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Abstract
Yezidi mišūrs are one of the rarest written sources on the history and religion of the Yezidis. The special value of mišūrs is that Yezidism is characterized mainly by the oral transmission of religious tradition. The article provides an overview and a description of the four versions of Mišūr of P’īr Sīnī Bahrī/P’īr Sīnī Dārānī (Mişûr of Pîr Sînî Behrî/Pîr Sînî Daranî), one of which is thought to be produced in 604/1207 or 1208, making it one of the earliest sources of Yezidi history and religion. A collaborative version of the document is presented based on these four versions. Yezidi mišūrs belong to certain lineages of P’īrs and represent certificates of recognition of those lineages and those Yezidi tribes that were attributed to them as Murids. The manuscript that is examined here is rich in historical data related to the establishment of the Yezidi community. The document also lists the tribes that today are not Yezidi. Furthermore, the mišūr identifies a number of previously unknown followers and associates of Sheikh ‘Adi. This data will be instrumental in identifying various features of Yezidism in its formative age.
Notes
1 Allison, The Yezidi Oral Tradition; Spät, “Religious Oral Tradition”; Kreyenbroek, Yezidism—its Background.
2 About the Yezidis sees Allison, “The Yazidis.”
3 Qawals—The separate group of preachers belonging to the cast of Murids within the Yezidi community. The traditional place of settlement of Yezidi Qawals is Bašīq and Bahzān (Iraq).
4 Kreyenbroek, Yezidism—its Background; Omarkhali, The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition, 79–109.
5 About mišūrs see Silēmān, “Mišūrat al-yazīdiyat”; Omarkhali, The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition, 58‒66, 377‒98; Kreyenbroek and Rashow, God and Sheikh Adi are Perfect, 43; Omarkhali, “Jezidiskaja religioznaja pis’mennaja literatura,” 179–80; Omarkhali, “Current Changes in the Yezidi System,” 70; Kreyenbroek, Yezidism in Europe, 99; Allison, “Addressivity and the Monument: Memorials,” 180.
6 Gordlevskij, Izbrannie sočinenija, 41, 42, 169.
7 Bjorkman, Beitrage Zur Geschichte, 51.
8 Roger Lescot, in the annex to his book, gives a copy of the manuscript, which very probably can be defined as mišūr; however he did not call this document a mišūr, but “le diplôme d'initiation de Pîr … ” (Lescot, Les Yezidis de Syrie, 225). P’īr Xidir Silēman and Khanna Omarkhali, who published Mišūr of P’īr Xatīb Pisī (see further), also did not draw an analogy between Yezidi mišūrs and “manšūrs” or “manāšīr.”
9 Kurmanji—Northern dialect of Kurdish language spoken by the vast majority of Yezidis.
10 Omarkhali, “On the Structure of the Yezidi Clan.”
11 P'īr (Persian—“old man,” “elder”) in the context of the period under consideration—the widespread Persian title for the Sufi master. According to Armando Salvatore, it was P'īrs who somewhat smoothed out the globalizing tendencies occurring through Sufism and they “were particularly determined, in tune with newly emerging regional courts, to set aside the use of scholastic Arabic to the advantage of the vernacular languages of the regions where they operated and traveled. The result was the production of a transregional and translatable core Sufi lexicon and set of memories, also reflecting more localized, oral traditions of storytelling and other popular genres.” See Salvatore, “Sufi Articulations of Civility,” 161.
12 Kreyenbroek and Rashow, God and Sheikh Adi Are Perfect, 102.
13 At one time zikāt represented some sort of tithing system among Yezidis.
14 See Arakelova, “Book Review: Kh. R. Omarkhali,” 199.
15 On sacred places at Yezidi homes, especially at the places of representatives of Yezidi religious casts living far away from Lalish, see also Melkumyan, “Informal Shrines,” 178.
16 Omarkhali, Jezidizm: Iz Glubiny Tysjačeletij, 148–9.
17 Kreyenbroek, Yezidism in Europe, 28.
18 Allison, “Addressivity and the Monument: Memorials,” 161.
19 Omarkhali, The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition, 58, 60; Omarkhali, “Jezidiskaja religioznaja pis’mennaja literatura,” 179.
20 Even though this is widely known we would like to refer to her work. See Omarkhali, Jezidizm: Iz Glubiny Tysjačeletij, 164, 169–72.
