Yazdânism

[3][4] The concept of Yazdânism has found a wide perception both within and beyond Kurdish nationalist discourses, but has been disputed by other recognized scholars of Iranian religions.

Well established, however, are the "striking" and "unmistakable" similarities between the Yazidis and the Yaresan or Ahl-e Haqq (People of Truth),[5] some of which can be traced back to elements of an ancient faith that was probably dominant among Western Iranians and akin, but separate from Zoroastrianism[2][6] and likened to practices of pre-Zoroastrian Mithraic religion.

[11][6] Pre-Islamic theology from indigenous and local Western Iranian faiths have survived in these three religions, although the expression and the vocabulary have been heavily influenced by an Arabic and Persianate Sufi lexicon.

[16][17] According to Christine Allison: Because of this connection to the Sufi Iblis tradition, some followers of Christianity and Islam equate the Peacock Angel with their own unredeemed evil spirit Satan,[19][20][21][22] which has incited centuries of persecution of the Yazidis as ‘devil worshippers’.

Persecution of Yazidis has continued in their home communities within the borders of modern Iraq, under both Saddam Hussein and fundamentalist Sunni Muslim revolutionaries.

[25][26][27][28] From the Yarsani (sometimes also called Ahl-e Haqq or Yâresân) point of view, the universe is composed of two distinct yet interrelated worlds: the internal (batini) and the external (zahiri), each having its own order and rules.

Besides Tawûsê Melek, members of the Heptad (the Seven), who were called into existence by God at the beginning of all things, include Şêx Hasan, Şêxobekir and the four brothers, known as the Four Mysteries: Shamsadin, Fakhradin, Sajadin and Naserdin.

Richard Foltz considers Yazdânism, or the “Cult of Angels”, as Izady's “invented religion”, which according to Foltz “owes more to contemporary Kurdish national sentiment than to actual religious history.”[2] Iranian anthropologist Ziba Mir-Hosseini states:[33] The most notable case is that of Izady (1992) who, in his eagerness to distance the Ahl-e Haqq from Islam and to give it a purely Kurdish pedigree, asserts that the sect is a denomination of a religion of great antiquity which he calls “the Cult of Angels”.