The Image Of Peacock In The Beliefs Of The Yazidi Ethnic Group In The Middle East And The Ancient Oriental Origin Of The Concept Of Later Generations

For hundreds of years,Yezidis have been carrying the notoriety of the so-called"Devil Worshippers".We could even say that the history of Yezidi is a history full of persecution.In 1872,a sincere petition was submitted to the authorities by the Yezidis in order to avoid participating in the military service of the Ottoman government.Their expectations of exemption from the military service were eventually fulfilled to some extent.The Ottoman government did announce that they could be excused from their military service and then enjoyed the same treatment as Syrians and Jews on one condition that they paid a certain amount of tax.However,as a typical religious minority,the Yezidi couldn’t enjoy their own life and rights fully under the rule of the Ottoman Empire which was undergoing a comprehensive crisis.They even have never been respected and recognized by mainstream society throughout history.Given the current weak research on Yezidi in China,the research from a comparative perspective is almost blank.Based on the research results of foreign scholars,this paper adopts the comprehensive method of textual research and comparative research,namely,taking historical method as base and starting point,combining with the methods of phenomenology and linguistics,this paper analyzes the Yezidi group from the perspective of the history of thought and the integration of civilization by further studying)the 1872 Petition and then expounds the concepts of Hereafter and Peacock Angel in their beliefs,and explores its ideological origins.The paper is mainly of three chapters except the introduction,of which the first chapter basically introduces the background of writing,research ideas and sorts out the important research results on this subject both domestic and abroad.The first chapter of this paper focuses on the historical background of the Yezidi ethnic group.Considering the "1872 Petition" submitted by the Yezidis to the Ottoman administration is the most reliable text up to now,I take the Petition as an example,and by sorting out Yezidis’ historical context from the Petition,we can find that the peacocks and the concept of the Hereafter are the core elements of Yezidis’ beliefs.At the same time,this paper also analyzes the current situation of the Yezidis,especially their deteriorating status quo and the reasons for changes since the Arab Spring and conclude that religious conflict is an important factor which cannot be ignored.The second chapter and the third chapter of this thesis mainly discuss the above two core concepts respectively and try to answer two questions,namely the oriental origin of the core concept of Yezidi ethnic belief,especially the Peacock image and the concept of Hereafter.Why is the Yezidi known as the "Devil Worshiper"?By focusing on the core elements of the 1872 petition reflected in the peacock and the concept of Hereafter,the paper states that the Yezidi community’s beliefs are a hybrid of many other unique religious’ elements and remains,including the multi-ethnic groups’,religious beliefs in the Middle East,Central Asia,and South Asia.The second chapter analyzes the hidden imagery by comparing the artistic peacock image in different faiths and compares the archaeological images of different regions.At the same time,it proves that the peacock is worshipped because of its feathers.The feathers of the peacock are very similar to the eyes,so the feathers with many "eyes"are deified.The paper further considers that the faith of the Yezidi people is a model of the integration of multiple civilizations along the ancient Silk Road.After comparing and analyzing the two different versions of the so-called "Holy Book"---"Black Book",which is circulated among the Yezidi community,this paper considers that the creation myths of the Yezidi people and other Religion or mythology in the Eurasian continents have similar homology and isomorphism.The third chapter of this paper conducts an in-depth study of the concepts of Hereafter reflected in the petition and comes to a conclusion that Yezidi’s beliefs in Hereafter reflect their believing in the immortality of the soul and reincarnation,and this kind of beliefs are associated with the beliefs of ancient Indians,especially has considerable similarities with Indic Brahmanism in Krsna’s famous admonition to Arjuna about the Soul in the holy book Bhagavad Gita.After discussing the relationship between the Yezidis’",concept of Hereafter in the style of soul "changing clothes" and the ancient Indian Brahmanism,Hinduism,and even Early Buddhism,the paper concludes that the Yezidi’s beliefs can be traced back to the original Aryans in the Zoroastrian period or the former Zoroastrian period,and profoundly speaking,have deep roots in ancient India.In addition,the appendix of this paper provides a Chinese translation of the "1872 Petition" and a German translation published by German scholar Mark Lidzbarsky in 1897.