The Sheikhan Principality, also known as Êzîdxan and historically as Dasin or Dasinî, is a Yazidi hereditary principality and religious polity, continuing to the present as an extraterritorial symbolic emirate. Historically centered in the Sheikhan–Lalish–Duhok region of northern Iraq, its ruling Mir serves as the highest political and religious authority of the global Yazidi community, exercising legislative and executive power, administering the Lalish sanctuary, and in charge of appointing the Baba Sheikh as head of the spiritual council. The principality emerged in the historical region of Dasin, a geographical and ethnonymic name attested in pre-Islamic and early Islamic sources referring to Kurdish-inhabited lands north of Mosul between the Tigris and Great Zab rivers.
Sheikhan principality functioned simultaneously as a political principality and as the central religious authority of the Yazidi community, with the Mir of Sheikhan presiding over Yazidi community both spiritually and politically, even as other Yazidi territorial units existed independently in geographically distant regions.
Ruling dynasty The rulers of the Sheikhan principality derive their authority from their genealogical connection to Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir, the principal saint of Yazidism, whom Yazidis regard as the earthly embodiment of God. The Mîr is regarded as the deputy of Sheikh Adi and the gates of the Lalish sanctuary bear the inscription identifying the Mir as "emir of Sheikhan and viceregent of Sheikh Adi". The princely family belongs to the Qatanî clan, one of three hereditary clans of the sheikh caste within the Yazidi religious hierarchy, whose members alone are eligible to hold the position of Mir.
The current ruling family assumed power approximately in the 13th or 14th century, during a period of conflict between the Adani and Shamsani sheikhs. The first Mîr of the Yazidis is considered to be Mîr Mihemedê Batinî from the house of Mîr Birahîm son of Derwêş Ademê Qatanî, who ruled in the early 14th century. He had two sons, Mir Melek and Mir Mensûr. The direct line of Mirs descends from Mîr Melek, while the descendants of Mir Mensur formed a collateral branch known as the Pismîrs, derived from the Kurmanji prefix pis meaning "son of", who retain a secondary claim to the position, exercisable only if the male line of the primary branch becomes extinct.
The precise date of origin of the institution of the Mir is unknown. However, the Yazidi sacred hymns known as qawls record a covenant attributed to Sheikh Fakhradin, the third-ranking saint in the Yazidi religious hierarchy, active in the 13th century, enjoining the creation of such an authority. The institution took its final definitive form in the 16th century, following several centuries during which its norms gradually developed and consolidated.
The authority of the Mir is theocratic in nature. In the religious hymns, the Mir is referred to as the equivalent of caliph for the Yazidis. While the Mir serves as the highest communal authority and presides over the Supreme Spiritual Council, religious authority in a strictly clerical sense resides with the Baba Sheikh. The relationship has been described as analogous to that of the British monarch as head of the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury respectively.
During the Ottoman period, the sultan formally recognized the Yazidi prince's right to the seat of the emirate; following the establishment of the Iraqi state, the Mir has been recognized by the Iraqi government. His responsibilities include municipal administration, mediation of tribal disputes, and financial governance. The Mir also appoints the Extiyarê Mergehê (Baba Sheikh). The seat of the Yazidi Mir is located in the town of Baadre, in the Shekhan district of Iraq.
Early history & background Prior to the 12th century, Yazidis in historical sources are identified as Dāsinī (Dasni). The name referred both to a religious community and to a territorial entity centered in the region of Dāsin, located northeast of Mosul and southwest of Amadiya in present-day northern Iraq. Yazidis identified as Dasini are recorded as inhabiting this region continuously, and the designation remained in use for Yazidi princes until the mid-19th century. The term Dasināyā is also used for Yazidis in Syriac and Neo-Aramaic Christian sources.
Majid Hassan Ali identifies this period preceding the religious reforms associated with the saint Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir (d. 1162), as the phase during which Yazidi religious life was structured primarily around rituals, mythology, customs, and largely oral transmission. The consolidation of Yazidi political and religious authority occurred after the arrival of Sheikh Adi in the Lalish valley in the early 12th century. Following his death, his descendants and successors combined spiritual leadership with temporal authority, gradually transforming the former Dasin region into a new political unit known as Sheikhan. From the late 13th century onward, this polity is increasingly identifiable in historical sources.
Al-Baladhuri (d. 892 CE), mentions Dasin as among the Kurdish regions brought under control in 18 AH / 639 CE during early Islamic conquests. Medieval Muslim geographers such as Ibn Hawqal (10th century) and Yaqut al-Hamawi (13th century) also referred to Dasin. Ibn Hawqal located it near Mosul, by the banks of the Great Zab River, while the 13th-century Arab geographer Yāqūt al-Hamawī (1179-1229) mentioned the Dasini as residing in "Jabal Dasin," a mountainous area within their traditional homeland. Later, in the 14th century, the Arab historian Shihāb al-Dīn al-ʿUmarī (1301-1349) recorded the presence of Dasini communities in Akre (modern-day Aqrah), a historically significant town in present-day Iraqi Kurdistan.
During the 12th and early 13th centuries, Yazidi rulers exercised political authority over a wide territory. Under Sheikh Hasan, the grandnephew of Sheikh Adi, the Sheikhan principality reached the height of its power during the 1230s and 1240s, a period during which centralization of authority was carried out and the foundational institutions and rules of Yazidi society and religion were established, including the creation of a collective council of religious figures ("Council of Holy Men") analogous to a synod.
