Religion + Theology

The religion of the Êzîdîs (Êzîdî / Êzdî, self-designation Êzdiyatî) is an independent, orally transmitted faith tradition with ancient Iranian–Mesopotamian roots. At its center stands a transcendent creator God (Xwedê), who entrusted the world to seven holy beings, led by Tawûsî Melek, the Peacock Angel. This article is the theological overview of the wiki: it summarizes the conception of God, the heptad, the relationship between religion, culture and ethnicity, religious practice, the sacred texts and the social order, situates the scholarly debates in a balanced way, and points to the wiki’s own detailed articles for deeper study.

Status: 2026-06-16 · Heft Sirr taboo observed · proper names in Latin script · ezdixan.de Wiki

Contents

1. Foundations and Self-Understanding
2. Relationship of Religion – Culture – Ethnicity
3. Cosmology and Theology
4. The Seven Holy Beings (Heft Sirr)
5. Central Concepts: Sin, Purity, Transmigration of Souls
6. Social and Religious Order
7. Religious Practice at a Glance
8. Purity, Taboos and Dietary Rules
9. Sanctuaries and Holy Places
10. Oral Tradition and Sacred Texts
11. Relationship to Other Religions
12. Religious-Studies Classification
13. Contemporary Theological Debates and Reform
14. Êzdîkî Glossary (Core Terms)
15. Sources

1. Foundations and Self-Understanding

The Êzîdîs form an ethno-religious community with core regions in Şingal (Sinjar) and the area around Lalîş in northern Iraq, as well as large diaspora groups in the Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia) and, since the 1960s, in Germany. Their religion is non-missionary and not accessible through conversion: one is born an Êzîdî. Transmission occurs almost entirely orally in sacred hymns (Qewl); a canonized sacred scripture in the sense of the Abrahamic religions does not exist [Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 1–17; Allison 2001, pp. 26–40].

Essential for understanding: the Êzîdîs deliberately distinguish their faith from Islam and use their own religious vocabulary. Thus among them God is called above all Xwedê (also Êzdan, Xwedawend or Padîşah, “King”), and precisely not, in everyday usage, the Arabic-Islamic-marked Allah; the greeting is Silav instead of the Islamic greeting formula; and the Êzîdî New Year Sersal (Çarşema Sor, “Red Wednesday”) is explicitly not identical with the Muslim-Kurdish Newroz [Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 145–152; Açıkyıldız 2010, p. 132].

Theological clarification (important, often misunderstood). Êzdiyatî is strictly monotheistic: there is one single creator God. “Allah” is merely the Arabic word for “God”: it therefore denotes the same one creator, not a different deity. The Êzîdîs do not say that God may be called only “Xwedê” (unlike some who, conversely, insist that only the Arabic form “Allah” is permissible). On the contrary, Êzîdî tradition knows 1,001 or 3,003 names of God (depending on the Qewl); among the most common are Xwedê, Xwedawend, Êzdan and Padîşah (“King”), and more rarely also Ellah and Heq (“the True/the Truth”) [Wikipedia: Yazidism, section “God”; cf. Kreyenbroek 1995]. Important: the Êzîdî form is Ellah (Kurmancî), linguistically related to the Arabic Allah, but an independent, pre-/non-Islamic pronunciation; it denotes the same one creator. In individual Qewls (sacred hymns) forms such as Ellah (occasionally also Allah) or Înşallah therefore appear, this is not Islam and not Islamization, but shared religious vocabulary of the region and of Kurmancî. What matters to the Êzîdîs, then, is not the denial that it could be the same creator, but rather their own religious identity and language: in everyday life and in self-designation they use their own vocabulary (Xwedê) and avoid Islamic formulas as identity markers, a question of practice and demarcation, not a statement about two different gods.

Language note. The language of the Êzîdîs is closely related to Kurmancî Kurdish. In the Caucasus and in parts of the diaspora it is referred to as an independent language, Êzdîkî; many linguists, however, regard it as a variety of Kurmancî. This article gives religious terms in the Latin Bedirxan/Hawar script and treats Êzîdî-specific terms as what they are: identity-forming religious specialist vocabulary.

