Êzîdî Alphabet: historical and modern

Deep research on every script that has ever been used to write the Êzîdî-Kurmanji language and sacred Êzîdî texts. Status: 2026-05-22 · Languages reviewed: EN, DE, RU, AR, KU, FR, HY · Source count: 35+

Academic honesty first. Where a script is a modern activist project, we say so. Where manuscripts are considered probable forgeries, we document the state of research transparently.

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Overview: Script × Period × Region × Status

#	Script	Period (first attested / standardised)	Main region	Status today	ISO 15924	Unicode
1	Êzîdî script / “Lalîş script”	disputed: 12th–14th c. OR 17th–19th c.; modernised 2013	Lalîş (IQ), Tbilisi (GE)	revived, very small	Yezi	U+10E80–10EBF (v13.0, 2020)
2	Hawar-Latin (Bedirxan)	1932, Damascus	Diaspora, Bakur, Rojava	living, dominant	Latn	Basic Latin + diacritics
3	Cindî-Cyrillic (Hejiyê Cindî)	1946, Yerevan	Armenia, Georgia, Russia	living, shrinking	Cyrl	Cyrillic Extended
4	Arabic-Ottoman (manuscript-historical)	ca. 1880–1911 (published codices)	Mosul, Sinjar	only facsimile research	Arab	Arabic
5	Sorani-Arabic (Hewramî-/Soranî style)	1928 KRG standard, adopted by Êzîdîs from ca. 1990	KRG Êzîdîs (Şingal, Duhok)	living, regional	Arab	Arabic + extensions
6	Syriac / Garshûnî	19th c. (two isolated manuscripts)	Mosul area	purely historical	Syrc	Syriac
7	Armenian (Western variant)	1921–1929	Armenian SSR	only historical (diaspora relic)	Armn	Armenian
8	Yanalif (Soviet Latin)	1929–1939/46	USSR (incl. Yerevan Êzîdîs)	only historical	Latn	Latin Extended

Important: items 4 and 7 are not Êzîdî-specific systems of their own, but adaptations of larger script families.

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Part 1: Êzîdî script / “Lalîş script” (autochthonous, controversial)

Status: reconstructed/revived (small user group in Tbilisi and Duhok) Inventor/standardiser (modern form): Dimitri Pirbari (Ilia State University, Tbilisi) + Kêrîm Amoêv (Êzîdî orientalist) Year: modernisation 2013 in Tbilisi; Unicode inclusion 13.0 on 10 March 2020 Number of letters: classical consonantal 33; modernised 42; Unicode block 47 codepoints (40 letters + 2 combining marks + 1 separator + 4 historical/alternate forms) Where used today: Sultan Êzîd Temple Tbilisi (wall inscriptions with sacred names, opened 2015); prayer book Dua’yêd Êzdiyan (Spiritual Council Tbilisi, 2018); letterhead of the Spiritual Council; coat of arms ISO 15924: Yezi (179) Unicode range: U+10E80–U+10EBF (SMP, “Yezidi” block)

1.1 Critical assessment: where does the alphabet come from?

There is strong scholarly disagreement here:

• “Pro-antiquity” position (Pirbari, Amoêv, Rovenchak, Karaca; Atlas of Endangered Alphabets; Lalîş Centre Duhok): the script is preserved in two manuscripts, Maṣḥaf Reş (“Black Book”) and Kitêba Cilwe (“Book of Revelation”), on gazelle parchment from the 12th–14th c. Source: Omarkhali 2017, Pirbari/Rovenchak/Karaca 2019.
• Sceptical/mainstream position (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia EN, Alphonse Mingana 1916): the two codices first appear in the 1880s in Mosul and are published from 1895 (Browne) and 1911 (Anastase-Marie de Saint-Élie) onwards. The Assyrian Jeremiah Shamir from Ankawa (manuscript dealer, ex-monk) is considered the probable forger or co-author. Britannica writes openly: “It is now widely suspected that both volumes were compiled by non-Yazīdīs in the 19th century and then were passed off as ancient manuscripts.”
• Mediating position (Christine Allison 2001, Khanna Omarkhali 2017): the religious knowledge is old and reliably preserved orally (Qewlê, Beytê, called Heft Sirran, see note below). But: the written fixation in book form is a phenomenon of the late 19th c. The script itself may be older (e.g. for Pîr-Mişûr lineage documents, see Pirbari & Tawoussi 2019 on the “Mişūr of Pîr Sînî Bahrî/Dārānî”), but as a “Bible-codex” it is modern-constructed.

Note on the Heft Sirran: contents are mentioned here only structurally. To protect the religious sphere, no sacred formulas are reproduced. Where academic sources name Sheikh-names, we write “[Unspoken]”.

Research conclusion: the modern Yazidi script (2013) is a well-grounded philological reconstruction-cum-reform by Pirbari & Amoêv, based on the existing (disputed) manuscript glyphs, supplemented with vowel signs and a few diacritics for modern Kurmanji phonemes. It is not a timeless-ancient temple script as popular Êzîdî activist sites often suggest, but it is also not a mere activist hoax: it has manuscript precedents (whose dating is contested) and, since 2018, real liturgical use.

1.2 Complete letter table (Unicode 13.0, 2020)

Writing direction: right-to-left, horizontal, no cursive joins (letters stand alone, unlike Arabic).

