Dr.
Zourab Aloian
Shaikh
‘Adi, Sufism and the Kurds
I. Introduction
II. Analysis of Primary and Secondary Sources
II.1. Primary Kurdish Sources
II.2. Primary Arabic Sources
III. Biography of Shaikh ‘Adi
III.1. Inedequate Attempts to Identify Shaikh ‘Adi in the Past
III.2. Data on ‘Adi's Origin
III.3. The Baghdad Period
IV. Sufi
Authorities who Influenced ‘Adi's Views and are worshipped by Yezidis
IV.1. al-Hasan al-Basri
IV.2. Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiya
IV.3. al-Hallaj
IV.3.1. The impact of al-Hallaj's image on ‘Adi b. Musafir
IV.3.2. Yezidi religious poetry on al-Hallaj
IV.3.3. al-Hallaj's followers amongst the Kurds
IV.4. al-Ghazali
IV.5. al-Gilani and Shaikhs of his circle
IV.6. Ahmad b. ar-Rifa‘i
IV.7. Abu ‘l-Wafa al-Hulwani
V. Religious And Philosophical Ideas of
Shaikh ‘Adi
V.1. Attitude towards Religion and Cognition of God
V.2. Criticism of Bid‘a
V.3. Conception of Sufism
V.3.1. Mortification of the flesh and cult of poverty (Faqr)
IV.3.2. Eschatological views
IV.3.3. Self-Deification. Faith of Shaikh ‘Adi's disciples
VI. Conclusion
VII. References
VII.1. Primary Sources
VII.2. Studies Containing Primary Sources
I
INTRODUCTION
"Adîyo,
Misefiro,
Herça
te kir, kesa nekiro!"
"O
‘Adi, [son of] Musafir,
What
you succeeded in doing, nobody else could!"
From Religious Poetry [5:26]
Yezidism is one of the denominations to be found in Kurdistan and amongst the Kurdish communities outside their homeland. To the best of my judgement, the figure of the Yezidi Kurds varies between 500,000 and 600,000. Their backbone lives in Iraqi Kurdistan (300,000), Armenia (60,000), Republic of Georgia (40,000), the Russian Federation (up to 30,000) and Syrian and Turkish parts of Kurdistan (15,000-20,000). The Yezidi population in Europe, chiefly in Germany, is around 50,000.
In the former Soviet Union, the major waves of Yezidi Kurds appeared in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They had left the Ottoman Empire and settled in Transcaucasia and, after the break-up of the USSR, in the Russian Federation and Ukraine, too. It should be noted that since the earliest contacts of the Yezidis with the Russian reality, there has always been a great interest towards the community by Russian intellectuals [10:515; 5:I,5-49; 56].
The majority of the Yezidi Kurds try to preserve their identity without over-politicising their demands. At present, various political and cultural circles proudly refer to Kurdish roots of Yezidism. Thus, from an underprivileged community the Yezidis have gradually acquired the prestigious role of ‘genuine’ representatives of Kurdishness.
In this respect one has to bear in mind the central position of Shaikh ‘Adi in the Yezidi tradition: he is perceived in the capacity of one of three incarnations of a lower deity co-existing with the Creator. Consequently, the life and ideas of Shaikh ‘Adi are directly related to Yezidi cosmic beliefs as well as to the evolution of the Kurdish Weltanschauung. However, with the exception of the works of Siouffi, Frank, Lescot and one or two others, the biography and creative activity of Shaikh ‘Adi were not topics of special research.
In my 1993 MA paper at Saint Petersburg State University, I reconstructed the biography of Shaikh ‘Adi b. Musafir and examined general questions concerning Yezidism. The current paper is based on my PhD dissertation defended at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. My prime aim is to expound the religious and philosophical ideas of ‘Adi b. Musafir, to elucidate their parallels with the Yezidi doctrine, and to put them into the context of Sufism and Kurdish spiritual life.
In the present paper, for practical reasons, the dates are given according to the Christian era. I also use simplified transliteration of Arabo-Islamic names and terms; the terms are translated in such a way as to express the idea of a particular word or expression rather than to present their formal, perfunctory notion. For instance, the term bid‘a (Pl. bida‘) is translated as ‘unlawful innovation’, therefore ahl al-bid‘a means ‘those involved in unlawful innovations’. This is justifiable since Muslim tradition distinguishes ‘good’ bida‘ from ‘bad’ ones.
During the course of this work I have been fortunate to work with Prof. Dr. Alexander Fodor from the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and Dr. Stanislav Prozorov from Saint Petersburg Institute of Oriental Studies.
I also want to express my gratitude to all those who
gave me constructive suggestions.
II
ANALYSIS
OF SOURCES
II.1.
Primary Kurdish Sources
The problem of the authorship and the time of creation of the Yezidi ‘Sacred Books’ is important for the current paper because for a long period, the discussion was whether Shaikh ‘Adi b. Musafir participated in their composition [32; 38; 39; 48; 24].
As far back as in the eighteenth century, a Mufti referred to the Yezidi Sacred Book entitled Cilwe with the authorship ascribed to Shaikh ‘Adi [12:84; 20:121-122].
Similar hearsay connected with ‘Adi's authorship were
to be repeated later on. Then, in 1842, the American missionary Grant, in
Nineve, learned about the Yezidi Book known as Furqal.
This might have been is a distorted form of the word furqan meaning in Arabic ‘discerning Virtue and Evil’ and if
with the definite article - ‘The Scriptures’, ‘The Bible’ or ‘The Qur’an’
[54].
In 1846, the famous Armenian writer and scholar Khachatur Abovyan published his essay Ezidy (The Yezidis) in Russian, in which he mistakenly concluded that the Yezidis were the Kurdisised Armenians from the sects of Arevordik and Tondhraki. According to Abovyan, the followers of Yezidism claimed that their main Shaikh from the religious centre, Lalish, knew Arabic script, owned the Gospel and some other special books that only he was allowed to read [54; 56].
While visiting Kurdistan in the midst of the nineteenth century, the British archaeologist Layard came upon the tracks of certain Yezidi books, but he did not succeed to get hold of them [40; 54].
In 1884, Egiazarov, the author of several publications in Russian and Armenian on the Transcaucasian Yezidi Kurds, referred to two ‘Sacred Books’: Zambur and Cilwe. Egiazarov suggested that the latter must have been a collection of the basic principles of Yezidism and the works of Shaikh ‘Adi. Here Zambur may be a distorted Arabic word zabur meaning ‘psalms’ and ‘Psalter’ [37; 54].
In 1879-1886, the Russian Consul to Mosul, Kartsev managed to look through the contents of the Yezidi ‘Sacred Texts’. His publication caused a great interest, especially since it was evident that he had had an opportunity to read the Arabic translation of the texts [54].
Subsequently, in 1895, in London missionary Perry published fragments of the Yezidi books translated by Browne. Later, on the basis of this publication, French (1896) and Italian (1900) translations were prepared [54].
Some Yezidi texts, including those regarded as sacred were published in 1909, in the American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures. The author of that publication, Isya Joseph, obtained the collection of Yezidi manuscripts in Arabic from Dawud as-Sa’igh in Mosul. The latter was a retainer to the family of Haydar, the custodian of Yezidi texts and tradition. Here it may be appropriate to mention that the interesting work of Semionov, referred to in the present paper, is based on Joseph's publication [18; 24].
