Yezidis as Daisanites (1)

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The word Yezidi, a derivative of Yezid, is applied to the Yezidis of our day [sc. 1916] only by Arabic-speaking Muslims; the vernacular Syriac speaking Christians in the villages near Mosul call them Daisanites or followers of Bardesanes. Does this name show that they are the partisans of the famous astrologer Bardesanes of Edessa (154-222 CE), who had an important role in the history of Syriac literature? The daily worship which these Yezidis direct to the stars, to the sun and the moon, may perhaps throw a ray of light on this appellation. It is written in the Yezidi books: “When they see the Sun rise, they kiss the place where his rays first fall; they also kiss the spot where the moon first casts its rays and the one which last receives them.”

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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