volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

227
Appendix.
Note on the YazIdIs.
The Yazidis, popularly but erroneously called "devilworshippers,"
claim to be descended from the immediate
foUowers of Shekh 'Adi, who came from the coimtry
round about Aleppo and settled at Lelash,^ to the northeast
of Mosul ; he died in the third quarter of the twelfth
century, and his tomb may be seen at Beth 'Adhrai'
or Ba 'Idhri. The Kitab al-Jilwah, the sacred book of
the Yazidis, is said to have been written by him. The
name "Yazidi" is, according to some, connected with
the name of the Khalifah Yazld ibn Mu'awiyah, who
died A.D. 683, and according to others with " YazdSn,"
the Persian name of God ; those who hold the latter
opinion regard the Yazidis as " worshippers of God."
The book JUwah says there are seven gods, each of
whom rules the tmiverse for 10,000 years. One of these
gods is Malak Ta'us% and he is identified with Lucifer,
the prince of those in heaven who rebelled against God.
Images are made of him in the form of a copper bird,*
very much like a cock,^ and the Yazidis praise and
1 See Yakut, iv, p. 374, who does not give the vowels.
^ See Yaljut, ii, p. 690 ; Ibn al-Athir, ii, p. 251.
' I.e., " Messenger Peacock."
* Such an image is commonly called " Sanjak " ; and there are
seven of these images in all.
^ " The figure is that of a bird, more resembling a cock than any
other fowl, with a swelling breast, diminutive head, and wide-spreading
taU. The body is full, but the tail flat and fluted, and under the
throat is a small protuberance, intended perhaps to represent a wattle.
This is fixed on the top of a candlestick, round which are two lamps,
placed one above the other, and each containing seven burners, the
upper being larger than the under. The whole is of brass, and so
constructed that it may be taken to pieces and put together with
the greatest ease." See the drawing which Badger appends to this
description (Nestoriuns, i, p. 125).
q 2