Finally, in 1911, the Carmelite priest Anastase Marie of Baghdad for the first time, alongside the French translation, published the Yezidi texts written in Kurdish in a special alphabet. In the Introduction Marie describes the difficulties he had in obtaining those texts. There might have been personal sentiments for Anastase Marie (1866-1947) in dealing with the Yezidi sources going back to his Lebanese roots [21].
Nevertheless, Maximilian Bittner in 1911 and Alphonse Mingana in 1916, made critical analyses of the texts and expressed their doubts about their authenticity [32; 48].
Later, the supposed texts would be translated into other languages. Thus, in 1989, Asatryan and Poladyan on the basis of German and French translation issued the Armenian translation [54].
Here, however, it should be noted that these two Armenian authors largely shaped the ideology of the movement endeavouring to create a new ethnic group - ‘the Armenian Yezidis’ - as distinct from the Kurds.
Today, we know about two Kurdish religious books in Yezidi alphabet: Cilwe (The Book of Revelation) and Meshefê Reþ (The Black Scripture). Although they are composed in the southern Kurdish dialect, their contents do not differ from the Yezidi oral stories in the northern Kurmandji dialect. Moreover, in oral tradition, there are frequent referrals to Meshefê Reº. Thus, a funeral prayer - Talqîna Êzdîyan - warns those who do not accept ‘The Black Scripture’ that the time will come when people would not utter the names of Jesus, Moses or Muhammad: they would ask Sultan Yazid and Shaikh ‘Adi to be merciful upon them [52:122-123].
At present, the majority of the scholars appear to share the opinion that although "failed to meet the criteria normally adopted to judge the authenticity" of written texts, "the contents of the ‘Sacred Books’ could be valid even if these were not based on a lengthy written tradition" [19:viii,ix,10-16].
‘The Balck Scripture’ consists of a few-line Introduction and five chapters. In the Introduction the author states that, before all other beings, he
existed together with his lord Melekê
Taus.
The image of Melekê Taus (Tausî
Melek of the Caucasian Yezidis) is full of enigma. The term is usually
translated as ‘Peacock Angel’, though the ‘Peacock King’ might be
another possibility: the loan-word for angel in the northern Kurdish dialect is milîyak'et;
then melek could have a notion of
‘king’ [62:98].
Since in the Yezidi doctrine, God-Creator entrusted earthly matters to Melekê
Taus, the latter may be viewed as the alter-ego
of God, the fact which would testify for the monotheistic nature of Yezidism
and conform with the view that Melekê
Taus is a derivation from Malik-Theos [28:82-83;
45:1165].
In addition, in Iraq, the word malak
designates evil spirit per se.
At any rate, the image of Melekê
Taus under the similar names can be found in the religious traditions of the
groups having historical and cultural links with the Yezidis: Mandaeans
[35:257-258; 36:6], Ahl-e Haqq Kurds [17:46,169], Druzes [49:227; 58:261], and
Tahtadjis [49:227].
The Introduction to the ‘Balck Scripture’ proceeds with informing us that the Melekê Taus sent the author to the world to herald the Truth to the elected people. The Truth was firstly stated in a voiced way, and after that was expounded in the Cilwe, which cannot be seen by those not belonging to the elected people.
The first chapter begins with the words: "I was, I am and I know no end". It is remarkable that the first sentece of the Kurdish Ahl-e Haqq sacred book is: ""I was the first qalandar, and the last I am too" [17:11].
Then the writer of the text stresses his omnipotence and urges humans to obey him, in exchange promising them pleasure and happiness.
The second chapter informs us that the owner of the book, appearing in different images, establishes limits for human life and sends a man to other worlds through metempsychosis.
In the third chapter, having once again emphasised his power over all the treasures and concealed things, the author makes an interesting remark:
" All of my precepts are applicable to all the periods and situations".
The most essential words in the fourth chapter are that he allowed creation of four substances, four kinds of time and four parts of the world.
In the last chapter the believers are anew warned against showing the texts to the followers of other faiths lest they should pervert them: the Yezidis are advised to learn their books by rote.
Previously, it was widely believed that the only reliable material for Shaikh ‘Adi's life and ethical views are medieval Arabic sources while the extremely valuable Yezidi poetry was left out. The reason was that, until not long ago, the oral hymns and poetical stories remained inaccessible for recording: they could not be heard by outsiders.
In this respect I agree with Philip Kreyenbroek: "The Yezidi tradition can only be understood as the product of a long period of oral transmission. The lack of a written tradition has ... prevented the development of a formal ideology, or the emergence of a single, monolithic system of beliefs. It has helped to shape a tradition whose underlying assumption may seem strange to outsiders, but make excellent sense in a relatively isolated and non-literate environment" [19:19].
In a similar way, many scholars seemed to have been confused by the fact
that such a Muslim thinker, whether traditionalist or Sufi, as Shaikh ‘Adi b.
Musafir could have become the key figure worshipped by the community with strong
anti-Islamic sentiments. This made some of them insist on Islamic origin of
Yezidism with stress upon Arab descend of Yezidi rulers [12; 16].
Others were prompted to look for Zoroastrian or rather pre-Islamic
background of ‘Adi b. Musafir. He was once believed to have even been a native
of Zoroastrian milieu from the Kurdish district of Merîwan which would shed a light on the posible resemblance between
the contents of the Cilwe and an
Avestan Yasna’ [38; 39; 54].
Moreover, even the secret nature of the Yezidi alphabet used in the Cilwe
and Meshefî Reþ would correspond to the Zoroastrian principle: writing
is a receptacle of secret wisdom, and sacrament of faith should be kept away
from both laymen and outsiders [41:18,43].
In addition to search for old Iranian, Islamic and Armenian origins of the Yezidi religion, there even exists an opinion about certain links between Turkic cultures and Yezidism with the Yezidis being a continuously present element throughout the history of Turkey [60:9-12].
Therefore, in order to avoid various speculations, sometimes politically and psychologically motivated, I intend to disclose the evolution of ‘Adi b. Musafir's views together with the changes which occurred in Yezidi understanding of his image.
There is some desultory information of Shaikh ‘Adi
and his teaching in the religious canticles. Thus, in the Prayer and Confession in the
Yezidi Religion, Yezidi the name
of the Shaikh is mentioned four times: ‘Bread is from Shaikh ‘Adi's
storehouse’; ‘Shaikh ‘Adi sits on the throne’; ‘My religion is [from]
Sharf ad-Din’ (one of the components of his complete name); and ‘ Shaikh
‘Adi is the One God’.
The research made by Iraqi Yezidi authors, Xewrê Silêman and Xelîlê Cindî, provides us with the Yezidi texts including the discussion between Shaikh ‘Adi and the famous Sufi Ahmad b. ar-Rifa‘i who came to Lalish accompanied by his forty disciples and a story about al-Hallaj. Some of the texts contain laudation of Shaikh ‘Adi, narrate his biography and describe his miracles - karamat [26].
The Yezidi Religious Poetry, collected in the former USSR by two brothers-scholars, Ordîxanê Celîl and Celîlê Celîl, is often referred to the name and image of Shaikh ‘Adi b. Musafir. ‘The Conversation between Shaikh and Aqub’ may be especially interesting: presumably the Biblical/Qur’anic personage - Aqub (Yaqub) - answers the questions of Shaikh ‘Adi concerning rules of the universe. At the end, when the last question nonplussed an avowed prophet, the Shaikh exclaims:
"By one word I made Aqub ... an [ordinary] mortal human" [5:II,44-49].
