Hindus must get to the root of who is pushing the “Yazidi are Hindus” meme and why. But before we solve that mystery we must prove to the Hindu community that this entire movement is indeed based upon fallacies and illusions. In part 1 (here) we learned that the Yazidi believe themselves to be the descendants of only Adam through an event of spontaneous and miraculous generation. This myth however extends far beyond a simple spiritual teaching. Indeed, the Yazidi believe themselves to be the one and only pure race of god on earth, a “chosen people”. Below the Yazidi are Jews, Christians and Muslims who are believed to have been produced through Adam’s carnal relationship with Eve. Yet lower than these are non-Abrahamic peoples who contain no blood of Adam and are responsible for bringing the wrath of the Yazidi god upon the earth in the form of floods. While Jews, Christians and Muslims are at least redeemable, those outside of the Abrahamic fold are not to be taught Yazidi precepts. Further still, in modern times the Yazidi have a tendency to stress their lineage through Adam’s son Seth, since other Abrahamics already revere Seth as being the father of the more noble races of earth. My research was based upon Yazidi holy scripture (“The Black Book” found on www.yeziditruth.org/yezidi_scriptures) as well as a Ph.D thesis on the Yazidi by Dr. Spät, accepted by the Central European University in Budapest.
Birth of the Yazidi Race
According to Yazidi scripture as found in “The Black Book”, after Adam and Eve were created, the pair quarreled over who would beget the human race. The pair had a competition of sorts, each casting their “seed” into jars which were incubated for 9 months. After the 9 month period, the two jars were opened; Adam’s jar had produced a set of human twins while Eve’s jar had produced nothing but rotten worms. The two spontaneously generated children of Adam became the parents of the Yazidi race; this is why the Yazidi often refer to themselves as “the children of Adam”. By producing nothing but rotten flesh, there is an obvious implication that mixing with Eve’s seed would produce a lesser quality of human being. Here begins the theory of Yazidi racial and spiritual supremacy.
Now Gabriel was away from Adam for a hundred years. And Adam was sad and weeping. Then God commanded Gabriel to create Eve from under the left shoulder of Adam. Now it came to pass, after the creation of Eve and of all the animals, that Adam and Eve quarreled over the question whether the human race should be descended from him or her, for each wished to be the sole begetter of the race. This quarrel originated in their observation of the fact that among animals both the male and the female were factors in the production of their respective species. After a long discussion Adam and Eve agreed on this: each should cast his seed into a jar, close it, and seal it with his own seal, and wait for nine months. When they opened the jars at the completion of this period, they found in Adam’s jar two children, male and female. Now from these two our sect, the Yezidis, are descended. In Eve’s jar they found naught but rotten worms emitting a foul odor. And God caused nipples to grow for Adam that he might suckle the children that proceeded from his jar. This is the reason why man has nipples. – The Black Book
Half-Breeds: Jews, Christians and Muslims
While the Yazidi were born of Adam alone, it is said that Jews, Christians and Muslims were born of the mating of Adam with Eve, the implication being that these sects are comprised of inferior half-breeds. However, it will later be testified that there is an even lower class of human than these, those who are descended from neither Adam nor Eve. According to Yazidi scripture, the pure bloodline of Adam ran through Adam’s son Seth which was passed on to Noah. Being in the line of Seth is another important bloodline myth which is discussed in detail in Dr. Spät’s thesis on the Yazidi
After this Adam knew Eve, and she bore two children, male and female; and from these the Jews, the Christians, the Moslems, and other nations and sects are descended. But our first fathers are Seth, Noah, and Enosh, the righteous ones, who were descended from Adam only. – The Black Book
People of neither Adam nor Eve
The Black Book continues and we learn that according to Yazidi mythology, there was not one flood (flood of Noah) but two which consumed the earth. But what was the cause for this second flood? According to The Black Book, those humans who were not Jews, Christians nor Muslims, those who were descended from neither Adam nor Eve, were responsible for this deluge. Hindus of course are neither Jews, Christians nor Muslims and are likely of that grade of the human race who is even further below the other Abrahamics since they have no blood of Adam in their veins at all.
