The Yazidi Faith Between Kurdish Historians and Islamic Sources: Muhammad Amin Zaki Bek as a Model

Abstract

The Yazidi faith has remained a subject of controversy among historians and researchers in this field, and has remained a source of interest and development, given its origins, whether as a religion or an ancient belief. This study examines Yazidi beliefs among Kurdish historians and Islamic sources, particularly in the works of Muhammad Amin Zeki Bey, one of the most prominent Kurdish historians. The study examines the differences and similarities in Yazidi beliefs between Kurdish writings and Islamic sources. It also presents Zeki Bey's works as an important example of the role of Kurdish historians in presenting and analyzing these beliefs, in comparison with Islamic views. The Yazidi faith is a highly complex religious and historical phenomenon, presenting itself as a structural problem within the intellectual debate among historians and researchers in the fields of comparative religion and the sociology of sects and doctrines. This problem manifests itself in the divergent methodological interpretations of the genealogical origins of this faith. One group of researchers adopts the ontological thesis that traces the roots of Yazidism back to mythological eras and ancient Iranian religions such as Mithraism and Zoroastrianism. Another group interprets it as a product of doctrinal and environmental transformations that crystallized during the medieval Islamic period, specifically within the context of the development of the Adawiyya Sufi order and the accompanying reshaping of religious identity.

In this context, historical literature has split into two schools with differing methodologies and perspectives, prompting this study to attempt to approach these two orientations through source criticism and comparative analysis. The study focuses on examining Yazidi beliefs within the framework of the complex relationship between Kurdish historical texts and classical Islamic sources, paying particular attention to the scholarly output of the pioneering Kurdish historian, Muhammad Amin Zaki Bek, as a key reference in this field.

The research explores the points of divergence and similarity in approaches to Yazidi doctrine, analyzing the fundamental differences between Kurdish texts, which often tend to invoke dimensions of identity and deep historical roots, and Islamic sources, which approached the phenomenon from dogmatic or classificatory perspectives linked to the political and legal structure of the state. The study also highlights Muhammad Amin Zaki Bek's contribution as a methodological model reflecting the role of Kurdish academic elites in reconstructing the historical narrative of local religious groups and their efforts to situate these groups historically beyond prevailing traditional frameworks.