Another substantial collection of Yezidi texts, recorded, translated into English and commented on, is the research by Philip Kreyenbroek: Yezidism - its Background, Observances and Textual Tradition. This is the best and the most complete study on Yezidism, also because the author, twice during 1992, had a chance to visit Iraqi Kurdistan Safe Heaven enjoying co-operation from Yezidi scholars and spiritual leaders.
Other oral sources were recorded and translated into Russian by
Margarita Borisovna Rudenko: Kurdish
Ritual Poetry and The Kurdish New Year
festivals. To pay a tribute to this outstanding scholar, it may be reminded
that Rudenko was born in Tbilisi and had the first-hand knowledge of the
Caucasian Kurds. It is her who largely contributed to Kurdish literary studies
by translating and publishing Mam û Zin by
Ahmedê Xanî, Shaikh San‘an by Feqî
Teyran and Yusuf û Zelikha by Selîmê
Silêman.
The Kurdish sacred poetry abounds in Sufi terms and notions, which, however, have been ‘Kurdisised’ up to almost out of all recognition. The oral poetry of the Yezidis, and that of the Kurds in general, staggers by wealth of linguistic colours and figurative and picturesque account of events. It undoubtedly represents one of the brilliant folklorist phenomena, which was noted by many researchers. Thus, Nikitine discussed in details that instantaneous sketching and quick, laconic poetical stories express the essence of the Kurdish folklore, in which a poetic tissue of verse is barely constrained by the strict rules of versification [49:268-273].
In general, the Yezidi hymns, qewls, "are chanted by trained bards (qewwal) on occasions of a religious nature" [19:ix].
There is a number of Kurdish sources of auxiliary role used in the current paper.
In his famous Sharaf-name, Bidlisi speaks of tribes who followed Yezidi teaching and mentions Shaikh ‘Adi, but sadly the chapters 7-9 are missing: they would have been dedicated to Yezidi tribe called Dasni/Tasni [3:83-84,177-314,326-327 etc.].
Another source is connected with the originally Yezidi, but Islamised tribe, Dunbuli, which played an important role in medieval history of Iranian parts of Kurdistan and Azerbaijan [61:12-17].
The Yezidi memory should have been so strong that the son of the ruler of city of Khoy (Iranian Kurdistan), Rustam-khan b. Ahmad-khan Dunbuli wrote a book dedicated to the Yezidi religion [51:229-248].
On the basis of his own sources and experiences, the Kurdish author of the nineteenth century, Mela Mahmud Bayazidi wrote the ‘Adat u rasumat-name. He was inspired by Alexander Jaba, Russian Council to Erzerum, who himself largely contributed to Kurdish studies. Unfortunately, Bayazidi restricts himself in describing Yezidi religion and presumably Shaikh ‘Adi b. Musafir by stating that "if I speak about them, my book will be very long" [2:64,189b].
Some other sources in Kurdish - Divan of Melaê Cezîrî and a collection of fairy tales and legendary stories prepared by the family of Celîl - profile the degree of interrelation between Yezidi religion, Sufism and Zoroastrian survivals.
II.2. Primary Arabic
Sources
A number of distinguished medieval historians and geographers mentioned Shaikh ‘Adi b. Musafir: Ibn al-Athir (1160-1234), the author of al-Kamil fi t-tarikh on the atabeks of Mosul; Ibn Khallikan (1211-1282) who wrote about Shaikh ‘Adi in his Wafayat al-a‘yan, as well as Ibn al-Futi, Ibn Kathir, Ibn al-Wardi, Abu l-Fida’, adh-Dhahabi, as-Sam‘ani and many others. The best bibliography on Yezidism composed by Kurkis ‘Awwad addresses all the names and titles in this respect [30:esp.677-679, 689, 691, 693].
These sources are well studied and luckily for the modern students of Yezidism, they have been extensively quoted by al-‘Azzawi, al-Hasani and other researchers.
In 1911 the brilliant textual research was published by the German scholar Rudolf Frank: Scheikh 'Adi, der grosse Heilige der Jezîdîs. It was based on both the legendary and historical data concerning Shaikh ‘Adi as well as his works. Frank's study is of a particular significance for the current paper especially since I obtained and worked on the microfilms of the manuscripts discussed in the monograph.
First of all, Frank analyses two manuscripts from the Königl. Bibliothek zu Berlin (at present, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin) under the codes We 1769 and We 1743. The latter manuscript was composed in 1509 in Damascus. A certain person in some places changed the name of Shaikh ‘Adi b. Musafir by the name of the above-mentioned Ahmad ar-Rifa‘i. Nevertheless, by an oversight of the falsifier, the manuscript keeps the name of the real author: ‘Adi b. Musafir b. Isma‘il b. Musa al-Amawi. Apparently, as Frank thinks, the main purpose to conceal Shaikh ‘Adi's name was to prevent the popularisation of his ideas, since he is being revered by ‘the anti-Islamic religious sect’ [31:464].
The only reason of why this 'guardian of the ideological purity' did not obliterate the manuscript is because he detected no reprehensible maxims [15:10-11].
The manuscript We 1743 (fol. 29b-43a) contains the work of Shaikh ‘Adi called I‘tiqad ahl as-sunna (‘Dogma of the People of the Sunna’). In three chapters of the treatise, Shaikh ‘Adi reasons Oneness and the absolute power of God, while criticising ‘unlawful innovations’ (bid‘a, Pl. bida‘). The opponents of Islamic ‘traditionalists’ (ahl as-sunna) were ‘those involved in unlawful innovations’ (ahl al-bid‘a), or, in the Shaikh's view - Shi'ites, Qadarites, and Mu'tazilites. The manuscript ends with variants of well-known hadiths, mostly concerning split of Islam into sects. Frank notes the impact of al-Ghazali's philosophy on this treatise [15:11-19].
The following work in the same manuscript, also occasionally with the interpolated name of Ahmad ar-Rifa‘i, is entitled Kitab fihi dhikr adab an-nafs (‘The book in which discourse is how to train soul with beautiful’). Frank maintains that similarly to the first work, this treatise can be characterised as a popular one yielding to the level of al-Ghazali's works. Nonetheless, both Shaikh ‘Adi's Sufism and that of al-Ghazali get along with the Qur’an and sunna [15:19-24].
This work in the manuscript follows by the short text, that is, Wasaja ash-shaykh ‘Adi b. Musafir ila l-khalifa (‘Shaikh ‘Adi b. Musafir's admonition of the Caliph’). This text urges the Muslims to disdain the transitory life and to follow the way of faith bewaring of ‘unlawful innovations’ [15:24-26].
The last prosaic work has a heading Wasaja li muridihi ash-shaikh Qa’id wa li sa'ir al-muridihi (‘The admonition of his disciple Shaikh Qa’id and of other disciples’). On the basis of the Qur’anic verses Shaikh ‘Adi warns against passion for mundane deeds and calls for control over emotions. In another way, he teaches his disciples how to follow Sufi life [15:26-28].
