The Book Revealing the Future in a Religion without Books: the Apocalyptic Visions of Yezidi Seers (original) (raw)
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Kreyenbroek and Omarkhali, Introduction to Yezidism 2021
Introduction to Yezidism: Between Continuity and Transformation, 2021
KREYENBROEK, Ph. and OMARKHALI, Kh., Introduction to Yezidism: Between Continuity and Transformation, edited by OMARKHALI, Kh. and KREYENBROEK, Ph., Series: IRANICA 29, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2021, pp. XI–XVI. https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/Yezidism/titel\_6984.ahtml The genocidal attack of ISIS on the Yezidi community of the Sinjar region in 2014, with its murder of men and enslavement of women and children, has had enormous consequences for Yezidi communities both in the homelands and in the Diaspora. At the same time, many communities are facing the intrusion of the modern world upon their hitherto very conservative religious traditions. This book focuses on the tensions between conservatism and the need to adapt to current circumstances in a religion which so far mostly resisted change. A number of specialists have been brought together here to offer insights into Yezidis’ often unexpected reactions to the pressures of genocide on the one hand, and modernity generally on the other. It deals with recent trends and developments concerning the Yezidis and is divided into two parts. The first part contains articles about the IS attack and its impact on Yezidi communities in the Middle East. The second part focuses on developments in the Yezidi Diaspora communities. The book will be of interest to specialists on religion, especially those working on the Middle East and on diaspora religion, but also to Iranists, Kurdologists and scholars of different disciplines working on the effects of genocide or other brutal attacks on the worldview of surviving victims, or on the influence of modernity on conservative societies.
2014
The eve of the 21st century was a period of profound social, political, and economic changes in all parts of Kurdistan. These changes contributed to the diversification of the Yezidi religious landscape, and as a result, to the alteration of the system of transmission of Yezidi religious knowledge. The developments in the system of transmission of religious knowledge caused significant changes in religious and spiritual authority, which has been redistributed between a number of new actors. Upon review of the studies on modern Yezidi society undertaken so far, one notices that the system of transmission of religious knowledge and the corresponding status of religious authority deserve more attention. It is the aim of this paper to show how the system of transmission of religious knowledge and the respective status of religious and spiritual authority have changed over the last decade. The issue of to what extent these developments are influenced by the political climate in the respective country will also be raised. The questions to be dealt with also include the influence of written and media culture on the Yezidi oral tradition. The methods used for this study include interviews, observations of modern society and religious ceremonies, and analysis of texts and media sources.
Yezidi Spirits? On the question of Yezidi beliefs: A review article
While the Yezidi tradition undoubtedly has certain core characteristics, a more or less " logically " coherent system of beliefs is rarely described as one of these. The book under review deals with beliefs about a wide range of Yezidi " Holy Beings " and seeks to describe the " essentials " of Yezidism in this respect. This calls into question both the nature of Yezidi beliefs, and the methodological approach used here to analyse these. For the record, the authors' views on some individual Beings will be discussed. Abstract in Kurmanji " Ruh " ên êzdî? Gotareke rexneyî li ser pirsa baweriyên êzdiyan Herçend hindek taybetiyên navendî yên nerîta êzdî hebin jî, sîstemeke hevaheng a baweriyan ya kêm-zêde " mentiqî " wek yek ji wan taybetiyan xuya nabe. Kitêba li vir tê nirxandin berê xwe dide hejmareke zêde ya " şexsên pîroz " ên êzdî û di vê çarçoveyê de hewl dide " bingeh " ên êzdiyatiyê destnîşan bike. Li vir hem tebîetê baweriyên êzdiyatiyê û hem jî rêbaza tehlîla wan cihê pirsê ye. Herwiha, hindek fikrên nivîskaran li ser çend şexsên diyar dê bêne nirxandin. Abstract in Sorani
Public and academic interest in the Yezidis, their religion and culture, has increased greatly in recent years. The study of Yezidism has also made considerable progress in recent decades. Still, several lacunae in our knowledge remain, notably concerning many concrete aspects of the textual tradition. This book is a comprehensive study of the Yezidi religious textual tradition, containing descriptions of many hitherto unknown aspects of the oral transmission of Yezidi religious knowledge. It presents a detailed account of the ‘mechanisms’ underlying various aspects of the tradition. It shows how the religious textual tradition functioned – and to a certain degree still does – in its pre-modern way, and also describes the transformations it is currently undergoing, including the issues and processes involved in the increasing trend to commit religious knowledge to writing, and indeed to create a written Canon. The work contains several hitherto unpublished texts and the most comprehensive survey to date of the extant Yezidi sacred texts. It is accompanied by a CD with an extensive collection of recordings of texts. https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/title\_1833.ahtml
Review Article: The Yezidi Religion
Iran and the Caucasus, 2014
The article presents a detailed discussion of several key issues concerning the essentials of the Yezidi identity―the Yezidi religion, particularly the folk pantheon and the conceptions of divinity, based upon the analysts of the recent monograph by Garnik S. Asatrian and Victoria Arakelova.