(3.) Yezid
The third essential element in the religion of the devil-worshippers is the belief that their sect has taken its origin from Yezid, whom frequently they call God and regard as their ancestral father, to whom they trace their descent. No other worship is offered him. He is given, however, a place of honor in the court of the temple, where, on one side, there is the inscription “Melek Yezid, the mercy of God be upon him”; on the other side “Šeiḫ ‘Adi, the mercy of God be upon him.” In the corner of this court a lamp is kept burning all night in honor of the two.
NOTES ON CHAPTER II
[130] P. Anastase: Al-Mašrik, vol. II, p. 151; Bedrus Efendi Ar-Riḍwani, his letter to A. N. Andrus, April 22, 1887.
[131] Lidzbarski, Z. D. M. G., vol. LI, p. 592; he is followed by Makas, Kurdische Studien, p. 35.
[132] See “Tammuz” in Jastrow’s Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, and Cheney’s Dictionary of the Bible.
[133] R. W. Smith: Religion of the Semites, p. 219; Aš-Šahrastanî, vol. II, p. 434. Yaḳut (vol. IV, p. 780) says: Originally nasr was worshipped by the people of Noah, and from them was brought to the tribe of Ḥamyar. According to the Syriac doctrine of Addai (Ed. George Philips, p. 24) the people of Edessa worshipped “the eagle as the Arabians.”
[134] So far as I am aware no writer on the Yezidis has ever raised this question.
[135] Hughes: Dictionary of Islam, p. 21.