Ninevah Plains, Iraq: November 10, 2025

We began the day with a drive to the Christian/Yazidi village of Ba'ashiqah on the Nineveh Plains. Our first stop was at the home of Abu Mark and his family who are Eastern Orthodox Christians. Abu Mark and his family prepared us a breakfast of makhlama (egg/meat casserole dish), breads, tahini, date syrup, creams from cow, buffalo and goat, local honey and apricot jam. It was delicious.

Abu Mark entertained us with stories of his time as one of Saddam Hussein's main personal chefs (1984 - 2003) and sobered us with his family's experience during the Daesh (ISIS) occupation. Their home was taken over by Daesh and made into a motorcycle mechanic shop. The writing on the wall in the above photos that is black spray paint obscured now by white paint says this is where to bring motorcycles for repair.

Abu Mark makes and sells prayer beads. He showed us how he does it and then posed for photos.

After a few more photos of the women in his family, Abu Mark took us on a tour of some Yazidi-owned businesses in the area.

Our first stop was at a local arak distillery where a Yazidi family creates their strong alcohol from dates and that is then flavored with anise. It seemed very much like Turkish Raki or Greek Ouzo, and it was very strong.

Above is the mother of the Yazidi brothers who own the arak operation. Both she and Abu Mark are standing in a room where dates are fermenting in large barrels.

We walked to a nearby Yazidi Temple and Mahdi gave us a discussion of their religious beliefs.

Yazidis are a Kurdish speaking religious group. The majority of Yazidis still in the Middle East live in Iraq. Yazidis do not believe in marrying outside their religion and conversions to Yazidism are not allowed. "Yazidi" means "the servant of the creator." It is a monotheistic religion believing in a single, supreme God who created the world but entrusted it to seven holy beings or angels. The most prominent of these holy beings is Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel, who is a benevolent intermediary. The black snake, a sacred symbol, is associated with reverence, wisdom, and protection. The black snake symbolizes respect for Mother Nature.

The Yazidi Genocide was perpetrated by Daesh (ISIL) between June 2014 and 2017. There were massacres, genocidal rape, and forced conversions to Islam. Over a period of three years Daesh trafficked thousands of Yazidi women and girls and killed thousands of Yazidi men. According to the UN, Daesh killed about 5,000 Yazidis and trafficked about 10,800 Yazidi women and girls. By 2015 more than 71% of the global Yazidi population was displaced by the genocide (Wikipedia).

Our next stop was the Two Brothers Tahini Factory (another Yazidi owned business) for a tour of the very complicated tahini production process. Sesame seeds from Afghanistan become creamy tahini in the final step of the process. We tasted and bought tahini to bring home.

We ended the afternoon with a sunset stroll along the Tigris River to the now derelict Oberoi Hotel (where Abu Mark was working when he met Saddam Hussein) that was used by Daesh (ISIS). Several of Saddam's destroyed palaces were nearby.

Tomorrow, late morning, we will travel about two hours to Erbil (the capital of the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan).