Yazidis in the context of "Kurdistan"

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⭐ Core Definition: Yazidis

Yazidis, also spelled Yezidis (/jəˈzdiz/ ; Êzidî), are a Kurdish-speaking endogamous religious group indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran, with small numbers living in Armenia and Georgia. The majority of Yazidis remaining in the Middle East today live in Iraq, primarily in the governorates of Nineveh and Duhok.

There is a disagreement among scholars and in Yazidi circles on whether the Yazidi people are a distinct ethnoreligious group or a religious sub-group of the Kurds, an Iranic ethnic group. Yazidism is the ethnic religion of the Yazidi people. It is monotheistic in nature and syncretic. Having its origin from Adawiyya Sufi order, which blended Sufi Sunni Islam, a local Kurdish veneration of Yazid ibn Mu'awiya and Umayyad dynasty, and local Kurdish peasant belief of pre-Zoroastrian Iranic faith. By the 15th century, Yazidism developed into a distinct religion separate from Islam.

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Yazidis in the context of Christianity in Georgia (country)

In 2020, 85.84% of the population in Georgia adhered to Christianity (mainly Georgian Orthodox), 11% were Muslim, 0.1% were Jewish, 0.04% were Baháʼí and 3% had no religious beliefs. Other religious groups include Jehovah's Witnesses and Yazidis. Orthodox churches serving other non-Georgian ethnic groups, such as Russians and Greeks, are subordinate to the Georgian Orthodox Church.

A Pew Research Center study about religion and education around the world in 2016, found that between the various Christian communities, Georgia ranks as the third highest nation in terms of Christians who obtain a university degree in institutions of higher education (57%).

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Yazidis in the context of Ethnic groups in the Middle East

Ethnic groups in the Middle East are ethnolinguistic groupings in the "transcontinental" region that is commonly a geopolitical term designating the intercontinental region comprising West Asia (including Cyprus) without the South Caucasus, and also comprising Egypt in North Africa. The Middle East has historically been a crossroad of different cultures and languages. Since the 1960s, the changes in political and economic factors (especially the enormous oil wealth in the region and conflicts) have significantly altered the ethnic composition of groups in the region. While some ethnic groups have been present in the region for millennia, others have arrived fairly recently through immigration. The largest ethnic groups in the region are Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds, and Azerbaijanis but there are dozens of other ethnic groups that have hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions of members.

Other indigenous, religious, or minority ethnic groups include: Antiochians, Armenians, Assyrians, Arameans in the Qalamoun Mountains, Baloch, Copts, Druze, Gilaks, Greeks (including Cypriots and Pontians), Jews, Kawliya, Laz, Lurs, Mandaeans, Maronites, Mazanderanis, Mhallami, Nawar, Samaritans, Shabaks, Talysh, Tats, Yazidis and Zazas.

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Yazidis in the context of Mosul

Mosul is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh—once the largest city in the world—on its east side.

Due to its strategic and central location, the city has traditionally served as a hub of international commerce and travel in the region. It is considered as one of the historically and culturally significant cities of the Arab world. The North Mesopotamian Arabic spoken in Mosul is known as Maslawi and is widely spoken in the region. Together with the Nineveh Plains, Mosul is a historical center of the Assyrians. The surrounding region is ethnically and religiously diverse; a large majority of the city is Arabs, with Kurds, Assyrians, Turkmens, Shabaks, and other minorities comprising the population. Sunni Islam is the largest religion but there are a sizeable number of Christians and Yazidis as well as adherents of other Muslim sects such as Twelver Shi'ism and Shabakism, and in the past, Iraqi Jews. Mosul and its surrounding region are significant in biblical history.

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Yazidis in the context of Kurds in Armenia

The Kurds in Armenia (Armenian: Քրդերը Հայաստանում, romanizedK’rderë Hayastanum; Kurdish: Kurdên Ermenistanê Кӧрден Әрмәньстане), also referred to as the Kurds of Rewan (Kurdên Rewanê), form a major part of the historically significant Kurdish population in the post-Soviet space, and live mainly in the western parts of Armenia.

