Sanatana Dharma - Aka Hinduism (3rd Bin)

[Husky]

Instead of reading the recent stream of new-agey articles about Yezidism (the kind that got passed around by angelsk-speaking Hindus and alien converts and is all over the internet now), here are some sources that at least sound more reliable or sensible.



Note:

Christine Allison (is the) Ibrahim Ahmed Professor of Kurdish Studies at University of Exeter

theconversation.com/explainer-who-are-the-yazidis-30280





1. cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/yazidis.htm

YAZIDISIM: A Heterodox Kurdish Religion

By: CHRISTINE ALLISON



Note that CAIS merely hosts her article. About CAIS:

cais-soas.com/CAIS/about_cais.htm

CAIS was established in 1998 by Shapour Suren-Pahlav and Oric Basirov (Department of Art and Archaeology), under the name of "Ancient Iranian Civilisation at the School of Oriental and African Studies" (AIC at SOAS) and later changed to "The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies" (CAIS at SOAS) of the University of London, to act as a forum for the exchange of information about the art, archaeology, culture and civilisation of Iranian peoples. CAIS no longer has any affiliation with SOAS.

2. theconversation.com/explainer-who-are-the-yazidis-30280

9 August 2014, 12.38am AEST

Explainer: who are the Yazidis?

Christine Allison



Good to read in entirety at link. But contains the important paragraph highlighted in blue below:

[...]

Like all religions, Yazidism can’t be explained in a sentence, but it has two key characteristics that can help us understand it. Firstly, there is a belief that divine beings (the “Seven Angels”) can reincarnate themselves in human form, most recently in the ancestors of their leading religious clans.



These people are called by the Arabic word “khas”. Saints and prophets from other religions – among them Jesus from the Christian faith and, Hasan al-Basri, the companion of Mohammed – have been claimed as “khas”. And since God is a remote figure, it is the chief of the Holy Beings, the Peacock Angel, who rules the world.



[...]



Seventy-two persecutions

Yazidism, as we know it today, began in the 12th century, when the Muslim sheikh ‘Adi bin Musafir settled in the Kurdich hills north of Mosul, where he was acclaimed as a “khas by locals who followed an older religion from Iran, the origins of which are still debated.

Which explains some more of the syncretism.





3. The above linked the ref to Muslim "Sheikh Adi bin Musafir" to:

understanding-our-past.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/yazidism.html

Thursday, 17 March 2011

"Yazidism/Yezidism", origin of the Yezidis



Yazidism is also known as Sharfadin

(from Sharaf ad-Din ibn al-Hasan, sixth leader of the Adawiyya Sufi order).





The first leader, Sheikh Adi Ibn Musafir Al-Hakkari was born in the 1070’s.

He grew up in the village of Bait Far in the Bekka valley.

It is likely he was ethnically an Arab, but that is only going from the fact that he and his family had Islamic Arab names.

As a young man he went to study in Baghdad and later Mosul.

He became a Sufi and moved to the Sinjara mountains for spiritual contemplation and the creation of his Sufi order, called the Adawiyya.

He died here in 1162. His tomb, Lalesh, is now the center of Yazadi worship.

There were seven leaders of this Sufi order.





From the 1070’s – 1220’s the Middle East came under the rule of the Seljuk Turks.

Though ostensibly Sunni Muslims, they actually had a heterodox idea of Islam.

In the art of that era can be seen Buddhist mandalas, dragons, peacocks and lions. Even the sun had a place in the art of that time. The father of Alp Arslan, the first Seljuk Sultan, was Jewish by religion, his name was Mikhael. They had originally lived in the Khazar Khanate. Even in the Seljuk army there must have been many Nestorian Christian Turks from the Ferghana region.



Seeing the people and history behind the establishment of the Adawiyya order helps to understand why it was so heterodox, how it could have come to exist and why the descendants of this order, the Yazadi, have this heterodox religion today.





