Yezidi is a very secretive ancient/pre-Islamic religion. Some have claimed that Yezidi’s sect is a remnant of the old Zoroastrian religion because of some similarity in belief between the two faiths. Others have claimed that Yezidi is a syncretic religion (mixture of Pagan/Animism, Christianity and Islam).
A couple of days ago, we read the news of an ISIS attack on a Yezidi village. The ISIS fighters killed many Yezidis, took a few hundred female as slaves and threaten to slaughter more if the rest of the population doesn’t abandon their devil worshipping cult and embrace the Islamic faith. ISIS also gave a similar ultimatum to the Christians of Iraq.
The Yezidi population fled to the mountainous region of Sinjar, their historical homeland.
This situation was soo alarming that even the President of the United States, Mr Obama, felt that the recent crisis in Iraq (ISIS inflected) has reached a critical stage and that the US need to step up their game in Iraq. The US is sending weapons (possibly to the Kurds if not a direct military intervention) and also humanitarian aid to the people (Yezidi and the Christians) who are trapped in this conflict.
In the book The Cult of the Peacock Angel By R.H. Woolnough Empson, Yezidi not only is connected to ancient religion of Iran but also to ancient Iraqi religion.
Zoroastrianism had undergone numerous and sometimes almost incompatible changes before Yezidism came into existence. There are, however, several points in which Yezidi ideas approach the old Zoroastrian. Thus, there is a tradition that the term Yezidi represents Yazdan, the Good Spirit, as opposed to Ahriman the Evil Spirit. It may be noted, too, here that it has been said that among the Zoroastrian Parsees of India Yezid Farfar is the Evil Spirit. In modern Persian both Yazd and Yazdan are used as terms for God, and Yazd Farfar are used as terms for God, and…
Other reminiscences of Zoroastrianism among the Yezidis are the clear persistence among them of Dualist principles, as shown in the rival Spirits of Good and Evil with equal powers, and in the worship of Fire, besides others already noticed.
It may be mentioned also that, like the Zoroastrian Parsees, the Yezidis do not admit converts from other religions, but this exclusiveness was far from being an attribute of the older Zoroastrianism, which was a vigorous missionary religion.
Among the later Zoroastrians generally, ritualism especially that connected with magic became all powerful. And it is to be observed that some of the Yezidi village sheikhs or head men claim magic powers.
Zoroastrian objection to the burial of corpses, because their presence in the earth would pollute it, seems to survive in the Yezidi custom of not allowing earth to touch the corpse as it is laid in the grave for munkir/nakir to descend from heaven to examine it.
There is another interesting point in this connection which seems to have its origin in the old Zoroastrianism. Wood is collected in large quantities at the shrine of ‘Adi to be burn at the annual sacrifice of a sacred white bull to the Sun-god Shamsu’ddin. There is also, as has been already noticed, a ceremony of the capture of a white bull at certain festivals. A white sheet (kifri) is used to wrap the corpse at funerals, a widow must wear white clothing, and white as a colour is held in much esteem.
Under the Sabean Tradition: Yezid ibn Abi Anisa, a heterodox Sabean leader, is believed by some, without much reason, to have been the founder of the Yezidis, who was looked on as his companions. This tradition is, however, more than doubtful, as that great authority ibn-Hazm of Cordova (994-1027) calls the leader in question Zaid ibn Ubaissa, but it may be noted that ibn-Hazm’s father, who was a high official, claimed descent (perhaps apocryphally) from a Persian, Yezid ibn Abi Sufian. Historically, Yezid ibn Abi Anisa founded a sect called Yezidiyas, which does not appear to have been in any way connected with the Yezidis. But he was a Khariji, who were, if anything, orthodox puritan Muhammadans, as are their modern representatives the Ibadiyas (Abadiyas). The only thing that seems to give colour to the idea that he could have been the founder of the Yezidis is a statement that ‘God will send a new Quran to a prophet among the Persians, and he will found a new religion for them, divine in the same sense as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which will be no other than that of the Sabiun mentioned in the Quran. Here, however, it is clear that the Mandaeans or Christians of St John the Baptist are referred to, and they were very far indeed from being at one with the Yezidis.
Nevertheless, Sabean tenets may have had much to do with the religion of the Yezidis. As-Sabia/Sabaean, is a name for two distinct sects: 1) the Mandaeans or Judeo-Christians of Mesopotamia, who were Baptists and known as Christians of St John the Baptist 2) The Sabaens of Harran (Carrhoe) who were Ghulat or Extremists, and largely pagan, but for political reasons they, too adopted baptism, and they had an important literature in Syriac. The as-Sabiun of the Quran were Mandaeans, but it is the creed of the Sabaeans of Harran that might well have been absorbed, in part at any rate, by the Yezidis among whom baptism is a prominent rite. .. The Sabeans of Harran disappeared about 1033.
As-Sharastani classes them among those who admit spiritual substances (ar-Ruhaniyun) especially the great astral spirits. They recognize as their first teachers two philosopher prophets, adhimun(agathodaemon = the good spirit) and Hermes who have been identified with Seth and Idris respectively. Orgheus was also one of the prophets. They believe in a creator of the world, wise holy, not produced and of inaccessible majesty who is reached through the intermediary of the spirits. The latter are pure and holy in substance, in act and state as regards their nature they have nothing corporeal neither physical faculties, nor movements in place, not changes in time. They are our masters, our gods, our intercessors with the sovereign lord. By purifying the soul and chastising the passions one enters into relations with them. As to their activities, they produce renew and change things from state to state.
This is the snippet from the book (mentioned in the reference below) pertaining to the Yezidi and its connection to other ancient religions. You may also read my other posts about the Yezidi sect by clicking on the label on the right side of the blog under the heading research into other sects/religion (Yezidi).
References
The Cult of the Peacock Angel By R.H. Woolnough Empson
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/09/yazidis-iraq-refugees-isis
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28756544
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