All the four works in the manuscript We 1743 are written by the same handwriting. The copyist, Muhammad b. Ahmad al-‘Adawi, as it follows from his name, belonged to the tariqa ‘Adawiya. The date indicated in the manuscript, 915/1509, makes evident that the tariqa founded by ‘Adi b. Musafir existed as long as until the early sixteenth century [15:28].
This fact confirms the opinion that after the death of the Shaikh, his followers divided on two groups. The first group settled in Egypt and Syria and continued the Islamic history of the tariqa. The others, chiefly the members of ‘Adi's family and the accomplice Shaikhs, joined the Kurdish religious community in holding the position of its spiritual leaders [49:226].
Frank lists a number of arguments for Shaikh ‘Adi's authorship, or at least, that he was an inspirer and exponent of the ideas expressed in these treatises. The most important fact is the coincidence of maxims in these works with those ascribed to Shaikh ‘Adi in another source, Bahjat al-asrar, composed one and a half century after the Shaikh's death.
The handwriting of Ahmad b. Muhammad al-‘Adawi may also be detected in two qasidas from the same manuscript We 1743. An anonymous falsifier, in addition to inserting the name of Ahmad b. ar-Rifa‘i, made some other amendments [15:28-29].
The first qasida is written in the tawil metre with certain deviations, meanwhile the second one, consisting of five lines, is composed in the basit metre. Both works correspond to the Sufi poetical tradition of the twelfth century, and their authorship might almost certainly be ascribed to Shaikh ‘Adi b. Musafir [15:29-31].
The third poetical work is contained in the manuscript under the code We 1769. In this qasida the name of Shaikh ‘Adi is found in both the title and the text. One of two cumbrous titles of the qasida is: Li saiydi ‘Adi bin Musafir afada Allah ‘alaina min barakatihi. Amin (Belonging to my Lord ‘Adi b. Musafir. The Most High shed lavishly from His Benediction. Amen). This is uncommon of Sufi poetry when a prayer appears in the heading. The copyist of the qasida is a Shafi‘i Shaikh ash-Shafuni, but we do not have any information whether he belonged to the ‘Adawiya or whether the latter still existed in the eighteenth century. This poetical text consisting of nineteen basit-metre beits is also a Sufi one. No miracle mentioned in the qasida - neither of the rider on the boulder, nor of a magic serpent - shows analogues in other legends of Shaikh ‘Adi.
According to Frank, the form of the qasida is characterised by ‘the metric uncertainty’ [15:33].
Thus, in order to follow metre ‘an ash-shaikh (‘from/about the Shaikh’) is reduced to ‘ash-shaikh, and ya ummi (‘O my mother’) transfers to yamm. Therefore this qasida patently yields to the two above-mentioned poetical works [15:33-36].
The fourth qasida is contained in the British Museum, and is also analysed by Frank. One more qasida, well known to scholars, is being ascribed to Shaikh ‘Adi b. Musafir, although it is not contained in the Berlin manuscript. As early as in the midst of the nineteenth century, this poetical work was quoted by Layard and Badger [13:113-115]; then other researchers also included it into their studies.
Although having neither a common rhyme, nor the certain metre, the Eulogy nevertheless was highly evaluated by Frank for its ‘poetical flight’ [15:33].
The Madihat shaikh ‘Adi begins with the authors self-proclamation as the bearer of the Truth (haqq) and the creator of everything by the will of God. The culmination of the poem comes with the words of the Shaikh's self-identification as God; later this idea became an integral part of the Yezidi tradition:
"I am ‘Adi, ash-Shami, [son of] Musafir ...
In the depth of my knowledge there is no God but me.
These things are subservient to my power.
How, then, can ye deny me, O my enemies?" [13:114]
Interestengly enough, Badger, having been in doubts that the real
personality with the name of Shaikh ‘Adi had ever existed, refused to
translate ash-Shami as ‘the
Syrian’, suggesting instead the literal interpretation of the name Musafir: ‘a wanderer’.
Many places in this qasida are consonant to the first poetical work, mentioned above: for instance, in both poems the author calls himself a ruler (hakim) of the earth whose followers will escape hell. However, there are some differences with other qasidas. Thus, the ‘Eulogy’ does not mention the effect of the Mystical wine, and here the Shaikh uses the Iranian term firdaws for ‘paradise’ instead of the Arabic jinna which appears in his other works.
I shall discuss it later whether the Madihat was composed in the Baghdad period of ‘Adi's activity or whether the Shaikh wrote it in his early Kurdistan period. At any rate, there is resemblance between the ideas and disposition of the author of the 'Eulogy' and Shaikh ‘Adi's maxims and deeds in the Hakkari mountains.
Other maxims and deeds of Shaikh ‘Adi are mentioned in different works, which have also been analysed by Frank [15:46-101]. These are:
1) A short text on the last pages of one of the Berlin manuscripts. Its conceivable author is the great-grandson of ‘Adi's brother: Shaikh Hasan b. ‘Adi b. Abi l-Barakat b. Sakhr b. Musafir;
2) The Kitab Manaqib ash-shaikh ‘Adi b. Musafir (The Book of Merits of Shaikh ‘Adi b. Musafir) on twenty-six pages from the same manuscript. This work speaks of the Shaikh's miracles (karamat) and contains a list of his forty disciples. The date of its composition is unknown;
3) The Bahjat al-asrar (Gladness of the Concealed) written in 1313 in Cairo. The author of the work is ‘Ali b. Yusuf ash-Shattanaufi. The Bahjat al-asrar contains the description of the life of Shaikh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani together with data concerning other Sufis. The stories of Shaikh ‘Adi in general correspond to those in the Kitab manaqib. Frank holds the opinion that in both cases they are derived from an earlier source that had not passed to us;
4) The work of the fecund Sufi writer ash-Sha‘rani Lawakih al-anwar fi tabaqat al-ahjar composed in 1545 in Cairo. The information concerning Shaikh ‘Adi is derived from the Bahjat al-asrar.
II.3. Secondary
Sources
First of all, I want to mention major studies in Arabic written both by Iraqi Arabs and Kurds, which I use in my current paper: ‘Abbas al-‘Azzawi's Tarikh al-yazidiya wa asl aqidatihim, ‘Abdarrazzaq al-Hasani's Al-yazidiya fi hadirihim was madihim, the Yezidi ruler's, Isma‘il-bak Çol's Al-yazidiya qadiman wa hadithan and Shaikh ‘Ali's Hawla al-yazidiya.
Both Iraqi scholars, al-‘Azzawi and al-Hasani, present a detailed information about Yezidism in general and ‘Adi b.Musafir in particular. With regard to the works of Çol and Shaikh ‘Ali, they could be regarded as a primary material since both authors hold special social and spiritual positions in the Yezidi community.
Isma‘il-bak Çol, as early as in 1908, drew up a document which was aimed at revitalising and modernising the Yezidi community for the upcoming twentieth century [19:8,60ff,126].
He comes from the family of Mîr, the secular rulers of the Yezidi Kurds. This position is being held by Çol family at least from the early eighteenth century: according to the legend, when Shaikh ‘Adi was dying, the three branches of Yezidi Shaikhs "were quarrelling about his succession". Then in answer to ‘Adi's prayers, God sent the Peacock Angel (Melekê Taus) to the earth and the latter created a man from the void, which is in Kurdish, ’çol’. Thus the offspring of the Çol family are believed to be the secular rulers of the community under the title of Mîr.
Even the belief that the void, nothingness is more powerful than something is a well known ancient view. For to be something means not to be all other things: the latter is bigger and covers more objects. This explains why the theologians had an intuitive pre-feeling that absolute nothingness equals omni. John Scott Eriugena would even declare that God is an initial Nihil in creatrio ab nihilo [4:737-739].
Apparently, on the grounds of the similar logical premises, the Yezidis
believe that the family created from the void must have more power in their
society than others.
Majority of Kurdish scholars from the former Soviet Union naturally published their studies in Russian. Among those, either directly or indirectly elaborating the image of Shaikh ‘Adi, are Pashaeva's Relgious and caste prohibitions in marriage and the two studies of Kurdoev on the alphabet, author and language of the Yezidi texts. One work, in Kurdish, referred in the current paper is Sacred Books by Çerkezê Reþ.
As is was said before, the serious interest towards Yezidism in Europe was marked by the first half of the nineteenth century. A couple of the works of that period, among other things mentioning ‘Adi b. Musafir, are referred to: The Nestorians and their Rituals by Badger and Nineveh and its Remains by Layard.
Important studies of the scholars of the twentieth century, first of all, Bittner, Mingana, Menzel and Semionov are also widely used in the current paper.
Roger Lescot, the most outstanding French Kurdologist, in 1930s visited
Yezidi communities in Iraqi and Syrian Kurdistan. According to Kreyenbroek,
"his work was to prove the last major contribution to Yezidi Studies for a
long time" [19:17].
At the same time, it was "perhaps ironic that, although his book
made enormous contributions to our knowledge of Yezidi lore, Lescot's
fundamental approach to his subject must in its turn furthered the decline of
its study" [19:17].
The research material on Mandaean, Ahl-e Haqq and other regional religions, while discolsing their links with Yezidism, also reveal to us how Islamic values were adopted to both Kurdish and non-Kurdish societies and what the role of personalities in this process, was. The studies in question are: Drower's Mandaeans and Peacock Angel, Ivanow's Truth-Worshippers of Kurdistan and Bartold's Muslim sect of the Merwanites. Especially worthy of note are fundamental studies Zoroastrians by Mary Boyce and Die Renaissance des Islâms by Adam Mez.
With regard to Basile Nikitine's book, Les Kurdes, it is the first comprehensive study on the Kurds. The author, the former Russian Council to Persia and a member of prestigious international academies and diplomatic societies, wrote numerous works on the Kurdish topic. In his conclusive study, Nikitine devoted several subchapters to the issue of Yezidism and emphasised the support he enjoyed from Louis Massignon, who, in turn, wrote the preface to Les Kurdes.
Massignon's outstanding study, La Passion de Husayn Ibn Mansûr Hallâj, is also used in the current paper since al-Hallaj plays an important role in Yezidi world outlook and, presumably, had an impact on ‘Adi b. Musafir's life and teaching. I also refer to the study of Masud Ali ogly Mamedov, himself a Khallaj Kurd from Azerbaijan, dedicated to the language of his community.
Some of the latest works have been quoted because they
conclude results of studies on such topics as Baghdad in the Middle Ages (Mikhailova) and A History of Medieval Syria in the Seldjuk Period (Semionova). I
believe that social and economic factors need to be incorporated into the
research about the religious figures who influenced Kurdish spiritual and
political history.
III
BIOGRAPHY
OF SHAIKH ‘ADI
III.1. Inadequate
Attempts to Identify Shaikh ‘Adi in the Past
In the past there existed a number of suggestions about Shaikh ‘Adi's identity: they later proved to be erroneous [13:110,112-113; 15:6; 24:76; 62:104].
With regard to the information in two Christian sources dated by the fifteenth century, that of the archbishop of Arbil Jeshu ‘Ayyab, and that of the monk Ramishu‘, the case is as follows: in the early thirteenth century Shaikh ‘Adi al-Kurdi expelled monks and occupied the Christian monastery in Lalish, transforming it into his sanctuary [16:12,20-21; 26:101-102; 28:81].
First of all, those sources, either deliberately or otherwise, identify Shaikh ‘Adi b. Musafir with his brother Sakhr's grandson, whose full name was Shaikh ‘Adi b. Abi l-Barakat al-Kurdi. The latter indeed lived in the thirteenth century and, for some reason, was engaged in a struggle with the monks quartered in his patrimonial (at least, as it appeared to him) abode. Having been driven out, the Christians from Lalish complained to the Mosulian authorities. Then, after a years-long conflict Badr ad-Din Lu’lu’ succeeded in defeating the Yezidi Kurds headed by the son of Shaikh ‘Adi the Second, Shaikh Hasan (the likely author of one of the above-mentioned texts).
The ruler of Mosul treated the Kurds in a most brutal way: Shaikh Hasan was dungeonned and then beheaded and many of his people were executed. Moreover, the warriors of Badr ad-Din Lu’l’u dug up ‘Adi's tomb and incinerated his remains [16:22-23].
Secondly, the interior layout of the tomb of Shaikh ‘Adi does not have elements characteristic of Christian monasteries [13:110].
Wigrams maintain that the architecture of Yezidi buildings is evidence that they had been erected in pre-Christian times; then, during the late Roman age Christian monks settled in them [62:94].
Thirdly, it is no coincidence that anti-Yezidi trends in these Syrian manuscripts fall within the fifteenth century. It was a time when the Mesopotamian Christians, enjoying the patronage of the Muslim rulers, were engaged in activity against the ‘infidels’.
The situation with the Yezidis was aggravated by the
fact that they always were "against all men and every government"
[42:8-9].
III.2.
Data on ‘Adi's Origin
Nowadays, the scholars maintain that ‘Adi b. Musafir came to the Kurdish mountains of Hakkari from ash-Sham (historical Syria). The Yezidi tradition says:
" Shaikh ‘Adi came from [ash-] Sham
In the East [of his homeland he] started to work,
Virtue is upon the houses of [our] fathers,
Shaikh ‘Adi himself is a gift of the Light,
[He is] Light from the house of the Shaikhs" [5:II,18; See also 26:100,104].
The genealogy of a historical figure consists of two lists: of his/her ancestry and descendants. In case of Shaikh ‘Adi both genealogies are to be viewed.
The complete name of ‘Adi is: Sharaf ad-Din Abu l-Fada’il ‘Adi b. Musafir b. Isma‘il b. Musa b. Marwan b. al-Hasan b. Marwan [16:15].
With regard to the Shaikh's ancestry line, the issue is still debated. The researches adduce the two most wide-spread ones:
1) ‘Adi b. Musafir b.
Isma‘il b. Musa b. Marwan b. al-Hasan (or b. al-Hakm) b. Marwan;
2) ‘Adi b. Musafir b.
Ibrahim b. al-Walid b. ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan b. al-Hakm b. al-‘As b.
‘Uthman b. ‘Affan b. Rabi‘a b. ‘Abd ash-Shams b. Zuhra b. ‘Abd Manaf
[12:29].
Although both Marwan I and Marwan II could have been ‘Adi's direct ancestors, the genealogy is incomplete: the Umayyad rulers lived in the eighth century, whereas ‘Adi b. Musafir was born in the second half of the eleventh century.
