Although the Muhammedans, Sunnis, and Shi'ahs alike repudiate the Izedis, the latter do not reject the Kuran, although, like the New Testament, they consider both less entitled to their veneration than the Old Testament. Their names are uniformly those of Mussulmans, and they select passages from the Kuran for their tombs and holy places. They look upon Muhammed as a prophet, as they do Abraham, and the patriarchs. They do not, however, keep the Moslem, any more than the Christian sabbath ; nor do they observe the festival of the Kamazan. Forbes says, that the Izedis use nearly the same oaths as the Turks, Christians^ and Jews indiscriminately ; but that which to them is most binding, is to swear by the standard of Yezid. It is very likely, however, that his in­formant was a Mussulman.

The teachings of a certain Mirza Muhammed are also said to be propounded by the Izedi Sheikhs. Yet, with all this, it appears that as before stated, with the selfishness that cha­racterises most peculiar faiths, they exclude Muhammedans from future life. Whatever there is, then, of Muhammedanism, among the Izedis, may fairly be attributed to the influence acquired over them by a few zealous or pious Sheikhs, whose history is not well known; to habits of imitation; to their dwelling now so many years among Mussulman populations ; and to the desire of averting persecution and oppression at the hands of their hereditary enemies. - All these influences combined, have not, However, sufficed to make them adopt Mu-hammed as the only prophet of God. " They are not a Muhammedan sect," says Haxthausen, " for they despise Muhammed and his doctrines."

The Turkish historian, Haji Khalfah, gives the following account of the Izedis in the Jihan Numa, or Spectacle of the World. " The Yezids reckon themselves disciples of Sheikh Adi or Hadi, who was one of the Merwanian Khalifs. The Yezids were originally Sufites, who have fallen into error and darkness. Those whom they call their Sheikhs, wear black turbans, whence they are called Kara Bash (black heads) ; they never hide their women. They buy places in Paradise from their Sheikhs, and on no account curse the Devil or Yezid. The Sheikh Hadi has made our fast and prayer a part of their abominable faith, and they say, that at the day of judgment he will cause numbers to enter into Paradise. They have a great enmity to the doctors of law."

This name of Yezids, or Yezidis, which they receive from the Muhammedans, has given origin to a commonly received opinion, that these people are the descendants of those Arabs who, under the directions of Shummur, the servant or follower of Yezid ben Muawiyah, put Hassan, the son of Ali, to death. This belief is strengthened among some by Shummur being regarded by them in the light of a great saint; hence, whatever Muhammedanism there is mixed up with their other tenets, partakes more of the Sunni or orthodox character than of the Shi'ah or Ali worship, so much so, that the Persians and other Shi'ahs hold it meritorious to kill any of the sect.

But Layard justly remarks that there is reason to believe that the name must be sought for elsewhere, as it was used long before this introduction of Muhammedanism, and is not without connection with the early Persian appellation of the supreme being.

Kawal Yusuf, for example, asserted that amongst the Izedis, the ancient name for God was Azed, and from it he derived the name of his sect. This corresponds precisely with the state­ment made by Assemani, who traces the origin of the word Yezidi, from Yezid, which he says in the idiom of Persia signifies God. Yezidi, the plural of Yezid, indicating the ob­servers of superstitious doctrine.

Another origin has been given to the name, viz.-from Ized Ferfer, one of the attendants, according to the Parsis, upon the evil spirit. The evil spirit is also said to be called by them Ized.

Sir Henry Rawlinson, speaking of a position held by Hera-clius beyond the lesser Zab, and which is designated as Iesdem both by Theophanes and in the emperor's own letter to the senate, concludes the place to have been a settlement of those whom he calls the heretical Izedis, " or, as they were after­wards named by the Muhammedans, Yezidis." {Journal of Roy. Geog. Soc, vol. x, p. 92.)

The Izedis have, according to Layard, a tradition that they originally came from Basrah, and from the country watered by the lower part of the Euphrates ; and that after their emigration they first settled in Syria, and subsequently took possession of the Sinjar hills, and the districts they now inhabit in Kurdistan.

This tradition, Layard remarks, with the peculiar nature of their tenets and ceremonies, points to a Sabsean or Chaldsean origin. It is not improbable, says the same writer further on, that the sect may be a relic of the ancient Chaldees, who have at various times outwardly adopted the forms and tenets of the ruling people to save themselves from persecution and oppression, and have gradually, through ignorance, confounded them with their own belief and mode of worship. Such has been the case with a no less remarkable sect, the Sabseans or Mandai (the Christians of St. John, as they are commonly called), who still inhabit the banks of the Euphrates and the districts of ancient Susiana.

