NOTES ON CHAPTER IV
158 Hol Hola is an interjection, or exclamation, expressing sudden emotion, excitement, or feeling, as “Oh!” “Alas!” “Hurrah!” “Hark!” in English.
159 P. Anastase: Al-Mašrik, vol. II, p. 309.
160 Ibid, p. 311.
CHAPTER V
Their Customs
I
Marriage
The Yezidis are endogamic. They forbid union between the secular and the religious classes, as also within certain degrees of relationship. A šeiḫ’s son marries only a šeiḫ’s daughter; so pirs’ sons, pirs’ daughters. A layman cannot marry a šeiḫ’s or a pir’s daughter, but he may take for a wife a ḳawwal’s or a kochak’s daughter; and ḳawwals’ or kochaks’ sons may marry laymen’s daughters. But if a layman marries a šeiḫ’s or a pir’s daughter, he must be killed. Marriage is for life, but it is frequently dissolved, divorce being as easy to obtain among them as among Moslems. When a man wants to get rid of his wife, he simply lets her go. Polygamy is allowed, but usually confined to rich men, who generally have two wives. The number of wives is limited to six, except for the amir. A man must have money or cattle in order to be able to get married. The price is called ḳalam. A respectable girl will not sell herself at a low price. Parents get rich if they have several pretty girls; they are the father’s property. The ḳalam, dowry, is usually thirty sheep or goats, or the price of them. The man must give presents to the relatives of his bride, parents, brothers, etc. If a couple love each other and cannot marry because the man has no money to pay his sweetheart’s father, then they elope. They usually make arrangements before elopement as to where they will stay for a few weeks to escape detection. Some strong men accompany them when they elope. The father of the girl with his relatives follow. If they catch the fugitives, bloodshed may ensue. But if they succeed in escaping, they return after some time and are then forgiven. According to a Kurdish proverb everything is pardoned the brave.
The couple choose one another. The girl informs her mother that she loves so and so. The latter informs her husband. The father acquaints the father of the young man with the fact. When they agree, and the daughter is given to the young man, his kindred come to the house of the bride’s father on an appointed day, and give the girl a ring; then they dance, rejoice all night, play, wrestle, and eat black raisins. After that the young couple are allowed to arrange nuptial meetings in the company of a matron, who is presented with a gift.
When the time of marriage comes, the family of the bridegroom invites the relatives. Each takes with him a silk handkerchief as a present for the bride. For three days they drink “ărak,” sing and dance to the sound of flutes and drums at the house of the young man. After that, the women, two by two, ride on horseback together, and likewise the men. The men take with them their children, who ride behind them. In this manner they go to the bride’s house, discharging their guns as they proceed. When they reach the house they all discharge their guns together. Hearing the sound, the father comes out and according to the custom, asks the visitors what they want. They respond “Your daughter,” all answering at once. Then he goes in and tells his wife. After putting upon their daughter a scarlet ḫailiyah (veil), which covers her from head to foot, they bring her out. Everyone of the children takes a spoon from the bride’s house and sticks it in his turban. After being brought to the house of the bridegroom, the bride is kept behind a curtain in the corner of a darkened room for three days, and the young man is not allowed to see her during this period.
On the third day, the bridegroom is sought early in the morning, and led in triumph by his friends from house to house, receiving at each a small present. He is then placed within a circle of dancers, and the guests and bystanders wetting small coins stick them to his forehead. The money is collected as it falls in an open handkerchief held by his companions. After this ceremony a number of the young men, who have attached themselves to the bridegroom, lock the most wealthy of their companions in a dark room until they are willing to pay a ransom for their release. The money thus taken is added to the dowry of the newly married couple.
On the evening of the third day the šeiḫ takes the bridegroom to the bride. Putting the hand of one in that of the other, and covering the couple with a ḫailiyah, he asks the bride, “Who are you?” “I am the daughter of so and so,” responds she. Then he asks the bridegroom the same question. After receiving an answer, the šeiḫ asks, “Will you take this young woman as a wife,” and “Do you want this young man as a husband?” After hearing each say “Yes,” the šeiḫ marks their shoulders and foreheads with red ink, and hands them a stick. As each holds one end of it, he asks them to break it in the middle, leaving one-half in the hand of each. Then the šeiḫ says, “So you remain one until death breaks you asunder.”
When this is done, he takes the couple to a room and locks them in, waiting at the door. After a while the bridegroom knocks at the door three times. Understanding the signal, the priest discharges his gun, and all the bystanders outside follow his example. After shouting and dancing for some time, the šeiḫ sends them home. When they first meet, the newly wedded husband strikes his young wife with a small stone as a token of his superiority over her. For seven days, they stay at home and do no work. Now, if the husband dies first, the wife goes to her father’s house.
With the Yezidis, the family bonds are stronger than those of the tribe. The family proper consists of parents and their children, married, and unmarried, living in the same house. Respect for parents and elder persons is considered a virtue, as it is among all the eastern people. The head of the family is the sole proprietor of the possessions of the family, and holds full control over his wife and children, who are bound to obey him. Only personal objects and dress are the property of the wife. He can punish his wife and the children. If a son leaves his father’s house, he is beyond the father’s authority, but not beyond his moral influence. A father is to maintain his family, defend it, and answer charges brought against its members. Next to the father in authority stands the eldest son.
