Chapter II
Notes on
Mr. Badger seems to contend that the Kurdish-speaking people do not pronounce the letter ‘ain. This is not true, the Kurds pronounce this letter as well as other gutturals. They sometimes even change the Arabic Alif to ‘ain. This is to be said, however, that in some localities the ‘ain is pronounced alif, just as the ḳaf is changed to alif, but this is not confined to the Kurds, such changes are made by the Arabic-and the Syriac-speaking people also.
Notes
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.
136 Victor Dingelstedt, SGM, vol. XIV.
137 Badger: The Nestorians, vol. I, p. 125; Layard, Nineveh, vol. I, p. 297.
138 P. Anastase: Al-Mašrik, vol. II, p. 152.
139 The Hibbert Journal, vol. V, No. 2, Jan., 1907, p. 337.
140 Layard: Ibid; Victor Dingelstedt, Ibid, p. 299.
141 Dingelstedt: Ibid.
142 R. W. Smith: Religion of the Semites, p. 120; Fihrist, p. 322, 326, calls the gods of the Ḥarranians devils.
143 Hagibah is a Turkish word, meaning a saddleback.
144 Badger: Ibid, p. 247. (137) Ibid, p. 112.
145 The figures of the bull and of the serpent, or of the bull and of the lion were placed at the right and left of the palaces of the Assyrian kings to protect their path. Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 162; Nineveh, vol. II, p. 315; B. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Literature, pp. 139, 148, 153. The lion was both an ornament and support in the throne of Solomon, Layard, Nineveh, vol. II, p. 301. The hatchet was among the weapons of those who fought in chariots, and carried in the quiver, with the arrows and short angular bow, Nineveh, vol. II, p. 343.
146 The Mandeans, the star-worshippers, also begin their rasta ceremony after the sunset, and continue it through the night.—London Standard, October 19, 1894, Al-Mutaḳtataf, 23, 88.
147 The kiss of the peace is a regular part of the church service in the East.
148 In Mohammedanism, green is the color of šeiḫs.
149 This is a communal meal.