tempted to
Nafisa, already noted as
is
the
name
of a sacred mulberry tree, arose out of
the
name
of Fakhru'd din's mother.
The
great traditionist and early Sufi al-Hasan
al-Basri (642-728), has
much
to
do with the older
Yezidi legend and will be dealt with

too, appears as a
god
at the
later.
He,
Sheikh 'Adi shrine.
i8 2
THE
The
Yezidis have two Evil Spirits, which are
more or
he
is
the
YEZ!D! EVIL SPIRITS
less
mixed up
Shaitan,
called in English, the Devil,
Lord Peacock.
name, but
in the
Shaitan
Qur'an he
is,
is
i.e.
Satan, or as
and Melak Ta'us,
of course, a
Muslim
not the Lord of Hell.
That being is Malik, as witnesses Chapter XLIII

But the wicked shall remain for ever in the torment
:
"
of Hell.
... And they shall
'
call aloud,
Malik,
Lord may end us/

He
"
shall answer, Verily, ye shall remain.'
Here the
"
"
commentators say that by
Malik
Muhammad
intercede for us that the
'
meant the principal angel in charge of Hell. This

title of Malik may be of importance in connection
with that of Melak (or Malik) Ta'us,
identified
by the Yezidis with Shaitan,
Muslims know the

of
who
is
thus.
rightly
The
Biblical story of the temptation
Eve (Hawwa) by
Shaitan,
i.e.,
Malik, disguised
Eden, and add that a peacock (tflus)

was the intermediary between them.
The serpent
as a serpent in
was punished by God
(Allah),
but the peacock
A COMMENTARY
Hence
escaped.
have,
now
it
is
183
possible that the Yezidis
come
unconsciously,
to call Shaitan in
by the name of Melak Ta'us,

because the fear of Shaitan is so great among them
memory
that
he
of that tale
absolutely unmentionable; even words
is
name
containing the sound or letters of his
are
tabued and substitutes for them have to be used.

It
title
Muslim
also be useful to note here that a
may
of Shaitan is Maliku'l-Quwat,
The
tabu of the
name
of
Lord of Power.
Shaitan has been
turned by the Yezidis to practical purpose for their
own
The
benefit.
Turks
reason given by them to the
and paying a
every Muslim is accustomed
for escaping military service
fine instead
was that
"
'
Take refuge with Allah

day
from Shaitan the Stoned/
If a Yezidi were to
to say twelve times a
hear this from a comrade he would have either to

kill
but
him or commit
if
there
the Turkish
is
suicide."
any truth in the
officials
the
The
name
"
expression
shows that
of Shaitan over the
Shaitan the Stoned"
Muslim Shaitan ar-Rajim,
refers to the
tale, it
childish,
recognized the power of their
belief in the tabu of the
Yezidis.
This sounds
or ar-Rashim,
is
and
well-known legend of the stoning of
Devil by Abraham (Ibrahim) at Mina near

Mecca.
the
84
Leaving, however, Melak Ta'us aside for the

moment, it may be said that Shaitan is held by the
Yezidis to be the author of
revere
him through
and they
must never be
bad
all
He
fear.
luck,
maligned or made the scapegoat of personal shortcomings.
He is, m reality,
Host, but
is
will of
to
God
the chief of the Angelic
under a cloud for disobedience to the
As
(Allah).
be lightly treated, as he
to his rightful place in
a fallen angel he
is
not
one day be restored
will
Heaven by God (Khudl).
In connection with the Yezidi beliefs in Shaitan,
Melak Ta'us and Hell,
there
is
a consideration
which may be of great importance in the inquiry into

the memories conveyed in the term Melak Ta'us.
In modern Yezidi belief there
is
no Hell, as
it
was
extinguished by the weeping of a diseased child,
who
cried into a yellow (asfar) jar for seven years,
and
this
was emptied over the
extinguished them.
This child
fires
is
of Hell and
variously
named
Abrik Shautha and Ibrik al-Asfar (the Yellow).

variant of the legend says
it
was the weeping of
Shaitan during his seven thousand years of exile in
Hell that extinguished the

these legends
Ta'us
is
it
fires.
With
reference to
has been suggested that Melak
memory
of Ta'uz, said to
the very ancient Babylonian hero-god
be a form of
Tammuz, and
A COMMENTARY
185
be remembered that weeping for the terrible

legendary sufferings in the seven forms of death to
to
it is
which he was subjected is a prominent feature in

the ceremonies once celebrated in connection with
Tammuz.
There
Bible, Ezekiel
viii.
the appearance of
a reference to them in the
is
"Then he
14:
('a likeness as
a vision) brought
fire,'
me
to the
door of the gate of the Lord's house which was

towards the north, and behold, there sat
women
weeping for Tammuz."
On
the principle, then,
actively malevolent,
and
passively benevolent,
it
as
is
that as the Devil
God and
is
the gods are
wise to bestow special
care in propitiating the Devil, and as he can never
be mentioned,
all
worship and propitiation must be
bestowed on his representative, Melak Ta'us.
That
being therefore occupies so prominent a position

in all Yezidi ceremonial that they have to be called
Devil Worshippers.
It is now necessary to discuss
him
at length.
To
Yezidi sect
Mira.
to
Melak Ta'us, the head of the

the Mir, also Emir (Amir) or
return, then, to
is
He is
called
a kind of Prince-Pope, and
be descended from the god
is
alleged
Yezid.
Yezidi
legend says that the Mir's Master or Lord was
Ta'us (Greek
Taw?) the Peacock, a
Good
Spirit,
186
and we again seem
to
Tammuz
representing
hear an echo
of Ta'uz,
name
of the Evil
but as the
Spirit
was tabued he came to be called Melak
Ta'us,
i.e.,
the
Yezidis seem
Lord Peacock.
now
Nevertheless the
understand by the term "the
to
Peacock Angel." As the representative of Shaitan,

Melak Ta'us has many appellations the Tempter,
:
the Prince of the Deyils, the Strong One, the Wicked
One, the Enemy, the Hostile One, the Prince of

Darkness.
Both Christian and Muhammadan
influences appear here, but
on that these
will
be found later
are modified considerably in
titles
practical belief
it
and do not help us
to get at his
real nature.
As
it
regards the term Ta'uSi Taw?, for peacock,
may be remarked
that the bird
and the term are
not indigenous either in the land of the Yezidis or

in Persia, yet they
were known in Greece
c.
425
been
introduced
from
Persia.
B.C., having
They
must therefore have been known in Persia before
that date,
and seem
Southern India,
As
to
to get
have been introduced from

being Tamil for a peacock.
regards Northern India, there has been found
a coin of Aryamitra in Ayodhya,
obverse a peacock and a palm-tree
History of India,
I,
72 B.C. with
c.
Cambridge
If
527, 538 and Plate V.
:
A COMMENTARY
the translation
2
"
"
peacock
Chronicles ix. 21
known
in
is correct,
187
Kings
x.
82 and
then the bird was
in Palestine in the fifth century B.C.
very mixed Yezidi legend recorded by Mr.
Empson
accounts for the
peacock.
It still hints,
to the legend of Ta'uz or
reading of
as
Ta'iis
however, at memories as
Tammuz.
By
the will of
God (Khuda) seven spirits rule the universe in

The first and foremost is Melak Ta'us, who
turn.
thousand years and has reigned four
thousand of them. His offering is seven sheep,
is
to reign ten
which, by the way,
is
He
never made in practice.
be succeeded by Melak Isa (Jesus Christ)

for ten thousand years, with one sheep for his
The advent of Isa, which has already
offering.
is
to
taken place, was premature, and he did not die
on the
This
cross.
modern Ghaliya
is
also
sect, the
Muslim
teaching,
Ahmadias
and a
of the Panjab,
have based a wild theory on it. The Qur'an says,

"
Chapter IV
They that have not believed
:
have
'
said,
Verily
we have
slain Christ Jesus, the
Yet they slew him

him, but he was represented by
son of Mary, the apostle of God.

not, neither crucified
"
one in his likeness/
The
Yezidi explanation
is
Melak Ta'us saved Christ by snatching him

from the cross, and then he appeared to the Maries
that
i88
dmvesh, or Muslim
them what he had done.
as a
restored
them
it
and told
ascetic (dervish),
He then took a dead cock,

and informed
to life in their presence
that he chose to be worshipped as the
In true
beautiful of birds, the peacock.
most
illiterate
assumed
sectarian fashion the Yezidis have here
that all the world at all times has belonged to their
may be remarked
It
sect.
images
ordinary
Melak
of
here,
that the
too,
Ta'us
more nearly
resemble a cock than any other bird.

