Ethno-Religious Communities: To the Problem of Identity Markers

Author(s): Victoria Arakelova

Source: Iran & the Caucasus, Vol. 14, No. 1 (2010), pp. 1-17
Published by: Brill
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25703828
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 brill Iran and the Caucasus 14 (2010) 1-18 /
(f) f*m\

Ethno-Religious Communities:
To the Problem of Identity Markers

Victoria Arakelova
Yerevan State University

Abstract
The paper focuses on the phenomenon of ethno-religiousness and, particularly, on
the process of the formation of ethno-religious communities. In the spotlight of the
research is the Yezidi identity?the stages of its formation from the new syncretic
mentality, initially exclusively with the religious vector, and later having acquired
the drive to ethnicity. The similar processes can be traced in other cases of ethno
religious identities, e.g., the Mandaeans and the Druzes, both cases being used as
comparative material.

Keywords
Ethno-Religious Identity, Alevis, Yezidis, Druzes, Mandaeans, Identity Markers

General

The formation of ethno-religious groups has always seemed an enig

matic process, many aspects of which remain absolutely concealed even
when the emergence of a new ethno-religious identity can, in certain
historical situations, be analysed and even anticipated.
The complicacy of the subject is not only in the relativity of some
basic notions and terms used in relevant disciplines1, but also in the
delicate character of the field dealing with human's self-consciousness.
As Gumilev puts it: "... there is not a single real criterion defining an
ethnos, which can be equally applied to all known instances: language,
origin, customs, material culture, and ideology may sometimes be or
may not be decisive. There is only one point, which can be factored
out?the acknowledgement of each that we are such-and-such, and the

1 For instance, there is no universal definition for the term "ethnos". L. Gumilev
(1967a: 91) suggests the following general definition as a preliminary one: "a group
of people contraposing themselves to all the rest of collectives". On the problem of
ethnic identity and self-awareness, see also Guibernau/Rex 2001.
? Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2010 DOI: 10.1163/157338410X12743419189180

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 2 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 14 (2010) 1-18

rest are different (Gumilev 1967b: 5 ff.). The same individual self-aware
ness is often defined as identity.2 Despite the fact that, in some contexts,
there is certain overlap of the two notions?"identity" and "ethnicity",
the latter, no doubt, is just a part of the former, particularly in the case
of the so-called complex identity. The striking instance of the above
idea is the Alevism with its multiple well-crystallised forms of identity
(see, e.g., Olsson/ Ozdalga/Raudvere 1998; White/jorgenden 2003). Due
to its supra-ethnic character, this religious ideology spread among vari
ous ethnic groups, developed into several pretty specific forms of self
awareness, having, in fact, no unifying vector but the belonging (some
times formal) to the Alevi religious milieu. The Alevism itself, in its
turn, is a rather conditional term; its local peculiarities are often deter
mined by substrate (pre-Islamic) beliefs, influence of neighbouring cul
tures (e.g., Armenian Christianity), etc. (see, e.g., Asatrian/Gevorgian
1988; Shankland 1998: 15-22.). Only in Turkey, there are several ethnic
groups practicing (at least formally) this form of Extreme Shi'ism?
Alevi Turks, Alevi Zazas, Alevi Kurds, its forms varying depending on
the ethnic environment. The ethnic component remains extremely sig
nificant in different Alevi groups, although the mentality of, let us say,
an Alevi Kurd is in many aspects closer to that of an Alevi Turk, than
that of a Sunni Kurd. Two of the mentioned three cases are typifiers of
sub-ethnic unities-the Zazas (approximately half of them are Sunnis)
and the Turks. The Kurdish case is special due to the fact that the Kurd
ish conglomeration is so heterogeneous in multiple aspects, that the
unified Kurdish identity is itself a problem to discuss (see Asatrian
2009).
Contrary to the above described different sub-ethnic groups for
mally practicing the same esoteric doctrine, and thus forming new spe
cific identities (to be more precise, religious identities within the same
ethnic groups), there are cases when the formation of a new religious
identity takes place in parallel with a new identity as such, which can
not be regarded as sub-ethnic group of any ethnos.

2 In our days, this term is losing its initial academic connotation and widely
used, in very arguable definitions in political sciences, in the sphere of human
rights, and just in pseudo-scholarly circles. However, the recognition of the right of
an individual to consider or not to consider himself a member of an ethnic (ethno
religious) group exclusively on the basis of his own self-awareness does not detract
from the scientific actualite of the identity issue, particularly for ethnography,
which rather aims at its conceptualisation and precise definition, not at manipulat
ing with terms. In our case, the object of the research is not an individual with his
self-awareness, but a group, whose members share the perception of belonging to
one and the same community.

