Iranian Arabs

Template:Iranian Arabs infobox Iranian Arabs (Template:Lang-ar `Arab Īrān, Template:Lang-fa Arabān Irānī) are the Arabic-speaking peoples of Iran. Most Iranian Arabs live in the coastal regions of southern Iran by the Persian Gulf. Iranian Arab communities are also found in Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

Overview

The Arab presence in Iran did not begin with the Islamic conquest of Persia in 633 AD. For centuries, Iranian rulers had maintained contacts with Arabs outside their borders, dealt with Arab subjects and client states in Iraq, and settled Arab tribesmen in various parts of the Iranian plateau. It follows that the "Arab" conquests and settlements were by no means the exclusive work of Arabs from the Hejaz and the tribesmen of inner Arabia. The Arab infiltration into Iran began before the Muslim conquests and continued as a result of the joint exertions of the civilized Arabs (ahl al-madar) as well is the desert Arabs (ahl al-wabar).

According to the Minorities at Risk Project 2001, about 40 per cent of Arabs are unskilled workers living in urban areas. The Arabs in the rural areas are primarily farmers and fishermen. The Arabs living along the Persian Gulf coastal plains are mostly pastoral nomads. Tribal loyalties are strong among rural Arabs, but also have an influence in urban areas. These have an impact on Arab socialisation and politicisation.

Payame Noor University, which has 229 campuses throughout the country, in 2008 declared that Arabic will be the "second language" of the university, and that all its services will be offered in Arabic, concurrent with Persian.

History

Shapur II the Great (309-79 A.D.) of the Sassanid Empire, after a punitive expedition across the Persian Gulf early in his reign, transplanted several clans of the Taghleb to Dārzīn (Daharzīn) near Bam, several clans of the Abd al-Qays and Tamīm to Haǰar (the Kūh-e Hazār region) southeast of Kermān, several clans of the Bakr ben Wāʾel to Kermān, and several clans of the Hanzala to Tavvaz, near present-day Dālakī in Fārs.

Although after the Arab invasion of Persia in the 7th century, many Arab tribes settled in different parts of Iran, it is the Arab tribes of Khuzestan that have retained their identity in language, culture, and Shia Islam to the present day. But ethno-linguistic characteristics of the region must be studied against the long and turbulent history of the province, with its own local language khuzi, which may have been of Elamite origin and which gradually disappeared in the early medieval period. The immigration of Arab tribes from outside the province was also a long-term process. There was a great influx of Arab-speaking immigrants into the province from the 16th to the 19th century, including the migration of the Banu Kaab and Banu Lam. There were attempts in vain by the Iraqi regime during the Iran-Iraq war (1980–88) to generate Arab nationalism in the area but without any palpable success

Regional groups

Khuzestan

Most Iranian Arabs in Khūzestān Province are bilingual, speaking Arabic as their mother tongue, and Persian as a second language. The variety of Arabic spoken in the province is Khuzestani Arabic, which is a Mesopotamian dialect shared by Arabs across the border in Iraq. It may be easy to understand by other Arabic-speakers.

Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, which differ to a degree from the Khuzestani Arabic dialect, are taught across Iran to students in secondary schools, regardless of their ethnic or linguistic background. In fact the constitution of the Islamic republic requires this particular subject to be taught after primary school.

From the immigrant Arab tribes of Khuzestan (from the present-day Iraq) , the Banu Kaab at Dawraq (the later Fallāhīya and the present-day Shadegan) and the Mawlāʾī at Hoveyzeh can be mentioned.

From remote times, and particularly after the Arab conquest, right up to the Qajar period, Arab tribes immigrated into Iran. With the passage of time most of the early immigrants merged into the local populations, and today their descendants are scarcely distinguishable from their neighbors.

