In the beginning, God created the White Pearl from its most precious essence. He also created a bird named Angar. He placed the White Pearl on the back of the bird and lingered there for forty thousand years. On the first day, Sunday, God created Melek Anzazîl, and he is Ṭâ'ûs-Melek, the chief of all, Monday, he created Melek Dardâel, and he is Šeiḫ Ḥasan.
On Tuesday he created Melek Israfel, and he is Šeiḫ Šams (ad-Dîn). On Wednesday, he created Melek Miḫâel, and he is Šeiḫ Abû Bakr. Thursday, he created Melek Azrâel, and he is Sajad-ad-Dîn. On Friday, he created Melek Šemnâel, and he is Naṣir-ad-Dîn. Saturday he created Melek Nurâel, and he is Yadin (Faḫr-ad-Dîn). And he made Melek Ṭâ'ûs the ruler of all.
After that, God created the form of the seven heavens, the earth, the sun and the moon. But Faḫr-ad-Dîn created man and animals, birds and beasts. He put them all in cloth pockets, and left the Pearl accompanied by the Angels. Then he shouted at the Pearl in a loud voice. Then the White Pearl broke into four pieces, and from its center came water which became an ocean. The world was round and not divided.
Then he created Gabriel and the image of the bird. He sent Gabriel to settle the four corners. He also made a vessel and descended on it for thirty thousand years. After that, he came to live on Mount Lališ. Then he cried out to the world, and the sea solidified and the land appeared, but it began to shake. At this time, he ordered Gabriel to bring two pieces of the White Pearl; one he placed under the earth, the other remained at the gate of heaven.
He then placed in them the sun and the moon; and from the scattered pieces of the White Pearl he created the stars which he hung in the sky as ornaments. He also created fruit trees and plants and mountains for the ornaments of the land. He created the throne on the carpet.
Then the Great God said, “O Angels, I will create Adam and Eve; and from the essence of Adam will come Šehar bn Jebr, and from him a separate community will appear on earth, that of Azazîl, that is, that of Melek. Ṭâ'ûs, which is the sect of the Yazidis, then he sent Šeiḫ 'Adî bn Musâfir from the land of Syria, and he came (and dwelt in Mount) Lališ.
Then the Lord came down to the Black Mountain. Shouting, he created thirty thousand Meleks and divided them into three divisions. They adored him for forty thousand years, when he delivered them to Melek Ṭâ'ûs who ascended with them to heaven.
At that time, the Lord came down to the Holy Land (al-Ḳuds) and ordered Gabriel to bring earth from the four corners of the world, earth, air, fire and water. He created it and put the spirit of his own power into it, and called it Adam.
Then he ordered Gabriel to escort Adam to heaven and tell him that he could eat from all the trees but not wheat. Here Adam stayed for a hundred years. Thereupon, Melek Ṭâ'ûs asked God how Adam could multiply and have descendants if he was forbidden to eat grain.
God replied, “I have given the whole matter into your hands. Thereupon Melek Ṭâ'ûs visited Adam and said to him: "Have you eaten any grain?" He replied, “No, God forbade me. Melek Ṭâ'ûs replied and said, "Eat grain and you will be better off." So Adam ate grain and immediately his stomach swelled. But Melek Ṭâ'ûs drove him out of the garden and, leaving him, ascended to heaven.
Now Adam was troubled because his belly was swollen, because he had no way out. God therefore sent him a bird which pecked his anus and made an outlet, and Adam was relieved.
Now Gabriel was away from Adam for a hundred years. And Adam was sad and crying. So God ordered Gabriel to create Eve under Adam's left shoulder. Now it came to pass, after the creation of Eve and all the animals, that Adam and Eve argued over whether the human race should be descended from him. or her, because everyone wanted to be the sole progenitor of the race.
This quarrel arose from their observation that in animals, the male and the female were factors of production of their respective species. After a long discussion, Adam and Eve agreed on this: each should throw his seed into a jar, close it and seal it with his own seal, and wait nine months. When they opened the jars at the end of this period, they found in Adam's jar two children, a male and a female.
