View source for Yazidis

{{Short description|Ethno-religious group of Kurdistan}} {{About|Yazidis, the people|their religion|Yazidism}} {{Redirect|Yezidi|other uses|Yazid (disambiguation)}} {{Pp|reason=Persistent [[WP:Disruptive editing|disruptive editing]] Article has been a near perennial target of disruptive editing. Enough.|small=yes}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} {{Use Oxford spelling|date=November 2015}} {{Infobox religious group|group=Yazidis<br />Êzidî|image=Ezidis celebrating Ezidi New Year in April 2018 at Lalish 01.jpg|caption=Yazidis celebrating [[Yazidi New Year]] at [[Lalish]] in 2018, in [[Nineveh Governorate]], [[Iraq]]|population=est.
700,000–1,500,000<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lamb|first=Christina|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fFj5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA24|title=Our Bodies, Their Battlefields: War Through the Lives of Women|date=2020-09-22|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-5011-9917-2|page=24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Aziz Tamoyan blames unknown forces for crippling history and culture of Yazidis|url=https://armenpress.am/eng/news/728005/aziz-tamoyan-blames-unknown-forces-for-crippling-history-and-culture-of-yazidis.html|access-date=2021-01-10|website=armenpress.am|date=August 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/04/yazidi-religion-isis-genocide-syria/ | title=Biden said the killed ISIS leader persecuted Yazidis. Here's what to know about the religious minority | newspaper=[[Washington Post]] | date=2022-02-04 | first1=Amy | last1=Cheng | first2=Ellen | last2=Francis}}</ref>|tablehdr=Listed by countries|popplace=See [[list of Yazidi settlements]]|region1={{flag|Iraq}}|pop1=500,000–700,000|ref1=<ref>{{cite news |title=Surviving Islamic State: The Plight Of The Yazidi Community |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/nikitamalik/2018/09/18/surviving-islamic-state-the-plight-of-the-yazidi-community/#10050085770d |access-date=13 January 2019 |work=Nikita Malik |agency=Forbes}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/12/iraqi-yazidis-hazy-population-numbers-and-a-history-of-persecution/ |title=Iraqi Yazidis: Hazy population numbers and a history of persecution |last1=Henne |first1=Peter |last2=Hackett |first2=Conrad |work=Pew Research Center |date=12 August 2014 |access-date=30 August 2021}}</ref>|region2={{flag|Germany}}|pop2=230,000 <small>(2022 estimate)</small>|ref2=<ref name="Ger1">{{cite web |title=Adrs. 20(17)20 Stellungnahme SV Dr. Irfan Ortac öA 20.06.2022 |url=https://www.bundestag.de/resource/blob/899606/96c2c9433a93cb2073cd7e26a9deccc6/SV-Dr-Ortac.pdf |publisher=[[Bundestag]] |access-date=3 October 2024}}</ref>|region3={{flag|Belgium}}|pop3=35,000 <small>(2018 estimate)</small>|ref3=<ref>{{cite news |title=Exhibition in Brussels on the Yazidi community in Iraq |url=http://www.brusselstimes.com/brussels/10021/exhibition-in-brussels-on-the-yazidi-community-in-iraq |access-date=13 January 2019 |date=10 January 2018}}</ref>|region4={{flag|Armenia}}|pop4=31,079 <small>(2022 census)</small>|ref4=<ref name=Armeniancensus>{{cite web|url=https://www.armstat.am/en/?nid=82&id=2623|title=The Main Results of RA Census 2022, trilingual / Armenian Statistical Service of Republic of Armenia|website=www.armstat.am|access-date=2024-07-03}}</ref>|region5={{flag|Russia}}|pop5=26,257 <small>(2021 census)</small>|ref5=<ref name=Russiancensus>{{cite web|title=Оценка численности постоянного населения по субъектам Российской Федерации|url=https://rosstat.gov.ru/storage/mediabank/tab-5_VPN-2020.xlsx|publisher=[[Federal State Statistics Service (Russia)|Federal State Statistics Service]]|access-date=27 June 2024}}</ref>|region6={{flag|Georgia}}|pop6=12,174 <small>(2014 census)</small>|ref6=<ref>{{cite web |title=Ethnic Composition of Georgia |url=http://csem.ge/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Infographics-Ethnic-Composition-of-Georgia-1926-2014.pdf |publisher=CSEM |access-date=18 May 2019}}</ref>|region7={{flag|United States}}|pop7=10,000 <small>(2017 estimate)</small>|ref7=<ref>{{cite web |last1=Knapp |first1=Fred |title=Iraqis a fast-growing group in Nebraska|url=http://netnebraska.org/article/news/1108641/iraqis-fast-growing-group-nebraska |website=netnebraska.org|access-date=20 September 2019 |archive-date=13 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180513012948/http://netnebraska.org/article/news/1108641/iraqis-fast-growing-group-nebraska |url-status=dead}}</ref>|region8={{flag|France}}|pop8=10,000 <small>(2018 estimate)</small>|ref8=<ref>{{cite web |title=La communauté Yézidie en France |url=https://www.yezidi-france.fr/communaute-yezidie-en-france.html |access-date=13 January 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Non, les Yézidis ne sont pas voués à disparaître |url=https://www.la-croix.com/Debats/Forum-et-debats/Non-Yezidis-sont-pas-voues-disparaitre-2018-08-01-1200959152 |access-date=13 January 2019 |date=1 August 2018}}</ref>|region9={{flag|Syria}}|pop9=10,000 <small>(2017 estimate)</small>|ref9=<ref>{{cite news |last1=Armstrong |first1=Kerrie |title=The Yazidi people: who are they and why are they on the run? |url=https://www.sbs.com.au/news/explainer/yazidi-people-who-are-they-and-why-are-they-run |access-date=25 February 2019 |work=Explainer |publisher=SBS |date=22 August 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Yazidis Benefit From Kurdish Gains in Northeast Syria|url=http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/10/syria-yazidi-minorities-kurds.html#|access-date=1 April 2014|newspaper=al-monitor|date=18 October 2013|author=Andrea Glioti|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219190332/http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/10/syria-yazidi-minorities-kurds.html|archive-date=19 February 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>|region10={{flag|Sweden}}|pop10=6,000 <small>(2018 estimate)</small>|ref10=<ref>{{cite news |title=Många yazidier fortfarande försvunna |url=https://www.svt.se/nyheter/utrikes/manga-yazidier-fortfarande-forvunna |access-date=13 January 2019 |agency=SVT |date=9 January 2018 |language=sv}}</ref>|region11={{flag|Turkey}}|pop11=5,000 <small>(2010 estimate)</small>|ref11=<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2004/35489.htm|title=Turkey|website=U.S. Department of State|access-date=22 January 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eYSA2uew3CUC&pg=PA308|title=International Religious Freedom (2010): Annual Report to Congress|publisher=DIANE Publishing|isbn=9781437944396}}</ref>|region12={{flag|Australia}}|pop12=4,123 <small>(2021 census)</small>|ref12=<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/religious-affiliation-australia#:~:text=The%20religion%20with%20the%20highest,have%20No%20religion%20(18.6%25)|title=Religious affiliation in Australia|website=[[Australian Bureau of Statistics|ABS]]|access-date=19 December 2024}}</ref>|region13={{flag|Canada}}|pop13=1,200 <small>(2018 estimate)</small>|ref13=<ref>{{cite news |title=For a Yazidi refugee in Canada, the trauma of ISIS triggers rare, terrifying seizures |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-for-a-yazidi-refugee-in-canada-the-trauma-of-isis-triggers-rare/ |access-date=13 January 2019 |date=1 December 2018}}</ref>|languages=[[Kurmanji|Northern Kurdish]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Arakelova |first1=Victoria |title=Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements |chapter=Yezidism |chapter-url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004435544/BP000046.xml |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |access-date=3 October 2024 |pages=743–760 |language=en |date=23 June 2021|doi=10.1163/9789004435544_039 |isbn=978-90-04-43554-4 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=2.15.2. Yazidi {{!}} European Union Agency for Asylum |url=https://euaa.europa.eu/country-guidance-iraq-2021/2152-yazidi |website=euaa.europa.eu |publisher=[[European Union Agency for Asylum]] |access-date=2 October 2024 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Who are the Yazidis? – DW – 04/10/2018 |url=https://www.dw.com/en/who-are-the-yazidis/a-43324003 |website=dw.com |access-date=3 October 2024 |language=en}}</ref>|religions=|image_size=280px}} {{Yazidism}} '''Yazidis''', also spelled '''Yezidis''' ({{IPAc-en|j|ə|ˈ|z|i:|d|i|z|audio=En-us-Yazidis from Iraq pronunciation (Voice of America).ogg}};<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/yazidi|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803130305/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/Yazidi|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 August 2017|title=Yazidi|website=Oxford Dictionaries {{!}} English|access-date=13 March 2019}}</ref> {{lang|ku-Latn|Êzidî}}),<ref>{{cite book|first1=Philip G.|last1=Kreyenbroek|author-link1=Philip G. Kreyenbroek|last2=Rashow|first2=Khalīl Jindī|title=God and Sheikh Adi are Perfect: Sacred Poems and Religious Narratives from the Yezidi Tradition|date=2005|isbn=3-447-05300-3|page=118|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag}}</ref> are a [[Kurdish languages|Kurdish]]-speaking<ref name="iranica">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/yazidis-i-general-1|title=Yazidis i: General|last=Allison|first=Christine|date=20 February 2004|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]]|access-date=20 August 2010}}</ref> [[Endogamy|endogamous]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Açikyildiz|first=Birgül|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ql4BAwAAQBAJ|title=The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion|date=2014-12-23|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=9780857720610}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Gidda|first=Mirren|title=Everything You Need to Know About the Yazidis|url=https://time.com/3091932/yazidi-iraq-isis-obama/|access-date=2016-02-07|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=8 August 2014}}</ref> religious group indigenous to [[Kurdistan]], a geographical region in [[Western Asia]] that includes parts of [[Iraq]], [[Syria]], [[Turkey]], and [[Iran]].<ref name="Fuccaro">{{cite book|author1=Nelida Fuccaro|title=The Other Kurds: Yazidis in Colonial Iraq|date=1999|publisher=I. B. Tauris|location=London & New York|isbn=1860641709|page=9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Pirbari|first1=Dimitri|url=https://www.academia.edu/2464521|title=Holy Lalish, 2008 (Ezidian temple Lalish in Iraqi Kurdistan).|last2=Grigoriev|first2=Stanislav}}</ref><ref name="Omarkhali 2017">{{Cite book|last=Omarkhali|first=Khanna|title=The Yezidi religious textual tradition, from oral to written : categories, transmission, scripturalisation, and canonisation of the Yezidi oral religious texts: with samples of oral and written religious texts and with audio and video samples on CD-ROM|year=2017|publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-10856-0|oclc=994778968}}</ref> The majority of Yazidis remaining in the [[Middle East]] today live in Iraq, primarily in the [[Governorates of Iraq|governorates]] of [[Nineveh Governorate|Nineveh]] and [[Duhok Governorate|Duhok]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/128591/PW69.pdf|title=Iraq's disputed territories|last=Kane|first=Sean|date=2011|website=PeaceWorks|publisher=[[United States Institute of Peace]]|access-date=15 October 2018}}</ref><ref name="HRW">{{Cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/iraq1109web.pdf|title=On Vulnerable Ground – Violence against Minority Communities in Nineveh Province's Disputed Territories|date=November 2009|publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]]|access-date=15 October 2018}}</ref>

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 [[Iranian peoples|Iranic ethnic group]].<ref name="Mahjidhassan">{{cite journal|last1=Ali|first1=Majid Hassan|date=15 February 2019|title=The identity controversy of religious minorities in Iraq: the crystallization of the Yazidi identity after 2003|journal=British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies|volume=47|issue=5|page=15|doi=10.1080/13530194.2019.1577129|s2cid=150358224|issn=1353-0194}}</ref><ref name="UNCHR2">{{cite web|title=UNHCR's Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Iraqi Asylum-Seekers|url=http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/46deb05557.pdf|pages=11, 76}}</ref> [[Yazidism]] is the [[ethnic religion]] of the Yazidi people and is [[Monotheism|monotheistic]] in nature, having roots in a [[Ancient Iranian religion|pre-Zoroastrian Iranic faith]].<ref name=":042">{{Cite book|last=Turgut, Lokman|title=Ancient rites and old religions in Kurdistan|oclc=879288867}}</ref><ref name=":123">{{Cite journal|last=Kaczorowski|first=Karol|date=2014|title=Yezidism and Proto-Indo-Iranian Religion|url=https://www.academia.edu/6928559|journal=Fritillaria Kurdica. Bulletin of Kurdish Studies}}</ref><ref name=":322">{{Cite book|last=Omarkhali|first=Khanna|title=The status and role of the Yezidi legends and myths: to the question of comparative analysis of Yezidism, Yārisān (Ahl-e Haqq) and Zoroastrianism: a common substratum?|date=2011|oclc=999248462}}</ref>{{sfn|Kreyenbroek|1995}}<ref name=":923">{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781108623711/type/book|title=The Cambridge History of the Kurds|date=2021-04-22|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-62371-1|editor-last=Bozarslan|editor-first=Hamit|edition=1|doi=10.1017/9781108623711|editor-last2=Gunes|editor-first2=Cengiz|editor-last3=Yadirgi|editor-first3=Veli|s2cid=243594800}}</ref>

