Yazidism: The Ancient Faith of the Yazidis
- Sherko Sabir
- 2 hours ago
- 12 min read
Introduction
Yazidism is one of the most ancient and most distinctive faiths of the Kurdish world, the monotheistic religion of the Yazidi people. Centred on the worship of one God and the veneration of the Seven Holy Beings, led by the Peacock Angel Tawuse Melek, it is a faith of profound antiquity and deep mystery, with its holy sanctuary in the sacred valley of Lalish in northern Iraq. For its adherents it is among the oldest religions on earth, and it has endured through centuries of misunderstanding and terrible persecution.
At the heart of Yazidism lies the belief in one God, known as Xwede, who created the world and entrusted its care to seven Holy Beings or Angels, foremost among them Tawuse Melek, the Peacock Angel. The faith reveres the twelfth-century saint Sheikh Adi, whose tomb at Lalish is its holiest shrine, and it is carried down the generations through a rich oral tradition of sacred hymns, a hereditary priesthood, and the great festivals of the religious year.
To understand Yazidism is to understand a faith of remarkable depth and resilience, an ancient religion of the Kurdish people that has preserved its sacred traditions against extraordinary odds. Long misunderstood by its neighbours and grievously persecuted, Yazidism remains a living faith of several hundred thousand souls, a precious and irreplaceable part of the spiritual heritage of the Kurds and of the wider world. This article offers an overview of its beliefs, its holy figures, its sacred places and its enduring traditions.
Contents
What Is Yazidism?
Yazidism, also called Sharfadin, is the monotheistic ethnic religion of the Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking people who live primarily in northern Iraq, with communities in Syria, Turkey and a worldwide diaspora. It is based on belief in one God, Xwede, who created the world and entrusted it to the care of seven Holy Beings, known as Angels, foremost among them Tawuse Melek, the Peacock Angel. The faith venerates the saint Sheikh Adi and centres on the holy sanctuary of Lalish. It is an ancient religion with deep pre-Islamic roots, transmitted through a rich oral tradition of sacred hymns and a hereditary priesthood, and it does not accept converts: one is born a Yazidi.
One God and the Seven Holy Beings
At the foundation of Yazidism stands the belief in one God, most often called Xwede, the single, eternal creator of all things. Yazidism is firmly monotheistic, and the oneness of God is its central tenet. According to the faith, God created the world and then entrusted its care and governance to seven Holy Beings, often called the Seven Angels or the Heptad, who are understood as emanations of the divine, the instruments through which God governs the world.
Preeminent among these Seven is Tawuse Melek, the Peacock Angel, the leader of the Holy Beings, to whom God gave authority over the world. The other members of the Heptad are associated with holy figures of the faith's sacred history, among them Sheikh Adi and other revered saints such as Sheikh Shems. In Yazidi theology God himself is utterly transcendent and remote, and it is through the Seven Holy Beings, and above all through Tawuse Melek, that the divine engages with and cares for the created world. This vision of one God working through a sacred company of seven is one of the defining features of the faith.
Key Takeaways
Yazidism is the ancient monotheistic faith of the Kurdish Yazidis.
It centres on one God, Xwede, the creator of all things.
God entrusted the world to seven Holy Beings, the Heptad.
Their leader is Tawuse Melek, the Peacock Angel.
The faith reveres Sheikh Adi and centres on the sanctuary of Lalish.
It is an ethnic religion that accepts no converts, carried by oral tradition.
