The Assyrian Origin of the Izedis or Yezidis-the so-called " Devil Worshippers"
Next to the splendid discoveries effected in recent times by the disentombment of the monuments of Assyria and Chaldaea, the curiosity and interest of ethnologists might be reasonably supposed to be concerned in the probable existence, in the present day, of descendants of some branches of the Assyrians or Chaldaeans of old in the same neighbourhoods.
Such descent is more than probable among some of the permanent dwellers in the country, whether Izedis, Chaldaean Christians, Sabseans, or others. And among the former there exists not only a remarkable likeness in form, feature, and the manner of wearing the hair, to the monumental Assyrians, but some of the most characteristic practices of the Assyrians are still found to be in vogue amongst them.
These remarkable people are widely diffused throughout Assyria, Mesopotamia, North Syria, Kurdistan, Asia Minor, and Armenia. One of their chief strongholds is the Sinjar mountains, in central Mesopotamia, and several tribes have lately taken refuge from Muhammedan persecution in Georgia; but the residence of their spiritual and temporal head is in the neighbourhood of Nineveh. Their chief place of worship and of pilgrimage-the holy sanctuary to which their eyes turn from all parts of the East; as also their chief place of burial- are in the same neighbourhood. The tribe of Nineveh is regarded as the most noble, and the head of the nation is still looked upon as at once Khalif, Amir, and Sheikh-spiritual and temporal head of the race.
The attention of Europeans was first called in modern times to the existence of this remarkable people by Father Maurizio Garzoni, whose tract respecting them was printed at Berlin in 1807, with the Abbate Sestini's -Viaggi e Opuscoli, and translated into French by the celebrated De Sacy, who added it as an appendix to M. Rousseau's Description du Pachalik de Bagdad, published at Paris in 1809. Copious extracts from M. Rousseau's work, and the appendix concerning the Izedis, were also given in Mr. Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia.
Mr. Rich, formerly British Resident at Baghdad, obtained some further information regarding this singular people during his residence at Nineveh in 1820-21, and the results are published in his Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, etc., vol. ii, p. 68 et seq.
The same people attracted the attention of the celebrated traveller Niebuhr ; and some notices of their practices, derived from that and other sources, are carefully digested in Mr. Baillie Fraser's little book, Mesopotamia and Assyria, ed. of 1842, p. 330 et seq.
The writer of the present paper was the first traveller who visited the celebrated sanctuary of the Izedis at Sheikh Adi; this was in 1840, but Mr. Frederick Forbes had previously explored their retreats and fastnesses in the Sinjar, which he has described in the ninth volume of the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. Dr. Grant, of the American Missions, was at or about the same time collecting such observations as have been since consigned in his work on The Nestorians, or the Lost Tribes.
The largest amount of information regarding these people has, however, been decidedly since obtained by Mr. Layard, who, having befriended them and protected them through the ambassador at Constantinople, has received marked attentions at their hands ; he was admitted to the mysterious rites of the festival of Sheikh Adi, was allowed to see their sacred emblem the Melek Taus or king cock, and obtained from their spiritual head, Sheikh Nasr, a variety of interesting and valuable information.
The chief and central place of sojourn of the Izedis is the region which corresponds to what was once Assyria Proper, at the foot of the mountains and in the plains around Nineveh. Their principal strongholds are in this region, where are also the residences of their spiritual and political head at Baadli or Baadri; their chief sanctuary, Sheikh Adi or Hadi; and their chief burial place, Bazan.
Their most populous settlements in this region are the villages of Baazani, Baasheikha, and Baadri or Sheikh Khan, whence the whole tribe is in the same region sometimes designated as the Sheikhkanli, as well as the Dassini or Dawassini, that being the name of the district as a Christian episcopacy.
The Izedis are, indeed, generally known amongst themselves by the name of the district in which they respectively dwell. In the Sinjar, they are divided into ten distinct tribes,-the Heska, Mendka, Hubaba, Merkhan, Bukra, Beit Khaled, Amera, Al Dakhi, Semoki, and Kerani; and their chief places of residence are Semil Bukra, Mirkhan, Osafa, Dinah, Amrah, As-smukiya, Al Kiraniya, Kulkah, and Sinjar itself.
