The Religion of Abraham
The Religion of Abraham
Now that I'm back in school, I've got total access to all knowledge. So, while I spend my days at the library reading articles about various religions around the world, I'm going to use this thread as a sort of notebook. Expect expert-level posts, demand expert-level posts.
My interests are with religions and metareligions eclipsed by their larger cousins, but still descended from the religion of Abraham and Noah. The only notable exception is I have a soft spot for Iranian and Central Asian paganism and neo paganism. There might also be some Chinese and Mazdak knowledge, who can say. I might even get historical, but perhaps thats saved for a different thread specifically on ancient beliefs.
Part the First: The Yaresan
viewtopic.php?p=402#p402
My interests are with religions and metareligions eclipsed by their larger cousins, but still descended from the religion of Abraham and Noah. The only notable exception is I have a soft spot for Iranian and Central Asian paganism and neo paganism. There might also be some Chinese and Mazdak knowledge, who can say. I might even get historical, but perhaps thats saved for a different thread specifically on ancient beliefs.
Part the First: The Yaresan
viewtopic.php?p=402#p402
Last edited by AdamZane on Mon Jan 30, 2023 9:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Religion of Abraham
Excited for this development.AdamZane wrote: ↑Mon Jan 23, 2023 8:14 pm Now that I'm back in school, I've got total access to all knowledge. So, while I spend my days at the library reading articles about various religions around the world, I'm going to use this thread as a sort of notebook. Expect expert-level posts, demand expert-level posts.
My interests are with religions and metareligions eclipsed by their larger cousins, but still descended from the religion of Abraham and Noah. The only notable exception is I have a soft spot for Iranian and Central Asian paganism and neo paganism. There might also be some Chinese and Mazdak knowledge, who can say. I might even get historical, but perhaps thats saved for a different thread specifically on ancient beliefs.
Stay tuned!
Learning cap: ON
The Y2K bug was real and wiped out (what was left of) Civilization Re: The Religion of Abraham
The Yaresan: The Believers of Truth
Overview and Basics
The Yaresan, or the Ahl-e Haqq, or the Kakai, or sometimes called Ali-Ilahi, Nyusari, or Shaytanparast, are a medieval religion tucked away in the small of western Iran and adjacent Iraq, with <1 million followers spread all over the region. They first cohered in the 14th century under the leadership of the their God-Incarnate and Prophet Soltan Sahak, and have followed their line of God-Prophets ever since. A religion of secret mountain folk, nomads, and village intellectuals, they hold all kinds of esoteric beliefs about Angels, the soul, death, reincarnation, Divine Manifestation, war, murder, music, the body, and most important to any Brainiac, love~
We will call them Yaresan; thats the name they call themselves to themselves. The name means "Companion of God", or "Friend of Soltan", or "God of God", or "Friend of Friend", with Ya being a common name for God in many of their communities. They're incredible. These other names, they're all super interesting and implicative, and we will be getting into them hard, but they're too rough for common use here. From now on, Yaresan.
Some Cursory Cosmology and Theology
They believe in one God, his seven incarnations, and his Angels. The Divine is and is not a distant God. He was there first, and created everything, and intercedes in life by slipping on a new person, like a robe. But, it is the Angels under him that rule the world, and intercede on our behalf. The Haftan, the seven Angels (or bodies), are the ones charged with life: Their leader, Jebra'il (Gabriel), then Mika'il (Michael), Esrafil (Israfel), Ezra'il (Azrael), Ruchiyar, Aywat, and Marmuz, the sole woman. Jebra'il, the first created being, lived in ignorance of Ya the primordial pearl in the waters of the uncreated world. After being revealed that God did exist, and that he was a pearl in a shell, Jebra'il found himself to meek to praise God alone, and requested the birth of the Haftan, each taken from a different aspect of Ya. After they were born, they asked God to emerge from the pearl, and God became Khavankar. The pearl began to burn and the Divine Essence wrought havoc on the unmade world, its smoke, light, fire and soot tearing holes in the firmament and hanging clouds heavy over the land. The Earth now rests on Ruchiyar's bull horns, and Aywat's Lion's body lies on top the world. Along the way a bull and deer appeared and were sacrificed, and there was also a large Fish, that Khavankar liked. Its hard to fit these last features in the timeline, as there are varying accounts of creation.