As might be expected, the actual position of
Melak Ta'us
in the Yezidi
beliefs regarding
yet he
him
not a god,
is
god Yezid
and yet he
mind
vague, and the
He
contradictory.
e.g.,
he
in both a superior
is
is
is
and an
inferior degree,
an incarnation of Yezid, who
is
to be inferior as a
But he
a greater spirit than Isa (Jesus).
same time
god
to
himself
Sheikh 'Adi.
At the
his cult is apparently older than the cult
of Sheikh 'Adi.
the progenitor
three
and
connected with the
now held
is
is
Despite
of the
hundred years
all this,
Yezidis
Melak Ta'us, as
he created them
after the
of
Adam
is
coming
the god Yezid, half angel, half man.
is
habitually treated as a god, and
offerings are
thrown to him into a secret
cleft in
the rocks at
Dair Asi
way
of
propitiation,
in
the
Sinjar by
Further, he
A COMMENTARY
Evil Eye, but no
especially in warding off the
made
sacrifices are
The power
ever,
to him.
attributed to
He was
immense.
189
Melak Ta'us
is,
how-
created Lord of the Earth
by the decree of God (Khuda), but had certain

limits placed on his power, though as regards the
celestial regions there is
is
shown
no
in various ways, e.g.,
as prayer
is
This power
Yezidis never pray,
limit to
superfluous, because
it.
Melak Ta'us
is
powerful to save them without prayer.

So also blue clothing is tabued, because it is used
sufficiently
by Muslims as a protection against the Evil Eye,

and owing to the power of Melak Ta'us no such
protection
is
necessary to believers in him.
one explanation.
blue clothing
is
Another
"
its
is that
Muslim
observed character as the
to
little
doubtful.
legends about Melak Ta'us exhibit a strong

leaning, just as does
concerning him.
all
is
the objection to
colour of heaven," but this seems a
The
That
Thus,
the followers of
Heaven on a
at the
some
of the ritual
Day
of Judgment,
Melak Ta'us
tray.
Also he
will
is
be carried
said
to
have
impersonated Sheikh 'Adi on a pilgrimage (kajf) to

Mecca and then ascended to Heaven, and when
Sheikh 'Adi was about to be executed as an impostor

in
consequence, Melak Ta'us saved him and ordered
igo
him
honoured as a
to be henceforth
Melak Ta'us assumes a
saint.
Here
distinctly superior position
to Sheikh 'Adi.
A very important part is
played in Yezidi ritual

by the sanjaq, originally a standard and then an
image of a peacock (sanjdq, plural sandjiq, means
One legend makes
properly a symbol).
the peacock
standard (sanjdq) of the Yezidis to have been given
by Sulaiman (Solomon) to
their
"
first
king," Sabur I
(224-271), for the Yezidis claim to have
had a royal
have here a
house (Mairi) from 224 to 379.

We
confused recollection of the great Sasanian monarch,
Shapur
Roman
under whom
(241-273) (the conqueror of the
Emperor Valerian
Edessa
at
rose the Manichaeans in 242.
in 260),
Those were days of
violent religious struggle, for under Shapur's pre-
decessor, Ardeshir (212-241), the compilation of ths
Pahlavi Avesta (Zoroastrian) was continued, while

Mithraism began to succeed a decadent Zoroastrian-
ism and to dominate

(310-379).
to
it
by the time of Shapur
The Mobeds
(Great Magi) also began
have power, while there was constant
with Christianity.
The
II
conflict
mythical nature of the
Yezidi claim to royalty can be thus demonstrated.
They say
379,
that their royal house ruled from 224 to
and that Sabur
reigned from 224 to 272, and
A COMMENTARY
191
Sabur II from 309 to 379. But the early Sasanians

reigned from 212 to 379, thus: Ardeshir 212-241,
241-273, Bahrain I 273-276, others
Shapur
Shapur
II,
another very famous ruler, from 310
The
to 379.
till
dates for the two dynasties (Yezidi
and Sasanian) are too close, and there can be no

doubt that the Yezidi "royal house" is but an
echo of that of the great Sasanian Emperors of
Persia.
But however
may be, the Peacock

"
have been made by the seven
this
all
Standard
is
gods," of
whom more
said to
hereafter,
Yezid was born, he received

ence and bestowed
that the Yezidis
it
and when the god

"
it
with great rever-
on the Yezidis."
became the
Men
This means
of the
Peacock
Standard in a manner that would seem natural to

surrounding Turks
the
witness the Akkuyunlii
Sheep Standard) and the Qarakuyunlii

(Black Sheep Standard) Turks, once so famous in
Western Asian history. There is also a tale of a
(White
Melak Ta'us, which, when put into

"
Sheikh 'Adi
water, had curative power.
peacock
"
holy
flag to
Here we have
The
a reason for the cult.
sanjaq standard has apparently degener-
ated into concrete images of

into
Melak Ta'us, divided
two categories, the chief
at the
headquarters
192
of the sect
and the minor called Ta'us-kushi, which
are carried about
missionaries
(d(ii}
by Qauwals, chanters or
when
travelling
priest-
the
through
In their ordinary condi-
villages to raise funds.
tion the sanjaq images are held to be only symbols
of
Melak Ta'us, but they become
active
placed in a dish of water by a Qauwal,
goes into a trance and,

causes
Melak Ta'us
through the water.

oracle, of
to
who then
world-wide fashion,
enter the sanjaq
image
The image then becomes an
which the Qauwal
The Muhammadan
of
in
on being
is
the spokesman.
nature of the whole legend
Melak Ta'us comes out
in
the dedication of
Five of them, alleged to have been

taken by the Turks, were dedicated as follows to
the images.
Hadrat
(the
Da'ud (David), Sheikh Shamsu'ddin

Sun), Yezid I ibn Mu'awiya (the Caliph)
(Saint)
(assumed eponym of the sect), Sheikh 'Adi (the

god-saint), and Sheikh Hasan al-Basri (642-728),
an important personage in Yezidi legend.
The
only new name here is Da'ud (David), well-known
in
Islam and taken over by the Yezidis as a holy
personage with a host of other Biblical heroes, and

it will be
perceived that this dedication argues that
the so-called "deities" of the Yezidis at Sheikh
'Adi's
shrine
should
properly
be
regarded
as
A COMMENTARY
i.e.,
sandjiq,
193
symbols of the Deity, or shall we say
as symbols deified?
TRADITION
In examining Yezidi legends and religious tales,
it
will
be found that they refer to traditions of
mixed origin
Muhammadan, mixed
Muhammadan, Nestorian
Christian,
Christian and
Zoroastrian,
Mesopotamian- Syrian, Persian

Like
(Yezd), Assyrian and Aboriginal Animistic.
many another population in remote places, the
Kurd,
Sabaean,
Yezidis are thoroughly eclectic.
The Muhammadan
Much
Tradition
been already said points to the

overwhelming influence of Islam on the religious
that has
ideas of the Yezidis.
They
are really Shi'a Ghulat,
but several points have not yet been touched on.