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 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 14 (2010) 1-18 3

The present paper is focused on the issue of ethno-religious identity

and its transformation into ethnicity on the example of a number of
ethno-religious communities, primarily Yezidis (on the Yezidis in gen
eral, see Guest 1987; Kreyenbroek 1995; Arakelova 2005a).
The Yezidism is a unique phenomenon, one of the most illustrative
examples of ethno-religious identity, which is based on a religion exclu
sively specific for the Yezidis and called Sharfadin by them.3
The peculiarities of this religious system are not only limited to its
syncretism, some elements of which could be traced in Sufism, a num
ber of Extreme Shi'ite sects, substrate pre-Islamic beliefs, Gnosticism,
etc., but they also include specific features solely characteristic of the
Yezidi faith, which define the belonging of its followers to the Ezdik
hana (EzdTxana)?the esoteric community of the Yezidis. In this case,
when providing characteristics of the Yezidism in its current state, it is
quite legitimate to speak of the unity of both the Yezidi (religious) iden
tity and the Yezidi ethnicity. Since the given particular form of religion
is practiced exclusively within the frames of the Yezidi community,
then as much as the Yezidism as a religious system and, generally, that
of a Weltanschauung, determines the definition of its bearers, the Yez
idis, to the same extent it can be determined by virtue of the latter.
Thus, both the Yezidism and the nature of its ethno-religiousness ap
pear simultaneously as subjects of the research. Definitions of the for
mer, as well as the latter, act in this case both as benchmarks and as re
search objectives, what prima facie forms a Vicious circle*?a result of
definitio per idem. In order to break away from it, in our case, we should
first conventionally define ethno-religiousness as a phenomenon of
self-awareness (identity), which is primarily based on a non-proselyte re
ligion, practiced exclusively by the given closed community. Special emphasis
is added on the last part as an essential condition for ethno-religious
ness, without which we would be dealing exclusively with sub-ethnic
groups formally sharing the same doctrine within different ethnoses
and having no active vector towards the formation of a new ethnicity.
Historical analysis of a number of ethno-religious communities
shows that their development has a clearly expressed vector?drive for
ethnicity.
The dynamics of the development of ethno-religious communi
ties?from religious identity to ethno-religiousness and, finally, to eth
nicity?does not give rise to any doubt and could serve if not as a

3 Sharfadin is an allegory replacing the partially tabooed name of Malak-Tawus,

the central figure in the Yezidi religion (see Asatrian/Arakelova 2003: 1-36).

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 4 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 14 (2010) 1-18

proving basis, then, at least, a remarkable illustration of the thesis

about the ethnic vector of the development of an ethno-religious com
munity in the long run.
One of the most intriguing?in all senses?samples of ethno-relig
iousness are the Mandaeans, which have branched off Judaism and were
formed on the grounds of Judaic Gnosticism. The very term mandaiia is
derived from manda- "knowledge, cognition, Gnosis", while its broader
form is manda d-hiia- "cognition of life". The term mandaiia itself actu
ally means the "cognizant" ("learned") (Macuch 2002: 31). Some re
searchers have particularly paid attention to the fact that it would be
wrong to use this name to identify a people: "...We call them so by their
religion, and not their ethnic marker" (Pognon, apud Macuch, ibid.). Al
though Drower has suggested that the term might also mean ethnicity,
she then denied it herself. Actually, the problem for Drower with stating
the question was rather caused by her suspicions on the etymology of
the term mandaiia well before it was confirmed in its traditional sense of
"gnosis" (Macuch 2002: 31). However, there is nothing surprising in the
accentuation of the religious factor, since, in the context of the Man
daean roots, the matter can exclusively be about breaking off the relig
ious milieu with subsequent "closing" of the community?the initial
stage of the emergence of ethno-religiousness. So, it is quite natural
that the term "Mandaean" had (and for a researcher of the origin and
early history of Mandaeism it still has) primarily a religious connota
tion. In addition, it is still arguable, whether the term "Mandaean"
should be applied exclusively to the religion of the already formed
community of the Mandaeans or it could be also used for their Pales
tinian forerunners and "latest Mesopotamian ideological heirs?similar
Gnostics like their predecessors" (ibid.: 30). R. Macuch recommends to
consider here the opinion of Save-Soderberg pointing that to a signifi
cant extent, this is an issue of taste?whether the term "Mandaean"
should be used to name the final phase of the development of that re
ligion with all of its inherent details and specificities, characteristic just
for the later period, without taking into account the circumstance that,
whatever those specifities are, they do not change anything in the na
ture of that very religion (ibid.: 30-31). Such formulation of the question
about the possibility of applying the given name to the community
during different periods of its development is interesting per se, and we
will return to it later, when examining a similar situation with the Yez
idi community. In any event, we have no other designation for the
community or, to be more precise, for the people, who are known as
Mandaeans today.