Since the [[spread of Islam]] began with the [[early Muslim conquests]] of the 7th–8th centuries, [[Persecution of Yazidis|Yazidis have faced persecution]] by [[Arabs]] and later by [[Turkish people|Turks]], as they have commonly been charged with [[heresy]] by [[Muslims|Muslim]] clerics for their religious practices.{{Citation needed|reason=How is this possible, if one of their major figures is a 1072-1078 Sunni scholar?|date=January 2024}} Despite various state-sanctions in the [[Government of the late Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Empire]], Yazidis historically have lived peacefully in proximity with their [[Sunni Islam|Sunni neighbours]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-09-08|title=The Yazidi Genocide: An Introduction|url=https://p-crc.org/2017/09/08/the-yazidi-genocide-an-introduction/|access-date=2024-02-01|website=Post Conflict Research Center|language=en-US}}</ref> In modern times, Yazidis face persecution particularly by [[Islamic State|ISIS]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Iraqi Yazidis: Trapped Between the KDP and the PKK {{!}} The Washington Institute|url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/iraqi-yazidis-trapped-between-kdp-and-pkk|access-date=2024-02-01|website=www.washingtoninstitute.org|language=en}}</ref> Due to ongoing terrorist attacks in [[Kurdistan|Kurdish regions]], many Yazidis sought refuge in Western countries.<ref>{{cite web|last=Taşğin|first=Ahmet|title=Yezîdiyye|url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/yezidiyye|work=TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi|language=tr|access-date=2024-01-31}}</ref>

The [[Genocide of Yazidis by the Islamic State|2014 Yazidi genocide]] that was carried out by the [[Islamic State]] saw over 5,000 Yazidis killed and thousands of Yazidi women and girls [[Slavery in 21st-century jihadism|forced into sexual slavery]],<ref>{{Cite news|last=Callimachi|first=Rukmini|date=2016-03-12|title=To Maintain Supply of Sex Slaves, ISIS Pushes Birth Control|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/world/middleeast/to-maintain-supply-of-sex-slaves-isis-pushes-birth-control.html|access-date=2022-01-23|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> as well as the flight of more than 500,000 Yazidi refugees.<ref name="Allison 2017">{{cite encyclopedia|author-last=Allison|author-first=Christine|date=25 January 2017|title=The Yazidis|url=https://oxfordre.com/religion/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-254|encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion|location=[[Oxford]]|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.254|isbn=9780199340378|doi-access=free|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190311065225/https://oxfordre.com/religion/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-254|archive-date=11 March 2019|url-status=live|access-date=15 May 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20330&LangID=E|title=Statement by the Commission of Inquiry on Syria on the second anniversary of 3 August 2014 attack by ISIS of the Yazidis|website=ohchr.org|publisher=[[Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights|OHCHR]]|access-date=17 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Suvari|first1=Çakır Ceyhan|title=Understanding Religious Violence|date=2018|publisher=Springer International Publishing|isbn=978-3-030-00284-8|pages=195–212|chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-00284-8_8|chapter=Being Ezidi in the Middle East|doi=10.1007/978-3-030-00284-8_8}}</ref>

== Origins ==
[[File:Yezidi_Chief_in_Bachiqua_by_Albert_Kahn.jpg|thumb|Yazidi chief in [[Bashiqa]], [[Iraq]] - picture by [[Albert Kahn (banker)|Albert Kahn]] (1910s)]]
The Yazidis' own name for themselves is {{lang|ku-Latn|Êzidî}} or, in some areas, {{lang|ku-Latn|Dasinî}}, although the latter, strictly speaking, is a tribal name. Some western scholars derive the name from the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad Caliph]] [[Yazid I|Yazid ibn Muawiyah]] (Yazid I).<ref name="iryez">{{cite web|title=Encyclopaedia Iranica: Yazidis|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/yazidis-i-general-1|access-date=18 August 2014|publisher=Iranicaonline.org}}</ref> However, all Yazidis reject any relationship between their name and the caliph.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ceyhan Suvari|first=Çakır|title=Yezidis: An Ethno-Religious Group in Turkey|url=http://www.ethnogeopolitics.org/download/ForumEGPVol4No2articles/ForumEGPVol4No2ÇakırCeyhanSuvariEthnoReligiousGroupinTurkeypp.19-38.pdf|page=32}}</ref> The word ''Yazidi'' means 'the servant of the creator'.<ref name="Al Arabiya News">{{cite news|date=11 August 2014|title=What you did not know about Iraq's Yazidi minority|url=https://englishbeta.alarabiya.net/en/features/2014/08/11/What-you-did-not-know-about-Iraq-s-Yazidi-minority-|newspaper=Al Arabiya News}}</ref> Although Yazidism was not named after Yazid ibn Muawiyah, the caliph was revered in Yazidism.<ref>The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion, Birgül Açikyildiz, 2014, pp. 37</ref><ref>Liminal Minorities: Religious Difference and Mass Violence in Muslim Societies, Günes Murat Tezcür, 2024, pp. 79</ref> Other scholars derive it from [[Old Iranian]] {{lang|peo-Latn|yazata}}, [[Middle Persian]] {{lang|pal-Latn|yazad}}, "divine being".<ref>[[Philip G. Kreyenbroek]], "Yazīdī" in ''Encyclopedia of Islam'', ''s.v.''</ref> Another derivation of the word origin relates to {{lang|ku-Latn|Ez dā}} ('Created me'): Yazidis also refer to {{lang|ku-Latn|Xwedê ez dam}} ('God created me') and to {{lang|ku-Latn|Em miletê ezdaîn}} ('We are the Ezdayi nation').<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bocheńska|first=Joanna|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fPZ0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA292|title=Rediscovering Kurdistan's Cultures and Identities: The Call of the Cricket|date=2018-10-26|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-93088-6}}</ref>

The Yazidi religion shares [[Yazdânism#Common features of Yezidism, Yarsanism and Dimili/Kurdish Alevism|similarities]] with those of the [[Yarsanism|Yaresan]] and the [[Kurdish Alevism|Kurdish Alevis]].{{sfn|Kreyenbroek|1995|pages=54; 59}}<ref>{{Cite web|last=Omarkhali|first=Khanna|title=The status and role of the Yezidi legends and myths. To the question of comparative analysis of Yezidism, Yārisān (Ahl-e Haqq) and Zoroastrianism: a common substratum?|date=January 2009|url=https://www.academia.edu/7918305|website=Academia}}</ref><ref name=":042" /><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bozarslan|first1=Hamit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IXgnEAAAQBAJ|title=The Cambridge History of the Kurds|last2=Gunes|first2=Cengiz|last3=Yadirgi|first3=Veli|date=2021-04-22|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-58301-5}}</ref> The shared features among the three religions can be traced back to an ancient faith that was probably dominant among the [[Western Iranian languages|western]] [[Iranian peoples|Iranic peoples]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Foltz|first1=Richard|url=https://www.academia.edu/9387407|title=Two Kurdish Sects: The Yezidis and the Yaresan|pages=219|access-date=27 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204071202/http://www.academia.edu/9387407/Religions_of_Iran_From_Prehistory_to_the_Present|archive-date=4 February 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> but distinct from [[Zoroastrianism]] and derived from the [[Ancient Iranian religion|pre-Zoroastrian Iranic]] tradition.<ref>{{cite book|last=Foltz|first=Richard|title=Religions of Iran: From Prehistory to the Present|date=22 October 2013|isbn=978-1-78074-307-3|page=30|chapter=Mithra and Mithraism|location=London|publisher=Oneworld Publications|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/9387407|access-date=27 February 2019|archive-date=4 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204071202/http://www.academia.edu/9387407/Religions_of_Iran_From_Prehistory_to_the_Present|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":042" />

Early writers attempted to describe Yazidi origins, broadly speaking, in terms of [[Islam]], or Persian, or sometimes even "[[Paganism|pagan]]" religions; however, research published since the 1990s has shown such an approach to be simplistic.<ref name="iranica" />

== History ==

=== Early history and origins ===
Yezidism emerged in the 12th century when [[Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir|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 local [[Kurds]] who, at that time, were still practicing an old [[Iranian peoples|Iranic]] faith,<ref name=":03">{{Cite book|last=Açikyildiz|first=Birgül|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-pY7zAEACAAJ&q=birgul+acikyildiz+yezidis|title=The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion|date=2014-10-16|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|isbn=978-1-78453-216-1}}</ref><ref name="YAZIDIS i. GENERAL">{{Cite journal|title=Yazidis i. General|journal=Encyclopaedia Iranica Online|date=17 August 2020|doi=10.1163/2330-4804_eiro_com_1252|last1=Allison|first1=Christine}}</ref> which, although similar, was not only distinct from [[Zoroastrianism]] but actually of [[Ancient Iranian religion|pre-Zoroastrian]] origin.<ref name=":13">{{Cite book|last=Turgut|first=Lokman|title=Ancient rites and old religions in Kurdistan|oclc=879288867}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-the-kurds/BDA1E4CBEA98ADFDC471D89A251C3FD4|title=The Cambridge History of the Kurds|date=2021|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-47335-4|editor-last=Bozarslan|editor-first=Hamit|location=Cambridge|doi=10.1017/9781108623711|s2cid=243594800|editor-last2=Gunes|editor-first2=Cengiz|editor-last3=Yadirgi|editor-first3=Veli}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Foltz|first=Richard|date=2017-06-01|title=The "Original" Kurdish Religion? Kurdish Nationalism and the False Conflation of the Yezidi and Zoroastrian Traditions|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/jps/10/1/article-p87_6.xml|journal=Journal of Persianate Studies|volume=10|issue=1|pages=87–106|doi=10.1163/18747167-12341309|issn=1874-7167}}</ref> After his death in 1162&nbsp;AD, his disciples and successors blended his doctrines and teachings with the local, ancient Iranic traditions.<ref name=":03" /> As a result of this melding, Yezidi tradition employs many terms, images and symbols of [[Sufism|Sufi]] or [[Islam|Islamic]] origin, while still - and to a larger extent - preserving pre-Islamic mythology, symbology, rituals, festivals and traditions.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kreyenbroek|first=Philip G.|author-link=Philip G. Kreyenbroek|title=Yezidism—Its Background Observances and Textual Tradition|url=https://www.academia.edu/7679151|via=Academia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Omarkhali|first=Khanna|date=2011|title=The status and role of the Yezidi legends and myths: to the question of comparative analysis of Yezidism, Yārisān (Ahl-e Haqq) and Zoroastrianism: a common substratum?|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/999248462|journal=Folia Orientalia|volume=45|pages=197–219|issn=0015-5675|oclc=999248462}}</ref><ref name=":13" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Foltz|first=Richard C.|title=Religions of Iran: from prehistory to the present|date=2013|isbn=978-1-78074-307-3|location=London|publisher=Oneworld Publications|oclc=839388544}}</ref>

