Melek Taus

Pilgrims celebrating the Yazidi new year festival at the ancient holy temple of Lalish, Iraq

Yazidism

Yazidism Yazidism, Sharfadin (شه‌رفه‌دین ,Şerfedîn‎), or Dasni (داسنى ,Dasînî, Dasnî‎) is a monotheistic faith followed by the mostly Kurmanji-speaking Yazidis and based on belief in one God who created the world and entrusted it into the care of seven Holy Beings, known as Angels. Preeminent among these Angels is Tawûsê Melek (also written as “Melek...

Yazidi new year at Lalish temple, Iraqi Kurdistan

Yazdânism

Yazdânism Yazdânism, or the Cult of Angels, is a proposed pre-Islamic, native religion of the Kurds. The term was introduced by Kurdish scholar Mehrdad Izady to represent what he considers the “original” religion of the Kurds. According to Izady, Yazdânism is now continued in the denominations of Yazidism, Yarsanism, and Ishik Alevism. The three traditions subsumed under the...

The Ziarat temple in Aknalich, Armenia

Yazidis

Yazidis Yazidis (also written as Yezidis (Kurdish: ئێزیدی/Êzîdî‎) are an endogamous and mostly Kurmanji-speaking group of contested ethnic origin, indigenous to Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. The majority of Yazidis remaining in the Middle East today live in Iraq, primarily in the Nineveh and Dohuk governorates. The Yazidi religion is monotheistic and can be...