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 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 14 (2010) 1-18 5

The sources and the history of another ethno-religious community,

the Druzes, seem to be well explored. They specificated in the Extreme
Shi'ite milieu in the 10th century. To be more precise, to that period we
should refer only the emergence of the doctrine of the Fatimide Caliph
al-Hakim, who declared himself the final personification of the Divinity.
The first followers of Muhammad ad-Darazi4 who venerated the ruling
al-Hakim (996-1021), appeared as early as during the life of the Caliph.
But only later, when the ideas of al-Hakim spread through the moun
tains of Antilebanon and Lebanon (the remoteness from the centres of
Orthodoxy is one of the appropriate, but still not compulsory, condi
tions for the emergence of an efficient "heretic" milieu), the group of
the Ismailis expecting the future advent of al-Hakim, took gradually
shape of a closed community with a strict endogamy (see Daftari 2003:
111-112; on the sources and detailed information about the Druzes, see
Nejla 1993; Bryer 1975: 47-84; idem 1976: 5-27).
Having completely dissociated from the similar religious surround
ing, i.e. from Ismailism, the Druze community in its early stage could
only be considered as a model of sectarianism. But the next step of de
velopment of the new identity was the dissociation from its ethnic sur
rounding?Arabs, with whom the Druzes could still be associated for a
long time, with reserve to the religious peculiarity. And then, on that
stage, the closed nature and strict endogamy of the community pro
vided the ethno-religious vector of its development for ages. This vector
can be finally characterised as ethnic due to the fact that there is no
other community with the same doctrine (Heterodox Shi'ism of Ismaili
persuasion, but with a central idea of deification of Caliph al-Hakim)
within other ethnic groups. Thereby, the Druzes can be considered nei
ther as a religious sect in its classical understanding nor as a subethnic
group of Arabs. Today, the ethnicity vector of the Druze identity is quite
obvious in Druze communities.
Thereby, the ethno-religious group in its process of establishment
and development passes through several stages. First of all, it dissoci
ates from its own religious surroundings, marking a new dominant
around which a new syncretic doctrine is being formed. This dominant
actually provides the basic religious specificity of a new community.
Then the "closing" of the community takes place: the strict endogamy
becomes a guaranty of preservation of the esoteric religious knowledge
inside the community. (To a certain extent, endogamy is also deter

4 Ad-Darazi is the eponym of the community, although the Druzes, dissociating

themselves from this personality, use the term al-muwahhidun?"monotheists" as
their endo-ethnonym.

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 6 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 14 (2010) 1-18

mined by the hostile surrounding approaching a group with a distorted

doctrine as heretics.) It is exactly endogamy that distinguishes an
ethno-religious community from any other esoteric group (mystical or
der and others), a member of which one could actually become by
passing the ritual of initiation. And it is exactly endogamy that defines
the ethno-religious and, in the final analysis, the ethnic vector of devel
opment of a new community where religion still remains to be the main
differentiative indicator.
In other words, the closed religious community becomes a phe
nomenon of ethno-religiousness if the period of dissociation from the
substant religious surrounding actually underlying the new doctrine, is
followed by dissociation from the ambient ethnic surrounding, be it an
actual substant ethnos or a putative one. It is important to emphasise
here that, the external dissociation does not always come from the real
ethnic ancestor (since the syncretic religious community can initially be
polyethnic and form a new ethnicity inside a closed endogamous com
munity during the further development), but first of all, from the eth
nos with which the ethno-religious community is associated, even
though erroneously, by the external world under either circumstances.
To such circumstances we can refer some factors, which in different
cases may equally be basic criteria of identity or they may not?lan
guage, certain cultural realia, and other. In the case of ethno-religious
ness, those criteria sometimes become the reason of fallacious external
definitions of the community (e.g., the identification of the Yezidis with
the Kurds, etc.).
Beside the aforesaid, one more prerequisite for the formation of
ethno-religiousness is the absence of another group with the same re
ligious doctrine inside any other ethnos. The presence of such groups in
different ethnoses indicates their sub-ethnic character, as well as the
initially supra-ethnic character of the doctrine itself.

