Chapter I
Notes on
Ḥarran was a city in the north of Mesopotamia, and southeast of Edessa, at the junction of the Damascus road with the highway from Nineveh to Carchamish. The moon-god had a temple in Ḥarran, which enjoyed a high reputation as a place of pilgrimage. The city retained its importance down to the time of the Arab ascendency, but it is now in ruins. Yaḳut (vol. II, p. 331) says: “It was the home of Ṣabians; that is, the Ḥarranians who are mentioned by the authors of Kutub Al-Milal wa n-Nihal.” As to Wasit this same Yaḳut (vol. IV, p. 881) mentions about twenty different places bearing this name. The most prominent one is that built by Al-Hajjaj in 83 A. H. It is called Wasit “the intermediate” because it was situated midway between Kufa and Basrah. Another place Yaḳut (p. 889) mentions is Wasit ul-Raḳḳat, a town on the western side of the Euphrates, and about two days’ journey from Ḥarran. Perhaps this is the Wasit that Aš-Šahrastanî means.
In idolatrous days the Arabs did not wear any clothing in making the circuit of the Kaaba. In Islam, the orthodox way is as follows: Arrived within a short distance of Mecca, the pilgrims put off their ordinary clothing and assume the garb of a hajjee. Sandals may be worn but not shoes, and the head must be left uncovered. In Mandeanism, each person as he or she enters the Miškana, or tabernacle, disrobes, and bathes in the little circular reservoir. On emerging from the water, each one robes him or herself in the rasta, the ceremonial white garment.—The London Standard, Oct. 19, 1894. Prayer Meeting of the Starworshippers.
The original idea might have been that the waters, the stones, and the trees themselves were divinities. In Jud. 5: 21, we have the statement: “The river Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon.” Now Kais was the name of an Arabian god in Pre-Islamic time. In Num. 5: 17 seq., an accused woman is tested by a sacred water. In Deut. 32: 4, “He is the rock,” “rock” is as much a term for God as El, or elohim; cf. verses 15, 18, 30, 31; II Sam. 23: 3. In Ps. 18: 2, the word rock is used of God, “the Lord is my rock.” Jacob took the stone which he had put under his head as a pillow, and raised it up as a pillar, poured oil upon it and called it the “house of God,” Gen. 28: 18, 19, 22. “The sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees” (II Sam. 5: 24), for which David was to wait, was nothing less than the divine voice speaking to David in accordance with ancient conceptions.
Notes
71 This may be traced to the Mohammedan myth that when the primal pair fell from their estate of bliss in the heavenly Paradise, Adam landed on a mountain in Ceylon and Eve fell at Jiddah, on the western coast of Arabia. After a hundred years of wandering, they met near Meccah, and here Allah constructed for them a tabernacle, on the site of the present Kaaba. S. M. Zwemer, Arabia, p. 17; Aš-Šahrastani, II, 430.
72 Anistase: Al-Mašrik, vol. 2, p. 33.
73 Cf. p. 35.
74 Cf. p. 34.
75 Cf. p. 37.
76 Al-Mašrik, vol. 2, p. 33.
77 Scottish Geog. Mag., vol. 14, p. 295.
78 Layard: Nineveh and Its Remains, vol. 11, p. 254.
79 Layard: Nineveh and Babylon, p. 94.
80 S. G. M., vol. 14, p. 300.
81 Fraser: Mesopotamia and Persia, p. 287.
82 Fraser: Ibid., p. 147.
83 Rich: Residence in Kurdistan, vol. II, p. 69.
84 Al-Mašrik, vol. II, p. 396.
85 Ibid, vol. III, p. 493.
86 Fraser: Ibid; Rich, ibid.
87 Badger: Nestorians and Their Rituals, vol. I, p. 111; Fraser, ibid., p. 285.
88 Al-Mašrik, ibid, p. 36.
‘Abdišŭ was at one time bishop of Sinjar; cf. Fardaisa de ‘Eden, ed. by B. Cardaḥi, Beirut, 1889, p. 5.
89 Ibid, pp. 56, 110, 832.
90 Ibid. This rite is practiced by the Yezidis of Ḫalitiyeh, a dependency of Diarbeker, where the Yezidis are few in number.
91 Southgate: A Tour Through Armenia, etc., vol. II, p. 179.
92 See p. 42 of this book. Badger, ibid, p. 128.
93 I mean by the philosophical method the attempt to prove certain assumption by theorizing, and by the historical method the endeavor to verify a theory by obtaining data from historical sources. The former method is based on speculation; the latter on historical inquiry.
94 The Enc. of Mission, p. 797. In his letter to me of date August 6, 1907, the Rev. A. N. Andrus, of Mardin, says: “The Yezidis may be related in religious cult with the Guebres of India.”
95 Muir: Life of Mohammed, vol. IV, p. 151.
96 Fraser: ibid, p. 205.
97 Badger, ibid, p. 129.
98 S. G. M., vol. 14.
99 Eugene Bore: Dict. des Religions, T. IV, Art. Yezidis, Southgate, ibid, p. 317.
100 Fraser, ibid, p. 289.
101 Jackson: Persia, Past and Present, p. 10; J. A. O. S., 25, p. 178, New Int. Enc. “Yezidis.”
102 H. Poincaré: Science and Hypothesis. Trans., G. B. Halsted, p. 5 seq.
103 The fact that the importance of the method of comparative religion has been generally recognized in the scientific world has led to the danger of rushing into the other extreme of paying attention exclusively to points of similarity and resemblance, and of entirely disregarding, or at any rate thrusting into the background as unimportant that which is dissimilar.
