The most misunderstood people on the planet are the Yezidi of Northern Iraq and Southern Turkey. The story of the Yezidi persecuted historicaly by Muslims is one of the lesser known episodes in the Islamic expansions. This topic is never adressed in our PC educational system. In fact I am finding even well educated people have not heard of these forgotten people.Part of the problem is with our media that focuses undue attention on fake indigenous people " Palestinians " and ignores real indigenous people like Assyrians.
Everything about the Yezidi is confusing and preparing this post was quite difficult.
I have read they are offshoots of Zoroastrians, Islam , Mithraism, Christianity and entirely unique.There are only 200,000 of these people left which is roughly equal
to the amount of confused scholars. Most Yezidis are Kurds but there are different pre Arab invasion nationalities as well.
" They speak a Northern Dialect of Kurdish (Kurmanji).Except for some Arabic poems , their oral prayers,hyms (quel),sacred songs and whatever they recite are in Kurmanji.
All scriptures and texts that they have are also in Kurdish".Thier traditions are largely oral traditions handed down from one generation to the next.They have no theological schools and have a mere two books and a few odd texts.
The Yezidis have a small religion that is opposed by the other three Abrahamic faiths. Although I tend to doubt Jews persecuted them being small and dispersed themselves.The Yezidi tend to live in High Mountain Villages. They celebrate some of their neighbors religious festivals .They have close bonds with the Muslim Kurds
and invite them to place the male child on their lap durring the circumsion ritual.
This bond ( Kirivanti) is extreemly important in Kurdish culture.
Yezidis have survived by strict marriage prohibitions. They are forbiden from entering the hose of worship of another faith. They do not use eating utensils belonging to outsiders but can purify these Items with water taken from a nearby holy spring.
The origins of Yezidism are unkown and the word itself is said to be Sumerian. One of the reasons it has survived is due to its ability to survive hidden. This aspect is similar to the concept of Marranoism in Judaism. People pretended to be of another faith while practicing Judaism in person.
" The Yezidis are spoken of as devil worsipers. The chief of Heftan,Meleke Tawus is regarded as Satan in other communities.Yezidis have raised a way of reaction to
this regard;"terms that mean devil, words that sound like these , terms refering to concepts remotely concerned with Satan ,such as cursing or stoning and words sounding more or less like those are forbidden.There is a theory that the names of
familiar deamon were other local peoples gods. This would seem to back this theory.
The Yezidi have a high respect for Nature and the four elements that play key roles in their lives.Earth ,Wind, Wind and Fire all have ceremonies,yet much akin to Zoroastrianism fire plays a key role.Many of their taboos relate to polution and the environment.
They have a variety of food prohibitions like Judaism and Islam. Howver, most of these come from local languages of words that sound like Satan or evil customs.
Lettuce, Cabage and pumpkin are prohibited. They do not eat fish to honor the prophet Jonah.Gazelle is not eaten as it was once the herd of a phrophet.The male chicken is not eaten as it resembles their god Melke Taurus.
Certain animals have special meanings to the Yezidi. Like Mithraism the Bull is Sacred as is the Snake. Yezidis sacrafice Bulls in autumns as it is supposed to represent brotherhood and life without wars.The black snake is considered sacred but is a sign of evil in the Abrahamic faith. Like in Mirthaism the scorpion has a positive symbol it represents thoe cure for scorpion bites.They celebrate both Mithran and Somezoroastrian ceremomies.