V. Dwellings

Sacred Books and Traditions of the Yezidiz, by Isya Joseph, [1919], at sacred-texts.com

p. 197

V

DWELLINGS

In regard to their dwellings, the Yezidis are divided into two classes: Ahl al-ḥaḍar, the people of the villages or cultivated land, and Ahl al Wabar, the people of the tents. The villages are built of clay, stone or mud, and unburned brick. A village consists of about sixty houses. A house is divided into three principal rooms, opening one into another. These are separated by a wall about six feet high, upon which are placed wooden pillars supporting the ceiling. The roof rests on trunks of trees raised on rude stones in the centre chamber, which is open on one side to the air. The sides of the room are honeycombed with small recesses like pigeon-holes. The whole is plastered with white plaster, fancy designs in red being introduced here and there. The houses are kept neat and clean. They say that cleanliness is next to heaven.

Now, the people of the tents are, like the Arab Bedouins, nomadic, having no houses and no permanent place of abode. They form but a small portion of the Yezidis, and are called Kotchar.