Sheik Adi claimed descent from the Ummayad Caliph Marwan (623-85 AD).

The order had the calamity, as the world did, to suffer from Mongol attacks.



[... timeline of Mongol attacks]



Even after the loss of their spiritual leader it seems the Adawiyya followers remained in the Sinjara region. They were a heterogeneous society, already comprising of Islamic Arab influences, Kurdish influences and as we will read further on, Aramaic Christian influences…



There are five castes in their society; Pir (clergy), Sheikh, Kawal, Murabi, and Murid (layity).

The “Mir” (Emirs) is the secular leader of the Yazadis, he claims descent from the Ummayad Caliphs. The “Sheik” is the religious leader.

Also there are three classes of within the Pir: Kochaks, Fakirs, and Farashes.

None of them are permitted to intermarry.



Marriage to outsiders has been shown to be punishable by death.



Although we assume the caste system is something from India, it was also strictly followed in pre-Islamic Iran.



(Uh *Yeah*. And also, didn't an old Zoroastrian website already admit that? Though the pre-Zoroastrian case may have looked more like the Indian varna setup than even the Zoroastrian one.)



All Yazadi are given spiritual guidance by the Sheikh and Pir families. More esoterically they are also given a “brother” or a “sister of the after-world”.

This is similar to Manichean ideology. Mani's teachings are revealed to him through his spiritual companion and celestial twin (his syzygos).



Yazidis, like the Buddhists and Druze, believe in reincarnation.

(1. And like the Manichaeans.

2. So Druze adopted it too, hmmm? IIRC Druze are a type of muslim - spin-off of Shia, was it? - considered heretical by other muslims.)



The name Yazadi is said to derive from the Ummayad Caliph Yazid.

They say that a “Sultan Ezdi” preceded the Caliph, who was a reincarnation of “Ezki”.

The only historical person who bore a name such as “Ezdi” before the era of the Caliphs was the Persian Shah, Yazdigerd III. He was the last Zoroastrian king of Persia.

Also the year Yazdigerd was crowned, 632 AD, marks the base year of the modern Zoroastrian calendar.

(I only knew of "Yazdgerd" : a place in Iran and thought it might be related to Yezidis.)





Yazdi meant Godly in middle Persian.

Even today the Parsees of India, who are Zoroastrian by religion, call themselves “Yazdi”.





Yazadis, like Zoroastrians are both forbidden from desecrating fire even to speak rudely in front of it. Extinguishing fire by water is not allowed in any circumstance as this destroys two elements, water and fire, at the same time.

Sun worship is ancient, even in Iraq where the center of Yazidism is located.

The ancient temple of Hatra, south-east from Mosul, was dedicated to Shamash god of the Sun.





They main Yazadi tribe in north Iraq is called “Dasani”. There was once a Christian diocese called Dasaniyat in that area.

It is supposed that this name is a legacy of the Nestorian Christians who joined the Adawiyya Sufi order, either escaping persecution from the Sunni Muslims or joining by free choice.

The Bishop of Arbel (Erbil) lamented the loss of his flock to Sheik Adi:

[...]

In the Sinjara region many Yazadi villages still have Syraic Christian names.

Baptism and the Eucharist, both Christian practices, are part of the Yazadi religion.

Being baptized with water, when children, the priest holding their head.

Children can also be circumcised, though it is not mandatory.

Also in the Sinjara area, when a Yazadi man and woman marry, they will go to a Nestorian Christian church and partake in the Eucharist, drinking from the cup of wine which they call “Isa” (Jesus).

A newly married Bride is expected to visit all temples and churches on her way to the Grooms home, but not a mosque.





The Yazadi also share similar beliefs as the pre-Islamic Arabs had, such as the reverence of stones, wells, springs and trees.

These are also Mithraic beliefs.

Sacred trees have ribbons of cloth tied to their branches in offer of prayer.

It was believed if someone untied these, the person would be cursed.

