The Yazidi

Yazidi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I was just reading an article in Salon about the Kurds and it mentioned a people I'd never heard of people - the Yazidi. "A small Middle Eastern religion with ancient origins."

They are primarily ethnic Kurds, and most Yazidis live near Mosul, Iraq with smaller communities in Syria, Turkey, Iran, Georgia and Armenia, and are estimated to number ca. 500,000 individuals in total.

There are also Yazidi refugees in Europe. The Yazidi worship Malak Ta’us, apparently a pre-Islamic peacock angel who has fallen into disgrace. Malak Ta’us has links to Mithraism and, through it, to Zoroastrianism. The Yazidi maintain a well-preserved culture, rich in traditions and customs.

In the region that is now Iraq, the Yazidi have been oppressed and labeled as devil worshippers for centuries. During the reign of Saddam Hussein, however, they were considered to be Arabs and maneuvered to oppose the Kurds, in order to tilt the ethnic balance in northern Iraq. Since the 2003 occupation of Iraq, the Kurds want the Yazidi to be recognized as ethnic Kurds.

Things that the Yazidi aren't allowed to do:

• They can't eat butter beans
• They can't eat lettuce
• They can't wear dark blue

I'm doing mental gymnastics here trying to figure out what sort of career opportunities in the new democratic Iraq these prohibitions will disqualify the Yazidi from pursuing. Doesn't the Maytag repairman wear dark blue? Since they can't eat lettuce, do you think that the Olive Garden in Mosul should have to offer a bottomless bowl of something else for free with a meal? I mean, that's only fair. (For info on why they cannot eat lettuce, see this link.)

Yet another set of problems for the new Iraqi constitutional committee to tackle. They're going to have their work cut out for them.

I'm somewhat surprised that I've made it this far in life without hearing of the Yazidi. Not that I am a master surveyor of religious traditions by any means, but an active faith with a half-million adherents is nothing to sneeze at.

The fact that this religion (along with Christianity and the different flavors of Islam) have survived in Iraq to date, bodes well, I think, for Iraq's future. Sometimes I wonder if the Yugoslavia scenario isn't in play to some extent in Iraq - that the only thing keeping rival groups from slaughtering one another in Iraq was Saddam's dictatorship. Of course that's silly - the peoples of Iraq lived side by side for thousands of years before Saddam and we should have every reason to believe that they will continue to do so in spite of the instability introduced by the United States.

Here's a thought: Time spent in Vietnam turned tens of thousands of young American GIs on to eastern culture and Buddhism. I wonder how many Americans are coming back from Iraq as Muslims? The little bit I've just read about the Yazidi says that they don't allow conversions, but hey - this is 2005. Could there be new Yazidi GIs returning home to the US?

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