Community town · Nineveh Plain
Bahzani Behzanî
The twin town of Bashiqa, sharing its Yazidi religious heritage and its qewal tradition.
Overview
About Bahzani
Behzanî adjoins Bashiqa and is usually spoken of together with it. The two towns share a Yazidi religious heritage, a tradition of olive growing, and a central place in the transmission of sacred music and recitation.
Like Bashiqa, Behzanî was emptied during the 2014 ISIS occupation and retaken in 2016. Its recovery has depended heavily on the return of displaced families and the rebuilding of communal institutions.
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.