The Yezidis as an Ethno-Religious Group

The process of the formation of the Yezidis as a separate ethno-religious

group took place in the period from the 11th to 13-14th centuries in the
region of Sinjar in Northern Iraq. The religious dissociatiosn of the
Yezidis from the local milieu took place in the very colourful religious
scenery of Mesopotamia where different ideas of Islam, Christianity, Old
Iranian religious elements tightly interlaced with Gnostic ideas and sub
strate beliefs. Here, in the loyal surrounding of the Sufi 'Adawlyya or
der, which became the core of a new community, arose and developed a
fundamentally new syncretic religious doctrine that was principally

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 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 14 (2010) 1-18 7

lacking a common dogma in a strict understanding of this word. By pre

serving a number of elements of mystical Islam, the Yezidism inhaled
different and sometimes contradictory elements of many other relig
ious streams of the region that were nourishing by their marginal ideas
the fertile "heretic" surrounding, pretty distant from the centres of or
thodoxies. Some elements of the Yezidism, however, are extremely spe
cific, even unique in the whole New Iranian expanse; it is equally impos
sible to find their echos in other doctrines (though the typological par
allels are commonly on hand). These peculiarities being, in fact, the
fundamentals of the Yezidi religious ideology, became the main indica
tions of their self-consciousness and defined the Yezidis and the con
ceptions of Yezidism as they are?sort of shibbolleths (Arakelova 2005a;
see also Guest 1987:48-57).
The figure of Malak-Tavus, the Peacock Angel (on the genesis of the
character, see Asatrian/Arakelova 2003: 1-36), the main figure of the
Yezidi Holy Triad, is found in the centre of the religious self-awareness
of Yezidis. Even the presence of Khwade (xwade or xwadT, xudd?origi
nates from Persian xuddy?"god, master"), the One God, does not shade
in any way the significance of this character, to whom the tradition,
transfer all the main divine functions?from the demiurge, creator of
the universe and till the forefather of the Yezidi people. Malak-Tavus
also appears as the eponym of the Yezidis, who call themselves milate
Malak-Tavus?the people of Malak-Tavus. In the Yezidi "Black Scripture"
(Mash'afe fas) the Yezidis are described as "the people of Azrael, that is
Malak-Tavus" (Bittner 1913: 24, 28; Asatrian/P'oladian 1989:144-145).
Malak-Tavus, as well as two other characters of the Holy Triad,
Sheikh 'Adi (on this character, see Guest 1987: 19-21) and Sultan Ezid
(see Arakelova 2005b: 198-202), are manifestations of Khwade (Asatrian/
Arakelova 2003: 2-8), Malak-Tavus being prior in the Triad and in the
entire Yezidi pantheon.
In the Yezidi Credo, both Malak-Tavus and Khwade appear as symbols
of religion, Malak-Tavus being also characterised as the faith itself:

Sahda dine min Allah,

TawusT malak sahda u Tmaned mina...

The Credo of my faith is the One God...

Malak-Tavus is the Credo and my faith (itself) (ibid.: 3).

One more circumstance related to the cult of Malak-Tavus, is that

the Yezidis were called in the region devil-worshippers; they were con
sidered to be a mystical tribe that came from the deviPs saliva, etc. Ac
cording to a Muslim author, "This tribe (Yezidis) worships Iblis, while

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 8 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 14 (2010) 1-18