Yezidism was embraced by many Kurdish [[Kurdish tribes|tribes]] and [[Kurdish emirates|emirates]]. Yezidi manuscripts, called mişûrs which were written down in the 13th century, contain lists of Kurdish tribes who were affiliated to Yezidi [[Social organization of the Yazidis#Pîr|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 [[Islamization|islamized]] today, including but not limited to the large [[Shekak (tribe)|Shikak]], [[Reşwan (tribe)|Reşan]], [[Donboli (tribe)|Dumilî/Dumbuli]], Memkan, Kîkan, and Musareşan tribes.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Omarkhali, Khanna|title=The Yezidi religious textual tradition, from oral to written : categories, transmission, scripturalisation, and canonisation of the Yezidi oral religious texts: with samples of oral and written religious texts and with audio and video samples on CD-ROM|year=2017|isbn=978-3-447-10856-0|pages=383–385|publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag|oclc=994778968}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Pirbari|first1=Dimitri|last2=Mossaki|first2=Nodar|last3=Yezdin|first3=Mirza Sileman|date=2019-11-19|title=A Yezidi Manuscript:—Mišūr of P'īr Sīnī Bahrī/P'īr Sīnī Dārānī, Its Study and Critical Analysis|journal=Iranian Studies|volume=53|issue=1–2|pages=223–257|doi=10.1080/00210862.2019.1669118|s2cid=214483496|issn=0021-0862}}</ref> In addition, [[Sharafkhan Bidlisi|Sherefkhan Bidlisi]] writes in [[Sharafnama|Şerefname]] that seven of the most important Kurdish tribes were Yezidi.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Christine.|first=Allison|title=The Yezidi Oral Tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan.|date=2012|publisher=Taylor and Francis|isbn=978-1-136-74656-7|oclc=823388986}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Survival Among The Kurds.|date=2012|publisher=Taylor and Francis|isbn=978-1-136-15729-5|oclc=823379895}}</ref> Yezidism was the official religion of numerous Kurdish emirates and principalities, including the principalities of [[Bohtan]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nelida.|first=Fuccaro|title=The other Kurds: Yazidis in colonial Iraq|date=1999|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=1-86064-170-9|pages=10|oclc=40754938}}</ref> [[Principality of Mahmudi|Mahmudi]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Açıkyıldız|first=Birgül|title=From Yezidism to Islam: Religious Architecture of the Mahmudî Dynasty in Khoshâb, pp. 369-383.|url=https://www.academia.edu/30575570|journal=Iran and the Caucasus|year=2016|volume=20|issue=3–4|pages=369–383|doi=10.1163/1573384X-20160307}}</ref> [[Principality of Donboli|Donboli]]<ref name=":4">{{Citation|last=Kerborani|first=Bahadin Hawar|title=Paying the Price of Dasht-i Karbala: Historical Perceptions of Yezidis in the Ottoman Era|date=2021|work=Kurds and Yezidis in the Middle East|publisher=I.B. Tauris|doi=10.5040/9780755601226.ch-006|isbn=978-0-7556-0119-6|s2cid=230526075}}</ref> and the [[Emirate of Kilis]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bidlīsī|first=Sharaf Khān|title=Şerefname: Kürt tarihi|date=2016|others=İbrahim Sunkur|isbn=978-605-66520-1-1|location=Van|publisher=Sitav Yayınları|oclc=984148348}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Das Fürstentum von Kilîs – Êzîpedia|url=http://www.ezipedia.de/das-furstentum-von-kilis/|access-date=2021-07-11|language=de-DE}}</ref>

==== Territory and religious administrative structure ====
[[File:احدى_مزارات_الديانة_الايزيدية_في_ناحية_بعشيقة.jpg|thumb|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 [[Sanjak|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:<ref name=":22">{{Cite web|title=Verwaltungs- und Gebietsstruktur der jesidischen Gemeinschaft zwischen dem 14. und 19. Jahrhundert|url=https://s-j-a.org/blog/verwaltungs-und-gebietsstruktur-der-jesidischen-gemeinschaft-zwischen-dem-14-und-19-jh/|access-date=2021-07-11|website=SJA - DE|date=15 April 2020|language=de-DE}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Pirbari|first1=Dimitri|url=https://www.academia.edu/2464521|title=Holy Lalish, 2008 (Ezidian temple Lalish in Iraqi Kurdistan).|last2=Grigoriev|first2=Stanislav|pages=11}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Omarkhali|first=Khanna|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/994778968|title=The Yezidi religious textual tradition, from oral to written : categories, transmission, scripturalisation, and canonisation of the Yezidi oral religious texts : with samples of oral and written religious texts and with audio and video samples on CD-ROM|date=2017|isbn=978-3-447-10856-0|location=Wiesbaden|publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag|pages=154|oclc=994778968}}</ref>

# '''Tawisa Enzel''': Welatşêx ([[Shekhan District|Şêxan]]) - [[Lalish]]
# '''Tawisa Şingalê''': [[Sinjar District|Shingal District]]
# '''Tawisa Hekkarê:''' sometimes also called '''Tawisa Zozana''': [[Hakkari (historical region)|Historical region of Hakkari]] ([[Hakkâri Province|Hakkari]], [[Şırnak]], [[Van, Turkey|Van]] and [[Duhok]]).
# '''Tawisa Welatê Xalta''': Region around [[Siirt]], [[Batman, Turkey|Batman]], [[Diyarbakır|Diyarbakir]], [[Mardin Airport|Mardin]], etc.
# '''Tawisa Helebê''': [[Aleppo]] and [[Afrin, Syria|Afrin]].
# '''Tawisa Tewrêzê''': 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 Serhedê''' after the exodus of the Yazidis from Serhed to the Russian Empire. Serhed is a region covering the cities of [[Kars]], [[Ardahan]], [[Erzurum]], [[Ağrı Province|Ağri]], [[Van, Turkey|Van]], [[Bitlis]] and [[Muş]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sOukCQAAQBAJ&q=serhed+region&pg=PA440|title=Wiener Jahrbuch für Kurdische Studien (Ausgabe 2/2014): Schwerpunkt: Die Geschichte von kurdischen Studien und Kurdologie. Nationale Methodologien und transnationale Verflechtungen|last3=Schmidinger|first3=Thomas|last4=Hennerbichler|first4=Ferdinand|last1=Six-Hohenbalken|first1=Maria Anna|last2=Osztovics|first2=Christoph|date=2015-05-22|publisher=BoD – Books on Demand|isbn=978-3-944690-32-2|pages=440|language=de}}</ref>

Every six months, the Yezidi Qewals, who are trained reciters of [[Yazidism#Qewl and Beyt|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.<ref name=":22" />

==== 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]], [[Turkish people|Turks]] and Sunni Kurds. Two of the most known early and major expeditions against the Yezidis took place in 1246, when the Yezidi leader, [[Al-Hasan ibn Adi|Sheikh Hassan ibn Adi]] was killed by [[Badr al-Din Lu'lu'|Badr Ad-Din Lulu]], and 1414, when a joint army of neighbouring Sunni Kurdish tribes ransacked Lalish.<ref name="YAZIDIS i. GENERAL" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Açikyildiz|first=Birgül|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-pY7zAEACAAJ&q=yazidis+birgul+acikyildiz|title=The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion|date=2014-10-16|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|isbn=978-1-78453-216-1}}</ref> 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 [[Qara Qoyunlu|Kara Qoyunlu]], while others allied with [[Uzun Hasan]] of the rival [[Aq Qoyunlu]] against the [[Timurid dynasty|Timurids]]. During [[Saladin]]'s reign, Yezidis served as troops,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Maisel|first=Sebastian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EFgIDgAAQBAJ&q=saladin&pg=PA79|title=Yezidis in Syria: Identity Building among a Double Minority|date=2016-12-24|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-7775-4|pages=79}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last1=Brennan|first1=Shane|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nBGMDwAAQBAJ&q=yezidis+saladin&pg=PA99|title=Turkey and the Politics of National Identity: Social, Economic and Cultural Transformation|last2=Herzog|first2=Marc|date=2014-09-19|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-0-85772-479-3|pages=99}}</ref> ambassadors<ref>{{Cite web|title=Yazidism|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Yazidism/|access-date=2021-07-12|website=World History Encyclopedia}}</ref> and they were given lands to govern.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Das Fürstentum von Kilîs – Êzîpedia|url=http://www.ezipedia.de/das-furstentum-von-kilis/|access-date=2021-07-12|language=de-DE}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=mythos-und-legende-der-sex-mend-und-das-symbol-der-schlange|url=https://www.yumpu.com/de/document/view/21336433/mythos-und-legende-der-sex-mend-und-das-symbol-der-schlange|access-date=2021-07-12|website=yumpu.com|language=de}}</ref>

=== Ottoman period ===

==== 16th century ====
Yezidis came into contact with the [[Ottoman Turks|Ottomans]] for the first time in the early 16th century and lived as semi-independent entities under the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref name=":03" /> The Ottomans had conquered Kurdish regions and installed their own governors in [[Diyarbakır|Diyarbekir]], [[Urfa]], [[Sinjar|Shingal]] and [[Mosul]]. In 1516&nbsp;AD, [[Selim I|Sultan Selim the Grim]] launched an [[Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–1517)|invasion]] into [[Syria]], capturing [[Aleppo]] and [[Damascus]] from the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|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.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Brennan|first1=Shane|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nBGMDwAAQBAJ&q=%27Izz+al-din+yezidi&pg=PA98|title=Turkey and the Politics of National Identity: Social, Economic and Cultural Transformation|last2=Herzog|first2=Marc|date=2014-09-19|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-0-85772-479-3|pages=99}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Guest|first=John S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YVah8ii53_UC&q=the+yezidis+john+guest|title=Survival Among the Kurds: A History of the Yezidis|date=1993|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-7103-0456-8|pages=45}}</ref>

Yezidis were a large and numerous group living in many places, namely, based on [[Evliya Çelebi|Evliya Çelebi's]] reports, in [[Bingöl]], [[Bitlis]], [[Van, Turkey|Van]], Hazo, [[Amadiya|Amedi]], [[Diyarbakır|Diyarbekir]], [[Hasankeyf]], [[Cizre|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:<ref name=":4" /><blockquote>The quality of Yezidis' grapes and honey is priceless, and their raisins are highly priced in [[Baghdad]], [[Basra]] and [[Lahsa Eyalet|Lahsa]] markets. They have many Berry trees. [[Sinjar]] has important mineral[s] as well.</blockquote>Çelebi also reports that Yezidis collected fees by taking people from [[Hasankeyf]] to the other side with their ferries.<ref name=":4" />

Under the reign of [[Suleyman the magnificent|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|Bahdinan Emirate]] with its capital of [[Amadiya|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 [[Shekhan District|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.<ref>{{Citation|last=Allison|first=Christine|title=The Yazidis|date=2017-01-25|url=https://oxfordre.com/religion/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-254|encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.254|isbn=978-0-19-934037-8|access-date=2021-07-12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Herrschaftsbereich des Hisên Begê Dasinî (1534)|url=https://s-j-a.org/blog/herrschaftsbereich-des-hussein-beg-dasini/|access-date=2021-07-12|website=SJA - DE|date=6 April 2020|language=de-DE}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Guest|first=John S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vo_XAAAAMAAJ|title=Survival Among the Kurds: A History of the Yezidis|date=1993|publisher=Kegan Paul International|isbn=978-0-7103-0456-8|pages=46}}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis|degree=PhD|last=Ghalib|first=Sabah Abdullah|date=2011-10-13|title=The Emergence of Kurdism with Special Reference to the Three Kurdish Emirates within the Ottoman Empire 1800-1850|url=https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10036/3676|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210728185351/https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10036/3676|archive-date=2021-07-28|pages=52–53}}</ref>

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 [[Shaykh al-Islām|Sheikh al-Islam]], cooperated with the Ottoman Sultans and issued [[Fatwa|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 ''[[Divisions of the world in Islam#Dar al-harb|Dar Al-Harb]]'' from a religious standpoint.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal|last=Ali|first=Majid Hassan|date=2019-11-01|title=Genocidal Campaigns during the Ottoman Era: The Firmān of Mīr-i-Kura against the Yazidi Religious Minority in 1832–1834|url=https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/gsi.13.1.05|journal=Genocide Studies International|volume=13|issue=1|pages=77–91|doi=10.3138/gsi.13.1.05|s2cid=208688229|issn=2291-1847}}</ref>

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&nbsp;AD, which reads:<ref name=":7" /><blockquote>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</blockquote>According to another document dating back to 1571&nbsp;AD, the Prince of Bahdinan, Sultan Husayn Waly, demanded the Ottomans to send a ''firman'' (Order) to the states (Wilayāt) of [[Cizre|Jazira]], [[Mosul]], [[Amadiya]], and [[Erbil]] to arrest the Yezidi leaders.<ref name=":7" />

==== 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 [[Capture of Baghdad (1638)|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.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-10-01|title=Die Geschichte des Ezidi Mirza: Vom Waisenkind zum Helden|url=http://www.ezidipress.com/blog/die-geschichte-des-ezidi-mirza-vom-waisenkind-zum-helden/|access-date=2021-07-12|website=ÊzîdîPress|language=de-DE}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Studien zur yezidischen Religionsgemeinschaft, Yezidische Helden|url=https://bnk.institutkurde.org/catalogue/detail.php?pirtuk=1408|access-date=2021-07-12|website=bnk.institutkurde.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=مصير ميرزا باشا الداسني بعد عزله من ولاية الموصل عام 1651م وفق المصادر العثمانية:الباحث/داود مراد ختاري {{!}} موقع بحزاني نت|date=22 October 2019|url=http://www.bahzani.net/?p=35388|access-date=2021-07-12|language=ar}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Guest|first=John S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YVah8ii53_UC&q=Mirza+Pasha+john+guest&pg=PA317|title=Survival Among the Kurds: A History of the Yezidis|date=1993|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-7103-0456-8|pages=47}}</ref>