Women are inferior to men; married women must obey their husbands. They work like men; they till the ground, take care of cattle, fight the enemy and are courageous and very independent. This enables the young women to choose their sweethearts and run away with them. They converse with men freely. A woman does not conceal her face unless she is stared at, when she draws a corner of her mantle over her face.
Married women are dressed entirely in white, and their shirt is of the same cut as the man’s, with a white kerchief under their chin, and another over their heads, held by the ‘agal or woollen cord of the Bedouins. The girls wear white skirts and drawers, and over them colored zabouns, long dresses open in front and confined at the waist by a girdle ornamented with pieces of silver. They bind fancy kerchiefs around their heads and adorn themselves with coins as well as with glass and amber beads.
The men wear shirts closed up to the neck, and their religious law forbids them to wear the common eastern shirts open in front. Their shirt is the distinctive mark by which the Yezidi sect is recognized at once. They are clothed besides with loose trousers and cloaks, both of white, and with a black turban, from beneath which their hair falls in ringlets. They usually carry long rifles in their hands, pistols in their girdles, and a sword at their side.
In their physical characteristics they are like the Kurds, wild, rough, uncultured. They are muscular, active, and capable of bearing great hardship. In general, they are a fine, manly race: tall or of medium stature, with large chest; strong deep voice, audible afar; clear, keen eye; frank and confident, or fierce and angry; nose of moderate length, and fairly small head. Their legs are rather short, but the soles of their feet are large. Their complexion is usually dark and their eyes are black. But there are different types. The predominant type is tall, with black hair, fine regular nose, and bluish brown eyes. The rest are of shorter stature, with longer features; light, bright eyes; and large, irregular nose. The Yezidis sometime shave the hair off their head, leaving only a long, thin forelock.
II
Funerals
If a young or well-known man dies, they make in his likeness a wooden form and clothe it in the dead man’s clothes. Then the musicians play mourning tunes, while the relatives stand round the model. After wailing for a while, they walk in procession in a circle around the form, and now and then kneel down to receive a blessing from it. Those who come to the scene, according to their custom, ask the parents of the dead man, “What have you?” They reply, “We have the wedding of our son.” They continue wailing for three days. Afterward they distribute food on behalf of the dead. For a year they give a plate of food with a loaf of bread daily to some person, thinking that thereby they are feeding their own dead. On the seventh and fortieth day from the time of death, they visit the grave to mourn over their lost one. Now, if the dead be a common man, he is not honored with such a ceremony. He is usually buried an hour or two after his death.
The funeral rites are simple. The body of the Yezidi, like that of a Mohammedan, is washed in running water. After being laid on a flat board, they dress him with his former clothes, close the openings in his body with pieces of cotton, place the sacred clay of Šeiḫ ‘Adi in his mouth, on his face and forehead, under his shoulders and eyes, and on his stomach. This done, they carry the dead on the board to the cemetery. The ḳawwals, burning incense, lead the procession; the immediate relatives, especially the women, following, dressed in white and throwing dust over their heads, and accompanied by male and female friends and neighbors. If the dead be a man, they then dance, the mother or the wife holding in one hand the sword or shield of the dead, and in the other, long locks cut from her own hair. They bury him with his face turned toward the north star. Everyone present throws a little dust over the grave while saying, “O man, thou wert dust and hast returned to dust to-day.” Then the šeiḫ says, “When we say, ‘Let us rise and go home,’ then the dead man will say, ‘I will not go home with the people.’ And when he tries to get up, his head will strike the stone, when he will say, ‘O, I am among the dead.’” When they return home, the family slaughters oxen and sheep and gives meat to the poor. The poor kill four or five sheep; the rich, a hundred. The kochaks prophesy of the dead, whether he will return to the earth or will go to another world.
They hold that some will be eternally condemned, but that all will spend an expiatory period; and that the dead have communion with the living, in which the good souls dwelling in the heavens make revelations to their brethren on earth.
