Yezidis in Syria

Identity Building among a Double Minority

By (author) Sebastian Maisel

Paperback - £35.00

Publication date:

15 October 2018

Length of book:

204 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498549806

Yezidis in Syria: Identity Building among a Double Minority traces the development of Yezidi identity on the margins of Syria’s minority context. This little known group is connected to the community’s main living area in northern Iraq, but evolved as a separate identity group in the context of Syria’s colonial, national, and revolutionary history. Always on the bottom of the socio-economic hierarchy, the two sub-groups located in the Kurdagh and the Jezira experience a period of sociological and theological renewal in their quest for a recognized and protected status in the new Syria. In this book, Sebastian Maisel transmits and analyzes the Yezidi perspective on Syria’s policies towards ethnic and religious minorities.
This important and timely work fills a lacuna that has long been felt by students of Yezidism and others. It offers a thorough, scholarly, and much-needed account of the current position of the Yezidis in Syria, their religion, and historical background. The book makes a major contribution to Yezidi studies.