Yezidism-Its Background, Observances and Textual Tradition (Texts and Studies in Religion)

The Yezidi faith has fascinated and tantalized a number of Western scholars since the mid-19th century, but actual knowledge of the Yezidi tradition has remained relatively limited. During the late-20th century a corpus of Yezidi sacred hymns has come to light, which had previously been transmitted orally, and did not exist in written form until the late 1970s. These texts have offered a more detailed insight into the beliefs, observances, and background of the faith. The first half of this volume re-examines the findings of earlier works on Yezidism in the light of the author's field-work with the Yezidi community of northern Iraq, and of insights into the history of the religions of Iranian peoples. The second part consists of text and translations of 19 Yezidi hymns, with a commentary on points of philological and theological interest.