Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms (48 page)

Drower told of the priests’ anger on page x of
The Secret Adam
, and described Krun on page 270 of
MII
. The description of Dinanukht is a translation from the
Ginza Rabba,
reworded by Eliot Weinberger for
An Elemental Thing
(New Directions, 2007). Drower relates the cure to the Baghdad boil in
By Tigris and Euphrates
(Hurst & Blackett, 1923), page 228. The Libat spell is in
MII,
page 26. The Bel and Nebu amulet is mentioned in Drower’s article “A Mandaean Book of Black Magic,”
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
, vol. 75 (October 1943). The scorpion amulet and the reconstructed Ishtar Gate of Babylon can be seen at Berlin’s Pergamon Museum.

The Mandaean Human Rights Group’s 2011 report can be seen at
www.mandaeanunion.com/images/MAU/MHRG/MHRG_Docs/MHRG%20%20Report%202011.pdf
.

CHAPTER 2: YAZIDIS

I visited Lalish in July 2011, visited Yazidi refugees in Kurdistan in August 2014, and met Yazidis in the United States in 2012 and then again in 2013. I am grateful to those who talked to me, who are named in the book; most of all I want to single out Mirza Ismail, who was very generous with his time, and Abu Shihab, whose family kindly looked after me in Buffalo, New York. In Nebraska Basim gave me a wonderful introduction to his community. The Spiritual Council of the Yazidis were generous in giving me their time, as were Khairi Buzani, Ayad, and Dakheel. Professor Philip Kreyenbroek very kindly corrected some of my early mistakes, while of course not being responsible for any that may remain.

For more information on the Yazidis, there is some useful material at
www.lalish.de
. For general books on the Yazidis, I suggest
Yazidis: A Study in Survival,
by John S. Guest (Routledge, 1987), E. S. Drower’s
Peacock Angel
(John Murray, 1941), and Philip Kreyenbroek’s
Yazidism: Its Background, Observances and Textual Tradition
(Edwin Mullen Press, 1995).

For details on Sinjar I am indebted to Nelida Fuccaro’s 1994 Durham University e-thesis, “Aspects of the Social and Political History of the Yazidi Enclave of Jabal Sinjar (Iraq) Under the British Mandate, 1919–1932.” Details on the history of Edessa and Harran are mostly taken from
Edessa: “The Blessed City,”
by J. B. Segal (Clarendon Press,1970).
Egeria’s Travels
can be read in a translation by John Wilkinson (Aris and Phillips, 1999).

“God help the Romans” comes from Walter Emil Kaegi’s book
Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium
(Cambridge University Press, 2003). Surat al-Rum is the thirtieth sura of the Koran. I used Paul-Alain Beaulieu’s translation of Nabonidus’s inscription, found online at
www.livius.org
. Shahristani’s remark on the Sabians comes from his
Al-Milal wa al-Nihal
. The Harranians’ story is told by Ibn Nadim in his
Fihrist,
ii:14–17. The quotation from Thabit ibn Qurra is taken from Berkey’s
Formation of Islam
.

Yaron Friedman’s
The Nusayri-Alawis
(Brill, 2009) is a thorough study of what is known of the Alawites from medieval sources. The Reverend Samuel Lyde’s experiences are described in his book
The Asian Mystery Illustrated in the History, Religion and Present State of the Ansaireeh or Nusairis of Syria
(Longmans, Green,1860).
After the Moon
is cited online as a publication of Dar al-Shimal publishers in Beirut, but I could find no copy of it. I have drawn on a review of it published at the online magazine
Al-Maaber
in November 2003 by Nadra al-Yaziji (in Arabic at
http://maaber.50megs.com/issue_november03/books4.htm
). Jacob de Vitriaco is quoted in Lyde,
Asian Mystery
.

Marco Polo’s reference to the Kurds comes in Ronald Latham’s translation of
The Travels
(Penguin, 1958).
Nestorians and Their Rituals,
by G. P. Badger (Joseph Masters, 1852), describes Badger’s experiences in northern Iraq, including Yazidi rituals, the
sanjak,
and Sheikh Adi’s prayer quoted in this chapter. Matti Moosa’s
Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects
(Syracuse University Press, 1987) was my source on the Shabak.
Nineveh and Its Remains,
by the archaeologist A. H. Layard (John Murray, 1849), was the source of remarks attributed here to Layard.

