Mustafa Dawan, also called Mustafa Daudani, belongs to the sacred figures of Yarsan tradition. Early Iraqi fieldwork and a study of religious verse document his association with Azrael, divine judgement and communal offerings during bereavement.

Two green conical roofs above Sultan Sahak’s white-walled shrine, with barefoot visitors in the courtyard and rocky mountains behind
Sultan Sahak’s shrine at Perdivar, photographed by K1ravan in November 2018. This Yarsan sacred place provides religious context for the article. K1ravan · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons.

Names among the Haft Tan

Mustafa is named among the Haft Tan, the Seven Holy Beings, in accounts of Yarsan, also known as Ahl-e Haqq. C. J. Edmonds’s 1969 study of Iraqi communities distinguishes evidence from a written Tazkara and Gorani poems recorded from an informant. The former calls him Mustafa Kamanddar, the huntsman; the poems name Mustafa-i Daudani and associate him with archery. In the account’s correspondence between four companions and archangels, Mustafa is identified with Izrail, or Azrael. Binyamin, Dawud and Pir Muse appear alongside him. [1] These names belong to sacred narratives rather than a securely dated personal biography.

Divine judgement in religious verse

Behrouz Geranpayeh’s dissertation Yārıstān—die Freunde der Wahrheit examines religious texts and translates selected kalam, sacred utterances or poems. His discussion of Mustafa Davudan presents him as an avenging figure expressing divine wrath, with authority to punish enemies. Geranpayeh also connects him with Azrael and the soul’s departure from the body. A passage in the dissertation’s first translated kalam invokes both Pir Musi’s pen and Mustafa’s formidable power while seeking pardon. [2] These textual roles give Mustafa a place in accounts of judgement and the passage of the soul. They should be attributed to the texts and interpretations in which they occur.

Offerings during epidemic and bereavement

Edmonds also records a concrete ritual association. In his account of religious observances, additional communal invitation-suppers could be offered in Mustafa’s name following a recent bereavement or during an outbreak of pestilence. The identification with Izrail accompanies this explanation. The surrounding description gives the meal a structured setting: a Sayyid presides, a Khalifa divides the food and a Farrash serves it. [1] This historical account connects a sacred name with shared food and collective responses to loss.

Reading a diverse religious tradition

The surviving evidence takes several forms: named companions, verse, interpretation and descriptions of communal practice. Rahman Veisi Hasar’s 2024 article on Yarsan canonization distinguishes narrative, testimony and ritual texts. Its published abstract emphasizes heterogeneous oral traditions, parallel processes of canonization and the continuing production of sacred texts. [3] This helps explain why a profile needs to identify its particular witnesses. Edmonds’s Iraqi material and Geranpayeh’s textual study provide different windows onto Mustafa’s religious significance; neither supplies a single, comprehensive account of every Yarsan community.

Sources and further reading

  1. C. J. Edmonds, “The Beliefs and Practices of the Ahl-i Haqq of Iraq,” Iran 7 (1969), pp. 89–101, especially pp. 92–94 and 96: fieldwork, sacred names and ritual suppers. Public journal-volume transcription.
  2. Behrouz Geranpayeh, Yārıstān—die Freunde der Wahrheit: Religion und Texte einer vorderasiatischen Glaubensgemeinschaft, Göttingen dissertation (2006), especially pp. 35–37 and Kalam 1: Mustafa Davudan and translated sacred verse.
  3. Rahman Veisi Hasar, “Canonization and Sacred Text in the Yarsan Religion,” Iranian Studies 57/1 (2024), pp. 47–72, DOI 10.1017/irn.2023.65. Published abstract consulted for the diversity of textual traditions.