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&nbsp;AD, which resulted in a Yezidi victory and 7,000 of the Ottoman soldiers being slaughtered according to the reports of [[Evliya Çelebi]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Çelebi|first1=Evliya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YiWSuO6fdQYC&q=Nasuh+pasha+|title=The Intimate Life of an Ottoman Statesman, Melek Ahmed Pasha (1588-1662): As Portrayed in Evliya Celebi's Book of Travels (Seyahat-name)|last2=Çelebi|first2=Hâf?z Mehmet Z?llî Evliya|date=1991-01-01|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-0640-3|pages=170}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=admin|date=2017-03-20|title=Die Schlacht von Shingal im Jahr 1613|url=http://www.ezidipress.com/blog/die-schlacht-von-shingal-im-jahr-1613/|access-date=2021-07-13|website=ÊzîdîPress|language=de-DE}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Guest|first=John S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YVah8ii53_UC&q=John+guest+yezidis|title=Survival Among the Kurds: A History of the Yezidis|date=1993|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-7103-0456-8|pages=46–47}}</ref>

In 1640, another expedition against the Yezidis of Shingal was launched by another Grand Vizier, [[Melek Ahmed Pasha]] of Diyarbekir. The Ottoman troops surrounded [[Sinjar Mountains|Shingal mountains]] and stormed Yezidi positions. Despite heavy casualties, the Ottomans eventually succeeded in capturing the mountain.<ref name=":3" /> 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:<ref name=":4" /><blockquote>These Yezidis were as wealthy as Croesus, All the multitudes of troops from the provinces of [[Van, Turkey|Van]] and [[Diyarbakır|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 [[Battle of Karbala|event of Kerbela]] these people have been rich, and no king had ever conquered them before.</blockquote>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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Guest|first=John S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YVah8ii53_UC&q=John+guest+yezidis|title=Survival Among the Kurds: A History of the Yezidis|date=1993|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-7103-0456-8|pages=47–48}}</ref>

In Evliya's works, the tribes of [[Ku:Rojkî|Rojkî]],<ref name=":5" /> Halitî (Xaltî), Çekvânî, Bapirî, Celovî, Temânî, Mervanî, Beddi, Tâtekî, Gevarî, Gevaşî, [[Ku:Zêbarî|Zêbarî]], [[Pazuki|Bezikî]], [[Motikan (tribe)|Modikî]], Kanahî and [[Shekak (tribe)|Şikak]] are mentioned as Yezidis.<ref>{{Cite thesis|degree=Master|last=Alpaslan|first=Mustafa|date=2015-01-27|title=Evlİya Çelebİ Seyahatnamesİnde Kürtler|url=http://acikerisim.artuklu.edu.tr/xmlui/handle/20.500.12514/988|publisher=Mardġn Artuklu Ünġversġtesġ|pages=44, 75, 113}}</ref> 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 [[Five Pillars of Islam|pillars of Islam]]), kelb-perest (dog worshippers), and firka-ı dal" (heretic sect).<ref name=":4" />

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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Guest|first=John S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YVah8ii53_UC&q=John+guest+yezidis|title=Survival Among the Kurds: A History of the Yezidis|date=1993|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-7103-0456-8|pages=53}}</ref>

==== Between 1715 and 1809 ====
Yezidis are mentioned in ''Van Tarihi,'' a 1715/1716 account by the local imam of the [[Van, Turkey|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 [[Erciş|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.<ref name=":4" />

In 1743, [[Nader Shah|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 Kupri|Altun Kopru]] and [[Kirkuk]]. As had often raided the western provinces of Persia from his base in the mountains around [[Koy Sanjaq|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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Guest|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TJUrBgAAQBAJ&q=sinjar+kurds+1671&pg=PA55|title=Survival Among The Kurds|date=2012-11-12|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-15729-5|pages=56}}</ref>

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 [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasids]], had ruled Amadiya since the [[Timurid Empire|Timurid]] period. Amadiya was also home to a Jewish community and included [[Nestorianism|Nestorians]] who were actively proselytized by [[Dominican Order|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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Guest.|title=Survival Among The Kurds.|date=2012|publisher=Taylor and Francis|isbn=978-1-136-15729-5|pages=57|oclc=823379895}}</ref>

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.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|last=Guest|url=http://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1074872|title=Survival Among The Kurds.|date=2012|publisher=Taylor and Francis|isbn=978-1-136-15729-5|location=Hoboken|pages=57–58|oclc=823379895}}</ref>

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.<ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-08-10|title=Überlebenskampf der Êzîden: Die Schlacht von Semel im Jahr 1785|url=http://www.ezidipress.com/blog/vor-230-jahren-die-schlacht-von-semile-im-jahr-1785/|access-date=2021-07-19|website=ÊzîdîPress|language=de-DE}}</ref>

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<ref name=":6" /> 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.<ref name=":7" /> One expedition against the Yezidis of Shingal was led by the Governor of Baghdad, Ali Pasha, who [[Forced conversion|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.<ref name=":7" /> 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 were not granted religious rights that were enjoyed by other groups such as Christians and Jews under the Ottoman [[Millet (Ottoman Empire)|millet]] system.<ref name=":14">{{Citation|last=Allison|first=Christine|title=The Yazidis|date=2017-01-25|url=https://oxfordre.com/religion/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-254|encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.254|isbn=978-0-19-934037-8|access-date=2021-07-26}}</ref>

==== 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 [[Muzuri (tribe)|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. Yezidi women 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 [[Shekhan District|Sheikhan]], killed nearly a hundred people and occupied [[Lalish]] for eight months.<ref name=":7" /> Furthermore, during this period, conflict erupted between the tribe of Mizuri and the principality of Bahdinan, which resulted in a clash in 1804. The Mizuris stormed into the city of [[Amedi|Amadiya]] and captured the family of the Bahdinan prince, Qubad Pasha, and imprisoned him together with his brother, after which they plundered the city and remained in there until at the request of Ahmed Pasha, another Bahdinan prince who ruled [[Akre]], the Yazidis of the Dina tribe came to the aid and the Mizuris were expelled from Amadiya, restoring order in the city.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web|title=Официальный сайт Духовного совета езидов в Грузии|url=https://www.yezidi.ge/home.php?cat=4&sub=1&id=20&mode=blog&lang=ru|access-date=2024-02-11|website=www.yezidi.ge}}</ref>

Ahmed Pasha sought to put an end to inter-tribal feuds and reconcile his neighbours. Thus, the Yezidi leader Ali Beg, sent a word the Mizuri chieftain Ali Agha al-Balatayi, expressing the desire for peace and friendship and offering him to act as a ''kirîv'' (sponsor) for the [[circumcision]] of his son. However, another prince of Bahdinan, Said Pasha, persuaded Mîr Elî Beg to kill the Mizuri chieftain and rid everyone of him, intending to put another tribal leader in his position. Some sources report that he threatened Mîr Elî Beg that he would kill his entire family if he refused to do this. Ali Agha al-Balatayi responded favourably to Mîr Elî Beg's invitation 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 and his son, Sinjan Agha, treacherously murdered. This murder which was condemned by the Yazidi clergy and Yazidi chieftains, as it went against Yazidi canons and tribal customs. It also led 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.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book|last=Jwaideh|first=Wadie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FCbspX-dGPYC&q=Yazidis&pg=PA45|title=The Kurdish National Movement: Its Origins and Development|date=2006-06-19|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-3093-7|pages=56–62}}</ref><ref name=":9" />

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 princes Ahmed Pasha and his brother, Said Pasha, 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, furthermore, they also killed the son of Mulla Yahya. As a result, he turned to the Pasha of [[Rawandiz|Rawanduz]], [[Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz|Muhammad Pasha]]. During that time, Muhammad Pasha had become the most powerful and independent ruler in Kurdistan. He had begun minting his own coins and declared independence from the Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile, the Ottomans were preoccupied with the rebellion of [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|Muhammad Ali Pasha]] in [[Ottoman Egypt|Egypt]], who had declared independence from the Ottoman Empire, Muhammad Pasha had annexed several neighboring [[Kurdish emirates|Kurdish principalities]] to his domains and also intended to seize the Bahdinan emirate and Yazidi lands. In 1815, for the sake of power, he executed his two uncles, Timur Khan and Wahbi Beg, along with their sons, to rid himself of contenders for the rulership. Knowing this, Mulla Yahya persuaded him 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.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":9" />

Muhammad Pasha prepared an army of 40,000 to 50,000 against the Yezidis, he divided his force into two groups, one led by his brother, Rasul, and the other one led by himself. These forces marched in March 1832, crossing the [[Great Zab|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 Emirate|Soran Principality]] until the 19th century. These forces proceeded to march and capture other Yezidi villages. After arriving in [[Shekhan District|Sheikhan]], Muhammad Pasha's forces seized the village of [[Khatarah|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 [[Rabban Hormizd Monastery|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 [[Rawandiz|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 [[Geli Ali Beg Waterfall|Gali Ali Beg]], which is until today named after Ali Beg.<ref name=":7" /> 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|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 [[Mor Mattai Monastery|Sheikh Matta]] suffered the same fate.<ref name=":8" />

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 (Tigris)|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.<ref name=":8" />

==== Attacks by Bedir Khan Beg and persecution of Yazidis and Christians ====
Between 1840 and 1844, Yezidis of [[Tur Abdin]] were repeatedly attacked by the ruler of [[Bohtan]], [[Bedir Khan Beg|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 [[Yazidism|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|Khalid Ibn al-Walid]].<ref name=":922">{{Cite book|last=Jwaideh|first=Wadie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FCbspX-dGPYC&q=Yazidis&pg=PA45|title=The Kurdish National Movement: Its Origins and Development|date=2006-06-19|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-3093-7|pages=62–74}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-12-07|title=The bloody shadow of Bedirkhan Beg|url=http://www.ezidipress.com/en/the-bloody-shadow-of-bedirkhan-beg/|access-date=2021-07-30|website=ÊzîdîPress - English}}</ref> The local Christian population also suffered massacres in 1843 and 1846 by the hand of Bedirkhan and his allies [[Han Mahmud|Han Mahmoud]] and Nurallah Bey.<ref>{{Cite book|editor=Joost Jongerden|editor2=Jelle Verheij|date=2012|title=Social relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870–1915|location=Leiden|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-23227-3|oclc=808419956}}</ref>

Yezidis were object of extra attention from Bedirkhan. During [[Bayram (Turkey)|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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Guest.|title=Survival Among the Kurds|date=2012|publisher=Taylor and Francis|isbn=978-1-136-15729-5|pages=92|oclc=823379895}}</ref><ref name=":922" />

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,<ref name=":922" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=McDowall|first=David|title=A modern history of the Kurds|year=2021|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=978-0-7556-0076-2|oclc=1246622101}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-12-07|title=The bloody shadow of Bedirkhan Beg|url=http://www.ezidipress.com/en/the-bloody-shadow-of-bedirkhan-beg/|access-date=2021-05-29|website=ÊzîdîPress - English}}</ref> 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 Mahmud|Han Mahmoud]], who was on his way to assist Bedirkhan, was intercepted in [[Tillo]] and defeated by Ottoman forces and Yezidi fighters.<ref name=":922" /> Bedirkhan had to surrender to the Ottomans at Evreh Castle in [[Eruh]], [[Siirt Province|Siirt]] on the 4 July 1847.<ref>Henning, Barbara (2018), p. 109</ref> He was put in chains with his family and eventually transferred to [[Istanbul|Constantinople]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Henning|first=Barbara|title=Narratives of the History of the Ottoman-Kurdish Bedirhani Family in Imperial and Post-Imperial Contexts: Continuities and Changes|publisher=University of Bamberg Press|year=2018|isbn=978-3863095512|pages=111}}</ref><ref name=":122">{{Cite journal|last=Kardam|first=Ahmet|date=June 2019|title=Kamuran Ali Bedir Khan|journal=Institut Kurde. Études Kurdes|location=Paris|publisher=Fondation-Institut Kurde de Paris|pages=31|issn=1626-7745}}</ref>