It must be remembered, however, that Islam has
nevertheless not permeated deeply: e.g., circumcision is
by no means universal, and Wednesday,
194
not the Muslim
Friday,
the weekly holiday,
is
though both Wednesday and Friday are holy days,
The
but not to the exclusion of work.

orientation (qibla)
is
Yezidi
towards the Pole Star (Qutb),
and not towards Mecca.
A
is
legend that accounts for the
as follows:
Some
title of
of the Jahilias,
Yezidi
pagan
Arabs, were led by the 'Umayid Caliph Yezid ibn
Mu'awiya, who had a Christian mother. He had
i.e.,
heard of one, Sheikh 'Adi; went to see him, learnt
and taught it to his followers. This

means that a most important person, the 'Umayid
Caliph Yezid I, adopted the religion of Sheikh 'Adi
his religion,
and founded the
There
sect of the Yezidis.
hopeless anachronism here, as Yezid
is
lived in the
seventh century (Caliph 680-683) and Sheikh 'Adi

in parts of the eleventh
and
twelfth.
There
is,
moreover, nothing otherwise to show that Yezid
was ever heterodox or ever founded a

the acts attributed to
ibn
'Ali,
eighty
but
the murder of Husain
the sack of Medina, and the killing of
Ashab or Companions
enough
Shi'as
him
sect,
to
and
of
Muhammad
were
ensure the persistent hostility of the

to account for the persecution
on the
part of surrounding Shi'as of all Yezid's followers,

as the Yezidis set
up
to be.
Indeed, in Shi'a eyes
A COMMENTARY
the
name
as to
of
195
Yezid the Caliph has become so hateful
be in Persian a synonym for
that
all
execrable, and to crown this detestation, Yezid

also the
name
of
an early arch-heretic.
is
was
In addition
making out the 'Umayid Caliph Yezid
to all this, in
ibn Mu'awiya to be the son of
Abu
Sufian, the
Yezidis are mixing up two separate personages,
above remarked, Yezid ibn Mu'awiya was

Caliph (Khalifa) from 680 to 683, whereas Yezid
ibn Abi Sufian was an important official who died
for, as
in the
plague epidemic which
Army
in Syria in 639.
.There
is
is
afflicted the
Saracen
also a wild Yezidi tale of origin which
extremely
Muhammadan
in
form,
though
begins in a manner familiar to students of
it
Hindu
cosmogony and has some Zoroastrian affinities.

There were seventy-two Adams of ten thousand
years each, with intervals of worldly cessation of
ten thousand years between them.
The Yezidis
are sprung from the last of these
hard to believe that
this
Adams.
It
seems
has not been taught by
someone who knew or had heard
tales of
Hindu
cosmogony. But the Yezidi tale goes on to explain

about Huriya, a rival to Eve (Hawwa).
Huriya
was introduced from Heaven by a cavalier named
Jinnis,
and subsequently a quarrel between
Adam
196
and Eve was
settled
who arranged
Shahid Jayar.
Eve
Jinn,
should produce a son,
then bore Cain and Abel to
Hawwa, Adam,
Habil, Kabll, Sam;

in Islamic
all
Jabra'11,
familiar
Shahid,
words and names
legend from the Qur'an onwards.
It is, further,
to
Adam
(Jabra'il),
Here, to give the Arabic forms, we find
Shem.
Huri,
that
by the Angel Gabriel
not necessary to go outside Islam
account for the prominence given to the black
serpent carved on the doorway of the shrine of
Sheikh 'Adi and kissed by
Empson
gives the legend thus
there were two floods
years ago
the
all
pilgrims.
"
:
They
first
Mr.
believe that
seven thousand
and that as the waters of the second, or
Noah's (Nuh), flood rose and the ark floated, it

came to Mount Sinjar (if Ararat may be taken to be
means merely a hillock), where

ran aground and was pierced by a rock.
The
a form of al-arat,
it
it
serpent thereupon twisted
itself
into
a cake and
stopped the hole, and the ark mov^ed on."
There
an analogous tale in Arab legend connected with

the Ka'ba at Mecca.
Ibrahim (Abraham) dug a
is
hole
known
to pilgrims of the
Hajj as al-Akhsaf
Ka'ba for a treasury, which was frequently

plundered by the Jurhum Arabs, now long nonin the
existent.
In consequence, a serpent,
commanded
A COMMENTARY
by God (Allah), took up
its
abode
197
in the hole
and
Later on it opposed the

guarded the treasury.
renovation of the Ka'ba by the Quraishi, and God
sent a bird, which carried off the serpent.
may be remarked that

Wetnhiyun as a name for the
In this connection
it
Mr. Empson quotes

The term seems
Yezidis.
Haiyun, the Land
says the belief
Spirit
of
Mr. Empson
that the name Wetnhiyun was
of the Serpents, but
is
waned and
He
ground.
Watnu'l-
Yezidi as the worship of the
to
changed
to represent
Good
that of the Evil Spirit gained
therefore refers the belief to a form
Dualism.
The
have
Yezidis
Muhammadan
in type;
much an angel
an
angelology
which
even Melak Ta'us
The
as a god.
is
is
as
archangels are
almost purely those of Islam: e.g., Jabra'il, the

interpreter; Mikha'il, the rain-bringer; Azra'il, the
of
angel
death;
Rafa'il;
Didra'il;
Shemka'il;
Azazil, the Devil masquerading as Azrafil; while

Izrafil,
last,
Nakir
is
who
is
same personage
the
the trumpeter at the
and
(Munkir)
Nukir
in Islam as the
Day
of
(Nakir)
Judgment;
are
exajniners of souls on the death of the body.

this last case the
the
In
Yezidis have adopted the vulgar
Nakir for Munkir.
Some
of the archangels are
198
held to be incarnated (hulul) in the more prominent
Mikhail (Michael)
as Sheikh Abubakr; Azra'il as Sheikh Salju'ddln;
Yezidi sheikhs or leaders:
Hasan
Didra'il as
e.g.,
al-Basri;
Shemka'il as Sheikh
Nasru'ddin; Israfil as Sheikh Shamsu'ddin.
Shamsu'ddin
is
Jewish and
Christian
the
Abubakr,
Sheikh
also occasionally confused with the
first
Muhammad, and
Of
Messiah.
Caliph
and
the
above,
of
Companion
contemporary al-Hasan
ibn Abi'l-Hasan al-Basri, may be taken to be
his almost
legendary heroes of the Yezidis.

too, that the latter in his lifetime
It
may be
noted,
was an outspoken
opponent of Yezid I, the eponymous hero of the

Yezidis and a developer of Sufism, which facts are
of interest in the present connection.
In the midst of
all
this
Islamism, there
is
vague cosmogonic legend with a Zoroastrian tinge

in
it
as regards the angels.
God (Khuda)
created
the universe and put seven angels in charge of
each for a thousand years, of
it,
whom somehow Melak
He
had a great
predecessor, Lasifarus, who spoke Kurdish and
Ta'us
at present in charge.
is
confirmed
Here
is
the
Yezidis'
in
their
position.
another instance of admixture of Islam
and Zoroastrianism.
Muslim
saints
Fasting also
is
observed in
fashion by the Yezidi priests, but
is,
and
A COMMENTARY
199
by the public, the feeling on

Here we seem to
the subject being very vague.
see a traditional conflict between Muslim ideas
also is not, observed
and the Zoroastrian idea that
strongly for fasting

it
a foolish custom.
is
Lasifarus
has
It is possible
Christian
origin.
also that
the
Lucifer,
used by Isaiah in the Bible for the

"
How art thou fallen from
King of Babylon
Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning; how art
light-bearer,
is
thou cast
down
the nations
that the
(cf.
ground, which didst weaken

1 2).
The early Christians held
to the
"
(xiv.
words ascribed to Christ in Luke
also Revelations ix.
i)
"I beheld Satan
lightning fall from heaven," referred to the

Isaiah,
and so
x.
in their theology Lucifer
Iqfext
came
18
as
in
to be
regarded as a synonym of Satan.
The Mixed
Christian
and Muhammadan
Tradition
The
Yezidis believe in two floods, including
Hebraic legend in the cosmogony developed

in Genesis, and in other events in the Old Testathat in
ment
of the Bible,
and partly
ment and the Qur'an.
in the
New
They have
for
Testa-
minor
200
prophets,
Muhammad, Abraham, Noah and
through a number of names familiar to

Christians and
Muhammadans.
so on
Jews,
Isa, Jesus Christ,
minor prophet, and they believe in his

advent, and also in that of the twelfth Imam of
is
also a
the
Shi'as
Medi.
God
the
whom
Mahdi,
they call
Sheikh
(Allah) has three thousand and three
names, in place of the ninety-nine given by the

Here we have an interesting
Muhammadans.
instance of the kind of megalomania
common
in
Indian religious philosophy, where the Vaishnava
Hindus adopted a theory
division of the
of ten
avatar as or incarnations of their patron
god Vishnu,
gave him one hundred and four holy names, and
thereby made their philosophy popular and powerful,
whereupon
their rivals of the
created a greater
number
Shaiva division
of avataras of their patron
god Shiva and gave him one hundred and eight

holy names.
The
Yezidis have,
too,
an expiatory period
before entering Heaven, just as there
is
al-Barsakh
Islam and purgatory among some Christians.