Again it was Jebra'il that made Adam, the primordial man, from yellow and black sand, and asked God to inhabit him on the earth. He entered a human body after many attempts at making a body for his own, since the fire of God could only be abated by the water of the human soul. Inside Adam, God played the first musics on his heart to form a harmonious being. Fairies were also born of the Pearl, their leader and his incestuous wife, Jan and Marjaneh. All things, good and bad, are born directly of God. Satan again is here, tricking Eve into eating the forbidden wheat in the Garden of Creation, but this isn't the time for Satan. Satan comes in heavy, don't worry.
the Tanbur, the most universal holy symbol of the Ahl-e Haqq, used only in performance of Kalam, holy songs
The principle of recurrence plays an important role in the religious world of the Yaresan. Their view of history is a cyclical one, which means that each age of history essentially repeats the mythical period of Creation, and that the essence of individual beings can return in another form. To them, the world is divided in two: The outer world, which we are aware of and is considered lesser and younger, and the inner world, which controls the fates of all things, and was the first world made by God. It is important to note that these are both places, with distinct orders and rules, not merely philosophical concepts. You can have knowledge of the inner world, making you a Batin-Dar, in which you ignore the rules of this physical life, like eating, and follow the inner, obscure rules. Much of the religious knowledge of the Yaresan is concerned with knowledge about the inner essence of certain figures and periods, and the outer, physical appearance of divine beings during various ages. Furthermore, there is a corpus of myths, narratives that are known in some form to most members of the group and are referred to in an allusive manner in the religious hymns, that take the form of house hold stories and comprise a surprising amount of Yaresan belief.
They have Sayyids, descendants from God's human manifestations, which come from 11 holy families called Khandans. Without their presence any ceremony can't be conducted, and the layman can't experience the inner world. That said, they are just a conduit, and rarely own or even know any of the scriptures. That task belongs to the Kalamkhan, he who memorizes the holy songs in his heart and conducts the ritual. Of common birth. There are other ceremonial positions among the laity, but there is a third strata in the faith: that of the ascetic dervish and didi-dar, who renounce all life to walk in the inner world. The didi-dar is only found in reformist sects, and is considered unimportant in the traditionalist groups. To all Yaresans (save only one town in Turkey that 'lost their musical tradition'), the tanbur music is the most sacred act imaginable, and playing it in concert with their fellow believers is the utmost expression of their religion. Its called a Jam session.
A performance of Majazi, or semi-sacred poems.
Where members of other religions pray or listen to sermons, the Yaresan sing. Religious knowledge and emotion are bound up with music in a striking manner. Music is indispensable to the creation of a ritual atmosphere, indicating and establishing the passage to a holy communal experience. The Jam session is the central ritual in the religion, in which a minimum of seven 4 male believers must participate, sitting in a circle which they may not leave whilst the ritual is going on. Others may follow the ritual standing outside the circle. A Sayyid must be present to supervise the ritual, and a Kalamkhan leads the musical part of the performance. During the jam, a bowl of water and foods such as candy or fruits are handed round the circle and ritually partaken of. After this, the ceremony largely consists of rhythmic music, singing, and clapping in an ever-increasing tempo, which towards the climax induces ecstasy in their sacred performers. Towards the end of the ceremony the music slows down again, and the Sayyed formally ends the ritual.
(Temporary End, I've got to piss and I'm at a public library. I'll finish the rest of the first post tonite or tomorrow.)
Overview and Basics
The Yaresan, or the Ahl-e Haqq, or the Kakai, or sometimes called Ali-Ilahi, Nyusari, or Shaytanparast, are a medieval religion tucked away in the small of western Iran and adjacent Iraq, with <1 million followers spread all over the region. They first cohered in the 14th century under the leadership of the their God-Incarnate and Prophet Soltan Sahak, and have followed their line of God-Prophets ever since. A religion of secret mountain folk, nomads, and village intellectuals, they hold all kinds of esoteric beliefs about Angels, the soul, death, reincarnation, Divine Manifestation, war, murder, music, the body, and most important to any Brainiac, love~
We will call them Yaresan; thats the name they call themselves to themselves. The name means "Companion of God", or "Friend of Soltan", or "God of God", or "Friend of Friend", with Ya being a common name for God in many of their communities. They're incredible. These other names, they're all super interesting and implicative, and we will be getting into them hard, but they're too rough for common use here. From now on, Yaresan.