=== 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 [[Abdul Hamid II|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,<ref name=":10">{{Citation|last1=Ayhan|first1=Tutku|title=Overcoming "intimate hatreds"|date=2021-04-02|work=Conceptualizing Mass Violence|pages=167–180|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-003-14613-1|last2=Tezcür|first2=Güneş Murat|doi=10.4324/9781003146131-18|s2cid=233607411}}</ref> and crushing local tribal rebellions.<ref name=":11">{{Cite book|last=Fuccaro|first=Nelida|title=The other Kurds: Yazidis in colonial Iraq|date=1999|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=1-86064-170-9|location=London|pages=34–39|oclc=40754938}}</ref> 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 [[Madrasa|madrasah]], sacred objects of the Yezidis were confiscated, mosques built in Yezidi villages<ref name=":10" /> and the Yezidi Mir Mirza Beg was provoked into converting to Islam.<ref name=":11" /> 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 [[Sinjar|Shingal]]. Yezidi refugees fleeing from [[Shekhan District|Sheikhan]], including both the commoners and the clergy, took shelter on [[Sinjar Mountains|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 ''[[Social organization of the Yazidis#Feqir|faqir]]'', [[Hemoye Shero|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.<ref name=":11" /> 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 (Ottoman Empire)|Ministry of War]]. Four months later the Pasha returned to the capital in disgrace.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Guest|first=John S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YVah8ii53_UC&q=Omar+wehbi|title=Survival Among the Kurds: A History of the Yezidis|date=1993|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-7103-0456-8|pages=134}}</ref> Yezidis finally regained the possession of Lalish in 1904, and the stolen sacred objects were returned to them in 1914.<ref name=":10" />

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 ''[[Social organization of the Yazidis#Feqir|faqir]]'' religious class to which all the male members of the tribe belonged.<ref name=":11" />

At the [[Tur Abdin]] foothills west of Shingal, Hasan Kanjo, a Yezidi chieftain, converted to Islam and joined the [[Hamidiye (cavalry)|Hamidiye]] together with his tribe. He later became the right-hand man and lieutenant of [[Ibrahim Pasha Milli|Ibrahim Pasha]], the powerful chieftain of [[Milan (tribe)|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 tribe|Shammar]]. Members of his tribe had been allowed to keep their Yezidi faith and were camped around the fortress.<ref name=":13" />

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 [[Dervish|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.<ref name=":13" />

==== World War I ====
During [[World War I]], the [[Armenian genocide|Armenian genocide of 1915]] caused a mass exodus of Yezidis from [[Van, Turkey|Van]], [[Kars]], and [[Doğubayazıt|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 [[Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829)|1828–1829]] and [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|1877-1878]].<ref name=":14" /> In May 1918, Ottomans crossed [[Akhuryan (river)|Akhuryan river]] in order to invade the [[First Republic of Armenia|Armenian Republic]]. One column captured [[Gyumri|Alexandropol]] and marched north of [[Mount Aragats]], where eighty Yezidis were massacred at [[Sipan, Armenia|Kurdsky Pamb]], towards the Transcaucasian railway line to [[Baku]]. The other column marched southeast along the left bank of the [[Aras (river)|Aras river]] to secure the recently completed line to [[Tabriz]]. At [[Sardarapat, Armenia|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 [[Aparan|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 [[Vagharshapat|Echmiadzin]] to the Armenians.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Guest|first=John S.|title=Survival among the Kurds: a history of the Yezidis|date=1993|publisher=Kegan Paul International|others=John S. Guest|isbn=0-7103-0456-0|location=London|pages=191|oclc=26012622}}</ref> The Yezidi participation in the decisive [[Battle of Sardarabad]] is still commemorated by Armenians.<ref name=":14" />

Yezidis in Tur Abdin and Shingal also formed common causes with Christians and fought defensively from their mountain strongholds.<ref name=":14" /> 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 [[Sinjar Mountains|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 [[Tal Afar|Tel Afar]] as their logistic base.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Fuccaro|first=Nelida|title=The other Kurds: Yazidis in colonial Iraq|date=1999|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=1-86064-170-9|location=London|pages=88–90|oclc=40754938}}</ref> 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]] and [[Assyrians]] 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 [[Sinjar|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 (title)|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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Fuccaro|first=Nelida|title=The other Kurds: Yazidis in colonial Iraq|date=1999|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=1-86064-170-9|location=London|pages=49–50|oclc=40754938}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Allison|first=Christine|title=Explainer: who are the Yazidis?|url=http://theconversation.com/explainer-who-are-the-yazidis-30280|access-date=2021-08-02|website=The Conversation|date=8 August 2014}}</ref>

== Identity ==
[[File:Yazidi_Girl_tradicional_clothes.jpg|thumb|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,<ref name="iranica" /> however, the now Arab-speaking tribes in Bashiqa and Bahzani, including but not limited to Xaltî, Dumilî and Hekarî,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Maisel|first=Sebastian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EFgIDgAAQBAJ&q=Bashiqa+tribes+Dumili+OR+dimili+OR+dumli+OR+dimli+OR+domli+OR+Hekar%C3%AE+OR+hakari+OR+hakkari+OR+hekkari&pg=PA51|title=Yezidis in Syria: Identity Building among a Double Minority|date=2016-12-24|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-7775-4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Edmonds|first=C. J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rG5ek-jpFAoC&q=ba%27shqia&pg=RA1-PA87|title=A Pilgrimage to Lalish|date=2002-03-21|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-947593-28-5}}</ref> have historically been classified as Kurdish tribes.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bozarslan|first1=Hamit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IXgnEAAAQBAJ&q=Dumli+tribe&pg=PT729|title=The Cambridge History of the Kurds|last2=Gunes|first2=Cengiz|last3=Yadirgi|first3=Veli|date=2021-04-22|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-58301-5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Joseph|first=John|url=https://brill.com/view/book/9789004320055/B9789004320055-s003.xml|title=EARLY BEGINNINGS|date=2000-01-01|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-32005-5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Khachatrian|first=Alexander|date=2003-01-01|title=The Kurdish Principality of Hakkariya* (14Th-15Th Centuries)|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/ic/7/1/article-p37_2.xml|journal=Iran and the Caucasus|volume=7|issue=1|pages=37–58|doi=10.1163/157338403X00024|issn=1573-384X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Yıldız|first=Erdal|title=Şerefhan Şerefnâme Kürt Tarihi cilt 1|url=https://www.academia.edu/31600400|website=Academia}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Guest|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0h0U-f8FbDEC&pg=PR13|title=Survival Among The Kurds|date=12 November 2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136157363}}</ref> 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.<ref name="UNCHR">{{cite web|title=UNHCR's Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Iraqi Asylum-Seekers|url=http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/46deb05557.pdf|pages=11, 76}}</ref> Yazidis only intermarry with other Yazidis; those who marry non-Yazidis are expelled from their community and are not allowed to call themselves Yazidis.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Açikyildiz|first=Birgül|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ql4BAwAAQBAJ|title=The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion|date=2014-12-23|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=9780857720610}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Gidda|first=Mirren|title=Everything You Need to Know About the Yazidis|url=https://time.com/3091932/yazidi-iraq-isis-obama/|access-date=2016-02-07|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=8 August 2014}}</ref>
[[File:Ezidi_boy.jpeg|thumb|Yazidi boy in traditional clothes. In Sinjar, male Yazidis used to wear pigtails.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Eagleton|first=William|title=An Introduction to Kurdish Rugs and Other Weavings|publisher=Scorpion|year=1988|isbn=978-0-905906-50-8|pages=12|author-link=William L. Eagleton}}</ref>]]
Some modern Yazidis identify as a subset of the [[Kurds|Kurdish people]] while others identify as a separate [[Ethnoreligious group|ethno-religious group]].<ref name="iranica" /><ref name="Arakelova">{{Cite web|last=Arakelova|first=Victoria|title=Ethno-Religious Communities Identity markers|url=https://www.academia.edu/3764877|website=Academia}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Ceyhan Suvari|first=Çakır|title=Yezidis: An Ethno-Religious Group in Turkey|url=http://www.ethnogeopolitics.org/download/ForumEGPVol4No2articles/ForumEGPVol4No2ÇakırCeyhanSuvariEthnoReligiousGroupinTurkeypp.19-38.pdf}}</ref> In [[Armenia]] and [[Iraq]], the Yazidis are recognized as a distinct ethnic group.<ref name="rudaw">{{cite news|last1=Serinci|first1=Deniz|date=28 May 2014|title=The Yezidis of Armenia Face Identity Crisis over Kurdish Ethnicity|agency=[[Rudaw Media Network]]|url=http://rudaw.net/english/people-places/28052014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Green|first1=Emma|date=13 August 2014|title=The Yazidis, a People Who Fled|work=[[The Atlantic]]|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/the-yazidis-a-people-who-fled/375964/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0fm0DgAAQBAJ|title=Non-State Violent Actors and Social Movement Organizations: Influence, Adaptation, and Change|date=26 April 2017|publisher=Emerald Group Publishing|isbn=9781787147287}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> 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.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Levon Abrahamian|title=Armenian identity in a changing world|date=2006|page=116}}</ref> In the fourteenth century, seven of the most prominent Kurdish tribes were Yazidi, and Yazidism was the religion of the [[Bohtan|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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Allison|first=Christine|title=The Yezidi Oral Tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan|publisher=Psychology Press|year=2001|isbn=9780700713974|pages=38–40}}</ref> In the autonomous [[Kurdistan Region]] of [[Iraq]], Yazidis are considered ethnic Kurds<ref name="Mahjidhassan" /> and the autonomous region considers Yazidis to be the "original Kurds".<ref>{{cite journal|date=2018|title=Yezidi Identity Politics and Political Ambitions in the Wake of the ISIS Attack|journal=Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies|volume=20|issue=5|page=425|doi=10.1080/19448953.2018.1406689|last1=Spät|first1=Eszter|s2cid=148897618}}</ref> The sole Yazidi parliamentarian in the [[Iraqi Parliament]] [[Vian Dakhil]] also stated her opposition to any move separating Yazidis from Kurds.<ref name="Mahjidhassan" /> [[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''.<ref name="rudaw" /> 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 [[Yazidism|Yazidi religious identity]] and Yazidi [[ethnicity]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Asatrian|first1=Garnik S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hVVsBAAAQBAJ&pg=PAPR8|title=The Religion of the Peacock Angel: The Yezidis and Their Spirit World|last2=Arakelova|first2=Victoria|date=2014-09-03|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317544296|location=|page=viii}}</ref><ref name="Arakelova" />

Yazidis distinguish the name of their community from the name of their religion according the phrase:<ref name="Artur2">{{Cite web|last=Rodziewicz|first=Artur|date=2018|title=Milete min Êzîd. The Uniqueness of the Yezidi Concept of the Nation|url=https://www.ejournals.eu/pliki/art/13590/|website=[[Electronic journal|ejournals]].eu|pages=70, 72, 74}}</ref><ref name="Asatrian+Arakelova">{{Cite book|last1=Asatrian|first1=Garnik S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hVVsBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA29|title=The Religion of the Peacock Angel: The Yezidis and Their Spirit World|last2=Arakelova|first2=Victoria|date=2014-09-03|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-54429-6|location=|pages=29}}</ref>

: {{Lang|ku-Latn|Miletê min Êzîd}} ("My nation—the Yazidis.")
: {{Lang|ku-Latn|Dîne min Şerfedîn}} ("My religion—Sharfadin.")<ref name="Artur2" />

However, this phrase does not 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".

