Benjamin Raßbach’s monograph Landscapes of Resistance: Narratives Around Sacred Places in Sinjar (Iraq) and the Genocide Against Yezidis has been published by De Gruyter Brill in November 2024. In this study, Raßbach analyses local narratives and political dynamics around Yazidi sacred places in the Sinjar (Shingal) region of Northern Iraq. The context in which his fieldwork took place was marked by the genocide of the Yazidi community by the so-called Islamic State in 2014 and the ongoing conflicts between rival Kurdish organisations in the area. Sacred places are a central point of reference in Yazidi oral tradition and religious practice. Narratives around local shrines condense collective memories of persecution, while many Yazidis understand the landscape of Sinjar from a perspective of resistance made possible by the life-saving interventions of the Holy Beings. Narratives about the defensive battles against the jihadists shape memories of the local population, also substantiating claims to land ownership and political power. August 2024 marked the tenth anniversary of the traumatic events, while for most of the displaced it remains impossible to return to a largely destroyed Sinjar.

External link of the publisher:
https://brill.com/display/title/71037