Their whole eschatology is, however, vague and of
in
a mixed character.
So
also are their festivals
Christmas Day, Christian; Bahrain, Muhammadan.;

the 'Id (Feast) of Elijah, Hebraic.
A COMMENTARY
The
201
Nestorian Christian Tradition
This tradition runs generally thus: the chief

Yezidi shrine, which bears traces of Christian
architecture,
The
was
originally a Nestorian monastery.
Sheikh 'Adi entered
saint
it,
took possession,
altered the building to suit his teaching,
buried there.
and was
Also, the Yezidis are locally said to
have been dasini, impure, i.e., cast out from the

Nestorian diocese, which disappeared when they
arose, possess a Syriac library kept hidden away,
and name villages with Syriac names. They say,

too, that Sheikh 'Adi's shrine was built by Christian
workmen, but they hold that the valley which contains
or
it
was a holy place long before Christianity
Yezidism
existed.
Dasini, Dasni,
is
Nevertheless,
plural,
name given by
the Yezidis to
Kurdish
tribe,
and so
religious
name.
is
Yezidi legends
Melak Isa (Jesus
name
also said to be a Syriac form,
Dasnaye (Arabic, Dasin,
Among
the
is
Dawasin), for a
themselves as a
tribal
and
not
one that the reign of
Christ) has not yet begun,
and that
202
he
Melak Ta'us,
will reign after
already observed, his
The
has been
for, as
advent was premature.
first
Yezidis allot an inferior divinity to Isa, respect
and observe
the Sign of the Cross, adopt baptism
Christmas Day; while some of them, the Halitiya

Yezidis of Diarbekr (Asia Minor) even observe the
The hymns sung
Eucharist.
1
5th to 2Oth April, are
and then
in
first
honour of
in
Isa.
at a great festival,
honour of Sheikh 'Adi

brides pay
Finally,
reverence to any Christian church they pass on the
way
may be
to the bridegroom's house, but this
because
churches
Christian
are
reverenced
by
everyone in Kurdistan as possessed with healing

properties.
There
of Gurgis (Jirjis),
objected to as a
is
an odd idea as to the name

St.
i.e.,
name
George.
for children
It is
and
highly
is
never
given, but no explanation of this seems to be forth-
coming, though
it is
to be observed that in the
East Muslim boys born on

April, are
named, not
St. George's
Jirjis,
Near
Day, 23rd
but Khidrelles, after
two holy personages, Khidr and Ilyas

confounded by the people with St. George.
(Elias),
A COMMENTARY
The
203
Zoroastrian Tradition
Before considering
this
subject
should be
it
borne in mind that Zoroastrianism had undergone
numerous
sometimes
are,
almost
came
Yezidism
before
changes
There
and
into
a tradition
Yazdan, the
that
Good
the Evil Spirit.

it
existence.
however, several points in which Yezidi
ideas approach the old Zoroastrian.

is
incompatible
term
Yezidi
represents
Spirit, as opposed to Ahriman,
It
has been said that
of India Yezid
the
Thus, there
may be noted, too, here that

among the Zoroastrian Parsees
Farfar
is
the Evil
Spirit.
In
modern Persian both Yazd and Yazdan are used

God, and Yazd Farfar would mean
philologically God the Creator, or God the Desas terms for
troyer,
according to the sense of the uncertain
Arabo-Persian term Farfar in the mind of the
Other reminiscences of Zoro-
speaker or writer.
astrianism
ence
among
among them
the Yezidis are the clear persistof Dualist principles, as
in the rival Spirits of
Good and Evil
shown
with equal
powers, and in the worship of Fire, besides others

already noticed.
It
may be mentioned
also that,
204
like
the Zoroastrian Parsees, the Yezidis
admit
from
converts
other
do not
but
religions,
this
exclusiveness was far from being an attribute of
older Zoroastrianism,
the
missionary religion.
which was a vigorous
Among
the later Zoroastrians
generally, ritualism, especially that connected with
magic, became
that
all
powerful, and
some of the Yezidi
spells,
to be observed
head men
village sheikhs or
E.g., the Sheikh of Giranjak
claim magic powers.
can cast
it is
and the descendants
Baiban of
at
the Sheikh of Ruhsit, a ruined village, are regarded

as snake-charmers, a property they can transfer to
others
by merely
Zoroastrian
spitting at them.
objection
to
the
Then
again the
of
corpses,
burial
because their presence in the earth would pollute

it,
seems to survive
in the Yezidi
custom of not
allowing earth to touch the corpse as
it
Munkir (Nakir) and Nakir

from Heaven to examine it.
the grave for
There
is
another
interesting
connection which seems to have

old Zoroastrianism.
Wood
is
its
is
laid in
to descend
point
in
this
origin in the
collected in large
quantities at the shrine of Sheikh 'Adi to burn at
the annual sacrifice of a sacred white bull to the
There is also, as has

Sun-god Shamsu'ddin.
been already noticed, a ceremony of the capture of
A COMMENTARY
205
a white bull at certain festivals.
white sheet
used to wrap the corpse at funerals, a

widow must wear white clothing, and white as a
(kifri)
is
colour
is
ing
of
held in
the
much
Zoroastrian
(kaomd), the fat
Now,
esteem.
Elixir
in the brew-
of
Immortality
of a white ox and the white sap
In
of the Horn-tree played a great part.
the ingredients
had
to be white, as is
shown
fact,
in the
Dadistani Dinik, dated about 875.
The Native Kurd

This tradition
tells
Tradition
us that Yezidi, as a name,
represents the Kurdish 'Azed, an ancient
name
of
Yazed, when given to the

tradition is vague and might
equally well refer to an important tribe of the
Arabs, the Azd, which played a great part in
God, degenerated
But the
Devil.
to
Mesopotamia and Khurasan, as well as in Arabia

itself, as far back as the days of Mu'awiya and
Yezid
I in the
madan times
and joined
till
seventh century.
the
Azd were
Muhammad
In pre-Muham-
worshippers of idols,
slowly, in fact, not fully
compelled to do so by Abubakr.
This
last
206
view, however, sets aside the fact that the Yezidis

are essentially a tribe of Kurdistan.
The
Yezid
is
leader,
to
Sabcean Tradition
ibn Abi Anisa,
Sabsean
heterodox
much
believed by some, without
reason,
have been the founder of the Yezidis, who were
looked on as his as Mb (followers, companions).

This tradition is, however, more than doubtful, as
Ibn-Hazm
that great authority
of
Cordova (994-
1027) calls the leader in question Zaid ibn 'Ubaissa,
but
may be noted
it
was
high
that
claimed
official,
apocryphally)
from
Sufian.
Historically,
founded
sect
Ibn-Hazm's
called
descent
ibn
Yezidiyas,
who
(perhaps
Yezid ibn
Persian,
Yezid
father,
Abi
which
Abi
Anisa
does
not appear to have been in any

with the Yezidis.
were,
if
way connected
But he was a Khariji, who
anything, orthodox puritan
as are their
(Abadiyas).
Muhammadans,
modern representatives the Ibadiyas
The
only thing that seems to give
colour to the idea that he could have been the

founder of the Yezidis is a statement that " God
A COMMENTARY
207
send a new Qur'an to a prophet among the

Persians, and he will found a new religion for
will
them,
divine
Christianity
in
same
the
sense
and Islam, which
as
will
Judaism,
be no other
than that of the Sabi'un mentioned in the Qur'an."
Here, however,
it
is
Mandaeans or
clear that the
John the Baptist are referred to,

and they were very far Indeed from being at one
Christians of St.
with the Yezidis.
Nevertheless Sabaean tenets

to
do with the
Sabaean,
is
may have had much
religion of the Yezidis.
name
for
As-Sabi'a,
two distinct sects:
(i)
the
Mandseans or Judaeo-Christians of Mesopotamia,

who were Baptists and known as Christians of St.
John the Baptist; (2) the Sabaeans of Harran

