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{{Short description|Muslim Sheikh, considered as saint by Yazidis (1070s–1162)}} {{Infobox person|honorific_prefix=Sheikh|name=Adī ibn Musāfir|image=Gora Shêx Adî Lalish 2012.JPG|caption=The [[sarcophagus]] of Sheikh Adi|birth_name=|birth_date=1072–1078|birth_place=Bait Far, [[Abbasid Caliphate]] (present-day [[Beqaa Valley]], Lebanon)|death_date=1162|death_place=[[Lalish]]|resting_place=[[Lalish]], [[Iraq]]|era=[[Abbasid dynasty|Late Abbasid]]|occupation=[[Adawiyya|Adawi]] sheikh|known_for=|predecessor=None|successor=[[Sakhr Abu l-Barakat]]|family=[[Umayyad dynasty]]}} {{Yazidism}}
[[File:Lalish.jpg|thumb|250x250px|Shrine of Sheikh 'Adi in the Valley of Lalish.]]
'''Adi ibn Musafir''' ({{langx|ku|شیخادی|translit=Şîxadî}}, {{langx|ar|عَدِيُّ بْنُ مُسَافِرْ}}; born 1072–1078, died 1162)<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Lescot|first=Roger|url=https://bnk.institutkurde.org/images/pdf/KSGH5YZBX6.pdf|title=Enquête sur les Yézidis de Syrie et du Djebel Sindjâr|publisher=Librairie du Liban|year=1975|location=Beirut|pages=22|author-link=Roger Lescot}}</ref> was a [[Sunni Muslim]] [[sheikh]] who founded the [[Adawiyya]] order. He is also considered a [[Yazidis|Yazidi]] saint. The Yazidis consider him as an [[avatar]] of [[Tawûsî Melek]], which means "Peacock Angel". His tomb at [[Lalish]], [[Iraq]] is a focal point of Yazidi pilgrimage.<ref name="Yezidis">{{Citation|last=Spät|first=Eszter|title=The Yezidis|publication-date=2005|year=2005|edition=2|location=London|publisher=Saqi|isbn=0-86356-593-X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Langer|first=Robert|date=2010|title=Yezidism between Scholarly Literature and Actual Practice: From 'Heterodox' Islam and 'Syncretism' to the Formation of a Transnational Yezidi 'Orthodoxy'|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23077034|journal=British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies|volume=37|issue=3|pages=397|doi=10.1080/13530194.2010.524441|jstor=23077034|s2cid=145061694|issn=1353-0194}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Yazīdīs - Oxford Islamic Studies Online|url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/print/opr/t236/e1282|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023141910/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/print/opr/t236/e1282|archive-date=October 23, 2020|access-date=2022-01-09|website=www.oxfordislamicstudies.com}}</ref> He was an [[Arabs|Arab]] from the [[Umayyad dynasty]].<ref name="Joanna Bocheńska">{{cite book|last=Bocheńska|first=Joanna|title=Rediscovering Kurdistan's Cultures and Identities|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2018|isbn=978-3-319-93087-9|page=261}}</ref><ref name="Leppakari">{{cite book|last=Leppakari|first=Maria|title=Pilgrimage and Tourism to Holy Cities: Ideological and Management Perspectives|publisher=CABI|year=2017|isbn=978-1-78064-738-8|page=148}}</ref><ref name="thefreelibrary">{{cite web|date=22 September 1999|title=The Yezidis, People of the Spoken Word in the midst of People of the Book|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Yezidis%2C+People+of+the+Spoken+Word+in+the+midst+of+People+of+the...-a066031196|access-date=13 September 2020|publisher=[[Diogenes (journal)|Diogenes]]}}</ref> He had distant [[Kurds|Kurdish]] heritage as a direct descendant of [[Marwan II]], who was born to a Kurdish mother.<ref>The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion, Birgül Açikyildiz, 2014, pp. 85, {{ISBN|9780857720610}}</ref>

