Yazdânism is a neologism (derived from
Kurdish yazdān "worthy of worship", a cognate of Avestan
Yazata) introduced by
Mehrdad Izady in 1992 to denote a group of native
Kurdish monotheistic religions:
Alevism,
Yarsan and
Yazidism.
The Yazdâni faiths were the primary religion of the inhabitants of the
Zagros Mountains, including Kurds, until their progressive
Islamization in the 10th century. The three traditions subsumed under the term Yazdânism are primarily practiced in relatively isolated communities, from
Khurasan to
Anatolia and southern Iran.
Definition
Izady proposes the term as denoting a belief system which "predates Islam by millennia" which is in its character "
Aryan" rather than "
Semitic".
Many Muslim Kurds insist that they are in fact Muslim, in spite of being classified as "Yazdanist" byIzady. But Izady, of course, does not suggest that the 'Muslim' Kurds are Yazdanis, rather that Yazdani Kurds are not Muslim, and would identify themselves as such only to avoid harm and...
Read More