At any rate, the Umayyad origin of Shaikh ‘Adi is almost beyond any doubt. Moreover, for a long period the scholars agreed that Shaikh ‘Adi had carried out the reorganisation of ‘the ultra-Umayyad sect of the Yezidis’ [34:II,776].
The Shaikh ‘found a warm welcome in the Kurdish mountains, where the Kurds were in any case inclined to look favourably upon a descendant of the Umayyad dynasty’ [19:29].
This fact, on the one hand, explains the sensitivity of his followers to Yazid b. Mu‘awiya, and, on the other hand, makes us think of the connections between ‘Adi's, or his successors’, teaching and the ideas of the Merwanites [24:78-79; 31].
The last Umayyad ruler and possible direct ancestor of Shaikh
‘Adi, Marwan II, before ascending the throne (740-750), ruled over
Northern Mesopotamia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. These were provinces with sizeable
Kurdish population. His mother was Kurdish, too. According to al-Baladhuri, from
his father Marwan II "inherited as a private property the fishing incomes
from the lake of Van" [31:464].
Bidlisi informs us that in the Kurdish tribe, Sulaymani, mostly
consisting of the adherents of the Marwanians, a part "chose an iniquitous
Yezidi persuasion" [3:314].
It is noteworthy that as late as in the early twentieth century, the sect of the Merwanites in Badahshan was also called Yezidiya [24:79; 31:465].
Consequently, with some reservations, I conclude that Shaikh ‘Adi b.
Musafir was an Arab from the once powerful dynasty of Umayyads with Kurdish
blood running in his veins.
We know that prior to Shaikh ‘Adi's arrival, many Umayyad descendants
lived in Kurdish mountains in the capacity of Sufi Shaikhs. There is
"detailed evidence to show that after the fall of the Umayyad dynasty, a
religious movement was prominent in the Kurdish mountains which taught an
excessive worship for that dynasty, not least for Yazid b. Muawiya" [19:28;
See also 20:21].
‘Adi b. Musafir was born between 1073 and 1078 in Beit-Far in Baalbek that is situated in the Beqaa valley of the present-day Lebanon. Baalbek was surrounded by marvellous ruins. In his childhood, ‘Adi must have been visiting the grand Sun-God temple in Tadmur, not totally destroyed. At the main gates of the Bacchus temple, he could have seen the gracious portrayals of poppy and wheat symbolising alternation of life and death. One cannot exclude that all this contributed to ‘Adi's mystical way of thinking when he would settle in the peaceful haven in the Kurdish mountains, with severe winters and long springs [36:151-152].
Afterwards, ‘Adi's birth would be described through picturesque legends. One legend said that before his birth he had been foreseen as a pre-eminent person. Another legend speaks of ‘Adi's wise speeches in his early childhood. According to the third one, ‘Adi's future as a Sufi was pre-determined by events with his father [16:15-16].
"Musafir b. Isma‘il, the father of ‘Adi, went to a forest and remained there for forty years. Once he had a dream that someone told him: "O Musafir! Come out and copulate with your wife, and a Friend of God [i.e. Sufi] will come to you, whose fame will spread in the East and the West".
Then, Musafir came out from the forest and went to his wife. She remonstrated with him saying: "I shall not do it unless the Luminary arises." Then Musafir appealed: "O residents of the city! I am Musafir, I came because I received an order to mount my mare, and Friends of God will come to those who mount their mares". And thus three-hundred-and-thirteen Friends of God were born to him" [16:15-16].
Since to be proven miraculous, events require a number of eye-witnesses, Musafir had to appeal to the residents of his settlement. With regard to the number of Friends of God, it may allude to three-hundred-and-thirteen associates or successors of ‘Adi b. Musafir.
In general, all the legends about ‘Adi b. Musafir are
characterised with clear aesthetic merits and bewitching sequence of events.
This common feature of stories about saints in Islam was well described by
Goldziher, who would compare them with Iranian and Indian fairy tales [15:81].
I can add that the same sense of aesthetic beauty and archaic tradition of narration is also very strong in Yezidi religious poetry.
III.3. The Baghdad
Period
A young person, ‘Adi b. Musafir moved to Baghdad and spent the first half of his life there. In this centre of culture and education, ‘Adi learned from the esteemed figures such as Ahmad al-Ghazali and ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani; he also won respect for his good manners [15:86-87; 16:15-16; 49:226].
In Baghdad, the Shaikh wrote several treatises and qasidas which, in the following Chapter, serve as the basis of my review of ‘Adi b. Musafir's religious and philosophical ideas.
However, the economical and political situation in Baghdad in the late eleventh-twefth centuries was anything but stable. The constant violence in relations between the Sunni majority and the dynamic Shi'ite minority occurred every year, with the exception of short-lived reconciliation in 1095 and during 1109-1116. This conflict predominantly acquired the form of opposition between the Shi'ite Karkh and the Sunnite Bab al-Basra quarters. It is remarkable that the religious intolerance mainly referred to inter-communal Muslim relations, which was also caused by economical hardships, namely problems with water supplies. At the same time, other religious groups, mainly Jews and Christians did not experience any organised persecution.
Resistance of the inhabitants against the Seldjuk rulers was sometimes accompanied by the actions of the militant ‘Ayyars (‘Ayyarun), a self-styled militia, who also would not disdain to plunder in the city. The contemporary Muslim sources, including Ibn al-Jawzi's Talbis Iblis, speak of the ‘Ayyars' Code of Honesty and behaviour in no positive way. Such a situation of anarchy could not and did not promote cultural progress [47].
Moreover, as is known, befoe long, Cairo took the place oif Baghdad in the capacity of the cultural and political centre of the Islamic world.
In due course, Shaikh ‘Adi's personal experience in Baghdad must have contributed to his non-confrontational views concerning Jewish and Christian faiths as well as to his observable anti-Shi'ite sentiments.
Data on ‘Adi b. Musafir's life in Baghdad alongside his works may explain why ‘Adi b. Musafir was prompted to leave Baghdad for Kurdish region.
First of all, in a devastated city he could hardly continue with his theological studies. Neither did ‘Adi have relatives or close friends, the fact which could have had smoothed the negative effect of political and economical hardships.
Secondly, ‘Adi's interest in Sufism and his ancestral homeland must be mentioned. Since the names and terms mentioned in ‘Adi's qasidas may well be explained by his acquaintance with Kurdish life, it is possible that while living in Baghdad, he visited the Hakkari mountains and established contacts with the locals. ‘Adi might also have been acquainted with the Kurds living in and around Baghdad. That is why, ‘Adi b. Musafir mentions the very name Lalish and alludes to Ahmad (b.) ar-Rifa‘i's visit to Lalish in one of his qasidas, the motive appearing in Yezidi tradition, too.
Thirdly, as many Kurds assert, Shaikh ‘Adi might have had an intention to propagate Islam amongst the Kurds in Hakkari. In doing so, he might have been following al-Hallaj's example [44:I,51].
Forthly, we know that a hundred years after al-Hallaj's execution some people in Baghdad still believed in his divine returning. According to Abu l-‘Ala al-Ma‘arri (d. 449/1057), in 399/1008 there were people in Baghdad who "still waited there on the banks of the Tigris, in the hope that he would arise from it", and one of them saw him there [46:289].