they name Satan (say^an) as Malak-Tavus"?Bayazidi writes (Bayazidi

1963: 64, 74). The epithet "devil-worshippers", which was the result of
the perception of Satan in the Yezidism, going back rather to the Sufi
concept of the apology of Iblis and spread in the Near Eastern "heretic"
milieu (see Asatrian/Arakelova 2003: 22-36).5 This ominous label di
rectly connected to Malak-Tawus, has long been the basic accusation
among multiple prejudices towards the Yezidis. Thereby, Malak-Tavus
stands out as an important marker of the Yezidism and, in essence, that
of the Yezidi identity.
Further on, the ethnonym "Yezidi" itself became sort of pejorative
marker for the Yezidis among the dogmatic Shi'ite groups. It revealed
inimical attitude towards the "heretics" whose deity was associated
with the second Omayyad caliph, Yazid bin Muawiya. The cult of this
ambiguous historical character as part of the Omayyad cult (preserved
for a long time even after they left the historical arena) penetrated into
the community, most probably on the earliest stage of its formation. It
could have even existed already among the 'Adawlyya Sufis, the Yezidis'
forerunners. The image of the Caliph was incorporated into the image
of Sultan Ezid as the representative of the Yezidi Holy Triad, what basi
cally defined the dominant ethnonym of the community. Among the
Shi'ites, the ethnonym "Yezidi" with a highly negative connotation,
marked first of all a group of people that venerated a person responsible
for the death of imam Huseyn, the son of 'Ali and the grandson of the
Prophet of Islam himself. This circumstance actually turned all the op
ponents of the Omayyad dynasty against the Yezidis. But, most proba
bly, exactly this circumstance?the concurrence of one of the endo
markers and an exo-definition?has finally "fixed" the present eth
nonym after the community and moved aside all the others, such as
'adabf (Arab, 'adawf?"the follower of Sheikh 'Adi" and, on early stages,
rather "a member of the Adawlyya order"), sarqx?from 'adamye larqx
("Eastern Adawlyya"), dasinT?by the name of one of the Yezidi tribes
(Arakelova 2005b), etc.
Percecusions and violence towards Yezidis were periodically rising,
taking a mass character when political interests were added to other
factors. On the other hand, dissociation of the Yezidi community from
the antagonistic surrounding (the so-called inimical others), the contra
distinction of their own group to the other groups of their neighbou
hood, the awareness of the unity and integrity of their community, that

5 On other parallels between the Yezidism and heterodox Shi'ite sects, see
Arakelova 2004:19-28.

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 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 14 (2010) 1-18 9

is the crystallisation of the principally new self-consciousness, brought

to the final and irreversible "closing" of the community, transmission to
strict endogamy, and therefore?to the final dissociation from the mi
lieu having once generated the new syncretic phenomenon. The com
munity stepped into the period of establishment of ethno-religious
awareness, as a result of which, in a certain period of time, it should be
no longer associated not only with any of the religious realities of the
region, but also?with any of the ethnic groups, having once taken part
in its formation?Kurds, Arabs, Aramaic ethnic elements or whatever.
This most probably happened not earlier than the 14th century. And,
very likely, exactly to this period we can refer the final fixation of the
name "Yezidi" for the community as both an exo- and endo-ethnonym.
Here, it is appropriate to remember the situation with the Mandaeans
and the debate about the justification of the use of the term mandaiia on
different stages of the community's formation and development (see
above). Typologicaly, the situation seems symmetrical, and such a
statement of the question in principle is suitable. In fact, there were
several communities that called themselves Yezidis6, in principle, by the
same reason?veneration of the Omayyads and Sultan Ezid as a sym
bolic, marking figure of the whole dynasty. All of them, however, with
the exception of the specified cult, which has, by the way, gained in our
Yezidi doctrine a qualitatively new interpretation (see Arakelova
2005b), do not have anything in common with the subject of our inves
tigation. It is important to note that, by the time of the dissociation
from the Muslim surroundings, the Yezidi tradition gradually "broke
off" with the actualities of Islam as well?many historical characters
(and what is especially striking?not only the traditional Sunni, Sufi,
but also the Shi'ite saints), even those with well enough documented bi
ographies, were completely adapted by the Yezidism and stand out in
the tradition strictly as Yezidi characters (see, e.g., Arakelova 2001:183
192; Asatrian 2007: 325-326).

6 In Shugnan (the Pamirs), the name Yazidiya was applied to the Mervanits, who
reckoned Mervan, Prophet Muhammad's secretary, as the fourth Caliph (BartoPd
1966:466), no doubt, exclusively due to the fact that the specific figure of Yazid was
outlined against the cult of the whole Omayyad dynasty. We do not touch here the
cases with those groups, who also called themselves Yazidiya, but in which the mere
concurrence of communities' names is explained by the concurrence of the epo
nyms' names. For instance, Bab a\-shay\ari\ which is part of the 10th century Ismaili
work "Kitab al-Shajara" by Abu Tammam, also contains the name "Yazidiya". The
author gives the detailed account of 72 heretic sects, including those never attested
before; the Yazidiya being described as the followers of Yazid bin Abi Unays (Made
lung/Walker 1998:40).

