Understanding the Yazidis of Kurdistan

Kurdish Yazidis in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo courtesy of Jan Sefti/Flickr

Ardishir Rashidi-Kalhur | Exclusive to iKurd.net

The cultural heritage of the people of Kurdistan and the ancient history that underlies the formation of Belief and Faith that has created the present day diversity and tolerance of religions in the Kurdish culture is rooted in its antiquity.

In fact, it can be traced as far back as the pre-historic period. Chronologically, one can start with the discovery of human burial sites found in Kurdistan like that found in Shanidar Cave in which the deceased member of a community had been buried in a bed of flowers.

The next elaborate religious site discovered in Kurdistan, is now a well-known archeological site (Gopke-Tepe or Gobke-li tepe) in Northern Kurdistan that has been designated and published by the Smithsonian as the “World First Temple”. It is after the building of such religious temples that other ancient civilizations like the Sumerians, Akkadians and the Elamites and other ancient tribes inspired to build Ziggurats (Zaqaru, or Zagros-mountain-like) as religious monuments dedicated to the deities worshipped by the diversity of people living in the ancient Mesopotamia.

The highest Deity was known as “the King, or the God of the Mountain, which in Yaresan community today, there remains a belief in the “King and/or The God of the mountain” as a whispered prayer “Ya-Hu, Ya Man-Hu, Ya Shai Dalahu”, (Dalahu is in the Zagros Mountains in Roj-Halat= Eastern Kurdistan), or simply the word “Ya” has remained in many languages of the region as a source of an imaginary power to get help from (another word for God). The formation of belief and faith amongst these ancient people was manifested by each “Tribe”, having a “god” in whose honor a “Temple” was built (which was an archeological advancement compared to a Ziggurta=nature formed stepped mountain=Zagros).

In proving the supremacy of one’s own “tribal god” the Sumerian dominated other tribes in the region and recorded their notion of god, and how the universe was created and defined from their point of view in the Epic of Gilgamesh. What remains from the word “Sumerian, today are the village of Soomar near Gilane Gharb & Ghasre-Shirin in Roj-hal-haatm which can be found on google earth under Soomar-Kurdistan) in the foothills of the Zagros Mountain and also, it is believed that Samarra in Saladin province was a Sumerian site.

The Sumerian view of the creation, the human role and quest for power and search for immortality was described in the most ancient known historic literary work “The Epic of Gilgamesh” written on the Sumerian Tablets of Nineveh (now being researched as some archaeologists believe these tablets may trace even further back as having been brought from the older First World Temple, Gopke-Tepe, which in Kurdish means “raised & round hill).

By the time the Babylonian tribe rose to power to replace the Akkadians who had replaced the Sumerians, (ca. 2000 b.c.), the Epic of Gilgamesh gave way to the refinement of a new theory of creation described from the Babylonian point of view, in a new Epic, known as the story or the Epic of Creation described on the Babylonian clay Tablets in the book of Enuma-Elish during the reign of Hammurabi, in which god Mardukh became the god of creation and the victor among all other gods.

The god of the Assyrian was Ashur (Eshtar), who was worshiped in Northern Mesopotamia but since the Babylonian tribe defeated the Assyrian tribe, Mardukh become the undisputed victorious god of all gods in whose honor, King Nimrod built the Tower of Bab-El on the bank of the Euphrates Rivers in lower Mesopotamia near the present day city of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, in Northern Mesopotamia, in the town of Harran located south of the modern day city of Amed (Diyarbakir) in Northern Kurdistan, Prophet Abraham (Abraham is a Kurdish word which means Ur-Ayam or Adam from Ur), rose to challenge King Nimrod who is known to have had absolute power on earth, who resided in the Tower of Bab-El, blessed by his god Mardukh to rule supreme over all the people of the world as his subjects.

In contrast to Nimrod, and his god Mardukh, Ur-Ayam (Abraham), from the lineage of Prophet Noah, rose to declare “YA”-Hweh” to be the supreme God of all that exists under the sky, and not god Mardukh who was promoted by the King Nimrod as the supreme deity.