{{blockquote|Me dîn Şerfedîne û Êzî atqate. ("Our religion is Sherfedin and belief is Ezi.")|Qewlê Şerfedîn}}

{{blockquote|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.<ref name="Artur2" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Bocheńska|first=Joanna|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fPZ0DwAAQBAJ&q=joanna+bochenska+kurdistan|title=Rediscovering Kurdistan's Cultures and Identities: The Call of the Cricket|date=2018-10-26|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-93088-6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Refugees|first=United Nations High Commissioner for|title=Refworld {{!}} The Human Rights Situation of the Yezidi Minority in the Transcaucausus (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan)|url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/485fa2342.html|access-date=2021-06-26|website=Refworld}}</ref>

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 have originally been equivalent to "religion" and "religious community" rather than ethnicity. Thus, the original meaning of the phrase "Miletê min Ezid" would have been "I belong to the religious group of Ezid".<ref name="Artur2" /><ref name=":1" />
[[File:Aziz_Tamoyan_Yezidi.jpg|thumb|[[Aziz Tamoyan]], the President of the [[Yezidi National Union ULE]] in Armenia]]
Yazidis are regarded as ethnic Kurds in Georgia and Germany.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-12-26|title=მრავალეთნიკური საქართველო (მოკლე ცნობარი): საქართველოს ქურთები|url=http://www.nplg.gov.ge/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.exe?e=d-00000-00---off-0civil2--00-1----0-10-0---0---0prompt-10---4-------0-1l--10-ka-50---20-about---00-3-1-00-0-0-01-1-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&cl=CL1.32&d=HASH0141a49d695b1b00adf0e9b0.5|access-date=2021-06-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191226023913/http://www.nplg.gov.ge/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.exe?e=d-00000-00---off-0civil2--00-1----0-10-0---0---0prompt-10---4-------0-1l--10-ka-50---20-about---00-3-1-00-0-0-01-1-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&cl=CL1.32&d=HASH0141a49d695b1b00adf0e9b0.5|archive-date=26 December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Tagay|first=Sefik|title=Die Jesiden {{!}} bpb|url=https://m.bpb.de/gesellschaft/bildung/filmbildung/270902/die-jesiden|access-date=2021-07-06|website=bpb.de|date=2 July 2018|language=de}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|date=May 1992|title=Armenian International Magazine|url=http://armenianinternationalmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/May1992.pdf|page=31}}</ref> [[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.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Brennan|first1=Shane|last2=Herzog|first2=Marc|title=Turkey and the Politics of National Identity: Social, Economic and Cultural Transformation|date=30 July 2014|publisher=I.B.Tauris, 2014|location=New York|isbn=978-1-78076-539-6}}</ref>

[[Evliya Çelebi]] referred to Yazidis as "Yezidi Kurds" and described Yazidi soldiers as "wild, bloodthirsty, insanely brave and loyal to their comrades." He also claimed that the shrine of [[Adi ibn Musafir|Sheikh Adi]] was "much more splendid than any Sunni Kurdish shrine."<ref>Landscapes of Resistance: Narratives Around Sacred Places in Sinjar (Iraq) and the Islamic State’s Genocide Against Yezidis, Benjamin Rassbach, 2024, pp. 136</ref>

Conversely, during his research trips in 1895, anthropologist [[Ernest Chantre]] visited the Yazidis in today's [[Turkey]] and reported that Yazidis called their language {{lang|ku-Latn|zyman e ezda}} (the language of the Yazidis) and claimed that Kurds spoke their language and not vice versa.<ref name="Chantre">{{Cite journal|last=Chantre|first=Ernest|date=1895|title=Notes ethnologiques sur les Yésidi|journal=Publications de la Société Linnéenne de Lyon|language=fr|volume=14|issue=1|pages=74|doi=10.3406/linly.1895.12079}}</ref>

However, there is also evidence that Yezidis in the past too identified as Kurds, for example in a letter sent to the [[House of Romanov|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:<blockquote>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.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Усув Бег: курды-езиды благодарят императора России {{!}} RiaTaza|date=13 October 2017|url=https://riataza.com/2017/10/13/usuv-beg-kurdyi-ezidyi-blagodaryat-imperatora-rossii/|access-date=2021-02-25|language=ru-RU}}</ref><ref name=":02">{{Cite book|last=Մուրադյան|first=Մանուկ Նորիկի|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rRBNjwEACAAJ|title=Ուսուբ Բեկ: ուրվագծեր եզդի ժողովրդի, ազգապետերի մի տոհմի, հայ-եզդիական կապերի պատմության|date=2012|publisher=Հայաստան|language=hy}}</ref></blockquote>In addition, names of some Yazidi villages in Armenia contain Kurdish ethnonyms, such as [[Sipan, Armenia|Sipan]] village, which was settled in 1828&nbsp;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]]".<ref>{{Cite web|date=2012-05-04|title=Serdana gundekî kurdan li Ermenîstanê - Malpera Nûkurd: Li pey şopen nû! (www.nukurd.com) Nûçe, Ziman, Çand, huner, magazîn, vîdyo, wêne û hwd.|url=http://www.nukurd.com/kewar-nirxandin/serdana-gundek%C3%AE-kurdan-li-ermen%C3%AEstan%C3%AA-makale,261.html|access-date=2021-06-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504133250/http://www.nukurd.com/kewar-nirxandin/serdana-gundek%C3%AE-kurdan-li-ermen%C3%AEstan%C3%AA-makale,261.html|archive-date=4 May 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Курдский Памб – Сипан: географическое положение {{!}}|url=http://amarikesardar.com/?p=3523|access-date=2021-06-22|website=amarikesardar.com}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Salloum|first=Saad|url=https://www.academia.edu/33292077|title=ÊZIDÎS IN IRAQ}}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis|title=Religious Minorities in Republican Iraq Between Granting Rights and Discrimination: A socio-political and historical study|url=https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/46905|publisher=Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Fakultät Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften|date=2019|degree=doctoralthesis|doi=10.20378/irbo-55706|first=Majid Hassan|last=Ali}}</ref><blockquote>When carrying out the investigations and the personal meetings with some leaders of the Yazidis that dwell the region of our province, especially [[Tahseen Said|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.
</blockquote>When Tord Wallström, a [[Swedes|Swedish]] journalist, met the Yazidi Mir, [[Tahseen Said|Tahsin Beg]] in 1974, Tahsin stated his reason for participating in the [[First Iraqi–Kurdish War|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".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wallström|first=Tord|title=Bergen är våra enda vänner: ett reportage från Kurdistan|date=1975|publisher=Nordstedt|isbn=91-1-754132-8|location=Stockholm|oclc=3590888}}</ref>

Elsewhere, in [[Soviet Union]], the Kurdish identity played an important role for the Yazidis in [[Kurds in Georgia|Georgia]] and [[Yazidis in Armenia|Armenia]], who played a crucial role in [[Yazidis in Armenia#Soviet intellectualism|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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Leupold|first=David|date=2019-11-21|title="Fatally Tied Together": The Intertwined History of Kurds and Armenians in the 20th Century|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/ic/23/4/article-p390_9.xml|journal=Iran and the Caucasus|volume=23|issue=4|pages=390–406|doi=10.1163/1573384X-20190409|s2cid=214003341|issn=1573-384X}}</ref> 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 [[Arab Shamilov|Erebê Şemo]], who was also responsible for writing the first-ever Kurmanji novel in 1929 titled "Şivanê Kurmanca" (The Kurdish/Kurmanji Shepherd).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Omarkhali|first=Khanna|date=2013|title=The Kurds in the Former Soviet States from the Historical and Cultural Perspectives|url=https://apcz.umk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/CJPS/article/view/18255|journal=The Copernicus Journal of Political Studies|volume=2|issue=5|doi=10.12775/18255|doi-broken-date=1 November 2024|issn=2299-4335}}</ref><ref name=":923" />

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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Maisel|first=Sebastian|date=2018|title=Yezidis in Syria: Identity Building Among a Double Minority|location=Lanham, Md.|publisher=Lexington Books|pages=139|isbn=978-1-4985-4980-6|oclc=1048943968}}</ref>

Historically, there have been [[Persecution of Yazidis by Kurds|persecutions against Yazidis]] at the hand of some Muslim Kurdish tribes,<ref>{{Cite book|last=King|first=Diane E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HNcyAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA187|title=Kurdistan on the Global Stage: Kinship, Land, and Community in Iraq|date=31 December 2013|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=9780813563541}}</ref> and this persecution has on numerous occasions threatened the existence of Yazidis as a distinct group.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Travis|first=Hannibal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kd8lAQAAMAAJ|title=Genocide in the Middle East: The Ottoman Empire, Iraq, and Sudan|date=2010|publisher=Carolina Academic Press|isbn=9781594604362}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Ghareeb|first1=Edmund A.|url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio0000ghar|title=Historical Dictionary of Iraq|last2=Dougherty|first2=Beth|date=18 March 2004|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810865686|page=[https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio0000ghar/page/248 248]|url-access=registration}}</ref>

== Religion ==
{{Main|Yazidism}} {{Wikisource|Mishefa Reş}} {{Wikisource|Kitêba Cilwe}}

Yazidism is a [[Monotheism|monotheistic]] faith<ref name="Yezidis-Acikyildiz-2014">{{cite book|last1=Açikyildiz|first1=Birgül|title=The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion|date=2014|publisher=I. B. Tauris & Company|isbn=978-1-784-53216-1|location=London|oclc=888467694}}</ref> 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 [[Angel#Yazidism|Angels]] or ''heft sirr'' (the Seven Mysteries).<ref>Adam Valen Levinson (2017). ''The Abu Dhabi Bar Mitzvah: Fear and Love in the Modern Middle East''. W. W. Norton & Company. {{ISBN|978-0-393-60837-3}}.</ref> Preeminent among these is [[Tawûsî Melek]] (also known as "Melek Taûs"), the Peacock Angel.<ref name="NatGeo-WhoAre-2014">{{cite news|last1=Asher-Schapiro|first1=Avi|date=11 August 2014|title=Who Are the Yazidis, the Ancient, Persecuted Religious Minority Struggling to Survive in Iraq?|work=[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]]|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140809-iraq-yazidis-minority-isil-religion-history|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812233717/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140809-iraq-yazidis-minority-isil-religion-history|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 August 2014}}</ref><ref name="Telegraph-YazidiDiaspora-2007">{{cite news|last1=Thomas|first1=Sean|date=19 August 2007|title=The Devil worshippers of Iraq|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1560714/The-Devil-worshippers-of-Iraq.html}}</ref> Traditionally, Yazidis who marry non-Yazidis are considered to have converted to the religion of their spouse.<ref name="Yezidis-Acikyildiz-2014" /><ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Gidda|first=Mirren|title=Everything You Need to Know About the Yazidis|url=https://time.com/3091932/yazidi-iraq-isis-obama/|access-date=7 February 2016|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=8 August 2014}}</ref>

== 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 [[Yazidis in Armenia|Yezidis in Armenia]]:

* Yezidis in Armenia: 11.9%,
* Muslim [[Kurds in Iraq|Kurds of Iraq]]: 9.5%,
* [[Armenians]]: Frc/Ø: 5.7%, max.: 7.4%,
* [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardic Jews]]: 2.6%,
* [[History of the Jews in Kurdistan|Kurdish Jews]]: 2.0%,
* [[Palestinians|Palestinian Arabs]]: 1.4%,
* [[Ashkenazi Jews]]: 1.3%.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Scirp|first=Amber|title=The Origin of Kurds|url=https://www.academia.edu/2440050|journal=Advances in Anthology|date=2012|volume=2|number=2|pages=64–79}}</ref>

A genetic study conducted in 2022 in Iraq on [[Iraq|Iraqi]], [[Iraqi Turkmen|Turkmen]], Yazidi, and [[Kurdish population|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.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Ahmed Saied Rasho|author2=Yousif Mohammed Fattah|journal=Journal of Basic Sciences|title=Y-chromosomal STR Variation in Kurds, Yazidis and Turkmans Populations in Iraq's Kurdistan Region|volume=7|issue=11|publisher=Wasit University|date=2022|url=https://www.iasj.net/iasj/article/250477|issn=2306-5249|language=en|quote=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|access-date=10 March 2023}}</ref>

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.<ref>"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." {{cite journal|title=A glimpse at the intricate mosaic of ethnicities from Mesopotamia: Paternal lineages of the Northern Iraqi Arabs, Kurds, Syriacs, Turkmens and Yazidis|vauthors=Dogan, S, Gurkan, C, Dogan, M, Balkaya, HE, Tunc, R, Demirdov, DK, Ameen, NA, Marjanovic, D|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=12|number=11|date=2017|pages=e0187408|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0187408|pmid=29099847|pmc=5669434|bibcode=2017PLoSO..1287408D|doi-access=free}}</ref>

A genetic study on the [[Kurds in Georgia|Georgian Kurds]], most of whom follow Yezidism,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Refugees|first=United Nations High Commissioner for|title=Refworld {{!}} Georgia: Treatment of the Kurds, in particular of Yezidi Kurds|url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6aae694.html|access-date=2021-06-22|website=Refworld}}</ref> showed that the populations with smallest genetic distance from Georgian Kurds were found to be [[Kurds in Turkey|Kurds from Turkey]] and [[Kurds in Iran|Iran]]. 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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Nasidze|first1=Ivan|last2=Quinque|first2=Dominique|last3=Ozturk|first3=Murat|last4=Bendukidze|first4=Nina|last5=Stoneking|first5=Mark|date=2005|title=MtDNA and Y-chromosome Variation in Kurdish Groups|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1529-8817.2005.00174.x|journal=Annals of Human Genetics|volume=69|issue=4|pages=401–412|doi=10.1046/j.1529-8817.2005.00174.x|pmid=15996169|s2cid=23771698|issn=1469-1809}}</ref>

== Demographics ==
[[File:Following_the_Peacock_-_A_Documentary_by_Eszter_Spät.webm|thumb|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.<ref name="ReligionPeacock">{{cite book|author1=Garnik S. Asatrian, Victoria Arakelova|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y1RsBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT8|title=The Religion of the Peacock Angel: The Yezidis and Their Spirit World|date=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1317544289|access-date=17 May 2019}}</ref> As a result, population estimates are unclear in many regions, and estimates of the size of the total population vary.<ref name="iranica" />