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 10 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 14 (2010) 1-18

Similar legendary genesis was obtained by Sultan Ezid and even

Sheikh 'Adi himself. The latter, being in fact the founder of the 'Ada
wlyya Sufi order, turned, in the Yezidi tradition, into the patriarch of
the first Yezidi community; establishing the Ezdikhana having been the
essence of this divine manifestation's worldly mission. Thereby, the
identification of the Yezidis?the object of our research, the community
with the unique syncretic form of religion with any of the other groups,
which called themselves Yezidis is absolutely baseless. But the figure of
the legendary Sultan Ezid as a representative of the Holy Triad and the
eponym of the modern Yezidis can be definitely considered as another
marker of the Yezidi identity.
As about the precursors of the Yezidism, there can be no doubt at
present that Islamic mysticism, together with various ideas of the
"heretic" Mesopotamian milieu-^rom Gnosticism to local heathen cults,
superimposed into the loyal atmosphere of the 'Adawlyya Sufi order by
diverse groups of the followers of the Sufi murshid Sheikh 'Adi?oc
curred to be that doctrinal basis, on which the new syncretic teaching
has originated. However, despite the already mentioned fact that multi
ple Sufi ideas, some structural peculiarities of the order, and even em
blematic figures of Sufism underwent transformation and got strictly
Yezidi interpretations in the capacity of Yezidi actualities, initially the
'Adawlyya were definitely a typical Sufi order not pretending for disso
ciation from Islam (the treatises of Sheikh 'Adi on Muslim orthodoxy
and his Sufi poetry are well known- (Guest 1987: 17). So, even if we con
ditionally examine 'Adawlyya as a precursor of the Yezidism, it is both
inadmissible?neither to spread the term Yezidis (Yazidiyya) over the
Sufi community, nor vice versa?the name of the order, over the new
doctrine. It is a different issue that in the same order, the cult of Sultan
Ezid had, most probably, already existed on the very early stage (it
could have been a consequence of the belonging of Sheikh 'Adi himself
to the Omayyad dynasty (ibid.: 15). However, the memory about 'Ada
wlyya is displayed in one of the ethnonyms of the community (a'dabf?
see above), as well as in the special role of Sheikh 'Adi, though con
verted into a Yezidi divine being, in the Yezidi doctrine. Thereby, be
longing to the community of Sheikh 'Adi (e.g., to the Ezdikhana), to the
a'dabf people can also be considered as a marker of the Yezidi identity.
So, the possibility of identification of the Yezidis with their prede
cessors could by no means be seen an "issue of taste". Unlike the Man
daeans, the "same kind of Gnostics as their precursors" (see above), we
cannot call the Yezidis even the same kind of mystics as their forerun
ners.

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 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 14 (2010) 1-18 11

The formation of the ethno-religious identity started simultaneously

with the forming of a qualitatively new religious system. Gradually the
Sufi order, which one could join as a member after passing the process
of initiation, turned into a closed community with an esoteric doctrine,
as a member of which one could just be born. The ethnic vector of the
Yezidi identity appears exactly on this stage.
It is impossible to say when precisely it happened but the period of
the 14-15th centuries seems to be the most credible.7
The term the Yezidis name their community, Ezdikhana, literally
means "the adobe of the Yezidis"; cf.:

Sixddl, sex - barak'atin;

Wcdikirinxalatin,
Hawdr, bangina Ezdixdna mdna bd tcu

Sheikh 'Adi, the Sheikhs are grace

The saints were given gifts,
(Expectancy) of help and love of the Yezidi community (Ezdikhana)
Stayed withyou (Asatrian/Arakelova 2000:50).

Once an esoteric term, it is now used within the community as gen

eral opposition to other communities: sirman (silmdn)?"Muslims", fila?
"Christian", etc. Besides, it is particularly relevant in the context of be
longing to the community both by birth and by the life modus (see be
low).
In the religious lore another term appears predominantly, sunat'xdna
(or its short form sunat'), lit. "the adobe of the people of the Sunna". In
the context of the Yezidis, the term dates back probably to the earliest
stage of formation of the community, having not yet separated from Is

7 The earliest mention of the Yezidis as already completely shaped ethno-relig

ious community is, probably, that in Sharaf-nameh written in 1597 by Sharaf-khan
Bidlisi (BidlTsI 1862). The narration is partially founded on facts starting from the
time of Tamerlain, but the whole preceding period is based exclusively on the
mythological history.
According to Sharaf-khan Bidlisi, a number of Kurdish, in the author's opinion,
tribes, to some of which the Arab origin is attributed, practiced in those times the
Yezidi religion, qa'idayi napasandi-eyazidT, i.e. "the indecent law of the Yezidis" (Ibid.:
14), since they, the author continues, are the disciples of Sheikh 'Adi bin Musafir, to
whom they trace their origin. Their erroneous faith, according to Bidlisi, is that
Sheikh [allegedly] took over him their obligation to keep a fast and to pray, and that
in the Doomsday they will go to paradise without being undergone any punishment
or condemnation. And they nourish extreme hatred and enmity towards the purest
wages of Islam" (ibid.: 310,14-15).

