[28] Such as their ceremonies at Šeiḫ ‘Adî (Badger, _The Nestorians_, I, 117), which have obtained for them the name Cheraḡ Sonderan, “The Extinguishers of Light.” Bar Hebraeus (_Chronicon Eccles._, ed. Abeloos-Lamy, I, 219) speaks of similar practices among what he calls “Borborians,” a branch of the Manichaeans, and calls them “The Extinguishers of Light.” This name is applied to other eastern sects also; see _Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes_, V, 124. [29] Professor Jackson, of Columbia University, seems to trace it to the “old devil-worship in Mazandaran” (_J A O S_, XXV, 178). But it is not certain that the Yezidis believe in Melek Ṭâ´ûs as an evil spirit. In the history of religion the god of one people is the devil of another. Asura is a deity in the Rig Veda and an evil spirit only in later Brahman theology. In Islam the gods of heathenism are degraded into jinns, just as the gods of North Semitic heathenism are called še‘îrîm (hairy demons) in Lev. 17:7; or as the gods of Greece and Rome became devils to early Christians. See W. R. Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, p. 120; Fihrist, pp. 322, 326. Professor M. Lidzbarski (_Z D M G_, LI, 592), on the other hand, argues that Ṭâ´ûs is the god Tammuz. His contention is based on the assumption that the word Ṭâ´ûs must embody the ancient god; that in Fihrist, 322, the god Tâuz has a feast on the 15th of Tammuz (July); that in Kurdish, the language of the Yezidis, _m_ is frequently changed to _w_. This theory also is untenable, for one might guess at any ancient god. The exact form of the name “Tauz” is uncertain (see Chwolsohn, _Die Ssabier_, II, 202); the statement that in Kurdish _m_ is frequently changed to _w_ is not true, if one would set it up as a grammatical rule to explain such phenomena; the Kurdish-speaking people never pronounce Tammuz, “Tauz;” and, finally, in the Yezidi conception of Melek Ṭâ´ûs there are no traces of the notion held respecting Tammuz. [30] Such a state of affairs finds a historical parallel in other religions. Take, for example, Christianity. In it we find that the distinctive characteristics of the founder have been wrapped up in many foreign elements brought in by those who came from other religions. PART I THE TRANSLATION OF THE ARABIC TEXT PREFACE _In the Name of the Most Compassionate God!_ With the help of the Most High God, and under his direction, we write the history of the Yezidis, their doctrines, and the mysteries of their religion, as contained in their books, which reached our hand with their own knowledge and consent.