21 Silēmān, “Mišūrat al-yazīdiyat,” 95–113; Silēmān, Sifr al-izidiya, 5–24.
22 Joseph, “Yezidi Texts,” 147–9; al-Damluji, Al-yazidiya, 89–95. al-Damlujī reports that he copied this Qasīdā from a manuscript kept in the family of a Yezidi Sheikh of the lineage of Sheikh Hassan (Šēx H’asan, Şīkhsin, Šēxisin) in Sinjar. He also maintains that this Qasīdā was earlier published in English by Badger (al-Damluji, Al-yazidiya, 89–95).
23 Badger, The Nestorians and Their Rituals, 113–15; Joseph, Devil Worship, 70–72; Guest, The Yezidis, 204–6; Guest, Survival Among the Kurds, 212–14; Layard, Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, pp. 74–6; Joseph, “Yezidi Texts (Continued),” 241–2; Frayha, “New Yezīdī Texts from Beled Sinjār, ‘Iraq,” (partly). Moreover, in 1853–54 an Arabic text of the Qasīdā was published with its German translation: Ewald, “Die erste schriftliche Urkunde der Jezidäer,” 1853, 212–18; 1854, 149–50 (this work by H. Ewald was given to us by a reviewer).
24 Yusif, “Dīrasat bī xisūs.”
25 Omarkhali, The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition, 61–3, 377–98.
26 This family emigrated from the settlement of Hamduna of the Bisheri region (Kurtalan) in Turkey. Below we will offer some notes about the P’īr Sīnī Bahrī family.
27 Sheikh Mīrza Silēman is from the lineages of Šēxisin of the village of Srēčka in Alqosh (Nineveh Plains). The lineage of Šēxisin was the leader of the Yezidis and their members were in charge of carrying out office work for the Yezidi community, they were responsible for a kind of notarial work. For example, only they are entitled to register marriages. This lineage is called Šēxē qalamē, which means “sheikhs of the pen,” i.e. letters. Representatives of this lineage are Peshimams (Pēšīmam). Peshimam of Margah plays a major role in liturgy and worship. He is a member of the SSC. On Peshimam see also Kreyenbroek, Yezidism—Its Background, 127–8. Representative of thelineage of Šēxisin, the direct ancestors of Sheikh Mīrza Silēman produced two previous copies of the considered mišūr.
28 Dirōzga (more correctly—dirōza)—liturgical text containing a list of Yezidi saints. J̌alīl and J̌alīl, Zargotina kurda, 394.
29 Nisba—Arab. attribution. An adjective indicating the person’s place of origin. Tribal affiliation or ancestry, used at the end of the name.
30 Omarkhali, The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition, 63; Omarkhali, “Jezidiskaja religioznaja pis’mennaja literatura,” 180.
31 This view was confirmed by members of the SSC in conversation with the authors of this article.
32 Peshimam of Margah, Sheikh Faruq Khalil of Bašīq confirmed this to us.
33 As a rule inscriptions on mišūr seals identify names of saints from whom originate lineages of the copyist and the witnesses, since they are considered to be their vicars (wak’īl). For example, the name of Sheikh Hassan could have been identified on the seal of the Peshimam.
34 Frank, Scheich ‘Adi, 124.
35 The authors of this article express their profound gratitude to Peshimam of Margah, Sheikh Faruq Khalil of Bašīq, the member of the SSC for consultations in the process of restoring of the mišūr text. Margah is the traditional name for the territory where Lalish is located.
36 According to Sheikh Mīrza Silēman, the real name of their ancestor is Sheikh Sālīm, was not Muslīm, but because of the hostile environment they also used the form Muslīm.
37 It should be noted that, although many Yezidi tribes became Kurdish-Muslim through the conversion to Islam, there were also some Yezidi tribes which adopted Arabic and Turkoman identities. For instance, in Sinjar there is a large Yezidi tribe of Habābān. In the neighborhood of Tal Afar there are Turkic-speaking representatives of the same tribe. Also in the Baaǰ region, there is a branch of the Arab tribe ofǰāhēš, who are considered to be split off from a Yezidi tribe, and in Sinjar, there is a large Yezidi tribe of Mandikī, some members of which converted to Islam in the nineteenth century and became Kurdish-Muslim.