== Biography ==
Sheikh Adi was born in the 1070s in the village of Bait Far, in the [[Beqaa Valley]] of present-day [[Lebanon]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last1=Kreyenbroek|first1=Philip G.|title=God and Sheikh Adi are Perfect: Sacred Poems and Religious Narratives from the Yezidi Tradition|last2=Rashow|first2=Khalil Jindy|last3=Jindī|first3=Khalīl|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|year=2005|isbn=978-3-447-05300-6|location=Wiesbaden|pages=3|language=en}}</ref> ‘Adī's house of his birth is a place of pious pilgrimage to this day.<ref name="EJ Brill">{{cite book|title=The Encyclopædia of Islam: A Dictionary of the Geography, Ethnography and Biography of the Muhammadan Peoples|publisher=EJ Brill|year=1913|location=Holland|pages=136–137}}</ref> Descending from the family of [[Marwan I]], the Caliph of the [[Umayyad dynasty|Umayyads]], he was raised in a Muslim environment.<ref name=":1" /> He had partial Kurdish heritage as a direct descendant of [[Marwan II]], who was born to a Kurdish mother.<ref>The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion, Birgül Açikyildiz, 2014, pp. 85, {{ISBN|9780857720610}}</ref> He was [[Shafi'i school|Shafi'i]] and spent his early life in [[Baghdad]], where he became a disciple of the Muslim mystic [[Ahmad Ghazali]], among his fellow students in Ghazali's circle were the Muslim mystics [[Abu al-Najib Suhrawardi]] and [[Abdul Qadir Gilani]];<ref name="Asatrian">{{cite book|last=Victoria Arakelova|first=Garnik S.Asatrian|title=The Religion of the Peacock angel The Yezidis and their spirit world|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-84465-761-2|page=37|year=2014}}</ref><ref>The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion, Birgül Açikyildiz, 2014, pp. 85</ref> with the latter he undertook a journey to [[Mecca]].<ref name=":0" /> He became a disciple also to Hammad ad Dabbas and then Oqeil al Manbidji, from who he received the [[Khirqa]].<ref name=":2">[[Roger Lescot|Lescot, Roger]] (1975). p.23</ref> With time he became a teacher himself.<ref name="TheHindu">{{cite web|date=1 January 2015|title=Religion as a social bond|url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/religion-as-a-social-bond/article6745425.ece|access-date=13 September 2020|work=[[The Hindu]]}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> He chose an ascetic way of life, left Baghdad and settled in Lalish.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Enquête sur les Yézidis de Syrie et du Djebel Sindjâr|last=Lescot|first=Roger|publisher=Librairie du Liban|year=1975|location=Beirut|pages=24}}</ref> Despite his desire for seclusion, he impressed the local population with his [[asceticism]] and [[Miracle|miracles]].<ref name="Perfect">{{Citation|last1=Kreyenbroek|first1=Philip G|title=God and Sheikh Adi are Perfect: Sacred Poems and Religious Narratives from the Yezidi Tradition|volume=9|publication-date=2005|year=2005|series=Iranica|location=Wiesbaden|publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=3-447-05300-3|last2=Jindy Rashow|first2=Khalil}}</ref> He became well known in present-day Iraq and Syria and disciples moved to the valley of Lalish to live close to Sheikh Adi. Following he founded the Adawiyya order.<ref>[[Roger Lescot|Lescot, Roger]] (1975), p.29</ref> He used the [[Kunya (Arabic)|kunyas]] Al-Shami (of the Levant) and Al-Hakkari (of Hakkari).<ref>Guest, John S (2012). ''Survival Among The Kurds''. pp. 16. [[Routledge]]. {{ISBN|978-1-136-15736-3}}</ref><ref>The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion, Birgül Açikyildiz, 2014, pp. 84–86, {{ISBN|978-0-85772-061-0}}</ref> The Valley of Lalish is located within the environs of the village of [[Ba'adra]], 20 miles to the east of [[Rabban Hormizd Monastery]] of the [[Church of the East]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Kreyenbroek|first1=Philip G.|title=God and Sheikh Adi are Perfect: Sacred Poems and Religious Narratives from the Yezidi Tradition|last2=Rashow|first2=Khalil Jindy|last3=Jindī|first3=Khalīl|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|year=2005|isbn=978-3-447-05300-6|location=Wiesbaden|pages=4|language=en|author-link=Philip G. Kreyenbroek}}</ref> Before he died, he named his successor his nephew [[Sakhr Abu l-Barakat]].<ref>[[Roger Lescot|Lescot, Roger]] (1975), p.33</ref>

Physically, he was said to be very tanned and of middle stature. He lived an ascetic lifestyle in the mountains in the region north of [[Mosul]] not far from the local [[Hakkariyya|Hakkari]] [[Kurds]]. As people flocked to his residency in the hills, he would end up founding a religious order later referred to as al-'Adawiyya ('the followers of 'Adi'). He died between 1160 CE (555 [[Hijri year|Hijra]]) and 1162 CE (557 Hijra)<ref name=":0" /> in the hermitage that he had built with his followers in the mountain.

