YEZIDIS  , a

sect of devil-worshippers, calling themselves Dasni, who are found in Kurdistan, Armenia and the Caucasus . Their religion has points of connexion with old Iranian and Assyrian beliefs and traces of Manichaeism and Nestorianism . Thus they regard the devil as the creative agent of the Supreme God, a reinstated fallen angel who is the author of evil . They avoid mentioning his name and represent him by the peacock . They regard Christ as an angel in human form and recognize In 1879 the Zoroastrian community of Yezd numbered 6483, 1242 residing in the city, 5241 in the villages; in 1892 the community numbered 6908, and as many have emigrated, it is computed that it now numbers not more than 7000 . Mahomet as a prophet with Abraham and the patriarchs . They believe in a future life and practise both circumcision and baptism . The name is probably derived from the Kurdish and Persian Yazddn, God; though some have connected it with the city of Yezd, or with Yezid, the second Omayyad caliph (720-24) . Their sacred book is called Al-Yalvah, and its chief exponent was Shaikh Adi (c.12oo) . See Layard, -Ninevah and its Remains (London, 185o) ; Menant, Les Yezidis (Paris, 1892) .