38 Omarkhali, The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition, 72.
39 Van Bruinessen, “Book Review: Khanna Omarkhali,” 157.
40 Qadībilbān or Qadīb al-Bān al-Mūsilī is one of the famous Yezidi saints, a companion of Sheikh ‘Adi. A native of the city of Mosul, where there was a shrine, “mazar,” in his honor. Eventually, the shrine was turned into a mosque (however, the architectural style of Yezidi temples was preserved), and in 2014 this mosque was destroyed by ISIL militants. Representatives of this lineage still live in Georgia and Armenia. One family lived in Derabun (Zakho). The full name of the saint is Ābu Abdāllah ībn Hussaīn ībn'sa ībn Jāhjā ībn Abdāllāh (471–573/1078–1195). He was one of the famous saints and died in Mosul (al-Damlūji, Al-yazidiya, 45; Nibhanī, Jamīah’ karamat al-aūlīa, 19–26). Silēmān, referring to Said al-Diwaǰi, cites another version of the name—Ābu Abdāllah ībn'sa ībn al-Xidr al-Hassanī al-Mūsilī (Silēmān, Sifr al-izidiya, 14). For more information about the lineage of Qadībilbān on the territory of the former USSR, see (Pirbari, Yezidy Sarhada, 87).
41 Hasn Mamān (Hasn ibn Mam) was one of the close associates of Sheikh ‘Adi, who was the P'īr of forty P'īrs and the head of P'īrs. According to the Yezidi tradition, he was the ruler of Harir (not far from Erbil), who left worldly life and became a disciple of Sheikh ‘Adi. In the list of forty companions he is mentioned second after Mahmařašān (Muhammad ibn Řaš).
42 Mamē-Šivān (Mamšivān)—one of the Yezidi saints, the founder of the Mamšivān lineage of P'īrs. According to Yezidi sources, there were two brothers—Mamšivān and Ābd ār-Rāhmān. There is speculation that the P'īrs of Mamē-Šivān are in fact descendants of Abd ār-Rāhmān, whose son was adopted by Mamšivān, who was childless. Not far from Dohuk, there was the village of Mamē-Šivān, where representatives of this clan lived. There is also a shrine in honor of Mamšivān. Representatives of this lineage of P'īr s can be found in Iraq, Georgia, and Armenia.
43 P’īr Abū Tahir—it can be assumed that this is P'īr Būtar, the father of the Yezidi saint Xatīb Pisī (Xatīb), from which the lineage of Xatīb Pisī originated.
44 Dod Harūnan—possibly the same Dod that is mentioned in Qawlē P'īr Daūd (Kreyenbroek and Rashow, God and Sheikh Adi are Perfect, 127–30; Pirbari and Ščedrovitskij, Tajna žemčužiny, 207–11).
45 Sīn Laxr—we assume that he is a Yezidi saint, the founder of the lineage of P'īrē Sīnaxalī, which survived only in Georgia. It is a very rare lineage of P'īrs with only three families.
46 Daūd Xandaqī—there is no information about this person. However,along with nisba, Xandaqī was later one of the forty associates of Sheikh Hassan, known as Mahmūd Xandaqī.
47 Hereinafter, explanations are not given about people for whom there is no information.
48 P'īr J̌ara—it is possible that this is the name of the famous P'īr Jarwa, who is considered a P'īr of Sheikh ‘Adi. It is written incorrectly in the mišūr.
49 ʿAbd al-Qādir Gīlānī (al-Jīlānī) (1077–1166)—a famous preacher and theologian, a Sufi sheikh. According to the Yezidi tradition, ʿAbd al-Qādir visited Sheikh ‘Adi to see the Karamat—that is wonders performed by him (Aloian, Religious and Philosophical Ideas of Shaikh Adi, 53, 78). In one of the main Arabic sources about the life of Gīlānī, which contains information about him and his friends, a separate chapter is devoted to Sheikh ‘Adi. The chapter provides information about Sheikh ‘Adi told by his students (Sheikh Umar Qūbaysī, Muhammad ben Raš, who became the founder of the P’īr lineages of Ismail al-Tunīsī, etc.). Sheikh ‘Adi was one of the most respected dervishes and ʿAbd al-Qādir greatly appreciated and respected him (al-Hanbalī, Qalā’id al-Jawāhir, 85). The Yazidi tradition says that Sheikh ‘Adi and ʿAbd al-Qādir Gīlānī met at the place where the Yezidi town of Sheikhan—the center of the Yezidi principality—is located and the town takes its name from this encounter. In Arabic Sheikhan means “two sheikhs,” i.e. place of two sheikhs.
