Scriptual Divergence in Yazidi Prayer Manuscripts: Latin, Arabic, and Cyrillic Comparisons

This encyclopedia entry provides a scholarly overview of the scriptual variations found in Yazidi prayer manuscripts, focusing on the Latin, Arabic, and Cyrillic alphabets. It is intended for researchers, students, and anyone interested in the textual transmission of Yazidi religious literature.

Qewlê pêşeng (Kurmanji: qewlê pêşeng) denotes the primary liturgical poems of the Yazidi tradition; they are recorded in manuscripts using Latin, Arabic, or Cyrillic scripts, each with its own orthographic conventions.

Pronunciation & orthography

Kurmanji spelling: qewlê pêşeng. Arabic‑script variant: قەولێ پێشەنگ. Cyrillic‑script variant: кевле пешенг. IPA: /qɛwˈlɛ ˈpɛʃeŋ/. Common English misspellings: “kewl”, “qawl‑pesheng”.

Main exposition

Historical emergence of the three scripts

The earliest Yazidi manuscripts were written in a modified Arabic script that accommodated Kurdish phonology (Açıkyıldız 2013). Ottoman‑era missionaries and later Soviet scholars introduced Latin and Cyrillic transcriptions respectively, aiming to standardise Kurdish language education (Kreyenbroek 2005; Omarkhali 2017). By the late 20th century, diaspora communities adopted Latin script for its compatibility with digital platforms, while some diaspora groups in the former Soviet Union continued to use Cyrillic (Khalid 2021).

Orthographic characteristics

Arabic script retains the traditional right‑to‑left flow and uses additional diacritics to represent Kurdish sounds absent in Arabic, such as ê (represented by a small “kasra” under a ʿayn) and ş (written as ش but often doubled with a sukun to avoid ambiguity). Manuscripts frequently contain marginal glosses in Arabic, reflecting the historic bilingualism of Yazidi clergy (Açıkyıldız 2013).

Latin script employs a phonemic orthography developed by Kurdish scholars in the 1930s, with letters ç, ş, î, û, ê to capture sounds unique to Kurmanji. Modern printed editions standardise punctuation and use Unicode‑compatible fonts, facilitating electronic searchability (Khalid 2021). However, Latin manuscripts sometimes retain Arabic‑script loanwords without transliteration, creating hybrid forms.

Cyrillic script was adapted in the 1940s under Soviet language policy. It mirrors the Russian alphabet but adds characters Ӓ, Ҕ, Ө to render Kurdish vowels and gutturals (Omarkhali 2017). Cyrillic manuscripts often feature Russian‑language marginalia and Soviet‑era ideological prefaces, which influence textual interpretation.

Textual conventions and pagination

Arabic‑script manuscripts traditionally use folio numbering on the outer margin and employ decorative headpieces (muqarnas) at the start of each qewl. Latin manuscripts follow Western pagination, with chapter headings in bold and occasional footnotes citing oral informants. Cyrillic manuscripts incorporate Soviet‑style section numbering and may include “примечание” (notes) that explain ritual context for Russian‑speaking scholars.

Impact on liturgical practice

Script choice affects pronunciation during communal recitation. Clerics trained in Arabic script often pronounce q as a voiced uvular stop, whereas Latin‑trained reciters favour a voiceless velar stop, leading to subtle phonetic variation in the ritual chant (Kreyenbroek 2005). Cyrillic‑trained communities in the Caucasus display a hybrid intonation that blends Russian liturgical cadence with Kurdish melodic patterns.

“When I read a qewl in Latin script, the rhythm feels more ‘modern’, but the heart of the prayer remains unchanged.” – Mîrza Şêxmûs, Yazidi priest, interview, 2022.

In the oral tradition

The oral corpus of Yazidi qewls is transmitted by qewwar (reciters) who memorize verses irrespective of script. Oral recordings confirm that the same qewl can be rendered identically whether the scribe used Arabic, Latin, or Cyrillic letters (Omarkhali 2017). Nevertheless, certain lexical items are preserved only in the script in which they were first recorded, demonstrating a feedback loop between written and spoken tradition.

“The word ‘Bêgoman’ appears only in the Arabic‑script codex of 1912; our elders still chant it exactly as written.” – Halimê Qadir, oral historian, 2020.

Scholarly disagreement

Kreyenbroek argues that the Latin script represents a “purifying” reform that strips away Arabic‑Islamic influence, thereby restoring an authentic Kurdish religious voice (Kreyenbroek 2005). Açıkyıldız counters that such a view overlooks the syncretic nature of Yazidi textual heritage and that Arabic script remains indispensable for understanding historical marginalia (Açıkyıldız 2013). Omarkhali maintains that Cyrillic manuscripts, despite their Soviet ideological overlay, provide the most systematic phonological representation for linguistic analysis (Omarkhali 2017).

Common misconceptions

Regional variation

In the Sinjar mountains, the majority of manuscripts remain in Arabic script, reflecting the region’s historic ties to Ottoman‑era Kurdish scholars. Sheikhan’s diaspora communities in Germany and Sweden predominantly use Latin script for printed prayer books, facilitating integration with digital publishing platforms. Syrian Yazidis, displaced after 2014, often rely on Arabic‑script copies smuggled from Iraq. Turkish Yazidis, limited by state restrictions, favor hand‑written Latin manuscripts concealed in private collections. In the Caucasus, especially in Armenia and Georgia, Cyrillic manuscripts dominate due to Soviet educational policies. Diaspora libraries in the United States now house digitised collections of all three scripts, enabling comparative research.

Timeline

Data table