Creation and Cosmogony in Êzîdism

The doctrine of creation (cosmogony) forms the theological heart of Êzîdism. It tells how the one God Xwedê first brought forth from his own light the white pearl (Dur / Durr) and the Seven Mysteries (Heft Sirr / Heft Sur), and how the material world arose from the shattered pearl. Unlike the Abrahamic creation accounts, the Êzîdî cosmogony is not a creation out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo) but an emanation: the created flows forth from the divine in stages. The narrative is not fixed in a single canonical text but lives on in the orally transmitted Qewl (sacred hymns) and their accompanying tales (çîrok), and therefore exists in several, partly diverging versions (Kreyenbroek 1995; Omarkhali 2017; Spät 2010).

Important at the outset: In Êzîdî creation doctrine Tawûsî Melek is the supreme of the seven holy beings and the demiurge-like creative principle, never a “Devil”, “Iblis”, “Şeytan” or fallen angel. Precisely in a theme of creation and angels this distinction is central: in the Êzîdî cosmos there is no anti-divine principle that could have been created or have fallen. The equation with the Devil stems from polemical foreign literature and contradicts the Êzîdî sources entirely (Kreyenbroek 1995; Asatrian & Arakelova 2014). See in detail /wiki/tawusi-melek.

1. Xwedê: the one God and the Origin

At the centre stands Xwedê (also Xwedawend, Êzdan, Padîşah), the one, single God. He is absolutely transcendent, incomprehensible and in his essence inaccessible; according to the hymn tradition he bears “1,001 names” (in other traditions 3,003 names). Characteristic of the Êzîdî image of God is that Xwedê indeed calls the world into being but does not himself directly govern it: he entrusts the creation and administration of the cosmos to the Heft Sirr, the seven holy beings, who proceed from his light and share in his divine essence (sûr, sirr) (Kreyenbroek 1995; Omarkhali 2017).

Êzîdî theology is thus strictly monotheistic and non-dualistic: there is only one God, no counter-power equal to him, and consequently no independent, absolute evil. This basic structure distinguishes Êzîdism fundamentally from dualistic systems and is the key to understanding the entire creation narrative (Asatrian & Arakelova 2014). More on the belief system under /wiki/religion.

2. The white pearl (Dur / Durr): the primal matter

2.1 God within the pearl

In the beginning, in a timeless and spaceless “pre-eternity” state, Xwedê created from his own light, or from his own soul, a white pearl (Kurmanji Dur or Durr, cf. Arabic durr, “pearl”). In this pearl the whole world rested concealed and unfolded, a self-enclosed, light-flooded primal state in which the divine and the future-created still lay together undivided. According to several traditions the world persisted in this tiny, enclosed state over a symbolic “magical” span of time, often given with the number forty or forty thousand years (Kreyenbroek 1995; Spät 2010; Omarkhali 2017).

2.2 The shattering and the primal ocean

The creation of the material world sets in with the breaking of the pearl. As Xwedê detached himself from the pearl (in some versions through a mighty call or cry), it shattered, and a cosmic chain reaction unfolded: from the white light of the pearl the primal colours emerged, and mighty waves formed the primordial ocean from which all further existence flowed. From the scattered fragments of the pearl arose earth, sky and the heavenly bodies (Spät 2010; Kreyenbroek 1995).

The pearl is thus the central primal matter of Êzîdî cosmogony. The religious scholar Artur Rodziewicz showed in his monograph Eros and the Pearl (2022/2023) that this pearl motif stands within the web of late-antique and mystical traditions, and that the image of pearl and cosmic love can be paralleled with the Orphic motif of egg and Eros: as a possible line of relation discussed in scholarship, not as a secured derivation (Rodziewicz 2023).

3. The Heft Sirr / Seven Mysteries (Heft Sur)

3.1 The holy heptad

Before or during the unfolding of the material world, Xwedê called the Heft Sirr into being, the “Seven Secrets” or “Seven Mysteries”. They are also called Heft Sur; in English-language scholarship the spelling Haft Sirr / He Sur is common. These are a heptad of seven holy beings (often called “angels”) who emanate from the light of God, share in his essence, and to whom Xwedê entrusts the guidance and preservation of the world. According to tradition God concluded a covenant with them and handed over to them “all affairs of the world” (Kreyenbroek 1995; Allison, Encyclopædia Iranica).