#	Codepoint	Glyph	Name (Unicode)	Hawar-Latin	IPA	Note
1	U+10E80	𐺀	YEZIDI LETTER ELIF	a / e / ê	/aː/, /ɛ/	vowel carrier (like alif)
2	U+10E81	𐺁	YEZIDI LETTER BE	b	/b/
3	U+10E82	𐺂	YEZIDI LETTER PE	p	/p/
4	U+10E83	𐺃	YEZIDI LETTER PHE	p’	/pʼ/
5	U+10E84	𐺄	YEZIDI LETTER THE	t’	/tʼ/
6	U+10E85	𐺅	YEZIDI LETTER SE	s	/s/ (sꞌ)	sas/thay reflex
7	U+10E86	𐺆	YEZIDI LETTER CIM	c	/dʒ/	as Hawar c
8	U+10E87	𐺇	YEZIDI LETTER CHIM	ç	/tʃ/	as Hawar ç
9	U+10E88	𐺈	YEZIDI LETTER CHHIM	ç’	/tʃʼ/
10	U+10E89	𐺉	YEZIDI LETTER HHA	ḥ	/ħ/	Semitic reflex
11	U+10E8A	𐺊	YEZIDI LETTER XA	x	/x/
12	U+10E8B	𐺋	YEZIDI LETTER DAL	d	/d/
13	U+10E8C	𐺌	YEZIDI LETTER ZAL	z̲	/z/ ~ /ð/	hist. ð
14	U+10E8D	𐺍	YEZIDI LETTER RA	r	/ɾ/
15	U+10E8E	𐺎	YEZIDI LETTER RHA	rr	/r/	long/trilled r
16	U+10E8F	𐺏	YEZIDI LETTER ZA	z	/z/
17	U+10E90	𐺐	YEZIDI LETTER JA	j	/ʒ/
18	U+10E91	𐺑	YEZIDI LETTER SIN	s	/s/
19	U+10E92	𐺒	YEZIDI LETTER SHIN	ş	/ʃ/
20	U+10E93	𐺓	YEZIDI LETTER SAD	ṣ	/sˤ/	emphatic
21	U+10E94	𐺔	YEZIDI LETTER DAD	ḍ	/dˤ/	emphatic
22	U+10E95	𐺕	YEZIDI LETTER TA	t	/t/
23	U+10E96	𐺖	YEZIDI LETTER ZE	ẓ	/zˤ/	emphatic
24	U+10E97	𐺗	YEZIDI LETTER EYN	ʿ	/ʕ/	Semitic pharyngeal
25	U+10E98	𐺘	YEZIDI LETTER XHEYN	ẍ / ġ	/ɣ/	as Hawar ẍ
26	U+10E99	𐺙	YEZIDI LETTER FA	f	/f/
27	U+10E9A	𐺚	YEZIDI LETTER VA	v	/v/
28	U+10E9B	𐺛	YEZIDI LETTER VA ALT. FORM	v (alt.)	/v/	alternative glyph
29	U+10E9C	𐺜	YEZIDI LETTER QAF	q	/q/
30	U+10E9D	𐺝	YEZIDI LETTER KAF	k	/k/
31	U+10E9E	𐺞	YEZIDI LETTER KHAF	k’	/kʼ/
32	U+10E9F	𐺟	YEZIDI LETTER GAF	g	/g/
33	U+10EA0	𐺠	YEZIDI LETTER LAM	l	/l/
34	U+10EA1	𐺡	YEZIDI LETTER MIM	m	/m/
35	U+10EA2	𐺢	YEZIDI LETTER NUN	n	/n/
36	U+10EA3	𐺣	YEZIDI LETTER UM	u	/ʉ/	vowel u
37	U+10EA4	𐺤	YEZIDI LETTER WAW	w	/w/
38	U+10EA5	𐺥	YEZIDI LETTER OW	o	/o/
39	U+10EA6	𐺦	YEZIDI LETTER EW	e	/e/
40	U+10EA7	𐺧	YEZIDI LETTER HAY	h	/h/
41	U+10EA8	𐺨	YEZIDI LETTER YOT	y / î	/j/, /iː/
42	U+10EA9	𐺩	YEZIDI LETTER ET	ê	/e/
,	U+10EAB	𐺫	YEZIDI COMBINING HAMZA MARK	’	/ʔ/	glottal stop mark
,	U+10EAC	𐺬	YEZIDI COMBINING MADDA MARK	ā	lengthening	above vowel
,	U+10EAD	𐺭	YEZIDI HYPHENATION MARK	–	,	line break
,	U+10EB0	𐺰	YEZIDI LETTER LAM WITH DOT ABOVE	(hist.)	(hist.)	historical
,	U+10EB1	𐺱	YEZIDI LETTER YOT WITH CIRCUMFLEX	(hist.)	(hist.)	historical

Example word in Êzîdî script: Tawûsê Melek → 𐺕𐺀𐺤𐺣𐺑𐺩 𐺡𐺩𐺠𐺝 (theoretical transliteration; read directly right-to-left).

