The Religion of the Peacock Angel

The Yezidis and Their Spirit World

Garnik S Asatrian author Victoria Arakelova author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:28th Feb '14

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The Religion of the Peacock Angel cover

Based in Iraq, Syria and Turkey, the Yezidi people claim their religion - a unique combination of Christian, Islamic, and historical faiths - to be the oldest in the world. Yezidi identity centres on their religion, Sharfadin, which has evolved into a highly complex pantheon of one God with many incarnations, the chief of whom is Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel.

The Yezidi faith can be traced to a range of pre-Islamic belief systems, such as Sufism, some extreme Shi'ite sects, Gnosticism and other traditions surviving from the ancient world. This particular formulation has served to unify Yezidi religious identity and ethnicity.

Based on extensive fieldwork, The Religion of the Peacock Angel presents the first detailed examination of the Yezidi pantheon. The idea of one God and his chief incarnations is first analysed, then the various 'deity figures,' saints, holy patrons and divinized personalities in the Yezidi belief system are considered in the context of related religious traditions. The study determines the place of all these characters in the system of the Yezidi faith, defining their main functions, features, and genealogies.

"A new, authoritative, and much-needed account of the religion of a little known, much-misunderstood Middle Eastern religious group, the Yezidis. The analysis of this fascinating faith and its intricate syncretism (which includes Gnosticism and heretical Islam) presents a very important contribution to the study of comparative religion." - Martin Schwartz, University of California at Berkeley "The first scholarly attempt to offer a complete account of Yezidi beliefs in all kind of spiritual beings. This comparative study of heterodox Islam and its derivatives, as well as many other 'heresies' of the region, reveals a series of parallels that will prove of great benefit to scholars interested in the comparative history of the world religions." - Adriano V. Rossi, Oriental University of Naples

ISBN: 9781844657612

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 408g

168 pages