This period ended following the killing of Sheikh Hasan in 1246 by Badr al-Din Lulu, ruler of Mosul. In 1254, Luʾlu launched a military campaign against the Yazidis, during which Lalish was attacked, the remains of Sheikh Adi were exhumed and burned, and Yazidis captured at the sanctuary were executed. Yazidis regained control of Hakkari, Bahdinan and the Dāsin region under the reign of Sharfadin, however, this was a short-lived triumph as he was killed by Mongol forces in 1257.
Around the end 13th century CE during the consolidation of the Yazidi community between the 12th and 14th centuries and a period when several Kurdish emirates emerged following the decline of Abbasid empire, the Yazidis living in the former principality of Dasin established or revived their political unit and gave it the new name "Sheikhan", named after Sheikh Adi. Centered on Duhok, with the mountain overlooking the city known as "Mount Dasin", Yazidi rulers continued to carry the epithet “Dasinî” despite its new designation as Sheikhan until at least the mid-19th century, such as Mir Husayn Beg Dasinî and Mir Ali Beg Dasinî who are attested in historical sources. The Kurdish historian Sharaf Khan Bidlisi, writing in the 16th century, identified several Yazidi rulers using this title, including Mir Husayn Beg Dasni. He also identified the Dasinî as one of the most prominent Yazidi tribes of the period. The principality is also referred to as Êzîdxan, as it was characteristic for Yazidi rulers to refer to their territories with a certain level of independence as Ezdikhan (Êzdîxan) or Ezidkhan (Êzîdxan). This was also the name of the Yazidi principality in Abagha.
From the 14th century onward, Yazidis developed their own religious and political institutions in the regions where they lived. The Yezidi territory was divided into seven administrative centres, each having its own Sincaq (banner, flag, province, region), more commonly known as Tawis among the Yezidis. Sincaqs are sacred bronze effigies bearing the image of a bird or peacock to symbolize Tawûsî Melek. They serve as symbols of power for each administrative centre, namely:
Tawisa Enzel: Welatşêx (Şêxan) - Lalish Tawisa Şingalê: Shingal District Tawisa Hekkarê: sometimes also called Tawisa Zozana: Historical region of Hakkari (Hakkari, Şırnak, Van and Duhok). Tawisa Welatê Xalta: Region around Siirt, Batman, Diyarbakir, Mardin, etc. Tawisa Helebê: Aleppo and Afrin. Tawisa Tewrêzê: the city of Tabriz, located in today's Iran (Yazidis lived in the western hinterland in the Khoy region). Tawisa Misqofa (Moscow): Renamed from Tawisa Serhedê after the exodus of the Yazidis from Serhed to the Russian Empire. Serhed is a region covering the cities of Kars, Ardahan, Erzurum, Ağri, Van, Bitlis and Muş.
Every six months, the Yezidi Qewals, who are trained reciters of Qewls and other forms of sacred oral Yezidi tradition, were sent out to other Yezidi-inhabited areas with military protection from the central administrative region of Shekhan and the spiritual centre of Lalish. This tradition served to preserve the Yazidi faith and doctrine. The Qewals, supported by voluntary alms, led a Sincaq through Yazidi villages to maintain spiritual legitimacy and symbolize the authority of Lalish and the Mîr.
Sheikhan developed into the main religious center of Yazidism, and its ruler held a position of both political and spiritual leadership. The Mir of Sheikhan was regarded as the religious and political head of the Yazidis. As custodian of Lalish and deputy of Sheikh Adi in Yazidi belief, the Mir presided over the Yazidi religious hierarchy and headed the supreme spiritual council. While other Yazidi principalities and territorial units existed, those located at a distance from Sheikhan operated independently in practice, despite acknowledging Sheikhan’s central religious authority.
From the 15th century onward, the Yazidis of Sheikhan and surrounding regions were repeatedly subjected to military campaigns and religious edicts. In 1414, following a fatwa issued by Jalal al-Din Muhammad ibn ʿIzz al-Din al-Hulwani, several Kurdish rulers, including the emir of Botan, launched a coordinated attack on the Yazidis of Mount Dāsin. Further fatwas issued in the 16th and 18th centuries by Sunni jurists declared the Yazidis heretics, permitting their killing and enslavement. Such campaigns were carried out at various times by Kurdish emirs, Ottoman authorities, and Safavid forces.
In 1446, Mir Jahanshah attacked the city of Duhok and its southern regions extending to the city of Mosul, which included the Dasin region, and plundered them. According to History of the Eastern Syriac Church, in 1464 the Aq Qoyunlu prince Uzun Hasan departed from that area accompanied by his servant Khalil al-Awer (possibly referring to his general Khalil Beg Musullu) in order to kill the inhabitants of the region by the sword. The Yazidis, according to the source, became victims of this campaign. Many were killed, and numerous villages were destroyed.
Despite these events, the fifteenth century is described as a golden age for the Yazidi religion. According to Sharafkhan Bidlisi, Yazidism was the official religion of several Kurdish emirates, including Botan, Mahmudi, Sulaymani, Kilis/Azaz, and the Dunbuli.