I was curious. I looked up in Wikipedia. The Yazidi (also Yezidi, Êzidî, Yazdani, Arabic: ایزدیان Ayziyan, Armenian:Եզդիներ Ezdiner, Russian: Езиды Ezidy) are a Kurdish-speaking religious group who practice a syncretic religion that combines Shia and Sufi Islam with indigenous regional folk traditions. [13] These traditions include elements shared with the mystic, Christian and Mandaean communities of theNear East, as well as with more ancient Gnostic, Marcionite, Zoroastrian and early Mesopotamian religions. [14][15][16] They live primarily in the Nineveh Province of northern Iraq, a region once part of ancient Assyria. Additional communities in Armenia, Georgia and Syria have been in decline since the 1990s as a result of significant migration to Europe, especially to Germany.[17] The Yazidi believe in God as creator of the world, which he has placed under the care of seven holy beings or angels, the chief (archangel) of whom is Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel. The Peacock Angel, as world-ruler, causes both good and bad to befall individuals, and this ambivalent character is reflected in myths of his own temporary fall from Gods favor, before his remorseful tears extinguished the fires of his hellish prison and he reconciled with God. This myth builds on Sufi mystical reflections on the angel Iblis, who proudly refused to violate monotheism by worshipping Adam and Eve at Gods express command. [18] Because of this connection to the Sufi Iblis tradition, some followers of other monotheistic religions of the region equate the Peacock Angel with their own unredeemed evil spirit Satan,[19][20] which has incited centuries of persecution of the Yazidi as devil worshippers. Persecution of Yazidis has continued in their home communities within the borders of modern Iraq, under both Saddam Hussein and fundamentalist Sunni Muslim revolutionaries.[21] In August 2014 the Yazidi were targeted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS, in its campaign to purify Iraq and neighboring countries of non-Islamic influences
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 16:13:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015