The Al Jilwah
History of the Al Jilwah
The Al Jilwah [Al-Jilwah] is a Yezidi religious text, an interpretation that was created by Isya Joseph. The Al Jilwah was part of a book that he published in 1919, called Devil Worship, The Sacred Books and Traditions of the Yezidiz. Isya Joseph was an author of fiction and poetry. The alleged source for the Al Jilwah was from an Arabic Manuscript that was translated to Joseph by Daud as-Saig. According to Isya Joseph, Daud as-Saig was "..a man of culture, in sympathy with western thought." promoting the popular belief that the Yezidi were devil-worshipers.
The Al Jilwah by Joseph was examined by scholarly sources in 1969, with the conclusion that it remained unauthenticated. Two other anthropologists studied the Al Jilwah and they concluded that the book was a forgery based on the linguistic structure of the rituals. An analysis at Berkly UCLA revealed that Joseph's writings are "significantly incomplete and factually suspect."
The Al Jilwah as a Religious Text
Despite its historical inaccuracy, the same version of the Al-Jilwah that was written in 1919 was used in The Satanic Rituals by Anton LaVey, who wanted to portray the prevailing stereotype that the Yezidi people worshiped the Devil. Satanists use this belief as a historical source of information outside of the texts of Judeo-Christianity. Other, more religious and fundamental Satanists believe that the text was authored by Satan. The story of Malak Taus and the Al Jilwah is compared to the fall of Lucifer and Satan from the Christian Bible.
- Devil Worship The Sacred Books and Traditions of the Yezidiz[Isya Joseph 1919]
- Temple of Set Research Notes on the historical accuracy of the Al Jilwah
- The Satanic Rituals, Anton LaVey, p.151