Chronological account of Yazidi peoples from origins to present
Yazidis and the Sayfo examines the experience of the Yazidi community during the Ottoman Empire’s collapse and the 1915‑1918 genocide, known as the Sayfo. The article outlines demographic impacts, regional variations, and scholarly debates, drawing on primary Ottoman records and modern research.
The 1892 Ferîq Pasha campaign was an Ottoman‑led military operation aimed at subjugating Yazidi communities in the Hakkâri and Mosul regions. Led by the Kurdish governor Ferîq Pasha, the expedition resulted in widespread displacement, forced conversions, and the destruction of Yazidi shrines.
The Adawiyya Order is a medieval Kurdish religious brotherhood that played a pivotal role in shaping Yazidism’s doctrinal core and communal identity. Its syncretic teachings and institutional structures laid the foundations for the Yazidi faith as known today.
Western travellers of the 19th and early 20th centuries projected exotic and occultist narratives onto the Yazidi community, creating what scholars term the “Yazidi mystery”. This article examines how travel literature, missionary reports, and colonial scholarship constructed a lasting image of the Yazidis as a secretive, heretical sect.