the well-known traditionist of the name—e. g., Tabari, I, 135.19
The prophecy was perhaps preserved among the leaders of the Abadiya, with which sect Yezîd bn Unaisa is associated. Aš-Šahrasãnî's statement, the significant part of which we have found also in Ibn Hazm was doubtless derived from an older written source.
Who is intended by the coming Persian prophet—if, indeed, any particular individual is meant—it is not possible to determine. Kremer 20 cannot be right in identifying him with Šeih 'Adî, for the supposed prediction was in circulation a century or more before his time. He is said to have been, not a Persian, but a Syrian from Baalbek or elsewhere in the West; and both in Arabic authors 21 and in his own writings 22 he appears as a Moslem, a Sufi saint in good standing. The Yezidis to this day await the appearance of the Persian prophet.23
On the basis of these scanty bits of fact, it appears that: The Yezidis were originally a Harijite24 subsect, akin to the Abadiya, bearing the name of their founder, Yezîd bn Unaisa. Certain distinctive Harijite peculiarities seem indeed to have outlived among them the common faith of Islam; such as the tolerant judgment of Jews and Christians; tion of every sin as implicit idolatry. In their new seats in Kurdistan, whither they migrated about the end of the fourteenth century 25 they were drawn into the movement of which Šeih 'Adî was in his life time the