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 12 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 14 (2010) 1-18

lam (simultaneously, in the same contexts the above-mentioned terms

a'dabT (a'dawt) and $arqi are used).
There are specific parameters of belonging to Ezdikhana, which are
determined by the Farze bratiye, "The Canon of the Spiritual Guidance
(lit. Brotherhood)", and actually define the character and specificity of
the Yezidi community. The Yezidi community confines itself to three
major prescriptions: the prohibition of marriage with adherents of a dif
ferent faith, providing the purity of the religion; prohibition of mar
riages between representatives of different castes, providing the caste
purity; following the basic precepts of the religion, aimed at preserving
the traditions. Breaking those rules is seen as a dreadful sin; a Yezidi,
who has ignored at least one of those prescripts, is considered an apos
tate and must be expelled from the community (Ankosi 1996:12-15).
The caste belonging of a Yezidi (clergy, the so-called tariqat, Arab.
tariqa?"(spiritual) path"), which includes the families of Sheikhs (sex,
Arab, sayx) and Pirs (Pers. pir "elder, saint"), and laymen (mind, Arab.
mufid "disciple"),8 as well as the system of spiritual guidance within the
community (including such a specific institution as the "brother (or
sister) of the Hereafter" (Asatrian 1999-2000: 79-96) determine the niche
of the community member in the Ezdikhana. At the early stage, the af
filiation with this communion, could mean, above all, the initiation into
the esoteric group (an echo of the Sufi order). Presently, due to the
ethno-religious vector, it presupposes primarily to be born to the Yezidi
parents and to follow the above mentioned prescriptions. Thus, belong
ing to the Ezdikhana can be characterised as one more identity marker.
Let us turn now to the ethnic factor. There is no doubt that the 'Ad
awiyya community was initially polyethnic: Arabs and Kurds, as well as,
possibly, representatives of the Aramaic tribes were members of the
Sufi order. It is hard to talk about some ethnic dominant at the early
stage, but the Kurdish-speaking factor subsequently increased. The Iraqi
community of the Yezidis is bilingual until nowadays, but the Kurmanji
dialect appears as native for all the Yezidis, regardless of their habita
tion; the rich Yezidi folklore, including religious hymns, were also cre
ated in this dialect, although the so-called sacred books (Bittner 1913;
Asatrian/P'oladian 1989: 131-150) are compiled in a Southern Kurdish
dialect. It is possible that the Kurmanji factor increased significantly
during the period of active dissociation from the Muslim milieu and, as
a result, from the doctrinal language of Islam, that is Arabic. By the way,
the threat of the influence of world religions and proselytism (Northern

8 On the caste division of the Yezidi community, see Kreyenbroek 1995:125-144.

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 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 14 (2010) 1-18 13

Iraq has been not only a region of serious Muslim influence, but also
that of Christian missionaries' activities,-Guest 1987: 49-55) justified, to
a certain extent, the prohibition of literacy within the community,
which had existed up to the early twentieth century.9 While the Yezidis
ceased to be associated with Islam and, as a result of this, with the Arab
world in general, already at a quite early stage, the problem of irrele
vant identification of the Yezidis with the Kurds is existent today even
more than centuries ago. The matter here is not only the common lan
guage, which the Yezidis share with the part of the Kurds speaking
Kurmanji, and which the former, by the way, call ezdiku to emphasise
the distinction between them and the heterogeneous Kurdish contin
uum. Leaving aside the politicisation of this issue, there is at least one
objective factor, which allows one to "play" with the identity of not
only the Yezidis but also a number of other Iranian-speaking peoples
(such as the Guranis, the Zazas, and the Lurs), which are also often er
roneously attributed as Kurds. This factor is the deliquescence of the
Kurdish identity itself fuzziness of any definition of the Kurdishness as a unified
phenomenon. Under the generalised ethnonym "Kurds" exists one of the
world's largest conglomerations with the prevailing tribal conscious
ness, discontinuous in terms of language, religion, culture, etc., within
which the problem of the unified identity is a real calamity issue (on the
problems of Kurdish identity, see, e.g., Strohmeier 2003; Atabaki/Dor
leijn 1999, Asatrian 2009). The vague characteristics of this conglomera
tion indirectly conduce to the above mentioned mistaken identifica
tions. And while the Gurans, Zazas, and Lurs have, besides other identity
markers, their own languages (that, however, is no obstacle for amateur
Kurdologists to consider those as Kurdish dialects), in the case of the
Yezidis the language factor is used as the major argument ostensibly fa
vouring their Kurdish belonging.
Nevertheless, the Yezidis are the right case, where language does
not appear to be a decisive factor of identity?a phenomenon, which is
quite common and particularly typical of ethno-religious communities.
Besides, throughout ages numerous terms (basically religious), which do
not exist in the Kurmanji of Kurds, have been introduced into the Kur