50 Ahmad ībn 'Alī ar-Rīfā’ī—the founder of one of the famous Sufi tarikats.
51 One of the Sufi sheikhs, referred to in the Yezidi holy text “Qawlē Šīxādī ū mērā” (“The Legend of Sheikh Adī and Holy Men”). He is also mentioned among the forty Baghdad sheikhs who came to Lalish to find evidence of his holiness and karamat. Roger Lescot writes that Abū 'l-Wafā al-Hulwanī and' Uqail al-Manbījī lived together in the Hakkari mountains before the arrival of Sheikh ‘Adi (Lescot, Les Yezidis de Syrie, 32, 231; Aloian, Religious and Philosophical Ideas of Shaikh Adi, 53, 78).
52 Qasīdā “Haj ǰānā” is performed only during the Yezidi holidays, immediately after Qawlē Mākē and is an integral part of this Qawl.
53 Sad and Had—laws, restrictions, and regulations.
54 Člaxāna—in general, a place of Yezidi solitude during the forty-day fasting.
55 From this perspective, it would be interesting to get acquainted with earlier versions of mišūrs, which we have not yet been able to do.
56 Arakelova, “K istorii formirovanija ezidskoj obščiny,” 63. We would like to add that, as the reviewer noted to us, the most important work on the subject is a PhD dissertation by Khalid Faraj Al-Jabiri (“Stability and Social Change in Yezidi Society,” University of Oxford, 1981). However, this work is not available to us. In addition, we would like to mention a very important new work on this subject, and also on Yezidism in general. We could only read the introduction and table of contents; however, it is obvious that this work makes a significant contribution to the study of Yezidism (Shihatat, “Al-yazidiya”).
57 Without devoting too much attention to it, we would like to tackle this issue. On the whole the influence of Sufism on early Yezidism is quite obvious and we can trace it even through the biography of Sheikh ‘Adi. We are not inclined to exaggerate the extent of this influence, because, as Ilia Petruševskij writes: “The mystical movements that appeared in different religions give the impression of being very similar to each other,” which “is explained not so much by borrowings as by the general paths of internal development of religious ideologies and conditions of feudal societies” (Petruševskij, Islam v Irane, 310). At the same time, while studying the issues related to borrowings from Sufism, we should also keep in mind that “mystics very often did not pay much attention to the external forms of religion (whether it was Muslim, Christian, etc.) and rituals, because of this they sometimes caused suspicious and even hostile attitude on the part of official religious authorities” (ibid., 310–11). This is a rather important proposition. It suggests that when analyzing various elements of mysticism in the Yezidi religion it is not always necessary to reduce the question to the search for a source of direct origin, which is about mechanical borrowing. Even if such elements continue to exist in the Sufi tradition, it is necessary to keep in mind that we are talking about the period when Sufism as a mystical movement was not definitively institutionalized in Islam.
58 Taking into account the topic under consideration, we will limit ourselves only to mentioning some Islamic (Arabic) vocabulary and Sufi concepts that have become firmly established in the Yezidi religious tradition.
59 It is also known that some other verses from the Koran are used in Yezidism, for example Ajat al-K'ūrsī. At the same time, it is remarkable that the Yezidi clergy perceives these verses as pre-Islamic.
60 So, Sheikh ‘Adi is mentioned directly as the Murid-disciple of Sheikh Aqil. According to the Yezidi tradition regarding the miraculous appearance of Sheikh ‘Adi, both Sheikh Aqil and Sheikh Muslim came to worship him when he was still in the womb. They were waiting for the appearance of surr, the mystical power of God. And when he turned seven, they came once again to honor him (al-Hanbalī, Qalā’id al-Jawāhir, 89).
