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.
NOTES ON CHAPTER V
[162] In his letter to me, of date August 6, 1907, the Rev. A. N.
Andrus, of Mardin, expresses the opinion that “many of the Yezidis
around Sinjar might have come from Indian stock” on the ground that
“they are darker and more lithe than the Kurds around them.”
[163] P. Anastase: _Al-Mašrik_, vol. II, p. 831.
[164] Cf. _Al-Mašrik_, vol. II, p. 734.