Definition
What does sema mean?
sema means “ritual hymn.” A performed religious genre associated with ceremonial recitation and listening.
Genre names describe living performance traditions. Boundaries between genres, performers, and local terminology are more detailed than a one-line translation can show.
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.
God and Sheikh Adi are Perfect
Harrassowitz, 2005. A documented selection of Yazidi sacred poems and narratives with discussion of genres, performance, and oral transmission.
The Yezidi Oral Tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan
Routledge, 2001. Reference for oral narrative, performance, place names, identity, and Kurmanji usage in northern Iraq.