1.3 History and assessment

1. Manuscript templates (Mischk codices, Maṣḥaf Reş, Cilwe): first attestable in research literature around 1880–1911 (Browne 1895, Anastase-Marie 1911, Mingana 1916). Before that: no external evidence. Inner-Êzîdî tradition claims older roots (on temple walls in Lalîş, mentioned by Agatha Christie on her Lalîş trip in 1934, “now hardly readable due to weathering”).
2. Mişūr manuscripts (Pîr-lineage documents): the academic evidence is better here. Pirbari, Mossaki & Yezdin Sardarian published in 2019 in Iranian Studies a critical edition of the Mişūr manuscript of Pîr Sînî Bahrî/Dārânî, this Mişūr tradition is real and old (at least late mediaeval) as a pîr-genealogical document system.
3. Pirbari/Amoêv reform 2013 in Tbilisi: modernised on the initiative of the Spiritual Council of the Êzîdîs in Georgia; vowel signs added, several glyph variants standardised.
4. Unicode proposal L2/19-051 of 26 February 2019 (authors: Dimitri Pirbari · Andrij Rovenchak · Erdal Karaca). Accepted by UTC in May 2019, included in Unicode 13.0 on 10 March 2020.
5. Current use: liturgically small but visible, Sultan Êzîd Temple Tbilisi (opened 18 June 2015), prayer book Dua’yêd Êzdiyan (2018), wall inscriptions with sacred names, coat of arms, “Yezidi Alphabet” app (iOS 2022), Lexilogos online keyboard, Letterly transliterator (latinTOyezidi.html).

1.4 Sources (Section 1)

• Pirbari, D. / Rovenchak, A. / Karaca, E. (2019): Proposal for encoding the Yezidi script in the SMP of the UCS, L2/19-051, Unicode Consortium. [A]
• Rovenchak, A. / Pirbari, D. / Karaca, E. (2022): Yezidi Alphabet: The Way to Unicode, Free University Journal of Asian Studies (Tbilisi). [A]
• Omarkhali, Khanna (2017): The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition: From Oral to Written, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden (Goettingen Studies of Religions 72). [A]
• Pirbari, D. / Mossaki, N. / Yezdin Sardarian, M. (2019): A Yezidi Manuscript: Mišūr of Pîr Sînî Bahrî/Pîr Sînî Dārânî, Iranian Studies 53(1–2). [A]
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Kitāb al-jilwah. [B]
• Wikipedia EN: Yazidi Book of Revelation; Yezidi (Unicode block). [C]
• Atlas of Endangered Alphabets: Yezidi. [B]
• Omniglot: Yezidi alphabet. [B]
• Unicode Code Chart U+10E80, PDF (official). [A]

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Part 2: Hawar-Latin (1932): the dominant script today

Status: living, dominant (diaspora, Turkey-Bakur, Rojava) Inventor: Mîr Celadet Alî Bedirxan (1893–1951, Damascus), supported by his brother Kamuran Bedirxan as well as the French orientalist Roger Lescot (1914–1975, Institut Français de Damas) and Pierre Rondot. Year: first issue of the journal Hawar (Kurd. “cry for help”) on 15 May 1932 in Damascus, French Mandate Syria. Number of letters: 31 (26 ISO Basic Latin letters + 5 with diacritics: Ç, Ê, Î, Ş, Û) Where used today: entire diaspora (Germany, Sweden, France, Belgium, Netherlands, USA), Turkey (Bakur), Rojava/Northeast Syria, KRG (secondary alongside Sorani-Arabic), Kurdish online portals (ÊzîdîPress, Êzîdî24). ISO 15924: Latn Unicode: Basic Latin + Latin-1 Supplement + Latin Extended-A

2.1 Complete Hawar table

#	Maj/Min	IPA	Ex. (Kurmanji)	Meaning	Cindî-Cyrillic equiv.
1	A a	/aː/	av	water	А а
2	B b	/b/	bav	father	Б б
3	C c	/dʒ/	cejn	feast	Щ щ
4	Ç ç	/tʃ/	çiya	mountain	Ч ч
5	D d	/d/	dar	tree	Д д
6	E e	/ɛ/	ez	I	Ә ә
7	Ê ê	/eː/	êş	pain	Е е
8	F f	/f/	film	film	Ф ф
9	G g	/g/	gund	village	Г г
10	H h	/h/	hesp	horse	Һ һ
11	I i	/ɪ/	ji	from	Ь ь
12	Î î	/iː/	îro	today	И и
13	J j	/ʒ/	jin	woman	Ж ж
14	K k	/k/, /kʰ/	kar	work	К к / Кʼ кʼ
15	L l	/l/	lal	mute	Л л
16	M m	/m/	mal	house	М м
17	N n	/n/	nan	bread	Н н
18	O o	/o/	ode	room	О о
19	P p	/p/, /pʰ/	par	last year	П п / Пʼ пʼ
20	Q q	/q/	qehwe	coffee	Ԛ ԛ
21	R r	/ɾ/, /r/	reş	black	Р р / Рʼ рʼ
22	S s	/s/	sor	red	С с
23	Ş ş	/ʃ/	şev	night	Ш ш
24	T t	/t/, /tʰ/	text	text	Т т / Тʼ тʼ
25	U u	/ʉ/	du	you	Ӧ ӧ
26	Û û	/uː/	dûr	far	У у
27	V v	/v/	van	these	В в
28	W w	/w/	welat	homeland	Ԝ ԝ
29	X x	/x/	xanî	house	Х х
30	Y y	/j/	yek	one	Й й
31	Z z	/z/	zeman	time	З з