61 Gramlich, “Abū Sulaymān ad-Dārānī,” 22 (we found this work thanks to the reviewer).
62 Knysh, Islamic Mysticism, 36–39.
63 One of the early Sufis and one of the first to use the image of the Houri in his stories (Bertel’s, Izbrannie Trudy, 100). He was a a follower and disciple of the very important person for the Yezidi tradition—al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī. See also Knysh, Islamic Mysticism, 16–18; Knysh, “ʿAbd al-Wāḥid b. Zayd.”
64 Hecî, Bawerî û mîtologiya êzdiyan, 333.
65 In view of the fact that Sham is indicated as the place of origin in the manuscript, it is likely that the nisba may be associated with Darayya in the Damascus region. At the same time, our assumption of its connection with the mystical movement of the students of Abu Sulayman al-Dārānī, who acted in Damascus (Knysh, Islamic Mysticism, 36–8) should be quite acceptable.
66 Arakelova, “Notes on the Yezidi Religious Syncretism,” 24, 28.
67 Dhul-Nun al Misri (796–859) is one of the earliest representatives of Egyptian ascetics and mystics.
68 Maruf Karkhi (750/760–815/820)—Abu Mahfuz Maruf Ibn Firuz al-Karkhi is one of the great sheikhs in Sufism.
69 The name Daoud Tikhumi is found in the list of forty companions of Sheikh ‘Adi. However, we suspect that here Daud Thumi may be understood as Dawud Tai (Abu Solaiman Dawud ibn Nosair al-Ta’i) (died between 777 and 782)—one of the famous dervishes, considered a teacher of Maruf Karkhi.
70 Bahlul Majnun (died 809)—one of the characters of Yezidi Qawls and parables, an Arabic holy fool, a dervish, who glorified himself with courage and wit.
71 Abū Yazīd Ṭayfūr b. ʿĪsā b. Surūshān al-Bisṭāmī (al-Basṭāmī) (804–74)—a famous Persian dervish.
72 Kreyenbroek, Yezidism, 111, 112, 132.
73 Lescot, Les Yezidis de Syrie, 267.
74 al-Damlūji, Al-yazidiya, 45.
75 An important center of Yezidism. Located in nahiya Bašīqa of qaza Mosul (Nineveh Governorate)
76 In some mišūrs, it is listed as P’īr Būb Barzanī. The question of the twofold writing of the nisba (Bahzanī, Barzanī), indicating his place of residence or origin, requires further study.
77 In 2014, ISIS blew up this shrine, but D. Pirbari has a photo with this inscription. After the liberation of Bahzān, Yezidis restored it.
78 Pirbari, Yezidy Sarhada, 79–82.
79 Here we used the method that Omarkhali applied when publishing the manuscript of the Mišūr of P'īr Xatīb Pisī (Omarkhali, The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition, 377–98).
80 As we noted earlier, some small shabby pieces of paper could not be assembled and P’īr Khēro recorded the pieces of the mišūr that could not be glued together. He recorded this text separately. al-Āmāwī (Arabic. الاموي ) is a nisba that indicates belonging to the Umayyad family.
81 See footnote 80.
82 Tāsbīh (Arabic تسبیح )—pronouncing the praise of God.
83 Āwrād (wyrd, from Arabic. ورد )—reciting prayers at a certain time and regularly praising the names of God.
84 Zīkr (from Arabic ذكر )—meditative praise and utterance of God’s name by Dervishes.
85 Tārīqā (from Arabic طریقة ) is the path, the method of mystical knowledge of God.
86 Hīdāya (from Arabic. ھدایة ) means to lead someone to a specific goal.
87 Īršād (from Arabic. ارشاد )—the task in the form of prayers and praise God, which gives the teacher (sheikh or feast) to his Murid.
88 Sāwm (from Arabic. صوم )—fasting.
89 Salāt (from Arabic. صلاة )—daily obligatory prayers.
90 Haǰ (from the Arabic)—hajj, an order to make a pilgrimage.
91 Zikāt (from Arabic. زكاة ) is a duty to give a donation, alms every year.
92 Numerous tribes, found in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Armenia, and Georgia. Part of this tribe remained adherent to the Yezidi religion, the other part converted to Islam. Today, the P’īrs of one part of the Rašī tribe are P’īrs from the lineage of P'īr Īsēbīā, and the Sheikhs are the Sheikhs of Šēxūbakr, while for the other part of this tribe there is the P'īrs of P'īr Dawūdē bin Dārmān, and the Sheikhs are Xatūnā Faxrā. It should be noted that part of the Rašī tribe is also known by the name of its village Daūdī (in the Diyarbakır region), which has almost turned into an ethnonym.