Kurds and Yazidis are counted as separate ethnic groups in Armenia (on the relationship between Yazidis and Kurdish identity, see Identity of Yazidis). The latest census conducted in Armenia (2022) recorded 31,079 Yazidi and 1,663 Kurdish inhabitants of Armenia based on the self-identification of the respondents. Practically all of those who identified themselves as Kurds in the census are members of the Yazidi community who embrace a Kurdish identity; extremely few Muslim Kurds live in Armenia today.

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Yazidis in the context of Yazidism

Yazidism, also known as Sharfadin, is a monotheistic syncretic ethnic religion its origin from Adawiyya Sufi order, which blended Sufi Sunni Islam, a local Kurdish veneration of Yazid ibn Mu'awiya and Umayyad dynasty, and local Kurdish peasant belief of pre-Zoroastrian Iranic faith. Its followers, called Yazidis, are a Kurdish-speaking community.

Yazidism includes elements of ancient Iranian religions, as well as elements of Judaism, Church of the East, and Islam. Yazidism is based on belief in one God who created the world and entrusted it into the care of seven Holy Beings, known as Angels. Preeminent among these Angels is Tawûsî Melek (lit.'Peacock Angel', also spelled as Melek Taûs), who is the leader of the Angels and who has authority over the world. The religion of the Yazidis is a highly syncretistic one: Sufi influence and imagery can be seen in their religious vocabulary, especially in the terminology of their esoteric literature, but much of the mythology is non-Islamic, and their cosmogonies apparently have many points in common with those of ancient Iranian religions.

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Yazidis in the context of Kurmanji

Kurmanji (Kurdish: کورمانجی, romanizedKurmancî, lit.'Kurdish', pronunciation), also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northernmost of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Syria and the Caucasus and Khorasan regions. It is the most widely spoken form of Kurdish.

Kurmanji is also the common and ceremonial language of Yazidis. Their sacred book Mishefa Reş and all prayers are written and spoken in Kurmanji.

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Yazidis in the context of Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria

The Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), also known as Rojava, is a de facto autonomous region in northeastern Syria. It consists of self-governing sub-regions in the areas of Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabqa, and Deir ez-Zor. The region gained its de facto autonomy in 2012 in the context of the ongoing Rojava conflict and the wider Syrian civil war, in which its official military force, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has taken part.

While entertaining some foreign relations, the region is neither officially recognized as autonomous by the government of Syria, state, or other governments institutions except for the Catalan Parliament. Northeastern Syria is polyethnic and home to sizeable ethnic Arab, Kurdish, and Assyrian populations, with smaller communities of ethnic Turkmen, Armenians, Circassians, and Yazidis.

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Yazidis in the context of Nineveh Plains

Nineveh Plains (Classical Syriac: ܦܩܥܬܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ, romanized: Pqaʿtā ḏ-Nīnwē, Modern Syriac: ܕܫܬܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ, romanizedDaštā d-Ninwe; Arabic: سهل نينوى, romanizedSahl Naynawā; Kurdish: ده‌شتا نه‌ینه‌وا, romanizedDeşta Neynewa) is a region in Nineveh Governorate in Iraq. Located to the north and east of the city Mosul, it is the only Christian-majority region in Iraq and have been a gathering point for Iraqi Christians since 2003. Control over the region is contested between Iraqi security forces, KRG security forces, Assyrian security forces, Babylon Brigade and the Shabak Militia.

The plains have a heterogenous population of Aramaic-speaking Assyrian Christians belonging to different churches: the Assyrian Church of the East, the Chaldean Catholic, the Syriac Orthodox church, and the Syriac Catholic church. Arabs, Kurds, Yazidis, Shabaks and Turkmens, and includes ruins of ancient Assyrian cities and religious sites, such as Nimrud, Dur-Sharrukin, Mar Mattai Monastery, Rabban Hormizd Monastery and the Tomb of Nahum.

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