Now, from these two our sect, the Yezidis, are descended. In Eve's jar, they found only rotten worms giving off a foul smell. And God made Adam grow nipples so that he suckled the children that came out of his pitcher. This is the reason why man has nipples.
After this Adam knew Eve, and she bore two children, a male and a female; and from these descend the Jews, Christians, Muslims and other nations and sects. But our first fathers are Šeth, Noah and Enosh, the righteous, who descended from Adam only.
It happened that trouble arose between a man and his wife, resulting from the woman's denial that the man was her husband. The man persisted in claiming that she was his wife.
The problem between the two was settled, however, by one of the righteous men of our sect, who decreed that at every marriage a drum and a pipe should be played as a testimony that such man and such woman were legally married.
Then Melek Ṭâ'ûs descended to earth for our sect (i.e. the Yazidis), the created ones, and appointed kings for us, in addition to the kings of ancient Assyria, Nisroch, which is Našir-ad-Dîn; Kamush, who is Melek Fahr-ad-Dîn, and Artâmîs, who is Melek Šams-(ad-)Dîn.
After that we had two kings, Šabur (Sapor) First (AD 224-272) and Second (AD 309-379), who reigned one hundred and fifty years; and our emirs up to our days are issued from their seed. But we hated four kings.
Before Christ came to this world, our religion was paganism. King Ahab was with us. And Ahab's god was called Beelzebub. Nowadays we call it Pir Bub. We had a king Babylon, whose name was Bahtnasar; another in Persian, whose name was Aḥšuraš; and still another in Constantinople, whose name was Agriḳâlus.
Jews, Christians, Muslims and even Persians fought us; but they failed to subdue us, for it was by the strength of the Lord that we overcame them. He teaches us the first and the last science. And one of its teachings is:
Before heaven and earth existed, God was on the sea, as we wrote to you before. He made himself a vessel and traveled there in the kunsiniyat of the seas, thus having fun in himself. He then created the White Pearl and reigned there for forty years. Then, getting angry at the Pearl, he kicked her; and it was a great surprise to see the mountains formed from his cry; the hills of its wonders; the heavens with its smoke.
Then God ascended to heaven, solidified it, established it without pillars. He then spat on the ground and, taking a pen in his hand, began to write an account of all creation.
In the beginning, he created six gods from himself and his light, and their creation was like lighting a light from another light. And God said, “Now I created the heavens; let one of you come up and create something there. »
Then the second god ascended and created the sun; the third, the moon; the fourth, the celestial vault; the fifth, the farġ (meaning the morning star); the sixth, paradise; the seventh, hell. We have already told you that after that they created Adam and Eve.
And know that besides the flood of Noah, there was another flood in this world. Now our sect, the Yazidis, are descended from Na'umi, an honored person, king of peace. We call him Melek Miran. The other sects are descended from Ham, who despised his father. The ship stopped at a village called 'Ain Sifni, about five parasangs distant from Mosul.
The cause of the first flood was the mockery of those who were outside, Jews, Christians, Muslims and other descendants of Adam and Eve. We, on the other hand, are descended only from Adam, as already stated: This second flood came upon our sect, the Yazidis.
As the water rose and the ship floated, it came over Mount Sinjar, where it ran aground and was pierced by a rock. The snake writhed like a cake and plugged the hole. Then the ship continued on its way and stopped on Mount Judie.
Now the species of snakes have increased and started to bite man and animal. He was eventually caught and burned, and from his ashes fleas were created. From the time of the flood until now, seven thousand years ago. Every thousand years, one of the seven gods descends to establish rules, statutes and laws, after which he returns to his home.
While he is down he is staying with us, for we have all kinds of holy places. This last time, the god dwelt among us longer than all the other gods who preceded him. He vindicated the saints. He spoke in Kurdish. He also enlightened Muhammad, the prophet of the Ishmaelites, who had a servant named Mu'awiya. When God saw that Muhammad was not straight before him, he afflicted him with a headache.
The Prophet then asked his servant to shave his head, because Mu'awiya knew how to shave. He shaved his master hastily, and with some difficulty. As a result, he cut off his head and made it bleed. Fearing that the blood would fall to the ground, Mu'awiya licked it off with his tongue.
