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| #REDIRECT ] {{R from merge}} | |||
| {{accuracy}} | |||
| {{Ethnic group| | |||
| |group=Khuzestani Arabs | |||
| |image=|image=]<br>Khuzestani Arab girl from ] | |||
| |poptime=''c. '' 500,000 to 4 million (estimates vary) | |||
| |popplace=]:<br> 1,200,000 | |||
| (other estimates vary) | |||
| |langs=], ] | |||
| |rels= ], ], ], ] | |||
| |related=]s | |||
| }} | |||
| The ''']s of ]''' are one of the ethnic groups of ] inhabiting the province of Khuzestan. | |||
| ==People and culture== | |||
| Many Khuzestani Arabs identify themselves as members of the following tribes: | |||
| * ] (the largest) | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| Many tribes share a common heritage and a number have retained their original customs. A small percentage continue to adhere to the ] way of life. They are primarily concentrated in the western region of the province. The vast majority are ] Muslims. There are also small ], ] and ] minorities. | |||
| ===Traditions=== | |||
| The tribal groups of Khuzestan have a very rich and detailed ], a practice which has survived despite the encroachment of the modern world. The ] of the Arab tribes has been uniquely influenced by the ] ] legacy of the ] in previous eras. | |||
| ] (''The Forgotten Kings'' and ''The Five Hundred Year History of Khuzestan'') and ] (''The Arab Tribes of Khuzestan'') have been among the very few Iranian writers to document in detail the history and traditions of the Khuzestani Arab tribes. | |||
| ===Language=== | |||
| Most Khuzestani Arabs are ], speaking ] as their mother tongue, and ] as a second language. The ] spoken in the province is ]. As with other ] dialects across the border in ], it has significant Persian influence and is not understood by most other Arabic-speakers. | |||
| However, Khuzestani Arabic dialect is not taught or offered as an optional course in public elementary schools, which have ethnically diverse student populations, and there are currently no private schools specifically for Khuzestani Arabs.{{fact}} However, ] and ], which differ to a degree from Khuzestani Arabic dialect, are taught across Iran to students in secondary schools, regardless of their ethnic or linguistic background. | |||
| ==History== | |||
| ===Origins=== | |||
| ] | |||
| The Iranian Arab journalist and writer ], in a speech given in 1999, claims that the historical ancestry of Khuzestani Arabs "goes back to 6 main tribes. They consider | |||
| themselves to have sprung from a common ancestry and we see this in the Aalam al-Insab." Bani-Torof has also said that "the Arab people of Khuzestan are not Arabic-speakers. By that I mean they were not Persians, Kurds or Lurs who changed their language to Arabic and are now referred to as Arab-speakers." | |||
| He further believes that "the indigenous Arabs of Khuzestan used to live in the area before the coming of the ]s to the ]." | |||
| Bani-Torof writes in the preface to the published speech, "Also after delivering this speech I found new sources that prove that the indigenous Arabs of Khuzestan used to live in the area before the coming of the Aryans to the Iranian plateau. These sources include “A Pause and Reflection on History of Iran- 12 Centuries of Silence” by historian Nasser Pourpirar and “The Complete History of the Pre-Islamic Arabs” by Professor Javad Ali. Two volumes of the 10 volumes of the latter work have been translated into Persian by the late Dr.Mohammad Hussien Rohani." | |||
| According to the ], Arab tribes such as the ''Bakr bin Wael'' and ''Bani Tamim'' began settling in Khuzestan sometime during the ] era. During the ] period, large groups of Arab nomads from the ''Hanifa'', ''Tamim'', and ''Abd al-Qays'' tribes crossed the ] and occupied some of the richest ]n territories around ] and in ] during the second Islamic civil war in 661-665/680-684 A.D.(see ], p.215, under ''''). In 10th century CE, an Arab tribe named ''Asad'' moved into Khuzestan(see ], p.216). | |||
| In the latter part of the ], the ''Bani Kaab'', originating from what is now ], settled in Khuzestan and during the succeeding centuries many more Arab tribes moved from southern Iraq to the province, and as a result, Khuzestan became "extensively ]." (see J.R. Perry, "The Banu Ka'b: An Amphibious Brigand State in Khuzestan", Le Monde Iranien et L'Islam I, 1971, p133) ''Also see ]''. | |||
| Ahmad Kasravi writes in ''The Forgotten Kings'' that the "Arabs immigration to Iran postdates that of to Syria and Iraq, what is certain and there is proof for, is that the date of that immigration is centuries before Islam, and | |||
| from the early days of the Sassanid. In the Parthian era the gates of Iran were open to the Arabs ... but it is certain and there is proof for it that during the Parthian era Arab tribes were living in provinces of Kerman, Khuzestan, Bahrain and Fars." | |||
| ===The Pahlavi era=== | |||
| Throughout the ] ] and his successor, ], implemented policies designed to suppress nomadism and tribal customs, and destroy any possible resistance on the part of the local inhabitants. Khuzestani Arabs were, in particular, singled out by the Pahlavi governments for increased scrutiny over other groups. Many Khuzestani Arabs grew increasingly angry at the central government as a result of being forbidden to publish local newspapers in Arabic and their children unable to learn Khuzestani Arabic in public schools, as well as due to tribal groups having been pushed off their lands in order to clear the way for facilities for the oil industry and government institutions. | |||
| ===The Iran-Iraq war=== | |||
| The ] was cast by ] as yet another episode in a millennium long conflict between Arabs and Persians (''see ]''). Iraqi government propaganda claimed that Saddam's intentions were to "liberate" the Arabs of Khuzestan from oppression under the Persians. While some Khuzestani Arabs fled into Iraq to escape the war and a minority separatist faction aligned itself with Saddam, most stayed and defended the province alongside other Iranians against Iraqi forces. | |||
| ==Contemporary status of the Arabs of Khuzestan== | |||
| Before the 1908 discovery of oil in Khuzestan, most of the province's inhabitants were settled or semi-nomadic Arabs. The growth of the oil industry, and later Iranian government policies tipped the demographic balance. There was much immigration into the province of people from other parts of Iran. Arabs may now be a minority group in Khuzestan ''(see ])''. | |||
| There are no reliable statistics as to the exact proportion of each ethnicity or language community. The Iranian government has not collected such statistics for some time. The CIA World Factbook estimates that 3% of Iran's 68,017,860 citizens are Arabs, which would put the Arab population at 2,040,540, of whom the majority live in Khuzestan, while 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"'' <small>(pg. 14)</small>. The ''Historical Dictionary of Iran'' puts the number at 1 million. <small>(J. Lorentz, 1995, p172)</small> | |||
| According to the ], ''"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."'' | |||
| According to ], ''"precise figures on the ethnic composition of Iran's population are impossible to obtain. The last census in which such data was compiled was carried out in 1956."'' HRW, in a report from 1997, further states that ''"Arabs make up 70 percent of the three million inhabitants of Khuzestan Province"''. | |||
| However, according to ] in a lecture at the ] in ], based on information from unofficial provincial census data gathered in 1996 by the Centre for Iran Studies and published in 1997, ''"the population of Arabs in southwestern Iran is 4,548,240. And the ratio to Iran's total population is: 4,548,240/65,000,000 = 6.997%."'' | |||
| In its 2006 human rights report on Iran, the US State Department stated that the number of Ahwazi Arabs | |||
| ''"could range from two to four million or higher"'' | |||
| ==References== | |||
| * Ansari, Mostafa -- ''The history of Khuzistan, 1878-1925'', unpublished PhD. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1974. | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
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