The Ahl-i Ḥaqq (lit., "people of truth") is a syncretistic religion or, according to some adherents, an esoteric Shīʿī community, that appears to have emerged first among the Gūrān of southern Kurdistan in the fifteenth or sixteenth century C.E. and that survives in various parts of Iran and Iraq, among Gūrān, Lurs, Kurds, Azerbaijanis, and Persians. A preferred self-designation of the community, especially in the Kirmānshāh region, is "Yārisān." In the Iraqi part of Kurdistan, the Ahl-i Ḥaqq are known as "Kākaʾī" and constitute a distinct