Whereupon Muhammad asked, "What are you doing, Mu'awiya?" He replied, "I licked up your blood with my tongue, for I was afraid that it would fall to the ground." So Muhammad said to him: "You have sinned, O Mu'awiya, you will draw a nation after you." You will oppose my sect. Mu'awiya answered and said: "Then I will not enter the world, I will not marry!" »
It happened that after some time God sent scorpions on Mu'awiya, which bit him, splintering his face with poison. Doctors urged him to marry for fear of dying. Hearing this, he consented. They brought him an old woman of eighty years old. so that no child is born. Mu'awiya knew his wife, and in the morning she appeared a woman of twenty-five, by the power of the great God.
And she conceived and gave birth to our god Yezid. But the foreign sects, ignoring this fact, say that our god came from heaven, despised and driven out by the great God. For this reason they blaspheme him. In this they erred. But we, the Yazidi sect, do not believe him, because we know that he is one of the seven gods mentioned above. We know the form of his person and his image. It is the shape of a rooster that we possess.
None of us are allowed to pronounce his name, or anything resembling him, such as šeitân (Satan), ḳaitân (rope), šar (evil), šat (river), etc. Nor do we pronounce mal'ûn (cursed), or la'anat (curse), or na'al (horseshoe), or any word that sounds similar. All this is forbidden to us out of respect for him. Thus, ḫass (lettuce) is prohibited.
We don't eat it. for it sounds like the name of our prophetess Ḫassiah. Fish is forbidden, in honor of Jonah the prophet. Likewise the deer, for the deer are the sheep of one of our prophets. The peacock is forbidden to our Šeiḫ and his disciples, for the good of our Ṭâ'ûs. Squash is also prohibited. It is forbidden to drink water while standing, or to dress while seated, or to go to the toilet, or to take a bath according to the custom of the people.
Anyone who does otherwise is an infidel. But the other sects, Jewish, Christian, Muslim and others, do not know these things, because they do not like Melek Ṭâ'ûs. He therefore does not teach them, nor does he visit them. But he dwelt among us; he delivered to us the doctrines, the rules and the traditions, which have all become a heritage, transmitted from father to son. After that, Melek Ṭâ'ûs returned to heaven.
One of the seven gods made the sanjaḳs (standards) and gave them to Solomon the wise. After his death, our kings received them. And when our god, the barbarian Yezîd, was born, he received these sanjaḳs with great reverence, and gave them to our sect. Moreover, he composed two songs in Kurdish language to be sung in front of the sanjaḳas in this language, which is the oldest and the most acceptable. The meaning of the song is this:
Hallelujah to the jealous God.
While they sing it, they walk in front of the sanjaḳ with tambourines and pipes. These sanjaḳs stay with our emir, who sits on the throne of Yezid. When these are dismissed, the ḳawwâls assemble with the emir and the great general, the šeiḫ, who is the representative of Šeiḫ Nasir-ad-Dîn, that is to say Nisroch, god of the ancient Assyrians.
They visit the sanjaḳs. Then they send each sanjaḳ into the care of an ḳawwâl in his own place; one in Ḥalataneye, one in Aleppo, one in Russia and one in Sinjar. These sanjaḳs are given to four ḳawwâls per contract. Before they are sent, the; are brought to the tomb of Šeiḫ 'Adî, where they are baptized amid great singing and dancing. After that, each of the contractors takes a load of dust from Šeiḫ 'Adî's grave.
He shapes it into small balls, each the size of a gall nut, and carries them with the sanjaḳ to give as blessings. When he approaches a city, he sends. a crier before him to prepare the people to accept the ḳawwâl and his sanjaḳ with respect and honor. All present themselves in beautiful clothes, carrying incense.
The women shout and all together sing happy songs. The ḳawwâl is entertained by the people he stops with. The others give him gifts of money, each according to his means.
Besides these four sanjaḳ, there are three others, seven in all. These three are kept in a sacred place for healing purposes. Two of them, however, stay with Šeiḫ 'Adî, and the third stays in the village of Baḥazanie, which is distant from Mosul by about four hours. Every four months, these ḳawwâls travel. One of them must travel to the province of the emir.
