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Yazidis

March 11, 2023

This article is about Yazidis, the people. For their religion, see Yazidism.
"Yezidi" redirects here. For other uses, see Yazid (disambiguation).

Yazidis or Yezidis (/jəˈziːdiːz/ (listen);[23] Kurdish: ئێزیدی, romanized: Êzidî)[24][25] are a Kurmanji-speaking[22] endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran.[26][27][28] The majority of Yazidis remaining in the Middle East today live in Iraq, primarily in the governorates of Nineveh and Duhok.[29][30] 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.[31][32] Yazidism is the ethnic religion of the Yazidi people and is monotheistic in nature, having roots in a pre-Zoroastrian Iranic faith.[33][34][35][36][37]

Yazidis
ئێزیدی (Êzîdî)
A Yazidi Tawwaf ceremony, Baashiqa, Iraq
Total population
1,000,000–1,500,000 (estimate)[1][2]
Regions with significant populations
See list of Yazidi settlements
Listed by countries
 Iraq500,000–700,000[3][4]
 Germany200,000 (2019 estimate)[5][6]
 Russia40,586 (2010 census)[7]
 Armenia35,272 (2011 census)[8]
 Belgium35,000 (2018 estimate)[9]
 Georgia12,174 (2014 census)[10]
 United States10,000 (2017 estimate)[11]
 France10,000 (2018 estimate)[12][13]
 Syria10,000 (2017 estimate)[14][15]
 Sweden6,000 (2018 estimate)[16]
 Turkey5,000 (2010 estimate)[17][18]
 Australia2,738 (2019 estimate)[19]
 Canada1,200 (2018 estimate)[20]
Languages
Kurmanji (northern Kurdish),[21] North Mesopotamian Arabic (in Bashiqa and Bahzani),[22]

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. Most recently, the 2014 Yazidi genocide that was carried out by the Islamic State saw over 5,000 Yazidis killed and thousands of Yazidi women and girls forced into sexual slavery,[38] as well as the flight of more than 500,000 Yazidi refugees.[39][40][41]

Origins

 
Yazidi chief in Bashiqa, Iraq - picture by Albert Kahn (1910s)

The Yazidis' own name for themselves is Êzîdî or, in some areas, Dasinî, although the latter, strictly speaking, is a tribal name. Some western scholars derive the name from the Umayyad Caliph Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya (Yazid I).[42] However, all Yazidis reject any relationship between their name and the caliph.[43] The word Yazidi means 'the servant of the creator'.[44] Other scholars derive it from Old Iranian yazata, Middle Persian yazad, divine being.[45] Another derivation of the word origin relates to Ez dā ('Created me'). Yazidis also refer to Xwedê ez dam ('God created me') and to Em miletê ezdaîn ('We are the Ezdayi nation').[46]

Scholars have discovered many striking similarities between the Yazidis, the Yaresan and the Kurdish Alevis.[47][48][33][49] The shared features among the three religions can be traced back to an ancient faith that was probably dominant among the western Iranic peoples,[50] but distinct from Zoroastrianism and derived from the pre-Zoroastrian Iranic tradition.[51][33]

Early writers attempted to describe Yazidi origins, broadly speaking, in terms of Islam, or Persian, or sometimes even "pagan" religions; however, research published since the 1990s has shown such an approach to be simplistic.[22]

History

Early history and origins

Yezidism emerged in the 12th century when Sheikh Adi, who, after studying in Baghdad, established an order of his own called Adawiyya, mentioned in medieval Arabic sources as Akrad 'Adawiyya (Adawiyya Kurds), settled in Lalish valley and introduced his doctrines to the local Kurds at the time practicing an old Iranic faith,[52][53] which although similar, was separate from Zoroastrianism and was of pre-Zoroastrian origin.[54][55][56] After his death in 1162 AD, his disciples and successors blended his doctrines and teachings with the local and ancient Iranic traditions.[52] Because of this, Yezidi tradition uses many terms, images and symbols of Sufi or Islamic origin, meanwhile still to a larger extent preserving pre-Islamic mythology, symbology, rituals, festivals and traditions.[57][58][54][59]

Yezidism was embraced by many Kurdish tribes and emirates. Yezidi manuscripts, called mişûrs which were written down in the 13th century, contain lists of Kurdish tribes who were affiliated to Yezidi Pir saints. Only two of the total of 40 manuscripts have been published so far, namely the Mişûr of Pîr Sini Daranî and the Mişûr of Pîr Xetîb Pisî, the list in the Mişûr of Pîr Sini Daranî include some large tribes that have been mostly, or fully islamized today, including but not limited to the large Shikak, Reşan, Dumilî/Dumbuli, Memkan, Kîkan, and Musareşan tribes.[60][61] In addition, Sherefkhan Bidlisi writes in Şerefname that seven of the most important Kurdish tribes were Yezidi.[62][63] Yezidism was the official religion of numerous Kurdish emirates and principalities, including the principalities of Bohtan,[64] Mahmudi,[65] Donboli[66] and the Emirate of Kilis.[67][68]

Territory and religious administrative structure

 
Yazidi temple in Bashiqa, 2020

Starting from the 14th century, Yezidis built up their own internal religious and political administrative apparatus in the areas that were inhabited by them. The Yezidi territory was divided into seven administrative centres, each having its own Sincaq (banner, flag, province, region), more commonly known as Tawis among the Yezidis. Sincaqs are sacred bronze effigies bearing the image of a bird or peacock to symbolize Tawûsî Melek. They serve as symbols of power for each administrative centre, namely:[69][70][71]

  1. Tawisa Enzel: Welatşêx (Şêxan) - Lalish
  2. Tawisa Şingalê: Shingal District
  3. Tawisa Hekkarê: sometimes also called Tawisa Zozana: Historical region of Hakkari (Hakkari, Şırnak, Van and Duhok).
  4. Tawisa Welatê Xalta: Region around Siirt, Batman, Diyarbakir, Mardin, etc.
  5. Tawisa Helebê: Aleppo and Afrin.
  6. Tawisa Tewrêzê: the city of Tabriz, located in today's Iran (Yazidis lived in the western hinterland in the Khoy region).
  7. Tawisa Misqofa (Moscow): Renamed from Tawisa Serhedê after the exodus of the Yazidis from Serhed to the Russian Empire. Serhed is a region covering the cities of Kars, Ardahan, Erzurum, Ağri, Van, Bitlis and Muş.[72]

Every six months, the Yezidi Qewals, who are trained reciters of Qewls and other forms of sacred oral Yezidi tradition, were sent out to other Yezidi-inhabited areas with military protection from the central administrative region of Shekhan and the spiritual centre of Lalish. This tradition served to preserve the Yezidi faith and doctrine. The Qewals were financed exclusively by the voluntary alms of the faithful. The Qewals and delegates led a Sincaq intended for the region they were visiting and paraded it through the Yazidi villages and areas to maintain the spiritual legitimacy and to symbolize the authority of Lalish and the Mîr.[69]

Early relations in the Middle East

Due to the ever-growing large and influential power of the Yezidis, they began to be perceived as a threat by the neighbouring Muslims, leading to a rapid intensification of the Yezidi-Muslim conflict that would last for centuries. Yezidis were subject to brutal persecution by Arabs, Persians, Turks and Sunni Kurds. Two of the most known early and major expeditions against the Yezidis took place in 1246, when the Yezidi leader, Sheikh Hassan ibn Adi was killed by Badr Ad-Din Lulu, and 1414, when a joint army of neighbouring Sunni Kurdish tribes ransacked Lalish.[53][73] During these conflicts, many important Yezidi chiefs were forcibly converted to Islam, leading to a gradual decline of the Yezidi power from the 15th century. However, Yezidis were also able to establish alliances with the authorities and neighbouring powers at various times, some Yezidi tribes allied with Qara Yusuf of Kara Qoyunlu, while others allied with Uzun Hasan of the rival Aq Qoyunlu against the Timurids. During Saladin's reign, Yezidis served as troops,[74][75] ambassadors[76] and they were given lands to govern.[77][78]

Ottoman period

16th century

Yezidis came into contact with the Ottomans for the first time in the early 16th century and lived as semi-independent entities under the Ottoman Empire.[52] The Ottomans had conquered Kurdish regions and installed their own governors in Diyarbekir, Urfa, Shingal and Mosul. In 1516 AD, Sultan Selim the Grim launched an invasion into Syria, capturing Aleppo and Damascus from the Mamluks of Egypt. The chief of the Kurds in Aleppo was Qasim Beg, he had long been at odds with the Mamluks who wished to install Sheikh Izz ed-Din, a Yezidi, in his stead. Despite Qasim Beg paying homage to the Sultan, Sheikh Izz ed-Din was still able to have himself named the Emir of the Kurds after persuading the local Ottoman governors to execute Qasim Beg for treason. However, due to Sheikh Izz ed-Din leaving no heirs after his death, the title was returned to the family of Qasim Beg.[79][80]

Yezidis were a large and numerous group living in many places, namely, based on Evliya Çelebi's reports, in Bingöl, Bitlis, Van, Hazo, Amedi, Diyarbekir, Hasankeyf, Cizir and Duhok. Yezidi leaders occupied important positions within the provincial Ottoman system and were appointed as governors as far as Tikrit and Kerek. Yezidis were also participants in commerce and river transportation of their territory through contact with other ethnicities and religions. Evliya Çelebi describes the quality of Yezidi products in the following manner:[66]

The quality of Yezidis' grapes and honey is priceless, and their raisins are highly priced in Baghdad, Basra and Lahsa markets. They have many Berry trees. Sinjar has important mineral as well.

Çelebi also reports that Yezidis collected fees by taking people from Hasankeyf to the other side with their ferries.[66]

Under the reign of Sultan Suleyman in 1534, the Yezidi leader, Hussein Beg was given the control over the domain of the Soran Emirate together with its capital of Erbil, and the Bahdinan Emirate with its capital of Amediye. Hussein Beg's father, Hassan Beg, had allied himself with the victorious Ottomans after the Battle of Chaldiran and was famed for his diplomatic and political expertise, which helped him bring Mosul under his rule and become a powerful and influential figure. His son, Hussein Beg, succeeded him after his death in 1534. Despite the persecution and the brutal rule over the Muslims of Soran, the Yezidis were able to maintain a large political, military power under the short-lived, but prosperous leadership of Hussein Beg and enjoy a rare period of peace and freedom from persecution. The Muslims of Soran opposed Hussein Beg's rule, and attempted to overthrow the Dasini rulers several times, their initial attempts were unsuccessful and were repelled, until the neighbouring Muslim rulers formed an alliance against Hussein Beg, and captured Erbil while Hussein Beg was absent and on a visit to Sheikhan, or Istanbul according to other sources. Hussein Beg's attempts to retake the city were unsuccessful due to the local support enjoyed by the Muslim rulers and resulted in the death of 500 Yezidi warriors. After the defeat, Hussein Beg was summoned back to Istanbul and executed.[81][82][83][84]

As the relations were deteriorating with the Ottomans and strained with the Sunni Kurds, the Ottomans exploited from these tensions and used religious differences to control both groups. In 1566, Abu al-S'ud al-'Amadi al-Kurdi, who was the Mufti of the Ottoman Empire and Sheikh al-Islam, cooperated with the Ottoman Sultans and issued fatwas that legitimized the Sultan's killing of Yezidis, enslavement of Yezidi women and the sale of Yezidi slaves in the markets. This resulted in Yezidis being subject to constant Ottoman military pressure and their territories being considered Dar Al-Harb from a religious standpoint.[85]

In later periods, Sunni Kurdish princes, particularly those of the Bahdinan principality and its Muslim clerics, requested the Ottoman Sultan to eliminate the Yazidis with the justification of Yazidi being apostates. Numerous Ottoman documents reveal the role of the princes, including one dating back to 1568 AD, which reads:[85]

The necessity of ending the corruption and evil-doing of the Dasini sect [i.e. Yazidis] and [asking the Ottoman state to send] firmans (orders) to the governors of Mosul and Erbil to punish the Dasinis

According to another document dating back to 1571 AD, the Prince of Bahdinan, Sultan Husayn Waly, demanded the Ottomans to send a firman (Order) to the states (Wilayāt) of Jazira, Mosul, Amadiya, and Erbil to arrest the Yezidi leaders.[85]

17th century

During the first half of the 17th century, Yezidis became a very powerful entity under the leadership of Ezidi Mirza, a young, yet reputable military leader who gained fame after leading a counter-attack against Muslim raiders in his hometown of Bashiqa and inflicting a devastating defeat despite being outnumbered. He went on to become the head of the Bashiqa-Bahzani and in later stages of his life, also the Governor of Mosul. He and his troops fought for the Ottoman side during Battle of Baghdad together with the Mîr of the Yezidis at the time, Zeynal Javkhali, and six other Yezidi chieftains. In 1649, Êzidî Mirza was appointed as the governor of Mosul, a title which he held until his death in 1651. Êzidî Mirza is mentioned in several Yezidi sagas until today.[86][87][88][89]

During the 17th century, the Ottomans launched numerous expeditions against the Yezidis in Shingal, who had long controlled the trading routes around Shingal, attacked Ottoman caravans and refused to pay the taxes levied by the Ottomans. The first expedition was led by the Ottoman Grand Vizier, Nasuh Pasha, and took place in 1613 AD, which resulted in a Yezidi victory and 7,000 of the Ottoman soldiers being slaughtered according to the reports of Evliya Çelebi.[90][91][92]

In 1640, another expedition against the Yezidis of Shingal was launched by another Grand Vizier, Melek Ahmed Pasha of Diyarbekir. The Ottoman troops surrounded Shingal mountains and stormed Yezidi positions. Despite heavy casualties, the Ottomans eventually succeeded in capturing the mountain.[92] Evliya Çelebi, who was an eyewitness of the event, reports that 3,060 Yezidis were killed on the Shingal mountain, and writes about the wealth of the Yezidis and the abundance of the Yezidi areas, which he describes as being prosperous in the Yezidis' hands. He reports the spoils from the Ottoman attacks on Yezidis in the following manner:[93]

"These Yezidis were as wealthy as Croesus, All the multitudes of troops from the provinces of Van and Diyarbekir and Mardin who came to the aid of Melek Ahmed Pasha, all the Kurdistan soldiery who participated in plundering the money and food and drink and copper vessels and household furnishings and the like which emerged over ten days from the Saçlı Dağı caves, could not carry away more than a drop in the sea and a mote in the sun. For ever since the event of Kerbela these people have been rich, and no king had ever conquered them before."

In 1655, Evliya Çelebi revisited Shingal to catch up with Firari Mustafa Pasha, the governor of Diyarbekir whom Evliya had been ordered to collect an old debt from. Firari Mustafa Pasha had encamped in Shingal to collect taxes from the Yezidis, when he sent a delegation to parley with the locals and demand tax payments, the Yezidis replied "if Melek Ahmed Pasha had come back to fight them, they would rub their faces in his footprints, but for Mustafa Pasha, they would only give ten loads of silk", which enraged Mustafa Pasha and provoked him into calling for reinforcements and launching an expedition against the Yezidis of Shingal, the result of this expedition is unknown.[94]

In Evliya's works, the tribes of Rojkî,[75] Halitî (Xaltî), Çekvânî, Bapirî, Celovî, Temânî, Mervanî, Beddi, Tâtekî, Gevarî, Gevaşî, Zêbarî, Bezikî, Modikî, Kanahî and Şikak are mentioned as Yezidis.[95] A lot of phrases are used by Evliya when referring to Yezidis, namely: Saçlı Kürdü (long-haired Kurds), Yezidi Ekrad (Yezidi Kurds), Saçlı Yezidi Kürdleri (long-haired Yezidi Kurds), kavm-i na-pak (impure group), bed-mezheb (bad sect), bî-din (faithless), savm u salât ve hacc u zekât vermezler (they do not know anything about these pillars of Islam), kelb-perest (dog worshippers), and firka-ı dal" (heretic sect).[93]

In 1671, another battle in the Shingal mountain, which lasted for three years between the Sacheli tribe and armies of the neighbouring Pashas, ended up in a victory for the mountaineers, who captured around 4,000 prisoners.[96]

Between 1715 and 1809

Yezidis are mentioned in Van Tarihi, a 1715/1716 account by the local imam of the Van city, Ibn-i Nuh, which was about the history of Van. The report describes an Ottoman attack on the Yezidis of Van which took place in 1715. It addresses Yezidi victory during the first waves of attacks and Yezidis capturing the Pasha of the city of Van during the battle. Under the section titled as Harb-i Yezidiyan Der Sahra-yi Canik Ba-Vaniyan (The battle of the Yezidis with Vanis at the desert of Canik), Ibn-i Nuh lists the names of important people who died during the battle and describes a dreadful situation for the Muslims and Islam at the hands of what he describes as Cünd-i Şeytan (The army of the Devil). Under the section Maktel-i Yezidiyan ve Intikam-i Şüheda-i Van (The Killing of Yezidis and the Revenge of the Martyrs of Van), he recounts the Pasha of the city assembling an army of 7,000 soldiers from Ahlat, Adilcevaz and Erçiş to take on the Yezidis and the battle eventually ending up in a victory for the Empire and the Muslims. He describes that this place did not pay Jizya or poll tax and that it was considered the Abode of War. He also mentions that some Christians lost their lives and that many women and children held as captives.[66]

