I remember reading about them some years earlier. But until recently they were called some sort of Zoroastrians (by everyone except the Zoroastrians themselves). They have less in common with Hindus than with Mazdeans.
Old article: http://tenets.zoroastrianism.com/deen33f.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->THE YEZIDIS OF KURDISTAN - ARE THEY REALLY ZOROASTRIANS ???
by Noshir H. Dadrawala<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
(The answer the Parsees give is: no they're not.)
And related: page - old page, archived now.
Kurdish people are an Iranian community; I think the Yezidis practise some evolute of an Iranian religion combined with huge amounts of late ME religions and ideologies.
(As for reincarnation, in some Iranian forums, I think I read that a few Iranian traditions/communities had some sort of reincarnation concept too. But as I have no links for people here to verify, this is neither here nor there.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/aug/15/iraq
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Background: the Yezidi
Yezidis are members of a pre-Islamic Kurdish minority sect who live primarily in northern Iraq, with other populations scattered around Syria, Turkey, Georgia, Russia and Armenia.
They number around 500,000 in total, although that figure is inexact because of the Yezidi tradition of secrecy when asked about their religious beliefs.
Most speak Kurdish and believe their name comes from the ancient Kurdish word Yezdan, meaning God. Another explanation for the name is their presumed descent from supporters of the Umayyad caliph Yazid I.
Their religion, whose origins are shrouded in middle east prehistory, is highly syncretic, attempting to reconcile disparate or contradictory beliefs. It combines aspects of <b>Zoroastrian, Manichaean, Jewish, Nestorian Christian and Islamic faith.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It is silly to start deciding they are Hindu when they're not. Leave them alone.
From the previous post:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Yazidis have five daily prayers: Nivêja berîspêdê (Dawn Prayer), Nivêja rojhilatinê (Sunrise Prayer), Nivêja nîvro (Noon Prayer), Nivêja êvarî (Afternoon Prayer), Nivêja rojavabûnê (Sunset Prayer). <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Iranian religion is where islam gets the practice of praying 5 times a day. The same is/was(?) there in Zoroastrianism too apparently.
This web page declares they are Zoroastrians (which Zoroastrians reject) but indicates something else that's interesting - Islamic Castaism:
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=13567
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In the courtyard, two men and two women dressed in white, who have taken an oath of celibacy, light 366 oil lamps.
"So that we don't forget the souls of our saints and prophets," explained their superior, Pil Charo, 32.
Most Yezidis speak Kurmanji, the most widely spoken dialect of Kurdish, but not all Sunni Muslim Kurds accept the Yezidis as part of their own ethnic group.
<b>Asked about the Yezidis, several Sunni Kurds said they would not share a meal with a Yezidi because they considered the community "unclean".
"Our parents told us that we could go to eat at the house of a Christian or a Jew, but not with them," said one Kurd.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<i>Yezidis are of their own religion</i> - a Middle-Eastern-Iranian religion - which makes sense considering the location of Kurdistan. It can't be so hard to accept that they are standalone.
It is not Hindu Dharma.
Why do Hindus always jump at anything that is a non-christoislamic religion as 'therefore' being Hindu? <!--emo&:blink:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Old article: http://tenets.zoroastrianism.com/deen33f.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->THE YEZIDIS OF KURDISTAN - ARE THEY REALLY ZOROASTRIANS ???
by Noshir H. Dadrawala<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
(The answer the Parsees give is: no they're not.)
And related: page - old page, archived now.
Kurdish people are an Iranian community; I think the Yezidis practise some evolute of an Iranian religion combined with huge amounts of late ME religions and ideologies.
(As for reincarnation, in some Iranian forums, I think I read that a few Iranian traditions/communities had some sort of reincarnation concept too. But as I have no links for people here to verify, this is neither here nor there.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/aug/15/iraq
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Background: the Yezidi
Yezidis are members of a pre-Islamic Kurdish minority sect who live primarily in northern Iraq, with other populations scattered around Syria, Turkey, Georgia, Russia and Armenia.
They number around 500,000 in total, although that figure is inexact because of the Yezidi tradition of secrecy when asked about their religious beliefs.
Most speak Kurdish and believe their name comes from the ancient Kurdish word Yezdan, meaning God. Another explanation for the name is their presumed descent from supporters of the Umayyad caliph Yazid I.
Their religion, whose origins are shrouded in middle east prehistory, is highly syncretic, attempting to reconcile disparate or contradictory beliefs. It combines aspects of <b>Zoroastrian, Manichaean, Jewish, Nestorian Christian and Islamic faith.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It is silly to start deciding they are Hindu when they're not. Leave them alone.
From the previous post:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Yazidis have five daily prayers: Nivêja berîspêdê (Dawn Prayer), Nivêja rojhilatinê (Sunrise Prayer), Nivêja nîvro (Noon Prayer), Nivêja êvarî (Afternoon Prayer), Nivêja rojavabûnê (Sunset Prayer). <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Iranian religion is where islam gets the practice of praying 5 times a day. The same is/was(?) there in Zoroastrianism too apparently.
This web page declares they are Zoroastrians (which Zoroastrians reject) but indicates something else that's interesting - Islamic Castaism:
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=13567
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In the courtyard, two men and two women dressed in white, who have taken an oath of celibacy, light 366 oil lamps.
"So that we don't forget the souls of our saints and prophets," explained their superior, Pil Charo, 32.
Most Yezidis speak Kurmanji, the most widely spoken dialect of Kurdish, but not all Sunni Muslim Kurds accept the Yezidis as part of their own ethnic group.
<b>Asked about the Yezidis, several Sunni Kurds said they would not share a meal with a Yezidi because they considered the community "unclean".
"Our parents told us that we could go to eat at the house of a Christian or a Jew, but not with them," said one Kurd.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<i>Yezidis are of their own religion</i> - a Middle-Eastern-Iranian religion - which makes sense considering the location of Kurdistan. It can't be so hard to accept that they are standalone.
It is not Hindu Dharma.
Why do Hindus always jump at anything that is a non-christoislamic religion as 'therefore' being Hindu? <!--emo&:blink:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /><!--endemo-->