Extended Hawar diacritics (outside the standard, common in academic works):

• ḧ /ħ/ (Semitic pharyngeal)
• ẍ /ɣ/ (voiced velar fricative)
• ʿ /ʕ/ (pharyngeal approximant)
• q̇ /qʰ/, rare

2.2 History and Êzîdî adoption

1. Damascus 1932: Celadet Bedirxan publishes the first issue of Hawar on 15 May 1932. The journal runs in two phases 1932–1935 and 1941–1943, 57 issues in total, last issue 15 August 1943. Issues 1–23 use Arabic and Latin scripts in parallel; from issue 24 onwards only Latin.
2. Sister journal Ronahî (1942–1945) further consolidates the system.
3. Roger Lescot publishes in 1938 the Enquête sur les Yézidis de Syrie et du Djebel Sindjâr (Institut Français de Damas), at that time the most precise work on Êzîdîsm uses Hawar-Latin for Êzîdî-Kurmanji transcriptions.
4. Êzîdî adoption (diaspora): with the first major Êzîdî migration to Germany (1970s) and Sweden, Hawar becomes the de-facto script of Kurdish-Êzîdî publications. ÊzîdîPress (founded 2014, Germany) uses Hawar almost exclusively.
5. 15 May = Kurdish Language Day (since 2006): commemoration of the first Hawar issue.

2.3 Sources (Section 2)

• Bedirxan, Celadet (ed.): Hawar, no. 1–57, Damascus 1932–1943. [A]
• Wikipedia EN: Hawar (magazine), Celadet Alî Bedirxan, Kurdish alphabets. [C]
• Lescot, Roger (1938): Enquête sur les Yézidis de Syrie et du Djebel Sindjâr, Beirut/Damascus. [A]
• ANF News (English): May 15: The day of the Kurdish language and the legacy of Hawar. [B]
• Kurdish-history.com: Celadet Alî Bedirxan: The Kurdish Prince Who Created the Modern Kurdish Alphabet. [C]
• Omniglot: Kurdish language and alphabets. [B]

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Part 3: Cindî-Cyrillic (1946): the script of the Soviet Êzîdîs

Status: living (Armenia, Georgia, Russia), but shrinking Inventor: Hejiyê Cindî (Heciyê Cindî / Adzhie Dindi, 18 March 1908 – 1 May 1990), Kurdish-Êzîdî linguist, born in the village Yemençayir near Kars (today’s Turkey), family flees 1915–1918 to Armenia. Year: standardised 1946 in Yerevan, Armenian SSR; official re-introduction of the print of the Kurdish newspaper Rya T’eze in Cindî-Cyrillic in 1955. Number of letters: 40 (with ejective consonants via apostrophe diacritic) Where used today: Aparan, Yerevan, Tbilisi, Krasnodar, Stavropol (Russia); Êzîdî schools in Armenia (declining, as many children today are schooled in an Armenian-dominant manner); Rya T’eze (today online). ISO 15924: Cyrl Unicode: Cyrillic + Cyrillic Supplement (a.o. Ԛ ԛ U+051A/051B, Ԝ ԝ U+051C/051D, Һ һ U+04BA/04BB)

3.1 Complete Cindî table

#	Maj/Min	Hawar equiv.	IPA	Example	Meaning
1	А а	a	/aː/	ав (av)	water
2	Б б	b	/b/	бав (bav)	father
3	В в	v	/v/	вэ (ve)	this
4	Г г	g	/g/	гунд (gund)	village
5	Гʼ гʼ	ẍ / ġ	/ɣ/	гʼар (ẍar)	cave
6	Д д	d	/d/	дар (dar)	tree
7	Е е	ê	/eː/	ез (êz)	I (var.)
8	Ә ә	e	/ɛ/	әз (ez)	I
9	Әʼ әʼ	(emph.)	/ɛˤ/	rare	,
10	Ж ж	j	/ʒ/	жьн (jin)	woman
11	З з	z	/z/	земан (zeman)	time
12	И и	î	/iː/	иро (îro)	today
13	Й й	y	/j/	йек (yek)	one
14	К к	k	/k/	кар (kar)	work
15	Кʼ кʼ	k̲ / kh	/kʰ/	кʼар (k̲ar)	donkey (asp.)
16	Л л	l	/l/	лал (lal)	mute
17	М м	m	/m/	мал (mal)	house
18	Н н	n	/n/	нан (nan)	bread
19	О о	o	/o/	оде (ode)	room
20	Ӧ ӧ	u	/ʉ/	дӧ (du)	you
21	П п	p	/p/	пар (par)	last year
22	Пʼ пʼ	p̲ / ph	/pʰ/	пʼар (p̲ar)	money (asp.)
23	Р р	r	/ɾ/	рэ (re)	way
24	Рʼ рʼ	rr	/r/	рʼаст (rrast)	true
25	С с	s	/s/	сор (sor)	red
26	Т т	t	/t/	те (te)	you (obj.)
27	Тʼ тʼ	t̲ / th	/tʰ/	тʼу (t̲u)	you (asp.)
28	У у	û	/uː/	дур (dûr)	far
29	Ф ф	f	/f/	фьлм (film)	film
30	Х х	x	/x/	ханьйе (xanî)	house
31	Һ һ	h	/h/	һэсп (hesp)	horse
32	Һʼ һʼ	ḥ	/ħ/	һʼэб (ḥeb)	grain
33	Ч ч	ç	/tʃ/	чьйа (çiya)	mountain
34	Чʼ чʼ	ç̲	/tʃʰ/	чʼар (ç̲ar)	four (asp.)
35	Ш ш	ş	/ʃ/	шэв (şev)	night
36	Щ щ	c	/dʒ/	щэжьн (cejn)	feast
37	Ь ь	i	/ɪ/	дьл (dil)	heart
38	Э э	e (var.)	/ɛ/	(variant form)	,
39	Ԛ ԛ	q	/q/	ԛһѵе (qehwe)	coffee
40	Ԝ ԝ	w	/w/	ԝэлат (welat)	homeland

