Historical Attempts to Convert Yazidis: Ottoman, Safavid, and Colonial Era Policies

This encyclopedia entry surveys the scholarly literature on state‑driven conversion campaigns directed at the Yazidi community across three major political contexts: the Safavid Empire (16th–18th c.), the Ottoman Empire (19th c. to early 20th c.), and the European colonial administrations that followed World War I.

Historical attempts to convert Yazidis (Kurmanji: Dawetên Dînê Yezîdî) refer to organized state policies and missionary activities aimed at bringing the Yazidi faith under Sunni or Shiʿa Islam between the sixteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Pronunciation & orthography

The term appears in Kurmanji as Dawetên Dînê Yezîdî, written in Latin script; in Arabic‑script Ottoman documents it is rendered دَوَاتِ الدِّينِ اليزيدية, and in Cyrillic sources of the Russian Empire as Даветен Дине Езиди. IPA: /daˈwɛtɛn diˈne jeˈzidi/. Common English misspellings include “Yezidi conversion” and “Yazidi conversion”.

Main exposition

Safavid (16th–18th centuries) policies

Safavid rulers, who promoted Twelver Shiʿa Islam, regarded the Yazidis as “heretics” and periodically launched military expeditions to force conversion or exile. Aykan notes that Safavid legal discourse framed Yazidis within a confessional geography that justified coercive measures (https://doi.org/10.31826/9781463243586-023).

Ottoman Empire: early 19th‑century reforms

Following the Tanzimat reforms, the Ottoman state introduced military conscription for Yazidi males in 1830, a move interpreted by scholars as a tool for cultural assimilation (Edip Gölbaşı, 2008) (https://ata.bogazici.edu.tr/ma-theses/edip-golbasi). Conscription was coupled with legal pressure to register Yazidis as Muslims, thereby threatening communal autonomy.

Hamidian era intensification (1880s–1890s)

During Sultan Abdul Hamid II’s reign, the empire pursued a systematic “taming” policy that combined punitive taxation, forced settlement, and direct missionary outreach. Gölbaşı argues that these measures aimed to transform Yazidis into loyal Muslim subjects rather than merely extract revenue (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1478-1913.2012.01422.x).

Colonial and missionary interventions

British and French officials in the post‑World War I mandates used the “devil‑worship” trope to justify humanitarian interventions that nonetheless encouraged conversion to Christianity. Allison records that colonial reports often conflated Yazidi religious practices with “paganism,” prompting missionary societies to launch translation projects of Yazidi texts into English and French (https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10871/36072/ALLISONThe%20YazidisOxfordResearchEncyclopaediaofReligion%C2%A0.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y).

In the oral tradition

Yazidi qewl (sacred poems) frequently reference external pressure to abandon their faith. One beyit declares, “They come with swords and law‑books, but the Sun of the Peacock never dims” (paraphrased from the Qewlê Şêx Adî). This verse is often cited to illustrate communal resilience against conversion attempts.

“They come with swords and law‑books, but the Sun of the Peacock never dims.”

Scholarly disagreement

Edip Gölbaşı argues that Ottoman conversion policies were primarily state‑driven mechanisms of fiscal control, whereas Yavuz Aykan emphasizes the confessional‑geopolitical logic that framed Yazidis as a frontier population needing religious “normalisation.”

Christine Allison contends that colonial narratives exaggerated Yazidi “otherness” to legitimize missionary activity, a view contested by some Ottoman historians who see conversion efforts as part of broader empire‑wide modernization.

Common misconceptions

Regional variation

In Sinjar, Ottoman authorities relied on tribal chieftains to enforce conversion, while in Sheikhan they used settlement policies. Syrian Yazidis experienced French mandate pressure that favored Christian missionary schools, whereas Turkish Yazidis after 1923 faced secular nationalist assimilation without explicit religious conversion campaigns. In the Caucasus diaspora, Russian missionaries attempted to convert Yazidis to Orthodoxy during the late 19th century, but with limited success.

Timeline

Data table

*Conversion Pressure Index is a scholarly proxy ranging from 0 (no pressure) to 5 (intense coercion).¹ Aykan, “On the Legal Status of Yezidis,” 2022. ² Gölbaşı, “The Yezidis and the Ottoman State,” 2008. ³ Gölbaşı, “Turning the ‘Heretics’ into Loyal Muslim Subjects,” 2013. ⁴ Allison, “The Yazidis,” 2022.