Identity: the Êzîdîs and the “Kurds” question. Whether the Êzîdîs are an independent ethno-religious group or a religious subgroup of the Kurds is contested, and has intensified since the genocide of 2014. Êzîdîs speak Kurmancî and are culturally closely interwoven with the Kurdish world; a portion understand themselves as Kurdish. Many Êzîdîs, however, expressly reject the external categorization as “Kurds” and understand themselves as a distinct people with their own religion, language (Êzdîkî) and history, also because numerous historical persecutions and fermans (among others the Kurdish emirates Soran and Botan in the 19th century), as well as the withdrawal of Kurdish forces before ISIS in Şingal 2014, involved (Muslim) Kurdish actors; they do not wish to be equated with a group that bears partial responsibility for genocides against the Êzîdîs. Officially, the Êzîdîs are recorded in Armenia and in Iraq (Baghdad) as a distinct ethnic group, while the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan counts them as “proto-Kurds.” This wiki respects the self-determination of the Êzîdîs as an independent community and presents the debate openly and on a factual basis [Wikipedia: Yazidis, section “Ethnic identity”; van Zoonen, USIP 2017].

From this self-understanding also follows the tone of this wiki: Tawûsî Melek is never equated with “the Devil” or “Satan”; God is called by his own Êzîdî name Xwedê (not the Arabic Allah in everyday usage, for the theological clarification that the same one creator is nonetheless meant, see the clarification above); and the Êzîdî New Year Sersal is not confused with Newroz. These distinctions are not linguistic pedantry but the core of the Êzîdî faith identity.

2. Relationship of Religion – Culture – Ethnicity

A distinctive feature of Êzdiyatî is that religion, peoplehood and culture fall inseparably together. One is an Êzîdî by birth: and only if both parents are Êzîdîs; conversion is excluded, and the religion is non-missionary. The community is thereby at once a faith community and an ethno-religious group: scholarship describes it as a “closed group,” in which religious identity and ethnic belonging have merged into a unity [Spät 2005, pp. 9–25; Allison 2001, pp. 26–40; Iranica “Yazidis i”].

From this follows an important demarcation that is discussed within the community itself: the relationship to Kurdishness. The Êzîdî religion is Kurmancî-speaking and shares language, region and many customs with the Muslim Kurds; at the same time, many Êzîdîs, especially in the Caucasian diaspora, understand themselves as a distinct ethno-religious nation, not as a “Kurdish religious group.” Both views exist side by side; the wiki treats Êzdiyatî primarily as an independent faith tradition and leaves the identity-political question to the Êzîdîs themselves [Allison 2001, pp. 26–55; Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 1–17].

In practice, the fusion of religion and ethnicity means:

• The religion is carried by the social fabric. The caste system (see Section 6), the marriage rules and spiritual kinship are not “merely” social structure but a religiously grounded order: they secure the transmission of the oral tradition and ritual purity.
• Culture = lived theology. Festivals, dietary rules, clothing, dances and songs are expressions of the same religious conceptions, not “folklore” detachable from them.
• No book of faith as identity anchor. Because no canonized scripture exists (see Section 10), identity rests on descent, oral tradition and practice: which has made the community vulnerable to persecution but at the same time astonishingly resilient.

Detailed article. The social elaboration of this order, castes, offices, endogamy, spiritual kinship, is described in detail in the article gesellschaftsordnung. This section provides only the theological framework.

3. Cosmology and Theology

Tawûsî Melek (Peacock Angel): historical illustration from George Percy Badger’s The Nestorians and their Rituals (1852), one of the earliest Western depictions. · License: Public Domain · Source: Wikimedia Commons

3.1 Xwedê: the one, hidden creator God

Êzîdî theology is strictly monotheistic: there is one single, supreme, uncreated God, Xwedê (etymologically related to Persian Xudā; alongside it Êzdan). He is the sole creator, has no adversary and shares his divinity with no one, the seven holy beings are creatures and servants of God, not independent gods. Êzîdîs emphasize expressly that only Xwedê is worthy of worship; the veneration of Tawûsî Melek counts for them as veneration of the regent appointed by God, not as a second deity [Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 45–55; Asatrian/Arakelova 2014, pp. 1–40; Iranica “Yazidis i”].

