Adi ibn Musafir - Lalish, Iraq - Mausoleums on Waymarking.com

Lalish is the holliest places of Yazidi religion. Yazidism is a little known monotheist religion with a connection to Zoroastrian religion. Its followers are mostly Kurds, with their numbers being estimated from 200.000 to one million.

Lalish is the most important place of Yazidism, like the Vatican for the Catholics or Mekah to the Muslims. It's located in Iraqi Kurdistan and it has the lively atmosphere of a place of pilgrimage.

Everybody is welcome, but it's highly recommended some previous readings about the "dont's" in Lalisha. For example: never go dressing in blue and be aware that visitors must be barefoot everywhere in the complex, not only indoors, like in the Muslim mosques.

About Adi ibn Musafir, from Wikipedia:

"Sheikh Adi was born in the 1070s in the village of Bait Far, near Baalbek, in the Beqaa Valley of present-day Lebanon. He hailed from the Umayyad lineage and was a descent from Marwan II, who was born to a Kurdish mother of royal Median lineage. Sheikh Adi first received Islamic education in the nearby region, likely in Damascus. He then went to Baghdad, where he settled and continued his Islamic education within Sufi circles. He adhered to the Shafi'i school. In Baghdad, Sheikh Adi was a disciple of Ahmad Ghazali, Abu al-Najib Suhrawardi, and Abdul Qadir Gilani, who all studied together. Sheikh Adi then became a disciple to Hammad ad-Dabbas and then Oqeil al-Manbiji, from whom he received the Khirqa. Sheikh Adi later qualified as an Islamic teacher and began teaching. Physically, he was said to be very tanned and of medium stature. In the early 12th century, Sheikh Adi left Baghdad and settled in Lalish, a remote valley northeast of Mosul. The area was inhabited by various Kurdish tribes with local traditional religious beliefs. Sheikh Adi chose the region due to its isolation and to escape from the political and doctrinal rigidity of the Islamic lands. His teachings gradually merged with local traditions. Despite his desire for seclusion, he impressed the local population with his asceticism and miracles. He became well known in Kurdistan and many disciples moved to the valley of Lalish to live close to Sheikh Adi. Following this, he founded the Adawiyya order. He used the kunyas Al-Shami (of the Levant) and Al-Hakkari (of Hakkari). Before he died, he named his successor his nephew Sakhr Abu l-Barakat.

In his writings he reasoned that it was God who created the devil and evil for which he cited passages of the Quran and the Hadiths. He also taught that the true Muslim should adhere to the teachings in the Quran and the Sunna and that only the ones who follow the principles of the Muslim caliphs Abu Bakr, Uthman and Ali are true believers. According to some sources, he established the Sufi Adawiyya order. He is said to have performed several miraculous acts such as reading the thoughts of others, becoming invisible, and moving a mountain by force of his word. He also returned the life of a man who was crushed by a rock. Some Muslims respect him as one of the pioneers of asceticism and the scholars of Sufism who held firmly to the Quran and Sunnah.

Aftermath and legacy
This hermitage within the Valley of Lalish, would continue to be occupied by his followers and his descendants until the present day despite periods of unrest, destruction, and persecution by outsiders. In 1254, as a result of a violent conflict with the members of the Adawiyya order, the Atabeg of Mosul, Badr al-Din Lu'lu ordered the bones of Sheikh Adi to be exhumed and burned. As the holiest site in the Yezidi religion, his tomb (marked by three conical cupolas) still attracts a great number of people even outside holy festivals and pilgrimages. Nightly processions by torch light include exhibitions of the green colored pall, which covers the tomb; and the distribution of large trays with smoking harisa (a ragout with coagulated milk)."

History: See long description Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Unknown Address: Adi ibn Musafir Lalish, Iraq Website: [Web Link]

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