A wordplay characteristic of Êzîdî theology links the key terms: sur / sirr (“mystery, essence”), dur (“pearl”) and the Sufi sirr (“the innermost secret of the soul”) sound almost identical. This kinship of sound is no coincidence but carries the theological statement that the seven beings are bearers of the same divine secret that was hidden in the pearl (Rodziewicz 2014; Omarkhali 2017).

3.2 Tawûsî Melek as the supreme of the seven beings

Among the seven, Tawûsî Melek (the “Peacock Angel”) takes the first and highest rank. He is the leader of the Heft Sirr, the “Lord of this world” (Padîşahê) and the demiurge-like executor of the divine will to create: the active, ordering principle through which the transcendent intention of Xwedê is realised in the material world. In several versions Tawûsî Melek, after passing a test, forms the cosmos from the shattered pearl or the “world-egg”. His veneration is never the veneration of a second deity, but the veneration of the one Xwedê, whose visible, working expression he is (Kreyenbroek 1995; Açıkyıldız 2010). In detail under /wiki/tawusi-melek.

3.3 The identities of the Seven

Scholarship names the seven holy beings on the basis of the Qewls and religious tradition. Besides Tawûsî Melek as the supreme, the following figures are above all named in present-day tradition as the Heft Sirr or their earthly manifestations (Kreyenbroek 1995; Allison, Encyclopædia Iranica; Rodziewicz 2014):

The exact assignment fluctuates between the traditions, at times other figures (for instance Sultan Êzî as divine manifestation) are counted in, at times the last four appear as a group of “four sons” around the central triad. This variability is typical of an oral, regionally differentiated tradition and is no contradiction (Kreyenbroek 1995; Omarkhali 2017). Cf. /wiki/genealogie.

3.4 Şêx Adî, Şêx Sin and the cyclical manifestation

A core element of Êzîdî theology is the teaching that the holy beings manifest themselves cyclically in human form (a conception close to the Sufi concept of incarnation, ḥulûl). Şêx Adî ibn Misafir (d. 1162, buried in Lalîş) is regarded in tradition as the earthly incarnation of the divine principle or of Tawûsî Melek; Şêx Sin (Şêx Hesen) and the others likewise appear as embodiments of individual ones of the Heft Sirr (Kreyenbroek 1995; Allison, Encyclopædia Iranica; Açıkyıldız 2010).

These manifestations are not independent gods beside Xwedê, but modes of appearance of the one divine mystery in history. In the hymns the figures of Tawûsî Melek, Sultan Êzî and Şêx Adî often merge into one another and are not sharply separated, an expression of the unity of the divine, not of a pantheon. The presentation of this doctrine of manifestation here follows expressly the primary-source-based studies and avoids speculative interpretation (Kreyenbroek 1995; Kreyenbroek & Rashow 2005). On its anchoring in the holy genealogy see /wiki/genealogie.

4. The creation and consolidation of the world

4.1 Four elements, ark and Gewar tree

From the shattered pearl and the primal ocean the ordered world came forth. Xwedê created the four elements (earth, water, wind/air, fire) as well as the cosmic pairs of opposites, heaven and earth, day and night, sun and moon. In the middle of the primal ocean, according to several traditions, the eternal tree rose (Dara Gewar / Ghewar tree); an ark with the prototypes of the creatures was preserved when a serpent sealed its leak (Spät 2010; Kreyenbroek 1995).

4.2 The quaking earth

A recurring motif is the initial instability of the earth: after the sea had become firm and turned to land, the earth still “trembled” and quaked and first had to be consolidated. In the mythic narrative Xwedê gathers the fragments of the pearl and brings the world to rest; in some versions mountains are set as “nails” or anchors that hold the land fast (Spät 2010). The image of an originally quaking, then anchored earth belongs to the ancient Near Eastern store of narrative and connects the Êzîdî cosmogony with a broader Mesopotamian substrate (see section 6).

4.3 The image of the cosmos: earth on bull and fish

The image, widespread in the region, of the earth resting on a bull (and this in turn on a fish) is found also in the Êzîdî milieu; it belongs, however, rather to the general ancient Near Eastern–Islamic folk cosmos than to the specifically Êzîdî doctrinal core, and is not attested in the Qewls as a dogmatically fixed element of creation. The demonstrable elements proper to the Êzîdî tradition are pearl, primal ocean, four elements and quaking/consolidated earth; the bull-fish motif is to be classified as a culturally shared image of the wider region, not as a secured component of the hymn cosmogony (Spät 2010). This differentiation is important so as not to conflate folk cosmology and theological core.

