Yazidi Genocide and Musical Heritage

The Yazidi are an ancient monotheistic ethno-religious community of Mesopotamia, concentrated in the northern mountain regions of Iraq. Their culture centres on oral transmission, with music serving as the primary vehicle for religious observance, historical memory, and communal identity. According to Yazidi belief, Adam's soul only entered his body after he played a musical instrument, establishing music as fundamental to human existence within their cosmology.

Yazidi music is estimated to be between 5,000 and 7,000 years old. The tradition encompasses three distinct categories: folk music connected to agricultural life, ceremonial music for community gatherings, and religious music performed during worship. None of this music has been written down. Instead, traditional musicians memorize up to 500 individual pieces, passing them orally from one generation to the next through family lines.

Sacred Music and the Qewwal Tradition

The most sacred Yazidi music takes the form of qewls—religious hymns believed to have been revealed by God in ancient times. These cryptic, often discordant chants are performed exclusively by qewwals, hereditary religious musicians who belong to a specific caste. The qewwals' role extends beyond performance: they are "professionals of the word" responsible for carrying the seven holy peacock standards—bronze icons of Tawusi Melek, the Peacock Angel—to Yazidi communities.

A qewwal performance traditionally involves the tambourine, large enough to obscure the performer's torso, played with constantly shifting rhythms that slow and accelerate unpredictably. The flute accompaniment produces high-pitched, frenetic trills that are only vaguely melodic. The sung portions feature precise but discordant notes closer to incantation than conventional melody. Each qewwal learns his repertoire from a specific teacher, creating unique transmission lines that result in regional and generational variations. One qewl, sung across Yazidi communities from Germany to the Caucasus, has thirty known variations.

The qewls themselves resist easy interpretation. Translations reveal verses like "Four lamps with one wick! / There are seven doorways for one Word. / Eleven are a deep ditch: / Seven are dark, four are luminous." Many Yazidis report understanding little of the literal meaning while appreciating the sound. The hymns are often interspersed with chiroks—prose narratives that illuminate enigmatic verses or recount myths not found in the hymns themselves. These narratives allow for individual interpretation and can even contradict one another across different versions.

Before 2014, Hungarian scholar Eszter Spät estimated that only twelve qewwals remained. Their tribal home of Bashiqa and Bahzani, twin towns east of Mosul, formed the center of their community.

The 2014 Genocide

On August 3, 2014, Islamic State forces entered Iraq's Sinjar province, launching a campaign of mass atrocities that the United Nations described as a coordinated effort to eliminate the Yazidi people. Between 2014 and 2017, the violence displaced approximately 400,000 people. More than 5,000 men and older women were killed, while over 6,000 women, girls, and children were enslaved. As of 2020, an estimated 200,000 Yazidis were living in Internally Displaced Persons camps in Northern Iraq.

ISIS deliberately targeted Yazidi cultural heritage alongside the population. The group destroyed shrines and temples, jeopardizing the performance of religious rituals. Traditional musical instruments were systematically destroyed. Musicians themselves were murdered. The qewwals' home region was devastated. The group also prevented the circulation of the peacock standards during wartime, cutting off one of the few opportunities for most Yazidis to hear their sacred hymns.

For the community, the loss extended beyond immediate violence. Many Yazidi women and girls were sold as sex slaves and repeatedly raped, some for up to five years before escape or rescue. The trauma affected not only survivors but disrupted the social fabric necessary for cultural transmission. With displacement from ancestral lands and the fragmentation of communities, the ability to teach and pass down musical knowledge was severely compromised.

Musical Response and Preservation

In the aftermath of the genocide, several initiatives emerged to preserve Yazidi musical heritage and support survivors through musical engagement. The AMAR Foundation, a British healthcare and education charity, launched a Community Music Project operating in five IDP camps in Northern Iraq. The project, led by British violinist Michael Bochmann and funded by the British Council, brought surviving Yazidi musicians to teach traditional music and instruments to children and young people.

Initially, many in the camps hesitated to perform music publicly, fearing that distinguishing themselves culturally might make them vulnerable to further attacks. The music programme worked to restore confidence in cultural expression. Daily classes taught the folk tradition to younger generations, many of whom had spent their adolescent years displaced or in captivity, separated from Yazidi social and religious life.

The project also formed a Yazidi women's choir, with approximately half its members having survived ISIS captivity. Despite taboos surrounding rape and sexual violence within the community, male spiritual leaders chose to welcome female survivors back, reducing the threat of stigma. The choir provided solidarity for women subjected to sexual violence. Participants reported that singing traditional music together brought feelings of happiness and relief, helping them forget traumatic experiences and feel deeply connected to their heritage. One previously enslaved woman stated that attending music classes helped her forget her sadness about conditions in the refugee camps.

A music teacher working on the project noted that music is extremely important to Yazidi culture and helps keep the minority community together. The practice revived an ancient application: historically, this music had been used as a form of psychotherapy for traumatized people.

