A Pilgrimage to Lalish
C. J. Edmonds
Royal Asiatic Society
My first duty is to express my deep sense of gratitude for an honour as unexpected as it is highly appreciated: unexpected for obvious reasons; appreciated because it has been awarded by this Society, because it is associated with the name of Richard Burton who, ever since my youthful thoughts first tumed towards a career in Asia, has been one of my heroes and whose Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah is stili a never-ending source of instruction and delight, and because, when I look at the list of my predecessors, I feel very proud to find myself in such company.
Although I spent the greater part of my career in an Arab land, any original exploration and research that I have been able to carry out has been on its non-Arab fringes or across the border in Persia. I have to thank your President for his generous interpretation of the word ‘cognate’, and so for allowing me to choose a subject relating to the Kurds and to describe my own pilgrimage, one that involved no danger or hardship, to the Metropolitan Shrine of the Yazidis on the occasion of their great Autumn Festival.
The Yazidis and the problems of their origins ...
Contents
Preface / xi
Part 1
The Autumn Festivals of the Yazîdis / 3
Part 2
The Shaykhân Memorial / 25
Commentary on the Memorial / 27
(i) The text / 27
(ii) The Princely Family / 28
(iii) Sbaykbs / 30
(iv) Pirs / 34
(v) Qawwâls / 35
(vi) Faqirs / 35
(vii) Köcbaks / 36
(viii) Bâbâ Cbâtvüsb / 37
(ix) Farrâsb / 37
(x) Rasbkân, Hö&eri and Mdsakt / 37
(xi) Alms and Endmvments / 37
(xii) Tbe Peaeock-Standards / 39
(xiii) Marriage / 39
Additional Notes
(xiv) Brothers and Sisters of the Hereafter / 40
(xv) Murahbi / 41
(xvi) Festivals / 42
(xvii) Coştum and Taboos / 43
(xviii) Baptism / 44
(xix) Karif / 45
(xx) Early legendary History / 45
(xxi) Yazid / 48
(xxii) The Sacred Books / 49
Part 3
First Visit to Shaykhân / 53
First Visit to Sinjâr / 56
Troubled Sinjâr / 59
Farewell to Sinjâr / 68
The Kermis of HâjI Muhammad / 73
Appendix I List of Tribes showing their Affiliations / 79
II List of Villages with estimated Populations / 82
III List of Shabak Villages / 87
IV The Kurdish version of the Sacred Books / 87
Illustrations
The Shrine of Shaykh Adî (from the South) / frontispiece
Plate I. (a) Mir Tahsin Beg and Mayan Khâtün – facing page / 14
(b) Mixed Dancing at Shaykh Adı’s
Plate I. (c) Forecourt of Shaykh Adi’s / 15
(d) The Châwüsh on the Roof
Plate II. (a) The Qabâkh / 20
(b) Bringing in the Bull
Plate II. (c) In the Market Place / 21
(d) The Auction at Shaykh Shams’s
Plate III. (a) Faqir Husayn
(b) Qawwâl and Köchak / 56
(c) Hamö Sherö
(d) Juwâna Tribesman of Sinjâr
Plate III. (e) Yazîdls of Jabal Sinjâr
(J) Mixed Dancing at Bacshiqa / 57
Map
Liwâ of Mosul - facing page / 88
PREFACE
In this little book it hasf not been my aim to give a systematic account of the Yazîdî people and their religion. As I said of the paper reproduced as Part I, so in the other Parts, except where the contrary is made quite clear, I have set down only such things as I have seen with my own eyes or have leamt at first hand in the course of my official duties or in conversation with the votaries themselves. Just as there are many eamest churchmen in this country whose knowledge of early Church history is defective or whose exposition of Christian dogma would hardly command general acceptance, so too I make no daim that what I have recorded here is a definitive statement of Yazîdî beliefs and practices with which ali would agree.
The matter is based for the most part on entries in my diaries between 1930 and 1945. Now that, twenty or more years later, I have found time to collate these disjointed notes I realize that many of the gaps and obscurities in my picture could have been filled or clarified by quite short periods of sustained inquiry. My hope is that they will prove useful to future research workers in this field, as a starting point, perhaps, for some, for others as a new source worthy of consideration with other sources with which they are already familiar.
Proper names have been transliterated in accordance with the rules recommended by the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for Arabic and Kurdish place names, except that to represent Arabic: in Arabic names I have preferred -a to -ab as more convenient for a region where Arabic and Kurdish names are found side by side, and are not always easily distinguishable. Kurdish words and phrases quoted as such have been transliterated according to the system used in the Kurdish-English Dictionary compiled by Colonel T. Wahby and myself (the Clarendon Press, 1966): of this I only need explain here that the vowels a and o are always long, other long vowels are distinguished by the circumflex accent, the consonants c and j have their Turkish values of English j and French j respectively, and x represents
There have been many changes in Iraq since I left the country in 1945, and I have often found it difficult to dedde whether to use the present or the past tense; I must ask the reader’s indulgence for any inconsistency he may detect in this respect.
I have to thank Sir Reader Bullard and Professor A. K. S. Lambton, who kindiy read through the typescript, for valuable comments and advice.
Although for many years I held posts in Her Majesty’s Foreign Service and under the Government of Iraq any views expressed in this book, and the responsibility for them, are mine alone.
C.J.E.
Part I
The Autumn Festival of the Yazldis
(A paper read to the Royal Asiatic Society on tbe occasion of the presentation of the Burton Memorial Medal 14 Februaty 1963)
My first duty is to express my deep sense of gratitude for an honour as unexpected as it is highly appreciated: unexpected for obvious reasons; appreciated because it has been awarded by this Society, because it is associated with the name of Richard Burton who, ever since my youthful thoughts first tumed towards a career in Asia, has been one of my heroes and whose Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah is stili a never-ending source of instruction and delight, and because, when I look at the list of my predecessors, I feel very proud to find myself in such company.
Although I spent the greater part of my career in an Arab land, any original exploration and research that I have been able to carry out has been on its non-Arab fringes or across the border in Persia. I have to thank your President for his generous interpretation of the word ‘cognate’, and so for allowing me to choose a subject relating to the Kurds and to describe my own pilgrimage, one that involved no danger or hardship, to the Metropolitan Shrine of the Yazidis on the occasion of their great Autumn Festival.
The Yazidis and the problems of their origins and their beliefs have given rise to a considerable literatüre. In this paper, however, I propose (except where the contrary is explicitly stated) to report only things which I have seen with my omi eyes, or which I have leamt at first hand in the course of my official duties or in conversation with the votaries themselves. I will only say by way of preface that ali my information supports the view, now accepted, I believe, by the majority of competent scholars, that, whatever elements their theology may have retained from older systems or however far afield it may have been led by later metaphysical speculation or ingenious punning legends, the organization of the community is essentially that of an Islamic dervish brotherhood, and that its founder was Shaykh ‘Adi ibn Musâfir, an orthodox Muslim mystic of repute, who died and …
C. J. Edmonds
A Pilgrimage to Lalish
Royal Asiatic Society
Royal Asiatic Society
A Pilgrimage to Lalish
by C. J. Edmonds
Prize Publication Fund
Vol. XXI
Published by
The Royal Asiatic Society
of Great Britain and Ireland
and sold by its agents
Luzac and Company Limited
46 Great Russell Street London WCI
© Royal Asiatic Society 1967
Printed in Great Britain at
The University Press
Aberdeen
In Piam Memoriam
E. G. Browne