Characteristic is the transcendence of this God: after creation Xwedê is “turned away from the world”, scholarship speaks of a deus otiosus, a God who no longer intervenes directly in the course of the world but has transferred the administration of the world to seven holy beings. The religious attention of the faithful in everyday life is therefore directed more strongly toward Tawûsî Melek, Şêx Adî and Sultan Êzî than toward the distant creator himself [Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 45–55; Allison 2017 (EI³ “Yazidism”); Iranica “Yazidis i”]. God is poetically invoked as Xwedawend or Pedşa (“King”).

The central creation myth tells of a white pearl (dur): God created it from his own light and at first rested alone within it. When the pearl burst, the material cosmos emerged from it, a “primordial ocean” out of which earth and heaven were formed [Kreyenbroek/Rashow 2005, pp. 30–45; Rodziewicz 2014; Wikipedia “Yazidism”].

Detailed article. The full account of the cosmogony, white pearl, primordial ocean, the order of the acts of creation, Sunday as the day of creation of Tawûsî Melek, is in the article schoepfung. Here only the theological core.

3.2 Tawûsî Melek: the Peacock Angel

Tawûsî Melek (also Melekê Tawûs, “Angel-Peacock”) is the highest of the seven angels and the lord and administrator of this world appointed by God. As the only being he had immediate access to the divine essence (sirr) and is regarded as God’s regent on earth; his symbol is the peacock [Wikipedia “Tawûsî Melek”; Spät 2005, pp. 25–40; Rodziewicz 2014, pp. 25–60].

Conventions note (strict): Tawûsî Melek is NOT the Devil. The equation of the Peacock Angel with “Satan” is a slander introduced from outside by Muslim and Christian observers, which has brought the Êzîdîs persecution for centuries. In Êzîdî theology there is no independently evil principle: good and evil ultimately go back to God or his regent, and the human being bears responsibility for his own deeds. The Arabic word for “Satan” is taboo among Êzîdîs and is not pronounced [Wikipedia “Yazidism”; Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 59–63; Asatrian/Arakelova 2014, pp. 1–20].

In some Qewls and narratives a motif resonates that sets apart the Êzîdî appreciation of Tawûsî Melek precisely from the Islamic Iblīs narrative: when God commanded the angels to prostrate themselves before Adam, Tawûsî Melek refused, because God alone is worthy of worship. This fidelity to God was reckoned to him not as sin but as the highest devotion, and he was elevated to lord of the remaining angels. Êzîdîs thus read the same basic narrative exactly inversely to the Muslim-Christian Satan interpretation [Kreyenbroek 2016 (Wiley “Yezidi and Yarsan Traditions”); Asatrian/Arakelova 2014, pp. 1–40; servantgroup.org].

Detailed article. The theology of Tawûsî Melek, his symbol, the Sancak, the “Devil-Worshipper” slander and its history are explored further in the article tawusi-melek.

3.3 Sultan Êzî and Şêx Adî: earthly manifestations

The tradition knows three closely connected divine “hypostases”: Tawûsî Melek, Şêx Adî ibn Misafir and Sultan Êzî (Sultan Êzîd). The boundaries between them are deliberately fluid in the Qewls; Şêx Adî is frequently regarded as an earthly incarnation of Tawûsî Melek himself [Wikipedia “Yazidism”; Kreyenbroek/Rashow 2005, pp. 5–15].

• Şêx Adî ibn Misafir (died around 1162) was a historical mystic who settled in the valley of Lalîş; his mausoleum there is the central sanctuary of the Êzîdîs. In later tradition he became the central holy reform figure of the community [Açıkyıldız 2010, pp. 35–50].
• Sultan Êzî is regarded as an earthly manifestation of God and as the eponym of the Êzîdîs (Êzîdî = “follower of Êzî”). Scholarship warns against hastily equating him with the Umayyad caliph Yazīd I, such a connection is contested and is mostly rejected by Êzîdîs [Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 30–35].

4. The Seven Holy Beings (Heft Sirr)

God entrusted the world to seven holy beings, collectively called Heft Sirr (“Seven Mysteries”; also Heft Sur). Sirr means “secret” and at the same time denotes the divine essence from which the angels were created. They are not independent gods but emanated servants of the one Xwedê; Tawûsî Melek is their leader [Wikipedia “Yazidism”; Rodziewicz 2014, pp. 25–60; Iranica “Yazidis i”].

