JAZĪDI. — Name of populations of Kurdish race and language, professing their own religion. The total number, progressively declining, was recently estimated (A. H. Hourani, V. BIBLICA., pp. 76, 91) at just over 30,000. They are distributed in groups across the following regions: 1) Sayhān, north of Mossul, site of the largest concentration and the principal sanctuary; 2) Gebel Singār, west of the same city; 3) Gebel Sim'ān, near Aleppo. Smaller groups are found near Dujārbekir, in Soviet Armenia, and in Persia.
I. NAME AND ORIGINS
The investigations of Aḥmad Tajmār, 'Abbās 'Azzāwī, and M. Guidi derive the name j. from Jazīd, the second Umayyad caliph (680–683), famous for the massacre of Ḥusajn, son of 'Alī, at Karbalā', and consequently particularly hated by the šī'ites (v. ISLĀM, Le sète). In particular, M. Guidi deserves credit for identifying, in the oldest Arabic literature, traces of the extremist heterodoxy (guluwu) favorable to Jazīd, demonstrating in it a phenomenon parallel, though antithetical, to that of šī'ite extremism, and therefore analogous to it in many constitutive elements.
Although traces of the jazīda movement in the earliest period remain scarce, M. Guidi’s thesis is currently preferable to the alternative, most recently defended by G. Furlani and T. Menzel, according to which the name j. derives from the Persian ized, “angel,” and the origins of the movement would have had nothing to do with the caliph Jazīd.
II. HISTORY
Almost nothing is known about the history and beliefs of the followers of Jazīd in Kurdistān during the first centuries of the Hegira. The information becomes more precise when, in the 12th century A.D., the mystic 'Adī b. Musāfir, a descendant of the Umayyad family, settled at Lāleš, in the region of Šajhān, and founded there a confraternity that took its name from him ('adawijjah).An extremist current soon emerged within this confraternity which, against the will of the mystic and his successors, turned to the worship of them, associating it with the almost obliterated cult of Jazīd. Between the 13th and 14th centuries, the Muslim polemicist Ibn Tajmījah, in his Risālah al-'adawijjah, clearly indicates the movement’s heterodoxy and the advanced formation of its creed.
It is not possible to trace its subsequent development up to its present formulation; more information is available concerning the political history of the Jazīdi groups, well documented by R. Lescot. The confraternity reached its greatest expansion in the 14th and 15th centuries, spreading also into Syria and Egypt; thereafter its decline began. While the communities of Syria and Egypt for the most part returned to orthodoxy, the Jazīdis of the Kurdish mountains were subjected to periodic raids and massacres by the Ottoman governors; after the interlude of the British mandate, persecution was resumed by the new 'Irāqī state, which seeks to assimilate the Jazīdis ethnically and religiously to the Arab majority.
III. DOCTRINES
The doctrines of the j. are composed of a strange and disordered mixture of elements: Islamic elements, a pagan Kurdish substratum, certain Christian rites (arising from contact with the Christian Churches of Mesopotamia), Iranian beliefs, and, through these, gnosis.The j. believe in a supreme God, who exercises his power through seven angels. The first and principal one is Melek Tā'ūs, the peacock angel, who corresponds to Satan; but, because of his repentance after the Fall, he is not a principle of evil but rather of good. The name “devil-worshippers,” therefore, frequently applied to the j., is not accurate. The name of peacock, also known among the Mandaeans and Druzes as a designation of Satan, derives from the legend according to which they first wished to assume the form of a peacock upon entering the Earthly Paradise. Melek Tā'ūs is the ruler of the world: Jazīd and Šajh 'Adī (that is, 'Adī b. Musāfir) appear to be regarded as his incarnations. The other six angels as well, whose names are not consistent in the various accounts (the inclusion of Jesus among them is noteworthy), have incarnations among the descendants of 'Adī and in certain great Muslim ascetics and mystics, such as the celebrated Ḥasan al-Baṣrī and al-Ḥallāǧ. The j. believe in successive reincarnation, according to the merits or demerits acquired, in Paradise and Hell. These beliefs are accompanied by strange legends concerning the origins of the world. There are two principal sacred books: the “Book of Revelation” and the “Black Book.”
IV. RELIGIOUS PRACTICES
The j. perform their prayers facing the sun; this, together with the presence of a festival of the sun, has led scholars to think of remnants of astral paganism. They have two fasts a year, each lasting three days, which they observe according to the Muslim system from dawn to dusk. They also obey many prohibitions concerning clothing and food. Every year, from 15 to 20 September, a pilgrimage is made to the tomb of Šajh 'Adī. Other minor sanctuaries are venerated locally. Baptism, clearly of Christian origin (the j. were frequently in contact with Nestorian groups), and circumcision are also practiced.Among the festivals, the principal one is that of the new year. Wednesday is regarded as a feast day.
The most characteristic feature of Jazīda worship is the periodic processions of the saṅgāq, images of peacocks representing the seven angels, which are carried around once or twice a year to collect alms.
V. ORGANIZZAZIONE DELLE COMUNITÀ
Gli j. sono divisi in laici (murīd) e chierici (rūḥān). I chierici comprendono: 1) šajh, i cinque sacerdoti più alti in grado, discendenti di Šajh 'Adī; 2) pīr, categoria inferiore di sacerdoti; 3) qawwāl, cantori, che portano in processione i saṅgāq; 4) kočak, danzatori, ausiliari dei precedenti. Vi sono inoltre categorie inferiori. Esiste una specie di confraternita, quella dei Jaqīr.A capo di tutta la comunità stanno un principe supremo, di asserita discendenza da Jazīd, risiedente nello Šajhān ed il capo degli šajh; al primo compete l'autorità temporale, al secondo quella spirituale.
Ogni laico dipende fin dalla nascita da uno šajh e da un pīr. Egli deve inoltre scegliersi un «fratello dell'altro mondo».