Quick Facts
Name: Yazidism (Ezidiism); also Sharfadin, Dasni
Type: Monotheistic ethnic religion of the Kurdish Yazidis
God: One God, most often called Xwede
Holy Beings: The Seven (the Heptad), emanations of the divine
Chief Holy Being: Tawuse Melek, the Peacock Angel
Revered saint: Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir (12th century)
Holy sanctuary: Lalish, in northern Iraq
Sacred texts: An oral tradition of hymns, the qewls, in Kurdish
Membership: By birth only; the faith accepts no converts
Greatest festival: The Feast of the Assembly, the autumn pilgrimage to Lalish
Tawuse Melek, the Peacock Angel
The most beloved and central sacred figure of Yazidism after God is Tawuse Melek, the Peacock Angel, the leader of the Seven Holy Beings. His name means the Peacock Angel or Peacock King, and he is the chief of the Heptad, the being to whom God entrusted authority over the world. So central is he that the Yazidis call themselves the Milete Tawuse Melek, the nation or people of the Peacock Angel. He is honoured as a glorious and benevolent being, the radiant instrument of God's care for creation.
In Yazidi belief, Tawuse Melek is a wholly good and holy being, the foremost of God's angels and the bringer of God's blessing to the world. The peacock, with its shimmering and many-coloured beauty, fittingly symbolises his glory, and he is associated with renewal, beauty and the divine light. It must be stressed, against a long and painful history of misunderstanding, that Yazidis regard Tawuse Melek as entirely benevolent, the chief of the archangels and never a figure of evil. The veneration of the Peacock Angel as the leader of the Holy Beings lies at the very heart of the Yazidi faith, and he is the object of the deepest love and reverence.
Sheikh Adi and Lalish
The most revered saint of Yazidism is Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir, a holy man of the twelfth century who settled in the valley of Lalish and around whom the classical form of the faith took shape. Sheikh Adi is honoured as one of the holiest figures of the religion, closely associated with the divine, and his life and teaching are central to the Yazidi tradition. His tomb at Lalish is the single holiest shrine of the faith, the focus of Yazidi devotion and pilgrimage.
The sacred valley of Lalish, in the mountains of northern Iraq, is the spiritual heart of Yazidism, its holiest place on earth. Every Yazidi hopes to make at least one pilgrimage to Lalish in their lifetime, and the valley, with the tomb of Sheikh Adi at its centre, its sacred springs and its conical shrine spires, is the destination of the faith's greatest festival, the autumn Feast of the Assembly. Lalish is to the Yazidis what the holiest sanctuaries are to other faiths, the sacred centre toward which the whole religious life of the community is oriented, a place of profound holiness and the focus of Yazidi identity and devotion.
The Creation and the Sacred Cosmos
The Yazidi creation account is among the most beautiful and distinctive in the religious traditions of the region. According to it, God first existed alone and created from the divine light a radiant white pearl, in which all of creation was contained in potential. From this primordial pearl emerged the Seven Holy Beings, and in time the pearl was opened and the material universe was formed, the heavens and the earth brought into being through the agency of the Holy Beings whom God had appointed.
The Yazidi cosmos is one suffused with the sacred. The faith holds the elements of fire, water, air and earth to be holy, and Yazidis take care not to pollute them. They turn toward the sun in prayer, honouring the light as a sign of the divine, a practice that has led outsiders sometimes to call them sun-worshippers, though their worship is of the one God whose light the sun reflects. This reverence for the natural world, for light and the sacred elements, gives Yazidism a deep and abiding sense of the holiness of creation, a cosmos charged throughout with the presence and the care of the divine.
Sacred Traditions and Festivals
Yazidism is carried down the generations not through a single written scripture but through a rich oral tradition, above all the sacred hymns known as the qewls, which preserve the theology, cosmology and sacred history of the faith. These hymns are recited and chanted by a special class of religious reciter-musicians, the Qewwals, who are among the most important guardians of the religious heritage. The faith is also structured by a hereditary caste system of Sheikhs, Pirs and Murids, which orders its religious life and preserves its sacred lineages.
The Yazidi religious year is marked by great festivals. The most important is the Feast of the Assembly, the Cejna Cemaiya, a seven-day autumn pilgrimage to Lalish in honour of Sheikh Adi, a time of profound communal cohesion. Another beloved festival is the Yazidi New Year, Carsema Sor, the Red Wednesday of spring, celebrating the day the world was adorned with life. In the Tawusgeran, the Qewwals carry the sacred images of the Peacock Angel, the sinjaq, in procession among the Yazidi communities. Through these traditions, festivals and sacred observances, the faith is renewed and the community bound together across the generations.