(Carrhce), who were Ghulat or Extremists, and
largely pagan, but for political reasons they, too,
adopted
literature
baptism,
in
and.
Syriac.
they
had
The
as-Sabi'un
Qur'an were Mandaeans, but
an
important
of
the
the creed of the
it is
Sabaeans of Harran that might well have been

absorbed,
in
part at any
among whom baptism

it
is
is
rate,
by the Yezidis,
a prominent
rite.
Indeed,
worth while to state here Carra de Vaux's
estimate of this sect by
way
of
illustrating the
Yezidi beliefs generally, especially as the Sabaeans
208
of
Harran disappeared about 1033
when
Sheikh 'Adi
them
"
the Egyptian 'Alids took from
Moon
their last temple, that of the
As-Sahrastani
who
admit
them
classes
substances
spiritual
their
Hermes, who have been
They
identified with Seth
and
also one of the
produced and of inaccessible

reached through the intermediary
The latter are pure and holy in
not
holy,
who
is
of the spirits.
nature,
and
believe in a creator of the world,
They
in
substance,
recognize
Spirit)
Orpheus was
Idris respectively.
majesty,
thos'e
(ar-rukdmyun),
'Adhimun (Agathodaemon = the Good
wise,
Harran.
teachers two philosopher prophets,
first
prophets.
at
among
especially the great astral spirits.
as
the period of
they
and
act
have
physical faculties,
changes in time.
our intercessors
state;
nothing
as
regards
corporeal,
their
neither
nor movements in place, nor
They
are our masters, our gods,
with the
sovereign
Lord.
By
purifying the soul and chastising the passions one

enters
into
activities,
relations
with
them.
As
to
their
they produce, renew, and change things
from state to state; they cause the force of the

divine majesty to flow
to the lower beings
them from the beginning to his

Among them are the administrators of
and lead each

perfection.
down
of
A COMMENTARY
209
the seven planets, which are like their temples.
Each
spirit
sphere, and the spirit

is
to
the
spiritual
body.
of
to his temple as the soul
is
... Their
and analogous
The shape
Each temple has a
has a temple.
the
condition
is
very
to that of the angels.
number
temples, the
of
the
degrees, the colour of the ornaments, the material
and the nature of the
of the idols
sacrifices varied
with the planets, and this
is
history of the liturgy.
All the Sabaeans had
interesting for the
three prayers (which the Yezidis have not).

purified themselves
by ablution
They
after contact with
a corpse, forbade the flesh of swine, dogs, birds
with talons, and pigeons.
They did not have
circumcision, allowed divorce only
and forbade bigamy."
the judge,
The
There
Meso-potamian-Syrian Tradition
is
a Yezidi tradition of origin referring
th'em to Basra, then
by emigration
thence to their present

Hill.
it
of
If
by decree of
site,
to Syria,
Jebel Sinjar or Bird
any reliance could be placed on
would account
for
much
Animism, Islam and
and
of their faith
Christianity.
this story
a mixture
210
The
Persian
Shi'a
Persian (Yezd) Tradition
continued
animosity,
about
brought
the
of
persecution
Yezidis,
towards
emigration
through
and
centuries
for
Kurdistan.
Traditionally the migration took place from
and Seistan, where Zoroastrianism
Yezd
flourished,
and
the Zoroastrians (Magians) brought items of their
them
Dualism, fire-worship. Also some

of the pagans
tree and spirit (" Devil ") wor"
"
Devil Worship
shippers from Seistan brought
faith with
with them to avoid persecution of themselves.
however, Yezd gave a
name
would have been Yezdi, and

Yezidi from Yezd.
The
This
Yezidis
is
are
If,
to such emigrants
it is
difficult to
it
derive
Assyrian Tradition
really
hairy,
and
theory.
The
monuments
depict
European's
their
them with beards, and they dwell on the

the old Assyrian Empire.
From
this
site
of
an Assyrian
A COMMENTARY
has been predicated.
origin
physically in part, but there
211
This may be
is
so
nothing to show
that they
have retained anything of the ancient
Assyrian
religion
that
not
is
common
to
all
Animism.
The
Aboriginal Animistic Tradition
Apart from those above discussed several of the

Yezidi stories of origin are of no value to
they are merely the result of that
research,
as
desire to
magnify social position so observable
in
Oriental genealogical statements.
abound
all
tales
be found there among

Of such a
people of whatever race.
in India,
the
nature
and are
Such
is
to
the Yezidi story, for example, of the great
'Umayid Mu'awiya marrying an old woman of

eighty, who miraculously became twenty-five and
gave birth to the god Yezid, the Caliph Yezid
being the actual son of Mu'awiya.
Of Yezidi customs, however, which

animistic may be quoted their method
are distinctly
of taking an
magic circle, dedicated to Melak Ta'us,

drawn round the swearer, and the fear of Melak
oath.
is
Ta'us
is
said to
make him
tell
the truth.
Such an
212
custom in
animistic
forms
v.arious
is
frequently
observed in India.
Then
again,
custom
the Yezidi
of
burying
corpses on the right side, with the head to the

south,
common among Hindus
is
in India
and
is
universal in Kashmir.
Also red rags are fixed to the doorway of

Sheikh 'Adi's shrine, and red flowers are gathered
at
New
the
Year and
at
common among Hindus

or
sacred
colour,
the
widely; substitution for
being
to use red
very
a magic
as
explanations varying
very
human, or blood, sacrifice
means
common, but by no
It is
baptisms.
universal,
explanation for this wide-spread animistic practice.
may be noted, however, that red flowers are

common in the neighbourhood of Sheikh 'Adi's
It
shrine,
and so the colour may have
really
no
significance.
animistic customs
Among
is
that of
lighting
lamps at dusk in the valley in which the shrine of

Sheikh 'Adi is situated whenever festivals are held.
About three hundred and

principal festival,
but the
Here we have an
interest,
the
cult
as,
of
fifty
oil
animistic
are lighted at the

is
not replenished.
tradition
of
much
with the introduction by Muslims of

al-Khizr
or
al-Khidr
into
India
A COMMENTARY
from
came
700 and 900, there
between
Persia
or
the
Mesopotamia
universal custom
of
213
lighting
presumably
pretty and
boats
toy
holding
lamps by the thousand at festivals in

al-Khizr's honour and setting them afloat on
little
rivers
oil
and sheets
of water.
SUPERSTITIONS
Metempsychosis
The
Yezidis believe that
if
man
at
death has
been a good man, his soul is reborn in Heaven,

The celebrated
otherwise it passes into an animal.
Persian
Sufi
(858-922),
wool-carder
Mansur
of
ninth
the
al-Hallaj,
who
century
eventually
became a great mystic teacher and martyr,

held
responsible
for
the
Yezidi
metempsychosis (tandsukh) thus.

filling
her jar by the Tigris
brother,
after
his
when
doctrine
His
sister
is
of
was
the soul of her
decapitation under the Caliph
al-Mustadir at Baghdad, came floating along and

entered
the
jar.
After
drinking
the water
she
214
became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who,

it
may be presumed, was the founder of the
Hallajiya
reality
sect.
It
was,
however,
founded
in
Another superstition
that when his head was
by quite other people.
connected with al-Hallaj
thrown into the water,

vessels with narrow
Al-Hallaj's
remains
these legends
it
is
gurgled, and so drinking
mouths must never be used.

however,
were,
we have presented
burnt.
In
to us a world-
wide story of the river-borne hero instances of

which are quite common in India combined with
that of metempsychosis.
It
must be mentioned
here that Miss Gertrude Bell thought that Sheikh

'Adi's
teaching was
Mansur
al-Hallaj,
in
who
accordance with
suffered
that
martyrdom
of
for
asserting the permeation of all created things by

