Our Lecturers
The academy will also provide training courses led by highly qualified specialists in Yezidi theology for prospective priests. Its teaching staff consists of religious and cultural scholars, theologians, historians and philosophers who will interdisciplinary train the students. We would like to introduce our lecturers and modules. Our lecturers are also board members of the Academy and are key players in the realization and implementation of the courses and the cooperation in an international research collective.
Below are the modules and lecturers of the first year of study.
Pir Dima
Pir Dima or Dimitri Pirbari is a Yezidi orientalist, theologian and one of the most important specialists and dignitaries of the Yezidis. He was born in 1978 in Tbilisi in Georgia, where still 15.000 Yezidis live today. In addition to his native Yezidi language (Kurmanji) he also speaks Russian, Georgian, English, Arabic and knows the German language. Pir Dima has authored several books and countless essays on Yezidi history, religion, tradition, and culture. His works are available in several languages. Also, he is the chairman of the Yezidi Spiritual Council of Georgia, which has built the Yezidi sanctuary (Qub) in the Diaspora with the benediction of the Yezidi chiefs from Iraq. He is head of the Department of Yezidi studies (Giorgi Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies / Ilia State University).
Dr. Majid Hassan Ali
Majid Hassan Ali, completed his doctoral research with a focus on religious minorities in Iraq, at the University of Bamberg, Institute of Oriental Studies, Bamberg Graduate School of Near and Middle Eastern Studies (BaGOS), Bamberg, Germany. He is a lecturer at Duhok University in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He is also a board member of the International Yezidi Theological Academy (IYTA) in Tbilisi, Georgia. His research interest includes difficulties and challenges faced by ethnic and religious minorities in Muslim majority countries in the Middle East.
Prof. Dr. Malkhaz Songulashvili
Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili from Georgia is known in the Caucasus as a bridge-builder between cultures and religions and enjoys a great reputation among Muslims as well as Christians. He Was born in 1963 and graduated from Tbilisi State University in 1987. He also started to teach early church history, theology, and Hebrew therefrom 1988 – 2007. After he completed his doctoral dissertation in Oxford, the UK in 2013, he returned to Georgia. As a representative of successful dialogue in a conflict-ridden region, he is also a sought-after partner internationally. The Archbishop of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia was honored with the “Shahbaz Bhatti Peace Prize” by Federal Minister of Health Hermann Gröhe in early 2015 for his multi vast work on work on peace and the promotion of mutual respect between the various religions. Since 2014 he has been teaching at Ilia State University about Scientific interests/research interests Comparative theology, Biblical Studies, Apocryphal Texts Study, Jewish and Muslim theology and ethics, translation theories and their application to sacred texts.