It is not, therefore, excluded that ‘Adi b. Musafir had a first-hand knowledge of such an expectation. Therefore, one of the reasons for ‘Adi's departure from Baghdad, besides social and economical ones, might have been his awareness of al-Hallaj's fate: he wanted to avoid the learned people who envied him or disliked him, especially since he had given up normative Islamic theology and had turned to Sufism.
III.4. In the Kurdish
Mountains of Hakkari
One way or another, ‘Adi b. Musafir desired to attain a Sufi life and thus secluded himself from the mundane world. He found a quiet haven in Hakkari, the Kurdish region, once ruled by Marwan II. In the observed period, it lost its independence and became subordinated to the rulers of Mosul [16:15-16].
The population there was predominantly transhumant. However, there were cultivated lands with grape, sugar-cane, cotton, mulberry (introduced from China in ancient times), sorts of fruits, grain and other cultures.
Certainly, continuos military operations in the region and waves of refugees after the advance of the Crusaders badly affected regional economy. However, the Seldjuk rulers carried out moderate attitude towards peasants and created conditions for further development [25:36-51].
The low affect of military actions on rural population and traders in the Seldjuk period was expressed by Ibn Gubayr: "People of war are busy with their war whereas population is in prosperity" [25:92].
Another important element is the role of the Kurds on the political scene of that period. In addition to Kurdish principalities and chieftains in Mesopotamia, Armenia and Azebaijan, the most active Kurdish groups and figures found their composure in the Holy Land events. This may be a reason why sources describe Shaikh ‘Adi's arrival as a lone act to peaceful Kurdish nomads in an idyllic environment.
Here, close to the regal nature the Kurds were living. With regard to their religion, the medieval Arab historians relate them to the Zoroastrian sect Tayrahiya. According to the mentioned Aramean source by the monk Ramishu‘, the local Kurds used to spend summer with their herds in nomadic camps returning to the environs of Mosul in winter; the number of their tents exceeded one thousand [16:12-13].
There exists more than sufficient evidence that the territory of the present-day Kurdistan was the important Zoroastrian centre from the ancient times until the Islamic age [6:6-7; 23:123-124; 33:49-50,96; 41:33; 49:166-167].
As it appears to me, the term Behdînan in the historical Hakkari traces back to the word: behdin/vehdin with the literal notion ‘the good faith’ and the Plural suffix an. The former is the self-definition of Zoroastrians: ‘the heirs of Behdin/Vehdin’ [41:12; 53:150].
In other words, the place-name Behdînan could have a descriptive meaning as ‘the residence of the Zoroastrians’.
At first, Shaikh ‘Adi b. Musafir followed a life of
solitude, and the local population invented implausible stories concerning his
way of living. By way of illustration, there were legends that the Shaikh did
not eat and never drank. And one day, in order to refute these rumours, Shaikh
‘Adi ‘ate something in the presence of people’ [16:7].
Here, ‘Adi b. Musafir appears to carry out the mortification of the flesh and the cult of poverty (faqr), of which he wrote in Baghdad in his Kitab fihi dhikr adab an-nafs.
Gradually, Shaikh ‘Adi won respect from the local population thanks to his self-tortures, fasting and miracles - karamat [49:226].
Then with their questions and problems, the people started to come to this dark-complexioned, medium height person whose speeches "fascinated emotionally rather than rationally" [16:8; See also 12:29; 15:52].
Surrounded by his disciples, ‘Adi b. Musafir preached
in both Arabic and Kurdish [15:103].
Before long, Christians, Muslims, and the members of
other ethno-religious communities of the region joined the Yezidi Kurds, who had
already regarded Shaikh ‘Adi as their teacher [24:77].
This
fact could have promoted the syncretic nature of Yezidism. At least other two
factors also contributed to the syncretism of the Yezidi creeds:
1) The Near Eastern region in general and the Kurdish homeland in
particular, from a time immemorial was an attractive centre for religious
teachings and movements;
2) The most powerful empires of the past, starting
with that of Alexander the Great and the Roman Empire, dynamically exercised in
this region the policy of unification and smoothing over socio-economical,
political and cultural differences.
Albeit waging a peaceful life, ‘Adi b. Musafir could not be isolated from the military events of his epoch. His sympathy must have been with the Muslims who were on the defence against Christian armies. Thus, the book of ‘Adi's miracles - Kitab manaqib - proves a tangible impact of the Crusades on his life as well as the fact that many Kurds fought against the ‘infidel Franks’. According to one of the legends, ‘Adi's miraculously saved Muslim prisoners of war from their forced labour captivity in Syria [15:69-77].
Another miracle testifies the Shaikh's miracle in the presence of two Muslim soldiers [15:77].
With regard to ‘Adi's disciples, we find their names in sources: amongst his forty murids there are both unequivocally Kurdish names, confirmed by Yezidi poetry, and non-Kurdish ones [20:232-234].
Amongst his non-Kurdish followers, the sources mention ‘Abdallah with the laqab ‘Abd al-Masikh. According to another disciple of the Shaikh, Lahiq, once his master interrupted his speech by turning to the West and shouting out: "Here, to us!" Then he explained that God had sent a man from Constantinople to his abode, and on the third day he ordered his disciples to come out and welcome their ‘brother’ in a Sufi clothe. This man, ‘Abdallah, would later become the first disciple who would popularise ‘Adi's fame in the land of non-Arabs [15:77-78].
We also can take a note that another murid of Shaikh ‘Adi- Bashir b. Ghunaym - was of Dumbuli tribe
[20:233].
The Dumbuli tribe is an example of the steady decline of the adherents
of Yezidism: originally Yezidis with the name derived from the mountain near
Diyarbakir, the Dumbuli rulers of Khoy of the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries
became close to the Persian Shah's
family, and, by now, they have been assimilated in the Shiite milieu of Iranian
Azerbaijan [3:83,357; 28:80; 59:334,1229; 61].
Yet, there is a possible survival of that tribe amongst the Yezidi qewwals,
who tour Iraqi Kurdistan with the sanjaq,
recite Yezidi qewls, play sacred music
and preach to the congregation. They are drawn from two families, one of them
being the Kurmandji-speaking Dimlî, seemingly a later variant of Dumbuli
[19:132].
Thus, we find Shaikh ‘Adi b. Musafir appearing in the Kurdish history as a solitary pious person. He won fame amongst the Kurds and their neighbours alike, and in Mosul and Baghdad, too [15:66-67; 26:103].
In Hakkari, the Shaikh had founded his tariqa, whose members would split into two groups after his death. The first one settled in Egypt and Syria and existed as an Islamic tariqa until at least the sixteenth century. The others, chiefly the members of ‘Adi's family and the other Shaikhs, joined the Kurdish religious group through filling the position of its spiritual leaders [49:226].
In his declining years - when he was about ninety years old - Shaikh ‘Adi b. Musafir passed away in Lalish. The exact year of his death is not known for certain: either 555, or 557, or 558 in hijrah, that is, about 1162 AD [12:29; 15:88; 16:15,17].
In the thirteenth century, as is known, Badr ad-Din Lu’lu’ defiled his tomb. Twice during his life, Shaikh ‘Adi went to the hajj to Mecca: once, as I have written, in 1116 from Hakkari joining ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani. In general, the Yezidi tradition contains many legends concerning these pilgrimages [15:86-87; 55:326-327; 62:105].