"
the Deity with the phrase,
I am God
(Allah)."
A COMMENTARY
215
HOLY WATER
Every Yezidi must purify
water
in
the
for
provided
body and
his
clothes
some
at
purpose
distance from the Sheikh 'Adi shrine before enter-
ing
the
purifying the
ceremony
a
which
in
valley
body
compounded
specially
it
is
The
situated.
in pure water or in
liquor
is
very
ancient
indeed, and goes back to the beginnings of
known
became
The doer
religions.
"
unclean
an
purified,
"
idea
uncleanliness of the
all
of uncertain things
he
was
ceremonially
expanded
into
the
until
human body and
natural
the consequent
necessity for purification before entering the sacred
presence of the Deity.
Greeks, Romans, Hindus,
Jews and every other ancient people believed in

this necessity.
The situation as they saw it is
made
"
clear
And
for
on a reference to Numbers
xix. 17, 19:
an unclean person they shall take also
of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for

sin
and running water
vessel.
[Here
is
compound used
be put thereto in a
inserted a reference to a special
for
shall
purifying.]
And
the
clean
216
person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third
day and on the seventh day. And on the seventh

day he shall purify himself and wash his clothes
and bathe himself
in water
and
shall be clean at
even."
The
'Adi water
well of
is
to
other
Mecca, and
at
Zemzem,
as a
its
springs
is
worshipped by
is
also at times
itself.
Running
greatly reverenced along with
neighbourhood.
that
Ba Sheikha and
is
name,
Sheikh 'Adi's well
water generally
the trees in
Sheikh
believed to originate in the sacred
Zemzem
the Yezidis.
applied
Sheikh 'Adi's shrine
spring at
at
are
There are
worshipped,
e.g.,
also
at
Ba'zani dedicated to Sheikh
Mand.
PRIESTS AND
HOLY MEN
Mr. Empson writes that the Yezidi is far from

being uncharitable, and that it is computed that he
spends on an average a quarter of his income in
fees,
doles,
and alms connected with the
shrines.
large portion of these goes to his priests
and
A COMMENTARY
217
v
holy men.
Long ago
difficulty in getting
call
Europeans
pointed
Hindus
is
the
that
what
to subscribe to
charities
public
out
not
due,
to
natural niggardliness, but to the fact that practically
spare cash and funds go to religious

"
of a domestic nature, which are to
charities
their
all
"
them
As
obligatory.
the Yezidis have no custom
of prayer, their actual worship consists of
sung by Qauwals
rites at
the
like
really a caste
is
The
which,
at
old
hymns
religious
on these
It is
and on the many others
class
priestly
spent in
priests
and the
pilgrimages and festivals.
occasions,
Magi,
or
which the
Zoroastrian
officiates, that their
funds
"
charity "disappear.
Yezidi priesthood
is in
four Orders, the
two highest of which are hereditary,
the
office
descending in the female as well as in the male

line.
(1)
gahi,
The High
and
is
Priest
is
called Ikhti'ar-i-Mar-
variously said to be a descendant of
al-Hasan al-Basrl or of Sheikh 'Adi.

issue fatwas or religious decrees,
municate.
His
He
can
and can excom-
assistants are the Sheikhs,
who
are
not hereditary.
(2)
make
The
Pirs (saints) are
much
revered.
They
the dust of Sheikh 'Adi's shrine into balls of
218
clay,
which are sold as sacred mementoes ol a
to the shrine,
much
as similar objects were of old
sold at Buddhist shrines in India and are

to prove a visit to a
visit
Hindu
shrine.
The
still
sold
Pirs are
hereditary priests and are credited with power to
cure sickness and insanity.

(3)
The
next two Orders are, strictly speaking,
not in the priestly caste,
but are really rather
missionaries (da'is) and servants of shrines.
Qauwals
(chanters, orators) are
The
young singers and
musicians used as missionaries for collecting funds

for
Melak Ta'us.
They
also maintain the precepts
Books among the people. A curious

power attributed to them is the purification of clothes
This last seems to be a relic
lent them to wear.
in the Yezidi
of the idea of purification

(4)
by water.
The Faqirs (monks) or Mullas
(priests) are
also called Qarabashis (black-beards)
and Farrash
They
are servants
(shrine-sweepers, sacristans).
and shrine guardians, but often also mere wanderers.

These only marry within their Order, and
headed by a Kak (Persian, master, teacher).

There are also unmarried servants of Sheikh 'Adi's
are
shrine, both
male and female, forming a sub-order
of Faqirs, called respectively,
Shawash, who are in
charge of the tombs, Kabana, unmarried abbesses
A COMMENTARY
219
nuns of Sheikh 'Adi, and Fuqraiya

Faqir), unmarried attendant sisters.
in charge of the
(diminutive of
Besides the priestly Orders there

class of holy personages called
is
a special
Kochaks, or Kujaks.
They are nomadic and usually

mediums and miracle-workers.
hereditary seers,
They
and marry only within
are
not
their
class,
own
saints
whom they venerate, named Sheikh 'Adi,

Muhammad Rashan and Sheikh Mand.
Yezid,
circumcised,
which
is
The
really agricultural.
Orders hajre
priestly
their
This
seems to show that Sheikh 'Adi and Yezid were

saints before they
became promoted
In this category also

hereditary priest in
The
is
to
Ishaq (Isaac),
Heaven and
be gods.
who
is
the rain-bringer.
Yezidi hereditary hierarchy seems to be
run on the following
lines.
There
is
a head of
the whole tribe, called the Mir Hajj, the Prince of

the Pilgrimage,
or Mira.
there
His
come
and known also as the Mir, Amir
is
five
the chief family, and after that

families of
well as sacerdotal chiefs.
Sheikhs, political as
220
SACRED BOOKS
Though
the Yezidis have long been persecuted
by the surrounding Muslims as being "without a

Book," they are, in their own. estimation, Ahlu'lKitab (People with a Book), because they have
now " Books " in a secret kind of way, the antiquity
of which has, however, been doubted.
(1)
to
The Black Book, Mashafu'r-Rds
al-Hasan al-Basri in 1342,
is
attributed
a self -contradictory
jumble, containing a cosmogony attributing

Creation to the Angel Fakhru'ddin,
who apparently
had some of the powers of God (Khuda).

also that Sheikh 'Adi came from Syria to
It states
Lalishi,
the country round his shrine, and has a long

of
the
list
forbidden articles (tabus) arising out of the
general Yezidi beliefs.

(2)
tion
is
The Book
of Enlightenment and Revela-
attributed to Sheikh Fakhru'ddin, Secretary
to Sheikh 'Adi in 1162,
and
composed in honour
of Melak Ta'us, connecting him with the Sun, the
Moon and the Seven Angels or gods. This looks
as
if
it
had a Sabaean
is
(of
Harran) origin, but
A COMMENTARY
if,
as already noticed,
this
221
Fakhru'ddin
is
to
be
now worshipped at the chief

Kamush and representative of
held to be the hero

Yezidi shrine as
Fakhru'ddin of Kai in Tabaristan (1150-1220) there

is no anachronism.
He may, however, be a reminiscence of Fakhru'ddin (1572-1635), the celebrated
leader
(Emir)
the
of
Druses,
believed in metempsychosis (tanasukk).
be correct,
the Druses
it
is
may be remarked
who
Ghaliya
If
this
that the belief of
a mixture of Islam and Syrian (or
Nestorian) (Christianity.
The Poem
own praise.
(3)
his
of Sheikh 'Adi
It
is
a rhapsody in
expressly states that he
representative of the Deity to the Yezidis.

calls
himself
Syrian).
'Adi
ibn
Musafir
as-Shami
is
the
He
(the
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Journal of the Royal Geographical Society.
IX. F. FORBES.
^Nineveh and
its
Remains.
1849.
*Nestorians and their Rituals.
BADGER.
and Babylon.
* Nineveh
1853.
Vol.
I.
1839.
A. H. LAYARD.
Vol.
1852.
Vol.
G.
I.
P.
A. H. LAYARD.
Anthropos. 1911. Vol. VI. A. MARIE.

The Golden Bough. 1911. Vol. IV. J. G. FRAZER.
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
W.
t
~
1911.
B. HEARD.
To Mesopotamia and Kurdistan
in
Disguise.
1912.
E. B. SOANE.
The Cradle of Mankind.

WIGRAM.
1914.
W.
A. and E. T. A.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
1916.
Vol. II.
A. MINGANA.
Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies.
1917.
"
Part II.
Account of Religion of Yezidi
Vol.
II.
Kurds."
G. R. DRIVER.
Anthropos. 1918. Pp. 558-574. A. DIRR.

