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Yezidi Research Paper

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The Yezidi are an ethno religious group that live primarily in northern Iraq. This community of people united through common heritage, language, and religion are predominantly ethnically Kurdish. Yezidi is a culture, a religion, and a people group that has an urgent need to be evangelized. This research paper seeks to introduce this minority group, the Yezidi, anthropologically in order for contextualized cross-cultural ministry to occur in an appropriate and effective manner. The Yezidi’s geographical location is difficult to precisely determine due to the diaspora that this people group has experienced. Traditionally, the Yezidi people lived near the borders of Syria and Iraq in the southern part of Turkey. According to The Yezidis: The History …show more content…

Birgül Açikyildiz writes in his book “although some sacred texts were first published at the beginning of the twentieth century, and although some Arabic and Syriac sources refer to events at the time when the Yezidi community first emerged, almost nothing is recorded about the history and beliefs of the first Yezidis” (35). The uncertainty with the beginning of the group is due to the lack of reputable and consistent sources. Açikyildiz continues to discuss the beliefs that the Yezidi have on their origins. There is a common belief that the entire Kurdish people group was originally Yezidi. However, due to the constant tyranny of the Muslim regimes and rulers, they were forced to convert to Islam in order to survive. The Yezidi that decided to remain faithful to Melek Taus, the fallen angel that the religion worships, are the Yezidi that we know today. In ‘Who are the Yezidis and why is Isis hunting them?’, an article written for The Guardian by Raya Jalabi, describe the Yezidis as “a historically misunderstood group, [they] are predominantly ethnically Kurdish, and have kept alive their syncretic religion for centuries, despite many years of oppression and threatened extermination.” Knowledge of the oppression brought upon this people group is key knowledge in order to contextual the Gospel and effectively minister to this group. Being aware of the Yezidis history is

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