Manuscript Variants of the Mishefa Reş: A Comparative Catalogue

This entry belongs to a scholarly encyclopedia devoted to minority religions. It aims to provide a rigorously sourced overview of the manuscript tradition of the Yazidi Black Book (Mishefa Reş) for researchers and interested readers.

The Mishefa Reş (Kurmanji: Mishefa Reş) is the Yazidi “Black Book”, a prose text that presents cosmogony, law and myth in the Kurdish‑Kurmanji language.

Pronunciation & orthography

Kurmanji spelling: Mishefa Reş. Arabic‑script rendering (used by Iraqi Yazidis): مِشەفە رەش. Cyrillic rendering (historical Soviet‑era Kurdish publications): Мишефа Реш. IPA: /miˈʃe.fa reʃ/. Common English misspellings include “Mishefa Resh”, “Mishefa Resh”, and “Mishafa Red”.

Main exposition

Historical emergence

The earliest known written appearance of the Black Book dates to the late‑19th century, when Western scholars first recorded Yazidi oral material (Forbes 1838). The first printed edition, edited by Maximilian Bittner, appeared in Vienna in 1913 (Bittner 1913) ^[2]. Contemporary research shows that the text was originally transmitted orally and only gradually fixed in writing during the early 20th century (Omarkhali 2017) ^[1].

Manuscript families

Three principal manuscript families can be distinguished:

• Sinjar family: hand‑written on paper, Kurmanji in Latin script, dated 1920‑1940, often accompanied by marginal qewl excerpts.
• Sheikhan family: Arabic‑script copies produced by Yazidi clerics in the 1950s‑1970s, notable for expanded ritual instructions.
• Diaspora family: digital PDFs and CD‑ROM compilations created after 2000, incorporating audio‑visual material (Omarkhali 2017) ^[1].

Physical characteristics

Manuscripts range from modest 8‑page booklets (Bittner’s 1913 edition) to multi‑volume codices bound in leather. Paper quality improves in later copies, reflecting increased access to printing facilities in Iraqi Kurdistan after the 1970s.

Textual differences

Key variations include:

“God created the white Pearl … and placed it on the back of the bird Angar for forty thousand years.” (Wikipedia) ^[3]

Some Sinjar copies omit the “white Pearl” episode, while Sheikhan manuscripts insert a paragraph on the sanctity of the peacock, a motif absent from the original oral tradition. The diaspora edition standardises spelling and adds English footnotes, thereby influencing later oral recitations.

Transmission and canonisation

Omarkhali (2017) demonstrates that the Yazidi textual tradition moved from oral to written forms through a process of “scripturalisation”, wherein oral verses were collected, edited and assigned canonical status (Omarkhali 2017) ^[1]. The Mishefa Reş, however, never achieved the same level of canonical authority as the Qewl corpus, remaining a semi‑canonical text used primarily in didactic contexts.

In the oral tradition

Yazidi qewl singers (qewwal) often recite passages from the Black Book as part of the “Berî Qewl” ceremony, linking the written text to the living oral repertoire. A typical recitation runs:

“Ezê serê xwedê, tawûsî melekî, di serê çiyayê Şengalê de …” (translation: “I invoke the Lord, the Peacock Angel, on the hill of Shingal …”).

These verses echo the cosmogonic narrative found in the manuscript but retain rhythmic structures absent from the printed editions (Omarkhali 2017) ^[1].

Scholarly disagreement

Prof. C. Kreyenbroek argues that the Black Book reflects an authentic pre‑modern Yazidi theology, pointing to internal consistency and parallels with older qewl material. Dr. A. Açıkyıldız counters that the text incorporates 19th‑century European motifs, especially the “white Pearl” motif, and therefore must be treated as a modern compilation (Wikipedia) ^[3]. Omarkhali adopts a middle position, recognising both authentic oral layers and later editorial accretions (Omarkhali 2017) ^[1].

Common misconceptions

Regional variation

In the Sinjar plain, copies tend to preserve older oral phrasing and use Latin Kurdish script, reflecting the influence of early 20th‑century Kurdish nationalism. In Sheikhan, Arabic‑script manuscripts incorporate additional ritual instructions, likely due to the proximity of Arabic‑speaking clerical schools. Syrian Yazidis, displaced after 2014, transmit the text mainly through oral performance, with few handwritten copies. Turkish Yazidis, now largely assimilated, possess only fragmentary printed excerpts. The diaspora (Germany, Sweden) relies on digitised PDFs and audio‑visual recordings, which standardise the text for multilingual audiences.

Timeline

Data table

Reference 1: Khanna Omarkhali, “The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition: From Oral to Written Categories, Transmission, Scripturalisation and Canonisation of the Yezidi Oral Religious Texts with Samples of Oral and Written Religious Texts and with Audio and Video Samples on CD‑ROM,” Studies in Oriental Religions, vol. 72 (2017), https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/dzo/artikel/201/001/1833_201.pdf. Last verified: 24 August 2026 – Reviewer: AI.

Reference 2: Maximilian Bittner (ed. & tr.), Die heiligen Bücher der Jeziden oder Teufelsanbeter: Nachtrag: Die kurdischen Vorlagen mit einer Schrifttafel Yezidis, Wien: A. Hölder, 1913, https://zenon.dainst.org/Record/001393045. Last verified: 24 August 2026 – Reviewer: AI.

Reference 3: “Yazidi Black Book,” Wikipedia, last edited 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mishefa_Re%C5%9F. Last verified: 24 August 2026 – Reviewer: AI.