Some Cursory Cosmology and Theology
They believe in one God, his seven incarnations, and his Angels. The Divine is and is not a distant God. He was there first, and created everything, and intercedes in life by slipping on a new person, like a robe. But, it is the Angels under him that rule the world, and intercede on our behalf. The Haftan, the seven Angels (or bodies), are the ones charged with life: Their leader, Jebra'il (Gabriel), then Mika'il (Michael), Esrafil (Israfel), Ezra'il (Azrael), Ruchiyar, Aywat, and Marmuz, the sole woman. Jebra'il, the first created being, lived in ignorance of Ya the primordial pearl in the waters of the uncreated world. After being revealed that God did exist, and that he was a pearl in a shell, Jebra'il found himself to meek to praise God alone, and requested the birth of the Haftan, each taken from a different aspect of Ya. After they were born, they asked God to emerge from the pearl, and God became Khavankar. The pearl began to burn and the Divine Essence wrought havoc on the unmade world, its smoke, light, fire and soot tearing holes in the firmament and hanging clouds heavy over the land. The Earth now rests on Ruchiyar's bull horns, and Aywat's Lion's body lies on top the world. Along the way a bull and deer appeared and were sacrificed, and there was also a large Fish, that Khavankar liked. Its hard to fit these last features in the timeline, as there are varying accounts of creation.
Again it was Jebra'il that made Adam, the primordial man, from yellow and black sand, and asked God to inhabit him on the earth. He entered a human body after many attempts at making a body for his own, since the fire of God could only be abated by the water of the human soul. Inside Adam, God played the first musics on his heart to form a harmonious being. Fairies were also born of the Pearl, their leader and his incestuous wife, Jan and Marjaneh. All things, good and bad, are born directly of God. Satan again is here, tricking Eve into eating the forbidden wheat in the Garden of Creation, but this isn't the time for Satan. Satan comes in heavy, don't worry.
the Tanbur, the most universal holy symbol of the Ahl-e Haqq, used only in performance of Kalam, holy songs
The principle of recurrence plays an important role in the religious world of the Yaresan. Their view of history is a cyclical one, which means that each age of history essentially repeats the mythical period of Creation, and that the essence of individual beings can return in another form. To them, the world is divided in two: The outer world, which we are aware of and is considered lesser and younger, and the inner world, which controls the fates of all things, and was the first world made by God. It is important to note that these are both places, with distinct orders and rules, not merely philosophical concepts. You can have knowledge of the inner world, making you a Batin-Dar, in which you ignore the rules of this physical life, like eating, and follow the inner, obscure rules. Much of the religious knowledge of the Yaresan is concerned with knowledge about the inner essence of certain figures and periods, and the outer, physical appearance of divine beings during various ages. Furthermore, there is a corpus of myths, narratives that are known in some form to most members of the group and are referred to in an allusive manner in the religious hymns, that take the form of house hold stories and comprise a surprising amount of Yaresan belief.
They have Sayyids, descendants from God's human manifestations, which come from 11 holy families called Khandans. Without their presence any ceremony can't be conducted, and the layman can't experience the inner world. That said, they are just a conduit, and rarely own or even know any of the scriptures. That task belongs to the Kalamkhan, he who memorizes the holy songs in his heart and conducts the ritual. Of common birth. There are other ceremonial positions among the laity, but there is a third strata in the faith: that of the ascetic dervish and didi-dar, who renounce all life to walk in the inner world. The didi-dar is only found in reformist sects, and is considered unimportant in the traditionalist groups. To all Yaresans (save only one town in Turkey that 'lost their musical tradition'), the tanbur music is the most sacred act imaginable, and playing it in concert with their fellow believers is the utmost expression of their religion. Its called a Jam session.
A performance of Majazi, or semi-sacred poems.
Where members of other religions pray or listen to sermons, the Yaresan sing. Religious knowledge and emotion are bound up with music in a striking manner. Music is indispensable to the creation of a ritual atmosphere, indicating and establishing the passage to a holy communal experience. The Jam session is the central ritual in the religion, in which a minimum of seven 4 male believers must participate, sitting in a circle which they may not leave whilst the ritual is going on. Others may follow the ritual standing outside the circle. A Sayyid must be present to supervise the ritual, and a Kalamkhan leads the musical part of the performance. During the jam, a bowl of water and foods such as candy or fruits are handed round the circle and ritually partaken of. After this, the ceremony largely consists of rhythmic music, singing, and clapping in an ever-increasing tempo, which towards the climax induces ecstasy in their sacred performers. Towards the end of the ceremony the music slows down again, and the Sayyed formally ends the ritual.
(Temporary End, I've got to piss and I'm at a public library. I'll finish the rest of the first post tonite or tomorrow.)