Here, a different understanding of the etymology of the word Babel (Bab-El) is necessary in order to understand better the subsequent development of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) as well as the conflict that exists with other lesser known religions that have barely survived to this date under the constant assault and threats of physical elimination by the deep rooted irrational tribal and religious forces like the ISIS whose ideology of inhumanity is being witnessed today by the world.

The Yazidis in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Courtesy/ Jan Sefti/Flickr

Among these lesser known religions which also originate in Kurdistan are Mithraism, Yazdanism (Yazidis or Yazdan-Parastan), Magian (The Magi), the Zoroastrian, Manichaeism and Yaresan.

Unfortunately, and divisively, various religious camps have put these lesser known religious groups and their world view known as the “Iranian school of thoughts” with the word “Iran”, or the “Iranians” falsely interpreted as the “Aryans” and the “Aryan Religions” in “competition” with the opposite camp who are known as the faithful believers of the “Semitic school of thoughts” (Sem=Sham, or Sam who was one of Noah’s sons), the founder of the “Semitic People” whose “school of thought is known today as the “Abrahamic (Ur-Aymic) or Semitic Religions. Ya-hu-ism or Ya-Hweh-ism is believed to have been the faith that Abraham believed in.

Returning back to the word “Bab-El”, The word “Bab” in the “Hamito-Semitic” languages (languages of Ham & Shem, the sons of Noah), means “gate” as in the “gate of heaven, or the gate of hell or the gate of Pearl, aka the pearly gate(s), etc..”. El, or AL, in Bab-El, is a Kurdish word that is derived from the word “Hal”, which means “Rise or Risen”, and the Arabic version of this word is “El” or “Al” so in today’s Kurdish language, “Hal-Barz” means “Risen High” as in “El-Burz” a high risen mountain in northern Tehran, Iran, or “Hal-Kul” which means “risen to the boiling point” from which the word “Al-Kuahl, or the word “Alcohol” is derived.

Also the word for rise and stand is “Hal-Ess” or “Roj-Halat” which means “sunrise” or the East, or “dance” in Kurdish is “hal-parin” or to “rise to fly high” or “rise to leap feet and flap arms and legs to mimic the birds that fly high”, pictures of which are depicted on the stone tablets of the “World First Temple” in Gopke-Tepe in Urfa, Kurdistan.

From the word “Hal” the “Dancing Birds of the First Temple, become the Dancing Angels of the First Temple”. The number of the original “Dancing Angels of the First Temple” are estimated to have been four while many thousands of years later, “Ur-Aym=Abraham” through his God “YA” increased the numbers of the Archangels to seven angels who are known in Yaresan as the “Haft-Tan” or Hepat-Tan”, the “Seven Arch Angels”.

The Original Four Dancing Angels names where: MeKa-El (Arch Angel Michael), Ka-Bra-El (Gabrael), Israf-El, (Israfel) and Azra-El (Azrael). These four angels, were believed to have originated from the First Temple, and to have traveled from there to have found the present-day city of Erbil, Kurdistan, in Northern Mesopotamia. Erbil is believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world along with Damascus.

The word Erbil is derived from the Semitic language, Arba-EL, which means the Four Risen Angels, (not the four gods) each supposed to direct humanity in four different directions. The added three angels were “Zahn” in Kurdish or “Reza in Arabic”, (the Angel of knowledge”, Nazahn, or “Ramz” the Angel of “Unknown secrets”, or what is not known that could become known (Na-zahn-wa-Zahn=to turn what is not known to become known), and “YA” the imaginary dimensionless Pearl from whose existence the other six angels were born. In Yarsan the Six-Els plus “YA” are known as the “Haft=Tan”.

As the belief in the “Four-El(Angels), or Arba-El”, (today’s Erbil), continued to expand from Northern Mesopotamia to the Southern part, in the ancient time, the Babylonian King Nimrod, founded a new city by the Euphrates in competition to Erbil to be called Babylon, or Bab-EL-Youn, which means the “Gate(Bab) to the Angels (El) on High(Youn)”.

