Here's what he told Dex and Delores:
Dex had spent the morning talking to a couple Fordham professors and a librarian at the New York Public Library about the Yezidi and their 'devil worship.' Here's what he told Langdon and Delores after they picked her up at the World-Telegram:The building at 13 Thomas Street that houses the art gallery is owned by Burton, Eliot & Finney, Inc. It's a long-established property investment firm, in fact, I went to school with the youngest of old Finney's sons, Grandison. Hieronymus Koslov leases the building for commercial purposes, but his business license renewal is a couple of months overdue. So is his rent. Burton, Eliot & Finney have filed for eviction and seizure of assets and obtained an order, but Koslov got it stayed, claiming that the artwork is mostly on consignment, not his property, and that he's been unable to locate some of the artists to return their pieces. Burton, Eliot & Finney agreed to the stay, because they didn't want to be responsible for storing and safeguarding the art themselves. Koslov's residential address is also 13 Thomas Street. He apparently lives over the shop.
Delores had been talking to Hirt's agent Guy Grenville.Dr. Lavoie explained that the most troublesome sect or cult at the time of the great crusades were the Nizari, sometimes called the Hashshashins, under the leadership of Rashid ad-Din Sinan, also known as Shaykh al Jabal or the Old Man of the Mountain, based in Masyaf and controlling various districts in northern Syria. The Nizari defied both the Christian invaders and Saladin who ruled over Egypt and Syria. He said that the Yezidi are somewhat outside his specialty, being based in Northern Mesopotamia. He advised that I talk to Philip Richardson.
Dr. Richardson says that Peter Thwaite would be the best one to speak with, since his area is northern turkey and what has now become Iraq; but he's on sabbatical in Istanbul at present. Richardson nevertheless tells me a bit about the so-called 'Yezidi Devil worshippers' of Iraq. They originally came from Southern Iraq and migrated north to Mount Lalish. It is supposed by many that they are descendants of the Assyrians who sought refuge after the fall of Nineveh in the 7th century B.C.
Their original home was Eridu or Irem, an ancient city in Southern Iraq, also known as “Enkidu” and called Father Satan's city. The valley of Baten El Ghoul which is right over the buried ancient city is now known as "The Devil's Hole" and "Belly of the Beast." The Jordanians and many others consider it to be haunted. Demons have been seen by many who have spent the night there. Those who have been there for any length of time claim it has a powerful energy which people label as "evil." He stated that the people there also had stories about passages being opened to other realms full of demons and monsters, fairly standard stuff, really.
Of course all this is just superstition, the way ignorant people explain things they don't understand and demonize outsiders. Richardson seemed to recall that there was some fuss here in New York about supposed 'child stealers' and 'devil worshippers' down in Brooklyn. He had just become a faculty member at that time, but he remembers that Thwaite was consulted by the police, in particular a detective named Maloney, if he remembers correctly. I called my police contact who said Maloney is living in Rhode Island at the moment having retired from the force. He mentioned that some of these Brooklyn home-grown devil-worshippers, caused enough of a stink that there were police raids and a building that was demolished. Some society woman and her husband died, perhaps. It must have been a decade ago.
Following Dr. Richardson ‘s advice I went to the New York Public Library to look up some tomes. Oh he also mentioned that Thwaite is due back in January. He recommends Isya Joseph's 1919 volume Devil Worship: The Sacred Books and Traditions of the Yezidiz and suggests an older book, one of the first to outline Yezidi beliefs, though from a rather uninformed viewpoint, An Inquiry into the Religious Tenets of the Yezeedees by George Percy Badger, written in the mid-part of the last century.
In the library I was introduced to some sort of archivist named Tweedy. Creepy fellow if you ask me. He gave me some more information about these Yezidis. He said that the Yezidis have long been a secretive people who keep their real beliefs hidden. As a result - and because they eschew the orthodoxy of the dominant religion of their region - they have been severely persecuted. As a result they are most suspicious of outsiders.
Most Yezidis are illiterate and the few doctrines they have are passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. They have purposely deceived outsiders concerning their beliefs and doctrines and kept their books a mystery, which explains why there are so many conflicting accounts of their faith. And it must be admitted that they have at times referred to their deity as 'Shaitan' or Satan, though this entity is not necessarily a "devil" or "demon" as Christians understand him.
In general, the Yezidi people are forbidden to mention the name 'Shaitan' or any of his attributes. They refer to their Shaitan instead as “Melek Ta’us” or the 'Peacock Angel' because of his beauty and pride. He is the “Proud One” and “Ruler of the Earth” and they consider him an archangel.
Despite centuries of persecution by Islam and Christianity, they have clung faithfully to their beliefs. I am quite certain that, to the extent there are Yezidi in this city, they practice their ancient religion here. Certainly the Jews have maintained their faith over the centuries in the face of similar treatment wherever they have settled in the world.
Here's what she told the guys on the way to Koslov's Art:
At the gallery, they were afraid Koslov would do a skip, so Dex went around back while Delores and Langdon covered the front door of the gallery and the stairs up to the flat. Dex flushed a guy who came running down the stairs with a bundle under his arm. Langdon tried to stop him and got knocked on his keister. Delores managed to trip the guy and now Dex has him covered.He's read some of the stuff that Hirt was working on, and he's trying to hide from it in the bottom of the bottle. He said that Hirt had been talking about some ceremony he'd taken part in and he'd seen the moon bridge. I saw something similar in the picture in Hirt's flat, and in the shop too.
No one's heard from Esposito.