In 1743, Nadir Shah, launched an invasion in the west and was aiming to capture Mosul, sent a force to subdue the Yezidi chieftain As after capturing Altun Kopru and Kirkuk. As had often raided the western provinces of Persia from his base in the mountains around Koi Sanjak. The Persians defeated an army of several thousand Yezidis and killed their leader Yezid. As was able to escape, enlist allies and lay siege to a ruined fort where the Persian cavalry had held Yezidi women captive. The defenders were at the edge of being overrun when the shah's nephew brought reinforcements and stopped the siege. As, who was abandoned by his allies, considered committing suicide, but finally surrendered himself to Nadir Shah instead and was eventually appointed the governor of the district.[97]

Throughout the 18th century, Yezidi mirs of Sheikhan were subjects to the Kurdish Principality of Amadiya, a semi-autonomous fiefdom which guarded the Ottoman frontiers in the east. The rulers, who were strict Sunni Muslims claiming descent from the Abbasids, had ruled Amadiya since the Timurid period. Amadiya was also home to a Jewish community and included Nestorians who were actively proselytized by Dominican missionaries who were stationed there from 1759 to 1779. Yezidis are briefly mentioned by one of the missionaries, Padre Maurizio Garzoni, who reported "the post of the executioner is always given by the princes of Amadiya to a Yezidi, who never loath to shed Muslim blood." Yezidi mirs of Sheikhan were also involved in several rebellions against Amadiya principality; in 1770-1771, Bedagh Beg, who was Mir of Sheikhan at the time, joined a rebellion against the Prince of Amadiya, Ismail Pasha. Bedagh Beg eventually got captured and fined, and 16 years later, his son and successor, Jolo Beg, was involved in another rebellion, but had to later retreat. In 1789-1790, Jolo still maintained the title of Mir and was involved in battles against the Tayy Arabs, who were raiding Sheikhan, but in the following year, Jolo and his brother were executed by Ismail Pasha, who appointed a Khanjar Beg as the Mir in their stead. However, after quarrels with Khanjar, the Mir position was returned to the old Dynasty and Khanjar was replaced by Jolo Beg's son, Hasan Beg.[98]

In Shingal, Yezidis had gained notoriety for raiding every caravan passing between Mardin and Mosul. Yezidi raiders operated as far as in the routes between Anah and Baghdad, where one band attacked a caravan in 1782 and seized 30 donkey-loads of cotton goods. Caravans that were escorted by well-armed guards were often able to fight off raiders, whereas fate of other caravans was often a total loss or a ransom. The favourite targets were lightly-armed official couriers who relied on speed to reach their destination. In one case, a captured courier was found to be carrying 40,000 carats of high-grade pearls. As a result, several expeditions were launched against the Yezidis; the punitive expeditions from Baghdad, first one launched in 1715 and a later one in 1753, inflicted heavy casualties. However, subsequently, the expeditions launched against Shingal from Mosul and Baghdad became less severe and was counted as a cost of doing business by the raiders.[99]

In 1785, the governor of Mosul, Abd el-Baqi Pasha led a raid on the nomadic Dina tribe of Yezidis living east of Tigris near Duhok, led by a young chief named Kor Namir Agha (The Blind Namir Agha) who was blind in one eye. Whilst the Pasha's troops were looting the deserted villages, they were ambushed and the Pasha, together with his brother were killed. The panic-stricken troops fled to Mosul while being pursued by the fighters of the Dina tribe. The sequel of this encounter is not recorded.[99][100]

The enslavement of Yezidi captives and military action against Yezidis was legitimized by Muslim theologians, who classified Yezidis as heretics. At least eight expeditions are recorded between 1767 and 1809[99] and according to the French orientalist, Roger Lescot, the Ottomans launched 15 campaigns against the Yezidis of Shingal and Sheikhan in the 18th century alone.[85] One expedition against the Yezidis of Shingal was led by the Governor of Baghdad, Ali Pasha, who forced many families into converting to Islam. Another expedition in 1809 was led by the new Governor of Baghdad, Sulayman Pasha, who burnt down Yezidi farms and beheaded Yezidi chieftains.[85] The 18th-19th centuries saw a further decline of the Yazidi influence, power and population. With the ending of the semi-autonomous Kurdish principalities and the series of Ottoman Tanzimat reforms from the mid-19th century onward made the Yezidi-populated regions more prone to localized political instabilities. Furthermore, being excluded from the status of "People of the Book", the Yezidis weren't granted religious rights that were enjoyed by other groups such as Christians and Jews under the Ottoman millet system.[101]

Yazidi–Muzuri feud and the Sheikhan massacre

By the early 19th century, Yezidis were involved in a long feud with the neighbouring Sunni Kurdish tribe of Mizuri who with one of their clerics had issued in a fatwa in 1724 that Yezidis were infidels and apostates and that killing them was a religious duty. Female Yezidis and the Yezidi property were to be considered spoils of war. In another encounter in 1802, the Alghushiyya branch of Mizuris raided the Yezidi village of Ghabara in western Sheikhan, killed nearly a hundred people and occupied Lalish for eight months.[85] One day, the Yezidi leader Ali Beg, sent a word the Mizuri chieftain Ali Agha al-Balti, expressing the desire for peace and friendship and offering him to act as a kirîv (sponsor) for the circumcision of his son. The Mizuri chieftain responded favourably and a few days later, arrived with a small escort at the town of Baadre, where the residence of the Yezidi princely family is located. It is unknown whether he took a small escort out of disdain for the Yezidi leader, or for the purpose of demonstrating his trust in his host. Upon his arrival, Ali Beg had him treacherously murdered, leading to a great degree of anger among the Mizuris and provoking them into gathering for great raid against the town of Baadre. In anticipation of the attack, thousands of Yezidi warriors stationed themselves in Baadre. The raid was called off due to fear of Bahdinan forces assembling against the Mizuris when the Pasha of Amadiya, who was also the Prince of Bahdinan and was suspected of having conspired in the Mizuri chieftain's assassination, announced his opposition to the raid.[102]

Thereby, Mulla Yahya al-Mizuri, a cousin or nephew to the Mizuri chieftain and a respected religious dignitary, unsuccessfully attempted to plead for rectification from the Bahdinan Prince, who declined to sanction punitive action against Yezidis and blamed Ali Agha for naively accepting Ali Beg's offer and venturing into his enemy's own country without adequate escort. Mulla Yahya, who was disappointed and angry, was still determined to avenge the death of his kinsman and eventually managed to persuade the Pasha of Rawanduz, Muhammad Pasha, into sending a punitive force to punish the Yezidis. Accounts regarding the manner in which he persuaded Muhammad Pasha vary from him visiting and seeking the aid of the wali of Baghdad, who upon hearing the Mullah's grievances sent a letter to Muhammad Pasha and urged him to punish Yezidis for their misdeeds, to the Mullah directly visiting Muhammad Pasha, with whom he was on very friendly terms.[102]

Muhammad Pasha prepared an army of 40,000-50,000 against the Yezidis, he divided his force into two groups, one lead by his brother, Rasul, and the other one led by himself. These forces marched in March 1832, crossing the Great Zab River and first entering and killing many inhabitants of the Yezidi village, Kallak-a Dasinyya, which was situated near Erbil and was the border between Yezidis and Soran Principality until the 19th century. These forces proceeded to march and capture other Yezidi villages. After arriving in Sheikhan, Muhammad Pasha's forces seized the village of Khatara and marched onwards to Alqosh, where they were confronted by a joint force of Yezidis and the Bahdinan who were led by Yusuf Abdo, a Bahdinan leader from Amadiya, and Baba Hurmuz, who was the head of the Christian monastery in Alqosh. These joint forces then left their positions and relocated to the town of Baadre. Ali Beg wished to negotiate, but Muhammad Pasha, influenced by the clerics Mulla Yahya al-Mizuri and Muhammad Khati, rejected any chance of reconciliation. Yezidis of Sheikhan were defeated and subject to devastating massacres where slaughter of both the elderly and young, rape and slavery were some of the tactics. Yezidi property, including gold and silver was plundered and looted, and numerous towns and villages previously inhabited by the Yezidis were demographically islamized. Afterwards, Muhammad Pasha sent a large force to Shingal where he was met with the resistance of the Yezidis under the leadership of Ali Beg's wife. After numerous defeats, Muhammad Pasha's forces eventually succeeded in capturing the district. The Yezidis who survived the massacres took refuge in distant areas including but not limited to Tur Abdin, Mount Judi and the less-affected Shingal region. After controlling most of the Yezidi territory, the Pasha's forces enslaved and took home around 10,000 Yezidi captives, mostly females and children together with Ali Beg, to Rawanduz, the capital of the princedom. Upon the arriving in the capital, the prisoners were asked to convert to Islam, many of them, including Ali Beg and his entourage, rejected the request and thus were taken and executed at Gali Ali Beg, which is until today named after Ali Beg.[85] Christian communities lying in the path of Muhammad Pasha's army were also victim to the massacres, the town of Alqosh was sacked, large number of its inhabitants were put to the sword and the Rabban Hormizd monastery was plundered and its monks, together with the Abbot, Gabriel Dambo, were put to death. A large amount of the ancient manuscripts were destroyed or lost. The monastery of Sheikh Matta suffered the same fate.[102]

After putting Yezidis of Sheikhan to the sword, Muhammad Pasha invaded the rest of the Bahdinan, attacking Akre and after a few days, besieging the fortress of Akre which was regarded as almost impregnable and meeting the resistance of the Kurdish tribe of Zibari. Thereafter he marched towards Amadiya which capitulated after a brief siege. The entire region, from Khabur to Great Zab rivers, was brought under Muhammad Pasha's rule, including Zakho and Duhok. Muhammad Pasha appointed Musa Pasha, a relative of the Bahdinan prince Said Pasha, as the governor of the capital. Musa Pasha, who had been on bad terms with Said Pasha, had offered valuable assistance to Muhammad Pasha during the attack on Amadiya.[102]

Attacks by Bedir Khan Beg and persecution of Yazidis and Christians

In 1840-1844, Yezidis of Tur Abdin were repeatedly attacked by the ruler of Bohtan, Bedirkhan Beg, who had previously aided Muhammad Pasha during his incursions against Bahdinan and the Yezidis of Sheikhan. Bedirkhan was a member of the Ezizan family, the hereditary rulers of Bohtan and one of the oldest and most prominent Kurdish families whom according to Sharafkhan Bidlisi were originally adherents of Yezidism. The Ezizan claimed descent from Abd al-Aziz, a son of the famous Islamic commander and companion of the Prophet, Khalid Ibn al-Walid.[103] Yezidis of Tur Abdin had a strong tribal structure and were active participants in the political affairs. One of the largest attacks took place in 1844, when Bedirkhan sent a large army to force Yazidis into accepting Islam, those who refused were captured and killed. Seven Yezidi villages converted to Islam out of fear.[104] The local Christian population also suffered massacres in 1843 and 1846 by the hand of Bedirkhan and his allies Han Mahmoud and Nurallah Bey.[105]

Yezidis were object of extra attention from Bedirkhan. During Bayram feast, when Muslims celebrate Abraham's ritual sacrifice of Isaac by slaughtering animals, Bedirkhan would round up Yezidi captives for a grisly ceremony where he would with his own hand slaughter those Yezidis who had refused to convert to Islam. A medical missionary from Urmia who visited Derguleh in 1846 reported seeing 40-50 Yezidi converts in Bedirkhan's castle, enjoying Bedirkhan's special attention and jealousy among his less favoured attendants.[106][103]

Pressure and protests from the European Powers, namely France and England, demanding a stop to the massacres of Nestorians and removal of Bedirkhan Beg, led to the Ottoman forces, with the support of Yezidi fighters,[103][107][108] invading his territories in 1846–1847. At the beginning of the conflict Bedirkhan was able to successfully defeat the Ottoman army sent against him and afterwards, he decided to sever all connections with the Ottoman Empire by proclaiming independence of his state and creating a currency of his own bearing the inscription "Bedirkhan, the Emir Of Bohtan". However, his success did not last for long, Ottomans attacked again and Bedirkhan Beg, despite offering some resistance, vacated Cizre and took refuge in the fortress of Evreh. His ally, Han Mahmoud, who was on his way to assist Bedirkhan, was intercepted in Tillo and defeated by Ottoman forces and Yezidi fighters.[103] Bedirkhan had to surrender to the Ottomans at Evreh Castle in Eruh, Siirt on the 4 July 1847.[109] He was put in chains with his family and eventually transferred to Constantinople.[110][111]

End of the Ottoman period

Reign of Abdul Hamid II (1876–1909)

Towards the end of the 19th century, the Ottoman policies towards Yezidis gained a new dimension under the reign of Abdulhamid II, under whose regime the Muslim Identity became increasingly essential for the Sultan's perceptions of loyalty among his subjects. As missionary activity and nationalism among non-Muslim groups was on the rise, conversion to Islam in order to ensure their political loyalty was crucial in the perspective of Abdulhamid's government. Conscription was one of the steps taken in order to convert them. Thereafter, Yezidis would be subject to persecution from Omer Wehbi Pasha, who had been sent to Mosul by the Sultan for a task involving institutionalization of a conscription system, collection of taxes, resettlement of tribes,[112] and crushing local tribal rebellions.[113] He took the initiative of completing his tasks through violence due to the lack of cooperation from Yezidis. Around 500 Yezidis died in the Shingal campaign of November–December 1892, Lalish was forcibly converted into a madrasah, sacred objects of the Yezidis were confiscated, mosques built in Yezidi villages[112] and the Yezidi Mir Mirza Beg was provoked into converting to Islam.[113] However, in contrast to the expectations of Ottomans, the campaign of the Pasha had crucial influence in setting a widespread religious revival in motion at Shingal. Yezidi refugees fleeing from Sheikhan, including both the commoners and the clergy, took shelter on Shingal mountain and their stories about the atrocities in Sheikhan that were committed by Muslims facilitated the vigoruous millenarian and anti-Muslim propaganda that were carried out by two religious personalities from Sheikhan who had settled in Shingal, Mirza al-Kabari and Alias Khallu. Slogans about an imminent and new Yezidi reign of justice and prosperity against Muslim oppression were successful in mobilizing large sections of the local Yezidi populace. This prompted Omar Wehbi Pasha to launch an unsuccessful intervention in Shingal, which resulted in the faqir, Hemoyê Shero, who had earlier declared himself the Paramount of Shingal, together with his followers becoming the focus of anti-Muslim resistance and increasing their military capacity by seizing a huge amount of Turkish armaments and ammunition which would be a determining factor in World War I.

In the following years, a dispute occurred among the community on the mountain, causing the power of Musqura and Mihirkan tribes to deteriorate as they included large Muslim sections and were thus traditionally viewed with the suspicion of being inclined to insitage Ottoman interference in the Shingali affairs.[113] On 9 December 1892, Sultan Abdulhamid sent a telegram in which he dismissed Omar Wehbi Pasha from his post and ordered him to remain in Mosul, pending arrival of a commission of inquiry and to be prepared to answer the charges of using Ottoman troops in combat without being given permission by the Ministry of War. Four months later the Pasha returned to the capital in disgrace.[114] Yezidis finally regained the possession of Lalish in 1904, and the stolen sacred objects were returned to them in 1914.[112]

As Hemoye Shero had acquired the Paramountcy of Sinjar, his followers drastically increased in numbers and they began to serve as a compact and organized group which started to be named as the Fuqara tribe. Among the Fuqara, tribal cohesion very much depended on membership in the faqir religious class to which all the male members of the tribe belonged.[113]

At the Tur Abdin foothills west of Shingal, Hasan Kanjo, a Yezidi chieftain, converted to Islam and joined the Hamidiye together with his tribe. He later became the right-hand man and lieutenant of Ibrahim Pasha, the powerful chieftain of Milan confederacy and highly regarded by the Sultan Abdulhamid. Hasan Kanjo built a fortress at Haleli, east of Viranşehir, to serve as a base for fighting the desert Arab tribes including the Shammar. Members of his tribe had been allowed to keep their Yezidi faith and were camped around the fortress.[54]

In Mosul, a new Governor by the name of Aziz Pasha was appointed; he had arranged a peace settlement in Shingal and allowed Yezidis of Sheikhan to practice their religion again. The Yezidi Mir, Mirza Beg, among other prominent converts to Islam, resumed their old faith. However, the price for these compromises was enforcement of military service, continuance of the Islamic schools in the settlements on a voluntary basis and the surrender of the Lalish sanctuary to Muslim dervishes, who had established a retreat there and operated an Islamic school. Lalish would later be largely abandoned and left in ruins, with reports of overgrowth of nettles and shrubbery in places where the roofs had fallen in, and the dome above Sheikh Adi's mausoleum smashed, allowing the sun to shine inside, until Yezidis would rebuild and regain the possession of the sanctuary in 1904.[54]

World War I

During World War I, the Armenian genocide of 1915 caused a mass exodus of Yezidis from Van, Kars, and Bazîd, who together with many Armenians, fled from the Ottoman Empire in masses to Transcaucasia, following their kinsfolk who had already settled in territories of Russian Empire after fleeing during the Russo-Turkish wars in 1828–1829 and 1877-1878.[101] In May 1918, Ottomans crossed Akhuryan river in order to invade the Armenian Republic. One column captured Alexandropol and marched north of Mount Aragats, where eighty Yezidis were massacred at Kurdsky Pamb, towards the Transcaucasian railway line to Baku. The other column marched southeast along the left bank of the Aras river to secure the recently completed line to Tabriz. At Sardarabad, the column marching southeast was confronted by a 4,000 strong Armenian force which included 700 Yezidi cavalry. A few days later, Armenians and Yezidis drove back the northern column from the Bash-Aparan defile on the slopes of Mount Aragats. However, during the first week of June, an armistice was reached whereby the Ottomans could use the key railways, but would leave Yerevan and Echmiadzin to the Armenians.[115] The Yezidi participation in the decisive Battle of Sardarabad is still commemorated by Armenians.[101]