They travel in a fixed order, different each year. Every time he goes out, the traveler must cleanse himself with sour water of summaḳ (sumac) and anoint himself with an oil. He must also light a lamp at each idol that has a room. This is the law concerning the sanjaḳs.
Le premier jour de notre nouvelle année s’appelle la Serṣâlie, c’est-à-dire le début d’une année. Il tombe le mercredi de la première semaine du 18 avril. Ce jour-là, il doit y avoir de la viande dans chaque famille. Les riches doivent égorger un agneau ou un bœuf ; les pauvres doivent tuer un poulet ou autre chose.
These should be cooked at night, the morning of which is Wednesday, New Year's Day. With daybreak, food should be blessed. On the first day of the year, alms should be given at the graves where the souls of the dead rest.
Now the girls, big and small, have to pick flowers of all kinds in the fields that have a reddish color. They will put them in bundles and, after having kept them three days, they will hang them on the doors as a sign of the baptism of the inhabitants of the houses.
In the morning, all the doors will be well decorated with red lilies. But women must feed the poor and needy who pass by and have no food; it must be done on the graves. But as for the ḳawwâls, they have to go around the tombs with tambourines, singing in Kurdish. For this, they are entitled to money.
On the day of Serṣâlie mentioned above, no instrument of joy is to be played, for God is seated on the throne (arranging decrees for the year), and commanding all the wise and neighbors to come to him, And when he tells them that he will come down to the earth with songs and praises, all rise and rejoice before him and throw on each one the gourd of the feast.
Then God seals them with his own seal. And the great God gives a sealed decision to the god that's to come down. Moreover, he grants him the power to do all things according to his own will. God prefers doing good and charity to fasting and prayer. The worship of any idol, such as Seyed-ad-Dîn or Šeiḫ Šams is better than fasting.
A layman must give a banquet at a kochak after fasting for the last forty days, whether in summer or winter. If he (the kôchak) says that this entertainment is alms given to the sanjaḳ, then he is not released from his fast.
When it happens that the annual tithe collector finds that people have not fully paid their tithes, he whips them until they get sick, and some even die. The people must give money to the kochaks to fight the Roman army, and thus save the sect (yazidis) from the wrath of the man of the year.
Every Friday, a load of gifts must be brought as an offering to an idol. At this time, a servant must call people out loud from the roof of the house of a kochak, saying, this is the call of the prophet to a feast. All should listen with reverence and respect; and, hearing it, each must kiss the ground and the stone on which he finds himself leaning.
It is our law that no ḳawwâl should run a razor over his face. Our law regarding marriage is that at the time of marriage, a loaf of bread should be taken from the house of a kochak and shared between the bride and groom, each of whom should eat half of it. They can, however, eat dust from Šeiḫ 'Adî's grave instead of bread for a blessing. Marriage in April is forbidden, because it is the first month of the year.
This rule, however, does not apply to ḳawwâls; they can get married during this month. No layman is allowed to marry the daughter of a kôchak. Each must take a wife of his own class. But our emir can have for wife the one he wants to love. A layman can marry between the ages of ten and eighty; he can take one wife after another for a period of one year.
On her way to the bridegroom's house, a bride should visit the shrine of every idol she can come across; even if she passes a Christian church, she must do the same. On her arrival at the husband's, he must strike her with a small stone as a sign that she must be under his authority. Also, a loaf of bread must be broken on her head like a sip for her to love the poor and needy.
No Yazidi may sleep with his wife on the night whose morning is Wednesday and the night whose morning is Friday. Anyone who violates this commandment is an infidel. If a man steals his neighbor's wife, or his own ex-wife, or his sister or his mother, he is not obliged to dowry her, for she is the spoil of his hand.
Daughters cannot inherit their father's wealth. A young woman can be sold like an acre of land is sold. If she refuses to marry, then she must redeem herself by paying her father a sum of money earned by his service and the work of his hand.
Here ends Kitâb Reš, which is followed by several stories, some of which are told in secret, others openly.
EN 
FR 
ES