The Cult of the Peacock Angel

The Cult of the Peacock Angel: A Short Account of the Yezidi Tribes of Kurdistan was a book written by R. W. H. Empson and published with commentary by Sir Richard Carnac Temple.

It discussed the Yezidi of Kurdistan and their veneration of the Peacock Angel, arguing that the Peacock Angel was analogous to Satan and that a secret cult of Yezidi worshipped a bleached, leprous version of this angel, the White Peacock.

The book inspired Western popular literature about the Order of the White Peacock, including Sax Rohmer's The Devil Doctor in 1914-15 and Robert W. Chambers's The Slayer of Souls in 1920. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

Behind the scenes

 * In the real world, Ralph Horatio Woolnough Empson's The Cult of the Peacock Angel: A Short Account of the Yezidi Tribes of Kurdistan was published in 1928, after The Devil Doctor and The Slayer of Souls.