ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Seven candidates are being considered to succeed Mir Tahsin Beg as the new spiritual leader of the Yezidi people. The new chief faces monumental challenges in holding together a community traumatized and displaced by war and genocide.
Mir Tahsin died in Germany on January 28 this year at the age of 85. He was made chief of the Yezidi community at the age of 11. He is survived by eight sons and three daughters.
He is widely celebrated for the role he played in the years immediately after the brutal ISIS genocide, which saw thousands of Yezidi men and elderly people slaughtered and buried in mass graves.
Thousands more women and children was abducted by the militants and sold into slavery. Mir Tahsin broke with Yezidi custom on sexual politics and ruled that women raped by ISIS fighters must not be excluded from the faith.
All seven potential successors are members of Mir Tahsin’s family.
Mir Tahsin, head of the Yezidi community. Photo: Rudaw
“Until now, seven people have nominated themselves such as; Mir Hazim Mir Tahsin Beg, Mir Ismat Mir Tahsin Beg, Mir Kamiran Beg, Mir Harman Beg, Mir Sherzad Beg, Mir Miran Beg, and Mir Salim Beg. So far, we just have these names,” Amir Mahmood, spokesperson for the Mir’s family, told Rudaw.
Of the seven candidates, just Mir Hazim and Mir Ismat are sons of the late Yezidi leader. The others are either nephews or members of the clan.
An official from Mir Tahsin’s family confirmed to Rudaw English that a family meeting on Monday failed to settle on a single nominee, suggesting little progress had been made on a similar meeting last week.
“In the February 20 meeting, the matter of who to ascend to become the Mir Tahsin’s successor was discussed,” Mahmood told Rudaw.
“Since the number of those vying to become Mir Tahsin Beg’s successor was big, we failed to agree on a single nominee.”
“Yezidis are now expecting our family to select a new leader. After we selected and chose a name, we will submit it to the Yezidi Spiritual Council,” Mahmood added.
With the council’s consent, that nominee will then take the throne.
If they fail to select a candidate from the ranks of Mir Tahsin’s family, the process of choosing a leader would become “very difficult”, Mahmood warned, suggesting the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) may need to intervene to help settle the dispute.
Karim Sulaiman, an official from the Yezidi Spiritual Council, told Rudaw: “The council and all the Yezidis are expecting the Mir’s family to select someone. Then we will express our opinion on it.”
Sulaiman said the formal process of selecting the successor begins next week when Mir Tahsin’s memorial service comes to an end – 40 days after his death, as stipulated by Yezidi tradition.
The process of selecting a new leader comes at a time the Yezidi community steel reel from the ISIS heinous atrocities committed against them in Augut 2014 when they brutally overran Shingal, kidnapping and killing thousands while forcing large numbers to flee home.
Estimates put the number of Yezidis worldwide at below one million. Around half of Iraq’s 400,000-strong Yezidi population fled to the Kurdistan Region or Syria in 2014. Eighty to 85 percent still live in basic IDP camps, primarily in Duhok province.