Adawiyya (Arabic: العدوية; Kurdish: Edewîtî), also pejoratively known as Yazidiyya (Arabic: اليزيدية; Kurdish: Yezîdîtî), was a Sunni Sufi order founded by Adi ibn Musafir in Kurdistan. Adawiyya was known for having influences from Pre-Islamic religions. The religion of Yazidism emerged from Adawiyya.

Adi ibn Musafir was from the Umayyad dynasty, born around 1075 in a village known as Bait Far, near Baalbek in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. From his remote village, he travelled to Baghdad to study Sufism. Later, in the 11th century, he settled in Kurdistan, which was very dangerous at the time as many Kurds had not been converted to Islam. He was based in Lalish, where he founded the Adawiyya order.^[1][2] Abdulqadir Gilani had studied with Sheikh Adi in Baghdad, and helped Sheikh Adi settle in Kurdistan.^[3]

Sheikh Adi settled among a group of Kurds who practiced a syncretism of Ancient Iranian religion, and Ancient Mesopotamian religion.^[4][5] They accepted Islam, but they mixed it with the local beliefs. Adawiyya was led by Arabs, but the vast majority of Adawis were Kurmanji Kurds, with small minorities of Arabs, Turks, and Persians. The Kurds dominated Adawiyya and the other ethnicities assimilated over time. By the time that Adawiyya became Yazidism and stopped accepting religious converts, virtually all Adawis were Kurdish.^[6][7][8] The heterodox views of Sheikh Adi were made apparent in his poetry, which was similar to the poetry of Shah Ismail. The Adawis were partially a militant sect, and had similarities with the Khurramites and Qizilbash.^[9]

Adi ibn Musafir died in January 1162, and his tomb in Lalish became a shrine for his followers. As he was unmarried and had no children, his nephew, Sakhr Abu al-Barakat, succeeded him as the leader of Adawiyya. Sakhr Abu al-Barakat had rapidly grown Adawiyya. He also died at an old age and was buried near Adi ibn Musafir. He was succeeded by his son, Sheikh Adi. To distinguish from Adi ibn Musafir, he was nicknamed "Adi the Kurd", as he was the first Adawi leader to have been born in Kurdistan.^[10]

Adi the Kurd died and was succeeded by his son, Sheikh Hasan ibn Adi II. Under Sheikh Hasan, Adawiyya began to shift more towards the heterodox practices and diverge from Islam, although Adawis continued to identify as Sunni Muslims. Due to the Adawi veneration of Yazid ibn Muawiya, as well as the shared Umayyad lineage of Yazid and the Adawi sheikhs, many began to pejoratively refer to Adawis as "Yazidis", and Adawiyya as Yazidiyya. The terms became synonymous. Adi ibn Musafir praised Yazid, and also denied that Yazid had killed Hussein. Ibn Taymiyya had accused Sheikh Hasan of turning the respect for Yazid into an extreme reverence.^[11][12][13] Ibn Taymiyya did not takfir the Adawiyya.^[14] The term "Yazidi", was given to Adawis by Shias and some Sunnis. In turn, Adawis pejoratively referred to Shias as "the rafida", and to their Sunni opponents as "the sharia", as the Adawis claimed that their Sunni opponents were not Muslims, but merely citizens of land ruled by Sharia. Adawis referred to themselves as "the sunna" or "ahl al sunnah wal jamaah", and to Adawiyya as "the sunna" or "the tariqa".^[15][16][17]

Other than Kurdistan, the Adawis were also present in Syria and Egypt as they had fled there during the Mongol invasions and conquests.^[18] The Adawis also had good relations with Salahuddin and had a significant presence in his army.^[19] Adawis were very active in fighting the Crusaders.^[20]

