‘Adī ibn Musāfir ( ku, شێخ ئادی, translit=Şêx Adî, ar, الشيخ عدي بن مسافر born 1072-1078, died 1162)
was a Muslim
sheikh
Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...
of
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
origin, considered a
Yazidi
Yazidis or Yezidis (; ku, ئێزیدی, translit=Êzidî) are a Kurmanji-speaking endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The ma ...
saint
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Or ...
. The Yazidis consider him as an
avatar
Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appear ...
of Tawûsê Melek (also called
Melek Taûs
Melek ( hu, Mellek) is a municipality and village in the Nitra District of the south-west of Slovakia, in the Nitra Region
The Nitra Region ( sk, Nitriansky kraj, ; hu, Nyitrai kerület) is one of the administrative regions of Slovakia. It wa ...
), which means "Peacock Angel". His tomb at
Lalish
Lalish ( ku, لالش, translit=Laliş, also known as Lalişa Nûranî) is a mountain valley and temple in Shekhan, Duhok Governorate in Iraq. It is the holiest temple of the Yazidis. It is the location of the tomb of the Sheikh Adi ibn Musafi ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
is a focal point of
Yazidi pilgrimage.
Biography
Sheikh Adi was born in the 1070s in the village of Bait Far, in the
Beqaa Valley
The Beqaa Valley ( ar, links=no, وادي البقاع, ', Lebanese ), also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most important ...
of present-day
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lie ...
.
‘Adī's house of his birth is a place of pious pilgrimage to this day.
Descending from the family of
Marwan I
Marwan ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As ibn Umayya ( ar, links=no, مروان بن الحكم بن أبي العاص بن أمية, Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ ibn Umayya), commonly known as MarwanI (623 or 626April/May 685), was the fo ...
, the Caliph of the
Umayyads, he was raised in a Muslim environment.
His early life he spent in
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
, where he became a disciple of the Muslim mystic
Ahmad Ghazali
Ahmad Ghazālī ( fa, احمد غزالی; full name Majd al-Dīn Abū al-Fotuḥ Aḥmad Ghazālī) was a Sunni Muslim Persian Sufi mystic, writer, preacher and the head of Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad (c. 1061–1123 or 1126). He is best known in the ...
, among his fellow students in Ghazali's circle were the Muslim mystics
Abu al-Najib Suhrawardi and
Abdul Qadir Gilani
ʿAbdul Qādir Gīlānī, ( ar, عبدالقادر الجيلاني, ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī; fa, ) known by admirers as Muḥyī l-Dīn Abū Muḥammad b. Abū Sāliḥ ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī al-Baḡdādī al-Ḥasanī al-Ḥusayn ...
;
with the latter he undertook a journey to
Mecca
Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...
.
He became a disciple also to Hammad ad Dabbas and then Oqeil al Manbidji, from who he received the
Khirqa
The khirqa is the initiatory cloak of the Sufi chain of spirituality, with which esoteric knowledge and barakah is passed from the Murshid or the Shaikh to the aspirant murid. The khirqa initiates an aspirant into the silsilah, the chain or lineage ...
.
[ Lescot, Roger (1975). p.23] With time he became a teacher himself.
He chose an ascetic way of life, left Baghdad and settled in Lalish. Despite his desire for seclusion, he impressed the local population with his
asceticism
Asceticism (; from the el, ἄσκησις, áskesis, exercise', 'training) is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their p ...
and
miracle
A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divi ...
s.
He became well known in present-day Iraq and Syria and disciples moved to the valley of Lalish to live close to Sheikh Adi. Following he founded the Adawiyya order. The Valley of Lalish is located within the environs of the village of
Ba'adra
Baadre (also written Ba'adra, Badra or Bathra, ( ar, باعدرة/باعذرة, ku, باعەدرێ, translit=Baedrê) is a town located in the Shekhan District of the Ninawa Governorate in northern Iraq. The town is located in the Nineveh Plains ...
, 20 miles to the east of the
Nestorian convent of
Rabban-Hormizd. Before he died, he named his successor his nephew
Sakhr Abu l-Barakat.
Physically, he was said to be very tanned and of middle stature. He lived and ascetic lifestyle in the mountains in the region north of
Mosul
Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...
not far from the local Hakkari
Kurds ug:كۇردلار
Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Ir ...
. As people flocked to his residency in the hills, he would end up founding a religious order later referred to as al-'Adawiyya ('the followers of 'Adi'). He died between 1162 CE (557
Hijra
Hijra, Hijrah, Hegira, Hejira, Hijrat or Hijri may refer to:
Islam
* Hijrah (often written as ''Hejira'' in older texts), the migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE
* Migration to Abyssinia or First Hegira, of Muhammad's followers ...
