Religious life in Kurdish-speaking regions includes distinct Muslim, Alevi, Yazidi and Yarsan traditions alongside Christian communities with their own identities. Specific histories, sacred places and teaching practices explain more than a single supposed Kurdish worldview.

Stone sanctuary buildings and two conical shrine roofs at Lalish, surrounded by terraces, trees and hills
Lalish, a Yazidi sacred valley: the sanctuary’s conical roofs and surrounding buildings. Lamacchiacosta, 10 March 2018, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. This Yazidi site does not represent every religion in the region. © Lamacchiacosta · 10 March 2018 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized without creative changes.

Start with communities, not one shared worldview

Ethnicity, language, residence and religious affiliation describe different things. A religious community may include more than one language group; sharing a region does not erase a neighbour’s identity. This matters when discussing Kurds: the Yarsan example includes Kurdish and Turkic-speaking adherents, while the Assyrian Church of the East describes its own Assyrian community and Syriac liturgical inheritance. [4][5] Neither example can be reduced to a single regional identity.

Sunni Islam, schools and learned networks

The TDV account emphasizes the importance of Shafi‘i Sunni learning, without treating every Kurdish Muslim as belonging to one school. It describes the spread of Shafi‘i teaching in the Marwanid period and later networks of madrasas. Institutions such as Nurşin, Tillo and Arvas trained teachers known as mele, molla or seyda. [1] These are specific educational settings. They help explain religious authority more concretely than assuming that faith fixes every family’s gender roles or daily choices.

Shi‘i and Alevi histories need their own terms

TDV identifies Shi‘i Kurdish populations around Khanaqin and Kermanshah, as well as communities elsewhere in Iran. It also discusses Alevi Kurds, including both Zazaki- and Kurmanji-speaking groups, and the importance of Dersim in their history. [1] These categories should not be merged with Sunni schools, or treated as interchangeable with Yarsan traditions. A regional overview is not a census of an individual village or proof of someone’s personal beliefs.

Yazidi sacred space: Lalish and the White Spring

Columbia’s monument research identifies the sanctuary of Shaykh Adi as the central shrine of Lalish. It grew around his tomb after his death in 1162 and expanded over time. [2] A separate profile places Ain Baydha above Kaniya Spi, the White Spring, whose water is used for mor kirin. It notes that water can be transported for the rite elsewhere. [3] This gives a concrete account of sacred place and practice without presenting the entire valley as built at once or reducing Yazidism to generic nature worship.

Yarsan/Kakai traditions and oral transmission

Philip Kreyenbroek’s introduction to Yarsan textual heritage discusses western Iran and northern Iraq, where the name Kakai is also used. It notes a largely Kurdish membership alongside a substantial Turkic-speaking group and emphasizes the importance of oral transmission. It also records disagreement among adherents and scholars about the tradition’s relationship to Shi‘i Islam. [4] Naming that disagreement is more accurate than assigning every community one external classification or treating resemblance as proof that separate religions are identical.

Christian neighbours and the limits of regional labels

The Assyrian Church of the East’s own account emphasizes Assyrians of upper Mesopotamia and the continued liturgical role of Syriac. It describes the Eucharist as Qurbana Qadisha. [5] This is one church’s self-description, not an account of all Christians or a reason to label them collectively Kurdish. Respecting distinct identities makes comparison possible: institutions, teaching, worship and community relationships can be studied without assuming either universal harmony or inevitable conflict.

Sources and further reading

  1. İlhan Baran and Doğan Kaplan, Kürtler, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Islamic-period and Shi‘ism/Alevism sections, 2019; Islamic-period update 2020.
  2. Matthew Peebles and Helen Malko, Sanctuary of Shaykh Adi, Mapping Mesopotamian Monuments, Columbia University, 2020, site profile.
  3. Matthew Peebles and Helen Malko, Ain Baydha, Mapping Mesopotamian Monuments, Columbia University, 2020, site profile.
  4. Philip G. Kreyenbroek, The Religious Textual Heritage of the Yarsan (Ahl-e Haqq), Oral Tradition 35/2 (2022), pp. 331–340; publicly indexed introductory section.
  5. Assyrian Church of the East, Archdiocese of Australia, New Zealand and Lebanon, The Church; institutional history, worship and liturgical language.
  6. Lamacchiacosta, Lalish panorama, 10 March 2018, Wikimedia Commons; photograph, CC BY-SA 4.0.