Khurto Hajji Ismail (1933 – 1 October 2020, ku, Xurto Hecî Îsmaîl) was the Baba Sheikh of the

Yazidis Yazidis or Yezidis (; ku, ئێزیدی, translit=Êzidî) are a Kurmanji-speaking endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The ma ...

until his death in 2020. He held this position since 2007. He lived in

Ain Sifni Ain Sifni ( ar, عين سفني, ) also known as Shekhan ( ku, شێخان, Şêxan), is a town and subdistrict in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq. It is located in the Shekhan District in the Nineveh Plains. In the town, there is a Chaldean Catholic ...

, Iraq. He played an important role in reintegrating Yezidi society by helping the community avoid feuds and reintegrating thousands of Yazidi women and girls rescued from

ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

slavery and by declaring that all those who had been forced to convert to Islam should be accepted back into the Yezidi community. He died on 1 October 2020 in a hospital in Erbil, aged 87. He had entered hospital two days before with heart and kidney problems. His funeral was attended by thousands of Yazidis, governmental and partisan officials, and Islamic as well as Christian religious figures and was buried in Bozan village of Sheikhan district of Iraq's Nineveh Governorate.

Visits

In 2011, after a six-day visit to

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

during which he met the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia

Ilia II Ilia may refer to: Science and medicine *''Apatura ilia'' or lesser purple emperor, a butterfly *Ilium (bone) (plural: "ilia"), pelvic bone People * Ilia (name), numerous **Ilia II, the current Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Places *Ilia, ...

, Baba Sheikh left

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...

to pay an official visit to the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

, where he met Pope

Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...

. During this visit, Baba Sheikh attended a conference held in Assisi on 27–28 October, where the main theme was the peaceful coexistence of different religions. On 29 October 2014, the Baba Sheikh visited the Hindu

Murugan Temple of North America The Murugan Temple of North America is the first temple in the United States that is dedicated to the Hindu deity Murugan. The temple is located in Lanham, Maryland, about from Washington, D.C. Conceived in the 1980s and opened in 1999, the t ...

in Washington, D.C. and attended the prayer ceremonies held there and prayed for peace on the Earth.

References

Iraqi Yazidis Iraqi religious leaders 1933 births People from Nineveh Governorate 2020 deaths {{Iraq-reli-bio-stub

Visits

See also

References