Community town · Syria
Afrin Efrîn
A district of north-western Syria with a cluster of historic Yazidi villages.
Overview
About Afrin
The Afrin region of north-western Syria contained a number of long-established Yazidi villages, part of the wider Kurdish-speaking population of the area.
Many residents were displaced following the military operation in Afrin in 2018, and reports of pressure on the remaining Yazidi community have been raised by human-rights monitors. This reference records the community and its situation without endorsing any party to the conflict.
This is a community place rather than a primarily religious one. Population and return figures move and are always given with a source and a date rather than stated as fixed.
Locate & verify
Coordinates and external references
Coordinates are approximate and provided for orientation. They should be re-checked against an authoritative gazetteer before any operational use.
Source note
References for this place
This entry is an editorial synthesis of the references below, chosen for the place type. It reproduces no restricted or copyrighted text and should be expanded only after specialist review.
The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion
Bloomsbury, 2014. Anchor reference for Yazidi sacred sites, shrines, architecture, and material culture, including Lalish and the shrines of Sinjar and Sheikhan.
The Yezidi Oral Tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan
Routledge, 2001. Reference for place, community, and identity in the Iraqi Yazidi heartland of Sheikhan and Sinjar.
The Other Kurds: Yazidis in Colonial Iraq
I.B. Tauris, 1999. Settlement, society, and administration of Sinjar and Sheikhan in the late Ottoman and mandate periods.