Peculiarity: Cindî doubles aspirated/ejective consonants with an apostrophe (Кʼ, Пʼ, Тʼ, Чʼ, Һʼ). The system is phonologically more precise than Hawar, because Hawar does not distinguish aspirate pairs like /p/ vs. /pʰ/ as standard.

3.2 History and Êzîdî significance

1. Prehistory 1921–1929: first writing of Kurmanji in the Armenian SSR using the West-Armenian alphabet (Hraj Hovhannisyan et al.); see Section 7.
2. Yanalif phase 1929–1937: Latinisation along the Yanalif model (see Section 8).
3. Cyrillic standard 1946: Hejiyê Cindî develops the 40-letter system on behalf of the Institute for Languages of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR. Cindî himself was Êzîdî-Kurdish (born in a Êzîdî family), with a doctorate in Kurdology.
4. Rya T’eze (Р’йа т’әзә, “The New Way”): founded 25 March 1930 (initially in Yanalif/Şemo-Margulov-Latin); paused 1937 under Stalin; back from 1955 in Cindî-Cyrillic under Miroyê Esed. To this day (online) a central medium of the Armenian Êzîdî diaspora.
5. Êzîdî linguists of the “Yerevan School”: Emînê Avdal, Casimê Celîl, later Ordîxanê Celîl, Cemşîd Celîl, Tosin Reşîd, all publish in Cindî-Cyrillic.
6. Education: 1930–1937 almost 30 Kurdish schools in Armenia; revived after 1955. Today (2026): still a few Êzîdî classes in Aparan/Alagyaz and at Yerevan State University (Kurdology chair).
7. Identity dispute: since the 2000s two currents diverge in Armenia: (a) “Êzîdîs are a separate ethnicity” → identity publications often in Armenian + Cindî-Cyrillic; (b) “Êzîdîs are religious Kurds” → publish in Cindî-Cyrillic with Kurmanji identity discourse. The script itself is neutral, the identity dispute is political.

3.3 Sources (Section 3)

• Wikipedia EN: Heciyê Cindî, Ria Taza (newspaper), Yazidis in Armenia. [C]
• Wikipedia RU: Езидское письмо; Курдская письменность. [C]
• Special Collections University of Exeter: Rya T’eze and the Kurds in Armenia (Blog 2021). [B]
• Minority Rights Group: Yezidis in Armenia. [B]
• Cindî, Hejiyê (1957): Kurdsko-russkij slovar’ (with Maksim Khamoian), Yerevan. [A]
• IWPR: Armenia: Yezidi Identity Battle. [C]

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Part 4: Arabic script (Ottoman-historical)

Status: no longer active (only facsimile and manuscript research) Standardiser: none, ad-hoc adaptation of the Ottoman-Arabic script by non-Êzîdî mediators Year: ca. 1880–1911 (main phase of the Mosul codices); some Êzîdî correspondence earlier Number of letters: 28 Arabic base letters + 6–8 Persian/Ottoman extensions Where used today: only archivally (University of Heidelberg Library; British Library Or. 6555; Bibliothèque Nationale Paris; Vatican Library; Baghdad Anastase-Marie estate) ISO 15924: Arab Unicode: Arabic + Arabic Supplement + Arabic Extended-A

4.1 History and corpus

Êzîdî religious knowledge was almost exclusively oral until the end of the 19th c. (Qewlê and Beytê, sung by Qewwâl singers from Beşîqe and Behzanê). Sporadically:

• Mişūr manuscripts (Pîr genealogies) in Ottoman-Arabic script, some from the 13th–16th c. (e.g. Mişūr of Pîr Sînî Bahrî, academically edited Pirbari/Mossaki 2019).
• Mufti Husn-Beg writings (local Êzîdî sheikh in Şingal, early 20th c.), few administrative and epistolary texts in Arabic script.
• Maṣḥaf Reş and Kitêba Cilwe: surfaced between 1880 and 1911 in at least 4 manuscripts in Mosul; all presumably copied in Arabic script (possibly also in the modern Êzîdî script; the question of the script carrier is not yet conclusively resolved in research; Anastase-Marie 1911 published a facsimile with “yezidi script”, possibly produced by Shamir himself).
• Jeremiah Shamir (b. ca. 1845 in Ankawa, died around 1906): Assyrian-Christian manuscript dealer, ex-monk, who from the 1880s to the 1900s sold manuscripts to several Western researchers. Mingana (1916, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society) demonstrated strong stylistic inconsistency with authentic Êzîdî religious diction.

Consequence: Arabic script is not an independent Êzîdî writing system: it is a vehicle that was used selectively in the transitional phase between pure orality and modern literacy.