Yezidis in Tur Abdin and Shingal also formed common causes with Christians and fought defensively from their mountain strongholds.[101] Yezidis in Shingal were led by Hemoye Shero, who in 1914-1915 sheltered Christian refugees fleeing from persecution and in 1917, led raids with a mixed Yezidi tribal force against Turkish convoys and military posts on the route to Nusaybin, causing severe disruptions on Turkish communication lines north of the Shingal mountains. Additionally, he fiercely resisted Ottoman attack on the Shingal mountain when Ottoman troops besieged the mountain and briefly occupied Yezidi villages to the south, using Tel Afar as their logistic base.[116] In 1915/1916 the Ottomans, with the support of numerous Sunni Kurdish tribes, initiated widespread persecutions against the Christian communities of Mardin, Nusaybin and Cizre. Leading to waves of Christian refugees, including Armenians, Chaldeans, Jacobites and Nestorians fleeing to Shingal in hope of finding shelter among the local Yezidis. By 1916 approximately 900 people had taken permanent residence in Balad (City of Shingal) and the village of Bardahali, which had by then turned into the headquarters of the Fuqara tribe. Hemoye Shero, the chief of Fuqara, promoted Christian settlement on the Mountain through granting them his protection in accordance with a Shingali custom which encouraged the settlement of Christians if a local Yazidi agha would guarantee for them. This helped Hemoye Shero to seize full control of Shingal city, the capital and most important commercial centre of the mountain, as he gained the support of local Christian merchants and thus was able to expand his economic and political prestige and dominance.[117] In 1918, when the Yazidis of Shingal mountain received an ultimatum from Ottomans to hand over the weaponry and the Christian refugees that they were sheltering, or otherwise face consequences. The Yezidis tore the letter up and sent the messengers back naked.[118]

Identity

 
Yazidi women in traditional dress

Yazidi cultural practices are observed in Kurmanji, which is also used by almost all the orally transmitted religious traditions of the Yazidis. The Yazidis in the twin villages of Bashiqa and Bahzani speak Arabic as their mother language,[22] however, the now Arab-speaking tribes in Bashiqa and Bahzani, including but not limited to Xaltî, Dumilî and Hekarî,[119][120] have historically been classified as Kurdish tribes.[121][122][123][124][125] Although almost all Yezidis speak in Kurmanji, their exact origin is a matter of dispute among scholars, even among the community itself as well as among Kurds, whether they are ethnically Kurds or form a distinct ethnic group.[32] Yazidis only intermarry with other Yazidis; those who marry non-Yazidis are expelled from their community and are not allowed to call themselves Yazidis.[126][127]

 
Yazidi boy in traditional clothes. In Sinjar, male Yazidis used to wear pigtails.[128]

Some modern Yazidis identify as a subset of the Kurdish people while others identify as a separate ethno-religious group.[22][129][130] In Armenia and Iraq, the Yazidis are recognized as a distinct ethnic group.[131][132][133][125] According to Armenian anthropologist Levon Abrahamian, Yazidis generally believe that Muslim Kurds betrayed Yazidism by converting to Islam, while Yazidis remained faithful to the religion of their ancestors.[134] Evliya Çelebi described soldiers of Abdal Khan of Bitlis as "Yezidi Kurds" and in fourteenth century, seven of the most prominent Kurdish tribes were Yazidi, and Yazidism was the religion of the Jazira Kurdish principality. Some traditional myths of the Yazidis tell that the Yazidis were the children of Adam alone and not of Eve, and thus separate from the rest of humanity.[135] In the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Yazidis are considered ethnic Kurds[31] and the autonomous region considers Yazidis to be the "original Kurds".[136] The sole Yazidi parliamentarian in the Iraqi Parliament Vian Dakhil also stated her opposition to any move separating Yazidis from Kurds.[31] Aziz Tamoyan the president of the Yezidi National Union ULE indicate that the term Yazidi is used for a nation and their language is called Ezdiki and their religion is Sharfadin.[131] According to the researcher Victoria Arakelova, Yazidism is a unique phenomenon, one of the most remarkable illustrations of ethno-religious identity, centred on a religion the Yazidis call Sharfadin. And therefore, it is quite legitimate to speak of the unity of both the Yazidi religious identity and Yazidi ethnicity.[137][129]

Yazidis distinguish the name of their community from the name of their religion according the phrase:[138][139]

Miletê min Êzîd ("My nation - the Yazidis.")
Dîne min Şerfedîn ("My religion - Sharfadin.")[138]

However, this phrase doesn't come up in the official qewls (religious hymns), rather, in those qewls where the terms Şerfedîn and Êzîd (Êzî) are mentioned together, the term "Atqat" comes up next to Ezid instead of "Millet".

Me dîn Şerfedîne û Êzî atqate. ("Our religion is Sherfedin and belief is Ezi.")

— Qewlê Şerfedîn

Me dîn Şerfedîn, atqad Siltan Êzîde. ("Our religion is Sherfedin, belief is Sultan Ezid.")

— Qewlê Qendîla

Şerfedîn is the name of a son of Sheikh Hasan, who lead the Yezidis in the 13th century and under whose rule the final canonization of the Yezidi religion took place. As a result, Şerfedîn is considered the personification of the Yezidi religion as implied in the aforementioned qewls. Likewise with Sultan Ezid, the name of God's manifestation, who personifies atqat (belief). However, some Yezidis who believe themselves to be a distinct ethnicity, consider "Şerfedîn" to be the name of the religion, meanwhile using "Êzidî" as the ethnonym.[138][140][141]

Additionally, the term "Millet" has only recently begun to be understood in a nationalistic sense due to the growing popularity of nationalist ideologies, as a result, the phrase itself has started to be perceived as an ethnic and national declaration. The term "millet" would've originally been equivalent to "religion" and "religious community" rather than ethnicity. Thus, the original meaning of the phrase "Miletê min Ezid" would've been "I belong to the religious group of Ezid".[138][140]

 
Aziz Tamoyan, the President of the Yezidi National Union ULE in Armenia

Yazidis are regarded as ethnic Kurds in Georgia and Germany.[142][143] The Soviet Union registered the Yazidis and the Kurds as two different ethnic groups for the 1926 census, but bulked the two together as one ethnicity in the censuses from 1931 to 1989.[144] Sharaf Khan Bidlisi's Sheref-nameh of 1597, which cites seven of the Kurdish tribes as being at least partly Yazidi, and Kurdish tribal confederations as containing substantial Yazidi sections.[145]

Conversely, during his research trips in 1895, anthropologist Ernest Chantre visited the Yazidis in today's Turkey and reported that Yazidis called their language zyman e ezda (the language of the Yazidis) and claimed that Kurds spoke their language and not vice versa.[146]

However, there's also evidence that Yezidis in the past too identified as Kurds, for example in a letter sent to the Romanov Emperor of Russia, the Yazidi leader, Usuv Beg writes that his people are Yezidi Kurds. He indicates his nationality as Kurdish, but specifies that they are Yezidi by religion:

"I am happy on behalf of 3,000 Families of Yezidi-Kurds, Who 60 years ago, led by my Grandfather Temur Agha, left Turkey and sought refuge in Russia. I would like to express my gratitude and wish success to you and your family. We live very well on earth and under your rule."[147][148]

In addition, names of some Yazidi villages in Armenia contain Kurdish ethnonyms, such as Sipan village, which was settled in 1828 AD by Yezidis and was called Pampa Kurda/Kurmanca (Kurdish Pamb), until it was renamed to Sipan in the 1970s. In the vicinity, there is another village, that was called "Armenian Pamb", but also was renamed later on, to "Lernapar".[149][150]

Furthermore, the Yezidi religious authorities, including Baba Sheikh, the Mîr and the Peshimam, frequently have emphasized the Kurdish ethnicity of the Yezidis. As according to letter from mayor of Shekhan to Mosul in 1966, after carrying out investigations and personal meetings with Yezidi religious leaders, Baba Sheikh and the Mir, they found out that Yazidis are considered to be of Kurdish ethnicity and nationality.[151][152]

"When carrying out the investigations and the personal meetings with some leaders of the Yazidis that dwell the region of our province, especially Tahsin Said, the general leader of the nation and its prince, and the Bāba-Shaykh, the religious head of the Yazidis and when enlarging upon the subject, based on what they have said, we note that the origin of the community is in the Kurdish regions of Northern Iraq. Thus, the nationality of its members is considered Kurdish." - Excerpt from the 1966 letter.

When Tord Wallström, a Swedish journalist, met the Yazidi Mir, Tahsin Beg in 1974. Tahsin stated his reason for participating in the Kurdish Revolt. He stated, "I believe in the principles of the revolt. However, there is no relation between the religion and the revolt. I am Kurdish, and all the Yezidis are Kurdish; this is the reason why I joined this revolt". The journalist asked whether all the Yezidis are participating in the revolt, to which Mîr Tahsin responded: "No, but because their participation in the revolt has not been necessary as of yet. I've not requested their participation, but if I do, at least 95% will join the revolt. By the way, the government executed 20 Yazidis recently in Mosul".[153]

Elsewhere, in Soviet Union, the Kurdish identity played an important role for the Yazidis in Georgia and Armenia, who played a crucial role in promoting a secularized idea of Kurdish nationalism and making huge achievements in preserving and institutionalizing Kurdish culture, folklore and language already in the early 20th century.[154] Soviet Yazidis were able to establish the first Kurdish theatre and radio station in history, in addition, the first Kurdish Latin-based alphabet was created by the Yazidi intellectual, Erebê Şemo, who was also responsible for writing the first-ever Kurmanji novel in 1929 titled "Şivanê Kurmanca" (The Kurdish/Kurmanji Shepherd).[155][37]

The Yezidi Spiritual Council in Lalish released a statement where they emphasized and expressed their pride in the Kurdish identity of Yezidis, based on linguistic, historical, geographical and traditional facts. The statement was signed by the Mir, Baba Sheikh, Sheikh al-Wazir, a Peshimam and a Qawwal.[156]

Historically, there have been persecutions against Yazidis at the hand of some Muslim Kurdish tribes.[157] and this persecution has on numerous occasions threatened the existence of Yazidis as a distinct group.[158][159]

Religion

Main article: Yazidism
 
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Mishefa Reş
 
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Kitêba Cilwe

Yazidism is a monotheistic faith[160] based on belief in one God, who created the world and entrusted it into the care of a Heptad of seven Holy Beings, often known as Angels or heft sirr (the Seven Mysteries).[161] Preeminent among these is Tawûsê Melek (also known as "Melek Taûs"), the Peacock Angel.[162][163] Traditionally, Yazidis who marry non-Yazidis are considered to have converted to the religion of their spouse.[160][164]

Genetics

Kurds developed an own typical genetic profile called "Modal Kurdish Haplotype" (KMH or MKMH for Muslim Kurds) on subclade J2-M172 with the following loci: 14-15-23-10-11-12. The highest percentage of this haplotype has been measured so far in Yezidis in Armenia:

A genetic study conducted in 2022 on Iraq's Turkmen, Yazidi, and Kurdish populations revealed that the genetic distance between Yazidis and Kurds was found to be closer than the genetic distance between the Kurdish and the Turkmen population, meaning that the Yazidis were found to be genetically closer to Kurds, indicating a long-shared history between Yazidis and Kurds and same homeland for thousands of years, as well as both coming from Indo-European origins.[166]

According to another genetic study, Yazidis from Northern Iraq may have a stronger genetic continuity with the original Mesopotamian people. The northern Iraqi Yazidi population were found in the middle of a genetic continuum between the Near East and Southeastern Europe.[167]

A genetic study on the Georgian Kurds, most of whom follow Yezidism,[168] showed that the populations with smallest genetic distance from Georgian Kurds were found to be Kurds from Turkey and Iran. Interestingly, the Kurmanji speakers from Turkey were found to be closer to the Zazaki speakers from Turkey than to the Georgian Kurds. Despite the former speaking the same dialect as the Georgian Kurds. According to the study, the Y-chromosome data suggests that the Kurdish group in Georgia was founded by Kurmanji speakers of Turkey.[169]

Demographics

A 2014 documentary on the Yazidis

Historically, the Yazidis lived primarily in communities located in present-day Iraq, Turkey, and Syria and also had significant numbers in Armenia and Georgia. However, events since the end of the 20th century have resulted in considerable demographic shift in these areas as well as mass emigration.[170] As a result, population estimates are unclear in many regions, and estimates of the size of the total population vary.[22]

Iraq

 
Yazidis wearing traditional clothes during festival in Tel Keppe, 2021

The majority of Yazidis live in Iraq.[22] Estimates of the size of these communities vary significantly, between 70,000 and 500,000. They are particularly concentrated in northern Iraq in the Nineveh Governorate. The two biggest communities are in the Shekhan District, northeast of Mosul and in the Sinjar District, at the Syrian border 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of Mosul. In Shekhan is the shrine of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir at Lalish. In the early 1900s most of the settled population of the Syrian Desert were Yazidi.[171] During the 20th century, the Shekhan community struggled for dominance with the more conservative Sinjar community.[22] The demographic profile has probably changed considerably since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003 and the fall of Saddam Hussein's government.[22]

Traditionally, Yazidis in Iraq lived in isolation and had their own villages. However, many of their villages were destroyed by the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. The Ba'athists created collective villages and forcibly relocated the Yazidis from their historical villages which would be destroyed.[172]

 
Yazidi new year celebrations in Lalish, 18 April 2017
 
Two Yazidi men at the new year celebrations in Lalish, 18 April 2017

According to the Human Rights Watch, Yazidis were under the Arabisation process of Saddam Hussein between 1970 and 2003. In 2009, some Yazidis who had previously experienced the Arabisation policies of Saddam Hussein complained about the political tactics of leaders of the Kurdistan Region that since 1992 were intended to make Yazidis identify as Kurds.[30] A report from Human Rights Watch (HRW), in 2009, declares that to incorporate disputed territories in northern Iraq—particularly the Nineveh province—into the Kurdish region, the KDP authorities had used KRG's political and economical resources to make Yazidis identify as Kurds. The HRW report also criticises heavy-handed tactics."[30]

Syria

Main article: Yazidis in Syria

Yazidis in Syria live primarily in two communities, one in the Al-Jazira area and the other in the Kurd-Dagh.[22] Population numbers for the Syrian Yazidi community are unclear. In 1963, the community was estimated at about 10,000, according to the national census, but numbers for 1987 were unavailable.[173] There may be between about 12,000 and 15,000 Yazidis in Syria today,[22][174] though more than half of the community may have emigrated from Syria since the 1980s.

 
Yazidi men

Georgia

Main article: Yazidis in Georgia

The Yazidi population in Georgia has been dwindling since the 1990s, mostly due to economic migration to Russia and the West. According to a census carried out in 1989, there were over 30,000 Yazidis in Georgia; according to the 2002 census, however, only around 18,000 Yazidis remained in Georgia. However, by other estimates, the community fell from around 30,000 people to fewer than 5,000 during the 1990s. Today they number as little 6,000 by some estimates, including recent refugees from Sinjar in Iraq, who fled to Georgia following persecution by ISIL.[175] On 16 June 2015, Yazidis celebrated the opening of the Sultan Ezid Temple and cultural centre, named after Sultan Ezid in Varketili, a suburb of Tbilisi. This is the third such temple in the world after those in Iraqi Kurdistan and Armenia.[175]

Armenia

Main article: Yazidis in Armenia

According to the 2011 census, there are 35,272 Yazidis in Armenia, making them Armenia's largest ethnic minority group.[176] Ten years earlier, in the 2001 census, 40,620 Yazidis were registered in Armenia.[177] They have a significant presence in the Armavir province of Armenia. Media have estimated the number of Yazidis in Armenia to be between 30,000 and 50,000. Most of them are the descendants of refugees who fled to Armenia in order to escape the persecution that they had previously suffered during Ottoman rule, including a wave of persecution which occurred during the Armenian genocide, when many Armenians found refuge in Yazidi villages.[178]

 
The Ziarat temple in Aknalich, Armenia

There is a Yazidi temple called Ziarat in the village of Aknalich in the region of Armavir. In September 2019, the largest Yazidi temple in the world called "Quba Mere Diwane", was opened in Aknalich, just a few meters from the Ziarat temple. The temple is privately funded by Mirza Sloian, a Yazidi businessman based in Moscow who is originally from the Armavir region.[179][180]

Russia

Main article: Yazidism in Russia

In Russia, the largest population of Yazidis is concentrated in Moscow. There are also Yazidis living in Saint Petersburg. Outside these two major metropolitan areas, Adygea, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Sverdlovsk Oblast (capital: Yekaterinburg), and Novosibirsk Oblast each have between 3,500 and 10,000 Yazidis. Smaller Yazidi populations are also scattered throughout Russia.[28]

Turkey

Main article: Yazidis in Turkey
 
Yazidi men in Mardin, Turkey, late 19th century

A sizeable part of the autochthonous Yazidi population of Turkey fled the country for present-day Armenia and Georgia starting from the late 19th century.[160] There are additional communities in Russia and Germany due to recent migration.[170] The Yazidi community of Turkey declined precipitously during the 20th century. Most of them have immigrated to Europe, particularly Germany; those who remain reside primarily in villages in their former heartland of Tur Abdin.[22]

Western Europe

Main article: Yazidis in Germany

This mass emigration has resulted in the establishment of large Yazidi diaspora communities abroad. The most significant of these is in Germany, which now has a Yazidi community of more than 200,000[5][6] living primarily in Hannover, Bielefeld, Celle, Bremen, Bad Oeynhausen, Pforzheim and Oldenburg.[181] Most are from Turkey and, more recently, Iraq and live in the western states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony.[22] Since 2008, Sweden has seen sizeable growth in its Yazidi emigrant community, which had grown to around 4,000 by 2010, and a smaller community exists in the Netherlands.[22] Other Yazidi diaspora groups live in Belgium, Denmark, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia; these have a total population of probably less than 5,000.[22]

North America

A community of Yazidis have settled as refugees in the United States of America and Canada. Many Yazidis now live in Lincoln, Nebraska[182][183][184][185] and Houston, Texas.[186][187][188] It is thought that Nebraska has the largest settlement (an estimated number of at least 10,000) of Yazidis in the United States, with a history of immigration to the state under refuge settlement programs starting in the late 1990s.[183] Many of the men of the community served as translators for the US military.[187][188]

Western perceptions

As the Yazidis hold religious beliefs that are mostly unfamiliar to outsiders, many non-Yazidi people have written about them and ascribed to their beliefs facts that have dubious historical validity. The Yazidis, perhaps because of their secrecy, also have a place in modern occultism.

