Yarsanism
Yarsanism, Ahl-e Haqq, or Kaka'i, is an inherited, syncretic religion founded by Sultan Sahak in the late 14th century in western Iran. The total number of followers of Yarsanism is estimated to be over half a million to one million in Iran. However, according to one source, there are as many as 3 million followers in Iran. The numbers in Iraq are unknown. However, according to one source there are 120 to 150 thousand followers in Iraq. The adherents are mostly Kurds, as well as some Shabaks, Laks, and Lurs.
Some Yarsanis in Iraq are called Kaka'i. Yarsanis say that some people call them disparagingly as "Ali Allahi" or "worshipers of Ali", labels which Yarsanis deny. As such, many Yarsanis hide their religious identity, and there are no exact statistics of their population.
The Yarsanis have a distinct religious literature primarily written in the Gorani language. However, few modern Yarsani can read or write Gorani, as their mother tongue is Southern Kurdish or Sorani. Some Yarsanis in Iran speak a Turkic language close to Azeri, while some Yarsanis in Iraq speak Arabic. However, Yarsani tradition claimed that all early Yarsanis used Gorani as their religious language, and that some Yarsani communities were forced to adopt another language.
Their central religious book is called the Kalâm-e Saranjâm, written in the 15th century and based on the teachings of Sultan Sahak.
Geography
The majority of Yarsan followers live in Kermanshah Province and adjacent areas of Lorestan Province and Ilam Province in Iran. They are the predominant religious population in Mahidasht, Bivanij and Zohab districts of Kermanshah, and populate rural areas of Delfan, Holeylan and Posht-e Kuh in Ilam and Lorestan.The main urban centers of the religion are Sahneh, Kerend-e Gharb and Gahvareh, and other important cities include Kermanshah, Sarpol-e Zahab and Qasr-e Shirin.
Other areas in Iran with a significant Yarsan population include Hashtgerd and Varamin near Tehran and Maragheh, and Tabriz in Iranian Azerbaijan, where important Turkic-speaking Yarsan communities live and use Turkic for many of their religious texts. The Yarsani tradition claims that all early communities used Gorani as their religious language, but that over time, some groups were forced to adopt a Turkic language closely akin to Azeri for all purposes, including religion.
In Iraq, Yarsan followers mainly live in Mosul, Kirkuk, Kalar, Khanaqin, Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, and Halabja.
Beliefs
The Yarsani follow the mystical teachings of Sultan Sahak. From the Yarsani point of view, the universe is composed of two distinct yet interrelated worlds: the internal and the external, each having its own order and rules. Although humans are only aware of the outer world, their lives are governed according to the rules of the inner world. This aspect of the Yarsani faith can be identified as Kurdish esoterism which emerged under the intense influence of Bātinī-Sufism.Among other important pillars of their belief system are that the Divine Essence has successive manifestations in human form and the belief in transmigration of the soul. Yarasani believe that every man needs to do what is written within their holy book, the Kalâm-e Saranjâm, otherwise they are not part of Yarsan. There is no compulsion or exclusion in Yarsan – anyone who chooses to follow its precepts is welcome.
The Yarsani faith's features include millenarism, innatism, egalitarianism, metempsychosis, angelology, divine manifestation and dualism.
Divine manifestations
The Yarsani are emanationists and incarnationists, believing that the Divine Essence has successive incarnations known as mazhariyyats. They believe God manifests one primary and seven secondary manifestations in each epoch of the world, in either angel or human form. These seven persons are known as "Heft tan, which means "The Seven Persons".The primary mazhariyyat of the First Epoch was the Divine Essence known as Khawandagar, who created the world.
The primary mazhariyyat of the Second Epoch was Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth caliph and first imam of Shia Islam. This explains the alternative name for Yarsanis Ali-Allahi, "Believers in the divinity of Ali".
The primary mazhariyyat of the Third Epoch was Shah Khoshin.
In the Fourth Epoch, the primary mazhariyyat is held to be Sultan Sahak. It is said that his mother was Dayerak Rezbar or Khatun-e Rezbar, a Kurdish virgin of the Caf tribe. While sleeping under a pomegranate tree a kernel of fruit fell into her mouth when a bird pecked the fruit directly over her. Sources vary on Rezbar’s marital life, some state that she lived her entire life celibate and unmarried while most state that she had married. Sources that claim she had married either contest her husband as being a Kurdish man named "Şêx Îsa" from a priestly line of the Berzencî tribe or an Arab Sayyid man. Whether either of these men even fathered Sahak is also contested among Yarsanis who believe she had married either one of them, as the virgin birth of Sahak is contested by Yarsani scholars though the presumed father or stepfather of Sahak is not regarded as a significant religious figure in Yarsanism.
File:kakkai.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Yarsani men in Silêmanî, Iraqi Kurdistan. The picture on the wall is of the Kurdish tanbur, a Yarsani religious symbol.