By building the Tower of Bab-El, King Nimrod, showed yet another architectural advancement in building a new place of worship from mountain tops (Ziggurats), and hill temples (Gopke-Tepe) of the past to a new Tower, called the Tower of Babylon where “God” was to be worshipped. For him and his followers, a new era of belief and faith began, The God was Mardukh, The Tower of Power was Babylon, and the Laws of Hammurabi Ruled the land.

For Abraham on the other hand, spiritual faith in the God “YA” developed alongside his knowledge of the Angels “EL”, so by the time his sons Isaac (the righteous one) and Isma-El (in the name of El), were grown, they each formed their own faith derived from the faith of their father Abraham.

Isaac and his descendants, continued to believe in “YA” and formed the Judaic branch of faith, while Isma-El became the spiritual father of the later developed Islamic faith, from whose name the belief of Isma-El, (Ba-Esma-EL, or Besmelah) or in-the-name-of-EL, the word “Allah” from the Kurdish word “Hala” which means “The Risen”, came about, to form the Islamic branch of Ur-Aymic faith.

While KAES deeply respects the deep religious conviction held by the various branches of the Abrahamic faiths, and encourages continued Faith in One God of All, it also calls on the Muslims to reconsider their understanding of the etymology of the word “Allah” that it is A Kurdish word for the designation of an Angel of God YA, but not the God itself.

The etymology of the word “YA”zidis, when understood in the context of the Kurdish culture and history of Yaresan, means “YA”Zahn, “YA”Zahnism, or “YA”-Zahn-Paras, or (“Ya-zdan-parast,) (Believers in Truth). Further translated, it means “Being in the Knowledge of “YA”, (YA-Zahn”) or those who know and worship “YA”, and have the knowledge of the “Secret” the “Na-Zahn” to become Zahn (Known). This is in contrast to the belief of those who follow Mardukh and the Tower of Power.

It is amongst this community of the “YA”zidis, that the secret of the “World First Temple” of Urfa is believed to be held. The knowledge of the Gopeki-Tepe passed on to Abraham (Adam from Ur, or Urfa), through its theological derivatives, that are Mithraism, (Religion of Love, and Mehr-Bahni, the highest Love) was born in Kurdistan. From the “YA”Zahn Parasti, came, the Magian belief, a religion of the Medes with Zoroaster the most knowledgeable Magi of the Medes.

When the Magi propagated the culture of Mithra and Zoroaster under the third King of the Medes, Kaysar (Cyaxeres=Kay-Khoy-Saro, the first Kaiser), it continued for nearly 2000 years and was practiced by the last Kurdish/Medic King of the Sasanians “YA”zd-Gird, or Ezad-gird, the Protector and Protected of and by God “YA”.

However, when the tribal defenders and worshipers of El, from Bab-El, who considered “EL” or Allah who replaced Mardukh, to be their God, they began to invade Kurdistan in 637 AD, and succeeded to violently overthrow the king “Yazd-Gird”and his family with the help of an informer known as the “Persian Soloman”. After their victory, many Ya-Zidies=Ezadies, and Zoroastrian Kurds fled eastward to avoid the genocide.

Many of the “YA”zahn-Parastan”, formed a new Yaresan faith in hiding while many who fled the Islamic invasion and took refuge in India. This group is known today as the Parsees. In the attack by ISIS who are supported by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, on the community of Ezadies (aka the Truth Seekers), on Mount Sinjar, Kurdistan, the plight of this very ancient community has come to the attention of the world and in dire needs of support for survival.

We truly hope that you as the reader of this article understand that the intent of the article is not to offend any one person’s religious point of view, but to share with you a history of faith and religions in order to bring to our violent world peace, love and justice and respect for human thoughts free from fear and in search of answer to the true creator of everything we observe and understand under and beyond the sky!

For more information, search “Yaresan at Irvine Global Village Festival” or contact the Kurdish American Education Society.

Ardishir Rashidi-Kalhur, the President of Kurdish American Education Society, Los Angeles, U.S.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.