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Ehsan yarshater (ed.): Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol.

vi: Coffeehousedara. [xxix] 672 pp. Costa Mesa,
CA: Mazda, 1993.

Juan R. I. Cole

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies / Volume 59 / Issue 02 / June 1996, pp
375 - 376
DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X00031906, Published online: 05 February 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0041977X00031906

How to cite this article:

Juan R. I. Cole (1996). Review of Nicole Grimes, and Angela Mace 'Mendelssohn
Perspectives' Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 59, pp 375-376
doi:10.1017/S0041977X00031906

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 REVIEWS 375
sm-ie-s 'X is in a state of having heard' remains still a niche in the market for a
on p. 209). comprehensive grammar of Old Georgian and,
In view of the fact that the chapter on syntax of course, a good Old Georgian dictionary
is 35 pages in length (pp. 179-214) compared (none such exists even in Georgian—
with 19 in Shanidze's Georgian version (vs 24 I. Abuladze's 1973 book being only a posthum-
in Fahnrich's translation), one may hope to ously published collection of his far from
find this new book's saving grace in the extra complete file-index).
details contained herein. Again, sadly, expecta-
B. G. HEWITT
tions are doomed. In general all examples
should have been provided with morpheme-
glosses in addition to a literary German
translation, which would have helped with the
analysis of verb-forms, especially those not EHSAN YARSHATER (ed.): Encyclo-
explained individually in the chapter on mor- paedia Iranica. Vol. vi: Coffeehouse-
phology. Exemplification of the use of the dara. [xxix] 672 pp. Costa Mesa,
various cases is adequate, though a number of CA: Mazda, 1993.
(unanswered) questions arise, such as (p. 189),
why in the expression 'It is better for you to The Encyclopaedia Iranica's main features
enter life one-eyed than to have two eyes and are well known by now. It has been character-
descend into hell' the verbal noun ' to have' is ized by voluminous, informative articles, on
Dative (sx-m-a-sa) whilst that for ' to descend' subjects in Iranian and Persian studies, which
is Adverbial (Sta-vrd-om-a-d). Three examples often constitute the most thorough existing
of causative verb-forms are given at the top of English-language study of their subject (and
p. 206, preceded at the base of p. 205 by a brief sometimes the most thorough in any language).
description of the relevant morphology, which Iran and Twelver ShI'ite Islam after the
should have been included (with amplification) Mongol invasions had been under-represented
in the morphology-chapter. And Fahnrich's in the old Encyclopaedia of Islam, with its
idea of how to describe complex sentences concentration on the classical period and on
seems to be little more than to present a list of the lands that had fallen under European rule.
the relevant conjunctions together with a mere The appearance of a new scholarly tool devoted
handful of illustrations. For example, under entirely to Iran and Persianate culture is
the heading Conditional Clauses (p. 211) we therefore doubly welcome. Whether the work's
are told that five conjunctions are possible, but major sponsor, the US National Endowment
only four are illustrated—there is no discussion for the Humanities, can survive the hostility to
of the difference between real and unreal it of conservatives in Congress long enough for
conditions, nor are we informed as to how us to reach the 'z's' (Persian has four letters
these two types are produced with reference to typically translated as 'z'!) has become a
present, future and past time. As regards the moot question.
notion of Subject Clause (e.g. 'That you are Volume vi is as good as its predecessors, and
here surprises me'), Fahnrich confuses these covers significant topics in ancient, medieval
nominal clauses with adjectival Relative Clauses, and modern Iran. As a modern historian, I
for he says (p. 209): ' Subject Clauses are shall concentrate on the large number of entries
mostly introduced by relative pronouns (romeli, that particularly struck my eye. An important
romelica, romeli-igi, romeli-ege)' and illustrates block of articles is collected under the headings
by taking the clause ' The one who created the of constitutions and the Constitutional
sun and all living creatures cast his brilliance Revolution of 1905-11. The latter is treated by
over heaven'. This same misunderstanding is Abbas Amanat ('Intellectual background'),
revealed in the parallel section of Fahnrich's Vanessa Martin ('Events'), Said Amir
grammar of Modern Georgian. Arjomand ('The constitution'), Mansoureh
Chapter vii presents a selection of the Old Ettahdieh (' The aftermath' and ' Political par-
Georgian vocabulary, divided into homonyms, ties'), the late 'Ali-Akbar Sa'idi Sirjani ("The
synonyms, technical terminology, words with Press'), and Sorour Soroudi ('Literature').
cognate forms (which are presented where Having these 52 double-column pages collected
known) in the three other Kartvelian languages in one place is a boon, especially since these
(viz. Mingrelian, Laz, and Svan—see also authors are often summarizing years of research
Fahnrich's and Z. Sardzhveladze's Etymological or entire books, and covering masses of primary
dictionary of the Kartvelian languages, 1990, insources, and the section rather functions as a
Georgian), and loanwords from a variety of small edited book (with an excellent biblio-
sources, though I would argue that a grammar graphy). My only criticism here is that the
of Old Georgian is not really the place to authors do too little to relate the Iranian
include the extremely tenuous hypothesis of a constitutional revolution to its predecessors,
Sumerian-Georgian link as suggested by the the first constitutional period (1876—78) in
final list of 94 items. Istanbul; the 'Urabi revolution in Egypt
The book concludes with bibliography and (1881-82); and the Young Turk movement
index. from 1889, all of which had an intellectual
If one has the opportunity to produce a legacy throughout the region and in Iran;
handsome volume, as this one technically is, it indeed, the word 'mashruteh' to designate a