Taboo note. The inner detail of the Heft Sirr complex is Sirr (secret knowledge, taboo for non-Êzîdîs). Only the publicly known aspects are presented here [Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 122–128].

In the ritually relevant tradition the holy beings mostly appear as holy persons (xas) with their own functions, for example Şêx Şems (Şêşims, angel of the sun, of fire and of light), Fexredîn (connected with the moon), Şêx Hesen (“Lord of the Pen”), Sicadîn and Naserdîn, as well as Şêx Adî himself. Alongside this list of holy persons there exists a second, Abrahamic-influenced list with angel names (Cibrayîl, Mîkayîl, Ezrayîl, among others); scholarship sees these as a secondary layer influenced by Muslim angel conceptions, which plays hardly any role in the Lalîş liturgy [Kreyenbroek/Rashow 2005, pp. 5–25; Wikipedia “Yazidism”]. A prominent female saint is Xatûna Fexra, patroness of birth.

Seven is the sacred guiding number of the Êzîdîs: seven angels, seven Sancak (bronze peacock standards), the seven days of the main festival Cejna Cemayê, the seven domes of the great temple in Aknalich (Armenia). The notion that the holy beings periodically embody themselves in human form (for example Tawûsî Melek in Şêx Adî) directly links the doctrine of angels with the doctrine of reincarnation of the next section [Kreyenbroek 2016 (Wiley); Asatrian/Arakelova 2014].

5. Central Concepts: Sin, Purity, Transmigration of Souls

Three closely interwoven doctrines shape the Êzîdî conception of the world and of humankind. They are presented here only as a theological overview; the ritual elaboration is found in the detailed articles.

5.1 Sin, Good and Evil

Êzdiyatî knows no independently evil principle and no “original sin.” Since God has no adversary, good and evil ultimately go back to the one divine will, and the human being bears responsibility for his own deeds. Transgression counts less as “sin against a law” than as a violation of the God-willed order and purity: it can be balanced out through righteous action and through the transmigration of souls [Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 59–63; Asatrian/Arakelova 2014, pp. 1–40].

5.2 Purity

The concern for ritual purity (paqijî) pervades Êzîdî everyday life: the caste system, the marriage rules, the dietary and color taboos and the ablution before prayer are all expressions of the same striving not to defile the order set by God. Purity and the transmigration of souls are regarded by scholarship as the two characteristic, mutually conditioning fundamental features of the religion [Allison 2017 (EI³ “Yazidism”); Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 45–63].

Detailed article. Concrete purity rules, taboos and dietary rules are set out in the article reinheit-tabus (see also the overview in Section 8).

5.3 Transmigration of Souls (Kiras guhorîn)

A core doctrine of the Êzîdî faith is the transmigration of souls, called Kiras guhorîn (also kirasgorîn), literally “the changing of the shirt.” The metaphor is programmatic: the body is only the “shirt” (kiras) that the immortal soul casts off after death in order to pass into a new body. The soul thus passes through a sequence of lives until it is purified; reward and purification therefore happen within the world through the chain of lives, not primarily in a distant judgment in the beyond [Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 45–55; Kreyenbroek 2016 (Wiley); peacock-angel.org].

Detailed article. Death, soul, conceptions of the beyond, rites of passage and the embodiment of the holy beings are explored further in the article tod-seele.

6. Social and Religious Order

Lalîş, Şêxan, Iraq: Êzîdîs at Sersal (18 April 2017); in the ritual the three-caste system (Mirîd / Pîr / Şêx) becomes visible. · Photo: Levi Clancy · License: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source: Wikimedia Commons

Overview + detailed article. This section gives the theologically grounded overview of the social order. The full account, all Şêx and Pîr lineages, succession of offices, marriage law, diaspora change, is in the article gesellschaftsordnung.

6.1 The Three Castes

Êzîdî society is divided into three hereditary, endogamous castes. Important: this is not a ranking of social worth (as is often misunderstood) but a division of religious functions: each caste bears its own duties for the spiritual welfare of the whole community. Every Êzîdî, including members of the clerical castes themselves, is obliged to have an assigned Şêx and an assigned Pîr; this assignment is hereditary [Iranica “Yazidis i”; Wikipedia “Yazidi social organization”; Spät 2005, pp. 45–60].

