Peacock Angel: Being some Account of Votaries of a Secret Cult and their Sanctuaries.

With the Yazidis in Iraq

First edition. Numerous photographic illustrations. 8vo. Original red cloth, lettered on upper cover and spine in black, extremities slightly faded, corners bumped, otherwise very good; in a good, somewhat sunned and chipped (head, foot and corners) price-clipped dust-jacket. Some sporadic spotting, interior otherwise good. Ink ownership inscription to front free endpaper, showing the book was once based at G.H.Q. Baghdad. pp. viii, [2], 214. London. John Murray,

The author wrote a number of books on the peoples and cultures of Iraq, as E.S. Stevens and then E.S. Drower. In Peacock Angel, she recounts her 'stay of a spring month' in the Yazidi village of Baashika.

In the 'prelude' she downplays the value of her work, deeming it 'not a serious contribution to the literature about the sect'. However, her 'personal impression of day-by-day happenings and friendships' provides a sensitive and illuminating view of an oft mis-represented and persecuted religious group. One learns much about the festivals, shrines and customs (birth, marriage etc) of the Yazidis.

A recurring feature of the text is the peace Drower experiences, which she contrasts with the anxious atmosphere of British life at the beginning of the Second World War. 

 

 

Stock Code: 246534