4.4 Heavenly bodies and the creation of the human being

From two pieces of the pearl God set, according to the narrative, through the angel Cebraîl (Gabriel), the sun and moon at the “door of heaven” and beneath the earth; from the scattered splinters arose the stars. The body of Adam was formed from the four elements; his soul, however, at first refused to enter the body, until the holy instruments, the frame drum Def and the flute Şibab, were played and the music drew the soul into the body (Spät 2010; Kreyenbroek 1995).

Source-critical note: The most detailed narrative versions of these episodes (pearl upon the bird Anfar/Anqar, Gabriel with the pieces of the pearl, sun/moon/stars) stem in part from the texts Mishefa Reş and Kitêba Cilwe circulating in the 19th/early 20th century, which are regarded in scholarship as later compilations or forgeries (co-shaped by outsiders, yet reflecting genuine traditional material). The theologically secured core: Xwedê, white pearl, Heft Sirr, Tawûsî Melek as supreme being, emanation, is by contrast borne by the genuine Qewls (Kreyenbroek 1995; Omarkhali 2017). Cf. /wiki/faelschungen and /wiki/qewl-tradition.

5. Lalîş: the earthly mirror of creation

The central sanctuary Lalîş (with the grave of Şêx Adî) is regarded in Êzîdî conception as the place at which creation condenses and which earthly mirrors the cosmic event. The holy earth and the consecrated water (for instance the spring Kaniya Sipî, “white spring”, and Zemzem) connect the believers with the creative origin; little balls shaped from Lalîş earth (Berat) carry the holiness of the centre into the community. Lalîş is thus not only a place of pilgrimage but the theological intersection of cosmogony and lived religion (Kreyenbroek 1995; Spät 2017). See /wiki/lalish and /wiki/heiligtuemer-weltweit.

6. Religious-studies classification

The origin of the Êzîdî cosmogony is the object of intensive, partly contested research. The following relations are discussed in serious literature, as possible substrates, not as secured derivations:

• Pre-Islamic Iranian / Zoroastrian: The emanation structure and the sevenfold number of the holy beings are compared with old Iranian conceptions (for instance the seven Amesha Spenta); the divine name Êzdan recalls yazata (“being worthy of veneration”). Kreyenbroek sees in Êzîdism and Ahl-e Haqq remnants of a pre-Zoroastrian western Iranian mythology. The older equation of Tawûsî Melek with the Zoroastrian Ahriman is, however, rejected: it rests on the same dualistic fallacy as the devil-worshipper thesis (Kreyenbroek 1995; Asatrian & Arakelova 2014).
• Mesopotamian / ancient Near Eastern: The motifs of pearl, primal ocean, ark and quaking/anchored earth are brought into connection with old Mesopotamian substrates (Spät 2010).
• Gnostic / Neoplatonic / late-antique: The gradual emanation from the transcendent One as well as the pearl-and-love motif resemble Gnostic-Neoplatonic and Orphic cosmologies; Spät speaks of “late-antique motifs” of a common cultural substrate of the region (Spät 2010; Rodziewicz 2023).
• Sufi, the Adawiyya tradition: Êzîdism took its present form in the milieu of the Sufi Şêx Adî ibn Misafir (c. 1075–1162) and his Adawiyya order in Lalîş. Adî, a Sufi schooled in Baghdad and born in the Bekaa Valley, was himself orthodox; yet the piety of his Kurdish followers fused with local, pre-Islamic traditions, and Şêx Adî himself was raised to a holy, manifest figure. Sufi concepts such as the incarnation/manifestation of the divine (ḥulûl) and the inner secret (sirr) helped shape the Êzîdî doctrine of manifestation and the Heft-Sirr concept (Kreyenbroek 1995; Açıkyıldız 2010; Rodziewicz 2014).

Newer research (Allison, Spät, Omarkhali, Rodziewicz) at the same time emphasises that Êzîdism is an independent religion with its own inner logic and should not be explained as a mere “syncretism mosaic” or as an offshoot of another tradition. The parallels discussed illuminate possible historical relations but do not replace the independent theological system (Allison 2001; Spät 2010).