Documentation and Archiving

Recognizing that the music existed only in the memories of aging musicians, many of whom had been killed or displaced, AMAR undertook an extensive recording effort. Since May 2019, the foundation has made over 100 recordings of Yazidi music performances, some produced at Lalish, the 4,000-year-old spiritual home of the Yazidi, and others in refugee camps where tens of thousands remained displaced.

These recordings have been deposited at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, as well as the Mosul and Dohuk libraries in Iraq, creating a permanent archive. In 2019, the choir traveled to Britain, where they performed for Prince Charles and at the Houses of Parliament. They delivered the archive materials to Oxford personally. The archive includes not only musical performances but also oral histories, festivals, and rituals filmed by researchers from the University of Liverpool.

As of 2019, only sixteen qewwals were believed to survive. The situation for Yazidi musicians teaching the tradition remained precarious, with hundreds of young people learning to play traditional instruments including the tabor (a stringed instrument) and the daf (a frame drum) in circumstances of ongoing displacement and uncertainty.

Diaspora Communities and Musical Continuity

Yazidi musicians in diaspora have worked to maintain musical traditions while adapting to new circumstances. In Lincoln, Nebraska, the nonprofit Music in Exile documented thirteen Yazidi musicians in 2017. These included individuals who had fled to the United States in the 1990s and others who arrived more recently. One musician, Hassan, who came to the US in 1999, operates both a barbershop and a music studio, playing eclectic combinations of Yazidi songs with Mexican guitar and Native American flute influences alongside Turkish-style music.

Another Lincoln musician, Hamo, crafts tambors by hand—a practice he began in 1988 during conscription into Saddam Hussein's army during the Iran-Iraq war, abandoned upon returning to his village in Sinjar, and resumed after ISIS invaded in 2014. He continues making instruments in his basement late at night, though he insists he is not a professional musician.

Germany hosts approximately 40,000 Yazidis, mainly from Turkey but also Iraq, Syria, Armenia, and Georgia. This population has established social and religious life in their adopted country, creating a transnational network increasingly involved in sustaining engagement with displaced populations in northern Iraq. In August 2019, the central Yazidi Council in Germany hosted a ceremony in Stuttgart to commemorate five years since the Sinjar genocide, where Yazidi musicians performed the 'Lament for Sinjar' before refugees, activists, NGO representatives, and diplomats.

Yazidi artists in exile have used their platforms to advocate for their community. Bedil Brahim, a musician from southeast Turkey living in Germany, gained recognition as a contestant on German X Factor, performing Kurdish songs and advancing through five stages before withdrawing when asked to switch to English. When ISIS attacked Sinjar, Brahim and fellow artist Dashni Murad launched an aid campaign, with Brahim personally delivering supplies to the Kurdistan Region and insisting on visiting Mount Sinjar by helicopter despite the danger. He has released six albums and continues to perform.

Nawaf Miro, a Yazidi poet, novelist, and translator living in Germany since 1987, has published five poetry collections widely read among Kurmanji speakers, along with eight novels and several children's books. He emphasizes that for Yazidis, language carries double importance because all prayers, verses, knowledge, stories, and lullabies exist in Kurdish.

Musical Traditions in Armenia

The Yazidi presence in Armenia dates to the eighteenth century, with waves of migration from Anatolia occurring at the turn of the twentieth century due to persecution alongside Armenians. These shared experiences of exile and violence are commemorated through kilamê ser—lamentations performed in lilting vocals at funerals. These melodized speeches conjure specific imagery in memory of loved ones lost during conflict, including figures like military commander Cenghir Aga, who led Yazidi forces alongside Armenian troops against the Ottomans in 1920 before dying in exile following Soviet deportations.

Bereaved women who call themselves dilşewat ("burning hearts") perform these kilamê ser using conventional melodic patterns with descending pitch. This structure enables listeners to reconstruct the emotional impact of narrated events while allowing performers to avoid reopening their own wounds. The performances function as commemorative rituals for the community rather than cathartic personal expressions.

Radio Yerevan has broadcast daily in Kurdish since the Soviet era, reaching audiences in Turkey and Armenia, disseminating Yazidi sung narratives and connecting communities across borders. This has helped forge collective identity shaped by migration pressures and affiliations with both Kurdish and Armenian populations.

Current Situation

Ten years after the genocide, 93 mass graves have been discovered in Sinjar province, excluding individual graves. Of 2,055 missing people, only 243 have been identified and buried as of 2024. The difficulty stems partly from entire families being killed, making DNA collection challenging. Approximately 6,417 Yazidis were abducted, including 3,548 women. Despite the trauma, 3,550 survived, including 1,026 women. The genocide resulted in the destruction of 68 Yazidi temples.

Of the pre-2014 Yazidi population of 550,000, approximately 360,000 were displaced, and only 150,000 returned to their homes. About 100,000 migrated to Europe seeking refuge. The refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan, originally scheduled for closure, remain open with government support, though authorities encourage voluntary return to original residences. However, the situation in Sinjar remains unstable, with ongoing security concerns and limited reconstruction.

