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The Yezidis

Author: Birgül Açikyildiz

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2014-12-23

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 0857720619

Yezidism is a fascinating part of the rich cultural mosaic of the Middle East. The Yezidi faith emerged for the first time in the twelfth century in the Kurdish mountains of northern Iraq. The religion, which has become notorious for its associations with 'devil worship', is in fact an intricate syncretic system of belief, incorporating elements from proto-Indo-European religions, early Iranian faiths like Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism, Sufism and regional paganism like Mithraism. Birgul Acikyildiz here offers a comprehensive appraisal of Yezidi religion, society and culture. Written without presupposing any prior knowledge about Yezidism, and in an accessible and readable style, her book examines Yezidis not only from a religious point of view but as a historical and social phenomenon. She throws light on the origins of Yezidism, and charts its development and changing fortunes - from its beginnings to the present- as part of the general history of the Kurds. Her book is the first to place Yezidism in its complete geographical setting in Northern Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Transcaucasia. The author describes the Yezidi belief system (which considers Tawusi Melek - the 'Peacock Angel' - to be ruler of the earth) and its religious practices and observances, analysing the most important facets of Yezidi religious art and architecture (including funerary monuments and zoomorphic tombstones) and their relationship to their neighbours throughout the Middle East. Acikyildiz also explores the often misunderstood connections between Yezidism and the Satan/Sheitan of Christian and Muslim tradition. Richly illustrated, with accompanying maps, photographs and illustrations, this pioneering book will have strong appeal to all those with an interest in the culture of the Kurds, as well as the wider region.

The Yezidis

Author: Eszter Spät

Publisher: Saqi Books

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 122

ISBN-13:

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This is the first detailed survey of Yezidi culture to appear in English. Little is known about these ancient Kurdish mountain people, considered one of the oldest ethnicities in the Middle East, often unjustly derided as "devil-worshippers."

Peacock Angel

Author: Peter Lamborn Wilson

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2022-03-08

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 1644114135

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• Explains how the Yezidis worship Melek Ta’us, the Peacock Angel, an enigmatic figure often identified as “the devil” or Satan, yet who has been redeemed by God to rule a world of beauty and spiritual realization • Examines Yezidi antinomian doctrines of opposition, their cosmogony, their magical lore and taboos, the role of angels, ritual, and symbology, and how the Yezidi faith relates to other occult traditions such as alchemy • Presents the first English translation of the poetry of Caliph Yazid ibn Muawiya, venerated by the Yezidis as Sultan Ezi The Yezidis are an ancient people who live in the mountainous regions on the borders of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. This secretive culture worships Melek Ta’us, the Peacock Angel, an enigmatic figure often identified as “the devil” or Satan, hence the sect is known as devil-worshippers and has long been persecuted. Presenting a study of the interior, esoteric dimensions of Yezidism, Peter Lamborn Wilson examines the sect’s antinomian doctrines of opposition, its magical lore and taboos, and its relation to other occult traditions such as alchemy. He explains how the historical founder of this sect was a Sufi of Ummayad descent, Sheik Adi ibn Musafir, who settled in this remote region around 1111 AD and found a pre-Islamic sect already settled there. Sheik Adi was so influenced by the original sect that he departed from orthodox Islam, and by the 15th century the sect was known to worship the Peacock Angel, Melek Ta’us, with all its “Satanic” connotations. Revealing the spiritual flowering that occurs in an oral culture, the author examines Yezidi cosmogony, how they are descended from the androgynous Adam--before Eve was created--as well as the role of angels, ritual, alchemy, symbology, and color in Yezidi religion. He also presents the first English translation of the poetry of Caliph Yazid ibn Muawiya, venerated by the Yezidis as Sultan Ezi. Showing the Yezidi sect to be a syncretic faith of pre-Islamic, Zoroastrian, Christian, Pagan, Sufi, and other influences, Wilson reveals how these worshippers of the Peacock Angel do indeed worship “the Devil”--but the devil is not “evil.” God has redeemed him, and he rules a world of beauty and spiritual realization.