Also the site of Lalesh seems to be based on Mecca.

(The “Haj” to the Kabba was already a part the tradition of Mecca before Islam.)

At Lalesh there is a spring called “Zamzam” and the pilgrims must walk up the nearby mountain as part of theis Haj, just as in Mecca pilgrims must walk up mount Arafat.



The Yazadi have five daily prayers; dawn, sunrise, noon, afternoon and sunset. Yet most pray only at sunrise and sunset.



There was an Armenian sect in the time of the first crusade, 1099 AD, called the “Arevordik”.

They worshipped the Sun.



Just as the number 5 is special to them, so is the number seven. There are seven Angels (Izrafael, Jibrael, Michael, Nordael, Dardael, Shamnael, and Azazael), in the Sinjara area there are seven temples with eternal flames. Above the tomb of Sheikh Adi at Lalesh is engraved a seven branced candelabra. The number seven was revered by the Sabeans who are mentioned in the Koran as “people of the book”.



The first Wednesday of April marks their new year. Of note is the custom of painting eggs.



There is also the great seven day festival (23 September-1 October) for Sheik Adi called “Cejna Cemaya” or Feast of the Assembly, in which the seven Angels are believed to visit Lalesh. A bull is also sacrificed, which seems to hark back to Mithra/Mir, the pagan Iranian god of the Sun. The festival of Mithras was celebrated on September 21 in pre-Islamic Iran.

(Lots of Mithraism and Iranian religion is also in christianism. Christianism is a syncretic spin-off of Judaism.)



[...]

Still a little more at link. Worth reading in full.



Explains why so many Yezidis (and Kurds in general) look ME/Arabian.

Explains the Peacock.

Explains the re-incarnation. Also seen in other ME/late Iranian religions.

Explains Zoroastrian and other features.

Explains the Abrahamic portions of their religion.

And explains a lot more.





But poor people.



They do have one advantage over Hindus at present though: Hindus are regularly being genocided by muslims all over India now not just in TSP and BD (with Hindoo women and kids additionally being kidnapped and raped and sold into rape-slavery into islam) and Hindus are being genocided by christians in India's NE too. But none of that comes into the international news AT ALL.

Furthermore, whenever Hindus are mentioned in any context now, aliens - christos and islamics primarily, but other kinds too - quickly declare that "Hindu men rape their women" [and hence that they would "deserve" to get extincted, if the news of the genocide of Hindus was brought to light].



But aliens' apathy and hostility is par for the course. So much so that plain neutrality from them sometimes seems like sympathy.



However:

(Angelsk-speaking) Hindus have been busy collecting money for the Yezidis, to help restore their families and prevent their women from being sold into islamic sexual slavery. All good and well.

But I note that the same Hindus haven't even been collecting money to save their women from being sold into islamic sexual slavery - happening every moment of every day now - nor to retrieve and rehabilitate these. Or that bothered about an ever-increasing number of Hindu social workers and Hindu leaders being butchered left and right.

Worrying. That angelsk-speaking Hindus (well, those on the internet) are ready to save the world. But not their own.



Is this - what some Hindu women in India are going through - that much better than what the Yezidis are going through in Iraqi Kurdistan area?

rajeev2004.blogspot.com/2014/08/hindu-woman-gang-raped-in-meerut.html

A young Hindu woman, a teacher in a Madrasa in Meerut, U.P was abducted, gangraped and forcibly converted to Islam, forcibly had her Fallopian tubes removed - forcibly sterilized by the Indian Taliban - she can never be a mother.

She states that there are over 40 young Hindu women held captive and being subjected to all kinds of bestiality in that Madrasa - possibly being held for trafficking as sexual slaves to Arab countries or sold off to brothels run by Jihadis around the country.



http :// m.rediff.com/news/report/tension-grips-meerut-after-woman-gang-raped-forced-to-convert/20140804.htm



Watch the victim narrate her story

https :// m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=J8A259ia9ow