Female survivors can apply for reparations under the Yazidi Survivors Law adopted by Iraq in March 2021, which provides a monthly salary of 800,000 Iraqi dinars. However, implementation of other provisions remains incomplete, including active searches for women still missing in Syria and educational support for survivors whose schooling was interrupted.

The musical preservation projects face ongoing challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic halted the AMAR Foundation's musical programme, dealing another blow to refugees already traumatized by violence. The loss of relatives to the virus and extended social isolation compounded existing mental health needs. The question of whether Yazidi music and culture can survive in their historical heartland remains uncertain, with many survivors doubtful about their community's future in Iraq.

Sources

"Iraq: ISIS Escapees Describe Systematic Rape." Human Rights Watch, April 14, 2015. www.hrw.org/news/2015/04/14/iraq-isis-escapees-describe-systematic-rape

"Lament for Sinjar: Yezidis, Melodies of Mourning and Remembrance." LSE International History Blog, September 13, 2020. blogs.lse.ac.uk/lseih/2020/09/13/yezidis-melodies-of-mourning-and-remembrance/

"Music and Art Help Yazidi Genocide Survivors Process Their Trauma." Equal Times, March 25, 2019. www.equaltimes.org/music-and-art-help-yazidi-genocide

Pollard, Lawrence. "Yazidi Music Archive Deposited at Oxford's Bodleian Library." BBC News, 2019.

"Songs of Sinjar." Lapham's Quarterly. www.laphamsquarterly.org/music/songs-sinjar

"Songs to Heal: Yazidi Refugees Celebrate 7,000-Year-Old Musical Culture." VOA Learning English, February 13, 2020. learningenglish.voanews.com/a/songs-to-heal-yazidi-refugees-celebrate-7-000-year-old-musical-culture/5287029.html

"The Plight of the Yazidis Appears to Have Drifted from the World's Conscience." The Telegraph, February 9, 2020. www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/02/09/plight-yazidis-appears-drift-worlds-conscience/

"These Musicians Are Living in Exile in Nebraska." WGBH News, July 13, 2017. www.wgbh.org/news/2017-07-13/these-musicians-are-living-in-exile-in-nebraska

"Two Yazidi Artists Turn Exile into Expression in Germany." Rudaw, February 8, 2025. www.rudaw.net/english/world/02082025

UK Parliament Hansard. "Yazidi Genocide." February 8, 2022. hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2022-02-08/debates/8B374BA6-F90E-4273-B728-69824B97A382/YazidiGenocide

Wintour, Patrick and Ali, Mohammed Hussein. "Iraq's Yazidis Gather to Remember the Dead and Missing 10 Years On from Islamic State Genocide." The Guardian, August 3, 2024. www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/03/iraqs-yazidis-gather-to-remember-the-dead-and-missing-10-years-on-from-islamic-state-genocide

"Yazidi Choir Who Survived ISIS Persecution in Fight to Save Their Music." The National News, November 27, 2019. www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/yazidi-choir-who-survived-isis-persecution-in-fight-to-save-their-music-1.975685

Books

Broughton, Simon, Mark Ellingham, and Richard Trillo, eds. World Music: Africa, Europe and the Middle East. London: Rough Guides, 1999.

Silinsky, Mark. Jihad and the West: Black Flag Over Babylon. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016.

Academic Sources

Kreyenbroek, Philip. Yezidism: Its Background, Observances and Textual Tradition. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1995.

Putnick, Elizabet. "Sexual Violence Against Yazidi Women and ISIS." Ceasefire, February 2015.

Spät, Eszter. The Yezidis. London: Saqi Books, 2005. [Documentary referenced in Lapham's Quarterly article]

Organizational Reports

AMAR Foundation. "Yazidi Music Project." Various reports and materials, 2019-2022.

British Council. "Cultural Protection Fund: Yazidi Music Preservation." 2019-2022.

Emma Organization. "From Victims to Victors Programme." Dohuk, Iraqi Kurdistan, 2019.

Human Rights Watch. "Iraq: ISIS Escapees Describe Systematic Rape." April 2015.

Music in Exile. "Yazidi Musicians in Lincoln, Nebraska." 2017.

Nadia's Initiative. Various reports on Yazidi genocide commemoration and reconstruction efforts, 2019-2024.

United Nations. "Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Iraq: 11 September–10 December 2014." Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2014.

University of Liverpool. "Yazidi Cultural Documentation Project." British Council Cultural Protection Fund, 2019-2022.

Yazda Organization. "Mental Health and Psychosocial Care Programme for Yazidi Survivors." 2019-2022.

Singh, Crystal Go Man. "Yazidi Women's Choir Preserves Culture After ISIS." Television news report, 2019. [Referenced in document]

Archives

Bodleian Library, Oxford University. "AMAR Foundation Yazidi Music Collection." Deposited 2019-present.

Dohuk Library, Iraq. "Yazidi Music Archive." Deposited 2019-present.

Mosul Library, Iraq. "Yazidi Music Archive." Deposited 2019-present.