9 Up to the beginning of the 20th century, this rule had been kept inviolate, as
sertedly as one of the main prescriptions of Shaikh 'Adi. In fact, initially tabooed
were, most probably, the scripture of the neighbouring Ahl al-Kitdb, the Peoples of
Scripture, an attempt to shield the community from proselytism. This ban, in the
circumstances the community lived, on the one hand, doomed it to multi-century
illiteracy, but on the other, stimulated development of the Yezidi rich oral tradition
(see, e.g., Rudenko 1982: 7 ff.; Arakelova 2008).

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 14 v. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 14 (2010) 1-18

manji spoken by the Yezidis. Moreover, a number of early terms have

obtained qualitatively new interpretations among the Yezidis (Arakelo
va 2008).
No doubt, the process of separation from the similar (in terms of
language) surrounding, in this case?from Kurdish, was completed cen
turies ago among the Yezidis, in fact simultaneous with the formation of
the closed ethno-religious community. Kurdish issue is not a point in
the case of the Yezidi self-identification, at least on the level of collec
tive consciousness. As for external identification, the above mentioned
issue has in any event been actualised from time to time during the last
century?the period of active "creation" of the political Kurdish factor.

The Yezidi Identity Markers

Thus, on the basis the above analysis, we can formulate few general
characteristics, which define the Yezidi self-awareness and, therefore,
can be regarded as the Yezidi identity markers, the first two being defi
nitions ex negatio:

The Yezidis are not Muslims (the religious differentiating characteristic).

Let us return to the Mandaeans (more precisely, to the Mandaean Nazare
nes), whose example of the formation of ethno-religiousness demonstrates
a number of regularities, which can be traced in the formation of the Yez
idis. The Mandaean name nasaruta imply the radical separation from Juda
ism and, as Macuch puts it, Nas(a)ruta are those who are incompatible with
Judaism (Macuch 2002: 52), despite the fact that initially they were a prod
uct of Judaic milieu. So, the first definition ex negacio for the Yezidis could
be "Yezidis are those who are incompatible with Islam", despite the fact
that initially the Yezidism was a product of the Muslim milieu.
The Yezidis are not Kurds (the ethnic differentiating characteristic). This
characteristic should not be seen as a mere consequence of the previous
one, although, certainly the Kurds are primarily associated with various
forms of Islam. The relevance and actualite of this characteristic in the cur
rent historical period is explained above all by the actualisation of the so
called "Kurdish" factor and, as a result, the erroneous exo-identification of
Yezidis.
The Yezidis are the people of Malak-Tavus (the central figure in the
Yezidi religion, which actually provides the uniqueness of the cult; one of
the eponyms of the Yezidis).
The Yezidis are the people ("the lambs") of Sultan Ezid (one of the di
vine manifestations in the Yezidi tradition, a member of the Holy Triad of
the Yezidism, and, finally, the eponym of the community).

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 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 14 (2010) 1-18 15

The Yezidis are the members of Ezdikhana, the community established,

according to the tradition, by Sheikh 'Adi (one of the divine manifestations,
a member of the Holy Triad of the Yezidism, and also one of the eponyms of
the community), and therefore:

? The Yezidis are the bearers of the esoteric religious doctrine, Shar
fadin;
? The Yezidis are the adherents of the rules of Farze bratlye.

The list could be longer with a number of specific lines, peculiar ex

clusively for the Yezidi tradition, first of all religious. Such is, for exam
ple, the Yezidi popular pantheon?an entire number of exotic charac
ters, which have originated from the powerful religious hearths- Abra
hamic, Indo-Iranian, Mesopotamian?and have gained the most bizarre
interpretations on a new religious background.10
Using the above outlined Yezidi identity markers as pattern, it is
possible to formulate kind of a more or less generalised pattern?the
markers of any ethno-religious identity. The first two specifications of
the supposed list would always be definitions ex negation pointing, cor
respondingly, to dissociation from the initial religious milieu, and that
from either the ancestor ethnos(es) or from the ethnic group with
which a new community is being associated, even though erroneously.11
The rest characteristics would naturally point to the most specific fea
tures of a new syncretic cult.

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