Description: This book highlights the complicated diversity of Syria's ethnic and religious fragmentation on the basis of the identity building process among the Yezidis, the lowest in the country's socio-economic and political hierarchy.
Brief description: Sebastian Maisel, PhD, is professor for Arabic language and translations at Leipzig University. He edited The Kurds: An Encyclopedia of Life, Culture, and Society (Greenwood, 2018) and co-edited the two-volume Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arab States Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Arab States (Greenwood, 2009).
Review Quotes:
"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." --Philip G. Kreyenbroek, Georg-August University
"There is still great need for research, especially on aspects of Yezidism as practiced by different local communities. Maisel's book focuses on identity issues among the Yezidis in Syria, a double minority group which constructed two distinct local identities in past decades, but is now moving towards a unified one. Thus this book is very welcome since it contributes to our knowledge of the current situation of the Yezidi community in Syria." --Khanna Omarkhali, Georg-August University, Göttingen