7. Correct terms (conventions)

Sources

• Birgül Açıkyıldız: The Yezidis, The History of a Community, Culture and Religion. London: I. B. Tauris, 2010.
• Christine Allison: The Yezidi Oral Tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan. Richmond: Curzon, 2001.
• Christine Allison / Philip G. Kreyenbroek: “Yazidis i. General”, in: Encyclopædia Iranica (online)., https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/yazidis-i-general-1
• Garnik S. Asatrian & Victoria Arakelova: The Religion of the Peacock Angel, The Yezidis and Their Spirit World (series Gnostica). Durham: Acumen/Routledge, 2014.
• Philip G. Kreyenbroek: Yezidism, Its Background, Observances and Textual Tradition. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1995.
• Philip G. Kreyenbroek & Khalil Jindy Rashow: God and Sheikh Adi are Perfect, Sacred Poems and Religious Narratives from the Yezidi Tradition. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2005.
• Khanna Omarkhali: The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition, Transmission, Categorisation and Canonisation of the Yezidi Oral Religious Texts. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2017.
• Artur Rodziewicz: “Heft Sur, The Seven Angels of the Yezidi Tradition and Harran” (essay, 2014/2018)., https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361194410
• Artur Rodziewicz: Eros and the Pearl, The Yezidi Cosmogonic Myth at the Crossroads of Mystical Traditions. Berlin: Peter Lang, 2022; cf. review in Iran and the Caucasus 27/3 (2023)., https://brill.com/view/journals/ic/27/3/article-p319_8.xml
• Eszter Spät: Late Antique Motifs in Yezidi Oral Tradition. Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2010 (also Diss.); idem: The Yezidis. London: Saqi, 2005; idem: “Materializing Memory, The Role of the Yezidi Peacock Sanjak” (2017).
• Encyclopaedia Iranica, “Yazidis i. General”, online resource: https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/yazidis-i-general-1

Note: Statements marked as “discussed” or “contested” (section 6) as well as the bull-fish cosmos image (4.3) reflect open research questions or general regional cosmology and are not to be read as secured facts. The detailed narrative details from Mishefa Reş / Kitêba Cilwe are marked as later/contested sources.

This article is part of the multilingual Êzdîxan wiki.

2.3 The Pearl as Primordial State: Stage Model, Dur–Nûr–Sûr and Çarşema Sor

Scholarship structures the Yazidi cosmogony around the pearl into several stages. Eszter Spät and Artur Rodziewicz essentially distinguish three phases: (1) the spaceless and timeless pre-eternity state, in which the still-unopened pearl (Dur) encloses God and the hidden world; in the scholarly literature this unfolded primordial state is sometimes captured by the Kurdish term Enzel (Ezel, “pre-eternity”); (2) the bursting of the pearl and the emergence of light, colours and the primordial ocean; (3) the anthropogony, the solidification of the earth and the creation of humankind. In this model the White Pearl is not a mere episode at the beginning, but the structural principle of the entire doctrine of creation: it marks the threshold between the hidden, unfolded divine and the unfolded, ordered world (Spät 2010; Spät 2016; Rodziewicz 2023).

Theologically, the pearl carries God’s central mystery. Rodziewicz has shown that the Yazidi conception of creation revolves around a triad of similar-sounding terms: Dur (the pearl), Nûr (the light) and Sûr/Sirr (the divine mystery, the essence). Within the pearl, the light of God was hidden; with its bursting this mystery, the “Sûra Xwedê” (the mystery of God), is scattered into the world and becomes effective in the seven holy beings (Heft Sirr). The pearl is thus at once primordial matter and bearer of the divine mystery, which explains the close connection between the pearl motif (Section 2) and the heptad (Section 3) (Rodziewicz 2014; Rodziewicz 2023; Omarkhali 2017).

This cosmogonic primordial state is ritually re-enacted in the Yazidi festival calendar: the New Year festival Çarşema Sor (“Red Wednesday”, the first Wednesday in April according to the Eastern calendar) is, in Rodziewicz’s interpretation, a symbolic repetition of the first steps of creation, of the transition from dark indeterminacy towards the appearance of the luminous pearl, which takes on colours and breaks apart. The White Pearl is thus not only a mythological element, but a living point of reference for lived religion (Rodziewicz 2016, “And the Pearl Became an Egg”; Spät 2010). On the festival calendar, see /wiki/feste.