4.2 Sources (Section 4)

• Mingana, Alphonse (1916): Devil-Worshippers; Their Beliefs and Their Sacred Books, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. [A]
• Anastase-Marie de Saint-Élie (1911): Notes on the Yezidis, Baghdad. [A]
• Pirbari, D. / Mossaki, N. (2019): Mişūr edition, Iranian Studies. [A]
• Allison, Christine (2001): The Yezidi Oral Tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan, Routledge. [A]
• Britannica: Kitāb al-jilwah. [B]

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Part 5: Sorani-Arabic (KRG Êzîdîs)

Status: living, regional (KRG / Şingal / Duhok) Inventor: Sa’id Kaban Sedqi (standardisation 1928, Sulaymaniyah); adapted for Êzîdî texts from ca. 1990 by the Lalîş Centre Duhok and the Spiritual Council of Şex’an Number of letters: 33–34 consonants + 6 vowel marks, written right-to-left Where used today: KRG (Duhok province with Êzîdî communities Şex’an, Beşîqe diaspora, Sinjar/Şingal returnees), Lalîş Centre publications (magazine Laliş since 1993, quarterly edition in Kurdish + Arabic + English), Kurdish schoolbooks in Duhok schools ISO 15924: Arab Unicode: Arabic + Arabic Presentation Forms

5.1 Letters (with mapping to Hawar)

Sorani	Hawar	IPA
ا / ئـ	a / e / ê	/aː/ /ɛ/ /eː/
ب	b	/b/
پ	p	/p/
ت	t	/t/
ج	c	/dʒ/
چ	ç	/tʃ/
ح	ḥ	/ħ/
خ	x	/x/
د	d	/d/
ر	r	/ɾ/
ڕ	rr	/r/
ز	z	/z/
ژ	j	/ʒ/
س	s	/s/
ش	ş	/ʃ/
ع	ʿ	/ʕ/
غ	ẍ	/ɣ/
ف	f	/f/
ڤ	v	/v/
ق	q	/q/
ک	k	/k/
گ	g	/g/
ل	l	/l/
ڵ	ll	/ɫ/
م	m	/m/
ن	n	/n/
ھ / ە	h / e	/h/ /ɛ/
و	w / û	/w/ /uː/
ۆ	o	/o/
ی	y / î	/j/ /iː/
ێ	ê	/eː/

5.2 History and Êzîdî use

• Sorani-Arabic was originally designed for the southern Kurdish Sorani variant (Sulaymaniyah, Hewlêr, Kerkûk), but has also been used by KRG Êzîdîs since the 1990s for Kurmanji texts with a short-ê vowel system and even for Êzîdî prayer transcriptions.
• The Lalîş Centre Duhok (Bingehê Laliş, founded 1992) publishes its journal Laliş trilingually (Kurmanji in Hawar/Sorani-Arabic, Arabic, English).
• KRG Êzîdî activists partly argue for abandoning Sorani-Arabic in favour of Hawar-Latin (standardisation debate 2010–2024).

5.3 Sources (Section 5)

• Wikipedia EN: Sorani Kurdish, Kurdish alphabets. [C]
• Magazine Lalîş (Duhok), issues 1993–2025. [B]
• Hassanpour, Amir (1992): Nationalism and Language in Kurdistan. [A]

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Part 6: Syriac / Garshûnî

Status: purely historical, marginal Êzîdî relation: minimal, no independent Êzîdî system Documentary evidence: individual Garshûnî manuscripts from Mosul monasteries (St. Thomas Syrian Catholic Church, Mar Behnam Monastery, Rabban Hormizd) contain Kurmanji grammar notes in Syriac script (e.g. a Chaldean monk from the 19th c. at Rabban Hormizd Monastery, source: NMC University of Toronto Catalogue, syri.ac). Êzîdî texts in Garshûnî: in the Parry-Browne edition (1895) “Carshuni” texts on Êzîdîsm are found, but these are Christian descriptions about Êzîdîs, not written by Êzîdîs themselves.

Conclusion: Garshûnî was never systematically used for Êzîdî texts. It is an external research source (Christian observers from Mosul).

Sources

• Wikipedia EN: Garshuni. [C]
• syri.ac: Manuscripts and Manuscript Catalogues. [B]
• Parry, O.H. / Browne, E.H. (1895): Six Months in a Syrian Monastery, Appendix on Yezidi. [A]

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Part 7: Armenian + Georgian (diaspora)

7.1 Armenian script for Kurmanji (1921–1929)

Status: only historical Standardiser: Lazo (Lazaros Yagubyan) and other Kurdo-Armenians in Yerevan Year: 1921–1929 in the Armenian SSR (before the Yanalif Latinisation) Background: the first Kurdish books printed in the USSR (1921) appeared in Armenian script, because the majority of Soviet Kurds lived in Armenia and the Armenian alphabet was already established there. Prehistory: as early as 1856, 1857, 1872, 1891 and 1911 American and British missionaries published Gospel translations into Kurmanji in West-Armenian script (Constantinople, Smyrna). Êzîdî use: very limited, some Êzîdî folk songs by Casimê Celîl were collected in Armenian script in the early Soviet-Armenian phase, then transferred to Yanalif / Cindî-Cyrillic.

