Iran's Yarsan Minority: Centuries of Living in Secrecy and Discrimination

Behnaz Hosseini, a researcher on immigration and religious minorities, has introduced the Yarsan minority in Iran in a note for the Observer page, criticizing false beliefs about the Yarsan minority in Iran. She has discussed the reasons why this minority remains unknown in Iran.

The murder case of Mitra Ostad and the trial of Mohammad Ali Najafi, former mayor of Tehran, and the allegations that the victim was a “Yarsan” and “bloodthirsty” have raised questions about this minority. Who are the Yarsans? And what do they believe?

The followers of the Yarsan religion have tried to hide their beliefs for many years due to what is called “secret speech.” As a result, there is not much accurate and well-considered knowledge and information about the Yarsan religion and its followers in the public sphere and cyberspace. On the other hand, contradictory and confusing information and news that are biased or ignorantly expressed about this religion by some authorities, activists, and government media inside and outside Iran have made the situation more ambiguous and complicated.

In Iranian society, many make gross errors when commenting on the Yarsan minority, including the false belief that the Yarsan are Muslims.

In addition, the discrimination in Iranian laws against non-Muslim minorities, especially the Yarsans, has made living conditions for them very difficult inside Iran. This is why many of them, even some of their leaders, have resorted to secrecy in order to reduce pressure and continue to exist and preserve their society. In official circles, they do not publicly disclose the fundamental differences between their religion and the official religion of Iran, Shiite Islam, and they submit to the official frameworks of the government and even change their traditions in some cases. This issue has itself caused ambiguities and fundamental problems for this non-Muslim minority.

In recent years, with the rise of social media, Yarsan followers have slowly broken their silence and spoken openly about their beliefs and customs.

What is Yarisani and who is Yarisani?

Yarish is the religion of the Yarsan people, which is the result of the evolution and development of the culture and beliefs of the inhabitants of the Zagros for thousands of years. Yarsan is one of the names of God, and every Yarsan is also called Yarish. The holy book of the Yarsan is called “Divan Goreh”. The Yarish religion has its roots in ancient Iranian religions and has similarities to Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism.

There are no official and accurate statistics on the population of the Yarsan community in Iran, but internal sources from the Yarsan minority themselves estimate their population to be up to 3 million people.

They live mainly in the Kurdish areas of western Iran, especially in Kermanshah, but they also have significant populations in many parts of the country, such as Tehran, Kelardasht, Shahriar, Karaj, Hamedan, Qazvin, and Azerbaijan. Outside Iran, they are also settled in Iraq and Turkey, and in some European countries, including Germany and Sweden.

The Yaris religion in its current form was perfected and consolidated in the 7th century AH through the teachings of “Sultan Sahak” and his companions. The court of Sultan Sahak or Sultan Haghighat is in Pardivar on the Sirvan River in Paveh County. The Yarisans do not have a person called a prophet who conveys the word of God to the people through revelation. Rather, based on their religious thinking, they believe in “human-god” and recognize Sultan Sahak as the manifestation of God on earth. The specific orders and commands of the followers of this religion, which were announced and enacted by Sultan Sahak, have been recorded and collected by his scribe or scribe “Pir Musa” in a book called the Divan of “Gure Pardivari”.

The worldview and philosophy of the Yarsan religion is based on Donadun (the rotation of the soul in different bodies), which, despite its general similarity to the concept of reincarnation, is fundamentally different from it. As a result of believing in the Donadun philosophy, Yarsans should respect other religions and religions, have a friendly and respectful relationship with all human beings, and always and at all times observe good human ethics and good and acceptable behavior. According to the beliefs of this religion, a Yarsan individual, by leaving behind a thousand and one "dons", reaches the eternal home and the house of finality and well-being, which is Yar. Although the Yarsan religion is fundamentally different from Islam and is completely independent of it, its followers respect the Shiite imams.

The Yarsan religion is based on morality, so if someone does not observe morality and etiquette, performing religious duties is meaningless, which is referred to as etiquette and pillars. The four basic principles of the Yarsan religion are truth, purity, nothingness, and robe, which respectively mean purity, honesty, humility and lack of pride, and chivalry. Another commandment of this religion is to submit to one of the eleven Yarsan families, meaning that the “elder” and “disciple” of each person are determined from among their family. In the Yarsan religion, the “elder” is the same concept as the religious teacher and the person responsible for conducting religious ceremonies. The lineage of the “elders” goes back to seven people close to Sultan Sahak, known as “Haftavaneh and Hafttan,” but due to the impossibility of registering the word “elder” in the birth certificate, they use the word “Sayyid,” which has no connection with the concept of Sayyid in Islam.

Other important orders of the Yarish religion include holding mass worship services called "Jam" with vows, offerings, and sacrifices, and singing religious hymns to the tune of the tambourine, especially in a place called Jamkhaneh, observing the fast of the husband for three days, the King's Feast, having a mustache for men, and chastity and maintaining chastity and raising righteous and pure children for Yarish mothers and women.

In addition to the Bible, theological texts and ritual books are considered religious sources of the Yari religion. These texts are often written in Gorani, Kurdish, Sorani, and Turkish.

This non-Muslim religious minority has been called by various incorrect titles by some Muslim clerics and figures, from infidels and Satanists to Ali the Divine and a branch of Islam. However, the Yariyah religion considers worship to be exclusive to God alone and considers no being worthy of worship except His infinite being.

Why are the Yarsans called Muslims?

In the eyes of the Yarsans, people like “Shakhushin” and Sultan Sahak are manifestations of God and have the status of divinity. Khavankar or Lord is the same as God or Lord. The Yarsans believe that when God began creation, he was called Khavankar (Khavan means owner and Khavankar means owner). God has also had manifestations in human form, such as Ali, Shakhusin and Sultan Sahak. The seven angels close to God, called Haftan, have also had human manifestations, and according to the Yarsans, Christ, Ali, Joseph, Abraham, Abel, Moses and Joseph are among the human manifestations of the close angels.

The Yarsan people are called the Ahl al-Haqq (righteous) in Iranian society because they believe that their religion is the truth. The Yarsan religion is completely separate from esoteric sects such as the Hurufiyyah or Ali Ilahi, but because the Yarsans respect Ali, the first Imam of the Shiites, some mistakenly call them Ali Ilahi. Respecting the first Imam of the Shiites does not mean that one is a Muslim, just as respect for Jesus Christ is not a reason to be a Christian.

Legal rules; the term Mahdur-al-Dam

"Bloodsucker" is a jurisprudential term that entered Iran's criminal law in the legislative system after the 1979 revolution. It refers to someone whose blood is wasted and worthless according to Islamic law, and even if they are killed intentionally, the killer or killers will not be punished.

Legal vacuum and violation of the rights of Yarsans in Iran

The Islamic Penal Code provides for retribution for a Muslim who commits murder if the victim is a Muslim, but in the same law, if the victim is from an official non-Muslim religious minority such as Zoroastrians or Christians, the punishment for the murderer is blood money. Meanwhile, the situation of non-Muslim minorities such as Yarsans, Mandaeans, and Baha'is, who are not recognized by the law, is much more complicated. For example, if someone kills a Yarsan minority, the law is not clear about his punishment, and this issue has left the hands of judges in Iran free to consider these minorities as blood-sucking, and to save their murderers from fair punishment.