104 Southgate, ibid, p. 317; Jackson, J. A. O. S., vol. XXV, p. 171.
105 Victor Dingelstedt, S. G. M., vol. XIV, p. 295.
106 Siouffi, who was for about twenty years a French vice-consul in Mosul.
107 Ibn Ḫallikan, vol. I, p. 316.
108 Manhal Al-Uliya wa Mašrab-ul-Aṣfia, “Šeiḫ ‘Adi,” quoted by M. N. Siouffi, Journal Asiatique, 1885, p. 80.
109 Warda, “the rose,” is the name of a collection of hymns composed by George Warda (1224 A. D.), Bishop of Arbila; cf. Bar Hebraeus, Chron. Eccl., vol. II, p. 402. Warda is one of the most conspicuous writers of hymns in the thirteenth century which was the age of song with the Nestorian church. His poems have entered so largely into the use of the Nestorian church that one of their service books is to this day called the Warda; Badger, The Nestorians, vol. II, p. 25. Some of his hymns speak of the calamities of the years 1224-1227. A few specimens are given by Cardaḥi in Liber Thesauri, p. 51. Badger has translated one in his Nestorians, vol. II, pp. 51-57. Warda’s poems have been edited by Heinrich Hilgenfeld, Ausgewählte Gesänge des Giworgis Warda von Arbil, Leipzig, 1904, and by Manna, Mosul, 1901.
110 The village Karmalis is about twelve miles distant from Mosul, and is inhabited by Chaldeans, that is, Romanized Nestorians.
111 Rabban Hormuzd is a Chaldean monastery at Alkoš, a village about twenty miles north of Mosul.
112 Al-Der-Al-Makn’un fi-l-Miater Al-Maḍiyat min Al-ḳerun, “Šeiḫ ‘Adi,” quoted by M. N. Siouffi, Journal Asiatique, 1885, p. 81.
Yaḳut (vol. IV, p. 374) also regards Šeiḫ ‘Adi an orthodox Mohammedan; “Šeiḫ ‘Adi bn Musafir Aš-Šafe’e, šeiḫ of the Kurds and their Imam.” ‘Adi’s orthodoxy is seen also in his writing. He wrote ‘Itiḳad Ahl Al-Sunna “Belief of the Sunnites,” the Wasaya “Consuls to the Cailifs,” and two odds both of them mystic in their conception. They are all preserved in the Berlin Library; cf. Clement Huart, History of Arabic Literature, p. 273.
113 Manhal-al-Uliya wa Mašrab ul Aṣfiya, “Šeiḫ ‘Adi,” quoted by M. N. Siouffi, Journal Asiatique, 1885, p. 80.
114 Al-Der-Al-Makn’un fi-l-Miater Al-Maḍiyat min Al-ḳerûn, “Šeiḫ ‘Adi,” quoted by M. N. Siouffi, Journal Asiatique, 1885, p. 81.
115 Contrary to Mohammed to whom, according to Moslem belief, the Koran was revealed at intervals.
116 Kitab Al-Milal wa n-Nihal, vol. I, p. 101 seq.
117 On these sects, see Aš-Šahrastanî, ibid, vol. II, pp. 85, 87, 89, 100 (42). His history, ed. Sachau, Leipzig, 1878, p. 207.
118 At-Tarih, ed. Alton Salhanî, Beîrut, p. 266.
119 Fihrist, p. 320. The Arabs used to call the Prophet Aṣ-ṣabi, because he departed from the religion of the Koreish to Al-Islam; cf. Al-Keššaf on Surah XXII, 17.
120 Hudud, pl. of Hadad, restrictive ordinances, or statutes, of God respecting things lawful and things unlawful. The Hudud of God are of two kinds: First, those ordinances respecting eatables, drinkables, marriage, etc., what are lawful thereof and what are unlawful. Second, castigations, or punishments, prescribed, or appointed, to be inflicted upon him who does that which he has been forbidden to do. The first kind are called Hudud because they denote limits which God has forbidden to transgress; the second, because they prevent one’s committing again those acts for which they are appointed as punishments, or because the limits thereof are determined. See Lane’s Arabic Dictionary in Loco.
121 Cf. also W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 167, and D. B. Stade’s Biblische Theologie des Alten Testaments, pp. 111 and 290.
122 R. Smith, ibid, p. 49; cf. Ex. 3: 5, “And he said, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground”; and Josh. 5: 15, “And the captain of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua: Loose thy shoe from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.”
123 Cf. R. Smith, ibid, p. 185, and Stade, ibid, p. 111 seq.
124 Weil’s translation, p. 39.
125 Cf. R. Smith, ibid, pp. 203-212; S. I. Curtiss’ Primitive Semitic Religion To-day, pp. 84-89; Stade, ibid, p. 114, seq.; see also II Sam. 5: 24, and John 5: 2, 3.
126 Layard: Nineveh and Its Remains, vol. I, p. 280.
127 Dancing might have been also a religious ceremony in the Pre-Kanaanitic religion of Israel.
128 The people in the East are under the impression that the Yezidis violate the law of morality during their festivals. According to Hurgronje (vol. 2, pp. 61-64), immorality is practised also in the sacred mosque of Mecca. This practice may be a survival of the institution of Kadeshes, who offered themselves in honor of the Deity in the sacred places where license usually prevailed during the festivals (Gen. 38: 21, and Deut. 23: 18).
129 Cf. R. W. Smith, ibid, p. 432.