An Ancient and Ethnic Faith
Yazidism is among the most ancient of the world's living religions, and its adherents consider it one of the very oldest faiths on earth, far older than the calendars of the great Abrahamic religions. Scholars trace its roots to an ancient pre-Islamic and even pre-Zoroastrian religious substratum of the Kurdish and wider Iranian world, connected to the deep Indo-Iranian spiritual tradition. Over the centuries, and especially through the reforms associated with Sheikh Adi from the twelfth century onward, this ancient stream took on its classical Yazidi form, drawing in various influences while remaining a faith profoundly its own.
Yazidism is also an ethnic religion, intimately bound up with the identity of the Yazidi people. One is born a Yazidi; the faith accepts no converts, and membership is inherited. To safeguard the community and its sacred lineages, Yazidis are strictly endogamous, marrying within the faith and its proper castes. This deep bond between religion and people has been one of the means by which the Yazidis have preserved their distinct identity and their ancient faith through long ages of pressure, a community whose religion and whose very peoplehood are woven inseparably together.
Symbolism and Meaning
Yazidism embodies a vision of profound beauty and depth. In its belief in one transcendent God who governs the world through a radiant company of Holy Beings, it offers a vision of the divine at once utterly exalted and intimately caring. In its reverence for light, for the sacred elements and for the holiness of creation, it expresses a deep sense of the sacredness of the world. And in the figure of the Peacock Angel, glorious, benevolent and beloved, it offers one of the most beautiful images of the divine messenger in all the religions of the region.
Above all, Yazidism symbolises the endurance and the spiritual depth of the Kurdish people. As one of the most ancient faiths of the Kurdish world, preserved through a rich oral tradition and a hereditary priesthood against centuries of persecution, it stands as a testament to the resilience and the spiritual creativity of the Yazidis. Its sacred valley of Lalish, its beloved Peacock Angel, and its enduring traditions all bear witness to a faith of remarkable beauty and tenacity. To contemplate Yazidism is to contemplate one of the great spiritual treasures of the Kurdish world and of humanity's religious heritage.
Yazidism and the Kurds
Yazidism holds a place of special honour in the heritage of the Kurds, for the Yazidis are among the most ancient communities of the Kurdish world, and their faith is one of the oldest indigenous religions of the Kurdish lands. The Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking people, their sacred hymns are composed in Kurdish, and the religious authorities of the community have long affirmed the Kurdish identity of the Yazidis. The faith is thus deeply interwoven with Kurdish language, land and identity, an indigenous Kurdish religion of profound antiquity.
For the Kurds, whose spiritual heritage is remarkably rich and varied, Yazidism represents one of the most ancient and precious of their religious traditions, a faith that preserves within it echoes of the most ancient spiritual world of the region. The Yazidis have endured terrible suffering and persecution through the centuries, including in our own time, yet they have preserved their faith, their sacred traditions and their distinct identity with extraordinary tenacity. To honour Yazidism is to honour the depth, the antiquity and the resilience of the spiritual heritage of the Kurds, and to recognise the Yazidis as keepers of one of the most ancient living faiths of the world.
Debates and Misconceptions
Are the Yazidis 'devil-worshippers'? Absolutely not. This is the cruellest and most persistent of the falsehoods told about the Yazidis, and it is utterly false. Yazidis worship one God, and they regard Tawuse Melek, the Peacock Angel, as a wholly good and holy being, the chief of God's angels. The slander arose from outsiders' misunderstanding of the faith and of the figure of the Peacock Angel, and it has been used to justify centuries of horrific persecution. It must be firmly rejected: Yazidis do not worship or even recognise any evil power as the Peacock Angel; he is for them a being of pure goodness, light and blessing, and the faith knows no devil-worship of any kind.