93 The word “tribe” in the text is referred to as qabīl.
94 Tribes about which we have no information have no explanation.
95 Aqonisī or Anqosī is a tribe belonging to the tribal union of Xāltān. Now their P’īrs are P’īrē Īsēbīa, and the Sheikhs are Šēxūbakr. Only for one kind of Anqosī—immigrants from the Van region and living in Tbilisi—the P’īrs are P’īr Bū.
96 Included in the union of the tribes of Sīpkī and are now living in Armenia, Georgia, and Russia. In Iraq, there is also a part of the Stūrkī tribe, but since they are fakirs (monks), the word fakir eclipsed their tribal name. Stūrkī is also mentioned in the Mišūr of P'īr Xatīb Pisī. It must be said that for Stūrkān in Armenia and Georgia, P'īr Bad represents their P'īrs.
97 Interestingly, in Syria, in the Afrin region, Yezidi villages are concentrated in three districts—in the Shikak region, Guma region, and Sherew region (Maisel, Yezidis in Syria, 19). It is clear that in the Shikak region the main population is the Šhikaks tribe (now all Muslims). Not far from Shikak region in the village Kefer Zeyd (Guma Region) live the representatives of the P’īr Bahrī lineage, in their Mišūr Šhikaks are inscribed. However, Šhikaks are also included in the Mišūr of P’īr Xatīb Pisī (Silēmān, Sifr al-izidiya, 22; Omarkhali, The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition, 62, 383). This circumstance can be explained by historical changes, or later corrections.
Thus, now a very large tribe of Muslim Kurds Šikak in northwestern Iran comes from the said Yezidi tribe Šikak. It is noteworthy that the dialect of Yazidis of Sarhad (a region that included Kars, Van, Bayazid, and Alashkert), now living in the territory of the former USSR, is most similar to the dialect spoken by Afrin in Syria and the Maku region in Iran. The fact that many Kurdish tribes in northern Syria and adjacent parts of Turkey were Yezidis was also written by Martin van Bruinessen (“Religion in Kurdistan,” 11). Not by chance, there are still dozens of sacred places for Yezidis (ziyaret) (“Serdana ziyaretên Kurdên Êzidî li Efrînê hatiye qedexekirin” [In Afrin banned visiting Kurdish Yezidis’s shrines], http://www.rudaw.net/kurmanci/kurdistan/100820181).
On the resettlement of the Yezidis in the Aleppo area and Afrin before the beginning of the Syrian crisis in 2011 and the occupation of Afrin by the pro-Turkish forces in 2018, see informative reports of Rûdaw: “Nasnameya Kurdên Êzidî di metirsiyê de ye” [Yezidi Kurds identity under threat], August 7, 2018, http://www.rudaw.net/kurmanci/kurdistan/0708201811; “Rewşa Kurdên Êzidî yên li Efrînê di çi halê de ye?” [What is the situation of the Yezidi Kurds in Afrin?], April 29, 2018, https://www.facebook.com/kurmancirudaw/videos/1734925546561716/
98 Bahrāvān—this tribe can be found in Armenia, Georgia, and Russia. It is divided into four branches: Čilxanǰarī, Pirpirīkī, Čamī, and Šamī. For the first three P'īrs are P'īr Bū, and Sheikhs are Xatūnā Faxrā, while for Šāmīyān, respectively, they are P'īr Bahrī and Šēxūbakr. Part of this tribe can be found in Turkey in the Mardin region, in the village of Avgewr. They have all become Muslims.
99 They live in Armenia and Georgia and belong to the Xāltān tribal union. Today, their P’īrs are the P’īrs of the Hassan Mamān family.
100 A large tribal union of Yezidi tribes, whose habitat was the land between Diyarbakir, Batman, Hasankeyf, and Siirt (Bidlisi, Šaraf-name, 83, 248, 261, 262, 317). This tribe is divided into many smaller tribes.