The faith of numerous followers of Shaikh ‘Adi in his holiness was, in
the words of Ibn Khallikan, "so infinite that praying to him they took him
as their qibla and imagined that in the future life they would have him as the
most precious treasure and the best support" [24:75; See also 3:83-84;
29:262-263].
It is important to note that in the sources created during ‘Adi's life there are sufficient motifs both to prove his Islamic piety and his deviation from normative Islamic concepts. Thus, he appreciates that a certain Hasan al-Husuri refused the deal of another wandering Sufi: the latter wanted to give Hasan eight hajjes to Mecca in exchange of one hajj to ‘Adi's place [15:78-79].
It is also worthy of note that the way the tomb of Shaikh ‘Adi functions, reminds us a Sufi cloister, zawiya, which in the twelfth century became the structural and economical basis of the tariqas [13:105-110; 16:20-24; 24:76; 36:14-16,156,159-168,196; 58:263-268].
This is a general re-construction of Shaikh ‘Adi b.
Musafir's biography. Other views and suggestions do not appear to
have solid arguments.
IV
SUFI
AUTHORITIES WHO
INFLUENCED ‘ADI'S
VIEWS
AND
ARE WORSHIPPED
BY YEZIDIS
While speaking of ‘Adi b. Musafir's activity in Baghdad, one has to pay particular regard to the Sufi Shaikhs who influenced his treatises and his subsequent life in general. It is moreover significant since most of them, due to ‘Adi's role in Yezidi tradition, are now venerated by the Yezidi Kurds. In this chapter I mention these Sufis in chronological order: at this point it is hard to make a full assessment of their influence on Shaikh ‘Adi's teaching.
As was established by Frank, two treatises of ‘Adi b. Musafir - I‘tiqad ahl as-sunna and Kitab fihi dhikr adab an-nafs - are permeated with the ideas of al-Ghazali.
In different ways, other Sufis also influenced Shaikh ‘Adi's teaching, as hinted in the Yezidi Sacred Book, the Meshefê Reº. Although ‘Adi b. Musafir is not a likely author of the text, the latter reflects some of his concepts.
Yezidism supposes that historical personalities are represented in the
capacity of seven angels/deities, ruling the universe, each in turns, through
the will of God [14:77].
Some Yezidis imagine those beings as angels, whereas the others see them
as similar to immortal spirits from the Avesta, Zoroastrian Amshaps.
Such an understanding shows that people's
fantasy always reflects their appeal to humanity [24:77].
According to Menzel, the Yezidi reverence to a number of Sufi Shaikhs
resembles the tradition of the tariqa Rafidiya
[45:1165].
The Meshefê Reº discloses the names of those ‘Sufi angles’:
"In the beginning God created the White Pearl from His own beloved essence, and He created a white dove whom He named E´nfer. He placed the pearl on its back and sat on it for forty thousand years.
The first day which He created was Sunday. On that day He created an angel whose name was ‘Azra’il. This is Melekê Taus, who is the greatest of all.
On Monday He created the Angel Darda’il, who is Shaikh Hasan.
On Tuesday He created the Angel Israfil, who is Shaikh Shams.
On Wednesday He created the Angel Mika’il, who is Shaikh Abu Bakr.
On Thursday He created the Angel Gibra’il, who is Sagad ad-Din.
On Friday He created the Angel Shimna’il, who is Nasir ad-Din.
On Saturday He created the Angel Nura’il, who is Yadin [Fakhr ad-Din].
And God made Melekê Taus the greatest of them.
After this He created the form of the seven heavens, the earth, the sun and the moon.
Fakhr ad-Din created man and animals and birds and beasts, and placed them in the folds of His habit. Together with the angles He came out of the Pearl. He uttered a tremendous cry over the Pearl. It came apart into four pieces. Water gushed forth from its inside, and became the sea. The world was round and without holes" [19:55-56].
Except for the Yezidi Peacock Angel - Melekê Taus - five other personalities have already been identified: ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani, al-Hasan al-Basri, al-Hallaj, Qadib al-Ban, and Fakhr ad-Din Tabaristani al-Qaydi.
With regard to Shaikh Shams, he is identified with Þêþemsê Tewrêzî - Shaikh Shams of Tabriz, the mystic who inspired Jalal ad-Din Rumi [19:43ff].
The Yezidi Hymn underlines the universalism of Shams Tabrizi: not only the Yezidis have hopes on him, but their Jewish and Christian neighbours in Bohtan are also said to have gone in his search [19:256-262].
The last historical personality represented in the Meshefê Reº in the capacity of an angel is the famous Sufi Fakhr ad-Din Tabaristani al-Qaydi (Ibn ‘Abdallah Muhammad b. ‘Ammar al-Husayn b. al-Hasan b. ‘Ali at-Ta‘im al-Bakri). He was born in the place called Kay, in Tabaristan, and died in Herat in 1210. He is said to be one of the most outstanding Sufis of his epoch [24:77].
Since Fakhr ad-Din Tabaristani al-Qaydi lived after ‘Adi b. Musafir, the degree of his contribution to Yezidi world outlook must have been comparable to that of Shams Tabrizi: both lived after him and both were incorporated into the Yezidi tradition later.
In their holy cite of Lalish, the Yezidi Kurds have seven sanjaqs, or statutes of their supreme angel/an incarnation of the lower deity, Melekê Taus. They are named after the seven angels and the last one - that of Mansur al-Hallaj - is the main sanjaq situated near the tomb of Shaikh ‘Adi. The remaining six sanjaqs in the past were yearly taken by special Yezidi groups, qawwals and kochaks, throughout the territories of the Yezidi Kurds' habitat [44:I,91;II,470; 45:1165 ].
Lescot provides the source with the whole isnad of Shaikh ‘Adi's initiation: it also includes other Sufis and - in line with tradition - goes back to ‘Umar b. al-Khattab, Prophet Muhammad, Angel Jabra’il and the Most High [20:231].
Ibn Khallikan mentions several Sufis were linked to both ‘Adi b. Musafir and al-Gilani. The last of them, Abu l-Wafa’ al-Hulwani is more prominent in Yezidi tradition. The images of a famous woman Sufi, Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiya, and Ahmad b. ar-Rifa‘i are also well elaborated in Yezidism and are directly connected with ‘Adi b. Musafir's theology. Therefore, I dedicate to al-Hulwani, Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiya and Ahmad b. ar-Rifa‘i special sub-chapters.
The remarkable observation is that all of those Sufis either themselves belonged to ecstatic trend in Islamic mysticism or, as was the case with al-Ghazali, displayed sympathy towards ecstatic Sufism. Emotional impact of their images in Yezidism is obvious: by means of theories and treatises Shaikh ‘Adi would be unable to gain veneration of the Yezidi Kurds, nor would Islamic elements have been incorporated into Yezidi tradition. In general, Kurdish nature is inclined towards beauty, poetry, miracles and ideals of justice.
Thus, Nikitine found reflection of national characters in Kurdish and Arabic poetries: the Arabs, as a Semitic people, prefer order and rational setting, while the Kurds are more free in their thoughts and emotions [49:271-273].
Abovian wrote about unlimited poetical improvisations of the Kurds, their musical talent and faithfulness to patriarchal values calling them ‘knights of the East’. He asserted: ‘every Kurdish man and woman is a poet by birth’ [27:58,70].