Devil Worship. 1919. I. JOSEPH.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 1921. A. MINGANA.
Secret Sects of Syria and the Lebanon.
1922.
B.
H.
SPRINGETT.
Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies.
1922. Vol. II.
"
Part II.
The Religion of the Kurds." G. R.
DRIVER.
223
224
Zoroaster, the Great Teacher.
1923.
B.
H. SPRINGETT.
By Tigris and Euphrates. 1923. E. S. STEVENS.

Amurath to Amurath. 1924. G. L. BELL.
The Heart of the Middle
Mosul and its Minorities.
Thro' the Gates of
Baghdad. 1925.
East.
1925.
1925.
R. COKE.
H. C. LUKE.
Memory: From
the
B. CUNLIFFE-OWEN.
Bosphorus
to
INDEX
INDEX
ABADIYA (sect), 73, 206
Abdu'1-Ahad Effendi, 116
Abdu'l-Kadir, Sheikh, 106
Abrik Shautha, 80, 184

Abubakr, Sheikh, 102, 198
Aclarbaijan, 37
'Adi ibn Musafir, Sheikh, passim
Ahmadia (sect), 187

Ahriman (spirit), 38, 74, 203
Ahura Mazda (spirit), 38
Ain Sifni (place), 56, 117, 133
Al-'Adawiya (sect), 179
Al-Daghi (tribe), 68
Al-Dakhi (tribe), 68
Aleppo, 41, 66, 107, 138
Al-Hawarij (sect), 35
'All Beg (chief), 89
'AH Beg (Mir), 92
'AH
'Ali,
(Caliph), 28
Sheikh, 146
'Aliyu'llahi (sect), 164

Al-jahilin (tribe), 31, 194
Al-Qaus (place), 68, in, 113
Altaian-Shamanism, 72
Amera (tribe), 69
Amu'ad (tribe), 67
Angra Mainyu
(spirit),
38
Ardeshir, 190
Arghun, King, 108

As-Sahrastani, Muhammadj 35, 73, 208
Assyrians, 45, 114
Avriva (place), 119
Azarika (sect), 35
227
224
Zoroaster, the Great Teacher.
1923.
B. H. SPRINGETT.
By Tigris and Euphrates. 1923. E. S. STEVENS.

Amurath to Amurath. 1924. G. L. BELL.
The Heart of the Middle East. 1925. R. COKE.
Mosul and its Minorities. 1925. H. C. LUKE.
Thro' the Gates of
Baghdad. 1925.
Memory: From
the Bosphorus to
B. CUNLIFFE-OWEN.
INDEX
INDEX
ABADIYA (sect), 73, 206
Abdu'1-Ahad Effendi, 116
Abdu'l-Kadir, Sheikh, 106
Abrik Shautha, 80, 184

Abubakr, Sheikh, 102, 198
Aclarbaijan, 37
'Adi ibn Musafir, Sheikh, passim
Ahmadia (sect), 187

Ahriman (spirit), 38, 74, 203
Ahura Mazda (spirit), 38
Ain Sifni (place), 56, 117, 133
Al-'Adawiya (sect), 179
AI-Daghi (tribe), 68
Al-Dakhi (tribe), 68
Aleppo, 41, 66, 107, 138
Al-Hawarij (sect), 35
'Ali Beg (chief), 89
'AH Beg (Mir), 92
'Ali (Caliph),
28
'AH, Sheikh, 146

'Aliyu'llahi (sect), 164
Al-jahilin (tribe), 31, 194
Al-Qaus
(place), 68,
in, 113
Altaian-Shamanism, 72
Amera (tribe), 69
Amu'ad (tribe), 67
Angra Mainyu
(spirit),
38
Ardeshir, 190
Arghun, King, 108

As-Sahrastani, Muhammad> 35, 73, 208
Assyrians, 45, 114
Avriva (place), 119
Azarika (sect), 35
227
INDEX
228
BAIBAN
(place), 56, 87,
114,
204
Ba
Idhra, 67, 100, 114, 133, 150

Bait-Far (place), 106
Bait-Khalad
69
(tribe),
Baghdad,
Bahram
78, 94
I, 191
Baluch (tribe), 52
Ba-qasra (place), 56
Baqtashis (sect), 163
(place), 92
Baquba
Bar-Kewani, Theodore, 35
Ba Sheikha
(place), 56, 67, 82, 137,
216
Basra, 44, no
Batinai (place), 113
Batwan Su
(river), 138
Ba'zani (place), 67, 82, 101, in, 216
Bedouin, 43
Belad (place), 67
Bell, Miss Gertrude, 107, 214
Beni-'Umaya (tribe), 104
Beristek (place), 117
Bharains, 169
Boktan (place), 66
Bombay, 38
Bukra (tribe), 68
CAR NICOBAR
(island), 166
Caucasus, 41, 67, 141

Chaldeans, 44
Chalka (tribe), 68
Choi Beg, 92
Ctesiphon, 71
DAHKA"N (place), 56
Dair Asi, 52, 188
Dairu'z-Z6r, 91
Da'is (priest), 169, 218
Damascus, 66
Dasni
(tribes), 68,
73
Da'ud al Da'ud, 95
Dera Ghazi Khan (district), 168
Derebun (place), 67
INDEX
De Vaux,
Carra, 207
Dhatmkal
(place), 169
229
Diarbekr, 55, 66, 138, 202

Dohuk (district), 67
Dunadi (tribe), 67
ECBATANA
Erlik
(place), 71
72
Esiyau (place), 117
Euphrates, 45
(spirit),
FAKHRU'DDfN,
8l, 84,
10$,
147, 149, 174,
l8l,
220
Fakhru'ddin ibn Qurqmas, 181
Fakhru'ddin, Sheikh, 149, 220
Faqir (priest), 53, 63, 98, 101, 218
Faqir (tribe), 68
Farik 'Umar Pasha, 91
Farrash (priest), 101, 218
Fuqraiya
(priest), 101,
219
GABARA (tribe), 68
Geli Hudaida (place), 119
(sect), 22
Gengis Khan, 105
Ghazi Miyan, 168
Giranjak (place), 86, 204
Gujranwala (district), 169
Gura Guza, 168
Ge-lug-pa
HADRAT DA'UD,
141, 192
Hafiz Pasha, 90
Haidi (tribe), 55
Hairo (place), 56
Hakkari (hills), 106
Halitiya (tribe), 55, 138, 202
Hallajiya (sect), 214
Hamo Shero, 61, 95, 167
Hasan al-Basri, Sheikh, 81, 96> 102, 141, 146,
174, 192, 198,
Hatara
(place), 56
Hauran
(district),
Havveri
(tribe),
68
220
107
INDEX
230
Hera (goddess), 134

Herat
(place), 81
Heska (tribe), 68
Hosaba (place), 56
Hubaba (tribe), 68
Huriya, 46
Husain, 92, 116
Husain ibn 'All, 28, 30, 194
Husain ibn Mansur, 78
Husain (Mir), 56, 89, 92
Huwari (tribe), 68
Huzran
(place), 56
Ibn HAZM, 36
Ibrik al-Asfar, 80, 184
Ikh.ti'ar-i-Margahi, 96, 217
Isma'il Bey, 92
JABRI (tribe), 68
Jackson, Prof. A. V. W., 43
Jaziratu-rUmar
(place), 138
Jebel Kand (hills), 113

Jebel Maklub (hills), 66
Jerehiya (place), 114
Jerusalem, 54
Jezira (district), 68
Jhang (district), 169
Jinnis,
46
Jowana
Jurhum
(tribe),
68
(tribe),
196
KA'BA, 28, 54, 197

Kabana, 101, 218
Kabbara
82
(place), 56,
Kadiri dervishes, 106
Kai (place), 81
Kaira Khan (spirit), 72
Kamush
(spirit), 81,
Kand, Jebel
(hills),
221
113
Kara Kirghiz (sect), 22

Kara Pahu (place), 56
Kashmir, 212
INDEX
Kasi
Ahmad
231
ibn Khallikan, 34, 106
Kasr'azu'ddin (place), 146
Katamuni (place), 91
Kazak (sect), 22
Kenwi Lash (valley), 106
Kharijite (sect), 73, 206
Kherraniya
Kherzan
Khokars
(tribe),
(place),
68
66
(sect), 1691
Kibartu (place), 56
Kiran (tribe), 68
Kitab al-Aswad, 146
Kuchak
Kuchar
(priest), 59,
63/99, I3
68
(tribes),
Kuyinjik (place), 89, 112