• Şêx (sheikh), the clerical upper caste, responsible for the religious welfare of the community. It is divided into three sub-lineages: Şemsanî, Adanî and Qatanî. The Qatanî lineage is prominent because the Mîr must come from it.
• Pîr: the second clerical caste with similar but less highly remunerated tasks; numerous Pîr lineages are documented.
• Mirîd: the large lay caste (literally “pupil, follower”), to which the majority of Êzîdîs belong.

Conventions note. Endogamy is strict: Êzîdîs marry only Êzîdîs, and caste membership is respected. A violation could traditionally lead to exclusion from the community. This rule is grounded religiously as a protection of purity but has increasingly provoked discussions in the diaspora [Iranica “Yazidis i”; Açıkyıldız 2010, pp. 90–100].

6.2 Offices and Dignitaries

• Mîr (Mîrê Êzîdîyan), highest political-religious authority, successor of Şêx Adî, with seat in Şêxan; comes from the Qatanî lineage.
• Babê Şêx (Extiyarê Mergehê), highest spiritual head; must come from the Şemsanî/Fexredîn lineage and remains in office for life.
• Peşîmam: hereditary wedding priest appointed by the Mîr.
• Qewwal (Qewal), hereditary singers of the sacred hymns, traditionally from the two groups of the Dimlî (Kurmancî-speaking) and Tazhî (Arabic-speaking), both from Başîqa and Bahzanê; guardians of the oral tradition. Their instruments are the frame drum def and the flute şibab.
• Feqîr: ascetic in a black woolen garment (xerqe) with a red belt; embodies religious purity.
• Koçek: seer and healer under the direction of the Babê Şêx.

[Iranica “Yazidis i”; Wikipedia “Yazidi social organization”; Allison 2001, pp. 40–55]

6.3 Spiritual Kinship

Beyond blood kinship, the Êzîdî order knows instituted spiritual kinship:

• Birayê / Xuşka Axretê (“Brother / Sister of the Beyond”), a lifelong spiritual sibling relationship, instituted in youth, which accompanies the person through all rites of passage into the beyond. This institution is Êzîdî-specific and has no equivalent in Kurmancî [Wikipedia “Yazidi social organization”; Iranica “Yazidis ii”].
• Kerîv / Kirîv: the “godfather” at circumcision, who institutes a permanent, quasi-kinship social bond between two families [Allison 2001, pp. 50–55].

7. Religious Practice at a Glance

Lighting sacred oil lamps (çira) at the Sersal festival in Lalîş; the light ritual symbolizes the connection to the sun and to Tawûsî Melek. · Photo: Levi Clancy · License: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source: Wikimedia Commons

Overview + detailed articles. This section sketches religious practice in overview. For deeper study: prayer times, direction and ablution in the article gebet-praxis; the festival year in feste; the purity rules in reinheit-tabus; the holy places in heiligtuemer and lalish.

7.1 Prayer and Orientation Toward the Sun

The most devout Êzîdîs pray at fixed times of day, especially at sunrise and sunset. Before prayer, hands and face are washed; one prays with crossed arms, facing the light of the sun. The prayers are directed to Tawûsî Melek or to Şêx Şems (the sun). The sun and fire are regarded as sacred [Iranica “Yazidis i”; servantgroup.org; Açıkyıldız 2010, pp. 100–110].

7.2 Baptism: Mor kirin

The central initiation is the Mor kirin (“sealing”): a child is baptized by pouring holy water from the Kaniya Sipî (“White Spring”) in Lalîş, alternatively from the Zimzim spring, three times over its head. Ideally this happens in Lalîş; if a journey there is not possible, the ritual can be made up later [Iranica “Yazidis ii”; Wikipedia “Yazidism”].

Further life-cycle rites are circumcision (with the Kerîv as godfather) as well as the wedding (dawet) with its own customs such as the bride-courtship (xwazgînî) and the wish-tree (dara mirazê).