Tribes of Izedis are also met with in the north of Syria, in northern Kurdistan, in Buhtan, and Missuri. Their villages are found in the districts of Julamerik, Amadiya, Jezira ibn Omar, Zakhu, Mardin, and Dyarbekir. They occur, indeed, here and there throughout northern Kurdistan, northern Mesopotamia, and Syria, as also in Armenia and Asia Minor.
A large tribe immigrated within recent times to Georgia and Russian Armenia, to avoid the persecutions of the Muham-medans. According to Baron Haxthausen (Trans-Caucasia, p. 257), the Izedis in the Russian territory are divided into two tribes, under hereditary chiefs ; one called itself Hassenzi, and its chief Tamar Agha. The Izedis are, however, all parcelled out into four great divisions, for the purpose of annual visitations by the Kawals; those of the Sinjar, those of Khurzen or Dyarbekir, those of north Syria, and those of northern Armenia.
The Muhammedans, in their dealings with men of other creeds, make a distinction between such as are believers in the sacred books, and such as have no recognized inspired works. To the first category belong Christians of all denominations, as receiving the two testaments; and the Jews, as followers of the old. With Christians and Jews, therefore, they may treat, make peace, and live ; but with such as are included in the second class the good Mussulman can have no intercourse. No treaty nor oath, where they are concerned, is binding. They have the choice between conversion and the sword, and it is unlawful even to take tribute from them. The Izedis not being looked upon as " Masters of a Book," have hence been exposed for centuries to the persecution of the Muhammedans. The harems of the south of Turkey have been recruited from them. Yearly expeditions have been made by the governors of provinces into their districts; and, whilst the men and women were slaughtered without mercy, the children of both sexes were carried off, and exposed for sale in the principal towns. These annual hunts were one of the sources of revenue of Badir Khan Bey; and it was the custom of the Pashas of Baghdad and Mosul to let loose the Bashi Bazuks upon the ill-fated Izedis, as an easy method of satisfying their demands for arrears of pay. This system was still practised to a certain extent to within a very short time ago, and gave rise to atrocities scarcely equalled in the better known African slave trade.
It was not unnatural that the Izedis, on their side, should revenge themselves, whenever an opportunity might offer, upon their oppressors. They formed themselves into bands, and were long the terror of the country. No Mussulman that fell into their hands was spared. Caravans were plundered, and travellers murdered without mercy. Christians, however, were not molested; for the Izedis looked upon them as fellow sufferers for religion's sake.
The last independent chief of the Izedis was Ali Bey, the father of Hussain Bey. He was beloved by his tribe, and sufficiently brave and skilful in war to defend them for many years against the attacks of the Kurds and Mussulmans of the plain. The powerful Bey of Rawandiz, who had united most of the Kurdish tribes of the surrounding mountains under his banner, and had defied for many years the Turks and the Persians, resolved, however, to crush the hateful sect of the Izedis. Ali Bey's forces were greatly inferior in numbers to those of his persecutor. He was defeated, and fell into the hands of the Kawandiz chief, who put him to death. The inhabitants of Sheikh Khan fled to Mosul. It was in spring ; the river had overflowed its banks, and the bridge of boats had been removed. A few succeeded in crossing the stream ; but a vast crowd of men, women, and children were left upon the opposite side, and congregated on the great mound of Kouyunjik. The Bey of Rawandiz followed them. An indiscriminate slaughter ensued ; and the people of Mosul beheld, from their terraces, the murder of these unfortunate fugitives, who cried to them in vain for help, for both Christians and Mussulmans are said to have rejoiced in the extermination of an odious and infidel sect, and no arm was lifted in their defence. Hussain Bey, having been carried by his mother to the mountains, escaped the general slaughter. He was carefully brought up by the Izedis, and from his infancy has been regarded as their chief.
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W. Francis Ainsworth, 1861
Primitive Christian Worship