101 Mamkan—a large tribe, in the Beshiri Region (Batman) of Turkey, which has been completely converted to Islam.
102 Pēdayān—Pēdaī or Bēdaī, now live in Iraq in the village of Dokhata. Now their P’īr is P’īr Afāt.
103 Īsīyān (Ēsīyān)—this tribe is now unknown. There is a settlement Ēsīyān in Sheikhan, it is possible that once this tribe inhabited that settlement.
104 Large Yezidi tribe in Armenia and Georgia. Now the P’īrs of this tribe are P’īrs of Īsēbīya and, for another part, Qadībilbān.
105 Currently one of the smallest Yezidi tribes. They live only in Armenia, Georgia, and Russia.
106 This tribe can be found in Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Georgia, and Russia.
107 Dāsinān (dāsinī) was once a powerful Yezidi tribe. The place of origin is considered the neighborhood of the city of Duhok, in the Dāsinī district. The ethnonym dāsnī was used to designate the Yezidis in general. In “Šaraf-name,” the Yezidi emir is referred to as Husayn-bēg dāsinī, and by dāsinī is meant Yezidis (Bidlisi, Šaraf-name, 325–7).
108 Dumlān (dūmlī, dūmbūlī)—Šaraf-khan Bidlisi, describing this large tribe, indicates that the emirs and ashirats (tribes) were formerly Yezidis, who “followed the despicable Yezidi faith.” At the same time, as Š. Bidlisi writes, the emirs were leading their ancestry from a certain Arab from Syria named Īsa, and he thought that a part of the ashirats “abandoned this heresy” and became Muslim, while “the rest persisted” in holding on to “their unholy beliefs” (Bidlisi, Šaraf-name, 357). Nowadays, the Yezidi Dumlī tribe lives in Sheykhan district. In addition, a part of the Yezidi tribe Dūmlī are Qawals and live in the village of Bahzān. They are Arabic-speaking Yezidis. The P’īrs of the Qawals of dumlī of Bakhzan is the Pirs of the leaage of Haǰīalī, the son of P'īr Sīnī Bahrī.
109 Mūsarašān is a tribe belonging to nomadic tribe Jēzireh Bohtan. Today it is a large Kurdish-Muslim tribe in Iraq and Syria on the banks of the Fishkhabur River. However, as we found out, representatives of this tribe remain among the Yezidis in Sinjar.
110 Sādāqā (from Arabic صدقة ) is voluntary alms.
111 Ftuwāt ( فتوە )—for the Yezidis, alms, donations, which are either given to a priest or left in the temple in the name of a saint.
112 May be Perhaps P'īr Īsēbīa (Īsā ībn Ābī)—one of the followers of the Sheikh ‘Adi and his xazīndar (treasurer).
113 The head of all heads is a respectful way of addressing a dervish who has attained a high degree of holiness. In Arabic: rāīs ar-rūāsā.
114 “Sheikh” in Arabic has the same meaning as the “P'īr” in Persian and Kurmanji. The sheikh of the sheikhs is a title used concerning P'īr Sīn, which once again confirms that he was a significant figure among dervishes. The title “Sheikh of the Sheikhs” or “Elder of the Elders” or “Sage of the Sages” in the era of writing mišūr had a different meaning than later when the structure of the Yezidi community was finally defined. The title “Sheikh of Sheikhs” in the Yezidi caste structure has been used only about Sheikh Hassan (lineage of Šēxisin).
115 1207 or 1208. In the united version of the mišūr, we indicated only the date (year) of the first version (Mš1), and do not mention the dates noted in the subsequent versions.
116 Here the fragment of the mišūr is lost.
117 Our assumption about it, see above.
118 See footnote 115. In this mišūr, we find for the first time in the Yezidi source a reference to Silsila of Sheikh ‘Adi (Silsila—Arabic word meaning chain, link, and connection. Often used in various sences lineage, or spiritual genealogy.) Silsila of Sheikh ‘Adi, as it is known in Arabic sources, is different from the Silsila specified in this Mišūr. The sequence and absence of some names are the things that make it different. Thus, according to al-Diwaǰi, Sheikh ‘Adi received kharqa (khirqa) from Sheikh Aqil, and he received it from Sheikh Muslim al-Sruji, and he received it from Sheikh Abi Said al-Harzawi, and he received it from Sheikh Muhammad Qalansi, and he received it from Sheikh U'lian Al-Ramli, and he received it from Sheikh Umar Saidi, and he received it from Sheikh Yusuf Fani, and he received it from Sheikh Jā’kūb (al-Diwaǰi, Al-yazidiya, 62).
