Yazidis

Yazidis or Yezidis (/jəˈziːdiːz/ (listen);[23] Kurdish: ئێزیدی, romanized: Êzidî)[24][25] are a Kurmanji-speaking[22] endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran.[26][27][28] The majority of Yazidis remaining in the Middle East today live in Iraq, primarily in the governorates of Nineveh and Duhok.[29][30] There is a disagreement among scholars and in Yazidi circles on whether the Yazidi people are a distinct ethnoreligious group or a religious sub-group of the Kurds, an Iranic ethnic group.[31][32] Yazidism is the ethnic religion of the Yazidi people and is monotheistic in nature, having roots in a pre-Zoroastrian Iranic faith.[33][34][35][36][37]

Quick facts: Total population, Regions with significant po... ▼

Yazidis
ئێزیدی (Êzîdî)

A Yazidi Tawwaf ceremony, Baashiqa, Iraq
Total population
1,000,000–1,500,000 (estimate)[1][2]
Regions with significant populations
See list of Yazidi settlements
Listed by countries
Iraq	500,000–700,000[3][4]
Germany	200,000 (2019 estimate)[5][6]
Russia	40,586 (2010 census)[7]
Armenia	35,272 (2011 census)[8]
Belgium	35,000 (2018 estimate)[9]
Georgia	12,174 (2014 census)[10]
United States	10,000 (2017 estimate)[11]
France	10,000 (2018 estimate)[12][13]
Syria	10,000 (2017 estimate)[14][15]
Sweden	6,000 (2018 estimate)[16]
Turkey	5,000 (2010 estimate)[17][18]
Australia	2,738 (2019 estimate)[19]
Canada	1,200 (2018 estimate)[20]
Languages
Kurmanji (northern Kurdish),[21] North Mesopotamian Arabic (in Bashiqa and Bahzani),[22]

Part of a series on the Yazidi religion Yazidism
Main topics Yazidis Yazidi social organization
The Heptad Tawûsî Melek Fexredîn Sheikh Shems Sicadîn Melik Şêxsin Sheikh Obekr Nasirdîn
List of Yazidi holy figures Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir Sultan Ezid Amadin Ezdina Mir Khatuna Fekhra Sheikh Mand Mehmed Reshan Musa Sor Sharaf ad-Din ibn al-Hasan Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir Pir Ali Rabia of Basra Shehid ibn Jerr
Holy places Lalish Sinjar Mountains Silat Bridge Mam Rashan Shrine Quba Mêrê Dîwanê Sharfadin Temple Sultan Ezid Temple
Festivals Batizmi Feast of Ezid Feast of the Assembly Tawûsgeran Tiwaf Yazidi New Year
Literature Yazidi Black Book Yazidi Book of Revelation
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Since the spread of Islam began with the early Muslim conquests of the 7th–8th centuries, Yazidis have faced persecution by Arabs and later by Turks, as their religious practices have commonly been charged with heresy by Muslim clerics. Most recently, the 2014 Yazidi genocide that was carried out by the Islamic State saw over 5,000 Yazidis killed and thousands of Yazidi women and girls forced into sexual slavery,[38] as well as the flight of more than 500,000 Yazidi refugees.[39][40][41]