=== Iraq ===
The majority of Yazidis live in Iraq.<ref name="iranica" /> 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 {{convert|80|km}} 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.<ref>{{cite web|title=Question of the Frontier Between Turkey and Iraq|url=http://biblio-archive.unog.ch/Dateien/CouncilMSD/C-400-M-147-1925-VII_BI.pdf|publisher=League of Nations|location=Geneva|page=49|date=20 August 1925}}</ref> During the 20th century, the Shekhan community struggled for dominance with the more conservative Sinjar community.<ref name="iranica" /> The demographic profile has probably changed considerably since the beginning of the [[Iraq War]] in 2003 and the fall of [[Saddam Hussein]]'s government.<ref name="iranica" />

Traditionally, Yazidis in Iraq lived in isolation and had their own villages. However, many of their villages were destroyed by the [[Ba'athist Iraq|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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=It22IjmZfT4C&pg=PA54|title=Die Yeziden im Irak: zwischen "Modelldorf" und Flucht|last=Dulz|first=Irene|date=2001|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=9783825857042|pages=54|language=de}}</ref>
[[File:Yezidi_New_Year_in_Lalish_(18_April_2017)_10.jpg|thumb|Yazidi new year celebrations in [[Lalish]], 18 April 2017]]
[[File:Pilgrims_and_festival_at_Lalish_on_the_day_of_the_Ezidi_New_Year_in_2017_18.jpg|thumb|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.<ref name="HRW" /> A report from [[Human Rights Watch]] (HRW), in 2009, declares that to incorporate [[Disputed territories of Northern Iraq|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."<ref name="HRW" />

=== Syria ===
{{Main|Yazidis in Syria}} Yazidis in Syria live primarily in two communities, one in the [[Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia|Al-Jazira]] area and the other in the [[Kurd-Dagh]].<ref name="iranica" /> Population numbers for the Syrian Yazidi community are unclear. In 1963, the community was estimated at 10,000, according to the national census, but numbers for 1987 were unavailable.<ref>[[Federal Research Division]]. [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/sytoc.html ''Syria''. "Chapter 5: Religious Life"]. [[Library of Congress Country Studies]]. Retrieved 20 August 2010.</ref> There may be between about 12,000 and 15,000 Yazidis in Syria today,<ref name="iranica" /><ref name="HDS">{{cite book|title=Historical Dictionary of Syria|last=Commins|first=David Dean|year=2004|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=0-8108-4934-8|page=282|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_EhACvcqVXkC|access-date=20 August 2010}}</ref> though more than half of the community may have emigrated from Syria since the 1980s.

=== Georgia ===
{{Main|Yazidis in Georgia}}
[[File:Yazidism08.jpg|thumb|Yazidi men]]
The Yazidi population in [[Georgia (country)|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 [[Genocide of Yazidis by ISIL|persecution by ISIL]].<ref name="DFWatch">{{cite news|url=http://dfwatch.net/yazidi-temple-third-in-the-world-opened-in-tbilisi-36650|title=Yazidi temple, third in the world, opened in Tbilisi|work=DFWatch|date=19 June 2015|access-date=19 June 2015}}</ref> 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]].<ref name="DFWatch" />

=== Armenia ===
{{Main|Yazidis in Armenia}} According to the 2011 census, there are 35,272 Yazidis in Armenia, making them Armenia's largest ethnic minority group.<ref name="2011census">{{cite web|title=2011 Armenian census|publisher=[[National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia|National Statistical Service]]|url=http://armstat.am/file/article/sv_03_13a_520.pdf|year=2011|access-date=6 July 2017}}</ref> Ten years earlier, in the 2001 census, 40,620 Yazidis were registered in Armenia.<ref>{{cite web|title=De Jure Population (Urban, Rural) by Age and Ethnicity|publisher=[[National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia|National Statistical Service]]|url=http://docs.armstat.am/census/pdfs/51.pdf|year=2001|access-date=9 December 2015}}</ref> 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 Empire|Ottoman rule]], including a wave of persecution which occurred during the [[Armenian genocide]], when many Armenians found refuge in Yazidi villages.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Aren Torikian|title=Confronting the Yazidi Genocide|url=https://armenianweekly.com/2014/08/27/confronting-yezidid-genocide/|website=The Armenian Weekly|date=27 August 2014}}</ref>
[[File:Aknalitch,_Yezids_temple_Ziarat_-_panoramio.jpg|thumb|The Ziarat temple in Aknalich, Armenia]]
There is a Yazidi temple called Ziarat in the village of [[Aknalich]] in the region of [[Armavir Province|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.<ref name="Massis Post">{{cite news|date=30 September 2019|title=World's Largest Yezidi Temple Opens in Armenia|url=https://massispost.com/2019/09/worlds-largest-yezidi-temple-opens-in-armenia/|newspaper=Massis Post}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/25/worlds-largest-yazidi-temple-under-construction-in-armenia|title=World's largest Yazidi temple under construction in Armenia|last=Sherwood|first=Harriet|date=25 July 2016|website=the Guardian|access-date=21 May 2018}}</ref>

=== Russia ===
{{Main|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.<ref name="Omarkhali 2017" />

=== Turkey ===
{{Main|Yazidis in Turkey}}
[[File:Yezidismardino.JPG|right|thumb|Yazidi men in [[Mardin]], [[Turkey]], late 19th century]]
A sizeable part of the [[wikt:autochthonous|autochthonous]] Yazidi population of Turkey fled the country for present-day [[Armenia]] and [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] starting from the late 19th century.<ref name="Yezidis-Acikyildiz-2014" /> There are additional communities in Russia and Germany due to recent migration.<ref name="ReligionPeacock" /> 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]].<ref name="iranica" />

=== Western Europe ===
{{Main|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 230,000<ref name="Ger1" /> living primarily in [[Hannover]], [[Bielefeld]], [[Celle]], [[Bremen]], [[Bad Oeynhausen]], [[Pforzheim]] and [[Oldenburg (city)|Oldenburg]].<ref name="spiegel">{{cite news|last1=Gezer|first1=Özlem|title=From Germany to Iraq: One Yazidi Family's War on Islamic State|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/a-german-yazidi-family-is-torn-apart-by-islamic-state-a-998441.html|access-date=24 June 2015|work=[[Der Spiegel]]|date=23 October 2014}}</ref> Most are from Turkey and, more recently, Iraq and live in the western states of [[North Rhine-Westphalia]] and [[Lower Saxony]].<ref name="iranica" /> 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.<ref name="iranica" /> 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.<ref name="iranica" />

=== North America ===
A community of Yazidis have settled as refugees in the [[United States]] and [[Canada]]. Many Yazidis now live in [[Lincoln, Nebraska]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Terrorized by ISIS, Yazidi refugees find welcoming community in Nebraska|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/terrorized-by-isis-yazidi-refugees-find-welcoming-community-in-nebraska|website=PBS NewsHour|date=15 January 2018}}</ref><ref name="NETNebraska-PerspectivesOnCrisis-2014">{{cite news|last1=Knapp|first1=Fred|title=Yazidis and other Iraqis in Lincoln offer different perspectives on crisis|url=http://netnebraska.org/article/news/932347/yazidis-and-other-iraqis-lincoln-offer-different-perspectives-crisis|work=[[Nebraska Educational Telecommunications|NET Nebraska]]|date=15 August 2014}}</ref><ref name="KETV-NebraskanYazidis-2014">{{cite news|last1=Roberts|first1=Dave|last2=McCartney|first2=Rob|last3=Petersen|first3=Brandi|title=Nebraskan Yazidis want to stop carnage by Islamic State in Iraq|url=http://www.ketv.com/news/nebraskan-yazidis-want-to-stop-carnage-by-islamic-state-in-iraq/29633206|access-date=24 September 2016|work=[[KETV]]|date=10 November 2014}}</ref><ref name="NETNebraska-WelcomeNE-2017">{{cite news|last1=Williams|first1=Jack|title=Yazidis from Iraq Find Welcome Refuge in Nebraska|url=http://netnebraska.org/article/news/1108600/yazidis-iraq-find-welcome-refuge-nebraska|work=[[Nebraska Educational Telecommunications|NET Nebraska]]|date=14 December 2017|format=Includes audio|access-date=20 September 2019|archive-date=11 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181211132908/http://netnebraska.org/article/news/1108600/yazidis-iraq-find-welcome-refuge-nebraska|url-status=dead}}</ref> and [[Houston]], [[Texas]].<ref name="VOA-YazdaOrganization-2015">{{cite news|last1=Flakus|first1=Greg|title=America's Heartland Helps Iraq's Yazidis|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/america-heartland-helps-yazidis-in-iraq/2919092.html|access-date=23 September 2016|work=[[Voice of America]]|date=14 August 2015}}</ref><ref name="VOA-YazdaActivistSocialWorkAward-2016">{{cite news|last1=Flakus|first1=Greg|title=Yazidi-American Activist Seeks Help for Refugees|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/yazidi-american-activist-seeks-help-refugees/2986102.html|access-date=24 September 2016|work=[[Voice of America]]|date=30 September 2016}}</ref><ref name="VOA-Nebraska-2015">{{cite news|last1=Flakus|first1=Greg|title=Yazidi Americans Seek Help for their People|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/yazidi-americans-sek-help-for-their-people/2988456.html|access-date=23 September 2016|work=[[Voice of America]]|date=1 October 2015}}</ref> 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 refugee settlement programmes starting in the late 1990s.<ref name="NETNebraska-PerspectivesOnCrisis-2014" /> Many of the men of the community served as translators for the [[US military]].<ref name="VOA-YazdaActivistSocialWorkAward-2016" /><ref name="VOA-Nebraska-2015" />

== 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 [[Occult|occultism]].

=== In Western literature ===
[[File:USSHER(1865)_p454_GATE_OF_YEZEEDI_TEMPLE_SHEIKH_ADI.jpg|thumb|Image from ''A journey from London to Persepolis'', 1865]]
In [[William Seabrook|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".<ref name="Seabrook">Seabrook, W.B., ''Adventures in Arabia'', Harcourt, Brace, and Company (1927).<!-- ISBN needed --></ref>

[[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 [[P. D. Ouspensky|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.&nbsp;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.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Sufis|first=Idries|last=Shah|pages=437–38|isbn=0-385-07966-4|publisher=Anchor Doubleday|year=1964}}</ref>

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".<ref name="Lovecraft">Lovecraft, H.P., ''The Complete Fiction'', Barnes & Noble, 2008; {{ISBN|978-1-4351-2296-3}}</ref>

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 (comics)|Top 10]]'' series (and related comics).<ref>[[Moore, Alan]] and [[Gene Ha|Ha, Gene]] (1999–2000) Top Ten issues 1–12,</ref> 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 (author)|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 {{Section link||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."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://direct.bl.uk/bld/PlaceOrder.do?UIN=197238985&ETOC=RN|title=Sinjar Diarist: Devil's Advocates|first=Lawrence F.|last=Kaplan|author-link=Lawrence F. Kaplan|magazine=[[The New Republic]]|date=31 October 2007|volume=235|issue=4790|page=34}}</ref>

[[Tony Lagouranis]] comments on a Yazidi prisoner in his book ''Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator's Dark Journey through Iraq'':{{blockquote|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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lagouranis|first=Tony|author-link=Tony Lagouranis|title=Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator's Dark Journey through Iraq|publisher=[[New American Library]]|year=2007|page=128|isbn=978-0-451-22112-4<!--|access-date=July 3, 2015-->}}</ref>}}

== Persecution of Yazidis ==
{{Main|Persecution of Yazidis}} The Yazidi people have endured much systematic violence as they upheld their religion in the face of severe [[Persecution of Yazidis|Islamic persecution]] and attempts to force them to convert to Islam and "Arabize" them by the [[Ottoman Empire]], including the [[Yazidi genocide (1915)]] and later in the 20th century by Iraq.<ref name="National Geographic">{{cite web|last=Asher-Shapiro|first=Avi|date=11 August 2014|title=Who Are the Yazidis, the Ancient, Persecuted Religious Minority Struggling to Survive in Iraq?|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/8/140809-iraq-yazidis-minority-isil-religion-history/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803141355/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/8/140809-iraq-yazidis-minority-isil-religion-history/|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 August 2019|publisher=National Geographic|access-date=18 November 2020}}</ref><ref name="Al Arabiya News" />

