Russia is |
Peoples of Russia
Yezidis
Their self-designations are Ezd, Yezd, Yezidi. They are an ethnoconfessional group of the Kurds.
Language
The Yezidis speak the Kurmanji dialect of the Kurd language (the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages). The Yezidi that live in the Russian Federation are fluent in Russian. Many know Armenian.
Dispersion
In Russia, the Yezidis live in the Krasnodar territory (4.4 thousand people), the Nizhegorodsky region (3.1 thousand, out of them 1.5 thousand are in Nizhny Novgorod), the Yaroslavsky region (2.7 thousand, out of them 1.7 thousand in Yaroslavl), the Stavropol territory (2.4 thousand), the Novosibirsk region (2 thousand, out of them 1.7 thousand in Novosibirsk), the Tambov region (2 thousand), the Moscow region (1.6 thousand), the Rostov region (1.6 thousand, out of them 0.8 thousand in Bataysk) and the Volgograd region (1.1 thousand people).
Society
The Yezidis are traditionally divided into endogamous castes related to the Yezidi relition. The higher spiritual caste is the sheikhs headed by the Baba Sheikh, the descendant or the Sheikh Adi. After them go the pirs (priests), the assistants of the sheikhs (fakirs), the collectors of donations (kavals) and the diviners (kuchaks). The lay people are the followers (murids) of various sheikh families). The Yezidis are forbidden to marry people even from other castes, not to mention nationalities and religions.
Traditional occupations
The traditional occupation of the Yezidis is nomadic cattle breeding.