should not be wasted. Ak'ak'i Shanidze's own modern constitution was first used by the
short introduction, which Fahnrich himself put Young Ottomans.
into German, was an ideal replacement for The constitutional theme is also exemplified
F. ZorrelFs 1930 Grammatik zur altgeorgischen in articles on the constitution of the Khomeinist
Bibeliibersetzung mit Textproben und Islamic Republic (Said Amir Arjomand) and
Worterverzeichnis (Rome). There was and on the constitutional history of Afghanistan
376 REVIEWS
(M. Hassan Kakar). This volume also contains
a 32-page block of essays on Iranian commerce
from ancient times through the 1980s; Willem
Floor's essays on the Safavid and Qajar period
and Vahid Nowshirvan on the twentieth century
will be particularly useful to modern historians.
Other collections of pieces on related themes
include 'Coins and coinage' and 'Courts and
courtiers'. Beyond these major subjects, of
course, the encyclopedia contains many indi-
vidual gems. Ahmad Ashrafs survey of
'Conspiracy theories' is highly germane to
understanding modern Iranian politics (or for
that matter modern US politics). The essays on
'The Cossack brigade', 'Cox', 'Curzon',
' Communists', the ' Coup d'etat of 1953', and
'Dar al-Funun' (the Tehran Polytechnic
founded in the mid nineteenth century) will
also be useful to specialists in modern history.
Under the heading of religion we find pieces
on ' Conversion' and ' Cosmology and cosmog-
ony ' in Iranian faiths, as well as an important
entry by Hamid Algar on the under-studied
Dhahabiyya Sufi order of Shiraz. Specialists in
medieval and ancient Iran will also find much
of use in this volume, including articles on
cylinder seals, the five monarchs named Cyrus,
the Dad Nask or book of laws, and Dam-
Pezeshki or vetinerarian medicine.
The high quality of the solicited articles
testifies not only to the growing maturity of
the Iranian studies field, but also to the
intensive and meticulous editing process insisted
upon by Ehsan Yarshater. The project is indeed
fortunate to be helmed by someone who has
contributed to so many different areas within
Iranian studies and who insists on the very
highest standards of scholarship. Anyone who
teaches or researches on Iran will find this
volume and the entire encyclopedia an invalu-
able resource.
JUAN R. I. COLE
PHILIP G. KREYENBROEK: Yazidism: its
background, observances and textual
tradition. (Texts and Studies in
Religion, Vol. 62.) xviii, 349 pp.
Lampeter, Dyfed: Edwin Mellen
Press, 1995. £49.95, $99.95.
The Yazidis are a small Kurdish religious
minority, whose faith for a long time remained
little known and misconstrued not only in
Kurdistan but also in Western literature and
scholarship, although for different reasons and
with differing consequences for its adherents.
The emergence of Yazidism can almost
certainly be located in the early years of the
twelfth century, when 'Adi b. Musafir, by all
accounts an orthodox Sufi Sheykh, settled in
the Hakkari mountains in Kurdistan. But it is
not known when and how it developed as it
did into a highly syncretistic faith, in which
elements of mystical Islam are grafted on to
and reconciled with elements of ancient Iranian
religions, and any account remains speculative.
The central dogma of the faith is the belief in
seven angels into whose hands God has
entrusted the affairs of the world. The highest
among them is Malik Tawus, or the Peacock
Angel, the embodiment of the Devil in both
Muslim and Christian traditions, since he
refused to obey God's order to pay homage to
Adam. Sheykh 'Adi is venerated as the rein-
carnation of Malik Tawfls.
The label 'devil-worshippers', which was
given to Yazidis by their Muslim neighbours,
did more than any theological debate to justify
the periodic harassment and persecution to
which both Ottoman authorities and Muslim
Kurds subjected them. The name later captured
the imagination of Western travellers and
orientalists when they came into contact with
the community in the early years of the last
century. Some nineteenth-century orientalists
identified the Malik Tawus of the Yazidis with
Lucifer, and sought to reconstruct from the
faith its presumed forerunner, a cult of devil-
worship, while the Kurdish nationalists of the
1920s and 1930s exalted Yazidism as a Kurdish
religion in its purest form. The romantic appeal
of Yazidism subsided when the religion as
articulated by its adherents and in its rituals
was seen not to live up to these expectations.
It then came to be regarded as a debased form
of an older and more impressive cult, and the
views of its adherents were taken as proof of
its corrupt state.
A factor which certainly contributed to the
decline in orientalist interest in Yazidism was a
strict ban on literacy, which pre-empted any
textual analysis. The ban was part of the
elaborate code of secrecy developed by the
faith in order to survive in a hostile environ-
ment; of course, texts can also confine and
shackle a mystical tradition. The only known
Yazidi texts whose authenticity scholars
accepted were a few Arabic poems attributed
to Sheykh 'Adi, which revealed nothing about
the faith as such. Around the turn of the
century two other texts, ' Sacred Books', came
to light, but scholars soon dismissed them as
inauthentic—that is, they failed to meet the
criteria by which the authenticity of written
traditions is judged. It was only in the late
1970s, when the Yazidis themselves started to
publish their sacred hymns, the qewls, that the
importance of these texts was revealed. It
became clear how successful the community
had been in keeping its oral tradition secret,
and how clever Yazidi informants had been in
misinforming outsiders and underplaying the
importance of these texts to the understanding
of their faith.
By making available for the first time in
English a representative sample of these qewls,
which are chanted by travelling bards (qewwal)
on religious occasions, Kreyenbroek opens a
new chapter in studies of Yazidism. To investi-
gate these sacred hymns, he visited the Yazidi
community in the ' Safe Haven' of Northern
Iraq in 1992. He presents the fruits of this
labour in the second part of his book, where
he has painstakingly transcribed and rendered
into English 19 hymns. He has translated them