Mr. Amo Şamsi, Cultural Chair of Yezidiska, continues to educate us about the Yezidi religion and its past. In a previous article, Mr. Şamsi described that while the Yezidi religion was obviously influenced by Zoroastrianism, it is certainly not a sect of the religion as some have claimed (see here). However, Mr. Şamsi, is a little more hard pressed to completely separate the Yezidi religion from ancient Mithraism. While similarities between Zoroastrianism and the Yezidi can be ascribed to cultural imperialism, links with Mithraism seem to be more organic and genuine.
The Yezidi And Mithraism
By Amo Şamsi, Cultural Chair Of Yezidiska
It is known that Mithraism was seen as dualistic religion to Zarathustra, with a good and a bad side. Mithra’s evil side that was warlike and male and was rejected by Zarathustra. But as sky-god Mithra was praised and accepted. Nevertheless, Zoroaster did not recognize Mithraism as a deity and separate religion. The Zoroastrians wanted the Kurds to incorporate Mithra into the new religion of Zoroastrianism. But due to their firmly rooted faith in Mithra and his place in Kurdish customs and traditions, the Kurdish priests often resisted these advanced, but were later sometimes forced to admit Mithra’s worship was part of the larger Zoroastrian context.
In Yasna 32, Zarathustra speaks against the traditional “Daevas” of the older religions as a seducer of the people. Zarathustra’s description of the Daevas and their role is similar to Adam’s story in the Bible and the Koran, as Adam was seduced by the serpent (evil) to eat the forbidden fruit of God. However, unlike Christians, Jews and Muslims, the Yezidis say that this deception was planned by God and his representative Ta’usi Melek did nothing but fulfill God’s plan. Mithra played the same role as Ta’usi Melek, as he distributed the meat from the calf (bull or ox) to his followers, to make them immortal. This Mithraic tradition of Kalbschlachtens (bull sacrifice) was taken over by the Yezidis and is practiced until now with them on the Autumn Festival “Gemaiy” in Lalish. However, the sacrifice of ox or calf was an ancient religious custom of the local Aryans and the sunbathers, so it should not be automatically assumed the tradition comes from Mithraism. However, under Sheikh Adi’s influence its meaning changed. After the reformation, the sacrificial character took on similarity with the meaning of the feasts and the sacrificial characters of Christians.
The fire is another element of the Yezidi religion. In Lalish it is ignited every Wednesday everywhere. The Yezidis believe that God created on a Wednesday Ta’usi Melek, and so Wednesday is a holy day. The fire is lit in every religious family house (Sheikh or Pir) on Wednesday. The sacred fire ritual is older than Ahura Mazda-fire and it is agreed that the fire ritual came to Iran and Kurdistan before Zarathustra. Before advent of Zoroastrianism, the fire ritual represented the third eye of the god Mithra’s light or sun as opposed to darkness.
The doctrine of good and evil in the Yazidis is very different from the doctrine of Zarathustra. Ahura-Mazda and Ahriman are two opposites who represent their duality very much like the Chinese yin and yang or the Indians with Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl. All of them have to do with a principle, namely, that the world consists of two powerful opposing elements which are deep rooted in the nature of the world. While Mithraism might not be as dualistic as Zoroastrianism, there is certainly a clear separation between good and evil. Contrary to this belief, the Yezidis believe that both good and evil forces come from God and man must use his wits to make the right choices. Here we find a major difference between Mithraism and the Yezidi religion which may or may not be explained by the reformations of Sheik Adi.
The more research on the Yezidi religion one hires, the more questions and mysteries come to light. Long it will take before you will have discovered the secrets of this religion. But each new investigation of the Yezidi religion before Sheikh Adi has not confirmed the fact that the Yezidi religion is a religion of the ancient Indo-Europeans, even though it does have similarities with both Mithraism and Zoroastrianism. At the same time, these studies refute the claim by some people that the Yezidis are of Yezid Ibin-Maawiya, the descendants of an Islamic Caliph and thus nothing more than an Islamic sect. This assertion comes only from certain political interests.
My attempt is to connect the threads between the historic side of the Yazidi religion and other pre-Islamic religions, but at the same time show the Yezidi as a distinct people. The issue remains open for further questions and answers. Each new attempt broadens our horizons.
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