The belief of some followers of other monotheistic religions of the region that the Peacock Angel equates with their own unredeemed evil spirit [[Satan]],<ref name="KurdsContemporaryOverview-1992">{{cite book|last1=van Bruinessen|first1=Martin|editor1-last=Kreyenbroek|editor1-first=Philip G.|editor-link1=Philip G. Kreyenbroek|editor2-last=Sperl|editor2-first=Stefan|title=The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview|date=1992|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-415-07265-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/kurds00pkre/page/26 26–52]|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JZ6JAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA29|chapter=Chapter 2: Kurdish society, ethnicity, nationalism and refugee problems|oclc=919303390|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/kurds00pkre/page/26}}</ref>{{rp|29}}<ref name="Yezidis-Acikyildiz-2014" /> has incited centuries of persecution of the Yazidis as "devil worshippers".<ref name="Atlantic-BriefHistoryOfYazidi-2014">{{cite news|last1=Li|first1=Shirley|title=A Very Brief History of the Yazidi and What They're Up Against in Iraq|url=http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/08/a-very-brief-history-of-the-yazidi-and-what-theyre-up-against/375806/|work=[[The Atlantic]]|date=8 August 2014|access-date=9 August 2014|archive-date=12 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812230849/http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/08/a-very-brief-history-of-the-yazidi-and-what-theyre-up-against/375806/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Guardian-WhoAreTheYazidis-2014">{{cite news|last1=Jalabi|first1=Raya|title=Who are the Yazidis and why is Isis hunting them?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/07/who-yazidi-isis-iraq-religion-ethnicity-mountains|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=11 August 2014}}</ref>

=== After the 2003 invasion of Iraq ===
On 7 April 2007, a 17-year-old Iraqi of the Yazidi faith, [[Murder of Du'a Khalil Aswad|Du'a Khalil Aswad]], was stoned to death by her family.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.aina.org/news/20070425181603.htm|title=Video Captures Stoning of Kurdish Teenage Girl|date=25 April 2007}}</ref><ref name="Guardian-WomenInIraq-2007">{{cite news|last1=Lattimer|first1=Mark|title=Freedom lost|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/dec/13/gender.iraq|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=13 December 2007}}</ref> Rumours that the stoning was connected to her alleged conversion to Islam prompted reprisals against Yazidis, including [[April 2007 Yazidi massacre|a massacre in April 2007]]. In August 2007, some 500 Yazidis were killed in a coordinated series of [[2007 Yazidi communities bombings|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/08/13/iraq.violence/index.html|title=At least 20 killed in Iraq blast|publisher=CNN.com International|date=13 August 2009|access-date=13 August 2009}}</ref>

=== By the Islamic State ===
{{Main|Sinjar massacre|Genocide of Yazidis by the Islamic State}}
[[File:Defend_International_Reaches_out_to_Yazidis.jpg|left|thumb|[[Defend International]] provided humanitarian aid to Yazidi refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan in December 2014.]]
In 2014, with the territorial gains of the [[Salafist jihadism|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 [[Sinjar Mountains|nearby mountainous region]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gulfnews.com/news/region/iraq/isil-militants-execute-dozens-from-yazidi-minority-1.1367034|title=Isil militants execute dozens from Yazidi minority|work=Gulf News|date=5 August 2014|access-date=13 August 2014}}</ref> 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.<ref name="WashPost-Sinjar-2014">{{cite news|last1=Morris|first1=Loveday|title=Families flee as Islamic State extremists seize another Iraqi town, pushing back the Kurds.|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/islamic-state-seize-town-of-sinjar-pushing-out-kurds-and-sending-yazidis-fleeing/2014/08/03/52ab53f1-48de-4ae1-9e1d-e241a15f580e_story.html|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=3 August 2014}}</ref> 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."<ref name="WashPost-Sinjar-2014" />

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, {{convert|1400|m|ft|abbr=on}} 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.<ref name="Guardian-40000-Mountain-2014">{{cite news|last1=Chulov|first1=Martin|title=40,000 Iraqis stranded on mountain as Isis jihadists threaten death|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/07/40000-iraqis-stranded-mountain-isis-death-threat|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=6 August 2014}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/kurds-rescue-yazidis-from-iraq-mountain-201489135227783157.html|title=Kurds rescue Yazidis from Iraqi mountain|publisher=[[Al Jazeera English|Al Jazeera]]|date=10 August 2014|access-date=12 August 2014}}</ref> helping them cross the [[Tigris]] into [[Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria|Rojava]].<ref name="BBCNews-ThousandsTrappedIraq-2014">{{cite news|title=Thousands of Yazidis 'still trapped' on Iraq mountain|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28756544|work=[[BBC News]]|date=12 August 2014}}</ref> Some Yazidis were later escorted back to Iraqi Kurdistan by [[Peshmerga]] and YPG forces, Kurdish officials have said.<ref>{{cite news|title=20,000 Iraqis besieged by ISIL escape from mountain after US air strikes|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/10/iraq-yazidi-isis-jihadists-islamic-state-kurds|first=Haroon|last=Siddique|date=10 August 2014|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Syrian Kurdish fighters rescuing stranded Yazidis|url=https://www.foxnews.com/world/syrian-kurdish-fighters-rescuing-stranded-yazidis|access-date=29 August 2019|agency=Associated Press|date=24 March 2015}}</ref>
[[File:Qasim_Shesho's_Ezidi_Peshmerga_at_the_shrine_of_Sharaf_al-Deen_nestled_into_the_Shingal_mountains_near_Sinune_village_37.jpg|right|thumb|Yazidi [[Peshmerga]] at the shrine of [[Sheikh Sharaf ad-Din ibn al-Hasan|Sharaf ad-Din]] in the [[Sinjar Mountains]], 2019]]
Captured women were treated as sex slaves or spoils of war; some were driven to suicide. Women and girls who converted to Islam were [[Forced marriage|sold as brides]]; those who refuse to convert were tortured, raped and eventually murdered. Babies born in the prison where the women are held were taken from their mothers to an unknown fate.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29333327|title=Islamic State crisis: Yazidi anger at Iraq's forgotten people|work=BBC News|access-date=23 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.christiantoday.com/article/is.in.iraq.yazidi.women.raped.murdered.and.sold.as.brides/40114.htm|title=IS in Iraq: Yazidi women raped, murdered and sold as brides – Christian News on Christian Today|date=29 August 2014|access-date=23 December 2014}}</ref> [[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.<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Alter|first1=Charlotte|title=A Yezidi Woman Who Escaped ISIS Slavery Tells Her Story|url=https://time.com/4152127/isis-yezidi-woman-slavery-united-nations/|access-date=6 July 2017|magazine=Time Magazine|date=20 December 2015}}</ref> 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.<ref>Richard Spencer, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/11160906/Isil-carried-out-massacres-and-mass-sexual-enslavement-of-Yazidis-UN-confirms.html "Isil carried out massacres and mass sexual enslavement of Yazidis, UN confirms"], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 14 October 2014.</ref> ISIS has, in their digital magazine ''[[Dabiq (magazine)|Dabiq]]'', explicitly claimed religious justification for enslaving Yazidi women.<ref>[[Reuters]], [http://www.newsweek.com/islamic-state-seeks-justify-enslaving-yazidi-women-and-girls-iraq-277100 "Islamic State Seeks to Justify Enslaving Yazidi Women and Girls in Iraq"], ''[[Newsweek]]'', 13 October 2014.</ref> In December 2014, [[Amnesty International]] published a report.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30573385|title=Islamic State: Yazidi women tell of sex-slavery trauma|work=BBC News|access-date=23 December 2014}}</ref><ref>[http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/12/sex-slavery-pushes-isil-victims-suicide-2014122313551421512.html "Sex slavery 'pushes ISIL victims to suicide'"], Al Jazeera, 23 December 2014.</ref> Despite the oppression Yazidi women sustained, they appeared on the news as examples of retaliation. They received training and taken positions at the frontlines of the fighting, making up about a third of the Kurd–Yazidi coalition forces, and distinguished themselves as soldiers.<ref>{{cite newsgroup|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/pomegranate/2014/09/yazidis|title=From Genocide to Resistance: Yazidi Women Fight Back|date=21 August 2015|access-date=21 November 2015|author=Dirik, Dilar}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Barbarani|first=Sofia|date=2 September 2014|title='Islamic State tore our families apart. Now we're fighting back'. Meet the Kurdish women's resistance army|work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11069661/Islamic-State-tore-our-families-apart.-Now-were-fighting-back.-Meet-the-Kurdish-womens-resistance-army.html|access-date=13 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230426124344/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11069661/Islamic-State-tore-our-families-apart.-Now-were-fighting-back.-Meet-the-Kurdish-womens-resistance-army.html|archive-date=26 April 2023}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Index of articles related to the Yazidis]]
* [[List of Yazidi holy places]]
* [[List of Yazidi organizations]]
* [[List of Yazidi people]]
* [[Religion in Kurdistan]]
* [[Yazidi literature]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|33em}}

* {{cite book|last1=Açıkyıldız|first1=Birgül|title=The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion|date=2014|publisher=I.B. Tauris & Company|location=London|isbn=978-1-784-53216-1|oclc=888467694}}
* {{cite book|last1=Cumont|first1=Franz|title=The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism|date=1911|publisher=Open Court Publishing|location=Chicago, IL|isbn=978-0-486-20321-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/orientalreligion00cumo/page/152 152]–153|url=https://archive.org/details/orientalreligion00cumo|oclc=670375427}}
* {{cite book|last1=Drower|first1=E.S.|title=Peacock Angel; Being Some Account of Votaries of a Secret Cult and Their Sanctuaries|date=1941|publisher=John Murray|location=London|url=http://www.avesta.org/yezidi/peacock.htm|oclc=4821609}}
* {{cite book|last1=Husseini|first1=Rana|editor1-last=Clark|editor1-first=Kelly James|title=Abraham's Children: Liberty and Tolerance in an Age of Religious Conflict|date=2012|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|isbn=978-0-300-18333-7|chapter=Chapter 15. The Historical and Religious Seeds of 'Honor'|oclc=809235956}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Joseph|first1=Isya|title=Yezidi Texts|journal=[[Journal of Near Eastern Studies|The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures]]|date=January 1909|volume=25|issue=2|pages=111–156|doi=10.1086/369616|jstor=527914|doi-access=free}}
* {{cite book|last1=Kreyenbroek|first1=Philip G.|author-link1=Philip G. Kreyenbroek|date=1995|title=Yezidism—Its Background, Observances, and Textual Tradition|series=Texts and Studies in Religion 62|location=Lewiston, Queenston and Lampeter, NY|publisher=Edwin Mellen Press|language=ku, en|oclc=31377794|isbn=978-0-773-49004-8}}
* {{cite book|last1=Kreyenbroek|first1=Philip G.|author-link1=Philip G. Kreyenbroek|last2=Kartal|first2=Z.|last3=Omarkhali|first3=Kh.|last4=Rashow|first4=Kh. Jindy|title=Yezidism in Europe: Different Generations Speak About Their Religion.|date=2009|publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag|location=Wiesbaden|isbn=978-3-447-06060-8|oclc=554952854}}
* Omarkhali, Kh. (2007). ''Ezdiyatî: civak, sembol, rîtûel u mît'' [''Yezidism: Society, Symbol, Observance and Myth''] {{In lang|ku}}. Istanbul. {{Oclc|1048010971}}.
* {{cite journal|last1=Reshid|first1=Tosine|title=Yezidism: historical roots|journal=International Journal of Kurdish Studies|date=2005|volume=19|issue=1–2|url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA135732895&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=10736697&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E54d5a000|access-date=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", ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20140407094706/http://www.kurdishstudies.pl/files/Fritillaria_Kurdica_2014_03_04%5B1%5D.pdf Fritillaria Kurdica]'', 2014/3,41, pp.&nbsp;42–105.
* Rodziewicz, A., "Tawus Protogonos: Parallels Between the Yezidi Theology and Some Ancient Greek Cosmogonies", ''Iran and the Caucasus'', 2014/18,1, pp.&nbsp;27–45.
* Williams, Kayla, and Michael E. Staub (2005). ''[[Love My Rifle More than You]]''. New York: W. W. Norton. {{ISBN|0-393-06098-5}}.
* Victoria Arakelova (2017). [https://www.academia.edu/35393677/Yezdistan_versus_Kurdistan_Another_Legend_on_the_Origin_of_the_Yezidis "Yezdistan versus Kurdistan: Another Legend on the Origin of the Yezidis"]. ''Iran and the Caucasus'' 21.

{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Yezidis}} {{Wikisource|Portal:Yazidi|Yazidi}}

* [https://yazda.org Yazda – A Global Yazidi Organization]
* [https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/60468 Devil Worship: The Sacred Books and Traditions of the Yezidiz by Isya Joseph]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160408133929/http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001064.html The Beginning of the Universe], photos and a description of Yezidi life in Lalish, Iraq, by [[Michael J. Totten]] (22 February 2006).
* {{cite news|last=Rubin|first=Alissa J.|author-link=Alissa J. Rubin|date=14 October 2007|title=Persecuted Sect in Iraq Avoids Its Shrine|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/world/middleeast/14iraq.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=4 August 2009}}

{{YazidisOutline}} {{Religion topics}} {{Iraq topics}} {{Iranian peoples}} {{Yazidi diaspora}} {{Authority control}}