http://www.metafilter.com/tags/malaktaus Posts tagged with 'malaktaus' at MetaFilter. Fri, 04 Jul 2003 16:34:42 -0800 Fri, 04 Jul 2003 16:34:42 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://www.metafilter.com/26803/People%2Dof%2Dthe%2DPeacock%2DAngel Meet the <a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yezidis">People</a> of the <a href="http://www.ziarah.net/peacock.html">Peacock Angel</a>, the <a href="http://www.yezidi.net/index.html">Yezidi</a>. Theirs is a <a href="http://www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/rnb/archives/00002656.html">religion and culture</a> centered near Mosul, Iraq, as well as Syria, the Caucasus, the via the diaspora in Germany. Seclusive and secretive, the Yezidi have often been <a href="http://www.hybridmagazine.com/culture/0603/yezidis.shtml">maligned</a> by outsiders due to <a href="http://www.pantheon.org/articles/y/yezidi.html">misinterpretations</a> of the nature of their primary Deity, Malak Taus (once a rebel angel who recreated the world and doused the fires of hell with his tears). <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/18947">Gurdjieff</a> (pt. <a href="http://web2.isaja.de/english/articles/gurdjieff-yezidism-1.html">I</a>, pt. <a href="http://web2.isaja.de/english/articles/gurdjieff-yezidism-2.html">II</a>) may have been heavily influenced by <a href="http://web2.isaja.de/">them</a>. Unlike other middle-eastern religions, the <a href="http://www.disinfo.com/pages/article/id1340/pg1/">Yezidi</a> have rejected dualism and, therefore, the ideas of sin and evil. Various versions float around of the <a href="http://www.hiddengod.org/yezidis.htm">Black Book</a> of the Yezidi and <a href="http://www.uoregon.edu/~sshoemak/202/texts/yezidi.htm">other works</a> that form <a href="http://altreligion.about.com/library/faqs/bl_yezidism.htm">their</a> sacred literature. Wars, political pogroms and proselytizing have placed this <a href="http://www.kurdish.com/kurdistan/religion/yezidi.htm">beautiful, complex and misunderstood tradition</a> in jeopardy. tag:metafilter.com,2003:site.26803 Fri, 04 Jul 2003 16:34:42 -0800 gurdjieff iraq malaktaus religion yezidi moonbird