(sect), 167
Lasifarus
Lushai
MAGI
(spirit), 83,
(sect),
199
22
(sect,) 43, 71,
217
Mairi Khan, 102
Mai'yam Khanim, 93
Maklub, Jebel (hills), 66
Malik Miran, 45
Mallia (place), 138
Malta, 115
Mand, Sheikh, 82, 101, 216, 219
Mandasans, 207
Mandalay, 177
Mani, 70
Mansur al-Hallaj, 78, 108, 213
Maragha (place), 105
Mardi (sect), 42
Mardin (place), 138
Marie, Pere Anastase, 150
Mashaf Ras, 29, 146, 220
Mecca, 28, 54, 82, 108, 120
Medi (Mahdi), Sheikh, 85, 200
Medina, 28
Mendka
Midyat
(tribe),
68
(district),
67
2I 9
INDEX
232
Mihrka
(tribe
and
district), 67, 68,
95
Milik (place), 67, 95

Mir, 31, 92, 116, 185
Mirza Agha, 90, 164
Missuri (tribe), 67
Mori (clan), 136
Moskov, 138
Mosul (town), 89, 94, 108, 131, 141
Mosul (vilayet), 41, 66, 87
Mount Lalish, 108
Muhakkamah (sect), 35
Muhammad Amin al-'Umari,
Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad
107
as-Sahrastani, 35, 73, 208
Rashan, 101, 219

Reshid Pasha, 90
Mujawirs, 169
Mulla Haidar, 150
Mullas, 98, 218
Multan (place), 169

Murtaddun (sect), 32
Musafiru'd-din, King, 106
Mushrik
Musikan
36
(sect),
(place), 56
NAKIR and Nakir (spirits), 63, 101, 197, 204

Nasari (place), 87
Nasir, Sheikh, 56
Nasru'ddin, Sheikh, 84, 102, 198
Na'umi, 45
Nebi Unis (place), 112
Nicobar Islands, 166
Nicobarese, 162
Nigaha
(place), 169
Nineveh, 112
Nusairis (sect), 164
ORMAZD
(spirit),
38
Parsees, 38, 87, 204

Percy, Lord, 108, 128
Pesmir
(caste),
92
Pir (priest), 97, 217
INDEX
233
QARABASHIS, 98, 218
Qauwal
(priest), 51, 97, 104, 130, 218

Qizilbashis, 48, 163, 173
Quraishi (sect), 197

Qur'an, 28, 36, 165, 182, 199, 207
RAMAZAN, 50
Rashukan (tribe), 68
Redwan
(place), 55, 66, 90, 138, 164
Rowanduz, Bey
of, 89
Ruhsit (place), 87, 204
Ruhsit, Sheikh, 87, 204
SAB^EANS, 36, 44, 206
Sabur
and
II,
102, 190
Safar, 92
Sa'id Beg, 92, 116, 132
Sakhi Sarwar, 168

Salju'ddin, Sheikh,
Samaki
102,
198
67
Samukha (tribe), 68
(tribe),
Sanajiq (symbols), 29, 94, 115, 129, 137, 190

Santal (sect), 22
Sarahdar (province), 138

Sasanians, 190
Sayyid Ahmad, 169

Seistan (province), 39, 162, 210
Semil (place), 67, 146
Semiramis (goddess), 91, 164
Shahid Jayar, 47
Shahkot (place), 169
Shah Madar, 168
Shaman (priest), 72
Shams 'Ali Beg al-Farisi, Sheikh,
Shamsu'ddm, Sheikh
(spirit),
141, 174, 192, 198

Shapur I and II, 191
Sharafiya (place), 113

Sharafu'ddin ibn 'Adi, 105
Shawish (priest), 101

Sheikh Abdu'l-Kadir, 106
Sheikh Abubakr, 102, 198
81
53, 84,
102, 124,
INDEX
234
Sheikh 'Adi ibn Musafir, passim

Sheikh 'Adi (place), 55, 67, 81, 97, 204
Sheikh 'Ali, 146
Sheikhan (district and tribe), 62, 66, 92, 108
Sheikh Fakhru'ddin, 149, 220
Sheikh Hasan al-Basri, 81, 96, 102, 141, 146,
174, 192, 198, 220
Sheikh Mand, 82, 101, 216, 219
Sheikh Medi (Mahdi), 85, 200
Sheikh Nasir, 56
Sheikh Nasru'ddin, 84, 102, 198
Sheikh Ruhsit, 87, 204
Sheikh Salju'ddin, 102, 198
Sheikh Shams 'Ali Beg al-Farisi, 81
Sheikh Shamsu'ddin (spirit), 53, 84, 102, 124,
:
141, 174, 192, 198

Shi'a (sect), 28, 50, 74, 85, 165, 173, 200
Sikhim
(place), 22
Sinjar, 41, 44, 52, 66, 73, 91, 138, 151, 188, 209
Sitt Nasiba, 181
Sohrani
(tribe),
67
Stratford, Lord, 90
Sunni (sect), 30, 165
TABAR! ibn 'Unaissa, 36

Tammtiz, 134, 175, 184
Tarhoya (tribe), 82, 178
Teheran, 66
Tehuelche Indians, 22
Tel Kaif, 113
Tel Uskof, 100, 113
Thagya Nat, 176

Tiflis,
67
Tigris, 78, 138
Tuluvas (sect), 161

Turkish Army, 91
ULEK! (tribe), 68
'Umar Bey, 91
Uramiah, 39
VAISHNAVA
(sect),
200
INDEX
235
.Van, Lake, 41
Varthema, 172
WETNHIYON
(sect), 27, 197
YAsiN AL-HATIB AL-'UMAR!,
Yezd
Yezd
Yezid
Yezid
Yezid
Yezid
no
(place), 39
(province), 39, 157, 210

Far far (spirit), 34, 157, 203
ibn Abi Sufian, 195, 206
ibn Mu'awiya, passim

ibn 'Unaissa (Yezid ibn Abi Anisa), 35,
206
Yezidiyas (sect), 206
ZAID ibn 'Ubaissa,
36,
206
ZainuTabidin, 169
Zakho (district), 68
Zarvanites, 38
Zaza (tribe), 174
Zednaya
(tribe),
Zemzem,
82, 108, 125,
104
216
Zoroaster, 37, 50, 78, 83, 87

Zoroastrians, 39, 84, 157, 204
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THE CULT OF THE

IMAGE OF THE PEACOCK

THE CULT OF THE

SHORT ACCOUNT Q&

RICHARD CARNAC TEMPLE,

HON! VICE-PRES. R.A.S.

ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

THE CULT OF THE

RICHARD CARNAC TEMPLE,

HON. VICE-PRES. R.A.S.

ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

HIGH HOLBORN, W.C.

Printed for Messrs. //. ^\

the outcome of curiosity aroused in myself

strongholds and amplified

by a little research amongst the existing literature

origin of these remarkable people

being so far removed from the march of

a study of the Yezidis

Peacock Angel, are unable

must, therefore, suffice for us to

religion has survived the vicissitudes of

CULT OF THE PEACOCK ANGEL

and, although the numbers of the

Yezidis have lately been

reduced, their faith

conflict of the claims of three

of the great world religions which surround them.

completed at Baghdad, and

came across a most

book by Dr. Isya Joseph on the same

the chapter dealing with the origin of these tribes

of the theories already

His own contention

writer's careful analysis

evidently the result of

represents a steel figure (originally in three pieces)

plinth, partly inlaid

with antimony on the body and the

and ornamented with human and animal

The image, which

have been used by the Yezidi tribes of the district

Museum by Mr. Imre

presented to the British

Schwaiger of Calcutta in 1912. It is reproduced

one shown appears facing page 39 of Anthropos,

Pere Anastase Marie, entitled,

recente des deux livres sacres des Yezidis."

Reshid Pasha in 1837.

a few years later to a rich

only of this peacock

one of four stolen by

antique shop in Baghdad, kept by a

of slightly different design.

have heard of only two other symbols, outside

One is now in the possession of

thank Mr. Kenneth MacKenzie, Mr.

T. Spencer James and Mr. E. N. Fallaize for

CULT OF THE PEACOCK ANGEL