In Western literature

 
Image from A journey from London to Persepolis, 1865

In William Seabrook's book Adventures in Arabia, the fourth section, starting with Chapter 14, is devoted to the "Yezidees" and is titled "Among the Yezidees". He describes them as "a mysterious sect scattered throughout the Orient, strongest in North Arabia, feared and hated both by Moslem and Christian, because they are worshippers of Satan." In the three chapters of the book, he completely describes the area, including the fact that this territory, including their holiest city of Sheik-Adi, was not part of "Irak".[189]

George Gurdjieff wrote about his encounters with the Yazidis several times in his book Meetings with Remarkable Men, mentioning that they are considered to be "devil worshippers" by other ethnicities in the region. Also, in Peter Ouspensky's book "In Search of the Miraculous", he describes some strange customs that Gurdjieff observed in Yazidi boys: "He told me, among other things, that when he was a child he had often observed how Yezidi boys were unable to step out of a circle traced round them on the ground" (p. 36)

Idries Shah, writing under the pen-name Arkon Daraul, in the 1961 book Secret Societies Yesterday and Today, describes discovering a Yazidi-influenced secret society in the London suburbs called the "Order of the Peacock Angel." Shah claimed Tawûsê Melek could be understood, from the Sufi viewpoint, as an allegory of the higher powers in humanity.[190]

In H.P. Lovecraft's story "The Horror at Red Hook", some of the murderous foreigners are identified as belonging to "the Yezidi clan of devil-worshippers".[191]

In Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series novel The Letter of Marque, set during the Napoleonic wars, there is a Yazidi character named Adi. His ethnicity is referred to as "Dasni".

A fictional Yazidi character of note is the super-powered police officer King Peacock of the Top 10 series (and related comics).[192] He is portrayed as a kind, peaceful character with a broad knowledge of religion and mythology. He is depicted as conservative, ethical, and highly principled in family life. An incredibly powerful martial artist, he is able to perceive and strike at his opponent's weakest spots, a power that he claims is derived from communicating with Malek Ta'us.

United States military memoirs

In her memoir of her service with an intelligence unit of the US Army's 101st Airborne Division in Iraq during 2003 and 2004, Kayla Williams (2005) records being stationed in northern Iraq near the Syrian border in an area inhabited by "Yezidis". According to Williams, some Yazidis were Kurdish-speaking but did not consider themselves Kurds and expressed to her a fondness for America and Israel. She was able to learn only a little about the nature of their religion: she thought it very ancient, and concerned with angels. She describes a mountain-top Yazidi shrine as "a small rock building with objects dangling from the ceiling" and alcoves for the placement of offerings. She reported that local Muslims considered the Yazidis to be devil worshippers. (See § Persecution of Yazidis, below.)

In an October 2006 article in The New Republic, Lawrence F. Kaplan echoes Williams's sentiments about the enthusiasm of the Yazidis for the American occupation of Iraq, in part because the Americans protect them from oppression by militant Muslims and the nearby Kurds. Kaplan notes that the peace and calm of Sinjar is virtually unique in Iraq: "Parents and children line the streets when U.S. patrols pass by, while Yazidi clerics pray for the welfare of U.S. forces."[193]

Tony Lagouranis comments on a Yazidi prisoner in his book Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator's Dark Journey through Iraq:

There's a lot of mystery surrounding the Yazidi, and a lot of contradictory information. But I was drawn to this aspect of their beliefs: Yazidi don't have a Satan. Malak Ta'us, an archangel, God's favorite, was not thrown out of heaven the way Satan was. Instead, he descended, saw the suffering and pain of the world, and cried. His tears, thousands of years' worth, fell on the fires of hell, extinguishing them. If there is evil in the world, it does not come from a fallen angel or from the fires of hell. The evil in this world is man-made. Nevertheless, humans can, like Malak Ta'us, live in this world but still be good.[194]

Persecution of Yazidis

Main article: Persecution of Yazidis

Through their history, the Yazidi people have endured much systematic violence as they upheld their religion in the face of severe Islamic persecution and attempts to force them to convert to Islam and "Arabize" them by the Ottoman Empire and later in the 20th century by Iraq.[195][44]

The belief of some followers of other monotheistic religions of the region that the Peacock Angel equates with their own unredeemed evil spirit Satan,[196]: 29 [160] has incited centuries of persecution of the Yazidis as "devil worshippers".[197][198]

After the 2003 invasion of Iraq

On 7 April 2007, a 17-year-old Iraqi of the Yazidi faith, Du'a Khalil Aswad, was stoned to death by her family.[199][200] Rumours that the stoning was connected to her alleged conversion to Islam prompted reprisals against Yazidis, including a massacre in April 2007. In August 2007, some 500 Yazidis were killed in a coordinated series of bombings in Qahtaniya that became the deadliest suicide attack since the Iraq War began. In August 2009, at least 20 people were killed and 30 wounded in a double suicide bombing in northern Iraq, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. Two suicide bombers with explosive vests carried out the attack at a cafe in Sinjar, west of Mosul. In Sinjar, many townspeople are members of the Yazidi minority.[201]

By the Islamic State

Main articles: Sinjar massacre and Genocide of Yazidis by the Islamic State
 
Defend International provided humanitarian aid to Yazidi refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan in December 2014.
 
Yazidi Peshmerga at the shrine of Sharaf ad-Din in the Sinjar Mountains, 2019

In 2014, with the territorial gains of the Salafist militant group calling itself the Islamic State there was much upheaval in the Iraqi Yazidi population. Islamic State captured Sinjar in August 2014 following the withdrawal of Peshmerga troops of Masoud Barzani, forcing up to 50,000 Yazidis to flee into the nearby mountainous region.[202] In early August the town of Sinjar was nearly deserted as Kurdish Peshmerga forces were no longer able to keep ISIL forces from advancing. ISIL had previously declared the Yazidis to be devil worshippers.[203] Most of the population fleeing Sinjar retreated by trekking up nearby mountains with the ultimate goal of reaching Dohuk in Iraqi Kurdistan (normally a five-hour drive by car). Concerns for the elderly and those of fragile health were expressed by the refugees, who told reporters of their lack of water. Reports coming from Sinjar stated that sick or elderly Yazidi who could not make the trek were being executed by ISIL. Yazidi parliamentarian Haji Ghandour told reporters that "In our history, we have suffered 72 massacres. We are worried Sinjar could be a 73rd."[203]

UN groups say at least 40,000 members of the Yazidi sect, many of them women and children, took refuge in nine locations on Mount Sinjar, a craggy, 1,400 m (4,600 ft) high ridge identified in local legend as the final resting place of Noah's Ark, facing slaughter at the hands of jihadists surrounding them below if they fled, or death by dehydration if they stayed.[204] Between 20,000 and 30,000 Yazidis, most of them women and children, besieged by ISIL, escaped from the mountain after the People's Protection Units (YPG) and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) intervened to stop ISIL and opened a humanitarian corridor for them,[205] helping them cross the Tigris into Rojava.[206] Some Yazidis were later escorted back to Iraqi Kurdistan by Peshmerga and YPG forces, Kurdish officials have said.[207][208]

Captured women are treated as sex slaves or spoils of war, some are driven to suicide. Women and girls who convert to Islam are sold as brides, those who refuse to convert are tortured, raped and eventually murdered. Babies born in the prison where the women are held are taken from their mothers to an unknown fate.[209][210] Nadia Murad, a Yazidi human rights activist and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner, was kidnapped and used as a sex slave by the ISIL in 2014.[211] In October 2014, the United Nations reported that more than 5,000 Yazidis had been murdered and 5,000 to 7,000 (mostly women and children) had been abducted by ISIL.[212] ISIS has, in their digital magazine Dabiq, explicitly claimed religious justification for enslaving Yazidi women.[213] In December 2014, Amnesty International published a report.[214][215] Despite the oppression Yazidis' women have sustained, they have appeared on the news as examples of retaliation. They have received training and taken positions at the frontlines of the fighting, making up about a third of the Kurd–Yazidi coalition forces, and have distinguished themselves as soldiers.[216][217]

See also

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yezidis.

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Further reading

  • Açıkyıldız, Birgül (2014). The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion. London: I.B. Tauris & Company. ISBN 978-1-784-53216-1. OCLC 888467694.
  • Cumont, Franz (1911). The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism. Chicago, IL: Open Court Publishing. pp. 152–153. ISBN 978-0-486-20321-8. OCLC 670375427.
  • Drower, E.S. (1941). Peacock Angel; Being Some Account of Votaries of a Secret Cult and Their Sanctuaries. London: John Murray. OCLC 4821609.
  • Husseini, Rana (2012). "Chapter 15. The Historical and Religious Seeds of 'Honor'". In Clark, Kelly James (ed.). Abraham's Children: Liberty and Tolerance in an Age of Religious Conflict. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-18333-7. OCLC 809235956.
  • Joseph, Isya (January 1909). "Yezidi Texts". The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures. 25 (2): 111–156. doi:10.1086/369616. JSTOR 527914.
  • Kreyenbroek, Philip G. (1995). "Yezidism -- Its Background, Observances, and Textual Tradition". Texts and Studies in Religion (in Kurdish and English). Lewiston, Queenston and Lampeter, NY: Edwin Mellen Press. 62. OCLC 31377794. ISBN 978-0-773-49004-8
  • Kreyenbroek, Philip G.; Kartal, Z.; Omarkhali, Kh.; Rashow, Kh. Jindy (2009). Yezidism in Europe: Different Generations Speak About Their Religion. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-06060-8. OCLC 554952854.
  • Omarkhali, Kh. "Yezidism: Society, Symbol, Observance". Istanbul, 2007. In Kurdish.
  • Reshid, Tosine (2005). "Yezidism: historical roots". International Journal of Kurdish Studies. 19 (1–2). Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  • Rodziewicz, A., Yezidi Eros. Love as The Cosmogonic Factor and Distinctive Feature of The Yezidi Theology in The Light of Some Ancient Cosmogonies, , 2014/3,41, pp. 42–105.
  • Rodziewicz, A., Tawus Protogonos: Parallels between the Yezidi Theology and Some Ancient Greek Cosmogonies, Iran and the Caucasus, 2014/18,1, pp. 27–45.
  • Williams, Kayla, and Michael E. Staub. 2005. Love My Rifle More Than You. W.W. Norton, New York. ISBN 0-393-06098-5
  • Victoria Arakelova Yezdistan versus Kurdistan: Another Legend on the Origin of the Yezidis // Iran and the Caucasus 21 (2017)

External links

 
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Yazidi
  • Les Ezidis de France
  • Yazda – A Global Yazidi Organization
  • The Beginning of the Universe, photos and a description of Yezidi life in Lalish, Iraq, by Michael J. Totten (22 February 2006).
  • Rubin, Alissa J. (14 October 2007). "Persecuted Sect in Iraq Avoids Its Shrine". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 August 2009.

