Yezidi Religious Belief and Practice

Source: Encyclopaedia Iranica

Contemporary Yazidism is a religion of orthopraxy. Practice, in terms of careful adherence to rules governing all aspects of life, is more important than the role of scriptural text, dogma and professions of personal belief. Two key and interrelated features of Yazidism are: a) a preoccupation with religious purity and b) a belief in metempsychosis. The first of these is expressed in the system of caste, the food laws, the traditional preferences for living in Yazidi communities, and the variety of taboos governing many aspects of life. The second is crucial; Yazidis traditionally believe that the Seven Holy Beings (see below) are periodically reincarnated in human form, called a ḵāṣsá. Not only does this reinforce the caste system, as the members of the dominant religious castes are the descendants of the most recent manifestations of the Holy Beings in Shaikh ʿAdi and his companions, but it also provides a mechanism for syncretism, as figures from other traditions can be said to be earlier manifestations of the ḵāṣsá. A belief in the reincarnation of lesser Yazidi souls also exists; like the Ahl-e Ḥaqq, the Yazidis use the metaphor of a change of garment to describe the process, which they call kirās gehorrin, ‘changing the shirt.’ Alongside this, Yazidi mythology also includes descriptions of heaven and hell, and other traditions attempting to reconcile these ideas with the belief system of reincarnation.

In the Yazidi worldview, God created the world, which is now in the care of a Heptad of seven Holy Beings, often known as ‘Angels’ or haft serr (the Seven Mysteries.) Pre-eminent among these is Ṭāʾus-ē Malak or Malak Ṭāʾus, the Peacock Angel, who is equated with Satan by outsiders. Most Yazidis find this identification highly offensive; however, it is clear that Malak Ṭāʾus is an ambiguous figure. The Ketēbā Jelwa ‘Book of Illumination” which claims to be the words of Malak Ṭāʾus, and which presumably represents Yazidi belief (see below), states that he allocates responsibilities, blessings and misfortunes as he sees fit and that it is not for the race of Adam to question him. The Yazidi taboo against the word Šaiṭān, and on words containing š and t/ṭ that might (to their ears) recall it, may indicate some perceived connection between this figure and Malak Tāʾus. The reasons for the connection remain unclear. Although some Sufi traditions have presented Satan as a redeemed or holy figure, Shaikh ʿAdi b. Mosāfer was apparently orthodox on the matter. However, pre-Islamic Zoroastrian tradition indicates some link between Ahriman and the peacock, and this ambiguity may predate Islam. Yazidi accounts of creation, which have much in common with those of the Ahl-e Ḥaqq state that the world created by God was at first ‘a pearl’. It remained in this very small and enclosed state for some time (often a magic number such as forty or forty thousand years) before being remade in its current state; during this period the Heptad were called into existence, God made a covenant with them and entrusted the world to them. It has been suggested, on the evidence of pre-Zoroastrian Iranian cosmogony and its similarity to Yazidi cosmogonies, that if the Yazidis’ ancestors venerated a benign demiurge who set the world (in its current state) in motion, the role of this figure may have become ambiguous when they came into contact with Zoroastrians, whose cosmogony was essentially similar, but whose demiurge was Ahriman, who polluted the world. Thus Yazidism would be, not a form of Zoroastrianism, but a religion possessing an Iranian belief-system akin to it.

Besides Malak Ṭāʾus, members of the Heptad (the Seven), who were called into existence by God at the beginning of all things, include Shaikh Ādi, his companion Shaikh Ḥasan, and a group known as the ‘four Mysteries’, Šamsadin, Faḵradin, Sajādin and Nāṣerdin. These latter, according to oral tradition, were the sons of an Ēzdinā Mir, whom Shaikh Ādi met at Lāleš. All these figures are eponyms of clans of Ādāni shaikhs (see below); in Yazidi accounts of the cosmogony they tend to have other names, and they are also identified in other incarnations, such as Ḥasan al-Bāṣri as an incarnation of Shaikh Ḥasan. Not all listings of the Seven are identical; sometimes, for instance, Shaikh Ādi himself is identified with Malak Ṭāʾus, and Shaikh Obakr is added.

The ḵāṣṣ and other holy beings are the focus of frequent veneration. The Heptad, under the names of the families of Shaikh Ādi and his companions, are objects of devotion, but so also are numerous lesser figures, also usually eponyms of clans of shaikhs or pirs (see below), who are requested for help on practical matters. Shaikh Mand, for instance, is believed to cure snakebites, and his descendants may handle snakes safely; the family of Pir Jarwān has power over scorpions. A female figure, Ḵātuna Faḵra, is associated with help in childbirth. Help from such beings may be sought by consultation with their descendants, or by veneration of a sacred site associated with them–occasionally a tomb, but more often a shrine consisting of a room with a spire, a small votive altar, a sacred tree, or a pool or cave. Many people who know little of the higher-status sacred texts make offerings at such places. Some of these cults appear to be very localized, but others are respected by members of other religions, and Yazidis also solicit help from local saints associated with other religions, especially Christianity.