And know that besides the flood of Noah, there was another flood in this world. Now our sect, the Yezidis, are descended from Naumi, an honored person, king of peace. We call him Melek Miran. The other sects are descended from Ham, who despised his father. The ship rested at a village called Ain Sifni,distant from Mosul about five parasangs. The cause of the first flood was the mockery of those who were without, Jews, Christians, Moslems, and others descended from Adam and Eve. We, on the other hand, are descended from Adam only, as already indicated: This second flood came upon our sect, the Yezidis. As the water rose and the ship floated, it came above Mount Sinjar,where it ran aground and was pierced by a rock. The serpent twisted itself like a cake and stopped the hole. Then the ship moved on and rested on Mount Judie. – The Black Book
What about those who are not Jews, Christians or Muslims?
So how do the Yazidi view those who are beyond the pale of half-breeds, those who are not Jews, Christians or Muslims? According to The Black Book, the Yazidi have been commanded not to bring their holy books before those who are not of the faith of Abraham. This lowest caste of human beings, those who have no Jews, Christians or Muslims would of course include the Hindu community.
O ye that have believed in me, honor my symbol and my image, for they remind you of me. Observe my laws and statutes. Obey my servants and listen to whatever they may dictate to you of the hidden things. Receive that that is dictated, and do not carry it before those who are without, Jews, Christians, Moslems, and others; for they know not the nature of my teaching. Do not give them your books, lest they alter them without your knowledge. Learn be heart the greater part of them, lest they be altered. – The Book of Revelations, Chapter IV
The Yazidi Race, Special and Superior
According to Dr. Spät’s research based on personal interviews, the source of the Yazidi’s purity is a the life force called the “sur”. The sur was originally used to breath life into Adam’s body. However, after the fall of Adam, the sur was taken to form a new man who could father the “special race”, “superior to all others”. The man was Adam’s miraculously conceived son Shehid bin Jer. Later, this special quality was transposed unto Seth, another forefather of the Yazidi race. Either way, the sur was not transmitted to all humans equally. Being that the Yazidi are the only race which are made fully in the sur’s image, they have become the pious “chosen race” of god. Thus the Yazidi consider themselves as a people of light, set apart to maintain the true faith.
The chapter on Adam’s creation has already demonstrated how the Gnostic speculation on the divine origin of Adam’s (man’s) spirit (pneuma) from the Realm of Light may have been the original idea behind the thought that Yezidi Adam’s soul was the sur, or divine essence of Angel Sheikh Sin, one of the Great Seven Angels (emanations of the Godhead.) It was this divine sur which brought Adam’s lifeless body to life.But what of the idea that this lost sur of Adam, representing the divine essence, mystery,and light of a divine being (Sheikh Sin, and ultimately of the Godhead) was then used to create another man, who, in his turn, was to become the forefather of a special race? A race, which was clearly distinguished from and superior to all others, both in its origin and in being the possessor of true faith?And why is the place of this sur taken by Adam’s seed in the alternative variant of the myth, a variant which – while acknowledging the parenthood of Adam – still ascribes a miraculous conception to Shehid, and the status of the chosen race to his descendant? Here I would like to suggest that the Yezidi myth goes back to the legends that developed around the figure of the Biblical Seth in Late Antiquity, especially in Gnostic circles and enjoyed some popularity even in the Middle Ages, as the forefather of the pious, and ancestor of the chosen race.The Gnostic myth of Seth, which tells of his birth from a miraculous seed, claiming that he was the recipient of the glory lost by Adam, and the foundation of a race or generation of true believers, shows a very close affinity to the myth of Shehid. The similarities between the two myths (both of which have many versions) are so numerous and deeply-rooted as to make it a likely proposition that the later myth is yet one more version of the ancient myth of Seth, this time fitted to the language of Yezidi religion
Summing up, Sheikh Sin, one of the Seven Great Angels, emanations of the Godhead, “moved” into the body of Adam, in order to bring him to life, that is, to give him a soul or spirit. His divine essence or light, the sur, was manifested in the forehead of Adam, something that can be imagined, perhaps, as a drop of light shining forth from Adam’s forehead, or even as a pearl.At the time of his expulsion from Paradise, Adam lost the sur in his forehead, along with his angelic clothing and angelic (divine) status. However, the sur was not lost for good as far as the history of humans was concerned. It was taken by the Peacock Angel, who made it sure that a special being was born from this sur, divine essence or light, who then became the forefather of the Yezidi race.As Arab Khidir of Beshiqe said: “Adam had sur in his forehead, this reached Shit (Shehid), this light reached his (Shehid’s) children.” In other words, Shehid (and his descendants) took the exalted position as a special people of God (in possession of the divine essence, sur) initially given to Adam, and which Adam eventually lost (though in the Yezidi version through no sin of his own, but rather to fulfill the inscrutable plans of God.)