Badr al-Din Lu'lu', an Armenian slave who became Zengid ruler of Mosul, had worried of a possible Adawi uprising and arrested Sheikh Hasan in 1246. In 1254, Badr al-Din Lu'lu' began a campaign against the Adawiyya, and killed Sheikh Hasan. A contemporary noted that "after a bitter struggle, the Adawi Kurds were routed, some killed, others taken prisoner. Lulu crucified a hundred and executed a hundred more. He ordered their emir's arms and legs to be chopped off and displayed above the gates of Mosul. He also sent men to dig up Sheikh Adi's bones and burn them."^[21] Adawis were unfazed by the heavy losses and continued to launch revolts against the Zengids.^[22]

Sheikh Hasan was succeeded by his son, Sharaf ad-Din ibn al-Hasan, who died in 1258 during a Mongol massacre on Adawis. Sharafuddin later became very important in Yazidism. The mausoleum of Sharafuddin, built in 1274, later became a shrine for Yazidi pilgrimage.^[23] Zaynuddin, the son of Sharafuddin, refused to lead the Adawis due to Mongol hostility, and instead settled in Damascus before moving to his ancestral Beqaa Valley and later Egypt, where he died. Fakhruddin was the final leader of Adawiyya, and he married a Mongol woman and had good ties with the Mongols.^[24][19] The tensions between Adawis and other Muslims had led to the alienation of Adawiyya from Islam and an eventual religious schism.^[25]

In the 13th century, Adawiyya gradually split from Islam and became Yazidism.^[26] Sheikh Fakhruddin, and his brothers Nasiruddin, Sheikh Shams, and Sijadin, were venerated in Yazidism as the four sons of Ezdina Mir, and as avatars of angels as well as the respective ancestors of the four Shamsani lineages of Yazidi sheikhs.^[27][28][29] Yazidism retained many elements of Sufi Islam, while retaining the pre-Islamic elements on a larger level.^{[30][31][32][33]} Although Yazidism developed from Adawiyya, Yazidis did not identify as Muslims, and there were many attempts at distancing Yazidis from Islam.^[34] Yazidi tradition also claimed that Ezdina Mir had met Sheikh Adi when he first went to Lalish.^[35][36] The Yazidi Black Book and the Yazidi Book of Revelation were attributed to Sheikh Adi.^[37][38][39] Sheikh Mand, the son of Fakhruddin, also emerged as the ruler of the Yazidi-Ayyubid Emirate of Kilis, and an Ayyubid military commander. His sister, Khatuna Fekhra, was also revered as an important Yazidi female saint.^[40][41][42]

In 1324, Abu Firas Ubaydullah ibn Shibl noted the emergence of Yazidism as a religion independent from Islam, and mentioned how Yazidism retained many elements of Adawiyya, claiming that the newly emerged Yazidis had adopted the beliefs of the older "ignorant Adawi Yazidis", and he wrote that the "Adawi Yazidis" were "misled by Satan who whispered to them that they must love Yazid, to such an extent that they say we are justified in killing and taking the property of whoever does not love Yazid. They ceased to join Friday prayer, but the most deviant one of them was Hasan bin Adi."^[11][43][44]

Yazidis denied that their name came from Yazid ibn Muawiyah and claimed that it came from Sultan Ezid.^[45] They also denied that Sultan Ezid was Yazid ibn Muawiyah.^[34] Sultan Ezid was a Yazidi divine emanation of God, the third one to be appointed after Melek Tawus and Sheikh Adi.^[46] Yazidis avoided the topic of the conflict between Yazid and Hussein, and were unwilling to mention Yazid especially around Shias in Iraq. Later, Ismail Beg Chol, a Yezidi Mir, claimed that one day Muhammad was unwell and asked Muawiyah to shave his head. While shaving, Muawiyah had accidentally slit his head, and Muhammad told him "you will have as your descendants the people who will fight against mine and will win over them", with Muawiyah replying "if it be so, I will forsake the world and will not marry under any pretext". Muawiyah was later stung by a scorpion, and Muhammad assembled doctors for him, in which the doctors claimed that Muawiyah would die if he did not marry. They brought him the sister of Umar, Mahusa, who was 80 years old. The next morning, she allegedly appeared to look 25 years old, and later conceived Yazid. Chol concluded his story saying "God had promised Tawuse Melek to send our Yazid."^[47][48]