March 11, 2023
yazidis, this, article, about, people, their, religion, yezidi, redirects, here, other, uses, yazid, disambiguation, yezidis, listen, kurdish, ئێزیدی, romanized, Êzidî, kurmanji, speaking, endogamous, minority, group, indigenous, kurdistan, geographical, regio. This article is about Yazidis the people For their religion see Yazidism Yezidi redirects here For other uses see Yazid disambiguation Yazidis or Yezidis j e ˈ z iː d iː z listen 23 Kurdish ئێزیدی romanized Ezidi 24 25 are a Kurmanji speaking 22 endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq Syria Turkey and Iran 26 27 28 The majority of Yazidis remaining in the Middle East today live in Iraq primarily in the governorates of Nineveh and Duhok 29 30 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 31 32 Yazidism is the ethnic religion of the Yazidi people and is monotheistic in nature having roots in a pre Zoroastrian Iranic faith 33 34 35 36 37 Yazidisئێزیدی Ezidi A Yazidi Tawwaf ceremony Baashiqa IraqTotal population1 000 000 1 500 000 estimate 1 2 Regions with significant populationsSee list of Yazidi settlementsListed by countries Iraq500 000 700 000 3 4 Germany200 000 2019 estimate 5 6 Russia40 586 2010 census 7 Armenia35 272 2011 census 8 Belgium35 000 2018 estimate 9 Georgia12 174 2014 census 10 United States10 000 2017 estimate 11 France10 000 2018 estimate 12 13 Syria10 000 2017 estimate 14 15 Sweden6 000 2018 estimate 16 Turkey5 000 2010 estimate 17 18 Australia2 738 2019 estimate 19 Canada1 200 2018 estimate 20 LanguagesKurmanji northern Kurdish 21 North Mesopotamian Arabic in Bashiqa and Bahzani 22 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 Most recently the 2014 Yazidi genocide that was carried out by the Islamic State saw over 5 000 Yazidis killed and thousands of Yazidi women and girls forced into sexual slavery 38 as well as the flight of more than 500 000 Yazidi refugees 39 40 41 Contents 1 Origins 2 History 2 1 Early history and origins 2 1 1 Territory and religious administrative structure 2 1 2 Early relations in the Middle East 2 2 Ottoman period 2 2 1 16th century 2 2 2 17th century 2 2 3 Between 1715 and 1809 2 2 4 Yazidi Muzuri feud and the Sheikhan massacre 2 2 5 Attacks by Bedir Khan Beg and persecution of Yazidis and Christians 2 3 End of the Ottoman period 2 3 1 Reign of Abdul Hamid II 1876 1909 2 3 2 World War I 3 Identity 4 Religion 5 Genetics 6 Demographics 6 1 Iraq 6 2 Syria 6 3 Georgia 6 4 Armenia 6 5 Russia 6 6 Turkey 6 7 Western Europe 6 8 North America 7 Western perceptions 7 1 In Western literature 7 1 1 United States military memoirs 8 Persecution of Yazidis 8 1 After the 2003 invasion of Iraq 8 2 By the Islamic State 9 See also 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External linksOrigins Yazidi chief in Bashiqa Iraq picture by Albert Kahn 1910s The Yazidis own name for themselves is Ezidi or in some areas Dasini although the latter strictly speaking is a tribal name Some western scholars derive the name from the Umayyad Caliph Yazid ibn Muʿawiya Yazid I 42 However all Yazidis reject any relationship between their name and the caliph 43 The word Yazidi means the servant of the creator 44 Other scholars derive it from Old Iranian yazata Middle Persian yazad divine being 45 Another derivation of the word origin relates to Ez da Created me Yazidis also refer to Xwede ez dam God created me and to Em milete ezdain We are the Ezdayi nation 46 Scholars have discovered many striking similarities between the Yazidis the Yaresan and the Kurdish Alevis 47 48 33 49 The shared features among the three religions can be traced back to an ancient faith that was probably dominant among the western Iranic peoples 50 but distinct from Zoroastrianism and derived from the pre Zoroastrian Iranic tradition 51 33 Early writers attempted to describe Yazidi origins broadly speaking in terms of Islam or Persian or sometimes even pagan religions however research published since the 1990s has shown such an approach to be simplistic 22 HistoryEarly history and origins Yezidism emerged in the 12th century when Sheikh Adi who after studying in Baghdad established an order of his own called Adawiyya mentioned in medieval Arabic sources as Akrad Adawiyya Adawiyya Kurds settled in Lalish valley and introduced his doctrines to the local Kurds at the time practicing an old Iranic faith 52 53 which although similar was separate from Zoroastrianism and was of pre Zoroastrian origin 54 55 56 After his death in 1162 AD his disciples and successors blended his doctrines and teachings with the local and ancient Iranic traditions 52 Because of this Yezidi tradition uses many terms images and symbols of Sufi or Islamic origin meanwhile still to a larger extent preserving pre Islamic mythology symbology rituals festivals and traditions 57 58 54 59 Yezidism was embraced by many Kurdish tribes and emirates Yezidi manuscripts called misurs which were written down in the 13th century contain lists of Kurdish tribes who were affiliated to Yezidi Pir saints Only two of the total of 40 manuscripts have been published so far namely the Misur of Pir Sini Darani and the Misur of Pir Xetib Pisi the list in the Misur of Pir Sini Darani include some large tribes that have been mostly or fully islamized today including but not limited to the large Shikak Resan Dumili Dumbuli Memkan Kikan and Musaresan tribes 60 61 In addition Sherefkhan Bidlisi writes in Serefname that seven of the most important Kurdish tribes were Yezidi 62 63 Yezidism was the official religion of numerous Kurdish emirates and principalities including the principalities of Bohtan 64 Mahmudi 65 Donboli 66 and the Emirate of Kilis 67 68 Territory and religious administrative structure Yazidi temple in Bashiqa 2020 Starting from the 14th century Yezidis built up their own internal religious and political administrative apparatus in the areas that were inhabited by them The Yezidi territory was divided into seven administrative centres each having its own Sincaq banner flag province region more commonly known as Tawis among the Yezidis Sincaqs are sacred bronze effigies bearing the image of a bird or peacock to symbolize Tawusi Melek They serve as symbols of power for each administrative centre namely 69 70 71 Tawisa Enzel Welatsex Sexan Lalish Tawisa Singale Shingal District Tawisa Hekkare sometimes also called Tawisa Zozana Historical region of Hakkari Hakkari Sirnak Van and Duhok Tawisa Welate Xalta Region around Siirt Batman Diyarbakir Mardin etc Tawisa Helebe Aleppo and Afrin Tawisa Tewreze the city of Tabriz located in today s Iran Yazidis lived in the western hinterland in the Khoy region Tawisa Misqofa Moscow Renamed from Tawisa Serhede after the exodus of the Yazidis from Serhed to the Russian Empire Serhed is a region covering the cities of Kars Ardahan Erzurum Agri Van Bitlis and Mus 72 Every six months the Yezidi Qewals who are trained reciters of Qewls and other forms of sacred oral Yezidi tradition were sent out to other Yezidi inhabited areas with military protection from the central administrative region of Shekhan and the spiritual centre of Lalish This tradition served to preserve the Yezidi faith and doctrine The Qewals were financed exclusively by the voluntary alms of the faithful The Qewals and delegates led a Sincaq intended for the region they were visiting and paraded it through the Yazidi villages and areas to maintain the spiritual legitimacy and to symbolize the authority of Lalish and the Mir 69 Early relations in the Middle East Due to the ever growing large and influential power of the Yezidis they began to be perceived as a threat by the neighbouring Muslims leading to a rapid intensification of the Yezidi Muslim conflict that would last for centuries Yezidis were subject to brutal persecution by Arabs Persians Turks and Sunni Kurds Two of the most known early and major expeditions against the Yezidis took place in 1246 when the Yezidi leader Sheikh Hassan ibn Adi was killed by Badr Ad Din Lulu and 1414 when a joint army of neighbouring Sunni Kurdish tribes ransacked Lalish 53 73 During these conflicts many important Yezidi chiefs were forcibly converted to Islam leading to a gradual decline of the Yezidi power from the 15th century However Yezidis were also able to establish alliances with the authorities and neighbouring powers at various times some Yezidi tribes allied with Qara Yusuf of Kara Qoyunlu while others allied with Uzun Hasan of the rival Aq Qoyunlu against the Timurids During Saladin s reign Yezidis served as troops 74 75 ambassadors 76 and they were given lands to govern 77 78 Ottoman period 16th century Yezidis came into contact with the Ottomans for the first time in the early 16th century and lived as semi independent entities under the Ottoman Empire 52 The Ottomans had conquered Kurdish regions and installed their own governors in Diyarbekir Urfa Shingal and Mosul In 1516 AD Sultan Selim the Grim launched an invasion into Syria capturing Aleppo and Damascus from the Mamluks of Egypt The chief of the Kurds in Aleppo was Qasim Beg he had long been at odds with the Mamluks who wished to install Sheikh Izz ed Din a Yezidi in his stead Despite Qasim Beg paying homage to the Sultan Sheikh Izz ed Din was still able to have himself named the Emir of the Kurds after persuading the local Ottoman governors to execute Qasim Beg for treason However due to Sheikh Izz ed Din leaving no heirs after his death the title was returned to the family of Qasim Beg 79 80 Yezidis were a large and numerous group living in many places namely based on Evliya Celebi s reports in Bingol Bitlis Van Hazo Amedi Diyarbekir Hasankeyf Cizir and Duhok Yezidi leaders occupied important positions within the provincial Ottoman system and were appointed as governors as far as Tikrit and Kerek Yezidis were also participants in commerce and river transportation of their territory through contact with other ethnicities and religions Evliya Celebi describes the quality of Yezidi products in the following manner 66 The quality of Yezidis grapes and honey is priceless and their raisins are highly priced in Baghdad Basra and Lahsa markets They have many Berry trees Sinjar has important mineral as well Celebi also reports that Yezidis collected fees by taking people from Hasankeyf to the other side with their ferries 66 Under the reign of Sultan Suleyman in 1534 the Yezidi leader Hussein Beg was given the control over the domain of the Soran Emirate together with its capital of Erbil and the Bahdinan Emirate with its capital of Amediye Hussein Beg s father Hassan Beg had allied himself with the victorious Ottomans after the Battle of Chaldiran and was famed for his diplomatic and political expertise which helped him bring Mosul under his rule and become a powerful and influential figure His son Hussein Beg succeeded him after his death in 1534 Despite the persecution and the brutal rule over the Muslims of Soran the Yezidis were able to maintain a large political military power under the short lived but prosperous leadership of Hussein Beg and enjoy a rare period of peace and freedom from persecution The Muslims of Soran opposed Hussein Beg s rule and attempted to overthrow the Dasini rulers several times their initial attempts were unsuccessful and were repelled until the neighbouring Muslim rulers formed an alliance against Hussein Beg and captured Erbil while Hussein Beg was absent and on a visit to Sheikhan or Istanbul according to other sources Hussein Beg s attempts to retake the city were unsuccessful due to the local support enjoyed by the Muslim rulers and resulted in the death of 500 Yezidi warriors After the defeat Hussein Beg was summoned back to Istanbul and executed 81 82 83 84 As the relations were deteriorating with the Ottomans and strained with the Sunni Kurds the Ottomans exploited from these tensions and used religious differences to control both groups In 1566 Abu al S ud al Amadi al Kurdi who was the Mufti of the Ottoman Empire and Sheikh al Islam cooperated with the Ottoman Sultans and issued fatwas that legitimized the Sultan s killing of Yezidis enslavement of Yezidi women and the sale of Yezidi slaves in the markets This resulted in Yezidis being subject to constant Ottoman military pressure and their territories being considered Dar Al Harb from a religious standpoint 85 In later periods Sunni Kurdish princes particularly those of the Bahdinan principality and its Muslim clerics requested the Ottoman Sultan to eliminate the Yazidis with the justification of Yazidi being apostates Numerous Ottoman documents reveal the role of the princes including one dating back to 1568 AD which reads 85 The necessity of ending the corruption and evil doing of the Dasini sect i e Yazidis and asking the Ottoman state to send firmans orders to the governors of Mosul and Erbil to punish the DasinisAccording to another document dating back to 1571 AD the Prince of Bahdinan Sultan Husayn Waly demanded the Ottomans to send a firman Order to the states Wilayat of Jazira Mosul Amadiya and Erbil to arrest the Yezidi leaders 85 17th century During the first half of the 17th century Yezidis became a very powerful entity under the leadership of Ezidi Mirza a young yet reputable military leader who gained fame after leading a counter attack against Muslim raiders in his hometown of Bashiqa and inflicting a devastating defeat despite being outnumbered He went on to become the head of the Bashiqa Bahzani and in later stages of his life also the Governor of Mosul He and his troops fought for the Ottoman side during Battle of Baghdad together with the Mir of the Yezidis at the time Zeynal Javkhali and six other Yezidi chieftains In 1649 Ezidi Mirza was appointed as the governor of Mosul a title which he held until his death in 1651 Ezidi Mirza is mentioned in several Yezidi sagas until today 86 87 88 89 During the 17th century the Ottomans launched numerous expeditions against the Yezidis in Shingal who had long controlled the trading routes around Shingal attacked Ottoman caravans and refused to pay the taxes levied by the Ottomans The first expedition was led by the Ottoman Grand Vizier Nasuh Pasha and took place in 1613 AD which resulted in a Yezidi victory and 7 000 of the Ottoman soldiers being slaughtered according to the reports of Evliya Celebi 90 91 92 In 1640 another expedition against the Yezidis of Shingal was launched by another Grand Vizier Melek Ahmed Pasha of Diyarbekir The Ottoman troops surrounded Shingal mountains and stormed Yezidi positions Despite heavy casualties the Ottomans eventually succeeded in capturing the mountain 92 Evliya Celebi who was an eyewitness of the event reports that 3 060 Yezidis were killed on the Shingal mountain and writes about the wealth of the Yezidis and the abundance of the Yezidi areas which he describes as being prosperous in the Yezidis hands He reports the spoils from the Ottoman attacks on Yezidis in the following manner 93 These Yezidis were as wealthy as Croesus All the multitudes of troops from the provinces of Van and Diyarbekir and Mardin who came to the aid of Melek Ahmed Pasha all the Kurdistan soldiery who participated in plundering the money and food and drink and copper vessels and household furnishings and the like which emerged over ten days from the Sacli Dagi caves could not carry away more than a drop in the sea and a mote in the sun For ever since the event of Kerbela these people have been rich and no king had ever conquered them before In 1655 Evliya Celebi revisited Shingal to catch up with Firari Mustafa Pasha the governor of Diyarbekir whom Evliya had been ordered to collect an old debt from Firari Mustafa Pasha had encamped in Shingal to collect taxes from the Yezidis when he sent a delegation to parley with the locals and demand tax payments the Yezidis replied if Melek Ahmed Pasha had come back to fight them they would rub their faces in his footprints but for Mustafa Pasha they would only give ten loads of silk which enraged Mustafa Pasha and provoked him into calling for reinforcements and launching an expedition against the Yezidis of Shingal the result of this expedition is unknown 94 In Evliya s works the tribes of Rojki 75 Haliti Xalti Cekvani Bapiri Celovi Temani Mervani Beddi Tateki Gevari Gevasi Zebari Beziki Modiki Kanahi and Sikak are mentioned as Yezidis 95 A lot of phrases are used by Evliya when referring to Yezidis namely Sacli Kurdu long haired Kurds Yezidi Ekrad Yezidi Kurds Sacli Yezidi Kurdleri long haired Yezidi Kurds kavm i na pak impure group bed mezheb bad sect bi din faithless savm u salat ve hacc u zekat vermezler they do not know anything about these pillars of Islam kelb perest dog worshippers and firka i dal heretic sect 93 In 1671 another battle in the Shingal mountain which lasted for three years between the Sacheli tribe and armies of the neighbouring Pashas ended up in a victory for the mountaineers who captured around 4 000 prisoners 96 Between 1715 and 1809 Yezidis are mentioned in Van Tarihi a 1715 1716 account by the local imam of the Van city Ibn i Nuh which was about the history of Van The report describes an Ottoman attack on the Yezidis of Van which took place in 1715 It addresses Yezidi victory during the first waves of attacks and Yezidis capturing the Pasha of the city of Van during the battle Under the section titled as Harb i Yezidiyan Der Sahra yi Canik Ba Vaniyan The battle of the Yezidis with Vanis at the desert of Canik Ibn i Nuh lists the names of important people who died during the battle and describes a dreadful situation for the Muslims and Islam at the hands of what he describes as Cund i Seytan The army of the Devil Under the section Maktel i Yezidiyan ve Intikam i Suheda i Van The Killing of Yezidis and the Revenge of the Martyrs of Van he recounts the Pasha of the city assembling an army of 7 000 soldiers from Ahlat Adilcevaz and Ercis to take on the Yezidis and the battle eventually ending up in a victory for the Empire and the Muslims He describes that this place did not pay Jizya or poll tax and that it was considered the Abode of War He also mentions that some Christians lost their lives and that many women and children held as captives 66 In 1743 Nadir Shah launched an invasion in the west and was aiming to capture Mosul sent a force to subdue the Yezidi chieftain As after capturing Altun Kopru and Kirkuk As had often raided the western provinces of Persia from his base in the mountains around Koi Sanjak The Persians defeated an army of several thousand Yezidis and killed their leader Yezid As was able to escape enlist allies and lay siege to a ruined fort where the Persian cavalry had held Yezidi women captive The defenders were at the edge of being overrun when the shah s nephew brought reinforcements and stopped the siege As who was abandoned by his allies considered committing suicide but finally surrendered himself to Nadir Shah instead and was eventually appointed the governor of the district 97 Throughout the 18th century Yezidi mirs of Sheikhan were subjects to the Kurdish Principality of Amadiya a semi autonomous fiefdom which guarded the Ottoman frontiers in the east The rulers who were strict Sunni Muslims claiming descent from the Abbasids had ruled Amadiya since the Timurid period Amadiya was also home to a Jewish community and included Nestorians who were actively proselytized by Dominican missionaries who were stationed there from 1759 to 1779 Yezidis are briefly mentioned by one of the missionaries Padre Maurizio Garzoni who reported the post of the executioner is always given by the princes of Amadiya to a Yezidi who never loath to shed Muslim blood Yezidi mirs of Sheikhan were also involved in several rebellions against Amadiya principality in 1770 1771 Bedagh Beg who was Mir of Sheikhan at the time joined a rebellion against the Prince of Amadiya Ismail Pasha Bedagh Beg eventually got captured and fined and 16 years later his son and successor Jolo Beg was involved in another rebellion but had to later retreat In 1789 1790 Jolo still maintained the title of Mir and was involved in battles against the Tayy Arabs who were raiding Sheikhan but in the following year Jolo and his brother were executed by Ismail Pasha who appointed a Khanjar Beg as the Mir in their stead However after quarrels with Khanjar the Mir position was returned to the old Dynasty and Khanjar was replaced by Jolo Beg s son Hasan Beg 98 In Shingal Yezidis had gained notoriety for raiding every caravan passing between Mardin