Thus, we have all the key elements of the Yezidi myth, as told by Feqir Haji, at hand:Yezidis, springing from Shehid, are a race apart from the rest of mankind, created by the Peacock Angel, avid for a people he could call his own. 1060 Shehid himself could “boast” of a miraculous birth, being conceived not in a carnal way – unlike the other children of Adam (and Eve) – but through divine intervention. As a sort of “replacement” of angelic Adam, he was created from the sur, that is, the divine essence, light, which used to belong to Adam while he had still been one with Angel Sheikh Sin in Paradise. This notion of sur calls to mind Epiphanius’ account of how the Mother deposited “her power” and the “spark sent from above” in Seth, in order to establish a posterity (race) in alliance with the Realm of Light. 1061Just like Seth is the possessor of the “lost glory,” “the spark of power” and is intrinsically connected with the “race of the eternal realm” and the “seed of the great race” (that is, Heavenly Seth and his seed,) so Shehid is connected with the world of the divine Angels through the sur of Sheikh Sin. Seth’s descendants, the Gnostics, were the race of Heavenly Seth on earth due to the spark of divine power, while Shehid’s descendants, the Yezidis, became the race of the Peacock Angel through the sur, the very essence of divinity, which they inherited. Both Shehid and Seth transmitted the true religion (or divine revelation) to their own people, who constitute a race apart from the rest of mankind born from a simple carnal union.
Footnotes:1060: Note that being “the people of Peacock Angel” is ultimately the same as being “the people of God,” as is made clear by the account of Feqir Haji (see Appendix.)1061: See Epiphanius, Panarion 39.2.4.1062: It has already been mentioned in the chapter on “Yezidi Religion” that there were two shrines dedicated to two Shehids in the village of Kheter. One of the two Shehids, the “original one,” was simply described to me as “Sheikh Hesen” (that is, Sheikh Sin), demonstrating the close connection traditional Yezidis perceive on account of Shehid being created from Sheikh Sin’s sur.1063: No wonder that – according to the Yezidis – all prophets, with the notable exception of Mohamed, were Yezidis, after all they are the descendants of the sur. (The exclusion of Mohamed from the Yezidi race, in fact, seems to be a relatively late development, as he is repeatedly mentioned in the Yezidi hymns among with other prophets of Yezidi history.)
Biological Supremacy of the Yazidi Race
Lest someone interject, believing that perhaps Yazidi supremacy is only spiritual, in his thesis Dr. Spät felt it prudent to inform his audience that “the term[race] is not simply metaphorical, but refers directly to the biological origin of the Gnostics.”
Let us now briefly sum up the motifs that are relevant to drawing a parallel between the Gnostic Seth and the Yezidi Shehid: The most important feature of Gnostic speculation on Seth is the idea that the Gnostics, who descend from Seth, constitute a race apart from the rest of mankind.1058 Seth, in his turn, was conceived in an out of the “ordinary” way, either through Wisdom or/and through and in the image of Heavenly Seth, “seed of the righteous ones.” The miraculous mode of his conception endowed him with a “spark of power,” the pneuma from the World of Light. This “spark of power” meant that (along with his twin sister) he was the “inheritor” of the glory and Gnosis lost by Adam, thus making him “a type of Adam redivivus, a regenerated Adam.” 1059 Seth is the earthly counterpart of the Heavenly Seth, a being of Light, in whose image he was conceived, and he transmits his spirit and Gnosis to his race, which is the earthly counterpart of the “Great Seed of Seth.”Footnotes:1058: It is not clear whether we should understand the descent of the Gnostic race from Seth in a physical or merely spiritual sense. As Gnostic texts concentrated on the description of the World of Light, the events leading to the creation and its nature, and the way of achieving salvation, they do not provide us with a clear answer on this point. While the second possibility seems more likely, in my opinion, the first one cannot be ruled out either. According to Stroumsa (Another Seed, 101) “the term[race] is not simply metaphorical, but refers directly to the biological origin of the Gnostics.”1059: Reeves, Heralds of that Good Realm, 125.