Al-Hallaj’s life was examined with depth and sympathy by Louis Massignon,
The Passion of al-Hallaj,
available in an English translation by Herbert Mason (Princeton University Press, 1982). Herbert Mason wrote his own shorter and useful biography,
Al Hallaj
(Carson, 1995).

Montanus’s quotation is taken from Crone,
Nativist Prophets
. The quotations from Yusuf Busnaya and Isaac of Nineveh are taken from Christoph Baumer’s
The Church of the East,
pages 134-5. I also dre
w on
Rabi’a the Mystic and Her Fellow-Saints in Islam,
by Margaret Smith (Cambridge University Press, 1928).

Plutarch’s description of haoma-offerings in caves is in his
Isis and Osiris
, chapter 46. Yohannan bar Penkaye’s words are quoted from Berkey’s
Formation of Islam
.

CHAPTER 3: ZOROASTRIANS

My visit to Iran was in the summer of 2006. I saw Balkh in the spring of 2008. I am very grateful to the World Zoroastrian Organisation and its former president, Shahin Bekhradnia, as well as to the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe, for their very kind cooperation. I several times was given hospitality and an open-hearted welcome at the Zoroastrian fire temple in Rayners Lane, London.

Mary Boyce is so well regarded as an outside expert on the Zoroastrians that I saw her picture hanging in the London fire temple. In particular, her
Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices
(Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979) and her
A
Persian Stronghold of Zoroastrianism
(Clarendon Press, 1977) were very useful to me in writing this chapter. An older but important and thought-provoking book on the religion is R. C. Zaehner,
Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism
(Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1961). Paul Kriwaczek’s
In Search of Zarathustra
(Knopf, 2003) traces the broader influence of the religion as far as the modern day.

Zoroastrians’ conception of their own religion differs somewhat from one individual believer to another, so there is no single book to read that will explain it. Zoroastrian explanations of their own faith include
The Religion of Zarathushtra,
by I. J. S. Taporewala (Sazman-e-Fravahar, 1980) as well as “The Parsee Religion,” a talk given by Dadabhai Naoroji in 1861 to the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society.

For a broader understanding of Iran there is a wealth of choice. I particularly enjoyed Roy Mottahedeh’s
Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran
(Oneworld, 2008). I also recommend
The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran,
by Said Amir Arjomand (Oxford University Press, 2009).

Shapur’s criticism of Christianity is quoted by Richard Foltz in
Religions of the Silk Road
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). Herodotus’s observation on Persian education is in his
Histories,
I:136. Excerpts from the
Avesta
were taken from the translation provided by D. J. Irani at
www.zarathushtra.com
. The quote from the Book of Daniel (12:2) is taken from the NET Bible, available online at
netbible.com
. Nietzsche’s remarks on morality are taken from the introduction to his book
Thus Spake Zarathustra,
translated by Thomas Common, released as a Project Gutenberg e-book in 2008. Edward Browne’s encounters with the Zoroastrians and Baha’i of late nineteenth-century Iran are described in his
A Year Amongst the Persians
(Adam and Charles Black, 1893), which was the source also for the poem inscribed at Persepolis. Diodorus Siculus’s words are from the translation of his
Histories
by Peter Green (University of Texas Press, 2006).

Details of the Shah’s feast come from an article by Spencer Burke for the
Harvard Advocate
, Winter 2012 issue. My copy of
My Uncle Napoleon,
by Iraj Peshehkzad, was published by Random House in 2006. The shah’s remark is quoted by his then minister of education, Manouchehr Ganji, in
Defying the Iranian Revolution
(Praeger, 2002). The ayatollah’s declaration that the commandments of the ruling jurist are like those of God was made in 1988 and is recorded by Arjomand in
Turban for the Crown,
page 34.

Herodotus writes on Persian sacrifices in his
Histories,
page 96. The quotes from the
Shahnamah
were taken from Dick Davis’s translation (Viking, 2006). Crone,
Nativist Prophets,
gave me the lines that I have quoted from the Arab poet Al Ja’di. “This is their religion—to kill Arabs” comes from a poem by the Umayyad general Nasr Ibn as-Sayyar, referring to the Iranian followers of Abu Muslim. Boyce’s
Zoroastrians
provided me with the reference to the writer Narshakhi, who is the source of the account of Arab conquerors’ actions in Bukhara.

