Philip G. Kreyenbroek

Part 4

My thanks are due first of all to Pir Khidr Sileman for his patient explanations of the meaning and background of the texts, for his kind permission to reproduce the hard-won results of his and Dr Jindi's research in this book, and for all his help in introducing me to the Yezidi community.

I am very grateful to the Spalding Trust for a generous grant which enabled me to visit to Northern Iraq in September and October 1992, and without which this book could not have been written. My thanks are also due to the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, for a generous subvention towards the cost of proofreading the book.

I am indebted to Professor JelTle Jelil, now of Vienna, for his permission to reproduce texts first published by himself in an adapted orthography.

Without the help of Mas'ud Barzani, Siamand Banaa, Safin Dczayee, and staff of KDP Headquarters, Duhok, this research would probably have been impossible. Institutions and individuals affiliated to other Kurdish political organisations, such as the staff of PUK Television, Duhok, also gave invaluable help in many ways. I am very grateful to them all

I owe a debt of gratitude to many other Kurds, Yezidi and non-Yezidi, some of whose names I never learned. Of the Yezidi community I am particularly indebted to the Baba Chawush, Sheykh Eydo Baba Sheykh, the Sheykh el-Wezir and his two sons, Feqtr Hajji and his son Bedel, Feqir 'Ell, the singer Chicho, and to all members of Pir Khidr Sileman's household. Dr Mamo Othman, now of Berlin, always responded promptly whenever I asked Mm for help. Among non-Yezidis, the poet 'Ebd el-Rehman Mizuri of Dihok, and the London-based Kurds, Mr Baran Rizgar and Mr Sam! Shoresh, have always been ready to place their knowledge of Kurdish vocabulary and idiom at my disposal.

I am very grateful to Ms F. Christine Allison for reading the work in typescript and for her valuable suggestions. My thanks are also due to Mrs Joyce Hutchinson for editing the typescript with great care and accuracy. Among the many other friends and colleagues who have given me heip, information and advice, I would like to thank Professor Joyce Blau, Br Martin van Brainessen, Mrs Mary Ann Smothers Bruni, Dr Michael L. Chyet, Ms Nellida Fuccaro, Mr John S. Guest, Professor John R. Hinnells, Mr Ab F. de Jong, Mr Grie P.V. L'vov-Basirov, Mrs Catherine Lawrence, Ms Diana Matias, Mr Bob Mitchell, Mrs Shehnaz Munshi, Ms Maria T. O'Shea, Mrs Sarah Stewart, Mr Christoff Unger, Dr Owen Wright, and of course my wife, Mieke, to whom this book is gratefully dedicated.