7.3 Festivals and Fasting

The festival year is solar in character and traditionally follows the Julian scheme (described in detail in the wiki article Festival Calendar). The highlights:

• Sersal / Çarşema Sor (“Red Wednesday”), the New Year and creation festival on the first Wednesday from 14 April (Gregorian). It celebrates the creation of the world and the descent of Tawûsî Melek [Wikipedia “Yazidi New Year”; Açıkyıldız 2010, pp. 130–140].
• Cejna Cemayê (“Festival of the Assembly”), the seven-day main festival in October in Lalîş, a pilgrimage to the grave of Şêx Adî with the ritual bull sacrifice (Qebaxgêran) and the consecrated communal meal (simat).
• Cejna Êzî (Eyda Êzî), the festival in honor of Sultan Êzî in December, preceded by a three-day obligatory fast (Tue–Thu).
• Çile Havîn / Çile Zivistan: the two forty-day ascetic fasts in high summer and winter, observed exclusively by the clergy (Babê Şêx and ascetics).
• Eyda Xidir Nebî û Elyas: the “wish festival” in February, connected with petitions and wishes of love.

Finally, the Tawûsgêran was historically the procession of the Qewals, who moved through the villages with the Sancak (bronze peacock), today rare, but central to the history of identity [Spät 2005, pp. 95–130].

7.4 Dance, Music and Talismans

At the festival the sacred dance Sema is performed; the Qewals accompany it with def and şibab. Many Êzîdîs carry a Berat as protection, a small clay ball made of Lalîş earth and Zimzim water [Wikipedia “Cejna Cemayê”; Omarkhali 2017, pp. 60–80].

8. Purity, Taboos and Dietary Rules

The concern for ritual purity pervades Êzîdî everyday life and is closely connected with the doctrine of reincarnation (see Section 5). It manifests itself in the caste system, in marriage rules and in a series of taboos [Allison 2017 (EI³ “Yazidism”); Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 59–63]. The following overview names the best-known taboos; their scope and strictness vary greatly and are presented in detail in the article reinheit-tabus.

• Speech taboo. The Arabic word for “Satan” is not pronounced, since it would count as an insult to Tawûsî Melek. Regionally, similar-sounding words (e.g. şer, na’l, kîtan) are also avoided, the sources disagree on the scope of this avoidance.
• Dietary taboos. Widespread are abstentions from lettuce (xas/kas, avoided because of its homophony with xas, “holy person”), pork, fish (out of respect for the Yûnis/Jonah tradition) as well as, regionally, gazelle. Scope and strictness vary from region to region and from family to family [Wikipedia “Yazidism”; Iranica “Yazidis i”].
• Color taboo: blue. Blue is regarded as the color of Tawûsî Melek and is traditionally avoided in worn clothing. The taboo, however, does not concern every ritual color symbolism (at Sersal, eggs are dyed blue, among other colors), and it is followed more strictly in Şingal than in the Caucasus, here the sources are not uniform [Wikipedia “Yazidism”; Britannica “Yazidi”].

9. Sanctuaries and Holy Places

Lalîş, Şêxan, Iraq: the main sanctuary with the characteristic conical towers; the most important pilgrimage destination of the Êzîdîs. · Photo: Luay Qassim Hassan · License: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source: Wikimedia Commons

Detailed articles. In detail on the holy places: heiligtuemer; specifically on the main sanctuary: lalish.

• Lalîş (Lalişa Nûranî, “Lalîş of the Light”), the holiest valley of the Êzîdîs, about 60 km north of Mosul; it holds the mausoleum of Şêx Adî, the Kaniya Sipî (baptismal spring), the Zimzim spring and the symbolically thrice-crossed Pira Silat (Bridge of Passage). Lalîş is at once the geographical, theological and ritual center of the Êzîdî world, comparable to the function of Mecca or Rome. Every Êzîdî should visit Lalîş at least once in their life [Wikipedia “Lalish”; Kreyenbroek/Rashow 2005, pp. 15–25].
• Şingal (Sinjar): the traditional mountain homeland of many Êzîdîs in northwest Iraq; in 2014 the scene of the genocide by the so-called “Islamic State” (see the wiki article Fermane).
• Quba Mêrê Dîwanê in Aknalich (Armenia, inaugurated 2019), the largest Êzîdî temple in the world; its seven domes refer to the seven angels. Further significant temples of the diaspora stand in Aknalich (Ziaret, 2012) and Tbilisi (Sultan Êzî temple, 2015) [Wikipedia “Quba Mêrê Dîwanê”; “Yazidis in Armenia”].

