The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2734 page)

religion. A five-day festival there in mid-Oct., attended by many pilgrims, includes ritual dancing, singing, and feasting, as well as secret ceremonies associated with the great peacock and with a spring of water called Zemzem that gushes out of the rock beneath Sheikh Adi's tomb. The secular arm of the community is represented by the Mir of Sheikhan, who lives at Baadri, immediately south of Lalish. The Chol dynasty was established in the 17th cent., and was accorded semi-divine status. But the Mir's civil authority was curtailed by the extension of Ottoman bureaucracy in the 19th cent., followed by the British occupation of Iraq (1918–32, 1941–5).

 
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(Heb., ‘Book of Creation’). An early Jewish mystical work. There is no scholarly consensus as to the date or place of origin of
Sefer Yezirah
. It was certainly in existence by the 10th cent.
Sefer Yezirah
was an immensely influential text in the development of
kabbalistic
thought and early Jewish philosophy.

 
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YHWH
.
Name of the Jewish God:

see
TETRAGRAMMATON
.

 
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see
LEVIRATE MARRIAGE
.

 
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(Tib.,
yi.dam
., ‘bound in thought’). A class of tutelary deities in Tibetan Buddhism corresponding to the Indian
I
adevat
. It also parallels the Western concept of the guardian angel, in that the yidam inspires, guides, and protects, although restricted in role to the context of
Tantric
practice. The yidam selected by the
yogin
may be that of his school or monastery, but often the choice is determined by personal feeling. Yidams are classified in appearance as
wrathful
, semi-wrathful, and peaceful, and are often considered as ‘aspects’ of well-known
bodhisattvas
.

 
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