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Lalish

Sacred place of the Yezidis in Kurdistan, Iraq

Summary

Sacred place of the Yezidis in Kurdistan, Iraq

Field	Value
name	Lalish
native_name	Laliş
other_name	Lalişa Nûranî
native_name_lang	Kurdish
settlement_type	Sacred place
image_skyline	File:Lalish, the holiest site in Ezidkhan, the sacred place of the Ezidis 07.jpg
image_alt	Conical roofs over the tomb of Şêx Adî in Lalish
image_caption	Conical roofs over the tomb of Şêx Adî in Lalish
map_caption	Located in the Nineveh Plains, Iraq
pushpin_map	Iraq
pushpin_map_caption	Located in the Nineveh Plains, Iraq
coordinates
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name	Iraq
subdivision_type1	Region
subdivision_name1	Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region (Disputed)
subdivision_type2	Governorate
subdivision_name2	Nineveh
subdivision_type3	District
subdivision_name3	Shekhan District
established_title	Founded
unit_pref	Metric
elevation_m	861
population_density_km2	auto
website

Lalish (, also known as Lalişa Nûranî) is a mountain valley and temple located in the Nineveh Plains, Iraq. It is the holiest temple of the Yazidis. It is the location of the tomb of the Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir, a central figure of the Yazidi faith.

The temple is above the town of Shekhan, which had the second largest population of Yazidi prior to the persecution of Yazidis by ISIL. The temple is about sixty kilometers north of Mosul and 14 kilometers west from the village Ayn Sifna. The temple is built at about 861 meters above sea level and situated among three mountains, Hizrat in the west, Misat in the south and Arafat in the north.

At least once in their lifetimes, Yazidis are expected to make a six-day pilgrimage to Lalish to visit the tomb of Şêx Adî and other sacred places. Below Sheikh Adi's sanctuary, which also includes the tomb of Sheikh Hesen is situated a cave.

Lalish is also the location of pirrā selāt (Ṣerāṭ Bridge) and a mountain called Mt. ʿErefāt which has sites significant in other faiths. Yazidis living in the region are also expected to make a yearly pilgrimage to attend the autumn seven-day Feast of the Assembly, which is celebrated between 6th and 13th of October.

It has been located in the Shekhan District since 1991.

History

The portico of the sanctuary of Lalish, showing carved Yezidi symbols

In the early 12th century, Adi ibn Mosāfer moved to Lalish. Adi died in 1162 and was buried. During a major campaign by the governor of Mosul against the Yazidi in 1415, the tomb of Adi was razed.

The Lalish valley was annexed in 1892 by the surrounding Muslim tribes under the leadership of Ottomans, the mausoleum of Yezidi saints were looted and damaged and the Lalish Temple was converted into a Quranic school. The occupation of the temple eventually led to a fierce and widespread rebellion by Yezidis of Shekhan and Shingal against the Ottomans and the neighbouring Muslim Kurdish tribes. It was not until 1904 that the Ezidis, under the leadership of Mir Ali Beg, succeeded in forcibly recovering their temple and driving out the Muslim occupiers.

Shrine of Shekh Shems, saint of the Sun, at Lalish

Beginning on 3 August 2014, Yazidi refugees fled from Sinjar and took shelter in the temple after the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant attacked and captured Sinjar and its environs. When some 50,000 Yezidis trapped on Sinjar Mountain were freed by way of a land corridor opened by the Peoples's Protection Units (YPG) and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the majority fled through Syria and circled around the north of the Sinjar mountain range to reach Lalish and Shekhan within the de facto Nineveh Plains, Kurdistan Region.

References

(27 June 2019). "دوو پڕۆژە بۆ پەرستگەی لالش جێبەجێدەكرێن". Rûdaw.
(27 July 2018). "Perestgeha Laliş tê nûjenkirin". Rûdaw.
(2002). "A Pilgrimage to Lalish". Psychology Press.
(21 August 2014). "Fighting Back With Faith: Inside The Yezidis Iraqi Temple". The Daily Beast.
"Lalish Temple".
(August 12, 2014). "World Middle East A sanctuary for Iraqi Yazidis – and a plea for Obama's intervention". The Christian Science Monitor.
(August 12, 2014). "Iraq crisis: the last stand of the Yazidis against Islamic State". The Telegraph.
"The Spiritual Centre of Lalish and the mausoleum of Sheikh Adi".
Harrassowitz, O.. (2009). "From Daena to Din. Religion, Kultur und Sprache in der iranischen Welt: Festschrift für Philip Kreyenbroek zum 60. Geburtstag". Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.
(2005). "God and Sheikh Adi are Perfect". Harassovitz Verlag.
Allison, Christine. (July 20, 2004). "YAZIDIS i. GENERAL".
(6 June 2019). "Volunteers help restore holy Yezidi temple of Lalish". [[Rûdaw]].
(2013). "Minority Rights in the Middle East.". OUP Oxford.
admin. (2018-05-30). "Die Rückeroberung des Heiligtums Lalish im Jahr 1904".
"Yezidis (Yazidis) History".
Fuccaro, Nelida. (1994). "Aspects of the social and political history of the Yazidi enclave of Jabal Sinjar (Iraq) under the British mandate, 1919-1932". Durham University.
Tharoor, Ishaan. (11 August 2014). "A U.S.-designated terrorist group is saving Yazidis and battling the Islamic State". Washington Post.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

valleys-of-asia nineveh-governorate yazidi-holy-places yazidi-communities-in-iraq pilgrimage-sites kurdish-words-and-phrases

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