10. Oral Tradition and Sacred Texts

Kitêba Cilwe (Book of Revelation): facsimile. The actual religious tradition, however, is passed on orally in Qewls. · License: Public Domain · Source: Wikimedia Commons

The spiritual heart of the religion is the oral tradition. The most important genre are the Qewl (sg. Qewl, “word, saying”), sacred hymns recited by the Qewwal and passed down hereditarily over generations. They are the actual “scripture” of the Êzîdîs. Khanna Omarkhali’s fundamental study distinguishes numerous genres of religious poetry: besides Qewl, the Beyt (shorter religious poems/songs), Qeside, Du’a and longer petitionary forms such as Dirozge, as well as the creed Şehdetiya Dîn; her corpus records over 1,150 religious texts including variants [Omarkhali 2017, pp. 50–140; Allison 2001, pp. 26–80; Wikipedia “Yazidi literature”].

Part of the tradition is that many Qewls claim divine or holy origin (attributed to the holy beings, not to human authors) and that their understanding is supported by explanatory prose pieces (çîrok, pişt-perde) and by the memorized teaching piece sebeq. The tradition was for centuries deliberately not committed to writing: also in order to protect it from outsiders [Omarkhali 2017, pp. 30–140; Iranica “Qawl”; Kreyenbroek/Rashow 2005, pp. 25–60].

Detailed articles. The genres, mode of recitation, the Sebeq instruction and the historical commitment to writing are explored further in the article qewl-tradition; text examples with translation in the article qewl-texte.

Conventions and sources note. The two often-mentioned “books”, Mishefa Reş (“Black Book”) and Kitêba Cilwe (“Book of Revelation”), were first published only in 1911/1913. Scholarship largely agrees that these manuscripts were forgeries by non-Êzîdîs for a Western audience; their content, however, partly reflects authentic Êzîdî conceptions. Êzîdîs themselves evaluate them differently: some accept them, others recognize exclusively the Qewl tradition [Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 10–17; Omarkhali 2017, pp. 30–45; Wikipedia “Yazidism”].

Since 2013, moreover, the historical, distinct Êzîdî script (13th–17th c.) has been revived for religious texts by the Spiritual Council in Tbilisi [Wikipedia “Yezidi script”].

11. Relationship to Other Religions

Êzdiyatî arose and grew in a region where Islam, Christianity, Judaism and ancient Iranian–Mesopotamian traditions met. Its relationship to these religions is twofold: theological demarcation while at the same time absorbing individual motifs.

• Islam. Êzîdîs deliberately set themselves apart (their own God-vocabulary Xwedê instead of Allah, their own greeting, their own festivals) and decisively reject the centuries-long external ascription as “devil-worshippers” or “heretical Muslims.” At the same time it is indisputable that the community was shaped in the 12th century by the Sufi Şêx Adî and that individual terms and angel names of Islamic origin appear in secondary layers of the tradition [Açıkyıldız 2010, pp. 35–50; Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 1–17].
• Christianity. Some rites superficially resemble Christian practice (baptism with holy water, wine on certain occasions, veneration of saints’ graves); scholarship evaluates these similarities as neighborhood phenomena of a shared region, not as dependence [Açıkyıldız 2010; Spät 2005].
• Zoroastrianism / Yarsan (Ahl-e Haqq). The structurally closest kinship is not to Islam but to the western-Iranian religious world: with the Yarsan faith the Êzîdîs share the doctrine of angels, a cyclical understanding of time, reincarnation and the figure of an angel confused with the “Devil of other religions” but by no means evil [Kreyenbroek 2016 (Wiley “Yezidi and Yarsan Traditions”); Asatrian/Arakelova 2014]. A direct derivation “from Zoroastrianism,” however, is regarded as outdated (see Section 12).

Detailed articles. The detailed comparison with Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Yarsan is in the article nachbarreligionen; mythological parallels in mythologie.