=== Religion ===
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 [[Hadith|Hadiths]].<ref>[[Roger Lescot|Lescot, Roger]] (1975), p.25</ref> He also taught that the true Muslim should adhere to the teachings in the Quran and the [[Sunnah|Sunna]] and that only the ones who follow the principles of the Muslim caliphs [[Abu Bakr]], [[Uthman]] and [[Ali]] are true believers.<ref name=":3">[[Roger Lescot|Lescot, Roger]] (1975), p.26</ref> According to some sources, he established the [[Sufism|Sufi]] Adawiyya order.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Arakelova|first=Victoria|date=2001|title=Sufi Saints in the Yezidi Tradition I: Qawlē H'usēyīnī H'alāj̆|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4030858|journal=Iran & the Caucasus|volume=5|pages=183–192|doi=10.1163/157338401X00215|jstor=4030858|issn=1609-8498}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":3" /> Some Muslims respect him as one of the pioneers of asceticism and the scholars of Sufism who held firmly to the Quran and Sunnah.<ref name="Deoband">{{cite web|author1=Mawlana ‘Abd al-Hafiz al-Makki|date=20 September 2015|title=Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and Sufism|url=https://www.deoband.org/2015/09/tasawwuf/shariah-and-tariqah-tasawwuf/shaykh-al-islam-ibn-taymiyyah-and-sufism-part-one/|access-date=13 September 2020}}</ref>

== 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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Yezidism: Its Background, Observances, and Textual tradition|last=Kreyenbroek|first=Philip G.|publisher=E. Mellen Press|year=1995|isbn=9780773490048|location=Lewiston, NY|pages=27–44}}</ref> 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'|Badr al-Din Lu'lu]] ordered the bones of Sheikh Adi to be exhumed and burned.<ref name=":04">{{Cite book|title=Enquête sur les Yézidis de Syrie et du Djebel Sindjâr|last=Lescot|first=Roger|publisher=Librairie du Liban|year=1975|location=Beirut|pages=102}}</ref> 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).

== Books of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir ==
Four books attributed to Sheikh Adi have been preserved:<ref name="Dulz">{{cite book|last=Dulz|first=Irene|title=Die Yeziden Im Irak Zwischen Modelldorf und Flucht|publisher=Lit Verlag Münster|isbn=3-8258-5704-2|page=32|year=2001}}</ref>

:# The doctrine of the Sunnis ({{langx|ar|Iʿtiqād ahl as-sunnah}})
:# The Book of the formation of the soul ({{langx|ar|Kitāb fīhi dhikr adab an-nafs}})
:# Instructions of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir to the successor ({{langx|ar|Wasaya al Shaykh Adi ibn Musafir ila l-Halifa}})
:# Instructions to his disciple, the leading sheikh, and the other [[Murid|murids]] ({{langx|ar|Wasaya li-Muridial Shaykh al-qaid wa-li-sāʾir al-murīdīn}}). This book focus on several issues but are in line with Islamic teaching, which according to the [[Hanbali]] scholar [[Ibn Taymiyyah]] describes Sheikh Adi as a "sincere Muslim who followed the [[Sunnah]] of the [[Muhammad|Prophet Muhammad]]".<ref name="Memim">{{cite web|url=https://memim.com/sheikh-adi-ibn-musafir.html|title=Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir|date=22 September 1999|publisher=Memim Encyclopedia|access-date=14 September 2020}}</ref>

== Succession ==
{{s-start}} {{s-hou|[[Adawi|‘Adawiyya and Yezidi Notables]]}} {{s-bef|before=(None)|rows=2}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Sheikh|Shaikh]] of the ‘Adawiyya Ṣūfī Order|years=}} {{s-aft|after=[[Sakhr Abu l-Barakat]]|rows=2}} {{end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Yazidi saints}} {{Authority control}}