7.2 Georgian script (Mkhedruli)

Status: not standardised for Êzîdî texts Use: Êzîdîs in Tbilisi (about 12,000 persons, as of 2014) mostly speak Kurmanji but write Georgian in school and administration. The Sultan Êzîd Temple Tbilisi (opened 2015) uses Georgian + English + Êzîdî script (Pirbari variant) for official signage.

Sources

• Wikipedia EN: Kurdish alphabets, Kurds in Georgia. [C]
• Aristova, T.F. (1966): Kurdy Zakavkazya (Russian), Moscow. [A]

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Part 8: Yanalif (Soviet Latin 1928–1939)

Status: purely historical (completely replaced by Cindî-Cyrillic) Inventor: Soviet All-Union Committee for the New Turkic Alphabet (main work by Arabaev, Sadri Maksudi et al.); Kurdish variant by Erebê Şemo (Arab Shamilov, Kurmanji writer) and Isaak Markovich Margulov. Year: 1928–1929 introduction; 1937–1939 replaced by Cyrillic across the USSR; in Armenian Kurmanji officially until 1946. Number of letters (Kurmanji variant): 36 letters, a, b, c, ç, d, e, ә, f, g, г, h, i, ь, j, k, ʀ, l, m, ɴ, o, ө, w, p, n, q, ч, s, ш, ц, t, u, y, v, x, z, ƶ Where used today: nowhere (purely archival)

8.1 Êzîdî specifics

Êzîdî authors such as Erebê Şemo (himself from a Êzîdî family in Süsız, Kars) published novels in Yanalif in the 1930s (Şivanê Kurmanca, “The Kurmanji Shepherd”, 1935, the first Kurdish novel, printed in Yanalif).

Sources

• Wikipedia EN: Yañalif, Kurdish alphabets. [C]
• Şemo, Erebê (1935): Şivanê Kurmanca, Yerevan. [A]

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Part 9: Correspondence table of the main letters

Comparison of the most important Kurmanji phonemes in five currently or historically relevant scripts:

Phoneme (IPA)	Hawar	Cindî-Cyrillic	Sorani-Arabic	Êzîdî script	Yanalif (1929)
/a/	a	а	ا	𐺀	a
/b/	b	б	ب	𐺁	b
/p/	p	п	پ	𐺂	p
/pʰ/	(p)	пʼ	,	𐺃	(p)
/t/	t	т	ت	𐺄	t
/tʰ/	(t)	тʼ	,	(𐺄/diacr.)	(t)
/dʒ/	c	щ	ج	𐺆	c
/tʃ/	ç	ч	چ	𐺇	ç
/tʃʰ/	(ç)	чʼ	,	𐺈	(ç)
/ħ/	ḥ / h	һʼ	ح	𐺉	h
/x/	x	х	خ	𐺊	x
/d/	d	д	د	𐺋	d
/r/ (short)	r	р	ر	𐺍	r
/r/ (long)	rr	рʼ	ڕ	𐺎	ʀ
/z/	z	з	ز	𐺏	z
/ʒ/	j	ж	ژ	𐺐	ƶ
/s/	s	с	س	𐺑	s
/ʃ/	ş	ш	ش	𐺒	ш
/ʕ/	ʿ /,	,	ع	𐺗	,
/ɣ/	ẍ	гʼ	غ	𐺘	г
/f/	f	ф	ف	𐺙	f
/v/	v	в	ڤ	𐺚	v
/q/	q	ԛ	ق	𐺜	q
/k/	k	к	ک	𐺝	k
/kʰ/	(k)	кʼ	,	𐺞	(k)
/g/	g	г	گ	𐺟	g
/l/	l	л	ل	𐺠	l
/m/	m	м	م	𐺡	m
/n/	n	н	ن	𐺢	n
/ʉ/	u	ӧ	و	𐺣	ө
/w/	w	ԝ	و	𐺤	w
/o/	o	о	ۆ	𐺥	o
/uː/	û	у	وو	𐺦	u
/h/	h	һ	ھ	𐺧	h
/j/	y	й	ی	𐺨	j
/iː/	î	и	ی	𐺩	i
/ɛ/	e	ә	ە	𐺀 (with vowel context)	ә
/eː/	ê	е	ێ	𐺀 (variant)	e
/ɪ/	i	ь	,	,	ь

Note: the Êzîdî script handles several short vowels via elif (𐺀) plus diacritic marks (hamza 𐺫, madda 𐺬). Hawar is not as phonologically precise as Cindî because it does not separate aspirate pairs.

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Part 10: The scripts in use today: an assessment

In the everyday life of the diaspora, the Hawar-Latin alphabet (31 letters) dominates today: it is the script of most Êzîdî publications, learning materials and online resources, and it can be typed on ordinary keyboards. The Êzîdî script (modernised 2013, in Unicode since version 13.0/2020) has above all identity-forming and sacral-representative significance, for instance in inscriptions of the Sultan Êzîd Temple in Tbilisi and in the prayer book Dua’yêd Êzdiyan, but it is not an everyday script. Cindî-Cyrillic remains relevant for the Êzîdîs in Armenia, Georgia and Russia, but is declining.

Technical note: as common operating systems do not display the Êzîdî script by default, on the web it is usually rendered via the free font “Noto Sans Yezidi” (Google Noto, 2022).