) and 1160 CE (555 Hijra)
in the hermitage that he had built with his followers in the mountain.
Religion
In his writings he reasoned that it was god who created the devil and evil for which he cited passages of the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , ...
and the
Hadiths
Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...
. He also taught that the true Muslim should adhere to the teachings in the Quran and the
Sunna and that only the ones who follow the principles of the Muslim caliphs
Abu Bakr
Abu Bakr Abdallah ibn Uthman Abi Quhafa (; – 23 August 634) was the senior companion and was, through his daughter Aisha, a father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as well as the first caliph of Islam. He is known with the honor ...
,
Uthman
Uthman ibn Affan ( ar, عثمان بن عفان, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān; – 17 June 656), also spelled by Colloquial Arabic, Turkish and Persian rendering Osman, was a second cousin, son-in-law and notable companion of the Islamic prop ...
and
Ali are true believers.
[ Lescot, Roger (1975), p.26] According to some sources, he established the
Sufi
Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, r ...
Adawiyya order. He shall have performed several miraculous acts such as reading in the others thoughts, become invisible, to move a mountain by force of his word and once also returned the life of a man who was crushed by a rock.
Some Muslims respect him as one of the pioneers of asceticism and the scholars of Sufism who held firmly to the Quran and Sunnah.
Aftermath and legacy
This hermitage within the Valley of
Lalish
Lalish ( ku, لالش, translit=Laliş, also known as Lalişa Nûranî) is a mountain valley and temple in Shekhan, Duhok Governorate in Iraq. It is the holiest temple of the Yazidis. It is the location of the tomb of the Sheikh Adi ibn Musafi ...
, would continue to be occupied by his followers and his descendants until the present day despite periods of unrest, destruction, and persecution by outsiders.
In 1254, as a result of a violent conflict with the members of the Adawiyya order, the
Atabeg
Atabeg, Atabek, or Atabey is a hereditary title of nobility of Turkic origin, indicating a governor of a nation or province who was subordinate to a monarch and charged with raising the crown prince. The first instance of the title's use was wit ...
of
Mosul
Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...
,
Badr al-Din Lu'lu ordered the bones of Sheikh Adi to be exhumed and burned.
As the holiest site in the Yezidi religion, his tomb (marked by three conical cupolas) still attracts a great number of people even outside holy festivals and pilgrimages. Nightly processions by torch light include exhibitions of the green colored pall, which covers the tomb; and the distribution of large trays with smoking harisa (a ragout with coagulated milk).
Books of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir
Four books attributed to Sheikh Adi have been preserved:
:#The doctrine of the Sunnis ( ar, Iʿtiqād ahl as-sunna)
:#The Book of the formation of the soul ( ar, Kitāb fīhi dhikr adab an-nafs)
:#Instructions of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir to the successor ( ar, Wasaya al Shaykh Adi ibn Musafir ila l-Halifa)
:#Instructions to his disciple, the leading sheikh, and the other
murid
In Sufism, a ''murīd'' (Arabic مُرِيد 'one who seeks') is a novice committed to spiritual enlightenment by ''sulūk'' (traversing a path) under a spiritual guide, who may take the title murshid, '' pir'' or ''shaykh''. A ''sālik'' or Su ...
s ( ar, Wasaya li-Muridial Shaykh al-qaid wa-li-sāʾir al-murīdīn). This book focus on several issues but are in lone with Islamic teaching, which according to the
Hanbali
The Hanbali school ( ar, ٱلْمَذْهَب ٱلْحَنۢبَلِي, al-maḏhab al-ḥanbalī) is one of the four major traditional Sunni schools ('' madhahib'') of Islamic jurisprudence. It is named after the Arab scholar Ahmad ibn Hanba ...
scholar
Ibn Taymiyyah
Ibn Taymiyyah (January 22, 1263 – September 26, 1328; ar, ابن تيمية), birth name Taqī ad-Dīn ʾAḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Numayrī al-Ḥarrānī ( ar, تقي الدين أحمد بن عبد الحليم � ...
describes Sheikh Adi as a "sincere Muslim who followed the
Sunnah
In Islam, , also spelled ( ar, سنة), are the traditions and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad that constitute a model for Muslims to follow. The sunnah is what all the Muslims of Muhammad's time evidently saw and followed and passed ...
of the
Prophet
In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the ...
".
Succession
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Musafir, Sheikh Adi Ibn
1070s births
1162 deaths
Yazidi mythology
Adawiyya Sufi Order
Burials in Iraq
Deified people
Founders of Sufi orders
Muslim saints
Sunni Muslim scholars
12th-century Muslim theologians
Sunni fiqh scholars
Sunni imams
11th-century Arabs
12th-century Arabs
Yazidi religion
Yazidi saints