The Reconstruction of Šayḫ ʽAdī b. Musāfir’s Biography on the Basis of Arabic and Kurdish Sources

This paper reconstructs the biography of Šayḫ ʽAdī b. Musāfir by adding oral sources of the Yezidi Kurds to the material in Arabic. The Yezidi religious poetry contains valuable material on the history and world outlook of the Yezidi community, but it could not be heard by outsiders and was only recently recorded. In an indirect way, that is, by using poetic and religious symbolism, the Kurdish material discloses the life data of the Šayḫ which does not contradict the written Arabic sources.