Kasravi’s experience is described by Mottahedeh in
Mantle of the Prophet.
Khomeini’s judgment that Plato was “grave and solid” comes in his
Kashf ul Asrar,
where he also described Aristotle as a “great man”; see
www.irdc.ir/en/content/19569/print.aspx
.

Browne’s
Year Amongst the Persians
described his encounters with the Zoroastrians and Babis. Poems from the
Divan
of Hafiz are taken from Gertrude Bell’s translation (W. Heinemann, 1897).

Hataria’s words are quoted from his 1854 report to the Society for the Amelioration of the Conditions of the Zoroastrians of Persia (which can be read, for instance, in Dr. Daryoush Jahanian’s lecture “The History of Zoroastrians After Arab Invasion” on the website of the Circle of Iranian Studies at
www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/History/Post-Sasanian/zoroastrians_after_arab _invasion.htm
). The quote “the last mass forcible conversion of Zoroastians,” the statistic on priests’ decline in Yazd, and the address of the bier carriers are all taken from Boyce,
Persian Stronghold
. Herodotus writes on funerary customs in his
Histories,
page 99. Khamenei’s words on Charshanbeh-e-Suri were reported by CNN on March 16, 2010:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD /meast/03/15/iran.new.year.crackdown
.

The History of Parliament (
www.historyofparliamentonline.org
) helped me with some details on the life of Dadabhai Naoroji, which I also partly pieced together from newspaper reports and from
Dadabhai Naoroji: The Grand Old Man of India,
by Sir Rustom Pestonji Masani (Allen & Unwin, 1939).

I took some statistics, and the quoted remark of the Zoroastrian Cricket Club, from John Hinnells,
The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration
(Oxford University Press, 2005).

CHAPTER 4: DRUZE

I have been to Lebanon many times between 2000 and the present day, but most of the encounters in this chapter were during a trip dedicated to meeting the Druze in 2011. Without the support and help of the British ambassador, Frances Guy, and our mutual friend Rabieh Kays, this would have been a much less fruitful visit. Nadim Shehadi at London’s Royal Institute for International Affairs corrected me on modern Lebanese history and joined me in the search for
After the Moon
.

I am very grateful to those who met me in Lebanon, especially Walid Jumblatt, Prince Talal Arslan, Dr. Sami Makarem of the American University of Beirut, and Sheikh Ali Zeinadin. The late Abu Muhammed Jawad, a very saintly man, was greatly mourned by the Druze when he died in 2012. Eyad Abu Shaqra gave me some useful insights into the community’s view of reincarnation. Abbas al-Halabi gave me his book, which is cited below. Rifaat Eid, Badr Wannous, and Sheikh Ahmed al-Assi were kind enough to see me when I was in Lebanon in 2012, on a return visit, to discuss the Alawite religion.

There are enough books on the Druze to justify a bibliography:
The Druzes: An Annotated Bibliography,
by Sami Swayd (ISES, 1998). General books on the Druze religion include
The Druze,
by Robert Brenton Betts (Yale University Press,1988);
The Druze Faith,
by Sami Makarem (Carnarvon Books, 1974);
A History of the Druzes,
by Kais Firro (Brill, 1992);
The Druze: Realities and Perceptions,
edited by Kamal Salibi (Druze Heritage Foundation, 2006); and
Origins of the Druze People and Religion,
by Philip K. Hitti (Columbia University Press, 1928). This last book was much criticized by those Druze whom I met, because they disliked certain of its conclusions. It does, however, honor them by declaring the Druze riddle to be “one of the most baffling in the history of religious thought.”

The
sheikh al-aql
gave me a brief official guide to the Druze religion:
The Path to Monotheism,
issued in ah 1431/
AD
2010 by the Office of Druze Sheikhdom.
Les Druzes: Vivre avec l’Avenir,
by Abbas al-Halabi (Dar an-Nahar, 2006), forms part of a trend among Druze intellectuals to question how to keep their esoteric religion alive in a globalized world.