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INTRODUCTION

Poem in Praise of Šeih 'Adî, and the Principal Prayer (in Kurdish) are absent, while the petition to the Turkish government is briefer, and lacks articles iv and xiv. The text of this petition, in its original form, was published by Lidzbarski in ZDMG, LI, 592 ff., after a manuscript in Berlin which was procured from Sammas Eremia Samir.

Two Syriac texts have also been printed. The first, edited and translated by J.-B. Chabot in the Journal Asiatique, 1896 (ixe serie, T. 7), p. 100 ff., from the Paris manuscripts referred to above, corresponds, with slight variations, to the second “'Account,” of Browne (Parry, loc. cit., pp. 380-87).

The second was published with an Italian translation, by Samuel Giamil, under the title, Monte Singar; Storia di un Popolo Ignoto (Rome, 1900), from a manuscript copied for him in 1899 from an original in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd. The author of this work, a Syrian priest, Isaac, lived for a long time among the Yezidis, and not only had unusual opportunities of observation, but, as is evident from several anecdotes, possessed their confidence and esteem in a singular degree. His work is in catechetical form: a youthful Yezidi inquirer questions a teacher about the beliefs, traditions, and customs of his people, and the answers contain the fullest exposition of these matters we at present possess. Occasionally the author falls out of his role, and lets it appear that the questioner is no other than Priest Isaac himself.

The work is divided into ten sections, which treat