The Arab tribes of Khuzestan, however, have kept their identity better. They are scattered over a zone stretching from the Arvand-rūd (Shatt al Arab) and Persian Gulf in the south to Shush in the north and lying roughly to the west of the Bakhtiari territory. The main tribe in the south of the province is the Banī Kaʿb, comprising the Mohaysen, Edris, Nassar, Al Boghobesh ʿAsakera, and various other sections and tribes; they live in dispersed groups on Minoo (formerly Khezr) island near Ābādān, at Khorramshahr (the old Mohammara), in the district of Shadegan (formerly Fallāhīya), on both banks of the Kārūn up to ʿAlī ben al Hasan and Edrīsīya, and further north near Ahvāz. Also settled in the district of Shadegan is the Hanafera tribe. In the Shahrestān of Ahvāz, the Bāvī tribe is settled in the district of Bāvī, which extends from Esmāʿīlīa to Ahvāz, Weys, Zargān, and Mūrān. The Āl Kasīr tribe , comprising the Sasd, Bayt Karīm, ʿAnāfeja, Zayāghema, and others, live in the same shahrestān west and south of the Dezful river up to the Nahr-e Hāshem and also between the Dezfūl river and the Shushtar river. The Montafeq or Banī Mālek Arabs cultivate lands between Saba Omm al-Tamsīr on the left bank of the Kārūn. The Chanāna are settled in the shahrestān of Dezfūl, and the Gandazlū in an area east of Shushtar.

The well-known Bani Turuf tribe is settled in the Dasht e Azadegan (formerly Dasht-e Mīshān) around the town of Hūzagān (formerly Hoveyzeh), and consists of seven tribes, the Sovārī, Marzaā, Shorfa, Banī Sāleh, Marvān, Qāṭeʿ, and Sayyed Nemat. North of the lands of the ʿAnāfeja of the Āl Katīr, in the area called Mīānāb, between the Kārūn and Karkheh Rivers, dwell several Arab tribes, of which the best known are the Kaab (probably an offshoot of the Banī Kaʿb of southern Khuzestan), the ʿAbd al khānī, the Mazraa, the Al Bū Rāwīya, and the Sādāt. These tribes gradually immigrated into Iran during and after the early years of the Qajar period.

They are majority Shi'a, with Sunni minority and small numbers of Christians and Jews.

See also: Khūzestān Province, History of Khūzestān Province, and Politics of Khūzestān Province

Hormozgan

In Hormozgan Province, the Arabized Persian population speak various local dialects of Gulf Arabic that like the Mesopotamian dialects has significant Persian influence.

Bushehr

In Bushehr Province, there are about 20,000 Arabs that immigrated to Iran because of the persecution against Shiite Muslims in Saudi Arabia. Many of them arrived in Bushehr Province in 1946. The majority of these Arabs live in Kangan and Bandar-i Tahiri.

Fars

Khamseh nomads live in eastern Fars Province.

Khorasan

Main article: Arabs in Khorasan

Most Khorasani-Arabs belong to the tribes of Sheybani, Zangooyi, Mishmast, Khozaima and Azdi. Khorasan Arabs are Persian speakers and only a few speak Arabic as their mother tongue. Khorasani-Arabs in the cities Birjand, Mashhad and Nishapur are a big ethnic group.

Semnan

The Arabic dialects spoken in Semnan: Sarhangi, Dirazi, Ameri, Kati and Masomi.

Demographics

Elton Daniel in The History of Iran (Greenwood Press, 2001), states that the Arabs of Iran "are concentrated in the province of Khuzistan and number about half a million". The Historical Dictionary of Iran puts the number at 1 million.

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "More than half the population are Arabs who live in the plains; the rest are Bakhtyaris and other Lurs (peoples of West Persia), with many Persians in the cities. Some of the Bakhtyaris and Lurs are still nomads."

See also

• List of Iranian Arabs
• Lakhmids
• Alavids
• History of Arabs in Afghanistan
• Huwala
• Iraqis in Iran
• Afghan Arabs
• Moaved

External links

• Daniel, E. L. "Arab settlements in Iran". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 2011-04-09.
• Oberling and Hourcade, P.and B. "Arab tribes of Iran". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 2011-04-09.