and Mosul Yezidi raiders operated as far as in the routes between Anah and Baghdad where one band attacked a caravan in 1782 and seized 30 donkey loads of cotton goods Caravans that were escorted by well armed guards were often able to fight off raiders whereas fate of other caravans was often a total loss or a ransom The favourite targets were lightly armed official couriers who relied on speed to reach their destination In one case a captured courier was found to be carrying 40 000 carats of high grade pearls As a result several expeditions were launched against the Yezidis the punitive expeditions from Baghdad first one launched in 1715 and a later one in 1753 inflicted heavy casualties However subsequently the expeditions launched against Shingal from Mosul and Baghdad became less severe and was counted as a cost of doing business by the raiders 99 In 1785 the governor of Mosul Abd el Baqi Pasha led a raid on the nomadic Dina tribe of Yezidis living east of Tigris near Duhok led by a young chief named Kor Namir Agha The Blind Namir Agha who was blind in one eye Whilst the Pasha s troops were looting the deserted villages they were ambushed and the Pasha together with his brother were killed The panic stricken troops fled to Mosul while being pursued by the fighters of the Dina tribe The sequel of this encounter is not recorded 99 100 The enslavement of Yezidi captives and military action against Yezidis was legitimized by Muslim theologians who classified Yezidis as heretics At least eight expeditions are recorded between 1767 and 1809 99 and according to the French orientalist Roger Lescot the Ottomans launched 15 campaigns against the Yezidis of Shingal and Sheikhan in the 18th century alone 85 One expedition against the Yezidis of Shingal was led by the Governor of Baghdad Ali Pasha who forced many families into converting to Islam Another expedition in 1809 was led by the new Governor of Baghdad Sulayman Pasha who burnt down Yezidi farms and beheaded Yezidi chieftains 85 The 18th 19th centuries saw a further decline of the Yazidi influence power and population With the ending of the semi autonomous Kurdish principalities and the series of Ottoman Tanzimat reforms from the mid 19th century onward made the Yezidi populated regions more prone to localized political instabilities Furthermore being excluded from the status of People of the Book the Yezidis weren t granted religious rights that were enjoyed by other groups such as Christians and Jews under the Ottoman millet system 101 Yazidi Muzuri feud and the Sheikhan massacre By the early 19th century Yezidis were involved in a long feud with the neighbouring Sunni Kurdish tribe of Mizuri who with one of their clerics had issued in a fatwa in 1724 that Yezidis were infidels and apostates and that killing them was a religious duty Female Yezidis and the Yezidi property were to be considered spoils of war In another encounter in 1802 the Alghushiyya branch of Mizuris raided the Yezidi village of Ghabara in western Sheikhan killed nearly a hundred people and occupied Lalish for eight months 85 One day the Yezidi leader Ali Beg sent a word the Mizuri chieftain Ali Agha al Balti expressing the desire for peace and friendship and offering him to act as a kiriv sponsor for the circumcision of his son The Mizuri chieftain responded favourably and a few days later arrived with a small escort at the town of Baadre where the residence of the Yezidi princely family is located It is unknown whether he took a small escort out of disdain for the Yezidi leader or for the purpose of demonstrating his trust in his host Upon his arrival Ali Beg had him treacherously murdered leading to a great degree of anger among the Mizuris and provoking them into gathering for great raid against the town of Baadre In anticipation of the attack thousands of Yezidi warriors stationed themselves in Baadre The raid was called off due to fear of Bahdinan forces assembling against the Mizuris when the Pasha of Amadiya who was also the Prince of Bahdinan and was suspected of having conspired in the Mizuri chieftain s assassination announced his opposition to the raid 102 Thereby Mulla Yahya al Mizuri a cousin or nephew to the Mizuri chieftain and a respected religious dignitary unsuccessfully attempted to plead for rectification from the Bahdinan Prince who declined to sanction punitive action against Yezidis and blamed Ali Agha for naively accepting Ali Beg s offer and venturing into his enemy s own country without adequate escort Mulla Yahya who was disappointed and angry was still determined to avenge the death of his kinsman and eventually managed to persuade the Pasha of Rawanduz Muhammad Pasha into sending a punitive force to punish the Yezidis Accounts regarding the manner in which he persuaded Muhammad Pasha vary from him visiting and seeking the aid of the wali of Baghdad who upon hearing the Mullah s grievances sent a letter to Muhammad Pasha and urged him to punish Yezidis for their misdeeds to the Mullah directly visiting Muhammad Pasha with whom he was on very friendly terms 102 Muhammad Pasha prepared an army of 40 000 50 000 against the Yezidis he divided his force into two groups one lead by his brother Rasul and the other one led by himself These forces marched in March 1832 crossing the Great Zab River and first entering and killing many inhabitants of the Yezidi village Kallak a Dasinyya which was situated near Erbil and was the border between Yezidis and Soran Principality until the 19th century These forces proceeded to march and capture other Yezidi villages After arriving in Sheikhan Muhammad Pasha s forces seized the village of Khatara and marched onwards to Alqosh where they were confronted by a joint force of Yezidis and the Bahdinan who were led by Yusuf Abdo a Bahdinan leader from Amadiya and Baba Hurmuz who was the head of the Christian monastery in Alqosh These joint forces then left their positions and relocated to the town of Baadre Ali Beg wished to negotiate but Muhammad Pasha influenced by the clerics Mulla Yahya al Mizuri and Muhammad Khati rejected any chance of reconciliation Yezidis of Sheikhan were defeated and subject to devastating massacres where slaughter of both the elderly and young rape and slavery were some of the tactics Yezidi property including gold and silver was plundered and looted and numerous towns and villages previously inhabited by the Yezidis were demographically islamized Afterwards Muhammad Pasha sent a large force to Shingal where he was met with the resistance of the Yezidis under the leadership of Ali Beg s wife After numerous defeats Muhammad Pasha s forces eventually succeeded in capturing the district The Yezidis who survived the massacres took refuge in distant areas including but not limited to Tur Abdin Mount Judi and the less affected Shingal region After controlling most of the Yezidi territory the Pasha s forces enslaved and took home around 10 000 Yezidi captives mostly females and children together with Ali Beg to Rawanduz the capital of the princedom Upon the arriving in the capital the prisoners were asked to convert to Islam many of them including Ali Beg and his entourage rejected the request and thus were taken and executed at Gali Ali Beg which is until today named after Ali Beg 85 Christian communities lying in the path of Muhammad Pasha s army were also victim to the massacres the town of Alqosh was sacked large number of its inhabitants were put to the sword and the Rabban Hormizd monastery was plundered and its monks together with the Abbot Gabriel Dambo were put to death A large amount of the ancient manuscripts were destroyed or lost The monastery of Sheikh Matta suffered the same fate 102 After putting Yezidis of Sheikhan to the sword Muhammad Pasha invaded the rest of the Bahdinan attacking Akre and after a few days besieging the fortress of Akre which was regarded as almost impregnable and meeting the resistance of the Kurdish tribe of Zibari Thereafter he marched towards Amadiya which capitulated after a brief siege The entire region from Khabur to Great Zab rivers was brought under Muhammad Pasha s rule including Zakho and Duhok Muhammad Pasha appointed Musa Pasha a relative of the Bahdinan prince Said Pasha as the governor of the capital Musa Pasha who had been on bad terms with Said Pasha had offered valuable assistance to Muhammad Pasha during the attack on Amadiya 102 Attacks by Bedir Khan Beg and persecution of Yazidis and Christians In 1840 1844 Yezidis of Tur Abdin were repeatedly attacked by the ruler of Bohtan Bedirkhan Beg who had previously aided Muhammad Pasha during his incursions against Bahdinan and the Yezidis of Sheikhan Bedirkhan was a member of the Ezizan family the hereditary rulers of Bohtan and one of the oldest and most prominent Kurdish families whom according to Sharafkhan Bidlisi were originally adherents of Yezidism The Ezizan claimed descent from Abd al Aziz a son of the famous Islamic commander and companion of the Prophet Khalid Ibn al Walid 103 Yezidis of Tur Abdin had a strong tribal structure and were active participants in the political affairs One of the largest attacks took place in 1844 when Bedirkhan sent a large army to force Yazidis into accepting Islam those who refused were captured and killed Seven Yezidi villages converted to Islam out of fear 104 The local Christian population also suffered massacres in 1843 and 1846 by the hand of Bedirkhan and his allies Han Mahmoud and Nurallah Bey 105 Yezidis were object of extra attention from Bedirkhan During Bayram feast when Muslims celebrate Abraham s ritual sacrifice of Isaac by slaughtering animals Bedirkhan would round up Yezidi captives for a grisly ceremony where he would with his own hand slaughter those Yezidis who had refused to convert to Islam A medical missionary from Urmia who visited Derguleh in 1846 reported seeing 40 50 Yezidi converts in Bedirkhan s castle enjoying Bedirkhan s special attention and jealousy among his less favoured attendants 106 103 Pressure and protests from the European Powers namely France and England demanding a stop to the massacres of Nestorians and removal of Bedirkhan Beg led to the Ottoman forces with the support of Yezidi fighters 103 107 108 invading his territories in 1846 1847 At the beginning of the conflict Bedirkhan was able to successfully defeat the Ottoman army sent against him and afterwards he decided to sever all connections with the Ottoman Empire by proclaiming independence of his state and creating a currency of his own bearing the inscription Bedirkhan the Emir Of Bohtan However his success did not last for long Ottomans attacked again and Bedirkhan Beg despite offering some resistance vacated Cizre and took refuge in the fortress of Evreh His ally Han Mahmoud who was on his way to assist Bedirkhan was intercepted in Tillo and defeated by Ottoman forces and Yezidi fighters 103 Bedirkhan had to surrender to the Ottomans at Evreh Castle in Eruh Siirt on the 4 July 1847 109 He was put in chains with his family and eventually transferred to Constantinople 110 111 End of the Ottoman period Reign of Abdul Hamid II 1876 1909 Towards the end of the 19th century the Ottoman policies towards Yezidis gained a new dimension under the reign of Abdulhamid II under whose regime the Muslim Identity became increasingly essential for the Sultan s perceptions of loyalty among his subjects As missionary activity and nationalism among non Muslim groups was on the rise conversion to Islam in order to ensure their political loyalty was crucial in the perspective of Abdulhamid s government Conscription was one of the steps taken in order to convert them Thereafter Yezidis would be subject to persecution from Omer Wehbi Pasha who had been sent to Mosul by the Sultan for a task involving institutionalization of a conscription system collection of taxes resettlement of tribes 112 and crushing local tribal rebellions 113 He took the initiative of completing his tasks through violence due to the lack of cooperation from Yezidis Around 500 Yezidis died in the Shingal campaign of November December 1892 Lalish was forcibly converted into a madrasah sacred objects of the Yezidis were confiscated mosques built in Yezidi villages 112 and the Yezidi Mir Mirza Beg was provoked into converting to Islam 113 However in contrast to the expectations of Ottomans the campaign of the Pasha had crucial influence in setting a widespread religious revival in motion at Shingal Yezidi refugees fleeing from Sheikhan including both the commoners and the clergy took shelter on Shingal mountain and their stories about the atrocities in Sheikhan that were committed by Muslims facilitated the vigoruous millenarian and anti Muslim propaganda that were carried out by two religious personalities from Sheikhan who had settled in Shingal Mirza al Kabari and Alias Khallu Slogans about an imminent and new Yezidi reign of justice and prosperity against Muslim oppression were successful in mobilizing large sections of the local Yezidi populace This prompted Omar Wehbi Pasha to launch an unsuccessful intervention in Shingal which resulted in the faqir Hemoye Shero who had earlier declared himself the Paramount of Shingal together with his followers becoming the focus of anti Muslim resistance and increasing their military capacity by seizing a huge amount of Turkish armaments and ammunition which would be a determining factor in World War I In the following years a dispute occurred among the community on the mountain causing the power of Musqura and Mihirkan tribes to deteriorate as they included large Muslim sections and were thus traditionally viewed with the suspicion of being inclined to insitage Ottoman interference in the Shingali affairs 113 On 9 December 1892 Sultan Abdulhamid sent a telegram in which he dismissed Omar Wehbi Pasha from his post and ordered him to remain in Mosul pending arrival of a commission of inquiry and to be prepared to answer the charges of using Ottoman troops in combat without being given permission by the Ministry of War Four months later the Pasha returned to the capital in disgrace 114 Yezidis finally regained the possession of Lalish in 1904 and the stolen sacred objects were returned to them in 1914 112 As Hemoye Shero had acquired the Paramountcy of Sinjar his followers drastically increased in numbers and they began to serve as a compact and organized group which started to be named as the Fuqara tribe Among the Fuqara tribal cohesion very much depended on membership in the faqir religious class to which all the male members of the tribe belonged 113 At the Tur Abdin foothills west of Shingal Hasan Kanjo a Yezidi chieftain converted to Islam and joined the Hamidiye together with his tribe He later became the right hand man and lieutenant of Ibrahim Pasha the powerful chieftain of Milan confederacy and highly regarded by the Sultan Abdulhamid Hasan Kanjo built a fortress at Haleli east of Viransehir to serve as a base for fighting the desert Arab tribes including the Shammar Members of his tribe had been allowed to keep their Yezidi faith and were camped around the fortress 54 In Mosul a new Governor by the name of Aziz Pasha was appointed he had arranged a peace settlement in Shingal and allowed Yezidis of Sheikhan to practice their religion again The Yezidi Mir Mirza Beg among other prominent converts to Islam resumed their old faith However the price for these compromises was enforcement of military service continuance of the Islamic schools in the settlements on a voluntary basis and the surrender of the Lalish sanctuary to Muslim dervishes who had established a retreat there and operated an Islamic school Lalish would later be largely abandoned and left in ruins with reports of overgrowth of nettles and shrubbery in places where the roofs had fallen in and the dome above Sheikh Adi s mausoleum smashed allowing the sun to shine inside until Yezidis would rebuild and regain the possession of the sanctuary in 1904 54 World War I During World War I the Armenian genocide of 1915 caused a mass exodus of Yezidis from Van Kars and Bazid who together with many Armenians fled from the Ottoman Empire in masses to Transcaucasia following their kinsfolk who had already settled in territories of Russian Empire after fleeing during the Russo Turkish wars in 1828 1829 and 1877 1878 101 In May 1918 Ottomans crossed Akhuryan river in order to invade the Armenian Republic One column captured Alexandropol and marched north of Mount Aragats where eighty Yezidis were massacred at Kurdsky Pamb towards the Transcaucasian railway line to Baku The other column marched southeast along the left bank of the Aras river to secure the recently completed line to Tabriz At Sardarabad the column marching southeast was confronted by a 4 000 strong Armenian force which included 700 Yezidi cavalry A few days later Armenians and Yezidis drove back the northern column from the Bash Aparan defile on the slopes of Mount Aragats However during the first week of June an armistice was reached whereby the Ottomans could use the key railways but would leave Yerevan and Echmiadzin to the Armenians 115 The Yezidi participation in the decisive Battle of Sardarabad is still commemorated by Armenians 101 Yezidis in Tur Abdin and Shingal also formed common causes with Christians and fought defensively from their mountain strongholds 101 Yezidis in Shingal were led by Hemoye Shero who in 1914 1915 sheltered Christian refugees fleeing from persecution and in 1917 led raids with a mixed Yezidi tribal force against Turkish convoys and military posts on the route to Nusaybin causing severe disruptions on Turkish communication lines north of the Shingal mountains Additionally he fiercely resisted Ottoman attack on the Shingal mountain when Ottoman troops besieged the mountain and briefly occupied Yezidi villages to the south using Tel Afar as their logistic base 116 In 1915 1916 the Ottomans with the support of numerous Sunni Kurdish tribes initiated widespread persecutions against the Christian communities of Mardin Nusaybin and Cizre Leading to waves of Christian refugees including Armenians Chaldeans Jacobites and Nestorians fleeing to Shingal in hope of finding shelter among the local Yezidis By 1916 approximately 900 people had taken permanent residence in Balad City of Shingal and the village of Bardahali which had by then turned into the headquarters of the Fuqara tribe Hemoye Shero the chief of Fuqara promoted Christian settlement on the Mountain through granting them his protection in accordance with a Shingali custom which encouraged the settlement of Christians if a local Yazidi agha would guarantee for them This helped Hemoye Shero to seize full control of Shingal city the capital and most important commercial centre of the mountain as he gained the support of local Christian merchants and thus was able to expand his economic and political prestige and dominance 117 In 1918 when the Yazidis of Shingal mountain received an ultimatum from Ottomans to hand over the weaponry and the Christian refugees that they were sheltering or otherwise face consequences The Yezidis tore the letter up and sent the messengers back naked 118 Identity Yazidi women in traditional dress Yazidi cultural practices are observed in Kurmanji which is also used by almost all the orally transmitted religious traditions of the Yazidis The Yazidis in the twin villages of Bashiqa and Bahzani speak Arabic as their mother language 22 however the now Arab speaking tribes in Bashiqa and Bahzani including but not limited to Xalti Dumili and Hekari 119 120 have historically been classified as Kurdish tribes 121 122 123 124 125 Although almost all Yezidis speak in Kurmanji their exact origin is a matter of dispute among scholars even among the community itself as well as among Kurds whether they are ethnically Kurds or form a distinct ethnic group 32 Yazidis only intermarry with other Yazidis those who marry non Yazidis are expelled from their community and are not allowed to call themselves Yazidis 126 127 Yazidi boy in traditional clothes In Sinjar male Yazidis used to wear pigtails 128 Some modern Yazidis identify as a subset of the Kurdish people while others identify as a separate ethno religious group 22 129 130 In Armenia and Iraq the Yazidis are recognized as a distinct ethnic group 131 132 133 125 According to Armenian anthropologist Levon Abrahamian Yazidis generally believe that Muslim Kurds betrayed Yazidism by converting to Islam while Yazidis