Modern Day “Children of Seth”
In his thesis Dr. Spät describes the modern transition in Yazidi culture away from Adam’s spontaneous generation myth toward a greater focus on the “Children of Seth” origins of the Yazidi. In his opinion, the Yazidi find their origins in Seth to be more useful in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic world since Seth is already recognized to them and is respected as the progenitor of the race of Noah. Tales of spontaneous generation through Adam’s “seed” would seem absurd to the other Abrahamic sects, and so the Yazidi now stress their Seth lineage as a means to maintain respect in modern Abrahamic society.
While it seems fairly certain that the Yezidis’ Shehid is a “descendant” of the Gnostic/Manichaean Seth, colored with motifs from other traditions, and rewritten and restructured again and again according to the needs of the narrator and/or the audience, it would be completely impossible to pinpoint its exact source. It is impossible to tell even if the two variants developed from a common Yezidi myth, or they reached Yezidis already as two distinct mythical traditions.What we can be sure about is that the myths surrounding Seth were widely popular, well into the Islamic period, and Yezidis (or proto-Yezidis) had plenty of material at their disposal to make use of when forming their own myth(s), a myth that underlined their claim to be the special race of God in a way that was easily understandable outside their own community.
As I have said, one of the motivations for incorporating the myth of Seth, born of another seed and the forefather of a special race, was to give Yezidis a prestigious origin, one that could be understood and appreciated by the people of a given cultural milieu. This is no longer the case. For many Yezidis today, any myth about children springing out of jars, born either of Adam’s seed or some divine essence, far from conferring prestige, is more likely to be a source of embarrassment, a “childish tale” as has been put forward by some researchers. They feel such stories make Yezidis seem to be professing outlandish, unscientific ideas.However, Yezidi religion is still essentially an oral one, governed by the same mechanism (for the moment) as in the past. The content may change, but the motivations are often similar. Yezidis still wish for origins that would confer prestige on them as a group. Consequently, the place of the myth of Shehid, or Seth, if one prefers, is “usurped” by new “origin myths” more in keeping with the spirit of the times. Today, when asked about their origins, few of the younger Yezidis would mention Shehid (unless specifically asked). Instead they refer to Zoroastrian, Sumerian or Assyirian origins. To support such theories, stories are told about Assyrian pictograms hidden under the plaster on the walls of Lalish, or about the Assyrian rock carvings in the hillside above Duhok representing the seven Angels. Others claim that the Sumerian cuneiform texts mention the word “ezid,” meaning “pure souls,” “who go on the right path,” referring to the Yezidis as the fountainhead of Sumerian religion. These stories, amusing as they may sometimes sound to an outsider, are in fact new origin myths that are meant to play the same function as the myth of Seth centuries ago: confer a prestigious origin on Yezidis using a language and symbolism that can also be interpreted and appreciated by outsiders.
Conclusion
The Yazidi consider themselves to be a pure spiritual and biological race set apart from all other humans. Jews, Christians and Muslims are viewed as secondary in this racial hierarchy, still lower than these would be Hindus who share no blood of Adam at all. Yazidi consider those who are not of Adam (Hindus) to be the source of the wrath of their god. While the Yazidi have shown proclivities toward bending their mythologies to gain acceptance in the Abrahamic world, there is no indication they have done the same for Hinduism. But the bigger question here is why are supposedly Hindu aligned media outlets and scholars pushing the Yezidi deception upon our community? We are yet still far from solving this mystery.
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