Definition
What does Derwêş mean?
Derwêş means “dervish.” A dervish or devoted religious person; the word also occurs as a personal title and in oral narratives.
Yazidi religious offices and hereditary relationships are specific institutions, not direct equivalents of similarly translated offices in other religions. The English gloss is functional and intentionally brief.
Pronunciation & orthography
Four ways to read the headword
Only the Latin form is stored as the canonical headword. The IPA and two script forms are generated from it and may not capture regional pronunciation, loanword conventions, or an attested community spelling.
Alternate forms
Other spellings and search forms
Aliases are included for discovery across common English, Kurdish, and scholarly spelling systems. Their presence does not imply that every form is preferred in every community.
Source note
References for this entry
This definition is an editorial synthesis of the references below. It does not reproduce restricted or copyrighted sacred text, and it should be expanded only after term-level specialist review.
The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition: From Oral to Written
Harrassowitz, 2017. Anchor reference for religious terminology, textual genres, transmission, and lineages; includes a specialist glossary.
Yezidism: Its Background, Observances and Textual Tradition
Edwin Mellen Press, 1995. Foundational account of holy beings, social organization, observances, and the qewl corpus.
“Yazidis ii. Initiation in Yazidism,” Encyclopaedia Iranica
Specialist account of mor kirin, bisk birîn, ritual kinship, and hereditary religious relationships.