remained faithful to the religion of their ancestors 134 Evliya Celebi described soldiers of Abdal Khan of Bitlis as Yezidi Kurds and in fourteenth century seven of the most prominent Kurdish tribes were Yazidi and Yazidism was the religion of the Jazira Kurdish principality Some traditional myths of the Yazidis tell that the Yazidis were the children of Adam alone and not of Eve and thus separate from the rest of humanity 135 In the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq Yazidis are considered ethnic Kurds 31 and the autonomous region considers Yazidis to be the original Kurds 136 The sole Yazidi parliamentarian in the Iraqi Parliament Vian Dakhil also stated her opposition to any move separating Yazidis from Kurds 31 Aziz Tamoyan the president of the Yezidi National Union ULE indicate that the term Yazidi is used for a nation and their language is called Ezdiki and their religion is Sharfadin 131 According to the researcher Victoria Arakelova Yazidism is a unique phenomenon one of the most remarkable illustrations of ethno religious identity centred on a religion the Yazidis call Sharfadin And therefore it is quite legitimate to speak of the unity of both the Yazidi religious identity and Yazidi ethnicity 137 129 Yazidis distinguish the name of their community from the name of their religion according the phrase 138 139 Milete min Ezid My nation the Yazidis Dine min Serfedin My religion Sharfadin 138 However this phrase doesn t come up in the official qewls religious hymns rather in those qewls where the terms Serfedin and Ezid Ezi are mentioned together the term Atqat comes up next to Ezid instead of Millet Me din Serfedine u Ezi atqate Our religion is Sherfedin and belief is Ezi Qewle Serfedin Me din Serfedin atqad Siltan Ezide Our religion is Sherfedin belief is Sultan Ezid Qewle Qendila Serfedin is the name of a son of Sheikh Hasan who lead the Yezidis in the 13th century and under whose rule the final canonization of the Yezidi religion took place As a result Serfedin is considered the personification of the Yezidi religion as implied in the aforementioned qewls Likewise with Sultan Ezid the name of God s manifestation who personifies atqat belief However some Yezidis who believe themselves to be a distinct ethnicity consider Serfedin to be the name of the religion meanwhile using Ezidi as the ethnonym 138 140 141 Additionally the term Millet has only recently begun to be understood in a nationalistic sense due to the growing popularity of nationalist ideologies as a result the phrase itself has started to be perceived as an ethnic and national declaration The term millet would ve originally been equivalent to religion and religious community rather than ethnicity Thus the original meaning of the phrase Milete min Ezid would ve been I belong to the religious group of Ezid 138 140 Aziz Tamoyan the President of the Yezidi National Union ULE in Armenia Yazidis are regarded as ethnic Kurds in Georgia and Germany 142 143 The Soviet Union registered the Yazidis and the Kurds as two different ethnic groups for the 1926 census but bulked the two together as one ethnicity in the censuses from 1931 to 1989 144 Sharaf Khan Bidlisi s Sheref nameh of 1597 which cites seven of the Kurdish tribes as being at least partly Yazidi and Kurdish tribal confederations as containing substantial Yazidi sections 145 Conversely during his research trips in 1895 anthropologist Ernest Chantre visited the Yazidis in today s Turkey and reported that Yazidis called their language zyman e ezda the language of the Yazidis and claimed that Kurds spoke their language and not vice versa 146 However there s also evidence that Yezidis in the past too identified as Kurds for example in a letter sent to the Romanov Emperor of Russia the Yazidi leader Usuv Beg writes that his people are Yezidi Kurds He indicates his nationality as Kurdish but specifies that they are Yezidi by religion I am happy on behalf of 3 000 Families of Yezidi Kurds Who 60 years ago led by my Grandfather Temur Agha left Turkey and sought refuge in Russia I would like to express my gratitude and wish success to you and your family We live very well on earth and under your rule 147 148 In addition names of some Yazidi villages in Armenia contain Kurdish ethnonyms such as Sipan village which was settled in 1828 AD by Yezidis and was called Pampa Kurda Kurmanca Kurdish Pamb until it was renamed to Sipan in the 1970s In the vicinity there is another village that was called Armenian Pamb but also was renamed later on to Lernapar 149 150 Furthermore the Yezidi religious authorities including Baba Sheikh the Mir and the Peshimam frequently have emphasized the Kurdish ethnicity of the Yezidis As according to letter from mayor of Shekhan to Mosul in 1966 after carrying out investigations and personal meetings with Yezidi religious leaders Baba Sheikh and the Mir they found out that Yazidis are considered to be of Kurdish ethnicity and nationality 151 152 When carrying out the investigations and the personal meetings with some leaders of the Yazidis that dwell the region of our province especially Tahsin Said the general leader of the nation and its prince and the Baba Shaykh the religious head of the Yazidis and when enlarging upon the subject based on what they have said we note that the origin of the community is in the Kurdish regions of Northern Iraq Thus the nationality of its members is considered Kurdish Excerpt from the 1966 letter When Tord Wallstrom a Swedish journalist met the Yazidi Mir Tahsin Beg in 1974 Tahsin stated his reason for participating in the Kurdish Revolt He stated I believe in the principles of the revolt However there is no relation between the religion and the revolt I am Kurdish and all the Yezidis are Kurdish this is the reason why I joined this revolt The journalist asked whether all the Yezidis are participating in the revolt to which Mir Tahsin responded No but because their participation in the revolt has not been necessary as of yet I ve not requested their participation but if I do at least 95 will join the revolt By the way the government executed 20 Yazidis recently in Mosul 153 Elsewhere in Soviet Union the Kurdish identity played an important role for the Yazidis in Georgia and Armenia who played a crucial role in promoting a secularized idea of Kurdish nationalism and making huge achievements in preserving and institutionalizing Kurdish culture folklore and language already in the early 20th century 154 Soviet Yazidis were able to establish the first Kurdish theatre and radio station in history in addition the first Kurdish Latin based alphabet was created by the Yazidi intellectual Erebe Semo who was also responsible for writing the first ever Kurmanji novel in 1929 titled Sivane Kurmanca The Kurdish Kurmanji Shepherd 155 37 The Yezidi Spiritual Council in Lalish released a statement where they emphasized and expressed their pride in the Kurdish identity of Yezidis based on linguistic historical geographical and traditional facts The statement was signed by the Mir Baba Sheikh Sheikh al Wazir a Peshimam and a Qawwal 156 Historically there have been persecutions against Yazidis at the hand of some Muslim Kurdish tribes 157 and this persecution has on numerous occasions threatened the existence of Yazidis as a distinct group 158 159 ReligionMain article Yazidism Wikisource has original text related to this article Mishefa Res Wikisource has original text related to this article Kiteba Cilwe Yazidism is a monotheistic faith 160 based on belief in one God who created the world and entrusted it into the care of a Heptad of seven Holy Beings often known as Angels or heft sirr the Seven Mysteries 161 Preeminent among these is Tawuse Melek also known as Melek Taus the Peacock Angel 162 163 Traditionally Yazidis who marry non Yazidis are considered to have converted to the religion of their spouse 160 164 GeneticsKurds developed an own typical genetic profile called Modal Kurdish Haplotype KMH or MKMH for Muslim Kurds on subclade J2 M172 with the following loci 14 15 23 10 11 12 The highest percentage of this haplotype has been measured so far in Yezidis in Armenia Yezidis in Armenia 11 9 Muslim Kurds of Iraq 9 5 Armenians Frc O 5 7 max 7 4 Sephardic Jews 2 6 Kurdish Jews 2 0 Palestinian Arabs 1 4 Ashkenazi Jews 1 3 165 A genetic study conducted in 2022 on Iraq s Turkmen Yazidi and Kurdish populations revealed that the genetic distance between Yazidis and Kurds was found to be closer than the genetic distance between the Kurdish and the Turkmen population meaning that the Yazidis were found to be genetically closer to Kurds indicating a long shared history between Yazidis and Kurds and same homeland for thousands of years as well as both coming from Indo European origins 166 According to another genetic study Yazidis from Northern Iraq may have a stronger genetic continuity with the original Mesopotamian people The northern Iraqi Yazidi population were found in the middle of a genetic continuum between the Near East and Southeastern Europe 167 A genetic study on the Georgian Kurds most of whom follow Yezidism 168 showed that the populations with smallest genetic distance from Georgian Kurds were found to be Kurds from Turkey and Iran Interestingly the Kurmanji speakers from Turkey were found to be closer to the Zazaki speakers from Turkey than to the Georgian Kurds Despite the former speaking the same dialect as the Georgian Kurds According to the study the Y chromosome data suggests that the Kurdish group in Georgia was founded by Kurmanji speakers of Turkey 169 Demographics source source source source source source source source source source source source A 2014 documentary on the Yazidis Historically the Yazidis lived primarily in communities located in present day Iraq Turkey and Syria and also had significant numbers in Armenia and Georgia However events since the end of the 20th century have resulted in considerable demographic shift in these areas as well as mass emigration 170 As a result population estimates are unclear in many regions and estimates of the size of the total population vary 22 Iraq Yazidis wearing traditional clothes during festival in Tel Keppe 2021 The majority of Yazidis live in Iraq 22 Estimates of the size of these communities vary significantly between 70 000 and 500 000 They are particularly concentrated in northern Iraq in the Nineveh Governorate The two biggest communities are in the Shekhan District northeast of Mosul and in the Sinjar District at the Syrian border 80 kilometres 50 mi west of Mosul In Shekhan is the shrine of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir at Lalish In the early 1900s most of the settled population of the Syrian Desert were Yazidi 171 During the 20th century the Shekhan community struggled for dominance with the more conservative Sinjar community 22 The demographic profile has probably changed considerably since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003 and the fall of Saddam Hussein s government 22 Traditionally Yazidis in Iraq lived in isolation and had their own villages However many of their villages were destroyed by the Ba athist government of Saddam Hussein The Ba athists created collective villages and forcibly relocated the Yazidis from their historical villages which would be destroyed 172 Yazidi new year celebrations in Lalish 18 April 2017 Two Yazidi men at the new year celebrations in Lalish 18 April 2017 According to the Human Rights Watch Yazidis were under the Arabisation process of Saddam Hussein between 1970 and 2003 In 2009 some Yazidis who had previously experienced the Arabisation policies of Saddam Hussein complained about the political tactics of leaders of the Kurdistan Region that since 1992 were intended to make Yazidis identify as Kurds 30 A report from Human Rights Watch HRW in 2009 declares that to incorporate disputed territories in northern Iraq particularly the Nineveh province into the Kurdish region the KDP authorities had used KRG s political and economical resources to make Yazidis identify as Kurds The HRW report also criticises heavy handed tactics 30 Syria Main article Yazidis in Syria Yazidis in Syria live primarily in two communities one in the Al Jazira area and the other in the Kurd Dagh 22 Population numbers for the Syrian Yazidi community are unclear In 1963 the community was estimated at about 10 000 according to the national census but numbers for 1987 were unavailable 173 There may be between about 12 000 and 15 000 Yazidis in Syria today 22 174 though more than half of the community may have emigrated from Syria since the 1980s Yazidi men Georgia Main article Yazidis in Georgia The Yazidi population in Georgia has been dwindling since the 1990s mostly due to economic migration to Russia and the West According to a census carried out in 1989 there were over 30 000 Yazidis in Georgia according to the 2002 census however only around 18 000 Yazidis remained in Georgia However by other estimates the community fell from around 30 000 people to fewer than 5 000 during the 1990s Today they number as little 6 000 by some estimates including recent refugees from Sinjar in Iraq who fled to Georgia following persecution by ISIL 175 On 16 June 2015 Yazidis celebrated the opening of the Sultan Ezid Temple and cultural centre named after Sultan Ezid in Varketili a suburb of Tbilisi This is the third such temple in the world after those in Iraqi Kurdistan and Armenia 175 Armenia Main article Yazidis in Armenia According to the 2011 census there are 35 272 Yazidis in Armenia making them Armenia s largest ethnic minority group 176 Ten years earlier in the 2001 census 40 620 Yazidis were registered in Armenia 177 They have a significant presence in the Armavir province of Armenia Media have estimated the number of Yazidis in Armenia to be between 30 000 and 50 000 Most of them are the descendants of refugees who fled to Armenia in order to escape the persecution that they had previously suffered during Ottoman rule including a wave of persecution which occurred during the Armenian genocide when many Armenians found refuge in Yazidi villages 178 The Ziarat temple in Aknalich Armenia There is a Yazidi temple called Ziarat in the village of Aknalich in the region of Armavir In September 2019 the largest Yazidi temple in the world called Quba Mere Diwane was opened in Aknalich just a few meters from the Ziarat temple The temple is privately funded by Mirza Sloian a Yazidi businessman based in Moscow who is originally from the Armavir region 179 180 Russia Main article Yazidism in Russia In Russia the largest population of Yazidis is concentrated in Moscow There are also Yazidis living in Saint Petersburg Outside these two major metropolitan areas Adygea Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Sverdlovsk Oblast capital Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk Oblast each have between 3 500 and 10 000 Yazidis Smaller Yazidi populations are also scattered throughout Russia 28 Turkey Main article Yazidis in Turkey Yazidi men in Mardin Turkey late 19th century A sizeable part of the autochthonous Yazidi population of Turkey fled the country for present day Armenia and Georgia starting from the late 19th century 160 There are additional communities in Russia and Germany due to recent migration 170 The Yazidi community of Turkey declined precipitously during the 20th century Most of them have immigrated to Europe particularly Germany those who remain reside primarily in villages in their former heartland of Tur Abdin 22 Western Europe Main article Yazidis in Germany This mass emigration has resulted in the establishment of large Yazidi diaspora communities abroad The most significant of these is in Germany which now has a Yazidi community of more than 200 000 5 6 living primarily in Hannover Bielefeld Celle Bremen Bad Oeynhausen Pforzheim and Oldenburg 181 Most are from Turkey and more recently Iraq and live in the western states of North Rhine Westphalia and Lower Saxony 22 Since 2008 Sweden has seen sizeable growth in its Yazidi emigrant community which had grown to around 4 000 by 2010 and a smaller community exists in the Netherlands 22 Other Yazidi diaspora groups live in Belgium Denmark France Switzerland the United Kingdom the United States Canada and Australia these have a total population of probably less than 5 000 22 North America A community of Yazidis have settled as refugees in the United States of America and Canada Many Yazidis now live in Lincoln Nebraska 182 183 184 185 and Houston Texas 186 187 188 It is thought that Nebraska has the largest settlement an estimated number of at least 10 000 of Yazidis in the United States with a history of immigration to the state under refuge settlement programs starting in the late 1990s 183 Many of the men of the community served as translators for the US military 187 188 Western perceptionsAs the Yazidis hold religious beliefs that are mostly unfamiliar to outsiders many non Yazidi people have written about them and ascribed to their beliefs facts that have dubious historical validity The Yazidis perhaps because of their secrecy also have a place in modern occultism In Western literature Image from A journey from London to Persepolis 1865 In William Seabrook s book Adventures in Arabia the fourth section starting with Chapter 14 is devoted to the Yezidees and is titled Among the Yezidees He describes them as a mysterious sect scattered throughout the Orient strongest in North Arabia feared and hated both by Moslem and Christian because they are worshippers of Satan In the three chapters of the book he completely describes the area including the fact that this territory including their holiest city of Sheik Adi was not part of Irak 189 George Gurdjieff wrote about his encounters with the Yazidis several times in his book Meetings with Remarkable Men mentioning that they are considered to be devil worshippers by other ethnicities in the region Also in Peter Ouspensky s book In Search of the Miraculous he describes some strange customs that Gurdjieff observed in Yazidi boys He told me among other things that when he was a child he had often observed how Yezidi boys were unable to step out of a circle traced round them on the ground p 36 Idries Shah writing under the pen name Arkon Daraul in the 1961 book Secret Societies Yesterday and Today describes discovering a Yazidi influenced secret society in the London suburbs called the Order of the Peacock Angel Shah claimed Tawuse Melek could be understood from the Sufi viewpoint as an allegory of the higher powers in humanity 190 In H P Lovecraft s story The Horror at Red Hook some of the murderous foreigners are identified as belonging to the Yezidi clan of devil worshippers 191 In Patrick O Brian s Aubrey Maturin series novel The Letter of Marque set during the Napoleonic wars there is a Yazidi character named Adi His ethnicity is referred to as Dasni A fictional Yazidi character of note is the super powered police officer King Peacock of the Top 10 series and related comics 192 He is portrayed as a kind peaceful character with a broad knowledge of religion and mythology He is depicted as conservative ethical and highly principled in family life An incredibly powerful martial artist he is able to perceive and strike at his opponent s weakest spots a power that he claims is derived from communicating with Malek Ta us United States military memoirs In her memoir of her service with an intelligence unit of the US Army s 101st Airborne Division in Iraq during 2003 and 2004 Kayla Williams 2005 records being stationed in northern Iraq near the Syrian border in an area inhabited by Yezidis According to Williams some Yazidis were Kurdish speaking but did not consider themselves Kurds and expressed to her a fondness for America and Israel She was able to learn only a little about the nature of their religion she thought it very ancient and concerned with angels She describes a mountain top Yazidi shrine as a small rock building with objects dangling from the ceiling and alcoves for the placement of offerings She reported that local Muslims considered the Yazidis to be devil worshippers See Persecution of Yazidis below In an October 2006 article in The New Republic Lawrence F Kaplan echoes Williams s sentiments about the enthusiasm of the Yazidis for the American occupation of Iraq in part because the Americans protect them from oppression by militant Muslims and the nearby Kurds Kaplan notes that the