The ''Yazidi Book of Revelation'' ( ku, Kitêba Cilwe, lit=The Book of Revelation) is the title of a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

book which is assumed to be one of two sacred books of

Yazidis Yazidis or Yezidis (; ku, ئێزیدی, translit=Êzidî) are a Kurmanji-speaking Endogamy, endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran ...

, the other being the

Yazidi Black Book The ''Yazidi Black Book'' ( ku, Mishefa Reş) is one of two books written in the style of a holy book of the Yazidis in their native Kurmanji (Northern Kurdish) tongue, the other being the ''Yazidi Book of Revelation'' (). The authenticity of th ...

. However, the authenticity of its sacredness has not been confirmed. The book claims to be the words of

Melek Taus 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 ...

wherein he allocates the different responsibilities, blessings and misfortunes as he desires and which humans have no say in.

Discovery and authenticity

Shaykh ʿAbdallāh al-Ratabkī (d. 1746) mentioned a sacred Yazidi text called ''Jilwa'' and he ascribed its authorship to

Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir ‘Adī ibn Musāfir ( ku, شێخ ئادی, translit=Şêx Adî, ar, الشيخ عدي بن مسافر born 1072-1078, died 1162) was a Muslim sheikh of Arab origin, considered a Yazidi saint. The Yazidis consider him as an avatar of Tawûsê M ...

. This was echoed by R. H. W. Empson in 1928 who moreover stated that the book was written by Sheikh Adi to Fakhr ad-Din ibn Adi. R. Frank, however, in his discussion of the ''Jilwa'' in 1911'','' denied this. When foreigners began studying Yazidis in the 1850s, they believed that the Yazidis had sacred books and thus tried to find them. While Yazidis do have sacred books as attested in their oral traditions, it was not known whether they were kept secret in a Yazidi home or burned during

massacres A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

. Copies of the ''Yazidi Book of Revelation'' were found in the 1880s and a number of copies purporting to be authentic circulated in

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 ...

from the late 19th century to the early 20th century.

Assyrian Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyrian ...

Jeremiah Shamir, a former

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

and known

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

dealer from

Ankawa Ankawa ( ar, عنكاوا, Ankāwā; , syr, ܥܲܢܟܵܒ̣ܵܐ) is a suburb of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It is located northwest of downtown Erbil. The suburb is predominantly populated by Assyrian people, Assyrians, most of whom a ...

was seemingly implicated in this affair. A translation of the ''Yazidi Book of Revelation'' and ''Yazidi Black Book'' was translated by Alpheus Andrus in 1891, and later by

Edward Granville Browne Edward Granville Browne FBA (7 February 1862 – 5 January 1926) was a British Iranologist. He published numerous articles and books, mainly in the areas of history and literature. Life Browne was born in Stouts Hill, Uley, Gloucestershire, En ...

in 1895. Translations were also made by R. Y. Ebied, M. J. L. Young and Isya Joseph. Joseph claimed that his translation was made from the original Kurdish book which he had discovered.

Alphonse Mingana Alphonse Mingana (born as Hurmiz Mingana; syr, ܗܪܡܙ ܡܢܓܢܐ, in 1878 at Sharanesh, a village near Zakho (present day Iraq) - died 5 December 1937 Birmingham, England) was an Assyrian theologian, historian, Syriacist, orientalist and a ...

asserted in 1916 that all hitherto translations were based on inauthentic documents. He moreover states that Shamir could have been the author of the ''Yazidi Book of Revelation''. Yazidis themselves knew of the books before Western interest that began in the 1850s, but the vast majority of them had never seen them.

Content

The book is written in

first-person narrative A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller, ...

with a narrator that speaks as a supreme being and begins with a short introduction followed by five chapters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yazidi Book Of Revelation Yazidi texts Religion in Kurdistan Religious books