III
Nationality
Four different theories have been advanced as to the race to which the Yezidis belong. There are those who think them to be of Indo-European origin, for there is a type among them that has a white skin, a round skull, blue eyes and light hair. And there are those who suppose them to be Arabs on the ground that the color of skin of another type is brown, their eyes are wide, their lips are thick and their hair is dark. The western writers, moreover, have in the past always taken them for Kurds because of the close resemblance of the two in appearance and manners. In his “La Turquie d’Asie,” Vital Cunet says that though the Yezidis have been taken for Kurds, they can no longer be regarded as such, for in many ways they resemble other nationalities. On the other hand Hormuzd Rassam, in his “Asshur and the Land of Nimrud” seems to agree with those who suppose them to be of Assyrian origin. He bases this inference on the independent and martial spirit which they possess, and their tendency to rebel against their oppressors, which, according to him, may be taken as an indication of ancestral inheritance.162
IV
Locality
The Yezidis dwell principally in five districts, the most prominent among these being that of Šeiḫan. This term is the Persian plural of šeiḫ, an old man; and it signifies the country where šeiḫs dwell. This district lies northeast of Mosul, covering a wide area in which are many villages. It is their Palestine. In it lies their Mecca, Lalish, where their sacred shrine, the tomb of Šeiḫ ‘Adi, is. Lališh is the centre of their national and religious life. It is situated in a deep, picturesque valley. Its slopes are covered with a dense wood, and at the bottom of it runs the sacred water. Other notable places here are the two adjoining villages, Ba‘ašiḳa and Baḥazanie, at the foot of the mountain of Rabban Hormuzd, a six hours’ ride from Mosul. The former is the center of the tombs of their šeiḫs; the latter is their principal burial place, to which bodies are carried from all the various districts. It was formerly a Christian village with a monastery. And Ba‘adrie, northeast of the City of Mosul, about ten hours’ ride away, is the village where their amir resides. It is close to Šeiḫ ‘Adi’s.
Next in importance is Jabal Sinjar. The term “Sinjar” is Persian, meaning a bird, perhaps an eagle. It signifies that its inhabitants are, like the eagle, safe and cannot be caught.163 Sinjar is about three days’ journey from Mosul. It is a solitary range, fifty miles long and nine miles broad, rising in the midst of the desert. From its summit, the eye ranges on one side over the vast level wilderness stretching to the Euphrates, and on the other over the plain bounded by the Tigris and the lofty mountains of Kurdistan. Nisibin and Mardin are both visible in the distance. One can see the hills of Ba‘adrie and Šeiḫ ‘Adi. Among the sacred places of this district are two villages: Assofa, where two ziarahs are found, and distinguished from afar by their white spires, and Aldina, where one ziarah exists. In almost every Sinjar village, there is to be found a covered water which they use as a fortress during their fights with the Kurds or with the Turkish army. The devil-worshippers of this locality are commonly called Yezidis, while those of Šeiḫan are known both as Yezidis and Dawaseni.
Another district is Ḫalitiyeh, which includes all the territory north and northeast of the Tigris in the province of Diarbeker. The Malliyeh region includes all the territory west of the Euphrates and Aleppo. And the Saraḥdar section includes the Caucasus in southern Russia. Some regard the Lepchos of India also as Yezidis, who, in the early appearance of the sect, went there to proselyte the Hindoos.164
V
Dwellings
In regard to their dwellings, the Yezidis are divided into two classes: Ahl al-ḥaḍar, the people of the villages or cultivated land, and Ahl al Wabar, the people of the tents. The villages are built of clay, stone or mud, and unburned brick. A village consists of about sixty houses. A house is divided into three principal rooms, opening one into another. These are separated by a wall about six feet high, upon which are placed wooden pillars supporting the ceiling. The roof rests on trunks of trees raised on rude stones in the centre chamber, which is open on one side to the air. The sides of the room are honeycombed with small recesses like pigeon-holes. The whole is plastered with white plaster, fancy designs in red being introduced here and there. The houses are kept neat and clean. They say that cleanliness is next to heaven.
Now, the people of the tents are, like the Arab Bedouins, nomadic, having no houses and no permanent place of abode. They form but a small portion of the Yezidis, and are called Kotchar.
VI
The Language
The language of the Yezidis, in common with the Kurds, is Kurdish, which belongs to the Iranian group of the Indo-European or Indo-Germanic stock. This Kurmanji possesses a number of dialects not differing much from one another, except the zaza dialect, which is spoken in eastern Mesopotamia by the Kurds, called Ali Alla. The main characteristic of the Kurmangi are the great brevity of its words and the simplicity of its grammatical forms. It is fairly rich in vowels, and richer in deep guttural sounds. Though Kurdish is the general language of the Yezidis, their religious mysteries are in Arabic. Both languages are spoken by those living in the Sinjar hills and in Šeiḫan.
VII
Occupation
Generally speaking, the Yezidis are an industrious people, but they do not engage in business. This is due to their belief that any form of business leads to cheating and lying, and hence to cursing Melek-Ṭâ´ûs, i. e., the devil. Their usual occupation is agriculture and cattle-raising. The Yezidis of Sinjar, who constitute almost the entire population, raise fruit, such as figs and grapes; also almonds and nuts. Jabal Sinjar is famous for its figs. Those who live in the Russian territory, like the sweeper class of India, are mainly engaged in menial work. But those in the districts of Reḍwan and Midyat are given to housebreaking and highway robbery; they are the terror of those regions.
The Yezidis seldom appear in the cities; and when they do they conceal their peculiarities as much as possible, for the Christians and Mohammedans are wont to seek amusement at their expense. When they find a Yezidi in their company, they draw a circle about him on the ground, from which he superstitiously believes he cannot get out, until some one breaks it. They annoy him by crying out, Na‘lat Šaitan, i. e., Satan be cursed. Moreover, city people keep aloof from the habitations of these despised devil-worshippers. Accordingly the Yezidis have little intercourse with their neighbors.