The Êzîdî script is based on contested manuscript templates from the late 19th century, but contains older glyph traditions (see Part 1). Today it is shown as part of the cultural heritage, the everyday written language of the Êzîdîs is the Hawar-Latin alphabet.

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Sources (overview, 35+)

Trust score: A = peer-reviewed/primary source · B = institutional secondary source · C = community/encyclopaedia

English

• Omarkhali, K. (2017): The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition: From Oral to Written. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. [A]
• Allison, C. (2001): The Yezidi Oral Tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan. Curzon/Routledge. [A]
• Pirbari, D. / Rovenchak, A. / Karaca, E. (2019): Proposal for encoding the Yezidi script in the SMP of the UCS. Unicode L2/19-051. [A]
• Rovenchak, A. / Pirbari, D. / Karaca, E. (2022): Yezidi Alphabet: The Way to Unicode. Free University Journal of Asian Studies. [A]
• Pirbari, D. / Mossaki, N. / Yezdin Sardarian, M. (2019): A Yezidi Manuscript: Mišūr of Pîr Sînî Bahrî/Pîr Sînî Dārânî. Iranian Studies 53(1–2). [A]
• Mingana, A. (1916): Devil-Worshippers; Their Beliefs and Their Sacred Books. JRAS. [A]
• Parry, O.H. / Browne, E.H. (1895): Six Months in a Syrian Monastery, Appendix on Yezidi. [A]
• Britannica: Kitāb al-jilwah. [B]
• Wikipedia EN: Yezidi (Unicode block), Kurdish alphabets, Yazidi Book of Revelation, Heciyê Cindî, Hawar (magazine), Celadet Alî Bedirxan, Yazidis in Armenia, Garshuni, Sultan Ezid Temple, Yañalif. [C]
• Atlas of Endangered Alphabets: Yezidi. [B]
• Omniglot: Yezidi alphabet, Kurdish language and alphabets. [B]
• ScriptSource: Yezidi (Yezi). [B]
• Symbl.cc, Unicode Block Yezidi (U+10E80–U+10EBF). [B]
• IWPR: Armenia: Yezidi Identity Battle. [C]
• Minority Rights Group: Yezidis in Armenia. [B]
• ANF News: May 15: The day of the Kurdish language and the legacy of Hawar. [C]

German

• ZÊD: Central Council of Êzîdîs in Germany: publications on the Kurdish-Êzîdî language. [C]
• Düchting, P. (2021): Êzîdî language and identity, diaspora studies. [B]
• Wikipedia DE: Êzîdîsche Schrift, Kurdische Alphabete. [C]

Russian

• Wikipedia RU: Езидское письмо. [C]
• Aristova, T.F. (1966): Kurdy Zakavkazya. Moscow: Nauka. [A]
• Pirbari, D. (2013): Йезидская письменность (with Kêrîm Amoev), Tbilisi. [A]

Arabic

• Wikipedia AR: اليزيدية. [C]
• Anastase-Marie de Saint-Élie (1911): Notes on the Yezidis, Baghdad. [A]
• Sotkurdistan.net: النصوص الدينية الإيزيدية المقدسة, 2025. [C]
• Magazine Lalîş (Bingehê Laliş, Duhok): quarterly issues since 1993. [B]

Kurmanji

• Êzîdî24 / ÊzîdîPress: online magazines in Hawar-Latin. [C]
• Rya T’eze (Р’йа т’әзә, Yerevan): since 1930, online archive. [B]

French

• Lescot, R. (1938): Enquête sur les Yézidis de Syrie et du Djebel Sindjâr. Institut Français de Damas. [A]
• Lexilogos: Yézidis: histoire, religion, documents en ligne. [C]

Armenian

• Wikipedia HY: Եզդիներեն գիր. [C]
• Yerevan State University, Kurdology chair: publications since 1959. [A]

Persian / Iranian studies

• Encyclopaedia Iranica online: entries on Yazīdīs, Kurdish Language. [A]

Turkish

• Wikipedia TR: Kürt alfabeleri, Êzîdîler. [C]

Swedish / Dutch / Italian

• Wikipedia SV, NL, IT: each Êzîdîsche Schrift / Kurdiska alfabet. [C]

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Appendix: Open research gaps (status 2026)

1. Manuscript dating: a C14 radiocarbon dating of the supposedly 12th–14th c.-old Maṣḥaf Reş/Cilwe manuscripts is missing. The whereabouts of the originals (if they exist) are unclear, probably private collections or lost.
2. Script history of the Pîr-lineage documents: which Mişūr manuscripts exist before 1800? Pirbari/Mossaki 2019 has started, but a systematic edition does not yet exist.
3. Temple inscriptions Lalîş: a systematic epigraphic survey of the outer wall inscriptions (mentioned by Agatha Christie in 1934) has never been published. Material presumably further damaged after the Daesh (so-called Islamic State) genocide 2014.
4. Soviet phase Armenian script 1921–1929: very few Êzîdî-specific texts from this phase have been edited. Yerevan archives are partly unsurveyed.
5. KRG standardisation debate: should the Laliş magazine in future use only Hawar-Latin instead of Sorani-Arabic? Politically open.

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Status: 2026-05-22 · Created for ezdixan.de Wiki · Editorial line: academically honest, identity-positive without exaggeration, sirr-respectful (Heft-Sirran contents are not reproduced).