peace and calm of Sinjar is virtually unique in Iraq Parents and children line the streets when U S patrols pass by while Yazidi clerics pray for the welfare of U S forces 193 Tony Lagouranis comments on a Yazidi prisoner in his book Fear Up Harsh An Army Interrogator s Dark Journey through Iraq There s a lot of mystery surrounding the Yazidi and a lot of contradictory information But I was drawn to this aspect of their beliefs Yazidi don t have a Satan Malak Ta us an archangel God s favorite was not thrown out of heaven the way Satan was Instead he descended saw the suffering and pain of the world and cried His tears thousands of years worth fell on the fires of hell extinguishing them If there is evil in the world it does not come from a fallen angel or from the fires of hell The evil in this world is man made Nevertheless humans can like Malak Ta us live in this world but still be good 194 Persecution of YazidisMain article Persecution of Yazidis Through their history the Yazidi people have endured much systematic violence as they upheld their religion in the face of severe Islamic persecution and attempts to force them to convert to Islam and Arabize them by the Ottoman Empire and later in the 20th century by Iraq 195 44 The belief of some followers of other monotheistic religions of the region that the Peacock Angel equates with their own unredeemed evil spirit Satan 196 29 160 has incited centuries of persecution of the Yazidis as devil worshippers 197 198 After the 2003 invasion of Iraq On 7 April 2007 a 17 year old Iraqi of the Yazidi faith Du a Khalil Aswad was stoned to death by her family 199 200 Rumours that the stoning was connected to her alleged conversion to Islam prompted reprisals against Yazidis including a massacre in April 2007 In August 2007 some 500 Yazidis were killed in a coordinated series of bombings in Qahtaniya that became the deadliest suicide attack since the Iraq War began In August 2009 at least 20 people were killed and 30 wounded in a double suicide bombing in northern Iraq an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said Two suicide bombers with explosive vests carried out the attack at a cafe in Sinjar west of Mosul In Sinjar many townspeople are members of the Yazidi minority 201 By the Islamic State Main articles Sinjar massacre and Genocide of Yazidis by the Islamic State Defend International provided humanitarian aid to Yazidi refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan in December 2014 Yazidi Peshmerga at the shrine of Sharaf ad Din in the Sinjar Mountains 2019 In 2014 with the territorial gains of the Salafist militant group calling itself the Islamic State there was much upheaval in the Iraqi Yazidi population Islamic State captured Sinjar in August 2014 following the withdrawal of Peshmerga troops of Masoud Barzani forcing up to 50 000 Yazidis to flee into the nearby mountainous region 202 In early August the town of Sinjar was nearly deserted as Kurdish Peshmerga forces were no longer able to keep ISIL forces from advancing ISIL had previously declared the Yazidis to be devil worshippers 203 Most of the population fleeing Sinjar retreated by trekking up nearby mountains with the ultimate goal of reaching Dohuk in Iraqi Kurdistan normally a five hour drive by car Concerns for the elderly and those of fragile health were expressed by the refugees who told reporters of their lack of water Reports coming from Sinjar stated that sick or elderly Yazidi who could not make the trek were being executed by ISIL Yazidi parliamentarian Haji Ghandour told reporters that In our history we have suffered 72 massacres We are worried Sinjar could be a 73rd 203 UN groups say at least 40 000 members of the Yazidi sect many of them women and children took refuge in nine locations on Mount Sinjar a craggy 1 400 m 4 600 ft high ridge identified in local legend as the final resting place of Noah s Ark facing slaughter at the hands of jihadists surrounding them below if they fled or death by dehydration if they stayed 204 Between 20 000 and 30 000 Yazidis most of them women and children besieged by ISIL escaped from the mountain after the People s Protection Units YPG and Kurdistan Workers Party PKK intervened to stop ISIL and opened a humanitarian corridor for them 205 helping them cross the Tigris into Rojava 206 Some Yazidis were later escorted back to Iraqi Kurdistan by Peshmerga and YPG forces Kurdish officials have said 207 208 Captured women are treated as sex slaves or spoils of war some are driven to suicide Women and girls who convert to Islam are sold as brides those who refuse to convert are tortured raped and eventually murdered Babies born in the prison where the women are held are taken from their mothers to an unknown fate 209 210 Nadia Murad a Yazidi human rights activist and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner was kidnapped and used as a sex slave by the ISIL in 2014 211 In October 2014 the United Nations reported that more than 5 000 Yazidis had been murdered and 5 000 to 7 000 mostly women and children had been abducted by ISIL 212 ISIS has in their digital magazine Dabiq explicitly claimed religious justification for enslaving Yazidi women 213 In December 2014 Amnesty International published a report 214 215 Despite the oppression Yazidis women have sustained they have appeared on the news as examples of retaliation They have received training and taken positions at the frontlines of the fighting making up about a third of the Kurd Yazidi coalition forces and have distinguished themselves as soldiers 216 217 See also Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yezidis Index of articles related to the Yazidis List of Yazidi organizations List of Yazidi people List of Yazidi settlements List of Yazidi holy places Yazidi literature Religion in Kurdistan YarsanismReferences Lamb Christina 22 September 2020 Our Bodies Their Battlefields War Through the Lives of Women Simon and Schuster p 24 ISBN 978 1 5011 9917 2 Aziz Tamoyan blames unknown forces for crippling history and culture of Yazidis armenpress am Retrieved 10 January 2021 Surviving Islamic State 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1 05 ISSN 2291 1847 S2CID 208688229 admin 1 October 2016 Die Geschichte des Ezidi Mirza Vom Waisenkind zum Helden EzidiPress in German Retrieved 12 July 2021 Studien zur yezidischen Religionsgemeinschaft Yezidische Helden bnk institutkurde org Retrieved 12 July 2021 bahzani2 مصير ميرزا باشا الداسني بعد عزله من ولاية الموصل عام 1651م وفق المصادر العثمانية الباحث داود مراد ختاري موقع بحزاني نت in Arabic Retrieved 12 July 2021 Guest John S 1993 Survival Among the Kurds A History of the Yezidis Routledge p 47 ISBN 978 0 7103 0456 8 Celebi Evliya Celebi Haf z Mehmet Z lli Evliya 1 January 1991 The Intimate Life of an Ottoman Statesman Melek Ahmed Pasha 1588 1662 As Portrayed in Evliya Celebi s Book of Travels Seyahat name SUNY Press p 170 ISBN 978 0 7914 0640 3 admin 20 March 2017 Die Schlacht von Shingal im Jahr 1613 EzidiPress in German Retrieved 13 July 2021 a b Guest John S 1993 Survival Among the Kurds A History of the Yezidis Routledge pp 46 47 ISBN 978 0 7103 0456 8 a b Kerborani Bahadin Hawar 2021 Paying the Price of Dasht i Karbala Historical Perceptions of Yezidis in the Ottoman Era Kurds and Yezidis in the Middle East I B Tauris doi 10 5040 9780755601226 ch 006 ISBN 978 0 7556 0119 6 S2CID 230526075 Guest John S 1993 Survival Among the Kurds A History of the Yezidis Routledge pp 47 48 ISBN 978 0 7103 0456 8 Alpaslan Mustafa 27 January 2015 EvlIya CelebI SeyahatnamesInde Kurtler Master thesis Mardġn Artuklu Unġversġtesġ pp 44 75 113 Guest John S 1993 Survival Among the Kurds A History of the Yezidis Routledge p 53 ISBN 978 0 7103 0456 8 Guest 12 November 2012 Survival Among The Kurds Routledge p 56 ISBN 978 1 136 15729 5 Guest 2012 Survival Among The Kurds Taylor and Francis p 57 ISBN 978 1 136 15729 5 OCLC 823379895 a b c Guest 2012 Survival Among The Kurds Hoboken Taylor and Francis pp 57 58 ISBN 978 1 136 15729 5 OCLC 823379895 admin 10 August 2015 Uberlebenskampf der Eziden Die Schlacht von Semel im Jahr 1785 EzidiPress in German Retrieved 19 July 2021 a 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The other Kurds Yazidis in colonial Iraq London I B Tauris pp 88 90 ISBN 1 86064 170 9 OCLC 40754938 Fuccaro Nelida 1999 The other Kurds Yazidis in colonial Iraq London I B Tauris pp 49 50 ISBN 1 86064 170 9 OCLC 40754938 Allison Christine Explainer who are the Yazidis The Conversation Retrieved 2 August 2021 Maisel Sebastian 24 December 2016 Yezidis in Syria Identity Building among a Double Minority Lexington Books ISBN 978 0 7391 7775 4 Edmonds C J 21 March 2002 A Pilgrimage to Lalish Psychology Press ISBN 978 0 947593 28 5 Bozarslan Hamit Gunes Cengiz Yadirgi Veli 22 April 2021 The Cambridge History of the Kurds Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 1 108 58301 5 Joseph John 1 January 2000 EARLY BEGINNINGS Brill ISBN 978 90 04 32005 5 Khachatrian Alexander 1 January 2003 The Kurdish Principality of Hakkariya 14Th 15Th Centuries Iran and the Caucasus 7 1 37 58 doi 10 1163 157338403X00024 ISSN 1573 384X Yildiz Erdal Serefhan Serefname Kurt Tarihi cilt 1 Academia a b Guest 12 November 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Psychology Press pp 38 40 ISBN 9780700713974 Spat Eszter 2018 Yezidi Identity Politics and Political Ambitions in the Wake of the ISIS Attack Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies 20 5 425 doi 10 1080 19448953 2018 1406689 S2CID 148897618 Asatrian Garnik S Arakelova Victoria 3 September 2014 The Religion of the Peacock Angel The Yezidis and Their Spirit World Routledge p viii ISBN 9781317544296 a b c d Rodziewicz Artur 2018 Milete min Ezid The Uniqueness of the Yezidi Concept of the Nation ejournals eu pp 70 72 74 Asatrian Garnik S Arakelova Victoria 3 September 2014 The Religion of the Peacock Angel The Yezidis and Their Spirit World Routledge p 29 ISBN 978 1 317 54429 6 a b Bochenska Joanna 26 October 2018 Rediscovering Kurdistan s Cultures and Identities The Call of the Cricket Springer ISBN 978 3 319 93088 6 Refugees United Nations High Commissioner for Refworld The Human Rights Situation of the Yezidi Minority in the Transcaucausus Armenia Georgia Azerbaijan Refworld Retrieved 26 June 2021 მრავალეთნიკური საქართველო მოკლე ცნობარი საქართველოს ქურთები 26 December 2019 Archived from the original on 26 December 2019 Retrieved 26 June 2021 Tagay Sefik Die Jesiden bpb bpb de in German Retrieved 6 July 2021 Armenian International Magazine PDF May 1992 p 31 Brennan Shane Herzog Marc 30 July 2014 Turkey and the Politics of National Identity Social Economic and Cultural Transformation New York I B Tauris 2014 ISBN 978 1 78076 539 6 Chantre Ernest 1895 Notes ethnologiques sur les Yesidi Publications de la Societe Linneenne de Lyon in French 14 1 74 doi 10 3406 linly 1895 12079 Usuv Beg kurdy ezidy blagodaryat imperatora Rossii RiaTaza in Russian 13 October 2017 Retrieved 25 February 2021 Մուրադյան Մանուկ Նորիկի 2012 Ուսուբ Բեկ ուրվագծեր եզդի ժողովրդի ազգապետերի մի տոհմի հայ եզդիական կապերի պատմության in Armenian Հայաստան Serdana gundeki kurdan li Ermenistane Malpera Nukurd Li pey sopen nu www nukurd com Nuce Ziman Cand huner magazin vidyo wene u hwd 4 May 2012 Archived from the original on 4 May 2012 Retrieved 22 June 2021 Kurdskij Pamb Sipan geograficheskoe polozhenie amarikesardar com Retrieved 22 June 2021 Salloum Saad EZIDIS IN IRAQ Ali Majid Hassan 2019 Religious Minorities in Republican Iraq Between Granting Rights and Discrimination A socio political and historical study doctoralthesis thesis Otto Friedrich Universitat Bamberg Fakultat Geistes und Kulturwissenschaften doi 10 20378 irbo 55706 Wallstrom Tord 1975 Bergen ar vara enda vanner ett reportage fran Kurdistan Stockholm Nordstedt ISBN 91 1 754132 8 OCLC 3590888 Leupold David 21 November 2019 Fatally Tied Together The Intertwined History of Kurds and Armenians in the 20th Century Iran and the Caucasus 23 4 390 406 doi 10 1163 1573384X 20190409 ISSN 1573 384X S2CID 214003341 Omarkhali Khanna 2013 The Kurds in the Former Soviet States from the Historical and Cultural Perspectives The Copernicus Journal of Political Studies 2 5 doi 10 12775 18255 inactive 31 December 2022 ISSN 2299 4335 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a CS1 maint DOI inactive as of December 2022 link SEBASTIAN MAISEL 2018 YEZIDIS IN SYRIA identity building among a double minority LEXINGTON Books p 139 ISBN 978 1 4985 4980 6 OCLC 1048943968 King Diane E 31 December 2013 Kurdistan on the Global Stage Kinship Land and Community in Iraq Rutgers University Press ISBN 9780813563541 Travis Hannibal 2010 Genocide in the Middle East The Ottoman Empire Iraq and Sudan Carolina Academic Press ISBN 9781594604362 Ghareeb Edmund A Dougherty Beth 18 March 2004 Historical Dictionary of Iraq Scarecrow Press p 248 ISBN 9780810865686 a b c d Acikyildiz Birgul 2014 The Yezidis The History of a Community Culture and Religion London I B Tauris amp Company ISBN 978 1 784 53216 1 OCLC 888467694 Adam Valen Levinson The Abu Dhabi Bar Mitzvah Fear and Love in the Modern Middle East W W Norton amp Company 2017 ISBN 978 0 393 60837 3 Asher Schapiro Avi 11 August 2014 Who Are the Yazidis the Ancient Persecuted Religious Minority Struggling to Survive in Iraq National Geographic Thomas Sean 19 August 2007 The Devil worshippers of Iraq The Daily Telegraph Gidda Mirren Everything You Need to Know About the Yazidis TIME com Retrieved 7 February 2016 Scirp Amber 2012 The Origin of Kurds Advances in Anthology 2 2 64 79 Ahmed Saied Rasho Yousif Mohammed Fattah 2022 Y chromosomal STR Variation in Kurds Yazidis and Turkmans Populations in Iraq s Kurdistan Region Journal of Basic Sciences Wassit University 7 11 ISSN 2306 5249 Retrieved 10 March 2023 Conclusions The aim was to study a number of genetic parameters of Kurd Yazidis and Turkmen populations in Kurdistan region of Iraq The results showed a great convergence between the Kurdish and Yazidi groups while the Turkmen group was far from them by the discriminating power of high resolution Y STR typing Consequently despite corresponding to isolated and homogenous populations contemporary Syriacs and Yazidis from Northern Iraq may in fact have a stronger continuity with the original genetic stock of the Mesopotamian people which possibly provided the basis for the ethnogenesis of various subsequent Near Eastern populations Such an observation seems to be in line with genetic distance calculations based on a different method whereby the Northern Iraqi Assyrian and Yazidi populations from the current study were found to position in the middle of a genetic continuum between the Near East and Southeastern Europe Dogan S Gurkan C Dogan M Balkaya HE Tunc R Demirdov DK Ameen NA Marjanovic D 2017 A glimpse at the intricate mosaic of ethnicities from Mesopotamia Paternal lineages of the Northern Iraqi Arabs Kurds Syriacs Turkmens and Yazidis PLOS ONE 12 11 e0187408 Bibcode 2017PLoSO 1287408D doi 10 1371 journal pone 0187408 PMC 5669434 PMID 29099847 Refugees United Nations High Commissioner for Refworld Georgia Treatment of the Kurds in particular of Yezidi Kurds Refworld Retrieved 22 June 2021 Nasidze 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Shapiro Avi 11 August 2014 Who Are the Yazidis the Ancient Persecuted Religious Minority Struggling to Survive in Iraq National Geographic Retrieved 18 November 2020 van Bruinessen Martin 1992 Chapter 2 Kurdish society ethnicity nationalism and refugee problems In Kreyenbroek Philip G Sperl Stefan eds The Kurds A Contemporary Overview London Routledge pp 26 52 ISBN 978 0 415 07265 6 OCLC 919303390 Li Shirley 8 August 2014 A Very Brief History of the Yazidi and What They re Up Against in Iraq The Atlantic Archived from the original on 12 August 2014 Retrieved 9 August 2014 Jalabi Raya 11 August 2014 Who are the Yazidis and why is Isis hunting them The Guardian Video Captures Stoning of Kurdish Teenage Girl 25 April 2007 Lattimer Mark 13 December 2007 Freedom lost The Guardian At least 20 killed in Iraq blast CNN com International 13 August 2009 Retrieved 13 August 2009 Isil militants execute dozens from Yazidi minority Gulf News 5 August 2014 Retrieved 13 August 2014 a b Morris Loveday 3 August 2014 Families flee as Islamic State extremists seize another Iraqi town pushing back the Kurds The Washington Post Chulov Martin 6 August 2014 40 000 Iraqis stranded on mountain as Isis jihadists threaten death The Guardian Kurds rescue Yazidis from Iraqi mountain Al Jazeera 10 August 2014 Retrieved 12 August 2014 Thousands of Yazidis still trapped on Iraq mountain BBC News 12 August 2014 Siddique Haroon 10 August 2014 20 000 Iraqis besieged by ISIL escape from mountain after US air strikes The Guardian Syrian Kurdish fighters rescuing stranded Yazidis Associated Press 24 March 2015 Retrieved 29 August 2019 Islamic State crisis Yazidi anger at Iraq s forgotten people BBC News Retrieved 23 December 2014 IS in Iraq Yazidi women raped murdered and sold as brides Christian News on Christian Today Retrieved 23 December 2014 Alter Charlotte 20 December 2015 A Yezidi Woman Who Escaped ISIS Slavery Tells Her Story Time Magazine Retrieved 6 July 2017 Richard Spencer Isil carried out massacres and mass sexual enslavement of Yazidis UN confirms The Daily Telegraph 14 October 2014 Reuters Islamic State Seeks to Justify Enslaving Yazidi Women and Girls in Iraq Newsweek 13 October 2014 Islamic State Yazidi women tell of sex slavery trauma BBC News Retrieved 23 December 2014 Sex slavery pushes ISIL victims to suicide Al Jazeera 23 December 2014 Dirik Dilar 21 August 2015 From Genocide to Resistance Yazidi Women Fight Back Retrieved 21 November 2015 Barbarani Sofia 2 September 2014 Islamic State tore our families apart Now we re fighting back Meet the Kurdish women s resistance army Newsgroup telegraph co uk Retrieved 21 November 2015 Further readingAcikyildiz Birgul 2014 The Yezidis The History of a Community Culture and Religion London I B Tauris amp Company ISBN 978 1 784 53216 1 OCLC 888467694 Cumont Franz 1911 The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism Chicago IL Open Court Publishing pp 152 153 ISBN 978 0 486 20321 8 OCLC 670375427 Drower E S 1941 Peacock Angel Being Some Account of Votaries of a Secret Cult and Their Sanctuaries London John Murray OCLC 4821609 Husseini Rana 2012 Chapter 15 The Historical and Religious Seeds of Honor In Clark Kelly James ed Abraham s Children Liberty and Tolerance in an Age of Religious Conflict New Haven Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 18333 7 OCLC 809235956 Joseph Isya January 1909 Yezidi Texts The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 25 2 111 156 doi 10 1086 369616 JSTOR 527914 Kreyenbroek Philip G 1995 Yezidism Its Background Observances and Textual Tradition Texts and Studies in Religion in Kurdish and English Lewiston Queenston and Lampeter NY Edwin Mellen Press 62 OCLC 31377794 ISBN 978 0 773 49004 8 Kreyenbroek Philip G Kartal Z Omarkhali Kh Rashow Kh Jindy 2009 Yezidism in Europe Different Generations Speak About Their Religion Wiesbaden Harrassowitz Verlag ISBN 978 3 447 06060 8 OCLC 554952854 Omarkhali Kh Yezidism Society Symbol Observance Istanbul 2007 In Kurdish Reshid Tosine 2005 Yezidism historical roots International Journal of Kurdish Studies 19 1 2 Retrieved 29 May 2022 Rodziewicz A Yezidi Eros Love as The Cosmogonic Factor and Distinctive Feature of The Yezidi Theology in The Light of Some Ancient Cosmogonies Fritillaria Kurdica 2014 3 41 pp 42 105 Rodziewicz A Tawus Protogonos Parallels between the Yezidi Theology and Some Ancient Greek Cosmogonies Iran and the Caucasus 2014 18 1 pp 27 45 Williams Kayla and Michael E Staub 2005 Love My Rifle More Than You W W Norton New York ISBN 0 393 06098 5 Victoria Arakelova Yezdistan versus Kurdistan Another Legend on the Origin of the Yezidis Iran and the Caucasus 21 2017 External links Wikisource has original text related to this article Yazidi Les Ezidis de France Yazda A Global Yazidi Organization The Beginning of the Universe photos and a description of Yezidi life in Lalish Iraq by Michael J Totten 22 February 2006 Rubin Alissa J 14 October 2007 Persecuted Sect in Iraq Avoids Its Shrine The New York Times Retrieved 4 August 2009 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Yazidis amp oldid 1143918155, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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