Haft Tan or seven persons
Each Epoch in Yarsani belief saw the appearance of the seven secondary divine manifestations or Haft Tan. In the First Epoch they appeared in their true angelic form, while in subsequent Epochs they appeared in human incarnations. The Haft Tan are charged with responsibility for the affairs of the internal realm.The secondary mazhariyyats of the First Epoch include the archangels Gabriel, Michael, Israfil and Azrael, and a female angelic being.
The mazhariyyats of the Second Epoch include Salman, Qanbar, Muhammad, Nusayr and Bahlool. It also includes Fatimah, the daughter of Muhammad as the incarnation of the female angel.
The mazhariyyats of the Third Epoch include Shah Fazlullah Veli, Baba Sarhang Dudani and Baba Naous.
In the Fourth Epoch, the Haft Tan or 'seven persons' charged by Sultan Sahak with responsibility for the affairs of the inner realm consist of the following:
The "Haft Tan" are key figures in the Yarsani belief system and their history. The only female among them is Khatun-e Rezbar, the mother of Sultan Sahak.
- Pir Benjamin, considered the incarnation of the archangel Gabriel; he has the preceptor title to all Yarsanis
- Pir Musi, the incarnation of the archangel Michael and known as the Recording angel
- Mustafā Dawan, the incarnation of archangel Azrael
- Sultan Sahak, the incarnation of Divine Essence
- Baba Yadegar, also known as "Ahmad" and "Reza"
- Khatun-e Razbar
- Dawud Koswar, also informally called Dawu; he is known as "Dalil" to all Yarsanis
Holy texts
The traditions of the Yarsani are preserved in poetry known as Kalâm-e Saranjâm, divinely revealed narratives passed down orally through the generations. These traditions are said to have been written down by Pir Musi, one of the seven companions of Sultan Sahak. The collection consists of the epochs of Khawandagar , ‘Alī, Shah Khoshin and Sultan Sahak, the different manifestations of divinity. The epoch of Shah Khoshin takes place in Luristan and the epoch of Sultan Sahak is placed in Hawraman near the Sirwan River, the land of the Goranî. Also important to the Goranî is the Daftar-e kezana-ye Perdivari, a collection of twenty six mythological poems or kalams.The sayings attributed to Sultan Sahak are written in Gorani Kurdish, the sacred language of the Ahl-e Haqq, which also is known as Hawrami dialects. However, few modern Yarsani can read or write Gorani as their mother tongues are Southern Kurdish and Sorani Kurdish, which belong to the other two branches of the Kurdish language family. Some Yarsani literature is written in the Persian language.
The older texts are called the Perdiwari texts, which date back to around the 15th or 16th centuries. The texts are called Perdiwari since Perdiwar is where Soltan Sahak had first founded the Yarsani community. The Perdiwari texts are attributed to writers from this first community of Yarsani believers. They include the following texts.
- Dowre-ye Bābā Khoshin
- Dowre-ye Bābā Nā’us
- Dowre-ye Bohlul
- Dowre-ye Bābā Jalil
- Bābā Sarhang
- Dowre-ye Soltān Sahāk
- Kalām-e Ābedin
- Kalām-e Ahmad
- Daftar-e Dāmyāri
- Šandarwi maramo
- Bārgah Bārgah
- Dowre-ye Cheltan
- Kamākanān
- Zolāl Zolāl
- Daftar-e Sheykh Amir
- Daftar-e Khān Almās
- Daftar-e Ābedin Jāf
- Daftar-e Ilbegi
- Daftar of Qushchioghli
- Daftars of other members of the group of ‘Twenty-Four Poets’, in Turkic
- Daftar-e Zu’l-Feqār
- ''Daftar of the Thirty-Six Poets of the Period of Sayyed Brāke''
Sacred sites
Organisation
Khandans or spiritual houses
Yarsanism is organised into spiritual houses or Khandans, seven of which were established at the time of Sultan Sahak, and four afterwards, making eleven Khandans in all. The Khandans were established when, along with the Haft Tan, Sultan Sahak also formed the Haft Tawane, a group of seven holy persons charged with the affairs of the outer world. They were Say-yed Mohammad, Say-yed Abu'l Wafa, Haji Babusi, Mir Sur, Say-yed Mostafa, Sheykh Shahab al-Din and Sheykh Habib Shah. Each of the Haft Tawane was charged with responsibility for the guidance of a number of followers, and these followers formed the original seven Khandans, namely Shah Ebrahim, Baba Yadegar, Ali Qalandar, Khamush, Mir Sur, Sey-yed Mosaffa and Hajji Babu Isa. After Sultan Sahak's time another four khandans were established, namely Atesh Bag, Baba Heydar, Zolnour and Shah Hayas.Every Yarsani therefore belongs to one specific khandan, which is led by a spiritual leader called a say-yed, to whom each member must swear obedience. The say-yed is the spiritual leader of the community and is normally present during the ceremonies attended by the followers. Say-yeds are the only ones allowed to have full access to the religious texts of Yarsanism, and have traditionally competed with each other to have the largest number of followers. The position of Say-yed is hereditary, being passed down through the generations from the original founders. As the say-yed are considered spiritual 'parents', it is the tradition for them not to marry their followers.