Qewl poetry, the sung hymns of the Yazidi tradition, permeates everyday routines, religious ceremonies, and communal gatherings. Transmitted orally by hereditary reciters, these verses encode theology, moral instruction, and collective memory, linking the faithful to their sacred past.
The Sheikhan District of northern Iraq follows a distinctive Yazidi calendar of seasonal festivities, centring on the annual Jama (Feast of the Assembly) and Sere Sal (Yazidi New Year). These rituals blend pilgrimage, communal meals, and symbolic rites that reinforce Yazidi identity across the region.
The article surveys how Yazidi liturgical terms shift in pronunciation, morphology, and semantics across Sinjar, neighboring Kurdish areas, and diaspora communities. It draws on fieldwork, manuscript studies, and oral‑tradition analyses to map these dialectal patterns.
The Yazidi caste system divides the community into three hereditary groups—Mirîd (lay), Şêx (priestly), and Pîr (intermediary). It regulates religious authority, marriage, and communal duties, while contemporary displacement and diaspora have prompted significant transformations.
Yazidi Qewls are sung using distinct regional melodic idioms known as kubrî. The primary styles—Sinjar, Sheikhan, Syrian, Turkish, and diaspora—differ in tempo, ornamentation, and instrumental accompaniment, reflecting local traditions and historical contacts.
Since the 2014 Sinjar offensive, a series of international and national courts have pursued accountability for ISIS’s genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Yazidi community. Landmark verdicts in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands illustrate the growing reach of universal jurisdiction and the challenges of documenting survivor testimony.
Since the 1990s, Yazidi communities across Europe have created schools, curricula, and community centres that teach the Yazidi faith while supporting integration. Institutions such as the Yazidi Academy in Hanover, the Yezidi Studies Center in Leipzig, and locally‑adapted curricula in Pforzheim illustrate how religious education serves both cultural preservation and social inclusion.
The Yazidi architectural heritage of the Caucasus comprises a network of temples, shrines, and communal buildings that reflect centuries‑old religious practice and diaspora adaptation. From the monumental Quba Mere Diwane in Armenia to the Sultan Ezid Temple in Tbilisi, these structures embody distinctive motifs, funerary sculpture, and ongoing preservation challenges.
Yazidi Kurmanji, the dialect used for Yazidi religious texts, faces unique Unicode encoding hurdles due to script diversity, non‑standard letters, and limited resources. Recent discussions on Kurdish Sorani and specialized Kurdish letters have shaped practical solutions for digital preservation.
During the Ba’athist era (1972‑1985), state‑directed Arabization reshaped curricula in Yazidi collective towns, replacing Kurdish‑language instruction with Arabic and redefining religious education. This article examines policy motives, implementation, regional variations, and lasting effects on Yazidi communal life.