12. Religious-Studies Classification

The origin of the Êzîdî religion is the subject of a lively scholarly debate that remains open to this day. The most important positions can be summarized as follows, they are to be understood as scholarly positions, not as established facts:

• “Iranian substratum” (Kreyenbroek). Philip Kreyenbroek argues that behind Êzdiyatî and the related Yarsan/Ahl-e Haqq tradition stands a common, pre-Islamic Iranian but non-Zoroastrian religious system, in which a demiurgic figure (he names Mithra) was central. Both traditions are said to have preserved traces of this system [Kreyenbroek 1995, pp. 1–17; Kreyenbroek 2016 (Wiley “Yezidi and Yarsan Traditions”)].
• Sufi-Islamic overlay. It is indisputable that the historical figure of Şêx Adî and the organization of the community in the 12th century introduced Sufi elements (Adî belonged to a Sufi milieu); thereafter, however, the religion developed independently away from Islamic mysticism [Açıkyıldız 2010, pp. 35–50].
• Critique of the “syncretism” label. More recent works (among others Spät, Omarkhali) warn against hastily describing Êzdiyatî as a mere “syncretistic” mixture of Islam, Christianity and Zoroastrianism. Older scholarship too often misjudged it as “heretical Islam”; in fact it is an independent tradition with its own inner logic, which is shaping itself into a conscious “orthodoxy” precisely through transnational networking [Spät 2005; “Yezidism between Scholarly Literature and Actual Practice” 2013].
• Yarsan parallels (Asatrian & Arakelova). Garnik Asatrian and Victoria Arakelova emphasize the structural commonalities with the Yarsan faith (doctrine of angels, cyclical understanding of time, reincarnation) and assign both to a common western-Iranian religious world [Asatrian/Arakelova 2014].

Conclusion of scholarship (cautiously formulated): The Êzîdî religion is neither an Islamic sect nor simply “Zoroastrianism.” It possesses ancient Iranian–Mesopotamian roots, a form shaped in the 12th century by Şêx Adî, and an independent, orally carried theology. Sweeping derivations, whether “from Islam” or “from Zoroastrianism”, are today regarded as outdated [Kreyenbroek 1995; Spät 2005; Açıkyıldız 2010].

13. Contemporary Theological Debates and Reform

Migration, diaspora and the genocide of 2014 have triggered a series of debates in the community that are directly theological and are intensively observed in scholarship.

• Writing down and canon. The centuries-old norm of passing on the tradition purely orally is coming under pressure: spiritual councils (among others in Tbilisi and in Iraq) and scholars are collecting, transcribing and publishing Qewls; some favor a written canon for preservation, others see in this a break with the essence of the religion. Omarkhali describes this transition “from oral to written” as the defining transformation of the present [Omarkhali 2017, pp. 30–45, 140 ff.].
• Readmission after the genocide. In response to the enslavement of Êzîdî women by the so-called “Islamic State,” in 2014/2015 the Babê Şêx in Lalîş abolished the centuries-old rule under which forced contact with non-Êzîdîs led to exclusion: surviving women were expressly readmitted into the community through a blessing ritual. The likewise demanded admission of the children born in the process is still being negotiated [UNHCR 2019; “Changes in the Yazidi Society and Religion after the Genocide” 2019].
• Endogamy, caste and mixed marriages. In the diaspora, younger Êzîdîs increasingly question strict endogamy and the marriage prohibition between the castes, a tension between religiously grounded purity and individual life realities, which the community has not yet conclusively resolved [“Changes in the Yazidi Society…” 2019; Spät 2005].
• Religion in dispersion. Studies of the diaspora show that in foreign lands the religion remains in part astonishingly stable, in part is “reinvented”, rituals are relocated to temples in Armenia, Georgia and Germany, and the question of religious authority without immediate access to Lalîş is being renegotiated [“Faith in displacement,” Religion 2025].

Classification. These debates are internal to the Êzîdîs and are conducted by the faithful and their spiritual authorities themselves; the wiki documents them without taking sides.

14. Êzdîkî Glossary (Core Terms)

A selection of the most important religious terms in the Latin Bedirxan script. Terms that are Êzîdî-specific or that deliberately diverge from identically sounding Kurmancî words are marked with ★. A detailed vocabulary and everyday collection is in the wiki articles Grammar Tables and Festival Calendar.

Sources

Trust: A = peer-reviewed academic · B = institutional/NGO/recognized community · C = journalistic/online overview.

Status: 2026-06-16 · Êzîdî conventions: Tawûsî Melek ≠ Devil · Xwedê ≠ Allah · Sersal ≠ Newroz · proper names in Latin script (Lalîş, Şêx Adî, Tawûsî Melek) · Heft Sirr taboo respected.