Devil Worship

Author: Isya Joseph

Publisher: DigiCat

Published: 2023-11-25

Total Pages: 140

ISBN-13:

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Devil Worship: The Sacred Books and Traditions of the Yezidis is a study about ethnoreligious group of Yezidis who are considered a devil worshiping sect. Yezidis are a Kurmanji-speaking endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia. There is a disagreement among scholars and in Yazidi circles on whether the Yazidi people are a distinct ethnoreligious group or a religious sub-group of the Kurds, an Iranic ethnic group. Yazidism is the ethnic religion of the Yazidi people and is monotheistic in nature, having roots in a pre-Zoroastrian Iranic faith. Since the spread of Islam began with the early Muslim conquests of the 7th–8th centuries, Yazidis have faced persecution by Arabs and later by Turks, as their religious practices have commonly been charged with heresy by Muslim clerics. Yezidis are considered to be devil worshippers by other ethnicities in the region. The book covers essential areas that give a vivid and complete description of this group and author goes to great lengths to investigate theories about whether the Yazidi religion was a sect of either Islam or Christianity.

The Yezidi Oral Tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan

Author: Christine Allison

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 0700713972

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The Yezidis are a Kurdish-speaking religious minority, neither Muslim, Christian nor Jewish. At a time when studies of Kurdish nation-building are developing, this book is the first to consider Kurdish oral traditions within their social context and explain their relevance for a large Kurdish community.

The Religion of the Peacock Angel

Author: Garnik S. Asatrian

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-09-03

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 1317544293

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Based in Iraq, Syria and Turkey, the Yezidi people claim their religion - a unique combination of Christian, Islamic, and historical faiths - to be the oldest in the world. Yezidi identity centres on their religion, Sharfadin, which has evolved into a highly complex pantheon of one God with many incarnations, the chief of whom is Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel. The Yezidi faith can be traced to a range of pre-Islamic belief systems, such as Sufism, some extreme Shi'ite sects, Gnosticism and other traditions surviving from the ancient world. This particular formulation has served to unify Yezidi religious identity and ethnicity. Based on extensive fieldwork, 'The Religion of the Peacock Angel' presents the first detailed examination of the Yezidi pantheon. The idea of one God and his chief incarnations is first analysed, then the various 'deity figures,' saints, holy patrons and divinized personalities in the Yezidi belief system are considered in the context of related religious traditions. The study determines the place of all these characters in the system of the Yezidi faith, defining their main functions, features, and genealogies.

Yezidism in Europe

Author: Philip G. Kreyenbroek

Publisher: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9783447060608

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Yezidism is a minority religion that is largely based on tradition rather than scripture. In the homelands - Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Transcaucasia - its world-view is closely connected with local culture, and most easily understood in that context. From the 1960s onwards, an increasing number of Yezidis from Turkey, Iraq and Syria were forced to migrate to Western Europe. After the fall of the Soviet Union many Yezidis from Armenia and Georgia moved to Russia and the Ukraine. This work addresses the question of differences in perception of the religion between Yezidi migrants who grew up in the homeland and those who were mainly socialised in the Diaspora. It is based on extensive qualitative research among Yezidis of different generations in Germany and Russia.

Survival Among the Kurds

Author: John S. Guest

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 0710304560

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First Published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Kurds and Yezidis in the Middle East

Author: Günes Murat Tezcür

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-01-28

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0755601203

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The diversity of Kurdish communities across the Middle East is now recognized as central to understanding both the challenges and opportunities for their representation and politics. Yet little scholarship has focused on the complexities within these different groups and the range of their experiences. This book diversifies the literature on Kurdish Studies by offering close analyses of subjects which have not been adequately researched, and in particular, by highlighting the Kurds' relationship to the Yazidis. Case studies include: the political ideas of Ehmede Xani, “the father of Kurdish nationalism”; Kurdish refugees in camps in Iraq; the perception of the Kurds by Armenians in the late Ottoman Empire and the Turks in modern Western Turkey; and the important connections and shared heritage of the Kurds and the Yazidis, especially in the aftermath of the 2014 ISIS attacks. The book comprises the leading voices in Kurdish Studies and combines in-depth empirical work with theoretical and conceptual discussions to take the debates in the field in new directions. The study is divided into three thematic sections to capture new insights into the heterogeneous aspects of Kurdish history and identity. In doing so, contributors explain why we need to pay close attention to the shifting identities and the diversity of the Kurds, and what implications this has for Middle East Studies and Minority Studies more generally.