Forbes also, speaking of the Sinjarlis, although carried away by the commonly received opinion of the Izedis deriving their origin and name from Yezid, the son of Muawiyah, remarks that it is probable that they originally dwelt in Babylonia and Assyria; but being held in detestation by the Persians, on account of the destruction of the house of Ali by Yezid, and also detested by the Arabs as worshippers of the devil, they were driven into the strong and isolated hills of Sinjar, and the rugged mountains and defiles of Kurdistan. Haxthausen remarks of the Izedis that they are a religious sect, and not a distinct race. They are probably of Kurdish descent, and their religion is an obscured, disfigured Chris­tianity. " They were," he says, " I imagine, originally a Gnostic sect, which in an early age separated or was expelled from the Christian church. Their doctrine of Satan is evidently the Gnostic doctrine of the Demiurgus; the position they assign to Christ reminds us of Arianism."

There are always sufficient analogies to be found in such delicate matters as questions of creed and doctrine, to support almost any conjectural views; but we think we have shewn enough to satisfy reflective minds that whatever there is of Christianity and Muhammedanism in the practice or belief of the Izedis has been superimposed upon more ancient forms.

We have seen that the Izedis have been identified as de­scendants of the Arab followers of Yezid, by Haji Khalfah; as Persian Yezidis or observers of superstitious doctrines, by Assemani; as remains of the Lost Tribes, by Dr. Grant; as ancient Chaldseans from the Lower Euphrates, by Layard; and as Gnostic Christians, by Haxthausen.

But considering that their chief places of residence are the largest villages in the plain of Nineveh, that there dwells their temporal and spiritual head, and that there is their chief sanc­tuary and their chief burial place, we are inclined to look for another origin.

The clue to this presumed origin was afforded by the dis­covery that the neighbourhood of their chief sanctuary and place of pilgrimage was also a most sacred spot, devoted to the religious ceremonies and national sacrifices of the Assyrians of old. Here the late M. Rouet, French consul at Mosul, first met with rock sculptures, which Layard declares to be the most important that have yet been discovered in Assyria. They represent the great king Sennacherib, recording his deeds, and invoking Asshur and the great deities of Assyria; and over the head of the royal Assyrian are the sacred symbols, to which there can be little doubt that the celebrated Melek Taus -the representative of the demon bird of the Assyrians-bears a real analogy.

This analogy is further corroborated by the neighbourhood of the two sacred localities, by the existence at each of holy wells or springs, by the preservation at each of sun and fire worship and the practice of sacrifices; as also by other minor analogies before adverted to.

With both Assyrians and Izedis it is evident that the same animals were sacred. We have the tombs still preserving the peculiarly characteristic terraced form of Assyrian architecture, and we have the people themselves also holding by the cylinders and other relics of the Assyrians of old.

Lastly, this presumed Assyrian origin of the Izedis is further corroborated by the physical aspect of the people, who still preserve in many instances a remarkable analogy to some of the best marked countenances among the Assyrian sculptures, as also in the preservation of ringlets.

If the Assyrian origin of the Izedis were admitted, it would be easy to understand how the sun and fire worship should be traced rather to that source than to any Chaldsean or Sabsean origin; and it is further equally easy to understand how the doctrines of Adde, the disciple of Manes, may have been adopted by the fallen people, j ust in the same way as in more recent times their creed and their practices have become affected by Christian and Muhammedan influences alike.

As a relic of the Assyrians of old, they would just as soon as a relic of the ancient Chaldeeans have at various times out­wardly adopted the forms and tenets of the ruling people, to save themselves from persecution and oppression, and have gradually, through ignorance, confounded them with their own belief and mode of worship. We have possibly descendants of the Chaldaeans of old in the Khaldis, now Nestorian Christians. Why should there be no remnant of the still more renowned Assyrians ? And, if existing, why should it not be in Assyria Proper, where, among the actual dwellers in and around Nineveh, we find a race resembling in aspect the Assyrians depicted on the monuments of olden times ; still adhering to many of the more striking practices of the Assyrians of old- sun and fire worship and sacrifices-and still preserving their national sanctuary with its sacred symbols, analogous to those depicted on the Assyrian royal tablets, in the immediate neigh­bourhood of what was manifestly also the chief national sanc­tuary of the ancient Assyrians?

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W. Francis Ainsworth, 1861

Primitive Christian Worship