119 See also J̌alīl, “Ezidskie legendy”; Arakelova, “Sufi Saints in the Yezidi Tradition”; Asatrian and Arakelova, The Religion of the Peacock Angel, 128–9.
120 This is evident from the example of mišūrs. For instance, the Mišūr of P'īr Xatīb Pisī, written presumably about a hundred years after Mišūr of P'īr Sīnī Bahrī, no longer contain Sheikh ‘Adi’s spiritual lineage (“sīlsīlā”). Nevertheless, it is difficult now to guess what was the motivation of the omission that guided the copyist.
121 Safā Waqtī (the time of mine is purified)—this is about mystical purification which means that it is beyond time, beyond past, present, and future.
122 An Arabic source, Qalā’id al-Jawāhir, states “Sheikh Takiyya ad-Din Muhammad al-Vaaz al-Banani (God forgive him!) said the following about the birth of Sheikh 'Adi:
His father Musafir ibn Ismail remained in the forest for forty years. And in the dream, someone said to him: Musafir, go home to your wife. God will give you a saint and he will become famous from the East to the West … When the mother became pregnant, Sheikh Muslim and Sheikh Aqil passed by her. She was near a source. Sheikh Muslim said to Sheikh Aqil: Do you see the same thing as I do?
Sheikh Aqil: what is it?
Sheikh Muslim: A shining light comes from the belly of this woman and reaches heaven.
Sheikh Aqil: this is our son ‘Adi! Let us greet him!
They came up and said:
Greetings to you, oh ‘Adi! Greetings, O holy God!
They left and returned seven years later and saw ‘Adi playing a ball with the children. They called him and greeted him, and he answered them three times.
They asked him: why did you answer our greetings three times?
‘Adi: because you greeted me twice when I was in the womb. And if I was not ashamed in front of Isa ibn Maryam (peace be upon him from God), I would answer your greetings twice from the womb of my mother.
When he grew up and became a man in a dream at night, he heard a voice:
Get up. ‘Adi, go to the Lalish, that is your place. And God will revive many dead hearts with your hands!” (al-Hanbalī, Qalā’id al-Jawāhir, 89).
123 ھیدبا (hāydābān)—this word is used in the version of R. Frank instead of the word مؤدبا (mūāddābān) (couth). We did not find the word used by Frank in the dictionaries of the Arabic language, whereas the original word is preserved in the Qawal version.
124 The word “surr” in Arabic means “mistery,” but in the Yezidi religion, depending on the context, has received a broader meaning, namely “power of God,” “divine magic,” “secret thought.” About “surr” see also Rodziewicz, “The Nation of the Sur.”
125 زورتي (zūrtī)—a form of the word زیارتي (zīyārātī) which is used in colloquial dialect.
126 It is noteworthy that the sequence of mentioning the names ʿAbd al-Qādir Gīlānī, Ahmad ar-Rifā’ī, and Abūlwafā in the mišūr is also preserved in Qasīdā, which generally corresponds to the Sufi tradition. In two legends and tales collected by Vladimir Gordlevsky in Istanbul, Turkey in 1926–28 (No. 55 and No. 56 in Gordlevskij, Izbrannie sočinenija, 413–15), it tells of ʿAbd al-Qādir Gīlānī and Ahmad ar-Rifā’ī and their proximity. “For forty years, Abdul Kadir ascended on mimber (the dervish chapel—notes by authors), and when he addressed all four sides, everywhere—in the Caucasus and in Bukhara—scholars bowed down before him, uttering the formula of obedience: “We serve and obey”—and only two Ahmeds were freed from expressing words of submission: Ahmad ar-Rifā’ī and Ahmed Bedevi. But even they voluntarily recognized the superiority of Abdul Kadir” (ibid., 414). V. Gordlevsky notes the similarity of the symbols of the Kadir and Rifā’ī (ibid.).
127 یستحنوني (yāstāhnūnī)—apparently, this is a distorted form of the word یستحیوني (yāstahīyūnī) which means “to shame,” “shame.”
128 Recorded from Qawal Hussein’s son, Qawal Ilyas in 2017 by Dimitri Pirbari and translated by authors.
129 Learn about my essence.