Is Yazidism monotheistic? Yes, firmly so. Yazidis believe in one God, Xwede, the single creator of all things. The Seven Holy Beings, including the Peacock Angel, are not separate gods but emanations or instruments of the one God, through whom he governs the world. Some popular accounts speak loosely of a divine triad of the Peacock Angel, Sheikh Adi and Sultan Ezid, but in Yazidi understanding these are manifestations of the one divine reality, not separate deities. The oneness of God is fundamental to the faith, which is properly understood as monotheistic.
How old is Yazidism really? Yazidis themselves consider their faith among the very oldest on earth, of immense antiquity. Scholars, while approaching the question historically, do trace the roots of Yazidism to an ancient pre-Islamic and pre-Zoroastrian religious substratum, with the classical form of the faith developing especially from the era of Sheikh Adi in the twelfth century onward. It is most accurate to say that Yazidism preserves very ancient elements within a religious tradition that took its classical shape in the medieval period, honouring both the adherents' sense of profound antiquity and the historical understanding of the faith's development.
Related Topics
Tawuse Melek: the Peacock Angel, chief of the Seven Holy Beings
The Seven Holy Beings: the Heptad through whom God governs the world
Lalish: the holy sanctuary at the heart of the Yazidi faith
Sheikh Adi: the most revered saint of Yazidism
The Yazidi creation myth: the pearl and the making of the world
The Yazidi caste system: the Sheikhs, Pirs and Murids
The Qewwals: the sacred reciter-musicians of the faith
Carsema Sor: the Yazidi New Year, the Red Wednesday of spring
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Yazidism?
Yazidism is the ancient monotheistic religion of the Kurdish Yazidi people, who live mainly in northern Iraq and in communities across Syria, Turkey and a worldwide diaspora. It is based on belief in one God, Xwede, who created the world and entrusted it to seven Holy Beings led by the Peacock Angel, Tawuse Melek. It reveres the saint Sheikh Adi, centres on the holy sanctuary of Lalish, and is carried down through a rich oral tradition of sacred hymns.
Who is Tawuse Melek?
Tawuse Melek, the Peacock Angel, is the chief of the Seven Holy Beings in Yazidism, the being to whom God entrusted authority over the world. He is the most beloved sacred figure of the faith after God, honoured as a wholly good and benevolent being, the bringer of God's blessing to creation. The Yazidis call themselves the people of Tawuse Melek. He is never, in Yazidi belief, a figure of evil, and the contrary claim is a hurtful misunderstanding.
Do Yazidis worship the devil?
No. This is a false and deeply hurtful misconception that has been used to justify centuries of persecution. Yazidis worship one God and regard the Peacock Angel, Tawuse Melek, as a wholly good and holy being, the chief of God's angels. The faith knows no devil-worship of any kind. The slander arose from outsiders' misunderstanding of the faith, and it should be firmly and finally rejected.
Is Yazidism monotheistic?
Yes. Yazidis believe in one God, Xwede, the single eternal creator of all things, and the oneness of God is the central tenet of the faith. The Seven Holy Beings, including the Peacock Angel, are not separate gods but emanations or instruments of the one God, through whom he created and governs the world. Yazidism is properly and firmly understood as a monotheistic religion.
What is Lalish?
Lalish is the holiest sanctuary of the Yazidi faith, a sacred valley in the mountains of northern Iraq. At its centre is the tomb of Sheikh Adi, the most revered saint of the religion, along with sacred springs and the distinctive conical shrine spires. Lalish is the destination of the faith's greatest festival, the autumn Feast of the Assembly, and every Yazidi hopes to make at least one pilgrimage there in their lifetime.
Can someone convert to Yazidism?
No. Yazidism is an ethnic religion, and one must be born a Yazidi to belong to the faith; it accepts no converts. To preserve the community and its sacred lineages, Yazidis are also strictly endogamous, marrying within the faith. This close bond between religion and people has been one of the means by which the Yazidis have preserved their distinct identity and their ancient faith through long centuries of pressure and persecution.
References and Further Reading
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