Ferman: The 74 Genocides

For Ezidi people, the term “Ferman” has come to mean genocide, persecution, and collective suffering rather than simply a decree or edict during the Ottoman Empire which were named like that. It refers to the many massacres and forced displacements experienced by the Ezidi community throughout history, including the 2007 attacks in Shingal (the 73rd Ferman) and the ISIS genocide of 2014 (the 74th Ferman). The memory of these events remains central to Ezidi identity and resilience.

Oh, Mother! It is genocide. Father! It is genocide. 

Brother! It is genocide. Sister! It is genocide. 

It is genocide against us Ezidis.

Oh, Mother! Once again, genocide is taking place on Mount Shingal. 

The enemies of our ancestors have come and occupied Mount Shingal; 

the lands of Êzidxan have turned into fire and volcanoes.

De dayê, dayê fermane, bavo fermane,

bira fermane, xwişkê fermane,

erê dayê fermana serê me Êzîdiyane.

Erê dayê dîsa li çiyayê Şengala min a delal bû fermane,

dijminê bav û kalan hatin dora çiyayê Şengalê girtin li axa çiyayê Şengalê

li bin piyê Êzîdxana min da bû agir û birkane.

(Dengbêjî (mourning) song excerpt of Shingali Dengbêj Cemîl Reshkanî:

Fermana Êzîdxanê)

(Genocide of Ezîdxan; Êzidxan meaning the homeland area of Ezidis)

The tent camp located in Serdesht area in Shingal, in the mountains. Photograph c/o Women for Justice.

Mass murders, expulsions, and genocides often bear proper names that extend far beyond legal definitions. The Holocaust stands for the systematic persecution and murder of European Jews. Seyfo refers to the genocide of the Arameans/Assyrians during the First World War. Such terms are part of the collective memory of affected communities and describe historical experiences of violence, loss, and survival.

The Ezidi people also have their own term for these experiences: Ferman (also spelt Farman). The word meaning "decree" or "ordinance" originally comes from Classical Persian and introduced in Europe through Ottoman Turkish as used by the Ottoman authorities. However, in Ezidi collective memory, it has a far deeper meaning. A ferman for them denotes persecution, massacre, or attempted extermination against the Ezidi community because orders of the Ottoman Empire enabled these acts. For many Ezidis today, the term symbolises collective suffering, resistance, and the survival of their people.

Since the Ezidi tradition was shaped primarily by a culture of oral transmission for centuries—lacking a developed written tradition—historical events were frequently preserved in collective memory through stories, songs, and naming practices. For instance, children born during periods of persecution or genocide were sometimes given the name, Ferman, as happened in the case of my ancestry. In this way, the memory of the suffering endured was passed down from generation to generation. It was not uncommon for the name to be subsequently bestowed upon children and grandchildren, thereby enduring as an expression of collective memory and identity.

Memorial plaque for the genocide of the Ezidis at the Millerntor Stadium in Hamburg. Photograph c/o Women for Justice.

72 Ferman

Ezidi collective memory recall 72 ferman during the Ottoman Empire. It is often recounted that these persecutions were legitimised or enabled by Ottoman decrees—so-called ferman. The term describes mass expulsions, mass killings, coerced conversions to Islam, forced marriages, and other forms of systematic violence against Ezidis.

It is important to distinguish between Ezidi tradition and historical research. The number 72 is not necessarily an exact historical count. Rather, it symbolises the multitude of persecutions to which the community has been subjected over the centuries. 72 means something like "many" or "infinitely many." Historians have documented numerous violent attacks that far exceed the symbolic number 72.

During the Ottoman Empire, Ezidi settlement areas were repeatedly subjected to military campaigns and repressive measures. Among the most well-known events are:

• campaigns against Ezidi territories in Shingal and Shexan in the 17th and 18th centuries.
• the massacres of 1832 under Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz, in which thousands of Ezidis were killed.
• further attacks and forced conversions that occurred in the 1840s.
• the increasing pressure on religious minorities under Sultan Abdülhamid II in the late 19th century.
• The expulsions and killings of Ezidi communities during the First World War.

Whether all these events qualify as genocide according to today's legal definition is a matter of debate in historical research. The term genocide was coined only after the Second World War and legally defined in 1948 by the UN Genocide Convention “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” However, it is undisputed that the Ezidi communities were repeatedly victims of severe persecution, massacres, and expulsions over the centuries.

The 73rd Ferman

On August 14, 2007, a series of bomb attacks shook the Ezidi villages of Sîba Shêx Xidir and Til Ezer in the Shingal area. More than 500 people were killed and hundreds more injured. The attacks are among the worst acts of terrorism in Iraq's recent history.

The perpetrators were never definitively identified, although Islamist extremists are suspected of being responsible. International research usually classifies the events as a mass killing or terrorist attack. However, in the collective memory of many Ezidis, they are considered another genocide referring to it as the 73rd Ferman.

The 74th Ferman

The attack by ISIS on Shingal on August 3, 2014, is referred to as the 74th Ferman. The violence followed patterns already familiar to the Ezidi memory from previous Ferman: men were systematically murdered, women and girls abducted, enslaved, and forced into marriage. Children were separated from their families and subjected to forced conversion. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes, fleeing to the mountains of Shingal or abroad.

Unlike many of the previous persecutions, this genocide is comprehensively documented and internationally recognized. The United Nations, as well as numerous states and parliaments, have officially classified the crimes of ISIS as genocide. For the Ezidi community, the 74th Ferman represents not only a historical turning point. It connects the present with centuries of collective memory and makes it clear that the fear of persecution is not a distant past for many Ezidis, but an ongoing lived reality.

Memory as Resistance

The memory of the ferman lives on to this day. It is passed down from generation to generation through dengbêj songs, poems, stories, and oral traditions as in the opening verses. These memories play a central role in shaping and sustaining contemporary Ezidi identity, also in the Diaspora.

When Ezidi people speak of the 72, 73, or 74 ferman, it is not just about historical numbers. It is about the memory of countless attempts to eradicate their community, their religion, and their culture – and at the same time, about the story of their survival. For many, ferman therefore means more than decree or edict. Ferman quite resolutely stands for genocide. And remembering them is also a form of resistance against forgetting.

Leyla Ferman, June 2026